Third Eye Possessed by early humans and, up to the physicalization of the third root-race, it was the only seeing organ in most living species. At the beginning of that root-race, the organ which has developed into the eye was beneath a semitransparent covering or membrane, like some of the blind vertebrata today.

In early humanity, the third eye was the organ of spiritual vision, as it was that of objective vision in the animals (SD 2:299), as indeed it still remains, and it appears as the pineal gland inside the skull of modern mankind. In the course of physical evolution, with corresponding loss of spiritual vision, the cyclopean eye was gradually replaced by the physical vision of the two front eyes. The original eye has since then continued to function -- although unrecognized by the vast majority of people -- as the organ of intuitive discernment. As this recession was not complete before the close of the fourth root-race, there were late subraces of Lemurians and of early Atlanteans who were still in some degree at least physically three-eyed (SD 2:302).

Hindu mystics speak of this inner organ as the eye of Siva, the Tri-lochana (three-eyed). In Tibet the same functional organ was called the eye of Dangma, and references to it may be found under various names scattered throughout the world's literatures.

See also PINEAL GLAND

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

Quinanes. A very ancient race of giants, of whom there are many traditions, not only in the folk-lore but in the history of Central America. Occult science teaches that the race which preceded our own human race was one of giants, which gradually decreased, after the Atlantean deluge had almost swept them off the face of the earth, to the present size of man.

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

Pramlocha pramloca (Sanskrit) [from pra forth + the verbal root mluch to go]

One sent forth; one of the apsarasas or celestial nymphs sent on earth by Kamadeva or Indra to tempt the sage Kandu from his devotions and austerities. She succeeded in her unholy purpose, and according to the account stayed with him 907 years six months and three days, which were to the sage as one day. After this she flew away, wiping the perspiration from her body with the leaves of the tress as she passed through the air.

The child she had conceived by the rishi came forth from the pores of her skin in drops of perspiration: the trees received the living dews, the winds collected them into one mass, Soma (the moon) matured them till they became the lovely girl Marisha. This story is an allegory founded on the physical mode of procreation of the second root-race or sweat-born.

"Pramlocha is the Hindu Lilith of the Aryan Adam; and Marisha, the daughter born of the perspiration of her pores, is the 'sweat-born,' and stands as a symbol for the Second Race of Mankind." The figures 907 years six months and three days are but the "exoteric figures given in a purposely reversed and distorted way, being the figure of the duration of the cycle between the first and second human race." The allegory "shows the psychic element developing the physiological, before the birth of Daksha, the progenitor of real physical men, made to be born from Marisha and before whose time living beings and men were procreated 'by the will, by sight, by touch and by Yoga' . . ." (SD 2:175-6).

(See also: Pramlocha pramloca , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vayu (Sanskrit) Air; one of the five cosmic elements. Personified, the god and sovereign of the air and the king of the gandharvas. Agni, Vayu, and Surya formed the primeval Vedic Trimurti: " 'Agni (fire) whose place is on earth; Vayu (air, or one of the forms of Indra), whose place is in the air; and Surya (the sun) whose place is in the air' [celestial spaces]. (Nirukta.)

In esoteric interpretation, these three cosmic principles, correspond with the three human principles, Kama, Kama-Manas and Manas, the sun of the intellect" (TG 361). These three deities in this connection are three manifestations of cosmic fohat, guided and directed by cosmic mahat.

In later mythology Vayu is the father of Hanuman, the monkey-king who aids Rama in the Ramayana. The allegory of Hanuman becoming the son of Vayu by Anjuna (an ape-like monster) refers to the first glimmering of mind coming into the highest apes through the miscegenation of unevolved late third root-race and early fourth root-race humans with certain simians, themselves the descendants of a previous and parallel origin during an earlier time of the third root-race.

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

A Theosophical definition of Personality :

Personality

Theosophists draw a clear and sharp distinction, not of essence but of quality, between personality and individuality.

Personality comes from the Latin word persona, which means a mask, through which the actor, the spiritual individuality, speaks. The personality is all the lower man: all the psychical and astral and physical impulses and thoughts and tendencies, and what not. It is the reflection in matter of the individuality; but being a material thing it can lead us downwards, although it is in essence a reflection of the highest. Freeing ourselves from the domination of the person, the mask, the veil, through which the individuality acts, then we show forth all the spiritual and so-called superhuman qualities; and this will happen in the future, in the far distant aeons of the future, when every human being shall have become a buddha, a christ. Such is the destiny of the human race.

In occultism the distinction between the personality and the immortal individuality is that drawn between the lower quaternary or four lower principles of the human constitution and the three higher principles of the constitution or higher triad. The higher triad is the individuality; the personality is the lower quaternary. The combination of these two into a unity during a lifetime on earth produces what we now call the human being. The personality comprises within its range all the characteristics and memories and impulses and karmic attributes of one physical life; whereas the individuality is the aeonic ego, imperishable and deathless for the period of a solar manvantara. It is the individuality through its ray or human astral-vital monad which reincarnates time after time and thus clothes itself in one personality after another personality.

See also: Personality , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Chandra-vansa candra-vansa (Sanskrit) (from chandra moon + vansa lineage, race)

Also Chandravamsa. The lunar race; one of the two great royal dynasties of ancient India. As related in the Vishnu-Purana, Soma (the moon), the child of the rishi Atri, gave birth to Budha (Mercury) who married Ila, daughter of the other great royal dynasty, the Suryavansa (solar race). Her descendants, Yadu and Puru, founded the two great branches of the Chandravansa (named respectively Yadava and Paurava).

The last important scion of the race of Yadu was the avatara Krishna. In the race of Puru were born Pandu and Dhritarashtra -- parents respectively of the Pandavas and Kurus, the heroes of the Mahabharata enumerated in the Bhagavad-Gita (ch 1).

"In Occultism, man is called a solar-lunar being, solar in his higher triad, and lunar in his quaternary. Moreover, it is the Sun who imparts his light to the Moon, in the same way as the human triad sheds its divine light on the mortal shell of sinful man. Life celestial quickens life terrestrial" (TG 76).

Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is born in the Suryavansa, while Gautama Buddha belonged to the Chandravansa (TG 314).

(See also: Chandra-vansa, candra-vansa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ida or Ila (Sanskrit) Refreshment, flow; the goddess of sacred speech, similar to Vach; in the Rig-Veda called the instructress of Manu, instituting the rules for the performing of sacrifices. The Satapatha-Brahmana represents Ida as arising from a sacrifice which Manu had performed for the purpose of obtaining offspring.

Although claimed by the gods Mitra and Varuna, she became the wife of Manu, giving birth to the race of manus. In the Puranas, she is daughter of Vaivasvata-Manu, wife of Budha (wisdom), and mother of Pururavas. In some accounts she is born a woman, becomes a man named Sudyumna, then rebecomes a woman before finally becoming a man again. This refers to the androgynous third root-race, as well as to the later part of the second root-race.

"In their most mystical meaning, the union of Swayambhuva Manu with Vach-Sata-Rupa, his own daughter (this being the first 'euhemerization' of the dual principle of which Vaivasvata Manu and Ila are a secondary and a third form), stands in Cosmic symbolism as the Root-life, the germ from which spring all the Solar Systems, the worlds, angels and the gods" (SD 2:148).

See also ILA

(See also: Ida, Ila , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Suryavansa (Sanskrit) [from surya sun + vansa race, lineage]

The solar race; the race or lineage whose founder was said to be descended from the sun, just as the origin of the other great lineage, the Chandravansa, was attributed to the moon. The king who founded the suryavansa, Ikshvaku, was the son of Vaivasvata-Manu who sprang from the sun; he reigned at Ayodhya at the beginning of the second or treta yuga. The two branches of the suryavansa were the dynasty of Mithila, founded by a younger son of Ikshvaku, and that of Ayodhya, in which branch the avatara Rama was born, whose exploits are recounted in the Ramayana. The Vishnu-Purana enumerates the members of the Ayodhya dynasty, which amounts to about a hundred rulers. Several Rajput tribes still claim to belong to this race.

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

Yama (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root yam to subdue, control]

A curb, rein, bridle; hence the act of curbing, suppression, self-control. Especially prominent in yoga as self-restraint: it is the first of the eight angas or means of attaining mental concentration.

As a proper name, the deity who rules over the shades of the dead in the Rig-Veda, corresponding to the Greek Hades or Roman Pluto. Hence Yama is the personification of the third root-race, because these were the first to taste death -- the first self-consciously intellectual humans who died and departed after death to devachan. Hence also the ascription in Hindu mythology to Yama as the ruler of the pitris. In the Mahabharata, he is described as dressed in blood-red garments, with a glittering form, a crown on his head, glowing eyes and, like Varuna, he holds a noose with which he binds the spirit after drawing it from the body after death.

"Yama is represented as the son of Vivaswat (the Sun). He had a twin-sister named Yami, who was ever urging him, according to another hymn, to take her for his wife, in order to perpetuate the species" (TG 375-6). Yama and his twin sister is a distinct reference to the androgynous character of the human race from the middle of the third root-race forward.

The Rig-Veda "nowhere shows Yama 'as having anything to do with the punishment of the wicked.' As king and judge of the dead, a Pluto in short, Yama is a far later creation. One has to study the true character of Yama-Yami throughout more than one hymn and epic poem, and collect the various accounts scattered in dozens of ancient works, and then he will obtain a consensus of allegorical statements which will be found to corroborate and justify the Esoteric teaching, that Yama-Yami is the symbol of the dual Manas, in one of its mystical meanings.

For instance, Yama-Yami is always represented of a green colour and clothed with red, and as dwelling in a palace of copper and iron. Students of Occultism know to which of the human 'principles' the green and the red colours, and by correspondence the iron and copper, are to be applied. The 'twofold-ruler' -- the epithet of Yama-Yami -- is regarded in the exoteric teachings of the Chino-Buddhists as both judge and criminal, the restrainer of his own evil doings and the evil-doer himself. In the Hindu epic poems Yama-Yami is the twin-child of the Sun (the deity) by Sanjna (spiritual consciousness); but while Yama is the Aryan 'lord of the day,' appearing as the symbol of spirit in the East, Yami is the queen of the night (darkness, ignorance) 'who opens to mortals the path to the West' -- the emblem of evil and matter. In the Puranas Yama has many wives (many Yamis) who force him to dwell in the lower world (Patala, Myalba, etc., etc.); and an allegory represents him with his foot lifted, to kick Chhaya, the handmaiden of his father (the astral body of his mother, Sanjna, a metaphysical aspect of Buddhi or Alaya).

As stated in the Hindu Scriptures, a soul when it quits its mortal frame, repairs to its abode in the lower regions (Kamaloka or Hades). Once there, the Recorder, the Karmic messenger called Chitragupta (hidden or concealed brightness), reads out his account from the Great Register, wherein during the life of the human being, every deed and thought are indelibly impressed -- and, according to the sentence pronounced, the 'soul' either ascends to the abode of the Pitris (Devachan), descends to a 'hell' (Kamaloka), or is reborn on earth in another human form" (TG 376).

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

Youths English translations of the Sanskrit kumaras (virgins), applied mainly in ancient Hindu writings to spiritual, semi-spiritual, and occasionally ethereal beings, who follow evolutionary courses very different from those of present greatly materialized mankind, and who are looked upon as students of divine wisdom. Youths is applied to the dhyani-chohans, kumaras, or agnishvattas who "refused to incarnate."

In a more restricted sense, applied to the kumara-births of Siva, representative of spiritual beings in each root-race which are mythologically referred to in India as four youths: four white, four red, four yellow, four dark or brown. It means that in every root-race there are a number of karmically elect who strike the keynotes of evolution and succeeding civilizations in a root-race, and thus labor to keep alive and to increase the spiritual and intellectual fires during that race's evolutionary course.

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

Statues of Bamian Five colossal statues representing the height of the early human races, cut in rock by initiates of the late fourth and the fifth root-races to preserve for posterity a physical record of the height of the early races, located near Bamian (Bamiyan or Bamian), a small town in Afghanistan.

The largest statue, 173 feet high, represents the first ethereal root-race of mankind. The next statue, 120 feet tall, represents the sweat-born or second root-race.

The third statue, 60 feet high, immortalizes the third root-race. The fourth, representing the fourth root-race or Atlanteans, is 27 feet high. The fifth statue is only a little larger than the average tall man of today, and represents our present fifth root-race (cf SD 2:337-40).

(See also: Statues of Bamian , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Prachetasas, Prachetasah pracetasas, pracetasah (Sanskrit) [from pra before + chetas mind, understanding]

The preeminently intelligent ones; the ten prachetasas were sons of Prachinabarhis and (according to the Vishnu-Purana) Savarna, the daughter of the ocean -- although Savarna is stated elsewhere to be the wife of the sun. They refer historically and physiologically to the latter portions of the second root-race and to the first portions of the third root-race. The reference here is to the inspiring evolutional influence on the early human races brought about by the union or marriage of the mind-born sons of Brahma (manasaputras) with the early sweat-born and egg-born portions of the human race. Thenceforth the human race became truly intelligent and self-conscious. As nature repeats itself, they also represent the rishis of the early fifth root-race, standing for the adepts of the right-hand path.

The adepts of the left-hand path or the Atlantean sorcerers were called trees in ancient India, although trees likewise symbolized adepts of any kind. Hence, "When Vishnu Purana narrates that 'the world was overrun with trees,' while the Prachetasas -- who 'passed 10,000 years of austerity in the vast ocean' -- were absorbed in their devotions, the allegory relates to the Atlanteans and the adepts of the early Fifth Race -- the Aryans. Other 'trees (adept Sorcerers) spread, and overshadowed the unprotected earth; and the people perished . . . unable to labour for ten thousand years.' Then the sages, the Rishis of the Aryan race, called Prachetasas, are shown 'coming forth from the deep' [symbol of wisdom and of occult learning]

, and destroying by the wind and flame issuing from their mouths, the iniquitous 'trees' and the whole vegetable kingdom; until Soma (the moon), the sovereign of the vegetable world, pacifies them by making alliance with the adepts of the Right Path, to whom he offers as bride Marisha, 'the offspring of the trees' " (SD 2:495). This is an allegory of the struggle between the Sons of Light and the Sons of the Dark Wisdom.

Daksha is the son of the prachetasas and Marisha. In connection with the legend concerning the birth of Marisha, the "Sweat-born," Daksha represents the earliest egg-born human races, those of the first portion of the third root-race. All these archaic allegories of ancient peoples are applicable, mutatis mutandis, to different periods of time, when cyclical events, under karmic government, reproduce themselves with more or less completeness. Thus it is that the prachetasas are sometimes referred to in connection with a later, Atlantean period.

The prachetasas are identical with the five ministers of Chozzar (Poseidon) of the Peratae Gnostics.

(See also: Prachetasas, Prachetasa, pracetasas, pracetasah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Atlanteans The various peoples which flourished during long ages, on the fourth great continent, called Atlantis by theosophists; the fourth root-race. "The Fourth Race Atlanteans were developed from a nucleus of Northern Lemurian Third Race Men, centred, roughly speaking, toward a point of land in what is now the mid-Atlantic Ocean. This continent was formed by the coalescence of many islands and peninsulas which were upheaved in the ordinary course of time and became ultimately the true home of the great Race known as the Atlanteans" (SD 2:333-4).

"The term 'Atlantean' must not mislead the reader to regard these as one race only, or even a nation. It is as though one said 'Asiatics.' Many, multityped, and various were the Atlanteans, who represented several humanities, and almost a countless number of races and nations, more varied indeed than would be the 'Europeans' were this name to be given indiscriminately to the five existing parts of the world; . . . There were brown, red, yellow, white and black Atlanteans; giants and dwarfs . . ." (SD 2:433n).

It is customary to regard the later Atlanteans as a race of sorcerers because, according to the narratives told concerning the doom of Atlantis and its inhabitants (cf SD 2:427), many deliberately followed the left-hand path -- yet not all were black magicians, for there were millions in all ages of Atlantis who earnestly essayed to preserve the wisdom of their semi-spiritual forebears of the third root-race. There were wonderful civilizations during the millions of years of Atlantean development surpassing in material things anything that is known today.

In regard to the remarkable achievements that the Atlanteans made in all the arts and sciences, we read that the early fifth root-race received their knowledge from the fourth root-race. "It is from them that they learnt aeronautics, Viwan Vidya (vimana-vidya)

(the 'knowledge of flying in air-vehicles'), and, therefore, their great arts of meteorography and meteorology. It is from them, again, that the Aryans inherited their most valuable science of the hidden virtues of precious and other stones, of chemistry, or rather alchemy, of mineralogy, geology, physics and astronomy" (SD 2:426).

When the cyclic hour for the climax of the geologic changes in the earth's surface finally arrived, the catastrophe occurred during which the greater part of Atlantis and its population, largely of sorcerers, perished beneath the sea; yet many islands survived, some of them of large extent, such as Ruta and Daitya. But the wiser and more holy portions of the Atlanteans had left Atlantis before this, migrating to the high tablelands of Asia: they were the forefathers of the Turanians, Mongols, Chinese, and other ancient nations.

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

Sarku (Babylonian, Chaldean) Light race; in the Babylonian legends, the name of one of the two first races. While the dark race (Zalmat-Qaqadi) was the first to fall into generation or mortality, the light race remained apart for a long while -- hence was considered to be a race of gods.

The dark race has also been called by Europeans the Adamic race, which was "one of the two principal races that exited at the time of the 'Fall of Man' (hence our third Root-race) . . ." (TG 384).

(See also: Sarku , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Cyclops Kyklops (Greek) (from kyklos circle, round + ops eye)

Plural cyclopes. Round-eyed giants; Homer locates them in Sicily as a lawless race of giants with one central eye, devouring men and caring naught for Zeus; their chief is Polyphemus. For Hesiod, they are three sons of Heaven and Earth, named Arges, Brontes, and Steropes, titan of flame, thunder, and lightning respectively. Later they were considered assistants of Hephaestus in his workshops under volcanoes and their number was no longer confined to three.

The history of human evolution has passed down to us transfigured by the progressive accretion of myths, so that the name cyclopes was handed down to various owners until it meant merely giants who built vast walls. Hesiod's original three were the last three subraces of the Lemurians, the one eye was the wisdom eye, the other eyes not being fully developed as physical organs until the beginning of the fourth root-race.

Odysseus, a fourth-race hero, though he destroys a barbarous race in the interests of culture, nevertheless puts out the third eye. It is an allegory of the passage from a simpler Cyclopean civilization of huge stone buildings to the more sensual civilization of the Atlanteans (SD 2:769). Disciples of the initiates of the fourth root-race were said to hand over divine knowledge to their cyclopes, sons of cycles or of the infinite (SD 1:208), while the cyclopes supposed to have built walls were masons in the sense of initiators (SD 2:345).

The legend of the cyclops with the third eye is also found in ancient Ireland. De Jubainville parallels the three cyclopes of Hesiod with the three famous Irish smiths, Goibniu (Gavida) and his brothers. Goibniu slew the wicked Fomorian Balor -- also a cyclops with one eye in the middle of his forehead -- to give victory to the Tuatha De Danaan (gods of day and life) (Irish Mythological Cycle 122).

(See also: Cyclops, Kyklops , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Patriarchs One of the names given to rulers over men and racial periods. Chaldeo-Judaism has presented its gods as patriarchs. In the Qabbalah, the Sephiroth become the creators and afterwards temporal patriarchs, both of time and space.

Mankind from the first root-race to the beginning or even middle of the third root-race, is ruled by watchers or guides; after, by patriarchs or demigods, heroes, etc., the names given to these different classes of overseeing entities varying in different countries. But the word patriarch has special reference to the genealogies in Genesis: Adam to Noah, the descendants of Noah's three sons, the sons of Jacob.

Those from Adam to Noah are given in two ways which do not agree; but, as is the case with Indian rishis, they are at times convertible and interchangeable. They represent, among other things, pre-diluvian races and ages; and if Adam be regarded as pertaining to the fifth root-race only, to pre-Adamic races.

They are at different times chronological data, symbols of solar and lunar years, of astronomical periods, and even of physiological functions when applied to races, as in other symbolic systems of mythological belief. The number for Enoch is 365, which is recognizable; the sons of Jacob stand for the signs of the zodiac. We have here a fragment of the ancient mystery-language with its seven keys; a single name, for instance, standing for a person, a race, or an age, etc. The Sanskrit prajapatis (progenitors) is parallel in one sense, as are the Mazdean Ameshaspentas.

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

Daksha Daksa (Sanskrit) (from daksh to be able, strong)

Adroit, able, intelligent, clever; used as a proper noun, intelligent power or ability. One of the chief prajapatis, cosmic creative intelligences, spiritual entities; the synthesis or aggregate of the terrestrial progenitors, including the pitris.

Daksha signifies the intelligent or competent, but usually carries with it the idea of creative or evolving power. "He is a son of Brahma, and of Aditi, and agreeably to other versions, a self-born power, which, like Minerva, sprang from his father's body. . . . the Rig-Veda says that 'Daksha sprang from Aditi and Aditi from Daksha,' a reference to the eternal cyclic re-birth of the same divine Essence" (SD 2:247).

As the progenitor of real physical man, Daksha was son of the Prachetasas and Marisha, the first of the "egg-born." He "establishes the era of men engendered by sexual intercourse. But this mode of procreation did not occur suddenly, as one may think, and required long ages before it became the one 'natural' way. Therefore, his sacrifice to the gods is shown as interfered with by Siva, the destroying deity, evolution and progress personified, . . . Virabhadra, 'abiding in the region of the ghosts (etherial men) . . . . created from the pores of the skin (Romakupas), powerful Raumas, (or Raumyas).' Now, however mythical the allegory, the Mahabharata, which is history as much as is the Iliad, shows the Raumyas (hairy ones)

and other races, as springing in the same manner from the Romakupas, hair or skin pores. . . .

"In the Vayu Purana's account of Daksha's sacrifice, moreover, it is said to have taken place in the presence of creatures born from the egg, from the vapour, vegetation, pores of the skin, and, finally only, from the womb.

"Daksha typifies the early Third Race, holy and pure, still devoid of an individual Ego, and having merely the passive capacities. Brahma, therefore, commands him to create (in the exoteric texts; when, obeying the command, he made 'inferior and superior' (avara and vara) progeny (putra), Bipeds and quadrupeds; and by his will gave birth to females. . . . to the gods, the Daityas (giants of the Fourth Race), the snake-gods, animals, cattle and the Danavas (Titans and demon Magicians) and other beings.

". . . 'From that period forward, living creatures were engendered by sexual intercourse. Before the time of Daksha, they were variously propagated -- by the will, by sight, by touch, and by Yoga-power'" (quotes from the Vishnu-Purana)

(SD 2:182-3).

(See also: Daksha, Daksa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Adam-Adammi 'Adam-'Adami (Hebrew) (from 'adam mankind + 'adami fortress)

Used by Chwolsohn in his Nabathean Agriculture and regarded by Blavatsky as "a generic compound name as old as languages are" (SD 2:452). Adam-Adami, like Adam, was not a man but a race, specifically the "dark Race" which was "the first to fall into generation" in contradistinction with Sarku, or the light Race, which remained pure much longer (SD 2:5). "Adam-Adami is a personation of the dual Adam: of the paradigmic Adam-Kadmon, the creator, and of the lower Adam, the terrestrial . . ." (SD 2:456).

See also ADAM; 'ADAM QADMON.

(See also: Adam-Adammi, Ada-Adami , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mysteries, The [from Greek mysteria Mysteries from mystes one initiated into the Mysteries from mueo to initiate from muo to close the eyes or lips]

Applies chiefly to Greece, but once extended to Asiatic cults of religio-philosophical character, it acquired a wider range under the Romans, and is used in The Secret Doctrine in reference to equivalent institutions in any part of the world. The most celebrated in Greece were those of Eleusis pertaining to Demeter and Persephone, which gave rise to many branches and influenced schools of older foundation.

Others were those of Samothrace, the Orphic Mysteries, and the Festivals devoted to Dionysos. Schools like that of Pythagoras diffused their influence, as did Academies such as that of Plato. The history of Greece furnishes notable examples of great men who had been initiated into such Mysteries. The Mysteries came into Greece from India and Egypt, and their origin goes back to Atlantean times. They were in historic times, what remained of the means whereby man's divine ancestors communicated truths concerning the mysteries of cosmos and of human nature and of the communion divinity and man.

In times when sacred knowledge was whole and not divided into sacred and profane, the human body, not yet desecrated, was held as sacred as any other part of function of human nature; so that the teaching embraced medicine, hygiene, singing, dancing, the useful arts and crafts; and the teachers of religion, philosophy, science, and of crafts, the founders of cities, and great artists derived their powers from this source.

The Mysteries were divided into the Greater and Less, inner and outer, esoteric and partly exoteric; and, as the former were guarded by well-observed secrecy the sources of ordinary information are mostly based on the latter. The more recondite Mysteries could not, from their very nature, be publicly divulged; they were revelations, appreciable only by an awakened spiritual perception and incommunicable to anyone not thus awakened. The Greater Mysteries were successive initiations for prepared candidates. The Less consisted of symbolic and dramatic representations for the public, in which, among other things, the profound symbology of the Greek mythology was employed.

The elevating and unifying influence of these institutions was acknowledged by Greek and Roman authorities and is apparent from a study of Greek history. With the advance of a cycle of materialism, the Mysteries became degraded, especially in Asia Minor in Roman times; the symbolism was perverted and even made to palliate licentious practices. What little was left to abolish was formally abolished by Justinian, who closed the mystic and quasi-esoteric Neoplatonic School of Athens in 529.

In a recognition of the ancient Mysteries we find a clue to the meaning of the universal prevalence, among peoples fallen into a degenerate and falsely called primitive state of life, of strange rites and black magical practices. These are the very dregs and distortions of the ancient holy teachings; but even here unprejudiced inquirers find that, when sympathetically approached, the existence of secret cults which preserve at least remnants of some of the essential teachings of the ancient wisdom.

As formal institutions, the Mysteries had their earliest origin during the fourth root-race, Atlantis, after its fourth subrace. Indeed, the still more primitive roots of the Mysteries can be traced to a much earlier time, probably during the third subrace of the Atlanteans, when the rapid degeneration of mankind into the worship of matter had brought about the absolute need of segregating the nobler and finer spirits of the human race into groups or schools where they could, under the vows of inviolable secrecy, study the deeper mysteries of nature and their own oneness with the divine. From that time the Mysteries became with every subrace more and more secret and entrance into them became ever more difficult. After the fifth root-race came upon the scene, the Mysteries had become well established in all countries of the globe, and their rites and functions, both of the Greater and the Less, were conducted as functions of the State.

Even from the time of the incarnation of the manasaputras in the third root-race, there has been an unbroken line, stream, or succession of lofty spiritual teachers guarding the ancient god-wisdom received in primordial ages from the dhyanis; and the Mysteries, even in their heyday of splendor and in their most secret lines of work, were the outer side of clothing of this inner stream of inspiration and sublime teaching. The light has not yet died from off the earth, and the spiritual stream still exists and does its work in the world, although for ages it has been acting more secretly and esoterically than ever. However, the time is coming when the Mysteries will again be reestablished and will receive the common reverence and respect from mankind that in former ages they universally had.

(See also: Mysteries , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Svabhava :

Svabhava

(Sanskrit) A compound word derived from the verb-root bhu, meaning "to become"  - not so much "to be" in the passive sense, but rather "to become," to "grow into" something. The quasi-pronominal prefix sva, means "self"; hence the noun means "self-becoming," "self-generation," "self-growing" into something. Yet the essential or fundamental or integral Self, although following continuously its own lofty line of evolution, cannot be said to suffer the changes or phases that its vehicles undergo. Like the monads, like the One, thus the Self fundamental  - which, after all, is virtually the same as the one monadic essence  - sends down a ray from itself into every organic entity, much as the sun sends a ray from itself into the surrounding "darkness" of the solar universe.

Svabhava has two general philosophical meanings: first, self-begetting, self-generation, self-becoming, the general idea being that there is no merely mechanical or soulless activity of nature in bringing us into being, for we brought ourselves forth, in and through and by nature, of which we are a part of the conscious forces, and therefore are our own children. The second meaning is that each and every entity that exists is the result of what he actually is spiritually in his own higher nature: he brings forth that which he is in himself interiorly, nothing else. A particular race, for instance, remains and is that race as long as the particular race-svabhava remains in the racial seed and manifests thus. Likewise is the case the same with a man, a tree, a star, a god  - what not!

What makes a rose bring forth a rose always and not thistles or daisies or pansies? The answer is very simple; very profound, however. It is because of its svabhava, the essential nature in and of the seed. Its svabhava can bring forth only that which itself is, its essential characteristic, its own inner nature. Svabhava, in short, may be called the essential individuality of any monad, expressing its own characteristics, qualities, and type, by self-urged evolution.

The seed can produce nothing but what it itself is, what is in it; and this is the heart and essence of the doctrine of svabhava. The philosophical, scientific, and religious reach of this doctrine is simply immense; and it is of the first importance. Consequently, each individual svabhava brings forth and expresses as its own particular vehicles its various svarupas, signifying characteristic bodies or images or forms. The svabhava of a dog, for instance, brings forth the dog body. The svabhava of a rose brings forth the rose flower; the svabhava of a man brings forth man's shape or image; and the svabhava of a divinity or god brings forth its own svarupa or characteristic vehicle.

See also: Svabhava , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Popol Vuh (Quiche) An ancient scripture of the Mayas. The manuscript which has come down to our day was discovered by Ximenez, a Dominican missionary in the 17th century, near Guatemala City, and translated by him into Spanish. Later, Brasseur de Bourbourg translated the manuscript from the original Quiche into French. But this manuscript was written or dictated by a native in the Quiche tongue and is not the original, for as the writer himself says in his preface: "This is the beginning of the ancient history of the country here called Quiche . . . We will publish it in the world of Christendom, because this National Book, the Popol Vuh, is seen no more, . . . This is the first book written in times of old, but it is hidden from the sight of him who sees and thinks."

In addition to a historical account of the Quiche nation, the first portion of the scripture deals with cosmogony and the birth of humanity. The opening lines are similar in conception to the book of Genesis: "Here is the narrative of how all was in suspense, all was calm, all silent, all was motionless, all was peaceful, and empty was the immensity of the heavens. . . . The face of the Earth was not yet visible. Only the sea was, and all the space of the heavens."

The first race of men mentioned in the Popol Vuh are described as "a race 'whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all things at once': thus showing the divine knowledge of Gods, not mortals" (SD 2:96). "In other words, they were the Lemuro-Atlanteans, the first who had a dynasty of Spirit-Kings, . . . actual living Devas (or demi-gods or Angels, again) who had assumed bodies to rule over them, and who, in their turn, instructed them in arts and sciences" (SD 2:221-2). And referring to the Lemurian or third root-race, the Popol Vuh describes their race as being fashioned out of the Tzite tree -- very similar in this regard to the ancient Scandinavian mythology, where Odin fashions man out of the ash tree. The early race of mankind mentioned in the Popol Vuh as able to live with equal ease under ground and water as upon the earth answers to the second and early third root-races (SD 2:160).

(See also: Popol Vuh , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Androgyne (from Greek androgynos man-woman)

Hermaphrodite; applied to a dual principle containing both the active and passive powers of nature, as the androgyne ray, the Second Logos, Purusha-prakriti, spirit-matter; to a race, such as the second root-race, whose members are physiologically of both sexes; and in biology to certain animals which have dual sex. Bipolarity, the contrast and interaction between the energic and formative sides of nature, is universally prevalent.

Sex is merely a particular and, evolutionally speaking, passing phase of this universal law, and its terms are often used in a purely symbolic sense to define these two sides of nature. We should be careful not to take the symbols literally and ascribe physiological attributes to higher powers.

When androgynous or hermaphrodite is used in philosophy, it does not mean physically or ethereally double-sexed -- except when physical dual-sexed beings are distinctly referred to -- but means the dual characteristic of nature in manifestation. Very often this duality is separated into "masculine" and "feminine," using the words familiar to human life, although this duality is perhaps more accurately described by the words positive and negative, or by spirit and matter, or again by consciousness and vehicle. Here we have the reason for the separation of the deities in ancient pantheons into gods and goddesses, although occasionally in the mythological tales deities are represented as dual sexed.

This androgynous or dual character of all the manifested worlds commenced with cosmic buddhi, or mahabuddhi, although the first more defined manifestations of individualized duality began on the plane of cosmic kama where fohat especially works. Above that the two rays from the One ascend again to reunite.

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