Calvary Cross. This form of cross does not date from Christianity. It was known and used for mystical purposes, thousands of years before our era.

It formed part and parcel of the various Rituals, in Egypt and Greece, in Babylon and India, as well as in China, Mexico, and Peru. It is a cosmic, as well as a physiological (or phallic) symbol. That it existed among all the "heathen" nations is testified to by Tertullian. "How doth the Athenian Minerva differ from the body of a cross?" he queries. "The origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross.

All those rows of images on your standards are the appendages of crosses; those hangings on your banners are the robes of crosses." And the fiery champion was right. The tau or T is the most ancient of all forms, and the cross or the tat (q.v.) as ancient. The crux ansata, the cross with a handle, is in the hands of almost every god, including Baal and the Phœnician Astarte.

The croix cramponnée is the Indian Swastica. It has been exhumed from the lowest foundations of the ancient site of Troy, and it appears on Etruscan and Chaldean relics of antiquity. As Mrs. Jamieson shows: "The ankh of Egypt was the crutch of St. Anthony and the cross of St. Philip. The Labarum of Constantine . . . was an emblem long before, in Etruria. Osiris had the Labarum for his sign; Horus appears sometimes with the long Latin cross. T

he Greek pectoral cross is Egyptian. It was called by the Fathers the devil’s invention before Christ . The crux ansata is upon the old coins of Tarsus, as the Maltese upon the breast of an Assyrian king ...The cross of Calvary, so common in Europe, occurs on the breasts of mummies. . . it was suspended round the necks of sacred Serpents in Egypt. . . . Strange Asiatic tribes bringing tribute in Egypt are noticed with garments studded with crosses, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson dates this picture B.C. 1500." Finally, "Typhon, the Evil One, is chained by a cross".

(Eg. Belief and Mod. Thought).

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

Pharoah

(Egyptian- great house, house of Ra)) One of the kings of ancient Egypt. Its popular use stems from the Bible, but its use as a term for the king of Egypt begins during the 18th Dynasty. Egyptian priests made lists of their pharaohs and noted the most important events of their reigns. About 280 BC one of these priests, Manetho, grouped the pharaohs into 30 dynasties (a dynasty is a succession of rulers of the same line of descent).

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

Mysteries. Greek teletai, or finishings, celebrations of initiation or the Mysteries.

They were observances, generally kept secret from the profane and uninitiated, in which were taught by dramatic representation and other methods, the origin of things, the nature of the human spirit, its relation to the body, and the method of its purification and restoration to higher life. Physical science, medicine, the laws of music, divination, were all taught in the same manner.

The Hippocratic oath was but a mystic obligation. Hippocrates was a priest of Asklepios, some of whose writings chanced to become public. But the Asklepiades were initiates of the Esculapian serpent-worship, as the Bacchantes were of the Dionysia; and both rites were eventually incorporated with the Eleusinia. The Sacred Mysteries were enacted in the ancient Temples by the initiated Hierophants for the benefit and instruction of the candidates.

The most solemn and occult Mysteries were certainly those which were performed in Egypt by "the band of secret-keepers", as Mr. Bonwick calls the Hierophants. Maurice describes their nature very graphically in a few lines. Speaking of the Mysteries performed in Phile (the Nile-island), he says that "it was in these gloomy caverns that the grand and mystic arcana of the goddess (Isis) were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn hymn of initiation resounded through the long extent of these stony recesses".

The word "mysteries" is derived from the Greek muo, "to close the mouth", and every symbol connected with them had, a hidden meaning. As Plato and many other sages of antiquity affirm, the Mysteries were highly religious, moral and beneficent as a school of ethics.

The Grecian mysteries, those of Ceres and Bacchus, were only imitations of the Egyptian; and the author of Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, informs us that our own "word chapel or capella is said to be the Caph-El or college of El, the Solar divinity".

The well-known Kabiri are associated with the Mysteries. In short, the Mysteries were in every country a series of dramatic performances, in which the mysteries of cosmogony and nature, in general, were personified by the priests and neophytes, who enacted the part of various gods and goddesses, repeating supposed scenes (allegories) from their respective lives. These were explained in their hidden meaning to the candidates for initiation, and incorporated into philosophical doctrines.

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

Hathor (Greek) Het-Hert (Egyptian) (from het-hert the house above)

One of the oldest known Egyptian deities. Het-Hert refers to the sky or heaven, known by the Greeks as Hathor. Originally, Hathor was a cosmic goddess, consort of Ra, mother of light -- the production of which was considered the opening act in cosmogony, producer of the twin deities Shu and Tefnut (the sky and the moisture of the sky). Later she was regarded as the great Mother, bringing forth all the gods and goddesses -- Mother Nature personified. She has been associated with all the goddesses of Egypt, partaking of all their attributes; but her principal title was Lady of Amentet (the Holy Land or underworld).

The Greeks identified Hathor with Aphrodite, for she was the patron deity of beauty and joy in life, of artists and their creative work as was the celestial and earthly Venus. Her chief position, however, was goddess of the Underworld, providing the deceased with food and drink.

Astronomically she was associated with the star Sept (Sothis or Sirius), which rose heliacally on the first day of the Egyptian New Year. When the sun god Ra entered his boat, Hathor went with him and took up her position as a crown upon his forehead.

Hathor was closely connected with Neith (at Sais), and in Ptolemaic times with Nekhebet, Uatchet, and Bast.

"Hathor is the infernal Isis, the goddess pre-eminently of the West or the nether world" (SD 1:400). Yet this was but the lower aspect of Hathor, Neith, and Isis. Neith, or the celestial Hathor, was one of the most spiritual, recondite, and abstract of all the deities of the Egyptian pantheon, in this sense the celestial womb of light, out of which came in hierarchical procession the world or the cosmos and all in and of it.

See also NEITH

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

Nofir-hotpoo (Egypt, Egyptian). The same as the god Khonsoo, the lunar god of Thebes. Lit., "he who is in absolute rest". Nofir-hotpoo is one of the three persons of the Egyptian trinity, composed of Ammon, Mooth, and their son Khonsoo or Nofir-hotpoo.

(See also: Nofir-hotpoo , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Karnak (Egypt, Egyptian). The ruins of the ancient temples, and palaces which now stand on the emplacement of ancient Thebes. The most magnificent representatives of the art and skill of the earliest Egyptians. A few lines quoted from Champollion, Denon and an English traveller, show most eloquently what these ruins are.

Of Karnak Champollion writes: -  "The ground covered by the mass of remaining buildings is square; and each side measures 1,800 feet. One is astounded and overcome by the grandeur of the sublime remnants, the prodigality and magnificence of workmanship to be seen everywhere. No people of ancient or modern times has conceived the art of architecture upon a scale so sublime, so grandiose as it existed among the ancient Egyptians; and the imagination, which in Europe soars far above our porticos, arrests itself and falls powerless at the foot of the hundred and forty columns of the hypostyle of Karnak! In one of its halls, the Cathedral of Notre Dame might stand and not touch the ceiling, but be considered as a small ornament in the centre of the hall."

Another writer exclaims: "Courts, halls, gateways, pillars, obelisks, monolithic figures, sculptures, long rows of sphinxes, are found in such profusion at Karnak, that the sight is too much for modern comprehension." Says Denon, the French traveller: "It is hardly possible to believe, after seeing it, in the reality of the existence of so many buildings collected together on a single point, in their dimensions, in the resolute perseverance which their construction required, and in the incalculable expenses of so much magnificence! It is necessary that the reader should fancy what is before him to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves occasionally yields to the doubt whether he be perfectly awake. . . . There are lakes and mountains within the periphery of the sanctuary. These two edifices are selected as examples from a list next to inexhaustible. The whole valley and delta of the Nile, from the cataracts to the sea, was covered with temples, palaces, tombs, pyramids, obelisks, and pillars. The execution of the sculptures is beyond praise. The mechanical perfection with which artists wrought in granite, serpentine, breccia, and basalt, is wonderful, according to all the experts animals and plants look as good as natural, and artificial objects are beautifully sculptured; battles by sea and land, and scenes of domestic life are to be found in all their bas-reliefs."

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

Ophites (Ancient Greek). A Gnostic Fraternity in Egypt, and one of the earliest sects of Gnosticism, or Gnosis (Wisdom, Knowledge), known as the "Brotherhood of the Serpent".

It flourished early in the second century, and while holding some of the principles of Valentinus had its own occult rites and symbology. A living serpent, representing the Christos-principle (i.e., the divine reincarnating Monad, not Jesus the man), was displayed in their mysteries and reverenced as a symbol of wisdom, Sophia, the type of the all-good and all-wise.

 The Gnostics were not a Christian sect, in the common acceptation of this term, as the Christos of pre-Christian thought and the Gnosis was not the "god-man" Christ, but the divine EGO, made one with Buddhi. Their Christos was the "Eternal Initiate", the Pilgrim, typified by hundreds of Ophidian symbols for several thousands of years before the " Christian" era, so- called.

One can see it on the "Belzoni tomb" from Egypt, as a winged serpent with three heads (Atma-Buddhi-Manas), and four human legs, typifying its androgynous character; on the walls of the descent to the sepulchral chambers of Rameses V., it is found as a snake with vulture’s wings - the vulture and hawk being solar symbols. "The heavens are scribbled over with interminable snakes ‘ writes Herschel of the Egyptian chart of stars. "The Meissi (Messiah?) meaning the Sacred Word, was a good serpent", writes Bonwick in his Egyptian Belief. "This serpent of goodness, with its head crowned, was mounted upon a cross and formed a sacred standard of Egypt." The Jews borrowed it in their "brazen serpent of Moses".

It is to this "Healer" and "Saviour", therefore, that the Ophites referred, and not to Jesus or his words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so it behoves the Son of Man to be lifted up" - when explaining the meaning of their ophis. Tertullian, whether wittingly or unwittingly, mixed up the two. The four-winged serpent is the god Chnuphis. The good serpent bore the cross of life around its neck, or suspended from its mouth. The winged serpents become the Seraphim (Seraph, Saraph) of the Jews. In the 87th chapter of the Ritual (the Book of the Dead) the human soul transformed into Bata, the omniscient serpents says: - " I am the serpent Ba-ta, of long years, Soul of the Soul, laid out and born daily; I am the Soul that descends on the earth", i.e., the Ego.

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

MOTHER GODDESS -

1. natural mother of all things or mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the powers divine, the principle of them that dwell in heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the gods and goddesses, at whose will the planets of the sky, the wholesome winds of the seas and the lamentable silences of hell are dispersed. (Isis)

2. archetypal feminine aspect of the Godhead.

3. mediatrix, creator of forms, the celestial energy that gives birth to the world and all beings.

4. Mother Earth, Mother Nature.

5. space, the void field of consciousness.

6. time, who devours all her children.

7. Tao, way of gentle turning back (Lao-Tzu).

• Ala - Ibo Amaterasu-ami-kami-Shinto Anoba-Gaelic
• Aphrodite-Cypriot Asasa Ya-Yoruba  Astarte-Phoenician
• Athena-Greek Bellona-Roman  Benten-Japanese
• Brigid-Celtic Ceres-Eleusinian Ceridwain-Celtic
• Coatlicue-Nahuatl Chicomecoatl-Nahuatl Chom Lhari-Bhutanese
• Cybele-Phrygian Danu-Druidic  Demeter-Greek
• Devi Sri-Balance Diana-Cretan  Estanalehi-Navajo
• Fortuna-Roman Freya-Scandinavian Frigg-Scandinavian
• Gaia-Greek Hathor-Egyptian  Hecate-Greek
• Hel-Norse Illamatecuhtli-Aztec Isis-Egyptian
• Ishtar-Babylonian Ixchel-Mayan  Jord-Norse
• Juno-Roman Kali-Indian  Kuan Yin-Chinese
• Lakshmi-Indian Lilith-Hebrew  Luna-Roman
• Magan Mater-Latin Mary-Christian  Mawu-Dahomean
• Mayahuel-Nahuatl Minerva-Greek  Morgan Le Fay-Irish
• Nut-Egyptian Ostara-Germanic  Pachamama-Incan
• Persephone-Greek Pi-hsia Yuan-chun-Taoist Rangda-Balinese
• Saraswati-Indian Sagarmathe-Himalayain Sophua-Gnostic
• Tara-Tibetan Venus of Menten-Neolithic Venus of Lespugue-Neolithic
• White Goddess-Druidic

(See also: MOTHER GODDESS , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Lunar Gods. Called in India the Fathers, "Pitris" or the lunar ancestors.

They are subdivided, like the rest, into seven classes or Hierarchies, In Egypt although the moon received less worship than in Chaldea or India, still Isis stands as the representative of Luna-Lunus, "the celestial Hermaphrodite". Strange enough while the modern connect the moon only with lunacy and generation, the ancient nations, who knew better, have, individually and collectively, connected their "wisdom gods" with it. Thus in Egypt the lunar gods are Thoth, Hermes and Chons; in India it is Budha, the Son of Soma, the moon; in Chaldea Nebo is the lunar god of Secret Wisdom, etc., etc.

The wife of Thoth, Sifix, the lunar goddess, holds a pole with five rays or the five-pointed star, symbol of man, the Microcosm, in distinction from the Septenary Macrocosm. As in all theogonies a goddess precedes a god, on the principle most likely that the chick can hardly precede its egg, in Chaldea the moon was held as older and more venerable than the Sun, because, as they said, darkness precedes light at every periodical rebirth (or "creation") of the universe. Osiris although connected with the Sun and a Solar god is, nevertheless, born on Mount Sinai, because Sin is the Chaldeo-Assyrian word for the moon; so was Dio-Nysos, god of Nyssi or Nisi, which latter appelation was that of Sinai in Egypt, where it was called Mount Nissa.

The crescent is not - as proven by many writers - an ensign of the Turks, but was adopted by Christians for their symbol before the Mahommedans. For ages the crescent was the emblem of the Chaldean Astarte, the Egyptian Isis, and the Greek Diana, all of them Queens of Heaven, and finally became the emblem of Mary the Virgin. "The Greek Christian Empire of Constantinople held it as their palladium. Upon the conquest by the Turks, the Sultan adopted it . . . and since that, the crescent has been made to oppose the idea of the cross". (Eg. Belief.)

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

Anuki (Egypt, Egyptian). "See Anouki" supra. "The word Ank in Hebrew, means ‘my life’, my being, which is the personal pronoun Anocki, from the name of the Egyptian goddess Anouki ", says the author of the

Hebrew Mystery, or the Source of Measures.

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

Sphinx

(Egyptian - arranged after the order of Enoch) The mythical sphinx has a human head and a lion's body. In ancient Egypt, it originally was represented an ancient lion goddess.

Later the lion's head was replaced with the head of the reigning pharaoh. It also represented the sky-god Horus. From Egypt the idea of the sphinx spread to the Syrians and Phoenicians and finally to the Greeks. These peoples gave the creature the head and bust of a woman. They added an eagle's wings to represent majesty and a long serpent's tail to indicate wiliness. In later Greek literature the sphinx was no monster, but a beautiful, wise, and mysterious woman.

According to a legend this monster put a riddle to all those who passed by and devoured those who failed to guess it. After many had died in this way, the Theban hero Oedipus answered the riddle correctly and so caused the monster's death. The great Egyptian sphinx at Giza gazes across the Nile, to the east. It was carved from a solid block of stone about 3000 BC, and it is 187 ft long. The head and bust were carved from a solid block of rock left in a quarry from which stone was taken for the Great Pyramid. The paws were built up with stone. It is thought that a temple stood between the legs and that Egyptians came here to worship the rising sun. The sacrificial altar that is now located between the paws was built by the Romans.

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

Mastaba (Egypt, Egyptian). The upper portion of an Egyptian tomb, which, say the Egyptologists, consisted always of three parts: namely

(1) the Mastaba or memorial chapel above ground,

(2) a Pit from twenty to ninety feet in depth, which led by a passage, to

(3) the Burial Chamber, where stood the Sarcophagus, containing the mummy sleeping its sleep of long ages. Once the latter interred, the pit was filled up and the entrance to it concealed.

Thus say the Orientalists, who divide the last resting place of the mummy on almost the same principles as theologians do man - into body, soul, and spirit or mind. The fact is, that these tombs of the ancients were symbolical like the rest of their sacred edifices, and that this symbology points directly to the septenary division of man.

But in death the order is reversed; and while the Mastaba with its scenes of daily life painted on the walls, its table of offerings, to the Larva, the ghost, or "Linga Sarira", was a memorial raised to the two Principles and Life which had quitted that which was a lower trio on earth; the Pit, the Passage, the Burial Chambers and the mummy in the Sarcophagus, were the objective symbols raised to the two perishable "principles", the personal mind and Kama, and the three imperishable, the higher Triad, now merged into one. This "One" was the Spirit of the Blessed now resting in the Happy Circle of Aanroo.

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

Osiris. (Egypt, Egyptian). The greatest God of Egypt, the Son of Seb (Saturn), celestial fire, and of Neith, primordial matter and infinite space.

This shows him as the self-existent and self-created god, the first manifesting deity (our third Logos), identical with Ahura Mazda and other " First Causes". For as Ahura Mazda is one with, or the synthesis of, the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit, when differentiated and  personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. He was born at Mount Sinai, the Nyssa of the 0. T. (See- Exodus xvii. 15), and buried at Abydos, after being killed by Typhon at the early age of twenty-eight, according to the allegory.

According to Euripides he is the same as Zeus and Dionysos or Dio-Nysos "the god of Nysa", for Osiris is said by him to have been brought up in Nysa, in Arabia "the Happy". Query: how much did the latter tradition influence, or have anything in common with, the statement in the Bible, that "Moses built an altar and called the name Jehovah Nissi", or Kabbalistically - "Dio-Iao-Nyssi"? (See Isis Unveiled Vol. II. p. 165.) The four chief aspects of Osiris were - Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the " Lunar" or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon, Da?monic, or physical, material, therefore passional turbulent aspect. In these four aspects he symbolizes the dual Ego -  the divine and the human, the cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial.

Of the many supreme gods, this Egyptian conception is the most suggestive and the grandest, as it embraces the whole range of physical and metaphysical thought. As a solar deity he had twelve minor gods under him - the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Though his name is the "Ineffable", his forty-two attributes bore each one of his names, and his seven dual aspects completed the forty-nine, or 7 X 7; the former symbolized by the fourteen members of his body, or twice seven. Thus the god is blended in man, and the man is deified into a god. He was addressed as Osiris-Eloh. Mr. Dunbar T. Heath speaks of a Phœnician inscription which, when read, yielded the following tumular inscription in honour of the mummy: "Blessed be Ta-Bai, daughter of Ta-Hapi, priest of Osiris-Eloh. She did nothing against anyone in anger. She spoke no falsehood against any one. Justified before Osiris, blessed be thou from before Osiris! Peace be to thee." And then he adds the following remarks:

"The author of this inscription ought, I suppose, to be called a heathen, as justification before Osiris is the object of his religious aspirations. We find, however, that he gives to Osiris the appellation Eloh. Eloh is the name used by the Ten Tribes of Israel for the Elohim of Two Tribes. Jehovah-Eloh (Gen. iii. 21.) in the version used by Ephraim corresponds to Jehovah Elohim in that used by Judah and ourselves. This being so, the question is sure to be asked, and ought to be humbly answered - What was the meaning meant to be conveyed by the two phrases respectively, Osiris-Eloh and Jehovah-Eloh? For my part I can imagine but one answer, viz., that Osiris was the national God of Egypt, Jehovah that of Israel, and that Eloh is equivalent to Deus, Gott or Dieu". As to his human development, he is, as the author of the Egyptian Belief has it . . . "One of the Saviours or Deliverers of Humanity . . . . As such he is born in the world. He came as a benefactor, to relieve man of trouble . . . . In his efforts to do good he encounters evil . . . and he is temporarily overcome. He is killed . . Osiris is buried. His tomb was the object of pilgrimage for thousands of years. But he did not rest in his grave. At the end of three days, or forty, he rose again and ascended to Heaven. This is the story of his Humanity" (Egypt. Belief). And Mariette Bey, speaking of the Sixth Dynasty, tells us that "the name of Osiris . . commences to be more used. The formula of Justified is met with": and adds that "it proves that this name (of the Justified or Makheru was not given to the dead only". But it also proves that the legend of Christ was found ready in almost all its details thousands of years before the Christian era, and that the Church fathers had no greater difficulty than to simply apply it to a new personage.

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

Ark of the Covenant. Every ark-shrine, whether with the Egyptians, Hindus, Chaldeans or Mexicans, was a phallic shrine, the symbol of the yoni or womb of nature. The seket of the Egyptians, the ark, or sacred chest, stood on the ara - its pedestal.

The ark of Osiris, with the sacred relics of the god, was "of the same size as the Jewish ark", says S. Sharpe, the Egyptologist, carried by priests with staves passed through its rings in sacred procession, as the ark round which danced David, the King of Israel. Mexican gods also had their arks. Diana, Ceres, and other goddesses as well as gods had theirs. The ark was a boat - a vehicle in every case. "Thebes had a sacred ark 300 cubits long," and "the word Thebes is said to mean ark in Hebrew," which is but a natural recognition of the place to which the chosen people are indebted for their ark. Moreover, as Bauer writes, "the Cherub was not first used by Moses."

The winged Isis was the cherub or Arieh in Egypt, centuries before the arrival there of even Abram or Sarai. "The external likeness of some of the Egyptian arks, surmounted by their two winged human figures, to the ark of the covenant, has often been noticed." (Bible Educator.) And not only the "external" but the internal "likeness" and sameness are now known to all. The arks, whether of the covenant, or of honest, straightforward, Pagan symbolism, had originally and now have one and the same meaning. The chosen people appropriated the idea and forgot to acknowledge its source. It is the same as in the case of the "Urim" and "Thummin" (q.v.).

In Egypt, as shown by many Egyptologists, the two objects were the emblems of the Two Truths. "Two figures of Re and Thmei were worn on the breast-plate of the Egyptian High Priest. Thmé, plural thmin, meant truth in Hebrew. Wilkinson says the figure of Truth had closed eyes. Rosellini speaks of the Thmei being worn as a necklace. Diodorus gives such a necklace of gold and stones to the High Priest when delivering judgment. The Septuagint translates Thummin as Truth". (Bonwick’s Egyp. Belief.)

(See also: Ark of the Covenant , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Pasht (Egypt, Egyptian). The cat-headed goddess, the Moon, called also Sekhet. Her statues and representations are seen in great numbers at the British Museum. She is the wife or female aspect of Ptah (the son of Kneph), the creative principle, or the Egyptian Demiurgus. She is also called Beset or Bubastis, being then both the re-uniting and the separating principle. Her motto is: "punish the guilty and remove defilement", and one of her emblems is the cat. According to Viscount Rouge, her worship is extremely ancient (B.c. 3000), and she is the mother of the Asiatic race, the race that settled in Northern Egypt. As such she is called Ouato.

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

CROSS

Ancient symbol, far predating Xtianity, and taking many forms, such as the swastika and the Egyptian Ankh. It symbolizes, amongst many other things, centrality and the union of male and female in divine conjunction. When circled it symbolizes the earth and serves as an apotropaic. Most of the associations attributed by the Galileans to the cross of their crucified god have been lifted over the centuries from concurrent pagan sources.

(See also: CROSS , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Thoth, Thot (Greek) Tehuti (Egyptian) Egyptian goddess of wisdom, equivalent to the Greek Hermes, Thoth was often represented as an ibis-headed deity, and also with a human head, especially in his aspect of Aah-Tehuti (the moon god), and as the god of Mendes he is depicted as bull-headed. Although best known in his character of the scribe or recorder of the gods, holding stylus and tablet, this is but another manner of showing that Thoth is the god of wisdom, inventor of science and learning; thus to him is attributed the establishment of the worship of the gods and the hymns and sacrifices, and the author of every work on every branch of knowledge both human and divine. He is described in the texts as "self-created, he to whom none hath given birth; the One; he who reckons in heaven, the counter of the stars; the enumerator and measurer of the earth [cosmic space]

and all that is contained therein: the heart of Ra cometh forth in the form of the god Tehuti" -- for he represents the heart and tongue of Ra, reason and the mental powers of the god and the utterer of speech. It has been suggested that Thoth is thus the equivalent of the Platonic Logos. Many are his epithets: his best known being "thrice greatest" -- in later times becoming Hermes Trismegistus.

In The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the deceased must learn to master everything he encounters in the underworld, and does this through the instruction of Thoth, who also teaches the pilgrim the way of procedure. Finally when the deceased reaches the stage of judgment, it is Thoth who records the decree pointed out to him by the dog-headed ape on the balance, the scales of which weigh the heart against the feather. The gods receive the verdict from Thoth, who in turn announce it to Osiris, enabling the candidate to enter the realm of Osiris, as being one osirified. Thus Thoth is the inner spiritual recorder of the human constitution, who registers and records the karmic experiences and foretells the future destiny of the deceased, showing that each person is judged by himself -- for Thoth here is the person's own higher ego; as regards cosmic space, Thoth is not only the cosmic Logos, but its aspect as the intelligent creative urge inherent in that Intelligence.

Thoth was also arbiter of the gods as in the battle between the god of light and the god of darkness, restoring the equilibrium which had been destroyed during the conflict. Similarly in the fights between Horus and Set, when the evil has a temporary ascendancy, Thoth restores harmony. Interestingly,

"Thoth remains changeless from the first to the last Dynasty. . . . the celestial scribe, who records the thoughts, words and deeds of men and weighs them in the balance, liken him to the type of the esoteric Lipikas. His name is one of the first that appears on the oldest monuments. He is the lunar god of the first dynasties, the master of Cynocephalus -- the dog-headed ape who stood in Egypt as a living symbol and remembrance of the Third Root-Race" (TG 331).

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

Ra (Egypt, Egyptian). The divine Universal Soul in its manifested aspect - the ever-burning light; also the personified Sun.

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

Cynocephalus (from Latin canus dog + cephalus head)

The dog-headed ape (Simia hamadryas) which in Egyptian mythology was called Amemet (eater of the dead) whose master was Thoth or Tehuti. In the Judgment scene in The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Amemet is represented as seated by Thoth, ready to inform his master when the pointer marks the middle of the beam on the balance, when the heart is being weighed in the scales. After Thoth makes his announcement to the gods concerning the result of the weighing of the heart, the company of the gods decree that Amemet shall not be permitted to prevail over the successful candidate.

"There was a notable difference between the ape-headed gods and the 'Cynocephalus' . . . , a dog-headed baboon from upper Egypt. The latter, whose sacred city was Hermopolis, was sacred to the lunar deities and Thoth-Hermes, hence an emblem of secret wisdom -- as was Hanuman, the monkey god of India, and later, the elephant-headed Ganesha. The mission of the Cynocephalus was to show the way for the Dead to the Seat of Judgment and Osiris, whereas the ape-gods were all phallic" (TG 92).

"The dog-headed ape was a glyph to symbolise the sun and moon, in turn, though the Cynocephalus is more a Hermetic than a religious symbol. For it is the hieroglyph of Mercury, the planet, as of the Mercury of the Alchemical philosophers, 'as,' say the Alchemists, 'Mercury has to be ever near Isis, as her minister, as without Mercury neither Isis nor Osiris can accomplish anything in the great work.' Cynocephalus, whenever represented with the Caduceus, the Crescent, or the Lotus, is a glyph of the 'philosophical' Mercury; but when seen with a reed, or a roll of parchment, he stands for Hermes, the secretary and adviser of Isis, as Hanuman filled the same office with Rama" (SD 1:388).

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

Amenti (Egypt, Egyptian). Esoterically and literally, the dwelling of the God Amen, or Amoun, or the "hidden", secret god. Exoterically the kingdom of Osiris divided into fourteen parts, each of which was set aside for some purpose connected with the after state of the defunct.

Among other things, in one of these was the Hall of Judgment. It was the "Land of the West", the "Secret Dwelling", the dark land, and the "doorless house". But it was also Ker-noter, the "abode of the gods", and the "land of ghosts" like the " Hades" of the Greeks (q.v.). It was also the "Good Father’s House" (in which there are "many mansions").

The fourteen divisions comprised, among many others, Aanroo (q.v.), the hall of the Two Truths, the Land of Bliss, Neter-xev "the funeral (or burial) place" Otamer-xev, the "Silence-loving Fields", and also many other mystical halls and dwellings, one like the Sheol of the Hebrews, another like the Devachan of the Occultists, etc., etc. Out of the fifteen gates of the abode of Osiris, there were two chief ones, the "gate of entrance" or Rustu, and the "gate of exit" (reincarnation) Amh. But there was no room in Amenti to represent the orthodox Christian Hell.

The worst of all was the Hall of the eternal Sleep and Darkness. As Lepsius has it, the defunct "sleep (therein) in incorruptible forms, they wake not to see their brethren, they recognize no longer father and mother, their hearts feel nought toward their wife and children. This is the dwelling of the god All-Dead. . . . Each trembles to pray to him, for he hears not. Nobody can praise him, for he regards not those who adore him. Neither does he notice any offering brought to him." This god is Karmic Decree; the land of Silence - the abode of those who die absolute disbelievers, those dead from accident before their allotted time, and finally the dead on the threshold of Avitchi, which is never in Amenti or any other subjective state, save in one case, but on this land of forced re-birth. These tarried not very long even in their state of heavy sleep, of oblivion and darkness, but, were carried more or less speedily toward Amh the "exit gate".

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

Isis (Greek) Ast (Egyptian) Chief goddess of the Egyptian popular pantheon, daughter of Seb and Nut. Generally portrayed bearing the papyrus scepter and the ankh, wearing the vulture headdress with the uraeus on her forehead from which rose a pair of horns (either cow's or ram's) encircling the solar disk: the horns represented mystic nature and the moon (SD 2:31). Her attributes pertain to the Great Mother, the personification of concrete nature, giving birth to and nourishing all things, portrayed by ancient artists as the mother suckling her babe.

The mythological aspect stresses the dutiful mother and faithful wife. Her sorrow upon the death of her husband, Osiris, as well as her wanderings in search of his body, are very similar to those of the Greek nature goddess Demeter searching for her daughter Persephone. To Isis is also attributed the knowledge of the potency of mantras, with which she revivifies her poisoned son, Horus.

Osiris, Isis, and Horus form the Egyptian triad of Father-Mother-Son. Isis is credited with the characteristics of most of the other goddesses of the pantheon, but her chief attribute of producer and giver of life is manifested even in the underworld, where her help sustains the deceased. The symbol of Isis in the heavens was the star Sirius.

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