Yod: The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Y. Represents the number 10. The sixth of the twelve "single letters." A Hebrew word meaning "hand." Corresponds to Virgo, the 20th Path (between Chesed and Tiphareth), and Tarot trump IX The Hermit.

Also See: Yodh

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

Angiras:

Angiras. A sage-hermit born from the mind of Brahma. Indra gave him the name Atharvangiras when Angiras paid him homage by reciting the hymns of Atharva-veda.

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

Varathanthu:

Varathanthu. Teacher of the hermit Kautsu.

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

asrama:

asrama (aashrama). A stage of life: one of student, householder, hermit, and renunciate.

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

Sannyasa: A person in the fourth ashrama, or stage of life when one lives as a wandering hermit, owning nothing save the clothes one is wearing and a small wooden bowl for food.

(See also: Sannyasa ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Yamabooshee, or Yamabusi (Jap.). A sect in Japan of very ancient and revered mystics. They are monks "militant" and warriors, if needed, as are certain Yogis in Rajputana and the Lamas in Tibet.

This Mystic brotherhood dwell chiefly near Kioto, and are renowned for their healing powers, says the Encyclopœdia, which translates the name "Hermit Brothers": "They pretend to magical arts, and live in the recesses of mountains and craggy steeps, whence they come forth to tell fortunes (?), write charms and sell amulets. They lead a mysterious life and admit no one to their secrets, except after a tedious and difficult preparation by fasting and a species of severe gymnastic exercise ! ")

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

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

An ascetic, monk, devotee, hermit (especially one who has taken a vow of silence); a person who has attained union with his inner divinity by means of aspiration, so that filled with inspiration as he is, and guided by the inner spiritual monitor, he is said to attain more or less fully the status of an incarnate divinity on earth. With the Sanskrit expression hridayeshu sthitah (abiding in the hearts), the phrase has direct reference to the Silent Watcher of our planetary chain, who is in a sense the spiritual and mystical parent of the higher part of the human constitution.

In the plural, the celestial seven munis, a collective title given to the seven stars of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Here is the reason the marharshis of this constellation play so important a part in archaic Hindu and theosophical esoteric teaching -- the genuinely evolved muni is one who is a true mahatma, one who has evoked into relatively full activity all the seven parts of his constitution.

Muni, however, is frequently used in Hindu writings in a merely complimentary or reverential sense, just as mahatma is, so that not every individual called muni or mahatma is such in the theosophical sense.

(See also: Muni , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

vanaprastha:

vanaprastha (vaanaprastha). Forest-dweller, hermit; third of the four stages of life.

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

Jamadagni:

Jamadagni (Jamadhagni). Hrishika's hermit son and Parasurama's father.

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

Vamadeva:

Vamadeva (Vaamadheva). Ancient hermit. Friend of Vasishta and a priest of Dasaratha; he composed Rig-vedic hymns.

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

Sathyakama:

Sathyakama (Sathyakaama). Noble hermit son of Jabali.

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

Vibhandaka:

Vibhandaka. Hermit of family of Kasyapa; his son Rishyasringa was born from his semen spilled upon viewing Urvasi, the celestial damsel.

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

Sathyakama:

Sathyakama (Sathyakaama). Noble hermit son of Sibi and disciple of Pippalada. Also named Shaibya.

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

Vasanta Navaratri

THE DIVINE MOTHER or Devi is worshipped during the Vasanta Navaratri. This occurs during the spring. She is worshipped by Her own command. You will find this in the following episode in the Devi Bhagavata.

From Hindu Fasts & Festivals by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Vasanta Navaratri: Worship in Hinduism - Vasanta Navaratri

Kautsu:

Kautsu (Kauthsu). Student-hermit disciple of Varathanthu.

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

PERICHORESIS

The word is Greek, as you might imagine: peri "around" + choreio "dance." But for the Greeks "dancing" wasn't the aimless shuffling we do. It was more like ballet. "Choreography" is a lot closer to the idea -- in which particular movements are carefully planned and executed. Travel from one dimension to another occurs simultaneously on all levels of reality. We travel in and out of the astral during sleep every night and think nothing of it. And, as you know, when the shaman interfaces with the earth by taking narcotic mushrooms or cacti into his system, he's moving deliberately and consciously between universes.

Parallel worlds stretch horizontally from sinister to dexter, or rather, from increasing shades of darkness to increasing degrees of light. Beings entering from the darkside are perceived by us not as merely ignorant but as demonic, whereas the wisdom of the beings from the lightside stands so far beyond our recognition that we see them simply as angelic beings. Depending on the level of reality that we happen to occupy, the dark and light worlds are perceived as more or less similar to the world we currently inhabit. On some levels of reality, the transfiguration is reversed and we perceive them as inhabiting regions above and below a horizontal plane of reality that stretches into inaccessible temporal limits of Past and Future. In such a world, reality is a given that is perceived as revealing itself only at such Past and Future vanishing points -- Alpha and Omega.

Everywhere horizontal parallel plane meets vertical parallel levels and an Aeon is established, symbolized by a cross. If the cross, however is not circumscribed by a circle (the familiar symbol of cross in circle, representing "earth"), there is no cohesion and the center does not hold. The so-called "extremes," in fact, are not extremes at all, but merely their own opposites in a spinning circle.

Because of the nature of infinity, we have to recognize that we may never stand at any of the four extremities, but always only at the exact center of the omniverse.

Notice also that in any formal religious painting, the god or saint is always placed in the exact center. If he is raised too high from the center, the lower world is given undue importance and power, because, after all, in completely "secular" pictures, the God has been raised so high as to have been left out of the picture altogether! Placing the God too far down divests him of his divinity because his intensity looks, on our level, simply grotesque. Likewise, if the God is placed too far to the left or right, an imbalance is also created.

Thus, uncircumscribed, the ends of the cross stretch unchecked into the infinite four directions and an uncontrollable wickedness is set forth into all manifestations. Without the "earthing" of the cross, there is no manifestation. The extremities lead only into infinite "otherness" and delusion. It is the inner being at the solar plexus that is the heart of the universe. When we nail (i.e., Christianize) the higher spirit of man to an ancient quadratic event, the center is blocked and closed forever. Moreover, the center has been locked in the past, away from the Eternal Now. Until the nail (Xtianity) has been pulled out, no further evolution is possible and Death will prevail.

The way out is toward the central, innermost point.

The parallel world-planes are accessible at all times. We move in and out of them constantly, but are mostly unaware of having done so. Occasionally we get the feeling that "things are suddenly different" or that "something is about to happen" and that means we've inadvertently stepped into a new probable world that is much different from the ones we've hitherto occupied. You can move back into the world you've just left, only if you do so at once.

Whatever can be imagined, exists, will exist or has existed. Whatever has existed or will exist continues to exist now because time is one of the four real dimensions of things. Alongside this Reality there are an infinite number of co-existent realities of equal "solidity" and "substance." There are also an infinite number of "probable" realities and an infinite number of "possible" worlds. A moment's reflection will show that if this is so, then, obviously, available access to them must not be merely possible, but inevitable. Jane Robert's Seth describes the infinite "probable worlds" stretching out in either direction from this one. The closest ones being hardly distinguishable from this, as we progress outward, the probable worlds become stranger, increasingly incomprehensible and frighteningly unpredictable. In the fifth dimensional world, four dimensional objects have their own much more complete and solid "substance" which we cannot perceive so long as we inhabit lower planes of being.

You can, however, willingly and deliberately get up and walk from this world into the nearest adjacency and from there to the next, and the next. The only problem is that you're playing roulette. There's no way of telling what kind of world you are moving into.

If you are seeking to avoid some trouble in this world, be advised that things could be a lot worse in the world next door. Moreover, if you leave unsolved problem behind, your karma will continue to take you back there in future lives until eventually you are forced to solve them. On top of that, if you leave muddy footprints behind you as you run through world after world, you'll have added onto your present karma the extra burden of going back to mop them up.

Actual entrance/exit sites are a matter of intuitive perception. Dimensional doorways are not likely, for instance, to be found in your living room. They need to be places you've never crossed before (except as interdimensional thresholds). It's best to look for two pillars to pass between -- a couple of tall trees in a forest or park make excellent pillars. The more difficult the access the better. And the direction and angle of entrance are crucial. Select a "picture" framed by the trees as most nearly representing the world you want to leave behind you and before you a picture of what intuitively or esthetically looks to be an improvement of that. Make sure that nothing passes across your line of vision as you are actually walking through. If necessary, keep your eyes closed or look down at your feet.

At first the difference between adjacent worlds is scarcely discernible. Variations only become immediately evident at some distance. But if you are observant, you will eventually begin to notice tiny, subtle changes for the better (or worse). By the time these changes become evident, it's already too late to go back where you came from. The metaphors of artistic symbolism, religion and magic can also assist in perichoretic travel. With the enhanced ability to will and to imagine, the human mind can perceive parts of alternate realities with increasing clarity and may begin to see how to transform the reality we normally inhabit. In fact, so many are the pathways to alternate experience, it's a wonder anyone still believes that reality has but a single face!

There is, to be sure, ultimately only the One Plenum in which everything else transpires, but that sphere transcends experience in the Void of Nirvana.

Although, as we've seen above, there are relatively easy methods of interplanary travel (between planes), the ability to discover significant doorways into alternate dimensions, advanced perichoresis, not only requires an out-of-the-ordinary state of consciousness, but is a difficult technique in its own right, mastered properly only by experienced shamans. For instance, travel through time in the past requires us to move "forward" (i.e., towards the Beginning of Time) simply by ignoring vast areas of experience and being -- as we also do in the present -- in order to maintain a strict continuity of our own. Travel from the future (i.e., the End of Time), however, even though employing the same declination, creates an ever-thickening wall behind us, preventing all possibility of return to the starting point.

Kenneth Grant (Outside the Circles of Time) provides us with insights into the sexual avenue of interdimensional perichoresis and at the same time describes the procedure for creating a "moonchild." In his system, the door to our world opens inward in order for us to receive extratellurian immigrants.

Bipolar human sexuality, explains Grant, parallels cosmogenesis and the sacred void corresponds to the female vagina. Everything comes out of and falls back into this same eternal darkness. The creative light is sucked into its bottomless depths where it is swallowed up by vampiric blackness. Therefore, the doorway to the vacuum or zero of space is a priestess who has been chosen for her "master of the art of dream control." By allowing herself to become a mirror of impression-reception, she is able to generate illusions, "for all form is fantasy, and exists only in the dreaming mirror of the mind."

A material looking glass is placed above her, slanted to receive the starlight. Now, by her psychic ability she can project whatever star morph the magician requires onto the looking glass. A second mirror, creating an infinite regression reflection is placed 11 feet away, eleven being the number of the famous 11th Pathway of Black Magic. The circle of Daath is the corresponding doorway in the Qabalah.

Thereupon the priest uses his penis as the intergalactic conduit of the astro-seminal energy. His vibrations and invocations encourage the dream-manipulating priestess to focus the desired star-morph entity onto the mirrors. In the ultimate orgasm of priest, priestess and dream-entity, the eldolon rises briefly to life and erupts from the mirror as its starseed transmission runs down from the star to impregnate her. The zygote achieved by this cosmocopulation is a unique blend of human and extraterrestrial "genes."

According to most students, monstrous beings invisible to ordinary consciousness are entering our universe in unprecedented numbers, through this same interdimensional sexual doorway. (Apparently our time is a vector of unique significance.) The fantasy film, Ghostbusters, was a facetious rendering of this understanding, but revealed a good deal more than most viewers realized. Kenneth Grant teaches a heterosexual tantrism by which one may ride out again through the same door on the back of one of these demonic beasts and thereby escape. He calls this, again, the 11th Pathway. Others propose that there are homosexual and even solitary practices what serve this purpose equally well.

Sex and death are the two most common and well-known methods of conveyance between worlds, but such exclusively Scorpionic merkabahs are by no means the only ones. All of these methods follow the horizontal direction of planes to left and right, from darkness into light, or vice versa. There is also travel in the vertical direction from layers of reality and consciousness above and below. These cris-crossing horizontal and vertical planes endlessly extend out and recede into the vastnesses. Some of the planes are commonly thought, by the average person, to be "schizophrenic" because they appear to leave the traveller suspended in his "own little world." But such planes are of great importance to the magician or yogin. Reality, we must understand, is entirely a matter of the manipulation of illusion. The teacher, Gurdjieff, once pointed out that there is only one thing in the entire universe, but it is repeated endlessly in order to provide the illusion of "difference." Even chemistry and physics bear this out. The difference between each element is simply a difference in the number of their atomic electrons: Hydrogen 1, Helium 2, Lithium 3...

Some writers believe that there are denizens of other dimensions who use various perichoretic chariots that resemble the astral projections of those whose time and locality they visit. For Ezekiel and Daniel it was a fiery wheel bearing the tetramorph. For the Dogons it was a star ship. For our great grandfathers in the 19th Century it was frequently an airship. But they aren't just psychic experiences, say the witnesses, ufo's leave evidence behind ... a burned-out circle on the lawn, a map with indecipherable writing, MIBs, etc.

My own interdimensional visits to "the Other Side" have been neither A.D.E.'s nor OOBE's. They have occurred either through true-dreaming or by psychotropic methods, i.e., strictly via astral travel. In all, I have several times visited the "conventional" Astral Plane -- or abode of the (after-dead) spirits, three or four times encountered higher beings (although only at a distance), dwelt in the All-Consciousness of All-Phyla and once visited a previous time. Lately I have begun experimenting with ordinary consciousness as a routine means of perichoresis. The occult path I've travelled (until now) has always been the lonely one of the hermit. The beings I've encountered have been the traditional custodians of the pathways, that is to say, those archetypes hovering somewhere between being and non-being. Else they comprise the angels, Gods and daimones of pantheons we already know. But I have increasingly come under the purview of something more important: the existence of what seems to be an infinite number of Eternal Doorways between worlds. These doorways are available to us, of course, under very special circumstances -- that is to say, in altered psychic states lying clearly outside normal consciousness: Yoga, Tantra, sex magic, primitive rites of passage, repetitive rhythms (micro-events), sensory deprivation or stimulation, pain, extreme trauma, trance, all the multifarious REM/sleep/hypnotic states, rushes of adrenaline or fatigue intoxication, epilepsy, metamorphic anomaly, drug intoxication, illness, psychosis proper, thanatolepsy and death. (See SOLIPSISM.)

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

Nagarjuna (Sanskrit). An Arhat, a hermit (a native of Western India) converted to Buddhism by Kapimala and the fourteenth Patriarch, and now regarded as a Bodhisattva-Nirmanakaya. He was famous for his dialectical subtlety in metaphysical arguments; and was the first teacher of the Amitabha doctrine and a representative of the Mahayana School. Viewed as the greatest philosopher of the Buddhists, he was referred to as "one of the four suns which illumine the world". He was born 223 B.C, and going to China after his conversion converted in his turn the whole country to Buddhism.

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

YOD

This is one of the power letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Being the first letter of the tetragrammaton (YHVH), it is the number of the creative fire. Out of this primeval iota, all further letters evolve, thus it parallels that out of which the entire plenum derives. that is, it is the phallus created by God to produce light. Its value is ten, but its tarot number is 9, The Hermit, which reminds us that, after all, there is only one being and that being can only be oneself, alone in the universe, surrounded by the mirrors of the illusion of many. Yods are sent forth out of Yahveh, accompanying all descents and ascents of spirit into and out of matter. Each yod is itself the divine spark that originates each separate thing in the world. Within the material world there are also secondary yods, as each thing produces energy flow from itself.

Yod, apart from being the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, represents yadaim, or "hands," and is therefore sometimes given as the totality of the ten numbers or sephiroth.

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

HOMUNCULUS

A "little man" (less than a foot high) artificially created. The magician's sperm, along with other materials such as bones and fur, is placed in a vessel and buried in a heap of mare dung for forty days. At the end of this period the vessel is removed, opened and fed more blood. It is then replaced for an additional 40 days, with the heat from the decomposing dung providing the heat to begin spontaneous generation. This should produce an embryo. In Crowley's version of the Hermit, the wheat germ is a symbol of the homunculus seed. The medieval homunculus obsession finds its counterpart in modern man's attempt to create artificial intelligence and robots.

Throughout history, moreover, there has been a constant search for the "perfect image". This led to all the schools of painting and sculpture. With the invention of photography in the 19th Century, the quest took a new turn and the image became more and more subjective with cubism, futurism, abstract art, etc. With the cinema the image not only assumed exactness but also acquired motion and sound. The image, now perfected at last, turned to cartoons and animated film in which the perfected image could not be extended into the fantastic and bizarre. Attempts to create "realistic" cartoons and animations is a mistake because that interferes with the creative and experimental character of the image.

We should recognize that virtual reality has, in the last few years, produced homunculus-like images of more certain creation. Cloning plus genetic re-scripting could in actuality create a homunculus of exactly the sort that medieval alchemy struggled to produce.

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

solitaire (solitary): A hermit. One who lives alone and away from all human company.

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

muni: (Sanskrit) "Sage."

A sage or sadhu, especially one vowed to complete silence or who speaks but rarely and who seeks stillness of mind. A hermit. The term is related to mauna, "silence." In the hymns of the Rig Veda, munis are mystic shamans associated with the God Rudra.

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