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)

Belial beliyya`al (Hebrew) (from beli nothing, not + ya`al worth, profit, use)

Worthless, signifying wickedness; also a wicked man, a destroyer, a waster. A name given by Hebrew and Christian demonologists to the aggregate of evil astral forces or influences, some of them partaking of an individualized type, whose influence is always pernicious to humans, and association with which is invariably immoral because suggestive of evil. It is a name personifying these astral entities of evil.

In the New Testament Belial is associated with Satan (2 Cor 6:15), although "if Belial must be personified to please our religious friends, we would be obliged to make him perfectly distinct from Satan, and to consider him as a sort of spiritual 'Diakka' (Kama-lokic elementary)

. The demonographers, however, who enumerate nine distinct orders of daimonia, make him chief of the third class -- a set of hobgoblins, mischievous and good-for-nothing" (IU 2:482).

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

Devil, The:

“Heir of Man,” originally the Evil God of the Zoroastrians; later a creation of Christian and Islamic theologians (who called him Satan and Shaitan) consisting of old fertility gods, wisdom spirits and nature elementals combined with Ahriman into a figure of terror and malevolence fully equal to that of that Good God (Jehovah or Allah); the deity worshiped by Neogothic Witches.

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

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

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Eschatology

See also: Eschatology , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

TRADITIONS - any of the various sects of Wicca such as Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Georgian, Seax, etc.

(See also: TRADITIONS , Wiccan, Wicca, Witchery, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Q’lippoth (Hebrew, Jewish), or Klippoth. The world of Demons or Shells; the same as the Aseeyatic World, called also Olam Klippoth. It is the residence of Samael, the Prince of Darkness in the Kabbalistic allegories.

But note what we read in the Zohar (ii.43a) "For the service of the Angelic World, the Holy. . . . made Samael and his legions, i.e., the world of action, who are as it were the clouds to be used (by the higher or upper Spirits, our Egos) to ride upon in their descent to the earth, and serve, as it were, for their horses". This, in conjunction with the fact that Q’lippoth contains the matter of which stars, planets, and even men are made, shows that Samael with his legions is simply chaotic, turbulent matter, which is used in its finer state by spirits to robe themselves in.

For speaking of the "vesture" or form (rupa) of the incarnating Egos, it is said in the Occult Catechism that they, the Manasaputras or Sons of Wisdom, use for the consolidation of their forms, in order to descend into lower spheres, the dregs of Swabhavat, or that plastic matter which is throughout Space, in other words, primordial ilus. And these dregs are what the Egyptians have called Typhon and modern Europeans Satan, Samael, etc., etc. Deus est Demon inversus - the Demon is the lining of God.

(See also: Q’lippoth , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Iblis or Eblis (from Arabic iblis)

An evil being, in Islamic belief, of spiritual or angelic origin, often named Shaitan and generally equivalent to Satan. In the Koran he is represented as the leader of the angels who rebelled against Allah, and was therefore hurled from Paradise. Although doomed to death his sentence has been withheld until the Judgment Day. Before his fall he was called Haris or Azazel.

Often regarded as the leader of the jinn, or the wicked genii who are commonly considered by Moslems to be of evil spirituality; but popular legend likewise endows them with powers, often great, not infrequently for the benefit of mankind.

See also AZAZEL

(See also: Iblis, Eblis , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Serpent One of the most fundamental and prolific symbols of the mystery-language. Its most basic meaning is of the eternal, alternating, cyclic motion during cosmic manifestation.

For motion, which to the physicist and the philosopher alike seems an abstraction, is for the ancient wisdom a primordial principle or axiom, of the same order as space and time, existing per se. Never does motion cease utterly even during kosmic pralaya. And motion is essentially circular: where physics would derive circular motion from a composition of rectilinear motions, the opposite procedure would be that of the ancient wisdom. This circular motion, compounding itself into spirals, helixes, and vortices, is the builder of worlds, bringing together the scattered elements of chaos; motion per se is essential cosmic intelligence. This circular motion, returning upon itself like a serpent swallowing its tail, represents the cycles of time.

This conscious energy in spirals whirls through all the planes of cosmos as fohat and his innumerable sons -- the cosmic energies and forces, fundamentally intelligent, operating in every scale or grade of matter. The caduceus of Hermes, twin serpents wound about a staff, represents cosmically the mighty drama of evolution, in its twin aspects, the staff or tree standing for the structural aspect, the serpent for the fohatic forces that animate the structure.

The serpent is characteristically a dual symbol. In the beginnings of creation two poles were emanated, spirit and matter; and forthwith began interaction between the downward forces of the one and the upward forces of the other. Hermes, Mercury, intelligence, may represent a sage or a thief; the serpentine wisdom may work in every plane of materiality. The perverse will of man may turn natural forces to evil purposes, and thus we speak of the good serpent and the bad, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon, of Ophis and Ophiomorphos. A serpent can be a sage or a sorcerer.

The dragon is the eternally vigilant one, guardian of the sacred treasures; but he is the ruthless destroyer of him who attempts to gain by force the riches to which he has not won a title. To gain knowledge, we must know how to tame the serpent which rules the nether worlds, as the Christ refuses to make obeisance to Satan.

The seven sacred planets, or again the seven human principles, form a serpent, often collocated with the sun and moon as making a triad. One form of this spiraling conscious energy, when manifesting in man, is kundalini-sakti, the serpentine power, which in the ordinary person today lies relatively sleeping and performing merely automatic vital functions; but when aroused can ether waft to sublime heights of vision and power or blast like a lightning-stroke.

The power which a serpent has of casting its old skin is analogous to what the earth does at the commencement of each round, and to the clothing of the human jiva with a new body when it enters the womb. Again, the astral light is called a serpent; its lowest strata are dangerous and deceptive, while it extends through all planes up to the highest akasa, the vehicle of divine wisdom.

In early Christianity there arose more than one Gnostic sect using the snake as a symbol, such as the Ophites, which in the vision of certain ecclesiastic Fathers was designated devil worship, or by other uncomplimentary names.

See also NAGA; WORLD-SERPENT

(See also: Serpent , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Devil

(Greek "diabolos," which means accuser.

According to Christian theology: the greatest of all the fallen angels who opposes God and is completely evil. They say his name is Lucifer .

Various Christian theologies proclaim that he is: the accuser of the brethren, the dragon, the tempter, the prince of demons, the ruler of this world. Upon Jesus' return, the Devil will be vanquished to the eternal lake of fire- depending on the eschatological position. See Satan. Fallen Angel

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

Antichrist

• In the Bible, a code-word for the Emperor of Rome. His number was 666 - latienos, that Latin man -
• any figure who opposed Christianity. 3) According to the Jesus Cult, the word is used to describe a specific future person who actively opposes and when he arrives, he will be able to perform miracles. Some believe he will be an incarnation of Satan and as such will be able to deceive many.

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

Lucifer (Latin) Light-bringer (cf Greek Phosphoros; or Eosphoros dawn-bringer); the planet Venus, the morning star. Lucifer is light bringer to earth, not only physically as the brightest of the planets, but in a mystical sense also. In mysticism he is the chief of those minor powers or logoi who are said to rebel against high heaven and to be cast down to the bottomless pit -- the so-called war in heaven and the fall of the angels.

This allegory is found also in the legend concerning Prometheus, in the Hindu Mahasura who rebels against Brahma and is cast by Siva into patala, and in the Scandinavian Loki. In the cyclic sweep of evolution, spirit has first to descend or become involved in differentiation and in the worlds of matter, so that worlds and beings may be brought forth and evolved. The logoi who thus bring the light may allegorically be said, like Prometheus, to steal the fire, and their assertion of divine free will may be construed into an act of evolutionary rebellion; yet such is their karmic function as well as duty.

Lucifer has been transformed in later Occidental theology into a synonym for the Evil One or the Devil. If the god Jehovah were the highest divinity, which this Jewish tribal deity is not, then any power withstanding him must necessarily be considered to be his adversary; and in the same way the teaching as to the immanent Christ, not only in the world but in each individual person, not being altogether agreeable with the doctrine of salvation by faith in an external savior, became transformed into the Tempter inspiring man to sinful rebellion against God. Lucifer in a very true sense stands for the self-conscious mind in man, which is at once tempter and enlightener -- tempter in its lower aspects and enlightener and inspirer in its higher.

See also MANASAPUTRAS; PROMETHEUS; SATAN

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

ABRAXAS (or Abrasax)

Being the unreachable, unknowable and unmanifested "God" beyond existence and non-existence, beyond good and evil, beyond all dualities, "he" may be considered the ultimate synthesis. Since the Judeo-Xtian God is a monad, He must have an opposite (Satan), in company with Zoroaster's Ahriman and Ahuramazda, Abraxas does not require opposition.

The Gods are the original essences of Reality and as such are limited to the manifestation of the processes of Nature or Subnature. Therefore, they are necessarily below Abraxas.

Budge is the only Egyptologist who presents us with the Egyptian word:

Abraskkiaks (Leemans Papyrus, III, 210- ). Probably derived from the same word as ABRACADABRA (Heb. Ha-b'rakah, "the blessing" or "the sacred name"). He is the ultimate God beyond good and evil (for that matter he is even beyond being and non-being). On ancient Gnostic amulets he appears as rooster-headed, with two serpents for legs and bearing in one hand a whip and in the other a shield with the word 'IAO'. Occasionally he appears as a charioteer. He is the source of the 365 emanations of the Divine Pleroma. The Creator God (see IALDABAOTH) is much inferior, hardly more than a Demiurge. It is said that, in order to express the important number 365 ("The Divine Cycle"). In Greek letters, Abraxas has that many Gods or "aeons" (or "Archons") under him.

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

exorcism: Any act or method whose purpose is to expel a spirit (particularly Satan, some other demon, or an offensive ghost) or multiple spirits from a person, place, or thing. The word exorcism also refers to any spell used in exorcism.

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

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

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Gehenna

See also: Gehenna , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Polytheism

The belief in the existence of a plurality of gods, in contrast to monotheism (one God) or atheism (no God or gods). The belief in both God and Satan is not considered polytheism by most Christians.

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

Hesiodic Cosmogony The cosmogony and theogony of Hesiod, the Greek poet-philosopher of the 8th century BC, are historical but need interpretation to understand the symbology involved and to filter out the accumulation of minor myths which have been mingled with it.

His two great works are Works and Days and Theogony. Among the features he mentions are: that gods and mortals have one common origin; that there have been four races preceding ours -- called golden, silver, bronze, and iron, the fourth being that of the heroes who fell at Thebes and Troy; that seven is a sacred number in days and in constellations; that the beginning of all things was Chaos (Hesiod having the singular restraint to say nothing about what preceded Chaos); that "night" came before "day."

The giants he mentions parallel the asuras and suras and are reminiscences of Atlanteans. His three cyclopes are said to have been representative figures for the last three subraces of Lemuria, and also for three polar continents (SD 2:769, 776). His Prometheus typifies the Greek moral ideal in representing this rebel demigod as the benefactor of mankind, in contrast with the Christian Satan.

(See also: Hesiodic Cosmogony , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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

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Excommunication

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BAPHOMET

Idol (chiefly its head) said to have been worshipped by the Templars. It is also the God of the Sabbath of Sorcerers. Its obvious association with Mohamet is possibly the result of unexamined Islam. Its also a symbol of Gnosticism. The Knights Templars (1118-1300) were involved with Gnosticism, Cathars, Albigensians, Manichaeans, and many other groups.

Since the Tarot appears in the 14th Century and since it bears some indications of Muslim origin (primarily the word, Al-Tariqa, or the way) and the Naipes of Spain (Arabic nabi, prophet), then perhaps Baphomet was supposed to be Mohammed. Crowley's Devil Baphomet certainly is alchemical, phallic and capric enough (with a 3rd eye).

Lévi: "To know how to extract from all matter the pure salt concealed therein is to possess the secret of the Stone that the Qabalists gave to their Mercury, the personification of Hermanubis and to Sulfur, the Templars' Baphomet." The name can also be given backwards: TEM OPH AB, Templum Omnium Hominum Pacis Abbas.

Satan, in an important sense, has no existence. He's perennially invented by a perverse will again and again, strictly for evil purposes. All inferior magicians worship the devil. The Devil, says Crowley, is created by the Black Brothers to imply a unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God.

Baphomet has his own tetramorph: Dog, Bull, Ass and Goat, representing perversions of the cardinal signs.

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

Michael micha'el (Hebrew) Who is as God; one of the seven archangels, in the Old Testament one of the chiefs of the heavenly host, regarded as the guardian angel or celestial patron of Israel. According to one legend, Michael was chief of the four or seven angels who surrounded the heavenly throne.

The Roman Catholic Church regards Michael in much the same light, his festival, Michaelmas, being held on September 29. With the Gnostics, the first of the Aeons, called the savior. In the New Testament Michael leads the angelic host against the Apocalyptic Dragon, repeating the familiar tale of many ancient mythologies. Again, he is the chief opponent of Samael, the principal antagonist of the heavenly host.

Originally, however, both Michael and Samael were as one, both proceeding from ruah (soul), neshamah (spirit), and nephesh (vitality) -- as taught in the Qabbalah (in the Chaldean Book of Numbers).

"Samael is the concealed (occult) Wisdom, and Michael the higher terrestrial Wisdom, both emanating from the same source but diverging after their issue from the mundane soul, which on Earth is Mahat (intellectual understanding), or Manas (the seat of Intellect). They diverge, because one (Michael) is influenced by Neschamah, while the other (Isamael) remains uninfluenced. This tenet was perverted by the dogmatic spirit of the Church; which . . . made of Samael-Satan (the most wise and spiritual spirit of all) -- the adversary of its anthropomorphic God and sensual physical man, the devil!" (SD 2:378).

In Ezekiel's vision of the Cherubim, or the four sacred animals, the angel with the face of the lion corresponds to Michael, as in the Ophite scheme.

(See also: Michael, micha'el , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Behemoth, singular behemah (Hebrew) (from baham to be dumb, mute)

A beast, a nonspeaking living being; used in Job 40:15-23. Scholars are of the opinion that the reference here is to the hippopotamus or the Leviathan. "Behemoth is the principle of Darkness, or Satan, in Roman Catholic Theology, and yet Job says of him that 'Behemoth is the chief (principle) of the ways of God' " (SD 2:486), and an entity spoken of, however poetically, as the chief of the ways of the divine, can hardly be a physical quadruped of earth.

(See also: Behemoth, behemah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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

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Christ

See also: Christ , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Horns Much used in the Bible, often as a symbol of might; and the altar in the tabernacle had horns, which were seized as sanctuary by the fugitive suppliant. In the prophetic and apocalyptic books of Christianity and other religions, we find dragons and other monsters with horns, the number of horns possibly having a symbolical reference to races. Its most general sense is as a symbol of natural generative power, whence it is characteristic of several symbolic animals, as the ram, the bull and cow, the goat, etc.

 It is seen in Greece in Pan, the god of natural generation and procreative fertility; and in Judaism in the goat which, as the scapegoat, stands among other things for the fall into generation, and was thus said to bear away the burden of the people's sins in early and medieval Europe.

Satan or the Devil is represented with horns in a similar sense, for actually he represents the nether aspect of nature, and in popular belief his horns, like his hoofs and tail, are regarded as horrific and bestial attributes. The moon, the oldest and most graphic symbol of productive generation, is said to have horns and the same are seen in the zodiacal Taurus, the sign of the moon's elevation, while the ram's horns are seen in Aries -- the one representing the passive, the other the active principle in nature.

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