Grape Cure (grape diet): Mono-diet advanced by Johanna Brandt, N.D., Ph.N., author of The Grape Cure ((c) 1928). The front matter of the 1967 edition, a paperback published by Benedict Lust Publications, quotes the author: My discovery of the Grape diet is the direct result of Divine Illumination.

The grape diet consists of grapes or grape juice. Brandt held that the mind operated through magnetism and that the Grape Cure contributed to the purification and buildup of magnetism. She recommended it for appendicitis, cancer, diabetes, gout, pyorrhea, rheumatism, scurvy, sex problems, tuberculosis, unnatural cravings (as for alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, and tobacco), and other conditions. Under the heading Sex Problems, she stated: By the magical purification of the blood the nerves are stabilized, self-control is established and our God-given heritage of sense and desire is transmitted into divine creative power.

(See also: Grape Cure , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

A dictionary with common spiritual words from Hinduism and Sanskrit. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

Psychic Powers: Psychic power generally means the assertion of the psyche’s powers in the material world without the apparent involvement of the physical body.

(See also: Psychic Powers , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Karma Yoga Lesson IV

Karma is Thought, actually, says the Gita; Mind and Manas; Thought a constant function in the universe; The greater being of man; Power of Thought; Facing Thought; The cloud; Formation of Thoughts; Letting thoughts pass on; The use of Aumn in calming.

Read more here: » Karma Yoga: Karma Yoga - Lesson IV (of XI )

WORD MAGIC (or MAGICAL SENTENCES.)

Magical words or phrases are social techniques that double as talismans or ritualistic paraphernalia and serve as short-cuts to reality alteration. They take many forms, some of which are the following:

Setting-Up Exercises -- Suggest that something of moment is afoot:  "I swear by the Bolts of Besqul..." or "I externalize thee..."

Magical Formulae -- Serve as exhortations in the guise of threats:  "Those who do not follow will be left behind!" or "Who stabbeth me, bleedeth  himself!"

Special Effects -- Used to induce the cooperation of the social  environment: "Burn, Fire Perpetua!"

Consensus Modifiers -- Rework consensus through overt assault on the  status quo or through the introduction of novelty: "For it is written but no  longer true..." Also open (and unconventional) evangelism eventually has an  impact: "May Thantifaxath grant!"

Power Implementation -- Such formulae are positive, reinforcing and  tied in creatively to reality because once uttered, they immediately achieve  their ends: "You are herewith ordered to report to ..." In magic, power  implementations are generally surreptitious and operate in the world with  infinite subtlety. Statements such as, "Be thou clean O leper!" are extremely  bold (and rare). However, the most irresistible overt usage is the curse. A  curse propels the victim's ego into a horrible locale or state of being that  he already secretly fears ("May your body house maggots in Hell!" or "You are  a Toad!"). The ego is bound to languish in the wake of the curse, if it is  successful. And when the self desiccates, the body quickly follows. That's why  insults generate violence. The injured psyche needs to re-establish its loss  of position.

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

Zoolatry [from Greek zoon animal + latreia worship]

Animal worship; animal symbols are found in all religions, as in the religions of ancient Egypt and in Christianity, as the dove and the lamb. The Maharajas of the four quarters of space are sometimes represented as elephants; most of the zodiacal signs are animals, as the name implies.

These symbols should not be regarded as arbitrarily chosen on account of a fancied resemblance: the animals are actually emblems, if not in all cases manifestations, of the powers in question. It is the same with plants and stones: they are not emblems only but actually enshrine certain occult qualities. If plants may have medicinal virtues, and stones possess magical powers, why may not animals have the same? The phrase animal worship implies that the veneration has often been transferred from the power to its symbol or emblem, as in the case of idolatry.

Yet no polished or cultivated nation of antiquity, no more so than the Christians today, worshiped these animal emblems as otherwise than figurations, or also at times as manifestations, of cosmic powers or beings -- end-products of divine cosmic originants. Man himself falls into the same category, not only as being an offspring of the gods, but as an end-product of a divine hierarchy manifesting in greater or less degree the spiritual-divine attributes, functions, faculties, and powers of his sublime ancestors or parents.

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

Tantras (Sanskrit) Loom, the warp or threads in a loom; a rule or ritual for ceremonial rites. Religious treatises teaching mystical and magical formulas for the attainment of magical powers, and for the worship of the gods; treating of the evolution of the universe and its destruction; the adoration of the divinities; the attainment of desired objects, especially of six superhuman faculties; and methods of union (usually given as four) with the supreme divinity by contemplative meditation. They are mostly composed in the form of dialogues between Siva and his divine consort or sakti Durga, who is worshiped as a personified female power.

The tendency of these works for long ages has been towards black magic. "The origin of the Tantras unquestionably goes back to a very remote antiquity, and there seems to be little doubt that these works, or their originals, were heirlooms handed down from originally debased or degenerate Atlantean racial offshoots. There is, of course, a certain amount of profoundly philosophical and mystical thought running through the more important tantrika works, but the tantrika worship in many cases is highly licentious and immoral" (OG 17;1).

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

Psychic energy raised and focused by either an individual or
group mind (coven) to achieve a definite purpose.

(See also: Cone of Power , Magic, Shamanism, Pagan Dictionary)

KUNDALINI

Sex power (Hindu serpent). The goddess in the form of a fire-serpent, who lies sleeping at the base of the spine. It is the supreme power of magic in man.

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

Black Magic (Occult.). Sorcery; necromancy, or the raising of the dead, and other selfish abuses of abnormal powers. This abuse may be unintentional; yet it is still "black magic" whenever anything is produced phenomenally simply for one’s own gratification.

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

Psychic Powers Powers pertaining to the lower intermediate human nature -- i.e, between the mental-emotional and the physical -- including powers of perception such as astral vision, the lower clairvoyance and clairaudience, the lower psychometry and seership, etc.; and lower biases or tendencies such as hypnotism, the power to produce minor occult phenomena of many kinds, and in connection with the power of automatic astral projection.

In their nature they are morally neutral, being susceptible of use or misuse just as are physical powers. If used with an evil or selfish purpose, the action is black magic; and even if used without such motive or with good intention, they may prove confusing and therefore misleading for one who ventures to use them.

The existence of such powers should be recognized and we should hope some day to be able to avail ourselves properly of them, but a prime requisite in discipleship is equal and harmonious development. We may attain psychic powers by observing the conditions under which they may safely and profitably be allowed to develop.

The presence of vanity, ambition, self-assertion, egoism, and similar qualities prove a bar, and the aspirant who is sincerely desirous of eliminating these defects will not willingly adopt a course likely to enhance them. There is no hard-and-fast division of powers into psychic, physical, mental, etc.: we may contemplate the gradual development of our mental faculties without defining a point where we have stepped out of the ordinary into the occult; and our perceptions may become refined by gradual stages without any sudden jump from one plane to another.

Theosophy enjoins students to let psychic powers alone, until they develop normally and naturally in the progress of the student along the path of wisdom and self-mastery. The craze for psychic powers and attempts in their cultivation arise almost invariably out of ignorance of the existence in ourselves of far higher and more powerful forces which can always be employed with safety, and even profit, to the individual.

These greater powers are those classed as spiritual and intellectual-aspirational -- powers which ennoble and dignify man, containing in themselves capacities for amazing effects. Their use is always safe once they are understood and studied. By their side the psychic powers, attributes, and faculties are like the puny efforts of children to copy adults.

(See also: Psychic Powers , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

MAGICIAN, THE

Th first arcanum of the Tarot, letter Beth (because Beth, not Aleph, is the first letter in the bible). One is the essential number of Power and Magic, since it arrives all on its own out of Zero and is inevitably "unique" and unrepeatable. So difficult is the Enigma of the initiate, that we can only point to this entire dictionary as one definition (amongst thousands). In Crowley's redesigned Atus, in his Book of Thoth, he can manage with no fewer than three different versions of The Magician!

Since everyone who lives is possessed of the magical ability to transform matter and to produce mental worlds, then everyone is a magician and no one dare single himself out as a being special. For this reason, early Tarotists preferred to call this card "The Juggler" in order to indicate one who has made a profession out of exploiting that very illusion which is the real material world. The Magician, however, in the most archetypal sense, is a representative of male sexual virginity.

For divinatory purposes, The Magician signifies the overcoming of a problem through sheer invention, drawing from the deepest levels of the self without anyone's help.

Finally, fundamentally, the Magician is the juggler of the dual current, comprised of the Active and Passive Alternating Forces of action. He is the circuit of the electricity that moves the world. He is the initiator of any action, the generated thesis.

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

Benefits of Vaastu Shastra

The Vaastu Shastras have offered many benefits to the user of a built space. These benefits are deeply connected to the meaning and reasons behind the living processes of people. In general most human beings are struggling to find harmony and well being.

Read more here: » Vaastu Shastra:

MAGIC WORD

The root of all Magic is The Word. Ho Logos . In every culture, the shaman is the person with the largest vocabulary (although, ironically, he may express himself clumsily). He is also the one who sees beyond a person's words to what that person really means. For the magician, as for the poet, words are fluid and changing. Puns, paradoxes and triple/quadruple meanings come and go with varying degrees of exactitude or "correctness". Magical meanings derive from context or intention. Etymology is always strictly, historically, accurate, but usually beyond the safe and unimaginative academic frontiers into the realm of historical intuition. Where history and genuine insight leave off and illusion begins it is sometimes difficult to say.

The Egyptian God of magic, Thoth (or Tahuti, "The Speaker") is self-created and dwells in chaos. As he speaks, each word becomes a created thing (as in Greek a "poem" means anything that has been made). Hunchback: Is Chaos the Void or is it merely the pre-linguistic, Briatic world?

In our time when the television commercial has raped and perverted language for the sake of profit, when words have little more value than the squawking of parrots, it is difficult to imagine that there was once a mighty and living oral tradition. The true magician has not forgotten.

Therefore the adept must be adept with words. The unitiatated believe that Magic is entirely the result of uttering certain catchwords or phrases: "Hocus-Pocus-Dominocus!" or "Hey Presto! Hi Jingo, begone!" Oddly enough, this bit of folk wisdom is not as far off the mark as it might seem. Words do have power. Spells can be evoked. PKD once said that for every individual in the world there exists a special word or phrase, for him alone, which upon his hearing, would result in his death. There is also another word that would heal him of anything. Most of us, however, go through our whole lives without hearing either of these vital words or phrases.

The words used by magicians, when they are not the nonsense syllables of charlatans, tend to be words from archaic languages. Today these are primarily Latin or Greek (in our culture), whereas in the 18th and 19th Century, ritual words were usually taken from Hebrew. Hebrew magic itself borrowed from the earlier Chaldaeans, Babylonians and Assyrians. Finally, there is Buddhism and Yoga from Sanskrit, Tantrism from Tibetan, Taoism from Chinese and Sufism from Arabic.

Says Her Bak , "Do not be negligent in finding and using the right word. Thoth never replies to inexact medus."

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

"I AM DESERVING OF ALL THAT IS GOOD" is a perfect affirmation to begin your day in a prosperous way.

Let's break down why these exact words have been chosen:

I believe there is great power in the words "I AM." These words make a situation or circumstance true for oneself, by claiming what it is you desire as if it's already yours. "I am" is like a magic statement. It puts the control and the power of what you wish to achieve right where it should be, within yourself. It claims immediately for you what you desire. It makes something YOURS.

Read more here: » Affirmations: Begin Your Day In a Prosperous Way

Naga (Sanskrit) Serpent; the symbol of immortality and wisdom, of renewed births, of secret knowledge and, when the tail is held in the mouth, of eternity. The nagas or serpents of wisdom are, therefore, full initiates: "the first Nagas -- beings wiser than Serpents -- are the 'Sons of Will and Yoga,' born before the complete separation of the sexes, 'matured in the man-bearing eggs produced by the power (Kriyasakti) of the holy sages' of the early Third Race" (SD 2:181).

These first nagas were the original human adepts, who were later symbolized by the terms serpents and dragons. "These 'originals' -- called to this day in China 'the Dragons of Wisdom' -- were the first disciples of the Dhyanis, who were their instructors; in short, the primitive adepts of the Third Race, and later, of the Fourth and Fifth Races. The name became universal, and no sane man before the Christian era would ever have confounded the man and the symbol" (SD 2:210).

The early Mexican word nagual, now meaning sorcerer and medicine man, is akin in its meaning, for "Some of the descendants of the primitive Nagas, the Serpents of Wisdom, peopled America, when its continent arose during the palmy days of the great Atlantis, (America being the Patala or Antipodes of Jambu-Dwipa, not of Bharata-Varsha)" (SD 2:182). The Hebrew equivalent is nahash also meaning magic, enchantment, thus showing the same connection of ideas.

Naga may be equated with Ananta-sesha, the seven-headed endless serpent of Vishnu, "the great dragon eternity biting with its active head its passive tail, from the emanations of which spring worlds, beings and things. . . . The Nag awakes. He heaves a heavy breath and the latter is sent like an electric shock all along the wire encircling Space" (ML 73).

(See also: Naga , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

White Magic, or "Beneficent Magic", so-called, is divine magic, devoid of selfishness, love of power, of ambition, or lucre, and bent only on doing good to the world in general, and one’s neighbour in particular. The smallest attempt to use one’s abnormal powers for the gratification of self, makes of these powers sorcery or black magic.

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

Magic, Magician (from Persian magus a wise man, great; cf magi)

The great art; a knowledge of the mysteries of nature and the power to apply them. In its true sense it is gupta-vidya (divine knowledge), the aim of those who tread the path of wisdom; but in ages of decline its chief secrets are withdrawn from public access, and what remains passes through transformations and gradually degenerates.

"The ancients believed in the power of man by magic practices to command the services of the gods: which gods, are in truth, but the occult powers or potencies of Nature, personified by the learned priests themselves, in which they reverenced only the attributes of the one unknown and nameless Principle. As Proclus the Platonist ably puts it: 'Ancient priests, when they considered that there is a certain alliance and sympathy in natural things to each other, and of things manifest to occult powers, and discovered that all things subsist in all, fabricated a sacred science from this mutual sympathy and similarity. . . . and applied for occult purposes, both celestial and terrene natures, by means of which, through a certain similitude, they deduced divine virtues into this inferior abode.' Magic is the science of communicating with and directing supernal, supramundane Potencies, as well as of commanding those of the lower spheres; a practical knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature known to only the few, because they are so difficult to acquire, without falling into sins against nature" (TG 197).

White magic or theurgy is knowledge used for impersonal and beneficent purposes, the bringing into human life of the pattern and powers of nature as these exist on the spiritual planes. Black magic or goetia is knowledge used for selfishly personal or evil purposes. Natural magic is the knowledge and employment of the natural powers, forces, and substances of nature -- practically what today is called science. If the knowledge gained through the study of natural science is distorted in its use to selfish or ignoble ends, it becomes de facto black magic. While a hard and fast distinction may not be applicable to all cults of magic, where the student or practitioner has not yet made a conscious choice between the two paths, yet in the end he must choose the one or the other. For nature's forces must be controlled, either by a pure or an impure will, if the practicer is not to fall victim to them. The motive and use that a person makes of his faculties and will are the deciding factors as to whether the magic is beneficent or maleficent. Any selfish, self-seeking, or selfishly restricted use of nature's laws or powers is against the impersonality and universality of nature:

"The smallest attempt to use one's abnormal powers for the gratification of self makes of these powers sorcery or Black Magic" (Key 346).

In theosophical writings, advanced students of occultism who have acquired some knowledge and use of spiritual powers but misuse them for selfish purposes are called black magicians, Brothers of the Shadow, followers of the left-hand path, or sometimes dugpas. In their highest class they are adepts in spiritual evil.

Whenever the forces of nature are used for selfish purposes, such misuse by anyone marks such person as a black magician, whether conscious or unconscious. Those who follow the pathway of self-renunciation, self-sacrifice, self-conquest, and an expansion of the heart, mind, and consciousness in love and service for all that lives are called white magicians or Sons of Light.

(See also: Magic, Magician , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Wicca and Witchcraft: General Practices in Wicca (Witchcraft)

The roots of the religion called Wicca, or Witchcraft, are very old, coming down to us through a variety of channels worldwide. Although any general statement about our practices will have exceptions, the following will attempt to present a basic foundation for understanding.

Some of the old practices were lost when indigenous religions encountered militant Christianity and were forced to go underground for survival. The ancient mystery religions were lost when the practice of the rites were stopped and the old verbal traditions were no longer available.

Read more here: » Wicca and Witchcraft: General Practices in Wicca

A dictionary of Parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

Angel:

A personification of what we consider good or pleasant. In theoilogy, a being just below the main god(s) in power for good. In some magical systems, a sort of “psychic robot.”

(See also: Angel , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

The New Age movement is hardly novel! Its philosophy is rooted in ancient traditions, often based on mystical experiences, each within a different context.

Part I of II, written by Michael Rogge

Read more here: » New Age Spirituality: The roots of the New Age Movement Ð Part I