Six-pointed Star The double triangle or Solomon's Seal; in India called the sign of Vishnu, where it "is the emblem of the Trimurti three in one. The triangle with its apex upward indicates the male principle, downward the female; the two typifying, at the same time, spirit and matter."

(IU 2:270; cf also diagrams in IU 2:264-5, 452-3) The six-pointed star is found in symbolical representations of the earliest cosmogonies. When the six-pointed star is formed of two interlaced equilateral triangles -- one light with the apex pointing upward, the other dark with the apex pointing downward, both triangles being symmetrically placed with regard to one central point -- and the double figure is surrounded by a circle, the sign represents the universe, spirit and matter, the alpha and omega in the cosmos, and involution and evolution. In the Qabbalistic presentation of the figure, instead of a circle surrounding the star a serpent is portrayed as swallowing its tail, as in the seal of the Theosophical Society:

This is the Egyptian symbol of time and eternity, and of ever-recurring cycles: of birth and death, manvantara and pralaya, to which the universe and every entity within it are subject. In theosophy it symbolizes further the six forces or powers of nature, the six cosmic planes, principles, etc., all synthesized by the seventh, or central point within the star.

The apex of the light triangle symbolizes the spiritual-divine monad, having its habitat in the spiritual-divine realms; the apex of the dark triangle, the human monad, having its habitat in the middle realm of conflict between spirit and matter, the apex itself being in the worlds of manifestation, the two sides extending from it reaching upwards towards the spiritual realm and representing evolution through aspiration and efforts towards a spiritual life. On the other hand, the two sides extending downwards from the apex of the light triangle represent the rays streaming from the spiritual-divine monad to enlighten, inspire, and uplift all beings in the manifested worlds. In the case of man, the human monad represented by the apex of the dark triangle is the reflection or child of the spiritual-divine monad or inner god.

The central geometrical point, having neither length, breadth, nor thickness, represents the invisible spiritual sun, the light of the unmanifested deity. Sometimes instead of a geometrical point, a crux ansata with a circle as its zenith appears -- symbol of limitless, uncreated space, as is a cross within a circle.

Again, the pentagram or five-pointed star may take the place of the central point, in which case the pentagram symbolizes the microcosm or man, within the macrocosm or universe. "The double triangle representing symbolically, the Macrocosm, or great universe, contains in itself besides the idea of the duality (as shown in the two colours, and two triangles -- the universe of Spirit and that of Matter) -- those of the Unity, of the Trinity, of the Pythagorean Tetractys -- the perfect Square -- and up to the Dodecagon and the Dodecahedron" (BCW 3:313).

See also SENARY; SEAL OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

(See also: Six-pointed Star , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Siva, Shiva (Sanskrit) The third god of the Hindu Trimurti (trinity): Brahma the evolver; Vishnu the preserver; and Siva the regenerator or destroyer.

Siva is one of the three loftiest divinities of our solar system, and in his character of destroyer stands higher than Vishnu for he is "the destroying deity, evolution and PROGRESS personified, who is the regenerator at the same time; who destroys things under one form but to recall them to life under another more perfect type" (SD 2:182). As the destroyer of outward forms he is called Vamadeva. Endowed with so many powers and attributes, Siva possesses a great number of names, and is represented under a corresponding variety of forms. He corresponds to the Palestinian Ba`al or Moloch, Saturn, the Phoenician El, the Egyptian Seth, and the Biblical Chiun of Amos, and Greek Typhon.

"In the Rig Veda the name Siva is unknown, but the god is called Rudra, which is a word used for Agni, the fire god . . ."; "In the Vedas he is the divine Ego aspiring to return to its pure, deific state, and at the same time that divine ego imprisoned in earthly form, whose fierce passions make of him the 'roarer,' the 'terrible' " (SD 2:613, 548).

Siva is often spoken of as the patron deity of esotericists, occultists, and ascetics; he is called the Mahayogin (the great ascetic), from whom the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired, and union with the great spirit of the universe is eventually gained. Here he is "the howling and terrific destroyer of human passions and physical senses, which are ever in the way of the development of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the inner eternal man -- mystically . . . Siva-Rudra is the Destroyer, as Vishnu is the preserver; and both are the regenerators of spiritual as well as of physical nature. To live as a plant, the seed must die. To live as a conscious entity in the Eternity, the passions and senses of man must first die before his body does. 'To live is to die and to die is to live,' has been too little understood in the West. Siva, the destroyer, is the creator and the Saviour of Spiritual man, as he is the good gardener of nature. He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills the passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions of the spiritual, man" (SD 1:459&n).

Though Siva is often called Maha-kala (great time) which, while being the great formative factor in manvantara is also the great dissolving power, to the Hindu mind destruction implies reproduction; so Siva is also called Sankara (the auspicious), for he is the reproductive power which is perpetually restoring that which has been dissolved, and hence is also called Mahadeva (the great god). Under this character of restorer he was often represented by the symbol of the linga or phallus: "the Lingham and Yoni of Siva-worship stand too high philosophically, its modern degeneration notwithstanding, to be called a simple phallic worship" (SD 2:588). It is under the form of the linga, either alone or combined with the yoni (female organ, the representative of his sakti or female energy), that Siva is so often worshiped today in India.

In the Linga-Purana, Siva is said to take repeated births, in one kalpa possessing a white complexion, in another that of a black color, in still another that of a red color, after which he becomes four youths of a yellow color. This allegory is an ethnological account of the different races of mankind and their varying types and colors (cf SD 1:324).

Siva is known under more than a thousand names or titles and is represented under many different forms in Hindu writings. As the god of generation and of justice, he is represented riding a white bull; his own color, as well as that of the bull, is generally white, referring probably to the unsullied purity of abstract justice. He is sometimes seen with two hands, sometimes with four, eight, or ten; and with five faces, representing among other things his power over the five elements.

He has three eyes, one placed in the centre of his forehead, and shaped as a vertical oval. These three eyes are said to denote his view of the three divisions of time: past, present, and future. He holds a trident in his hand to denote his three great attributes of emanator, destroyer, and regenerator, thus combining all the usual qualities or functions attributed to the Trimurti. In his character of time, he not only presides over its beginning and its extinction, but also over its present functioning as represented in astronomical and astrological calculations.

A crescent or half-moon on his forehead indicates time measured by the phases of the moon; a serpent forms one of his necklaces to denote the measure of time by cycles, and a second necklace of human skulls signifies the extinction and succession of the races of mankind. He is often pictures as entirely covered with serpents, which are at once emblems of spiritual immortality and his standing as the patron of the nagas or initiates. He is often mystically personated by Mount Meru, which esoterically is both the cosmic and terrestrial axis with their respective poles.

According to the belief of most Advaita-Vedantists, Sankaracharya, the great Indian philosopher and sage, is held to be an avatara of Siva.

See also Shiva, Siva

(See also: Siva, Shiva , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

COBRA

The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous explains the metaphorical aspects of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The first entry is about serpents. It seems the Egyptians used the cobra to designate royalty because of its power over life and death. Since, when coiled, its tail disappears, it is also a fitting symbol for eternity. The Greeks called the serpent oura, or "tail", whence the "Uraeus", which is the Greek word for the cobra-shaped crown worn by kings and gods alike. To demonstrate its "eternal" aspect, the Greeks depicted the serpent devouring its own tail (Ouroboros "tail-devouring"). Oddly enough, the Greek letter rho is similar in shape to the beta, and some scholars think oura (read ouba) is taken from an old Hebrew word for sorcery ob. (See OBEAH).

This is all very instructive, to be sure, but what interests us is that the Egyptians believed that the cobra was so deadly that it didn't even have to sink its fangs into a person. It barely needed to graze him. In fact, it merely had to "breathe" on someone to inflict its venom. Now, since we already know that the "king" cobra was associated with royalty, its not surprising that the Greeks should call it, in their language, "the little king" or basilisk, bringing along with the word the Egyptian version of its natural history.

By the time we reach the Middle Ages in Europe, the basilisk (since cobras don't exist in Europe) had turned into a fabulous beast with wings and a fiery breath fatal to every living thing. A similar transformation happened to the poor white rhinoceros of Africa; in Europe the unicorn was turned into a fabulous horse with a horn. And when we learn that the most fearsome of sea serpents, the Nichus, was born of a medieval monk's mistranslation of an original misspelling of the Latin version of the "Nile" river (Nilus), an obnoxious pattern emerges: the decay of truth into superstition, simply because of linguistic ignorance.

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

A Christian theological definition of Righteousness according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Righteousness

See also: Righteousness , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Kiara Windrider is a therapist, poet, astrologer, healer, explorer of mystic and shamanic paths and the author of the award-winning book Doorway to Eternity: A Guide to Planetary Ascension. A primary focus for Kiara Windrider has currently been to work with inner technologies for planetary healing, and joining with others in a Chrysalis Network to seed new possibilities for an awakening planet.

Read more here: » Spiritual Awakening: Two Streams of Future Probability

Kiara Windrider is a therapist, poet, astrologer, healer, explorer of mystic and shamanic paths and the author of the award-winning book Doorway to Eternity: A Guide to Planetary Ascension.

A new year dawns silent and unannounced in the early morning drizzle. The calendar spells 2002. What will this year bring? It is a year of paradox, the drizzle informs me – the best of times, and the worst of times. It is a year of planetary initiation, of unprecedented events that will change our lives forever. We will shed an old skin, open our sleeping eyes to a new light, and clear away some of the veils that cling so heavily, and yet so comfortably, to our collective soul. It’s a year like never before, and I notice that I enter through its gates with equal measures of trepidation and excitement. My personality carries some trepidation; my soul carries a great excitement. A poem, written long ago, comes to mind: Faint streaks of dawn.

Read more here: » Spiritual Awakening: Multiple Timelines

Ananta is Sanskrit for infinity. It is equated with the Supreme Brahman - infinitely powerful and so infinitely free. It is bigger than any quantity that can be imagined; it is bigger than any finite number. Infinity is one of the fundamental axioms upon which contemporary mathematics is based.

Sanskrit grammar and interpretation in ancient India were closely linked to the handling of high value numbers. Studies relating to poetry and metrics initiated sastragnaas or scientists to both arithmetic and grammar. Grammarians were just as competent at calculations as professional mathematicians. Indian sastragnaas or scientists, philosophers, astronomers and cosmographers - in order to develop their arithmetical, metaphysical and cosmological speculations concerning ever higher numbers - became at once mathematicians, grammarians and poets.

(See also: Infinity , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Infinity: Zero To Infinity In Indian Mysticism  

We are here to learn. We have created all our experiences for that purpose only: to learn, understand, and recognize ourselves in all that is. This is our sole/soul purpose in this entire existence. To learn a lesson never requires eternity; it is only our own unconscious choice to resist and avoid the learning that perpetuates the lesson.

Read more here: » Personal Growth: On Lessons, Creating our Reality, Limitation, and Eternal Suffering

Kiara Windrider, author of a Doorway to Eternity and contributor to many exiting articles at our website, visits Europe June/July 2004.

He is available to do other events in Germany, Holland, or Sweden while he is in the area. Please contact him directly if you like to arrange for a workshop or course.
Kiara Windrider: kiara@eternaldoorway.com 

Read more here: » Kiara Windrider in Europe!

Something seems to be seriously wrong with marriage.

During the past 50 years, the rate of divorce in the United States has exploded out of control to its current level of about 50 percent, and it shows no signs of letting up. That is a very sobering trend and statistic. I recently contributed to that number, and it doesn't feel so good, especially when there are innocent children involved. Some people have contributed more than once. Most of them probably feel worse than I do, and wonder where it all went wrong.

Read more here: » Marriage: The End Of Marriage As We Know It

Many factors point at a difficult time ahead with the risk of social, economical, political and last but not least environmental crisis due to the exploration of our Planet. Parallelly, there are many who suggest that we are now on the verge of a transition into a new World, a golden Age.

Read more here: » Spiritual Awakening: Future transitions

Ultimate Pinnacle of The Human Quest

The stream of consciousness we experience within ourselves throughout our lives ties together all events of physical existence like the silken string that holds together a necklace. In its realisation, man and woman will meet their journey's end, the Omega point, a place of final rest and the dawn of a new existence in the divine self and the beautiful, blissful Lord within. As Lord Swaminarayan says in his Vachanamrutam sermons: "The human soul perpetually peers outward towards mundane objects of the five senses, but never looks inwards to see himself. Such a soul is the most ignorant and wretched of all.''

Read more here: » Meaning of Life: Ultimate Pinnacle of The Human Quest

Sravana, a Month Devoted to Shiva

The devout spend the entire month of Sravana in austerities and worship of Shiva, culminating in the Sravana Purnima on Raksha Bandhan day. Shiva is beyond the gunas, as His trident represents all three, sattva, rajas and tamas. The elephant skin attire indicates that he is beyond pride; the tiger skin symbolises his going beyond lust, and the snake around his neck represents wisdom and eternity.

Read more here: » Shiva: Sravana, a Month Devoted to Shiva

Osho makes a special mention of one unique book which not many people know of. He says: "There are millions of books in the world, but The Book of Mirdad stands out far above any other book in existence

It is a small book, but the man who gave birth to this book - and mind my words, I am not saying 'the man who wrote this book', nobody wrote this book - was an unknown, a nobody. And because he was not a novelist, he never wrote again; just that single book contains his whole experience. The name of the man was Mikhail Naimy.

(See also: The Book of Mirdad , Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » The Book of Mirdad: Silence of Words Inspired Osho  

Death poetry!

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. This is an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Death Poetry: Ode to Death

A person who lives in his home with his family, going about his daily business with loving detachment is in the world and yet out of it.

Like the boat whose place is in the water and which, floating, does not allow water to enter it, the realised samsari lives in this world not allowing worldly things to enter his mind.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: Writing Notes From 'I' To 'Me'

The Ashtavakra Gita , also known as Ashtavakra Samhita , is a treatise that offers simple recipes for almost instant liberation. Swami Shantananda of Vasistha Guha calls it “a quantum leap into the absolute”.

A unique treatise on the non-dualistic advaita philosophy , the Ashtavakra Gita “guarantees to transport a seeker instantaneously from time to eternity, from the relative to the absolute and from bondage to liberation”, writes Swami Shantananda.

(See also: Ashtavakra Gita , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Ashtavakra Gita: Ashtavakra's Guide To Instant Nirvana  

In this third chapter of Kiara Windriders new book; “Enlightenment 2012: Kalki and the Golden Age”, Kiara is describing the basic teachings conducted by Kalki and the Dasajis of Golden Age Foundation at the retreats for enlightenment.

In the courses offered at Kalki’s ashram, the first few days are about becoming aware of the prison of our mind. It isn’t about trying to change any of it, because you cannot. You are simply witnessing the reality of your mind as it is, the emotional charge, the habit patterns, the assumptions, the traumas, the conditioning, and the masks that we build up in order to survive. You begin to strip down the social and spiritual personas, and you begin to understand the nature of mind. You become aware that enlightenment is simply about ‘de-clutching’ from the mind.

Read more here: » Enlightenment 2012: Kalki and the Golden Age – Chapter 3: Basic Teaching

In literature, art and cinema, death has been almost always depicted as a terrible thing, the final end, although in reality it is merely a release from the burden of the physical body.

Every religious tradition recognises that to reach the final truth, one must pass through death. This is the meaning behind Aanea's descent to the underworld in Virgil, of Dante's descent into hell in the Divine Comedy and the Christian baptism: “You were baptised into the death of Christ”.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: Finality of Death Is a Myth

Today, dealing with change is perceived as a huge challenge. In fact, 'change management' has become a major preoccupation of leaders in all walks of life, including in government, business and institutions.

Employees too are grappling with changes in the work place. More than ever before, the number of people individually striving to learn more and grow at a personal level is increasing by leaps and bounds. So they have to learn to adapt themselves to changing situations. Most of us are fairly quick at learning, at cultivating new tastes and fashions. Yet, our first reaction to change is always tinged with suspicion and caution, and in some cases, resistance.

(See also: Change , Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Change: Learn to Let Go, Adapt to Change  

Kriya Yoga: The Path of Kriya Yoga

The Kriya Path is: Attaining eternal Tranquility by practice of Pranayam and continuing meditations on the Formless, i.e. Tranquility.

Increasing the practice of Kriya, doing all works without expectations for the results thereof, the path aims at achieving Tranquility, observing everything which is revealed in Yonimudra (Beatific Inner Revelation Kriya), and terminating all desired expectations, renouncing every desire before it originates, being freed from all thoughts.

Read more here: » Kriya Yoga: The Path of Kriya Yoga