Justice: One of the trumps of the Major Arcana of the tarot. Numbered VIII or XI. In the system of Eliphas Levi, it corresponds to the Hebrew letter Cheth. In the system of the Golden Dawn, Justice corresponds to the Hebrew letter Lamed and the astrological sign of Libra.

Ka: One of the three parts of the soul according to ancient Egyptian belief. A person must have all three parts to live, and if one part died they all died. The Ka is the astral double of a person, animal or thing. It is physically and emotionally identical to the person and given to him or her at birth. In Egyptian symbolism it was depicted as a person with both arms raise or just two raised arms.

(See also: Justice , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Holy of Holies Equivalent to the Latin Sanctum sanctorum, referring to the sacred place in temples or churches from which all but the chief priest or hierophant were excluded. In pre-Christian times the ancient temples each had its especial sanctuary, in which was placed an altar or receptacle of some kind, be it ark, box, or some similar thing, perhaps even a sarcophagus.

The Holy of Holies in theory was the seat, residence, or sanctuary of the god or goddess to whom the temple had been consecrated; and piety always considered that the divine power was present there. A similar series of ideas clothes the chancel and its contained altar in Christian Churches even today.

The Holy of Holies, however, must not be confused with initiation chambers also contained in many temples and caves of antiquity, in which during the rites of initiation the neophyte entered, was initiated, and thereafter left the sacred precincts as reborn. In ancient Egypt the holy of holies par excellence of this latter type was the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid; and the coffer there was the sarcophagus used for initiation purposes. The sarcophagus was symbolic of the female principle, as from the feminine principle of nature, as a mother, was born the new "child" or disciple, now become a twice-born. The idea of the twice-born was that the physical birth came from the human mother, while the mystic birth took place from the womb of nature, of which the initiation chamber was the emblem. Hence at a much later date arose the phallic idea of the Jews that the human female womb was the maqom (the place).

Although part of the Hindu ceremonies necessitated a passing through the golden cow, as an emblem of Mother Nature, the neophyte did this in the same stooping position that was done in passing through the gallery in the ancient pyramids of Egypt.

"The ceremony of passing through the Holy of Holies (now symbolized by the cow), in the beginning through the temple Hiranya gharba (the radiant Egg) -- in itself a symbol of Universal, abstract nature -- meant spiritual conception and birth, or rather the re-birth of the individual and his regeneration: the stooping man at the entrance of the Sanctum Sanctorum, ready to pass through the matrix of mother nature, or the physical creature ready to re-become the original spiritual Being, pre-natal Man" (SD 2:469-70).

Holy of Holies has a specific meaning in connection with the Jewish tabernacle, as explained in Exodus, referring to the inner part, the western division of the tabernacle. Three of the sides of the holy place were the walls of the tabernacle itself, while the fourth or eastern end of the sanctum was closed by a curtain or veil -- upon which were the figures of the cherubim -- suspended from four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold. The intention was to have this Holy of Holies in the shape of a perfect cube, the length, breath, and height being each ten cubits. In this sanctuary was placed the Ark of the Covenant or Testament, made of shittim wood overlaid with gold.

Upon the Ark was the golden mercy-seat (the kapporeth), also two golden cherubim facing towards the center. Instead of being a "sarcophagus (the symbol of the matrix of Nature and resurrection) as in the Sanctum sanctorum of the pagans, they had the ark made still more realistic in its construction by the two cherubs set up on the coffer or ark of the covenant, facing each other, with their wings spread in such a manner as to form a perfect yoni (as now seen in India). Besides which, this generative symbol had its significance enforced by the four mystic letters of Jehovah's name, namely ; or  meaning Jod (membrum Virile, see Kabala);  (He, the womb);  (Vau, a crook or a hook, a nail), and  again, meaning also 'an opening'; the whole forming the perfect bisexual emblem or symbol or Y(e)H(o)V(a)H, the male and female symbol" (SD 2:460). However, "the worship of the 'god in the ark' dates only from David; and for a thousand years Israel knew of no phallic Jehovah" (SD 2:469).

See also ARK

(See also: Holy Ghost , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Buddhism:

Buddhism. Religion founded by Buddha, which holds that life is full of suffering caused by desire and that the way to end the suffering is to end the birth-death cycle through enlightenment.

(See also: Buddhism , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Annunciation Announcing; in Christianity, the foretelling to Mary of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel, celebrated on Lady Day, March 25. The fire and lamps used in this ceremony apparently point back to the marriage of Vulcan with Venus, to the Magi watching over the sacred fire in the East, to the Vestal Virgins in the West, and to the marriage of Father Sun with Mother Nature.

Some parallels from other religions are the luminous San-tusita (Bodhisat) appearing to Maya and announcing the coming birth of Gautama Buddha; the Hindu legend that there would be born the son of the Virgin (Krishna), the date of whose death marked the beginning of kali yuga; and in Egypt where scenes of an annunciation appear in the temple of Luxor.

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

nakshatra: (Sanskrit) "Star cluster."

Central to astrological determinations, the nakshatras are 27 starclusters, constellations, which lie along the ecliptic, or path of the sun. An individual's nakshatra, or birth star, is the constellation the moon was aligned with at the time of birth.

See: jyotisha, vedic astrology.

(See also: Nakshatra , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Astrology

An ancient system of divination that uses the position of the planets, moon and sun in the twelve Zodiac positions at the moment of oneÕs birth to gain knowledge of the future. (See Astrology)

(See also: Astrology , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Garuda

Garuda A mythical bird half-man-half-bird -on which Lord Visnu moves. It is the vehicle of Lord Visnu. Shri Garuda is one of the powers of Lord Visnu himself. Huge in size, and brighter than pure gold, its Teja (lusture) crosses the Sun. Extremely heroic and brave in nature and a staunch enemy of evils and snakes (representing evil). Also, he is destroyer of poison. Garuda Sadhana gives the power to cure venom and poisonous effect.

According to Puranic stories, he was born of Sage Kashyapa and Vinata, one of the daughters of Daksha Prajapati and is of Kaashyap gotra. He has a white face, a beak-like long nose, red wings, and a huge body with a golden hue. His lustre was so brilliant that soon after his birth, the demi-gods mistook him for Agni (fire) and began worshipping him.

Garuda had a son named Sampati, and his wife was Unnati. Another wife of Kashyapa, Kadru, who was the mother of the serpent race, was Vinata's great rival. Once the two wives had a dispute over the color of the horse of Indra- the, Uchchaishrava, that was obtained during the churning of the ocean (samudra-manthana). Vinata lost the bet and as per the conditions, she was made a slave of Kadru. She could regain her freedom only if Garuda could obtain the nectar (Amrit). Garuda succeeded in stealing it from heaven but not without a fight with Indra, its preserver. In one side were all the Gods with Indra and Garuda was on one side. It was said that he almost won over all the Gods before being severly harmed and in the process Indra's Vajra (thunder-bolt weapon) was destroyed. Indra recovered the nectar afterwards, after Garuda freed his mother.

Garuda's son Jatayu once tried to fly up to the Sun in the sky. This burnt his wings and he fell down. Also, he tried to resist Raavana during the abduction of Sitaa and got fatal injuries. In this condition, he awaited his death till giving Raama the details of Sita's abduction by Ravana and her whereabouts. His last rites were performed by Rama. Jatayu had been a friend of Rama's father, Dasharatha.

Garuda, after getting permission and acceptance from Shri Visnu, after the war, wrote one of the first Puraanas, teh Garuda puraana. This is in the form of instructions to Garuda by Vishnu and deals with a variety of science and principles, including the secret of creation of the Universe.

Garuda Mantra: Om PA Kshim Svaaha

Garuda Mantra for destroying poison: Om hreem hrauum hreem hreem bhirundayai svaahaa

Garuda Gaayatri: Om TatPurushaaya Vidmahe, SuvarnaPakshaaya Dheemahi, Tannoh Garudah Prachodayaat

Mahapurusa Achyuta is believed to be born at the will of Shri Jagannath (Visnu), with the inherent subtle power of Shri Garuda. He was found by his father, in dreams, near the Garuda Khamba (pillar), at the front of the Jagannath Temple. Being a power of Visnu, and one of the five souls of Visnu, he easily acquired all the powers (siddhis) of Garuda after sometime, e.g. the power to see the future. He is a saviour of the devotees and extremely kind and devotee-concerned. See "Birth of Shri Achyuta" page for more details and "Taamrapothi" page for his sadhana and the manifested power to see the events in the three time-zones.€€€

(See also: Garuda , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

DEATH...is reference to the physical body NOT the Soul or Spirit, which is usually believed to go on to another body in the exercise of REINCARNATION. DEATHING: is the exercise of sitting with a 'dying' person as comforter or can be the ritual exercised to ease the soul 'over' into its new existence. DEATH IN SERVICE: meaning service to life; is the natural death such as from illness, old age, child birth, rescue attempts or self sacrifice to help another. BUT does NOT include murder, execution, suicide, war, torture deaths, etc. TO ME...Death is that state of existence consisting of change, evaluation, planning, & forgetting...DenElder

(See also: DEATH , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Rebecca, Rebekah Ribeqah (Hebrew) In the Bible the wife of Isaac, mother of Esau and Jacob. When Rebecca was about to become a mother, she felt that the children were struggling within her, so she inquired of the Lord as to the meaning of this, and received the answer: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger" (Genesis 25:23). Rebecca gave birth to twins, "and the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau" (25:25); and the other was called Jacob.

Genesis 25:24-34 contains "the allegorical history of the birth of the Fifth Race," as explained in Jewish allegorical fashion; and "Esau represents in the Bible the race which stands between the Fourth and the Fifth, the Atlantean and the Aryan" (SD 2:705).

(See also: Rebecca, Rebekah, Ribeqah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

veil

1. Invisible field of etheric energy separating the physical from the psychic senses, surrounding a person in the inside of the aura. 2. The film over some babies at birth; usually denoting the child will be psychic

(See also: Veil , Body Mind and Soul)

Spiral The path of a point (generally plane) which moves round an axis while continually approaching it or receding from it; also often used for a helix, which is generated by compounding a circular motion with one in a straight line. The spiral form is an apt illustration of the course of evolution, which brings motion round towards the same point, yet without repetition.

The serpent, and the figures 8 and , denoting the ogdoad and infinity, stand for spiral cyclic motion. The course of fohat in space is spiral, and spirit descends into matter in spiral courses. Repeating the process by which a helix is derived form a circle produces a vortex. The complicated spirals of cosmic evolution bring the motion back to the point from which it started at the birth of a great cosmic age.

(See also: Spiral , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sarvada (Sanskrit) [from sarva all + the verbal root da to give]

He who gives all, the all-sacrificing; title of Buddha, who in a former birth sacrificed everything to save others. Also a title of Siva.

(See also: Sarvada , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

GODDESS, THE: Definitions differ but Generally the universal mother of all who created the universe with the god. Often associated with the Moon, ocean, earth, fertility, birth and death.### GREAT RITE: The rite which is the main feature of the third degree initiation, and which is also laid down for certain festivals. It is sexual in nature, but may be `actual' (and private to the couples concerned) or symbolic or on the astral level, as the participants wish.

(See also: GODDESS, THE , Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

Frog One of the oldest symbols in Egypt, for although associated particularly with the frog goddess Heqet, the four primeval gods of Egypt -- Heh, Kek, Nau, and Amen -- were each depicted with a frog's head, the reference here being to the cosmic waters of space, out of which all things arose in the beginnings. Frog gods and goddesses were associated with the beginning or formation of the world, the symbol of the frog itself being that of resurrection and hence of renewed birth.

"There must have been some very profound and sacred meaning attached to this symbol, since, notwithstanding the risk of being charged with a disgusting form of zoolatry, the early Egyptian Christians adopted it in their Churches. A frog or toad enshrined in a lotus flower, or simply without the latter emblem, was the form chosen for the Church lamps, on which were engraved the words 'I am the resurrection" . . . These frog goddesses are also found on all the mummies" (SD 1:386).

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

Manu (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root man to think]

In Hindu mythology, the son of Svayambhuva, father and husband of Ila, parents of humanity as well as the prajapatis and other manus, who are the entities collectively which appear first at the beginning of manifestation, and from which everything is derived. They are identical with the sishtas, and function as prajapatis in a smaller but strictly analogical manner. Manu is collective humanity: "Manu is the synthesis perhaps of the Manasa, and he is a single consciousness in the same sense that while all the different cells of which the human body is composed are different and varying consciousnesses there is still a unit of consciousness which is the man. But this unit, so to say, is not a single consciousness: it is a reflection of thousands and millions of consciousnesses which a man has absorbed.

"But Manu is not really an individuality, it is the whole of mankind. You may say that Manu is a generic name for the Pitris, the progenitors of mankind. They come . . . from the Lunar Chain. They give birth to humanity, for, having become the first men, they give birth to others by evolving their shadows, their astral selves. They not only give birth to humanity but to animals and all other creatures. . . . But, as the moon receives its light from the Sun, so the descendants of the Lunar Pitris receive their higher mental light from the Sun or the 'Son of the Sun.' For all you know Vaivasvata Manu may be an Avatar or a personification of Mahat, commissioned by the Universal Mind to lead and guide thinking Humanity onwards" (TBL 78).

The manus are said to have emanated the ten prajapatis or progenitors of mankind, called also maharshis (great rishis). It is said of Brahma that he emanated himself as Manu, and that he was born of, and was identical with, his original self, while he constituted his female portion Sata-rupa (hundred forms). There are 14 manus in any manvantara ("between manus") arranged in pairs, a root-manu and a seed-manu for each portion of a cycle.

These pairs of manus in a planetary round, a root-manu on globe A and a seed-manu on globe G, are given as:

1)    Svayambhuva, Svarochisha;

2)    Auttami, Tamasa;

3)    Raivata, Chakshusha;

4)    Vaivasvata (our progenitor), Savarna;

5)    Daksha-savarna, Brahma-savarna;

6)    Dharma-savarna, Rudra-savarna;

7)    Rauchya, Bhautya.

"Vaivasvata, thus, though seventh in the order given, is the primitive Root-Manu of our fourth Human Wave (the reader must always remember that Manu is not a man but collective humanity), while our Vaivasvata was but one of the seven Minor Manus, who are made to preside over the seven races of this our planet. Each of these has to become the witness of one of the periodical and ever-recurring cataclysms (by fire and water) that close the cycle of every Root-race. And it is this Vaivasvata -- the Hindu ideal embodiment, called respectively Xisuthrus, Deukalion, Noah and by other names -- who is the allegorical man who rescued our race, when nearly the whole population of one hemisphere perished by water, while the other hemisphere was awakening from its temporary obscuration" (SD 2:309).

Manu is in one sense the Third Logos; in another the spiritual man, the monad, the real and deathless spiritual ego in us, which is the direct emanation of the one Life or the absolute deity of our universe. The manus collectively, in this sense, are the four higher classes of dhyani-chohans who were the fathers of the concealed man -- the subtle inner man.

Thus root-manus and seed-manus are sishtas, for the seed-manu at the end of a life-wave's evolution on a globe is virtually identic with the root-manu on that same globe when the life-wave reaches it again to begin on that globe a new course of racial development or evolution. The difference between root- and seed-manus being that the root-manus are really the seed-manus plus the most evolved monads of the life-waves reaching the globe first, conjoining with the seed-manus and thus slightly modifying things.

Manu is likewise the name of a great ancient Indian legislator, the alleged author of the Manava-dharma-sastra or Laws of Manu.

(See also: Manu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Moon: The Moon is in its sign of rulership in Cancer. The Moon is visible to us because of reflected light from the Sun. Its monthly motion through the heavens and its phases are timers we should all take seriously. Hospital employees tell stories of increased birth rate or emergency room traffic as the Full Moon approaches. Astrologers know that important activities are best begun just after the New Moon.

The Moon in your chart reflects your subconscious mind. Its sign and house describe your emotional bias – the way your express your feelings most easily and directly.

It is interesting to note that the Sun and Moon appear to be exactly the same size in the sky. If this were not so, we could not have total eclipses of the Sun. But what does this mean to the astrologer? It means that the vitality of the Sun is equal in importance to the action of the Moon in your life. The expression of your individuality is equal in importance to the nurturance of your emotional well-being. Conscious awareness is equal to subconscious motivations. Studying your Moon sign can provide clue to your inner life and suggest paths to increased personal satisfaction with life.

In terms of career, the Sun may show what you want to be when you grow up, but the Moon shows the path – the means – to that end. (This relationship happens to be true for all kinds of astrological charts – for events, nations, weather forecasting, etc.) Learning about the sign and house of your Moon will provide answers to many questions you may have about how to take positive action. This is the area of the chart that shows your emotional changeability, and it also reflects your best path to any other kind of change in your life.

Finally, the Moon shows, by its sign and house, how and where you can be comfortable. It suggests the physical surroundings, the material objects and the emotional tone that is pleasant for you. It also shows how you assimilate – food, information, emotional vibrations.

The Sun and Moon together form a team. You will find that be considering them together, you get a fuller, richer sense of who you are and how you can become happier and more successful.

(See also: Moon , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Mut, Mout (Egyptian) Mother; the second member of the triad of Thebean deities, generally known as the Lady of Thebes, and holding with Amen-Ra (Ammon-Ra) the principal position among the gods of the New Empire. Although mother of Khensu (or Khonsu -- the third member of the triad) and wife of Amen-Ra, she is often called his mother.

Her attributes are those of the world-mother, the inscriptions upon the ruins of her temple at Thebes address her as "Lady of Heaven, Queen of the Gods, she who giveth birth, but was herself not born." Sometimes she is represented with androgynous aspects (with the head of a man and with the phallus). She is associated with Isis and Nekhebet, although more often made equivalent to Nut, goddess of the watery deep, mother of the gods, and of all that is. Mut also in many respects has the characteristics that were attributed to Hathor.

From these attributes of cosmic fecundity, Mut came to be associated on a smaller scale with the moon, the mother of earth and giver of material life.

See also NEKHEBET

(See also: Mut, Mout , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Cow The ancients employed certain animals as symbols to convey specific aspects of philosophical and religious teachings to the multitude, and "the cow-symbol is one of the grandest and most philosophical among all others in its inner meaning" (SD 2:470).

Generally, the cow represents the fructifying power in nature -- the Divine Mother or feminine principle. Among the Scandinavians that which first appeared at the birth of the universe was the divine cosmic cow, Audhumla, from whom flowed four streams of milk, providing sustenance to all the beings that followed.

Among the Greeks the founding of a new race was associated with the cow -- as instances, Io and Europa. In Egypt the goddesses representing the aspect of the Universal Mother are associated with cow symbols, principally Hathor and Isis. In India the cow symbol is reverenced: Kamaduh or Surabhi (the cow of plenty) represents the nourishing and sustaining vital and productive principle in nature. The goddesses of lunar type are found to be connected in symbology with the cow.

"The cow was in every country the symbol of the passive generative power of nature, Isis, Vach, Venus -- the mother of the prolific god of love, Cupid, but, at the same time, that of the Logos whose symbol became with the Egyptians and the Indians -- the bull -- as testified to by Apis and the Hindu bulls in the most ancient temples. In esoteric philosophy the cow is the symbol of creative nature, and the Bull (her calf) the spirit which vivifies her, or 'the Holy Spirit' " (SD 2:418n).

See also BULL; CALF

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

Parthenogenesis [from Greek parthenos a virgin + genesis birth]

A kind of reproduction, neither sexual nor asexual, where offspring is produced from a female ovum or gamete with no fertilization either by the individual itself or by another individual. It occurs even at present in certain primitive animals as a stage in a process of alternation of generation.

An imperfect female individual is hatched from an egg laid by a perfect female after impregnation, and continues to reproduce its kind for several generations without further fertilization. Males may also be reproduced in the same way, thus affording the means for renewed sexual reproduction.

An analogous process is known in botany, where a perfect embryo is produced without the intervention of pollen. As is the case with other methods of reproduction, processes which presently are restricted to organisms lower then man, were in earlier cycles normal for those beings which then formed the human life-wave.

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

Water A primary cosmic element with almost innumerable manifestations, corresponding to the Hindu apas tattva and to the akasic waters of space. Its most fundamental meaning is that of space or akasa, the great mother of all, the feminine receptive principle over and in which broods the fire of spirit. "The first principle of things, according to Thales and other ancient philosophers. Of course this is not water on the material plane, but in a figurative sense for the potential fluid contained in boundless space. This was symbolized in ancient Egypt by Kneph, the 'unrevealed' god, who was represented as the serpent -- the emblem of eternity -- encircling a water-urn, with his head hovering over the waters, which he incubates with his breath. 'And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' (Gen. i). The honey-dew, the food of the gods and of the creative bees on the Yggdrasil, falls during the night upon the tree of life from the 'divine waters, the birth-place of the gods.' Alchemists claim that when pre-Adamic earth is reduced by the Alkahest to its first substance, it is like clear water. The Alkahest is 'the one and the invisible, the water, the first principle, in the second transformation' " (TG 368).

Water corresponds with soul, representing the middle world between spirit or fire on the one hand, and matter or earth on the other. It corresponds to the astral plane as compared with the physical; and here we

See its quality of instability, mobility, having no fixed shape but adapting itself to other shapes, dissolving solid bodies and re-precipitating them. It corresponds to the psychomental nature as contrasted with the spiritual and the physical, and to the liquid state of physical matter, though in this sense it is the water subdivision of the earth element. Water and fire are necessary elements of life, as are their correspondences the moon and sun.

(See also: Water , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Psyche (Greek) [from psycho breathe, blow; cf Greek pneuma from pneo to breathe, blow; Latin anima, spiritus all connected with breath, wind, spirit, life, soul]

Used in classic Greek as vaguely as is our word soul; but in Platonic philosophy and theosophical usage, the lower or carnally influenced aspect of the mind or soul, as contrasted with the higher or spiritually influenced aspect: kama-manas as against buddhi-manas, the latter represented by the Greek nous. From these two words are derived the adjectives psychic and noetic.

The story of Cupid and Psyche -- where Psyche represents the human soul as such, apart from special connection with buddhi or kama -- depicts the search for happiness, or the course of human love. Psyche is of mortal birth, but so beautiful that Venus herself becomes jealous and sends Cupid to inspire Psyche with love for an unworthy object. But Cupid himself becomes enamored of Psyche. The love between Cupid and Psyche cannot be realized in the atmosphere of earthly passion and delusion, and is fulfilled only when Psyche, reconciled with Venus, is taken to the Olympian heights. The emblem of Psyche was the butterfly, which in winged joy comes forth into the sunlight from its prison of caterpillar and chrysalis.

The Greek verb from which psyche is derived also means to chill, make cold; and this has an application to the psyche as the lower part of the human soul and therefore closely connected with the kama-rupa and astral light after death. Hence it is that those who dabble in necromantic experiments, or even in psychic experiences, often refer to a damp, chill, and often clammy sensation in the atmosphere when contact with these kama-rupic entities is made. This should be warning that such contact is not only highly unwholesome, but a danger signal that one is dealing with death and decay.

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

A Theosophical definition of Soulless Beings :

Soulless Beings

"We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote H. P. Blavatsky. This is an actual fact. The statement does not mean that those whom we thus elbow have no soul. The significance is that the spiritual part of these human beings is sleeping, not awake. Soulless Beings are animate humans with an animate working brain-mind, an animal mind, but otherwise "soulless" in the sense that the soul is inactive, sleeping; and this is also just what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the "living dead."

Soulless Beings are everywhere, these people. We elbow them, just as H. P. Blavatsky says, at every turn. The eyes may be physically bright, and filled with the vital physical fire, but they lack soul; they lack tenderness, the fervid yet gentle warmth of the living flame of inspiration within. Sometimes impersonal love will awaken the soul in a man or in a woman; sometimes it will kill it if the love become selfish and gross. The streets are filled with such "soulless" people; but the phrase soulless people does not mean "lost souls." The latter is again something else.

The term soulless people therefore is a technical term. It means men and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritual essence within them, but who are not self-consciously so connected. They live very largely in the brain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness. They turn with pleasure to the frivolities of life. They have the ordinary feelings of honor, etc., because it is conventional and good breeding so to have them; but the deep inner fire of yearning, the living warmth that comes from being more or less at one with the god within, they know not. Hence, they are "soulless," because the soul is not working with fiery energy in and through them.

A lost soul, on the other hand, means an entity who through various rebirths, it may be a dozen, or more or less, has been slowly following the "easy descent to Avernus," and in whom the threads of communication with the spirit within have been snapped one after the other. Vice will do this, continuous vice. Hate snaps these spiritual threads more quickly than anything else perhaps. Selfishness, the parent of hate, is the root of all human evil; and therefore a lost soul is one who is not merely soulless in the ordinary theosophical usage of the word, but is one who has lost the last link, the last delicate thread of consciousness, connecting him with his inner god. He will continue "the easy descent," passing from human birth to an inferior human birth, and then to one still more inferior, until finally the degenerate astral monad  - all that remains of the human being that once was  - may even enter the body of some beast to which it feels attracted (and this is one side of the teaching of transmigration, which has been so badly misunderstood in the Occident); some finally go even to plants perhaps, at the last, and will ultimately vanish. The astral monad will then have faded out. Such lost souls are exceedingly rare, fortunately; but they are not what we call soulless people.

If the student will remember the fact that when a human being is filled with the living spiritual and intellectual fiery energies flowing into his brain-mind from his inner god, he is then an insouled being, he will readily understand that when these fiery energies can no longer reach the brain-mind and manifest in a man's life, there is thus produced what is called a soulless being. A good man, honorable, loyal, compassionate, aspiring, gentle, and true-hearted, and a student of wisdom, is an "insouled" man; a buddha is one who is fully, completely insouled; and there are all the intermediate grades between.

See also: Soulless Beings , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul