History of Buddhism

The history of Buddhism is the story of one man's spiritual journey to Enlightenment, and of the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.

Read more here: » Buddhism: History of Buddhism

AROMATHERAPY: uses essential oils from flowers, trees, roots, herbs, berries and fruits, to treat emotional disorders such as stress and anxiety as well as a wide range of other ailments and to promote physical, mental and emotional wellness. Oils are either massaged into the skin in diluted form, inhaled, placed in baths, or applied on and around the body.

Aromatherapy is often used in conjunction with massage therapy, acupuncture, reflexology, herbology, chiropractic and other wholistic healing.

What is aromatherapy?

It is the controlled use of natural essential oils in the process of physical and emotional healing. You may have discovered that in some ways, you've been experiencing aromatherapy most of your life without even knowing it.

We have all experienced memory recall triggered by a particular scent; perhaps the scent of a favorite flower, or the perfume your grandmother used to wear, or an aunt's linen closet. The event can produce positive or negative memories. Certain scents may trigger negative thoughts of a person or place in your past. Whatever the case, the importance of scent in our lives is quite profound and in some ways, unique to each of us. Aromatherapy is a way to enjoy a controlled use of natural oils to enrich and benefit your life.

What are essential oils?

Whole, pure essential oils come from nature; they are the "essence" of plants. They are droplets of water-like fluid contained in the leaves, stems, bark, flowers, roots and/or fruits of different plants, and give the plant its unique scent. Essential oils are volatile, whereas they easily transfer from a liquid to a gaseous state at room temperature or higher. The amount of essential oil found in most plants is 1 to 2%, but can contain amounts from 0.01 to 10%. They can change in composition and location with a particular plant. For example, orange trees produce neroli oil in their blossoms, orange oil in their citrus, and petitgrain oil in their leaves. Essential oils are also very concentrated and extremely potent, and sometimes 75 to 100 times more concentrated than say, the herb it is present in. This is all the more reason to use these oils with thorough knowledge of their potency.

How are essential oils extracted?

There are two common procedures for extracting true essential oils:

1. Steam distillation
2. Expression

 The process of steam distillation has 5 steps:

1. Steam plant material
2. Collect steam carrying aromatic molecules
3. Cool in cold-water bath
4. Produce floral water and essential oil
5. Separate essential oil, then bottle

This process is also the most popular for obtaining the essential oils from plants. The steam is forced into a vat containing the plant material, which ruptures the oil glands and releases the oil. The volatile oils are cooled, separated from the water content, and bottled. It may take hundreds or thousands of pounds of plant material to distill a single pound of the essential oil. Bulgarian Rose oil requires about 4,000 pounds of hand-picked flower petals to make 1 pound of oil, obviously making this one expensive oil!

The second method, extraction, has 4 major steps:

1. Have citrus peels
2. Machine press
3. Obtain essential oils and fruit waxes
4. Separate oils, then bottle

This method is primarily used in the perfume and food industries, and does not produce a 100% pure essential oil. Solvents are used in the process to pull out the soluable molecules; therefore making them incomplete oils. Resins, concretes, absolutes, and pomades result from this method.

How are essential oils taken in?

Essential oils are absorbed into the body two ways; through the skin and through nasal inhalation. Our sense of smell, controlled by the olfactory system, is some 10,000 times greater than any other sense. The olfactory system is directly linked to the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotional state, memory, and certain regulatory function.

Essential oils also penetrate the skin, or the integumentary system. Because essential oils have a low molecular weight and are organic in nature, they are absorbed through the pores and hair follicles of the skin, and unlike synthetic chemicals, they do not accumulate in the body. Absorption can take place anywhere from 15 minutes to 12 hours, and take from 3 to 6 hours to be metabolized in a healthy body. Excessive fat or toughened skin may slow down the rate of absorption; whereas heat, water, exercise, or broken skin may speed it up.

How are essential oils used?

Aromatherapy is used to self-heal and soothe common, everyday health challenges. It is by no means a replacement for the opinion of a licensed physician, and should always be used with respect.

As with all things derived from nature, some essential oils are considered hazardous, and under certain circumstances, should be avoided. Some are phototoxic, neurotoxic, or carcinogenic, and safety precautions should always be considered when working with and administering any essential oil.

Here are common-sense safety points to note:

1. Avoid essential oils deemed as hazardous
2. Keep all essential oils out of the reach of children.
3. Remember essentail oils are very potent.
4. Do not take orally.
5. Follow dilution guidelines carefully. Never use an oil without first diluting.
6. Use 1% or less dilution during pregnancy.
7. Be aware of others with sensitivities or allergies.
8. Do not use on or near the eyes.
9. Do a skin patch test if prone to sensitivities.
10. Use extra care on broken or damaged skin.
11. Avoid phototoxic essential oils if history of skin cancer.
12. Keep them away from light and heat sources.
13. Use only therapeutic genuine and authentic essential oils.

(See also: Aromatherapy , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Zarathustra (Zend). The great lawgiver, and the founder of the religion variously called Mazdaism, Magism, Parsee?sm, Fire-Worship, and Zoroastrianism.

The age of the last Zoroaster (for it is a generic name) is not known, and perhaps for that very reason. Xanthus of Lydia, the earliest Greek writer who mentions this great lawgiver and religious reformer, places him about six hundred years before the Trojan War. But where is the historian who can now tell when the latter took place? Aristotle and also Eudoxus assign him a date of no less than 6,000 years before the days of Plato, and Aristotle was not one to make a statement without a good reason for it.

Berosus makes him a king of Babylon some 2,200 years B.C.; but then, how can one tell what were the original figures of Berosus, before his MSS. passed through the hands of Eusebius, whose fingers were so deft at altering figures, whether in Egyptian synchronistic tables or in Chaldean chronology? Haug refers Zoroaster to at least 1,000 years B.C.; and Bunsen (God in History, Vol. I., Book iii., ch. vi., p. 276) finds that Zarathustra Spitama lived under the King Vistaspa about 3,000 years B.C., and describes him as "one of the mightiest intellects and one of the greatest men of all time". It is with such exact dates in hand, and with the utterly extinct language of the Zend, whose teachings are rendered, probably in the most desultory manner, by the Pahlavi translation - a tongue, as shown by Darmsteter, which was itself growing obsolete so far back as the Sassanides -  that our scholars and Orientalists have presumed to monopolise to themselves the right of assigning hypothetical dates for the age of the holy prophet Zurthust. But the Occult records claim to have the correct dates of each of the thirteen Zoroasters mentioned in the Dabistan.

Their doctrines, and especially those of the last (divine) Zoroaster, spread from Bactria to the Medes; thence, under the name of Magism, incorporated by the Adept-Astronomers in Chaldea, they greatly influenced the mystic teachings of the Mosaic doctrines, even before, perhaps, they had culminated into what is now known as the modern religion of the Parsis. Like Manu and Vyasa in India, Zarathustra is a generic name for great reformers and law-givers.

The hierarchy began with the divine Zarathustra in the Vendidad, and ended with the great, but mortal man, bearing that title, and now lost to history. There were, as shown by the Dabistan, many Zoroasters or Zarathustras. As related in the Secret Doctrine, Vol. II., the last Zoroaster was the founder of the Fire-temple of Azareksh, many ages before the historical era. Had not Alexander destroyed so many sacred and precious works of the Mazdeans, truth and philosophy would have been more inclined to agree with history, in bestowing upon that Greek Vandal the title of "the Great".

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

Islam: The Four Phases of Islamic Thought

Islamic thought, Shariah and Fiqh as it exists today has metamorphosed through various processes and stages before reaching us. Basically all the religions have two stages. The initial phase is the foundation, the period of the founder of the religion.

Read more here: » Islam: The Four Phases of Islamic Thought

An Irish Myth Concordance

The following concordance is based on 'Gods and Fighting Men' by Lady Augusta Gregory, first published in 1904. Page number references are to the 1976 trade paperback edition published by the MacMillan Company of Canada Limited. Breif supplimentary material is taken from 'Dictionary of Irish Myth and Legend' by Ronan Coghlan, published in 1979 by Donard Publishing Comapany, and referenced as 'DIM' in the following text.

Hinduism Lexicon on A

From aadheenam to axis.

Read more here: » Hinduism: Hinduism Lexicon on A

Eschatology

General term for teachings concerning the "last things," the end of the world and processes of salvation.

In Christianity, eschatology includes teachings concerning death, judgment, heaven, hell, and the coming of Christ (Gk. parousia). The term itself was first used in the nineteenth century with the rise of critical biblical studies. One significant early finding was that both Jesus and the apostle Paul seemed convinced that God would terminate history soon.

Studies of Jesus' use of "the reign of God" and of Paul's treatment of the return of Christ brought a reevaluation of the relations between the end of history and the new era that Jesus had ushered in. For current Christian theology, eschatology raises important issues about history. If Christian faith says that the crucial victory occurred in Christ's death, resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit, what value should believers place on temporal matters? The mainstream of theologians seems to have reached a consensus that both the New Testament and subsequent faith seek a balance between "now" and "not yet. "

The substance of salvation (God's forgiveness and eternal life) is available now, in virtue of Christ. But the full expression of salvation can only occur beyond history, where God is all in all, and so does not yet exist. The study of the teachings in the Bible concerning the end times, or of the period of time dealing with the return of Christ and the events that follow.

Eschatological subjects include the Resurrection, the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Millennium, the Binding of Satan, the Three witnesses, the Final Judgment, Armageddon, and The New Heavens and the New Earth. In one form or another most of the books of the Bible deal with end times subjects. But some that are more prominently eschatological are Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 2 Thessalonians, and of course Revelation.

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

Jesus (Latin of Greek Iesous from Hebrew Yeshua` contraction of Yehoshua` a proper name meaning savior or helper, or that which is spacious or widespread)

Indubitably a historical character, whose life as narrated in the Gospels is pure allegory, a story of the initiation chamber. There is a story current from medieval times among the Jews, mentioned in the Sepher Toledoth Yeshua` (Book of the Generations of Jesus), to the effect that the Jesus of the Gospels was a Jehoshua ben Panthera, a Jewish adept living about 100 BC. Jesus illustrates the typical sequence in occult history: 1) the coming of a leader or teacher to a people needing to be led and taught; 2) his passing, followed by the adoration, even worship, of his followers; 3) the gradual transformation of historic facts into more or less embroidered legends or mythological tales, which in time cluster so thickly about his memory that his identity as a person, and even his name, are lost; 4) the myth, allegory, or legend; and 5) the efforts of other, later teachers to explain, interpret, and reinstate this earlier teacher, now a purely mythic figure or else materialized and misunderstood.

The Christian Gospels appear to have originated in mystery-dramas, beautiful and often sublime in their inner significances, in which were depicted the experiences of the neophyte and adept in his union with the Logos, and hence such unified individual was called a Logos incarnate as a man, the Logos itself being variously named as Christos or Dionysos, and to have been by stages adapted and given a semi-historical guise, as has happened in other instances besides the Christian mythos. Christ therefore, or the Christos, is not a particular man or an especial incarnation of divinity, but a generic term for the divine as incarnated in all human beings, although Jesus was undoubtedly the name of this great Jewish initiate-avatara as an individual. Hence this universal allegory in its Christian version has a true historical peg to hang from; for there did appear, sometime before the Christian era, a special cyclic messenger who was due to come on the change of the ecliptic point from one sign of the celestial zodiac to another, from the sign of Aries to Pisces. In theosophical literature, Jesus is considered to be an avatara, the messenger for the European Messianic or Piscean cycle. As such, Jesus represented a ray sent from the Wondrous Being or spiritual hierarch of the earth into the soul of a pure human being, while the racial buddha, Gautama Buddha, supplied the intermediate or psychological nature in this act of white magic.

"But it is probable that the theosophic effort which Jesus attempted to initiate did not endure for fifty years after his death. Almost immediately after his passing, his disciples, all half-instructed, and in some cases almost illiterate, men . . . foisted upon the world of their time the forms and beliefs of early Christianity; and had there been nothing but these, that religious system had not lived another fifty years. But what happened? During the oncoming of the dark cycle after Jesus (which began as before said about the time of Pythagoras), the last few rays from the setting sun of the ancient light shone feebly in the minds of certain of these Christian Fathers, Clement of Alexandria for one, and Origen of Alexandria for another, and in one or two more like these, who had been initiated at least in the lowest of some of the then degenerate pagan Mysteries; and these men entered into the Christian Church and introduced some poor modicum of that light, . . . which they still cherished; and these rays they derived mainly from the Neo-pythagorean and the Neoplatonic system" (Fund 486-7).

The Hebrew name Jah or Jehovah became identified in the mind of Christians with the name of Jesus, although Jesus never was in any wise identical with the Jewish Jehovah, but was identified in initiation through his own inner god or Father in Heaven, and the Jewish Jehovah mystically was the regent of the planet Saturn.

The first three letters in Greek make I.H.S. placed at the head of representations of the crucified Jesus, often said to stand for Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus the savior of men) or In hoc signo (in this sign), with reference to the alleged vision of a cross of the Emperor Constantine. Jesus is a form of a worldwide mystery-name, whose importance was its meaning, usually given as a three-letter monogram, analogous to the Sanskrit Aum. We find it in the Greek Gnostic Iao and variants are common in ancient Greece, such as Iasios, Iasion, Iason, Iasos; and initiates were known as Iasides or sons of Iaso.

See also AVATARA

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

Examination Process

Ten (Dash) fold (Bidha) Examination (Pariksha)

Related to the patient.

Covers body constitution, pathological state, tissue vitality, physical build, body measurement, adaptability, psychic constitution, capacities for digestion & exercise and age.

1 Body Constitution (prakriti):

Determined by relative predominance of doshas during foetal development the prakriti can be any of vatika, paittika, kaphaja, vata paittika, vata kaphaja, pitta kaphaja or samdoshaja.

2 Pathological State (vikruti):

Related to the biological history of the diseases in its entirety, it enables physicians to consider the signs & symptoms of the disease in order to assess the strength of the disease, the causes, the doshas, the affected body elements, body constitution, time and strength of an individual.

3 Tissue Vitality (sara):

Broadly speaking, there are seven vital tissues, namely lymph (rasa), blood (rakta), muscle (mamsa), adipose (meda), bone (asthi), bone marrow (majja) and reproductive tissue (sukra).

Lymph in the skin is assessed by its smoothness, softness, clearness, thinness and whether the skin is covered with short, deep rooted and delicate hair.

Percentage of blood in body is evaluated from the condition of the eyes, mouth, tongue, lips, nails and soles of the feet.

When muscles are in perfect condition, the temples, forehead, nape of the neck, shoulders, belly, arms, chest, joints of the body, jaws and cheeks are covered firmly with the skin.

People with healthy adipose tissue have oily skin and healthy hair, nails, voice and teeth.

The health of bones is determined by pliable but firm forearms, chin, nails, teeth, ankles, knees and other joints of the body.

Healthy bone marrow leads to good complexion and stout, long, round & stable joints.

Those in whom the semen is perfectly healthy, are strong and cheerful.

4 Physical Build (samhanana):

Body examination is carried out by direct perception – a healthy body being well- built with symmetrical bones, strong & stable joints and enough flesh & blood.

5 Body Measurement (pramana):

In Ayurveda, body measurement is given in terms of finger breadth and any person in close proximity to the ideal measurements is termed as normal and healthy.

6 Adaptibility (satmya):

Indicating substances intrinsic to the body, it refers to two types of people - those that are strong, adjust easily to difficulties and have excellent digestive capacity and those that are generally weak, intolerant to change and can have only few food options.

7 Psychic Constitution (satwa):

Refers to the mind which controls the body in contact with the soul (atma). Depending on degree of mental strength, it is considered to be high, moderate or low.

8 Digestive Capacity (ahara sakti)

This has to be judged from the individual’s capacity to ingest and digest food substances.

9 Capacity for Exercise (vyayama shakti)

Assessed by capacity for hard work, it is either low, moderate or high.

10 Age (vaya)

Broadly categorised into childhood, middle age and old age, it provides vital clues for the diagnosis & treatment and is a must consideration in clinical examinations.

(See also: Ten Fold Examination Process , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Ayurveda and Herbal Medicine

Today, you may think in this technologically advanced society, (as I sit by my computer writing this, and you sit by yours reading it) there are a whole range of patented chemical drugs tailored for all ailments, so why use herbal medicines?

Herbs are as effective for healing today as they were in our grandmothers' day, and for thousands of years before that. We may live in a very different world today but the human body hasn't changed, in fact it's often struggling to cope with ifs new modern environment.

Read more here: » Herbal Medicine: Ayurveda and Herbal Medicine

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Druid

(Celtic, "true seer") A member of the priestly and intellectual elite of the Celts.

Druids were the religious and legal authorities in Gaul before its conquest by the Romans (51 BC) and were celebrated for their esoteric knowledge. The druid survived as a stock figure in medieval Irish literature. A priestly caste of the ancient Celtic people of France and the British Isles. They were the keepers of oral history and law, and officiates of religious practices.

Modern Druids are various new religious traditions that attempt to incorporate the insights of ancient Druidism, Celtic history and lore, and romanticized notions of the ancient Druids formed in the eighteenth century. In England today, there are the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and the Ancient Order of Druids, among others.

While there is no scholarly connection between the Druids and Stonehenge, the Ancient Order of Druids used Stonehenge for their rituals until instances of vandalism by the curious closed the ancient site.

In the United States, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) began in 1963 as a satirical protest against required attendance at chapel at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The RDNA developed rituals and lore from Celtic history, poetry, and anthropology, and the movement continued and became more serious, even after the chapel attendance requirement was dropped. The RDNA considered Druidism a philosophy of life, not a religion.

In 1966 the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA) reformed Druidism as a Neo- Pagan religion. A few chapters of both groups still exist. Other current American Druidic groups include Ar nDraiocht Fein ("Our Own Druidism"), founded by Isaac Bonewits in 1983. Currently the largest American revivalist Druid organization, it sees itself as a Neo-Pagan religion based on the beliefs and practices of the ancient Indo-Europeans but adapted to modern needs and sensibilities, such as the preservation of the earth and excellence in arts and scholarship.

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

Izdubar. A name of a hero in the fragments of Chaldean History and Theogony on the so-called Assyrian tiles, as read by the late George Smith and others.

Smith seeks to identify Izdubar with Nimrod. Such may or may not be the case; but as the name of that Babylonian King itself only "appears" as Izduhar, his identification with the son of Cush may also turn out more apparent than real. Scholars are but too apt to check their archeological discoveries by the far later statements found in the Mosaic books, instead of acting vice versa. "The chosen people" have been fond at all periods of history of helping themselves to other people’s property.

From the appropriation of the early history of Sargon, King of Akkad, and its wholesale application to Moses born (if at all) some thousands of years later, down to their "spoiling" the Egyptians under the direction and divine advice of their Lord God, the whole Pentateuch seems to be made up of unacknowledged mosaical fragments from other people’s Scriptures. This ought to have made Assyriologists more cautious; but as many of these belong to the clerical caste, such coincidences as that of Sargon affect them very little. One thing is certain Izdubar, or whatever may be his name, is shown in all the tablets as a mighty giant who towered in size above all other men as a cedar towers over brushwood - a hunter, according to cuneiform legends, who contended with, and destroyed the lion, tiger, wild bull, and buffalo, the most formidable animals.

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

Akhenaton

(Egyptian, "he who acts effectively for the invisible solar disk")

Pharaoh of Egypt ca. 1350 to 1334 BC, often called (erroneously) the first monotheist of recorded history.

He first came to the throne as Amenhotep IV and worshiped traditional gods. However, after his fourth year, he elevated a minor deity, the Aton, i. e. , the "disk of the sun" (a form of the sun god, Re), to the position of state god of Egypt and changed his name to Akhenaton to reflect his devotion to that deity.

His pantheon consisted of a trinity that included the Aton, Akhenaton, and Nefertiti (also the name of his wife), which was the focus of popular worship. While Akhenaton was worshiped as the unique son of the Aton, Nefertiti was celebrated for her fertility. Common people were excluded from worshiping the Aton itself. Egyptians could worship only the royal couple; the couple in turn worshiped the sun disk. The new religion was maintained by Akhenaton's popular appeal as king, but it quickly passed away after his death.

Akhenaton's motives in promulgating his beliefs were political and religious, since he elevated himself to the status of a god higher than customary for an Egyptian king. Akhenaton's religion recognized both Egyptians and foreigners as equal beneficiaries of the same god, and it overturned established conventions in Egyptian language and art.

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

Al Butain: Ashleen O'Gaea shares a cozy barrio row house in the Arizona desert with her husband Canyondancer, their 12-year-old son the Explorer and three cats. A background in education and English (including Anglo-Saxon) underlies O'Gaea's interest in family dynamics, religious education, history, natural science, art, music and adventure. She has won awards for pagan journalism, has appeared on local TV and radio and leads workshops and ritual.

(See also: Al Butain , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

A Theosophical definition of Races :

Races

During evolution on our earth (and on the other six manifest globes of the planetary chain of earth correspondentially), mankind as a life-wave passes through seven evolutionary stages called root-races. Seven such root-races form the evolutionary cycle on this globe earth in this fourth round through the planetary chain; and this evolutionary cycle through our globe earth is called one globe round. We are at the present time in the fourth subrace of our present fifth root-race, on globe D or our earth.

Each root-race is divided in our teachings into seven minor races, and each one of these seven minor races is again in its turn subdivided into seven branchlet or still smaller racial units, etc.

The student who is interested in the matter of tracing the evolutionary arrangement or history of the seven root-races on our globe earth is referred primarily to H. P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, and secondarily to Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy.

Each one of the seven root-races reaches its maximum of material efflorescence and power at about its middle point. When half of the cycle of any one of the seven root-races is run, then the racial cataclysm ensues, for such is the way in which nature operates; and at this middle racial point, at the middle point of the fourth subrace of the mother-race or root-race, a new root-race begins or is born out of the preceding root-race, and pursues its evolution from birth towards maturity, side by side with, or rather in connection with, the latter half of the preceding mother-race or root-race. It is in this fashion that the root-races overlap each other, a most interesting fact in ethnological or racial history. This overlapping likewise takes place in the cases of the minor and branchlet races.

It will be between sixteen thousand and twenty thousand years more before the racial cataclysm will ensue which will cut our own fifth root-race in two  - exactly as the same racial cataclysmic occurrence happened to the fourth-race Atlanteans who preceded us, and to the third-race Lemurians who preceded them; and as it will happen to the two root-races which will follow ours, the sixth and seventh  - for we are now approaching the middle point of our own fifth root-race, because we are nearing the middle point of the fourth subrace of this fifth root-race. (See also Globe, Planetary Chain, Round)

See also: Races , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

AROMA THERAPY

"If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet scented herbs - that is your success. All nature is your congratulations."

Henry David Thoreaux.

The use of pure essential oils from plants dates back many centuries, and history of aroma therapy is in many ways part of the history of herbal medicine as a whole. The Arabic countries are usually credited with first discovering the process of distillation of oils about a thousand years back. It then spread to India and then the west. In modern times much research has taken place on this - from perfumery applications to medicinal uses.

Highly concentrated extracts, essential oils thus need to be treated with respect and care. Preferably used sparingly - large doses not only increase immunity and reduce effectiveness, they can prove irritating and even toxic to the skin - a large part of their effect on our moods and emotions occurs through our sense of smell.

When we breathe in air, the aroma molecules are translated into signals by the receptor cells in the nose. This signal is sent to the olfactory bulb and then on to the limbic and hypothalamic parts of the brain. Although not scientifically proven, it is believed that the essential oil aroma activates the `pharmacy' within our brains - neurochemicals as seretonin, endorphins etc. Which are `words' that our brain uses to communicate with our nervous and other body systems. Thus the aroma of a calming oil would cause release of seretonin - a euphoric aroma.

Relief from pain and other physical effects are also experienced when these neurochemicals are released. Studies done on effects of essential oils on brain waves have shown that a rhythm exhibiting calmness was produced when a oil with sedative potential was inhaled and a stimulating aroma caused an alert response. Our minds can thus play an important role in our well being.

Aroma therapy thus works through the brain, through the mind and through the emotions e.g the tender yellow flower of the Ylang Ylang tree is considered so worthy of love that it is placed on wedding beds in Indonesia. Just as to calm your mind you need to close your eyes and feel the lush coolness of an immense forest filled with cedars, trees of frankincense and sandalwood through deep breaths of the lovely, fresh scent of those trees.

(See also: AROMA THERAPY , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Reuel-Jethro re`u'el yithro (Hebrew) In the Bible a priest of Midian having seven daughters and giving one of them (Zipporah) in marriage to Moses (Ex 2:16).

"Jethro is called the 'father-in-law' of Moses; not because Moses was really married to one of his seven daughters. Moses was an Initiate, if he ever existed, and as such an ascetic, a nazar, and could never be married. It is an allegory like everything else. Zipporah (the shining) is one of the personified Occult Sciences given by Revel-Jethro, the Midian priest Initiator, to Moses, his Egyptian pupil. The 'well' by which Moses sat down in his flight from the Pharaoh symbolizes the 'well of Knowledge' " (SD 2:465n).

That an initiate could never be married is true of the highest class of adepts, but history shows that both men and women initiates, although very rarely of the highest rank, have been married. It is likewise to be remembered that one of the grandest initiates known to human history, Gautama Buddha, married and had a child.

Indeed, in ancient India, according to the laws of life then prevailing, all students, whether higher or lower, had to pass through the four stages of imbodied life on earth, and one of these was called grihastha -- a man who had his home, wife, and children, as it was then a religious duty for everyone to carry on his own family line.

(See also: Reuel-Jethro, re`u'el yithro , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sanskrit [from Sanskrit sanskrita or samskrita]

The ancient sacred language of the Aryans, originally the sacred or secret language of the initiates of the fifth root-race. The Sanskrit language possesses voluminous and valuable works in prose and in verse, some of which, like the Vedas, date back, in the opinion of certain scholars, to the years 30,000 BC or even far beyond. Almost every phase of philosophic thought, expressed and studied in the West, is represented in one form or another in ancient Hindu literature. Besides this, these old Sanskrit writings are replete with recondite subjects dealing with the wondrous potentialities of the human spirit and mind, the building and destruction of worlds and universes, etc.

The Sanskrit language, derives from one of the earliest of the Aryan tongues, a lineal descendant of an Atlantean progenitor.

"In ancient times in India, and in the homeland of the Aryans before they reached India by way of Central Asia, this very early Aryan speech was used not only by the Aryan populace, but in the sanctuaries of the Temples was taken in hand and developed or composed or builded to be a far finer vehicle for expressing abstract religious and philosophic conceptions and thoughts. This tongue thus composed or developed by initiates of the Aryan stock, because of this formative work upon it was finally given the name Sanskrita, signifying an original natural language which had become perfected by initiates for the purpose of expressing far more subtle and profound distinctions than ordinary people would ever find needful. So great was the admiration in which the Sanskrit language thus perfected was held, that it was commonly said of it that it was the work of the Gods, because it had thus become capable of expressing godlike thoughts: profound spiritual subtleties and philosophical distinctions. Thus it was that Sanskrit is really the mystery-language of the initiates of the Aryan race; as the Senzar of very similar history was the mystery-language of the later Atlanteans; and is still used as the noblest mystery-language by the Mahatmas.

"Sanskrit was not known as a spoken tongue to the Atlanteans in their prime, but in the degenerate or later times of Atlantis, when the earliest Aryans already had appeared on the scene of history, this early Aryan speech above alluded to, was already in existence; and the Aryan initiates were then in the course of perfecting it as their temple-language or mystery-tongue . . . Thus Sanskrit was not spoken among the Atlanteans, nor can it therefore be called an Atlantean language; although its verbal roots of course go back to earliest Atlantean times, but only its verbal roots" -- G. de Purucker

"The Vedas, Brahmanism, and along with these, Sanskrit, were importations into what we now regard as India. They were never indigenous to its soil. There was a time when the ancient nations of the West included under the generic name of India many of the countries of Asia now classified under other names. There was an Upper, a Lower, and a Western India, even during the comparatively late period of Alexander; and Persia (Iran) is called Western India in some ancient classics. The countries now named Tibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary were considered by them as forming part of India. When we say, therefore, that India has civilized the world, and was the Alma Mater of the civilizations, arts, and sciences of all other nations (Babylonia, and perhaps even Egypt, included) we mean archaic, pre-historic India, India of the time when the great Gobi was a sea, and the lost 'Atlantis' formed part of an unbroken continent which began at the Himalayas and ran down over Southern India, Ceylon, and Java, to far-away Tasmania" (Five Years of Theosophy 179).

Blavatsky states that Sanskrit has never been known nor spoken in its true systematized form except by the initiated Brahmins. This form of Sanskrit was called -- as well as by other names -- Vach, the mystic speech, which resides in the sounds of the mantra. "The chanting of a Mantra is not a prayer, but rather a magical sentence in which the law of Occult causation connects itself with, and depends on, the will and acts of its singer. It is a succession of Sanskrit sounds, and when its strings of words and sentences is pronounced according to the magical formulae in the Atharva Veda, but understood by the few, some Mantras produce an instantaneous and very wonderful effect" (BCW 14:428n). This Vach, or the mystic self of Sanskrit, was the sacerdotal speech of the initiated Brahmins and was studied by initiates from all over the world.

"It is admitted that, however inferior to the classical Sanskrit of Panini, the language of the oldest portions of Rig Veda, notwithstanding the antiquity of its grammatical forms, is the same as that of the latest texts. Every one sees -- cannot fail to

See and to know -- that for a language so old and so perfect as the Sanskrit to have survived alone, among all languages, it must have had its cycles of perfection and its cycles of degeneration. And, if one had any intuition, he might have seen that what they call a 'dead language' being an anomaly, a useless thing in Nature, it would not have survived, even as a 'dead' tongue, had it not its special purpose in the reign of immutable cyclic laws; and that Sanskrit, which came to be nearly lost to the world, is now slowly spreading in Europe, and will one day have the extension it had thousands upon thousands of years back -- that of a universal language. The same as to the Greek and the Latin: there will be a time when the Greek of Aeschylus (and more perfect still in its future form) will be spoken by all in Southern Europe, while Sanskrit will be resting in its periodical pralaya; and the Attic will be followed later by the Latin of Virgil. Something ought to have whispered to us that there was also a time -- before the original Aryan settlers among the Dravidian and other aborigines, admitted within the fold of Brahmanical initiation, marred the purity of the sacred Sanskrita Bhasha -- when Sanskrit was spoken in all its unalloyed subsequent purity, and therefore must have had more than once its rise and fall. The reason for it is simply this: classical Sanskrit was only restored, if in some things perfected, by Panin. Panini, Katyayana, or Patanjali did not create it; it has existed throughout cycles, and will pass through other cycles still" (Five Years of Theosophy 419-20).

See also DEVANAGARI

(See also: Sanskrit , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Flood. A story found in various forms in every cosmology. The Chaldean and Sumerian versions antedate the Hebrew; India, China, and other Asiatic countries furnish their own versions. It occurs in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the QuichŽs of Central American, as well as among many ancient American tribes; the story is found among the ancient Scandinavians, the Polynesian peoples, and among African tribes, such as the Masai of East Africa.

These stories refer in part to an actual great deluge in the world's history, mainly to the sinking of the great and smaller islands of the Atlantean continental stretches. In many if not all the versions, we find that a race had become so corrupt that nature or the gods would no longer tolerate it, and destroyed it and brought forth a new race. There is usually a type-figure, like the Hebrew Noah, who builds an ark or other vessel of salvation, thus saving from the waters the righteous few to be the seeds of the new race. In many versions are traditions of the destruction of the preceding root-race, Atlantis, by water, and of the saving of various groups of human remnants to found new civilizations on lands, then or shortly later geologically speaking, emerging from the ocean.

But besides the particular application to this latest cataclysm in the earth's history, the story refers to cataclysms in general, to the death of old races and the birth of new ones. The evolution of the earth goes on pari passu with that of the beings upon it. These stories are evidently allegorical as well, with reference to cosmological facts.

See also ARK

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

Vedas (Sanskrit). The "revelation". the scriptures of the Hindus, from the root vid, "to know ", or "divine knowledge". They are the most ancient as well as the most sacred of the Sanskrit works.

The Vedas on the date and antiquity of which no two Orientalists can agree, are claimed by the Hindus themselves, whose Brahmans and Pundits ought to know best about their own religious works, to have been first taught orally for thousands of years and then compiled on the shores of Lake Manasa-Sarovara (phonetically, Mansarovara) beyond the Himalayas, in Tibet. When was this done? While their religious teachers, such as Swami Dayanand Saraswati, claim for them an antiquity of many decades of ages, our modern Orientalists will grant them no greater antiquity in their present form than about between 1,000 and 2,000 B.C.

As compiled in their final form by Veda-Vyasa, however, the Brahmans themselves unanimously assign 3,100 years before the Christian era, the date when Vyasa flourished. Therefore the Vedas must be as old as this date. But their antiquity is sufficiently proven by the fact that they are written in such an ancient form, of Sanskrit, so different from the Sanskrit now used, that there is no other, work like them in the literature of this eldest sister of all the known languages, as Prof. Max Muller calls it. Only the most learned of the Brahman Pundits can read the Vedas in their original. It is urged that Colebrooke found the date 1400 B.c. corroborated absolutely by a passage which he discovered, and which is based on astronomical data.

But if, as shown unanimously by all the Orientalists and the Hindu Pundits also, that

(a) the Vedas are not a single work, nor yet any one of the separate Vedas; but that each Veda, and almost every hymn and division of the latter, is the production of various authors; and that

(b) these have been written (whether as sruti, "revelation ", or not) at various periods of the ethnological evolution of the Indo-Aryan race, then - what does Mr. Colebrooke’s discovery prove? Simply that the Vedas were finally arranged and compiled fourteen centuries before our era; but this interferes in no way with their antiquity.

Quite the reverse; for, as an offset to Mr. Colebrooke’s passage, there is a learned article, written on purely astronomical data by Krishna Shastri Godbole (of Bombay), which proves as absolutely and on the same evidence that the Vedas must have been taught at least 25,000 years ago. (See Theosophist, Vol. II., p. 238 et seq., Aug., 1881.) This statement is, if not supported, at any rate not contradicted by what Prof. Cowell says in Appendix VII., of Elphinstone’ History of India: "

There is a difference in age between the various hymns, which are now united in their present form as the Sanhita of the Rig Veda; but we have no data to determine their relative antiquity, and purely subjective criticism, apart from solid data, has so often failed in other instances, that we can trust but little to any of its inferences in such a recently opened field of research as Sanskrit literature. [ a fourth part of the Vaidik literature is as yet in print, and very little of it has been translated into English (1866).] The still unsettled controversies about the Homeric poems may well warn us of being too confident in our judgments regarding the yet earlier hymns of the Rig -Veda. . . . When we examine these hymns . . . they are deeply interesting for the history of the human mind, belonging as they do to a much older phase than the poems of Homer or Hesiod." The Vedic writings are all classified in two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric, the former being called Karma-Kanda, "division of actions or works ", and the Jnana Kanda, "division of (divine) knowledge", the Upanishads (q.v.) coming under this last classification. Both departments are regarded as Sruti or revelation.

To each hymn of the Rig -Veda, the name of the Seer or Rishi to whom it was revealed is prefixed. It, thus, becomes evident on the authority of these very names (such as Vasishta, Viswamitra, Narada, etc.), all of which belong to men born in various manvantaras and even ages, that centuries, and perhaps millenniums, must have elapsed between the dates of their composition.

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

A Theosophical definition of Yuga :

Yuga

(Sanskrit) A word meaning an "age," a period of time. A yuga is a period of mundane time, and four of these periods are usually enumerated in "divine years":

1. Krita or Satya Yuga. . . . . . . 4,000

Sandhya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .  400

Sandhyamsa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . ..  . . . 4,800

2. Treta Yuga. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3,000

Sandhya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Sandhyamsa. . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  . 300

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3,600

3. Dvapara Yuga. . . . . . . . .  . . 2,000

Sandhya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . .200

Sandhyamsa. . . . . . . . . . . . . ..  . 200

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2,400

4. Kali Yuga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1,000

Sandhya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Sandhyamsa. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .  100

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 1,200

TOTAL . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .  . . 12,000

This rendered in years of mortals equals:

4,800 x 360 = 1,728,000

3,600 x 360 = 1,296,000

2,400 x 360 = 864,000

1,200 x 360 = 432,000

. . . . . .Total 4,320,000

Of these four yugas, our present racial period is the fourth or kali yuga, often called the "iron age" or the "black age." It is stated to have commenced at the moment of Krishna's death, usually given as 3,102 years before the Christian era. There is a very important point of the teaching in connection with the yugas which must not be forgotten. It is the following: The four yugas as above outlined refer to what modern theosophical philosophy calls a root-race, although indeed a root-race from its individual beginning to its individual ending is about double the length of the composite yuga above set forth in columnar form. The racial yugas, however, overlap because each new great race is born at about the middle period of the parent race, although the individual length of any one race is as above stated. Thus it is that by the overlapping of the races, a race and its succeeding race may for a long time be contemporaneous on the face of the globe.

As the four yugas are a reflection in human history of what takes place in the evolution of the earth itself and of the planetary chain, therefore the same scheme of yugas applies also on a cosmic scale  - there exist the four series of satya yuga, treta yuga, dvapara yuga, and kali yuga, in the evolution of the earth, and on a still larger scale in the evolution of a planetary chain. Of course these cosmic yugas are very much longer than the racial yugas, but the same general scheme of 4, 3, 2 applies throughout. For further details of the teaching concerning the yugas, the student should consult H. P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, and the work by the present author, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy.

See also: Yuga , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul