The Egyptian religions, embodied in Egyptian mythology, were the succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt, until the coming of Christianity and Islam. These were conducted by Egyptian priests or magicians, but the use of magic and spells is questioned. The religious nature of ancient Egyptian civilization influenced its contribution to the arts of the ancient world. Many of the great works of ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient Egyptian art in general is characterized by the i ...

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Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egypt - Geography, Ancient Egypt - People, Ancient Egypt - History, Ancient Egypt - Government, Ancient Egypt - Language, Ancient Egypt - Writing, Ancient Egypt - Literature, Ancient Egypt - Culture, Ancient Egypt - Ancient achievements, Ancient Egypt - Timeline, Ancient Egypt - Open problems, Ancient Egypt - Notes

Read more here: » Ancient Egypt: Encyclopedia II - Ancient Egypt - Culture

Claudius, as the author of a treatise on Augustus' religious reforms, felt himself in a good position to institute some of his own. He had strong opinions about the proper form for state religion. He refused the request of Alexandrian Greeks to dedicate a temple to his divinity, saying that only gods may choose new gods. He restored lost days to festivals and got rid of many extraneous celebrations added by Caligula. He reinstituted old observances and archaic language. Claudius was concerned with the spread of eastern mysteries within the c ...

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Claudius, Claudius - Claudius' affliction and personality, Claudius - Family and early life, Claudius - Accession as emperor, Claudius - Expansion of the empire, Claudius - Judicial and legislative affairs, Claudius - Public works, Claudius - Claudius and the Senate, Claudius - The Secretariat and centralization of powers, Claudius - Religious reforms and games, Claudius - Marriages and personal life, Claudius - Death deification and reputation, Claudius - Scholarly works and their impact, Claudius - Claudius in fiction, Claudius - Footnotes

Read more here: » Claudius: Encyclopedia II - Claudius - Religious reforms and games

List of digital library projects - Patents. Canadian Patents Database [150] List of digital library projects - Philosophy. British Academy Portal - Philosophy Immanuel Kant Texts Divine Life Society Online Books List of digital library projects - Physics. Physics at NIST List of digital library projects - Polish Language Libraries. Polska Biblioteka Internetowa - Polish Internet Library [151] is gathering ...

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List of digital library projects, List of digital library projects - General Collections, List of digital library projects - Specific Themes alphabetical, List of digital library projects - A, List of digital library projects - Agriculture, List of digital library projects - Alchemy, List of digital library projects - Archeology, List of digital library projects - Astrology, List of digital library projects - Astronomy, List of digital library projects - Atmospheric, List of digital library projects - Audiobooks, List of digital library projects - B, List of digital library projects - Biology, List of digital library projects - Biotechnology, List of digital library projects - Braille, List of digital library projects - Brazilian Language Libraries, List of digital library projects - C, List of digital library projects - Canadian, List of digital library projects - Chemistry, List of digital library projects - Computer Science, List of digital library projects - D, List of digital library projects - 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Read more here: » List of digital library projects: Encyclopedia II - List of digital library projects - P

The Qur'an mixes narrative, exhortation, and legal prescription. The suras frequently combine all these modes, not always in ways that seem obvious to the reader, but ones that are generally explainable. Muslims often point out that the uniqueness of the Qur'anic style supports belief in its divine origin. There are many repeated epithets (e.g. "Lord of the heavens and the earth"), sentences ("And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis"), and even stories (such as the story ...

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Qur'an, Qur'an - Format of the Qur'an, Qur'an - The Qur'an for reading and recitation, Qur'an - The language of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Translation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Stylistic attributes, Qur'an - The beginnings of the suras, Qur'an - The temporal order of Quranic verses, Qur'an - Similarities between Quran & Bible, Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an, Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars, Qur'an - According to non-Muslim scholars, Qur'an - Interpretation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - 'Created' vs. 'uncreated' Qur'an, Qur'an - Qur'an recitation, Qur'an - Schools of recitation, Qur'an - The Qur'an and Islamic culture, Qur'an - Writing and printing the Qur'an, Qur'an - Literature

Read more here: » Qur'an: Encyclopedia II - Qur'an - Stylistic attributes

The Qur'an contains narrative, exhortation, and legal prescription. The suras frequently combine all these modes, not always in ways that seem obvious to the reader, but ones that are generally explainable. Muslims often point out that the uniqueness of the Qur'anic style supports belief in its divine origin. There are many repeated epithets (e.g. "Lord of the heavens and the earth"), sentences ("And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis"), and even stories (such as the sto ...

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Qur'an, Qur'an - Format of the Qur'an, Qur'an - The Qur'an for reading and recitation, Qur'an - The language of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Translation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Stylistic attributes, Qur'an - The beginnings of the suras, Qur'an - The temporal order of Qur'anic verses, Qur'an - Similarities between the Qur'an and the Bible, Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an, Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars, Qur'an - According to non-Muslim scholars, Qur'an - Interpretation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - 'Created' vs. 'uncreated' Qur'an, Qur'an - Qur'an recitation, Qur'an - Schools of recitation, Qur'an - The Qur'an and Islamic culture, Qur'an - Writing and printing the Qur'an

Read more here: » Qur'an: Encyclopedia II - Qur'an - Stylistic attributes

The Qur'an mixes narrative, exhortation, and legal prescription. The suras frequently combine all these modes, not always in ways that seem obvious to the reader. Muslims often argue that the uniqueness of the Qur'anic style supports belief in its divine origin. There are many repeated epithets (e.g. "Lord of the heavens and the earth"), sentences ("And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis"), and even stories (such as the story of Adam) in the Qur'an. Muslim scholars explain these repetitions as emphasizing and ex ...

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Qur'an, Qur'an - Format of the Qur'an, Qur'an - The Qur'an for reading and recitation, Qur'an - The language of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Translation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Stylistic attributes, Qur'an - The beginnings of the suras, Qur'an - The temporal order of Qur'anic verses, Qur'an - Similarities between the Qur'an and the Bible, Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an, Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars, Qur'an - According to non-Muslim scholars, Qur'an - Interpretation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - 'Created' vs. 'uncreated' Qur'an, Qur'an - Qur'an recitation, Qur'an - Schools of recitation, Qur'an - The Qur'an and Islamic culture, Qur'an - Writing and printing the Qur'an

Read more here: » Qur'an: Encyclopedia II - Qur'an - Stylistic attributes

Our Lady of Guadalupe - Traditional Legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Nican Mopohua is considered to be the "primordial account" of the apparition because it is written in the indigenous Nahuatl language. It describes the 1531 meeting between La Virgen and Saint Juan Diego on Tepeyac. In the Nican Mopohua, "it had been ten years since [...] Mexico had been conquered" when Juan Diego, a widowed convert to Roman Catholicism, was on his way to "attend to divine things" when, upon passing the hill ...

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Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe - History and Legend, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Traditional Legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Historical Documentation of the Apparition, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Guadalupe as Symbol of Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Popularity of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Interpretations of the Image, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Origin of the Name, Our Lady of Guadalupe - The Tilma, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Tonantzin and Other Virgins

Read more here: » Our Lady of Guadalupe: Encyclopedia II - Our Lady of Guadalupe - History and Legend

This is a topic of some controversy, since Islamic scholars proceed with the assumption that the Qur'an is a divine and uncorrupted text, while most secular scholars and non-Muslim scholars are more skeptical. Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars. Muhammad, according to tradition, could neither read nor write, but would simply recite what was revealed to him for his companions to write down and memorize. Adherents to Islam hold that the wording of the Qur'anic text available today corresponds exactly to that revealed to Muhammad himself: words o ...

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Qur'an, Qur'an - Format of the Qur'an, Qur'an - The Qur'an for reading and recitation, Qur'an - The language of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Translation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Stylistic attributes, Qur'an - The beginnings of the suras, Qur'an - The temporal order of Quranic verses, Qur'an - Similarities between Quran & Bible, Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an, Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars, Qur'an - According to non-Muslim scholars, Qur'an - Interpretation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - 'Created' vs. 'uncreated' Qur'an, Qur'an - Qur'an recitation, Qur'an - Schools of recitation, Qur'an - The Qur'an and Islamic culture, Qur'an - Writing and printing the Qur'an, Qur'an - Literature

Read more here: » Qur'an: Encyclopedia II - Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an

This is a topic of some controversy, since Islamic scholars proceed with the assumption that the Qur'an is a divine and uncorrupted text, while most secular scholars and non-Muslim scholars are more skeptical. Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars. Muhammad, according to tradition, could neither read nor write, but would simply recite what was revealed to him for his companions to write down and memorize. Adherents to Islam hold that the wording of the Qur'anic text available today corresponds exactly to that revealed to Muhammad himself: words o ...

See also:

Qur'an, Qur'an - Format of the Qur'an, Qur'an - The Qur'an for reading and recitation, Qur'an - The language of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Translation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - Stylistic attributes, Qur'an - The beginnings of the suras, Qur'an - The temporal order of Qur'anic verses, Qur'an - Similarities between the Qur'an and the Bible, Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an, Qur'an - According to Islamic scholars, Qur'an - According to non-Muslim scholars, Qur'an - Interpretation of the Qur'an, Qur'an - 'Created' vs. 'uncreated' Qur'an, Qur'an - Qur'an recitation, Qur'an - Schools of recitation, Qur'an - The Qur'an and Islamic culture, Qur'an - Writing and printing the Qur'an

Read more here: » Qur'an: Encyclopedia II - Qur'an - Origin and development of the Qur'an

Olympus (Greek) The abode of the great gods in Grecian mythology in Homer and Hesiod. Such heavenly abodes are usually associated with mountains, such as the Hindu Meru, the Greek Atlas, and the Hebrew Sinai; in this case the name was given to the summit of the range dividing Macedonia from Thessaly, but there were other mountains called Olympus. Later philosophers, perhaps more mystically minded, placed Olympus in the zenith, as the abode of the divinities.

There were many Olympuses, the references in story occasionally being to the higher globes of the earth-chain, and in a cosmic sense the higher planes of the solar system. At one time in Greek legend both the gods and their abode had a character of voluptuousness, comparable wit the Hebrew Eden (which means "delight"), the heaven of Indra, or the abode of the Arabian houris; but this was when degeneracy had set in and the people had forgotten the significance of the deities, and lost the key enabling them to interpret the myths and allegories forming their respective mythologic religions.

Although in Greek mythology the gods are said to dwell on Olympus, three of the main Olympian divinities, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades (or Pluto), had their habitats respectively in what may be called heaven or the inmost world of spirit, the cosmic spaces or the waters of space, and the underworld of the universe. Yet these three same divinities, because of their permeant cosmic forces or energies, and strictly on the law of analogical reasoning, had the same functions and occupy the same relative places in the minor forms of their respective manifestations: as, Zeus in the sky, Poseidon in the oceans of the globe, and Hades or Pluto in the underworld of our earth. Or again, the twelve great gods of the Mediterranean peoples may be considered to be the twelve main cosmic and intelligent powers whose all-permeant nature and activity is as apparent in the universe itself as in every atom or minor division thereof.

In the mystic language of ancient time, a holy mountain universally signified a school of esoteric teaching. Just as a mountain on earth raises its summits towards the free heaven, and therefore mystically towards spirit and the gods, so in the ancient esoteric schools the training and the initiations conducted raised the neophytes or initiants towards the spirit, both cosmically and inner, and hence likewise towards the gods.

See also PARNASSUS

(See also: Olympus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hamsa, Hansa (Sanskrit) The mystic swan or goose; representing divine wisdom beyond the reach of men. Exoterically, a fabulous bird which, when given milk mixed with water, drank only the milk and left the water, milk standing for spirit and water for matter. Anagrammatically, hamsa

"is equal to a-ham-sa, . . . meaning 'I am he' (in English), while divided in still another way it will read 'So-ham,' 'he (is) I' -- Soham being equal to Sah, 'he,' and aham, 'I,' or 'I am he.' In this alone is contained the universal mystery, the doctrine of the identity of man's essence with god-essence, for him who understands the language of wisdom. Hence the glyph of, and the allegory about, Kalahansa (or hamsa), and the name given to Brahma neuter (later on, to the male Brahma) of 'Hansa-Vahana,' he who uses the Hansa as his vehicle. The same word may be read 'Kalaham-sa' or 'I am I' in the eternity of Time, answering to the Biblical, or rather Zoroastrian 'I am that I am" (SD 1:78).

(See also: Hamsa, Hansa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hamsa, Hansa (Sanskrit) The mystic swan or goose; representing divine wisdom beyond the reach of men. Exoterically, a fabulous bird which, when given milk mixed with water, drank only the milk and left the water, milk standing for spirit and water for matter. Anagrammatically, hamsa

"is equal to a-ham-sa, . . . meaning 'I am he' (in English), while divided in still another way it will read 'So-ham,' 'he (is) I' -- Soham being equal to Sah, 'he,' and aham, 'I,' or 'I am he.' In this alone is contained the universal mystery, the doctrine of the identity of man's essence with god-essence, for him who understands the language of wisdom. Hence the glyph of, and the allegory about, Kalahansa (or hamsa), and the name given to Brahma neuter (later on, to the male Brahma) of 'Hansa-Vahana,' he who uses the Hansa as his vehicle. The same word may be read 'Kalaham-sa' or 'I am I' in the eternity of Time, answering to the Biblical, or rather Zoroastrian 'I am that I am" (SD 1:78).

(See also: Hammer of Creation, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Dzyan (Senzar) Closely similar to the Tibetan dzin (learning, knowledge). Although Blavatsky states that dzyan is "a corruption of the Sanskrit Dhyan and Jnana . . . Wisdom, divine knowledge" (TG 107), there is also a Chinese equivalent dan or jan-na, which in "modern Chinese and Tibetan phonetics ch'an, is the general term for the esoteric schools, and their literature.

In the old books, the word Janna is defined as 'to reform one's self by meditation and knowledge,' a second inner birth. Hence Dzan, Djan phonetically, the 'Book of Dzyan'" (SD 1:xx). This term then is connected directly with the ancient mystery-language called Senzar, with Tibetan and Chinese mystical Buddhism mostly of the Mahayana schools, and thirdly with the Sanskrit dhyana of which indeed it was probably originally a corruption.

(See also: Dzyan, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

The runes were introduced to, or invented by, the Germanic peoples in the 1st or 2nd century (The oldest known runic inscription dates to ca. the 160s and is found on a comb discovered in the bog of Vimose, Funen. The inscription reads harja). While at this time the Germanic language was certainly not at the Proto-Germanic stage any longer, it may still have been a continuum of dialects not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries, viz. North Germanic, West Germanic and East Germanic. Most of the early runes fr ...

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Runic alphabet, Runic alphabet - Overview, Runic alphabet - Background, Runic alphabet - Origins, Runic alphabet - Magic and Divination, Runic alphabet - Common use, Runic alphabet - Gothic runes, Runic alphabet - Elder Fuþark, Runic alphabet - Names, Runic alphabet - Frisian and Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc, Runic alphabet - Younger Fuþark, Runic alphabet - Names, Runic alphabet - Evolution, Runic alphabet - Long-branch runes, Runic alphabet - Short-twig runes, Runic alphabet - Hälsinge Runes staveless runes, Runic alphabet - Dalecarlian Runic script, Runic alphabet - Modern use, Runic alphabet - Third Reich, Runic alphabet - Neopaganism, Runic alphabet - Literature, Runic alphabet - Unicode, Runic alphabet - Distribution, Runic alphabet - Runiform scripts, Runic alphabet - Special characters

Read more here: » Runic alphabet: Encyclopedia II - Runic alphabet - Background

His cosmology, which has echoes of Sufism and Vedanta, as well as Christian mysticism is summarized in the 1954 book, GOD SPEAKS, much of which Meher Baba dictated using an English language alphabet board. He personally recommended the book to a number of his followers, saying it was the most important book for this age. Meher Baba - Evolution and Involution. Meher Baba's cosmology is based on divine unity, the concept that diverse creation, or duality, is an illusion. “I tell you all, with my ...

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Meher Baba, Meher Baba - Meher Baba's Life, Meher Baba - Early years, Meher Baba - Manzil-e-Meem and Meherabad, Meher Baba - Prem ashram, Meher Baba - Silence, Meher Baba - First contacts with the West, Meher Baba - The Discourses, Meher Baba - Work with 'masts', Meher Baba - The New Life, Meher Baba - Automobile accident in U.S.A., Meher Baba - Highest of the High, Meher Baba - Automobile accident in India, Meher Baba - Seclusion and East-West Gathering, Meher Baba - God in a Pill, Meher Baba - Final Seclusion and Amartithi, Meher Baba - Last Darshan, Meher Baba - Cosmology, Meher Baba - Evolution and Involution, Meher Baba - Sanskaras, Meher Baba - The Avatar, Meher Baba - Role of the Avatar, Meher Baba - Followers of Meher Baba, Meher Baba - Influence on Pete Townshend

Read more here: » Meher Baba: Encyclopedia II - Meher Baba - Cosmology

A Theosophical definition of Nirmanakaya :

Nirmanakaya

(Sanskrit) A compound of two words: nirmana, a participle meaning "forming," "creating"; kaya, a word meaning "body," "robe," "vehicle"; thus, nirmanakaya means "formed-body." A nirmanakaya, however, is really a state assumed by or entered into by a bodhisattva  - an individual man made semi-divine who, to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior beings, clothing himself in a nirmanakayic vesture. When that state is ended the nirmanakaya ends.

A nirmanakaya is a complete man possessing all the principles of his constitution except the linga-sarira and its accompanying physical body. He is one who lives on the plane of being next superior to the physical plane, and his purpose in so doing is to save men from themselves by being with them, and by continuously instilling thoughts of self-sacrifice, of self-forgetfulness, of spiritual and moral beauty, of mutual help, of compassion, and of pity.

Nirmanakaya is the third or lowest, exoterically speaking, of what is called in Sanskrit trikaya or "three bodies." The highest is the dharmakaya, in which state are the nirvanis and full pratyeka buddhas, etc.; the second state is the sambhogakaya, intermediate between the former and, thirdly, the nirmanakaya. The nirmanakaya vesture or condition enables one entering it to live in touch and sympathy with the world of men. The sambhogakaya enables one in that state to be conscious indeed to a certain extent of the world of men and its griefs and sorrows, but with little power or impulse to render aid. The dharmakaya vesture is so pure and holy, and indeed so high, that the one possessing the dharmakaya or who is in it, is virtually out of all touch with anything inferior to himself. It is, therefore, in the nirmanakaya vesture if not in physical form that live and work the Buddhas of Compassion, the greatest sages and seers, and all the superholy men who through striving through ages of evolution bring forth into manifestation and power and function the divinity within. The doctrine of the nirmanakayas is one of the most suggestive, profound, and beautiful teachings of the esoteric philosophy. (See also Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya)

See also: Nirmanakaya, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

The runes were introduced to, or invented by, the Germanic peoples in the 1st or 2nd century (The oldest known runic inscription dates to ca. the 160s and is found on a comb discovered in the bog of Vimose, Funen. The inscription reads harja). While at this time the Germanic language was certainly not at the Proto-Germanic stage any longer, it may still have been a continuum of dialects not yet clearly separated into the three branches of later centuries, viz. North Germanic, West Germanic and East Germanic. Most of the early runes fr ...

See also:

Runic alphabet, Runic alphabet - Background, Runic alphabet - Origins, Runic alphabet - Magic and Divination, Runic alphabet - Common use, Runic alphabet - Gothic runes, Runic alphabet - Elder Fuþark, Runic alphabet - Names, Runic alphabet - Frisian and Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc, Runic alphabet - Intermediary Inscriptions, Runic alphabet - Younger Fuþark, Runic alphabet - Long-branch runes, Runic alphabet - Short-twig runes, Runic alphabet - Hälsinge Runes staveless runes, Runic alphabet - Dalecarlian Runic script, Runic alphabet - Modern use, Runic alphabet - Third Reich, Runic alphabet - Neopaganism, Runic alphabet - Popular culture, Runic alphabet - Unicode, Runic alphabet - Distribution, Runic alphabet - Runiform scripts, Runic alphabet - Special characters

Read more here: » Runic alphabet: Encyclopedia II - Runic alphabet - Background

Some Christians claim the ability to tap into powers from the Holy Spirit, while others claim to be expressly granted powers by the deity. Claims of divine inspiration stemming from the Holy Spirit have been occurring throughout the history of Christianity (see Montanism). Many have claimed that the Holy Spirit has given them the power to: Cure diseases with prayer Speak a foreign language that he or she had not learned before Hear God speaking Expel evil spirits that are possessing a person Have a strong, personal connection to God Speak in a heavenly langu ...

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Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit in the Bible, Holy Spirit - Christian views on the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit - Pentecostalism, Holy Spirit - Catholic Church, Holy Spirit - Orthodoxy, Holy Spirit - Dispensationalism, Holy Spirit - Branch Davidian, Holy Spirit - Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit - Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit - The powers of the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit - Depiction in art, Holy Spirit - Non-Trinitarian Christian views, Holy Spirit - Rastafarian view of the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit - Other views, Holy Spirit - Judaism, Holy Spirit - Islam, Holy Spirit - Mandaeanism, Holy Spirit - Hinduism, Holy Spirit - Comparisons in fiction

Read more here: » Holy Spirit: Encyclopedia II - Holy Spirit - The powers of the Holy Spirit

Neophyte (Ancient Greek). A novice; a postulant or candidate for the Mysteries.

The methods of initiation varied. Neophytes had to pass in their trials through all the four elements, emerging in the fifth as glorified Initiates. Thus having passed through Fire (Deity), Water (Divine Spirit), Air (the Breath of God), and the Earth (Matter), they received a sacred mark, a tat and a tau, or a + and a ?. The latter was the monogram of the Cycle called the Naros, or Neros. As shown by Dr. E. V. Kenealy, in his Apocalypse, the cross in symbolical language (one of the seven meanings)"+ exhibits at the same time three primitive letters, of which the word LVX or Light is compounded. . . . The Initiates were marked with this sign, when they were admitted into the perfect mysteries. We constantly see the Tau and the Resh united thus ?.

Those two letters in the old Samaritan, as found on coins, stand, the first for 400, the second for 200 = 600. This is the staff of Osiris." Just so, but this does not prove that the Naros was a cycle of 600 years; but simply that one more pagan symbol had been appropriated by the Church.

(See "Naros" and "Neros" and also "I. H. S.")

(See also: Neophyte, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Bodhisattva (Sanskrit) (from bodhi wisdom + sattva essence)

He whose essence has become intelligence; exoterically, one who in one or a few more incarnations will become a buddha. Occultly, when

"a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its inner divinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray; where, so to say, the personal man has put on the garments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now -- that man is a Bodhisattva. His higher principles have nearly reached Nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a Buddha, a human Buddha, a Manushya-Buddha.

Obviously, if such a Bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnation or in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a Manushya-Buddha. A Buddha, in the esoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached Nirvana and remain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the Bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the Nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a Nirmanakaya . . . a Bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a Dhyani-Buddha or Celestial Buddha -- in other words one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own Divine Monad" (OG 19).

The dhyani-buddhas who each watch over one of the rounds and the great root-races on the different globes of our planetary chain, are said to send their bodhisattvas, their spiritual or human correspondents, during every round and race.

"These Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from themselves, by virtue of Dhyana, celestial Selves -- the super-human Bodhisattvas. These incarnating at the beginning of every human cycle on earth as mortal men, become occasionally, owing to their personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after which they may re-appear as Manushi (human) Buddhas" (SD 1:571).

"The exoteric teaching which says that every Dhyani-Buddha has the faculty of creating from himself, an equally celestial son -- a Dhyani-Bodhisattva -- who, after the decease of the Manushi (human) Buddha, has to carry out the work of the latter, rests on the fact that owing to the highest initiation performed by one overshadowed by the 'Spirit of Buddha' . . . a candidate becomes virtually a Bodhisattva, created such by the High Initiator" (SD 1:109).

(See also: Bodhisattva, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

List of fictional books within the Harry Potter series - Magical cooking and housecare. Charm Your Own Cheese Chinese(Taiwan): 對你的乳酪下符咒 Dutch: Zelf Kaasmaken zonder Heksentoeren Estonian: Võlu endale oma juust Japanese: Jika-sei Mahou Chiizu no Tsukurikata (自家製魔法チーズの作り方, "How to make Magical Homemade Cheese") Portuguese (Brazil): Enfeitice o seu próprio queijo Swedish: See also:

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Occult Sciences. The science of the secrets of nature - physical and psychic, mental and spiritual; called Hermetic and Esoteric Sciences.

 In the West, the Kabbalah may be named; in the East, mysticism, magic, and Yoga philosophy, which latter is often referred to by the Chelas in India as the seventh "Darshana" (school of philosophy), there being only six Darshanas in India known to the world of the profane.

These sciences are, and have been for ages, hidden from the vulgar for the very good reason that they would never be appreciated by the selfish educated classes, nor understood by the uneducated; whilst the former might misuse them for their own profit, and thus turn the divine science into black magic. It is often brought forward as an accusation against the Esoteric philosophy and the Kabbalah that their literature is full of "a barbarous and meaningless jargon" unintelligible to the ordinary mind.

But do not exact Sciences - medicine, physiology, chemistry, and the rest - do the same? Do not official Scientists equally veil their facts and discoveries with a newly coined and most barbarous Greco-Latin terminology? As justly remarked by our late brother, Kenneth Mackenzie - "To juggle thus with words, when the facts are so simple, is the art of the Scientists of the present time, in striking contrast to those of the XVIIth century, who called spades spades, and not ‘agricultural implements ‘."

Moreover, whilst their facts would be as simple and as comprehensible if rendered in ordinary language, the facts of Occult Science are of so abstruse a nature, that in most cases no words exist in European languages to express them; in addition to which our "jargon" is a double necessity -

(a) for the purpose of describing clearly these facts to him who is versed in the Occult terminology; and

(b) to conceal them from the profane.

(See also: Occult Sciences, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )