Dragon of Wisdom Commonly an adept, one of the wise; also popularly a skilled magician -- whether of the right or left path. Referring to the earliest stages of cosmogony, dragon is a term often used for the sun in its various cosmologic functions, also for the One or Logos. An important significance of the phrase is that the real initiator of humanity, or of the individual neophyte, is the person's own higher ego.

In Chinese Buddhism the term is used for the genii of the four quarters, called in China the Black Warrior, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Azure Dragon -- the Four Hidden Dragons of Wisdom. In her rendering of the Stanzas of Dzyan, Blavatsky uses Dragon of Wisdom as an equivalent of Oeaohoo the Younger -- the germ and overseer of all things to the end of the life cycle.

(See also: Dragon of Wisdom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Water of Life The Book of Dzyan says that light is cold flame, flame is fire, and fire produces heat, which yields the water of life in the great mother; Blavatsky explained that all these are, on our plane, the progeny of electricity -- which is perhaps the most important physical manifestation of the cosmic jiva or life, emanating from fohat, or vice versa.

Also a synonym for Chaos, the great cosmic deep, as in the opening verses of Genesis, when the soul of the 'Elohim or hierarchy of dhyani-chohans moved through and over the waters.

Again, in myth and folktales, a magic liquid that cures all illnesses, brings the dead to life, or gives immortality. For example, in the Babylonian myth of Ishtar and Tammuz, the goddess descends to the underworld seeking the water of life to restore Tammuz to life.

See also AB-E-HAYAT

(See also: Water of Life , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Solar Lhas [from solar + Tibetan lha a celestial being]

Used in the Stanzas of Dzyan to indicate the higher beings derivative from the spiritual side of our sun who endowed the human monads of our planetary chain with the spirit of life. The solar Lhas warm and invigorate the protohuman shadows (SD 2:109), although they do not quicken their mind principle -- except insofar as the life-energy reaches the manasic element in the constitution. These solar lhas refer particularly to the pranic activity in the individual human being; the solar lhas of a far higher class are equivalent to the agnishvattas, manasaputras, and kumaras who awaken the human mind.

See also LHA

(See also: Solar Lhas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Pitri, Pitris pitr (Sanskrit) Fathers; referring to the merely human deceased father and grandparents; also to the progenitors of the human race. The pitris (progenitors) are of seven classes: three classes of arupa-pitris or higher dhyanis, which in our own solar system we call the solar pitris or agnishvattas; and the four lower classes known as barhishads or lunar pitris. The lunar pitris came from the moon-chain, while the solar pitris are those dhyan-chohans which have all the spiritual-intellectual fires, although they are too spiritual to have the physical creative fire. In preceding manvantaras they had finished their physical and astral evolution, but by cyclic necessity, enlightened the lunar pitris which had only the physical creative fire.

The pitris "are called 'Fathers' because they are more particularly the actual progenitors of our lower principles; whereas the Dhyani-Chohans are actually, in one most important sense, our own selves. We were born from them; we were the monads, we were the atoms, the souls, projected, sent forth, emanated, by the Dhyanis.

". . . the Lunar Pitris may briefly be said to be those consciousness-centers in the human constitution which feel humanly, which feel instinctually, and which possess the brain-mind mentality. The Agnishwatta-Pitris are those monadic centers of the human constitution which are of a purely spiritual type" (OG 125-6). These pitris were not forefathers of present humanity, but of our distantly remote ancestors named formerly by some writers the Adamic races.

The evolution of the first root-race of mankind from the astral bodies of the pitris took place on seven distinctly separated regions of the earth existing then at the arctic pole (cf SD 2:329). Of the succession of the root-races the Stanzas of Dzyan say: "First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the 'Spiritual Lives' projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine 'Sishta,' (the seed-Manus, or the Prajapati and the Pitris)" (SD 2:164). As progenitors of the various human root-races, pitris refer pointedly to the life-waves, manus, prajapatis, and sishtas.

Brahma occasionally, as the generalized Progenitor, stands in Hindu literature for the pitris collectively, and is thus called Father.

(See also: Pitri, Pitris, pitr , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sea of Fire In the Stanzas of Dzyan, "the Super-Astral (i.e., noumenal) Light, the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter. It is also called the 'Fiery Serpent . . .' " (SD 1:75).

(See also: Sea of Fire , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Shu-king (Chinese) Also Shoo King, Shu Ching. Popularly known as the Canon, or Book of History; one of the Four Shu Books compiled by Confucius from documents which were ancient in his day.

Blavatsky refers to this work as "China's primitive Bible" compiled from the Book of Dzyan (SD 1:xliii), remarking that it is full of reminiscences about the fourth root-race and the giants of bygone times (SD 2:280-1).

(See also: Shu-king , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Dzyn or Dzyan (Tibet, Tibetan). Written also Dzen. A corruption of the Sanskrit Dhyan and jnana (or gnyana phonetically) - Wisdom, divine knowledge. In Tibetan, learning is called dzin.

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

Sacred Four Used in the Stanzas of Dzyan in speaking of the primordial principles in cosmogenesis as numbers:

"I. The Adi-Sanat, the Number, for he is One.

II. The Voice of the Word, Svabhavat, the Numbers, for he is One and Nine.

III. The 'Formless Square.' (Arupa).

And these three enclosed within the O (boundless circle), are the sacred four" (SD 1:98).

The triad forms within the circle the tetraktys or sacred four, the square within the circle being the most potent of all magical figures.

The kumaras, though seven in number, are called the four, because the four chief of them sprang from the fourfold mystery. It is one of the several meanings of the swastika. This sacred four has to be distinguished from the manifested four or quaternary.

The most sacred oath of the Pythagoreans was "by the Sacred Four," or tetraktys.

See also ADI-NIDANA; ADI-SANAT; ARUPA; SVABHAVAT

(See also: Sacred Four , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Dangma (Senzar-Tibetan) {BCW Index has Tibetan Dwans-ma} Purified soul; used north of the Himalayas for one in whom the spiritual eye is active and who therefore is a jivanmukta or high mahatma. "The opened eye of the dangma" is used in the Stanzas of Dzyan for the awakened, active faculty of spiritual vision and intuition, through which direct, certain knowledge is obtainable of whatever thing or subject the initiate directs his attention to. It is called in India the Eye of Siva and by theosophists, the spiritual third eye.

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

Nine Especially significant when regarded as a triad of triads, it is the number which reproduces itself in multiplication. "It is the sign of every circumference, since its value in degrees is equal to 9, i.e., to 3+6+0. It is a bad number under certain conditions, and very unlucky. If number 6 was the symbol of our globe ready to be animated by a divine spirit, 9 symbolized our earth informed by a bad or evil spirit" (SD 2:581).

As nine is one less than ten, in a denary hierarchy it is all the units except the first, the first being regarded as the origin or synthesis of the emanated nine. Thus one and nine may represent spirit and matter, or unmanifest and manifest, a logos and its rays. In the Stanzas of Dzyan svabhavat is the numbers one and nine, which make the perfect ten; and the same is seen in the ten Sephiroth of the Qabbalah, where Kether the Crown is often considered apart from the other nine. It was an especially favorite number in Norse mythology, appearing continuously throughout the Eddas.

In a denary system of hierarchies, in which the ending of one is the beginning of the subsequent hierarchy, we have actually a series or scale of nines. Many properties assigned to nine pertain to its position in the decimal scale. In many languages the word for nine is similar to that for new -- Sanskrit navan, nava; Greek ennea, neos; Latin novem, novus; German neun, neu -- which apprises us that nine has been considered from immemorial time the number of change or renovation, for it is followed by the complete number making 10, or springs from the monadic unit also making 10 -- in either case the reckoning enters upon a new decimal series.

(See also: Nine , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Ring-pass-not The limit in spiritual, intellectual, or psychological power or consciousness, beyond which an individual is unable to pass until he evokes from within the strength and the vision to carry him forwards and over the circumscribing limits set by that individual's own karma. In the Stanzas of Dzyan, the lipikas are said to circumscribe the triangle, the first one, the cube, the second one, and the pentacle within the egg, which is the ring called pass not for those who descend and ascend and for those who are progressing toward the great Day Be-With-Us.

Also called the dhyanipasa (rope of the dhyanis or angels) that hedges off the phenomenal from the noumenal kosmos. The world circumscribed by this ring is signified mathematically by 31415 = 14 expressing hierarchies of dhyan-chohans. The imbodying monads, and men who are ascending towards purification but have not yet quite reached the goal, can cross the ring only on the Day Be-With-Us, the day when man will have freed himself from the trammels of ignorance and recognized fully the nonseparateness of his personal ego from the universal ego, and returns into conscious at-one-ness with Brahman.

These ring-pass-not are therefore obviously not actual rings of matter, but inabilities to pass beyond the limits set by one's own strength. They refer to tangible and intangible, albeit temporarily impassible, frontiers or barriers raised by past karma and guarded by the lipikas, those cosmic spirits of extremely mystical character who are at the same time the guardians and agents of karma.

The term is variable, inasmuch as what would be the ring-pass-not for the human hierarchy would not be so to a superior hierarchy. Similarly the ring-pass-not for the beings below the human kingdom is not a boundary for humans. This has an especial reference to states of consciousness, and the majority of the human host is still unable to extend its consciousness beyond the sphere of man's immediate activities -- which thus at present form for humanity an intangible but very real ring-pass-not. There is a ring-pass-not surrounding globe D, this earth, and a ring of farther extension surrounding the earth planetary-chain, and beyond that still another surrounding the solar system, and a still larger one circumscribing the galaxy, etc.

(See also: Ring-pass-not , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Chhayaloka chayalok (Sanskrit) (from chhaya shadow + loka world)

Used in the Stanzas of Dzyan for the shadow of cosmic spirit, the first shadowy veil involving the origins of primal or intellectual forms: "the 'Divine Arupa' (the formless Universe of Thought) reflects itself in Chhayaloka (the shadowy world of primal form, or the intellectual) the first garment of (the) Anupadaka" (SD 1:118-19).

Also an equivalent of the Greek and Roman Hades, the world of shades, eidola, and umbrae, corresponding to kama-loka.

(See also: Chhayaloka, chayalok , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Siphra' Di-tseni`utha' (Chaldean) "Their counting or telling of the concealed mysteries," the Book of Secrets or Mysteries; one of the principal books of the Zohar (Light); the secrets or mysteries dealt with are those relating to cosmogony and to the inhabitants of those worlds, thus forming the basis of the Hebrew Qabbalah. The work opens with the statement: "The book of the concealed mystery is the book of the equilibrium of balance," and proceeds to expound this thesis in Qabbalistic terminology.

Blavatsky calls it "the most ancient Hebrew document on occult learning" (SD 1:xlii), although the language used is largely Chaldean, and states that it was compiled from the very ancient Book of Dzyan through the archaic Chaldean Qabbalah.

(See also: Siphra' Di-tseni`utha' , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Ch'an. See DHYANA; DZYAN

(See also: Ch'an , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Oeaohoo Also Oeaihu, Oeaihwu. A very ancient form of the sacred and mystical holy name as it occurs in the Stanzas of Dzyan. These seven letters stand for seven vowels, and according to the method of pronunciation the name may be given "as one, three, or even seven syllables by adding an e after the letter o" (SD 1:68). The pronunciation is somewhat similar to the Chinese tones (kungs): the spelling of a word is the same, but according to the tonal value or stress given, its meaning alters.

This word is a way of expressing the kosmic life in all its seven, ten, or twelvefold divisions, each letter of the seven referring to one of the kosmic principles or elements. Their union into a single term calls attention to kosmic unity. It is a representation for the six manifested and the one unmanifested, thus making the mystic seven principle-elements of our home universe. Oeaohoo the Younger is the reflection or mirroring on a lower plane of the universal unity; and therefore Oeaohoo the Younger is, strictly speaking, the Logos considered as a triad and thus really comprising the First or unmanifest, the Second or partially manifest, and the creative, manifest, or Third Logoi.

Corresponding to Kwan-shai-yin, Oeaohoo "contains in himself the Seven Creative Hosts (the Sephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom" (SD 1:72). In the human constitution, Oeaohoo the Younger is the higher triad of atma-buddhi-manas, with an emphatic pointing to the atman as the predominant life in this higher triad. Similarly so as regards the kosmos or universe. The meaning of one of its permutations, Oi-ha-hou, is "among the Eastern Occultists of the North, a circular wind, whirlwind; but in this instance, it is a term to denote the ceaseless and eternal Cosmic Motion; or rather the Force that moves it, which Force is tacitly accepted as the Deity but never named. It is the eternal Karana, the ever-acting Cause" (SD 1:93n).

The Gnostics used the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet AEHIOY-O on their gems; and in the Pistis Sophia the Rabbi Jesus in speaking to his disciples says: "Nothing therefore is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mystery of the seven vowels and their forty and nine powers, and their numbers thereof; and no name is more excellent than all these vowels" (SD 2:564).

Blavatsky gives several variants of the spelling of this word and the modern spelling is of minor importance; what is important is to get the mystic or metaphysical philosophical meaning behind the word.

See also AEIOV

(See also: Oeaohoo, Oeaihu, Oeaihwu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Niflung(ar) (Icelandic) [from nifl mist, nebula + unge child]

Children of the mist; in the Norse Edda comparable to the Sons of the Firemist of the Stanzas of Dzyan (SD 1:86). Beings that were part of earth's primordial, nebular history before humanity had become distinct physical beings.

They were succeeded by increasingly material races, among them the Volsungar (children of volsi phallus) representing a later stage of development after the separation of mankind into male and female. The tales of the Nibelungen give little of the broader import found in the Edda.

(See also: Niflung , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Moon-colored Races Four principal racial colors are enumerated in the Stanzas of Dzyan: moon-colored (yellow-white), yellow like gold, red, and brown or black. The subraces of the fourth root-race had these colors in serial order, and every root-race repeats the sequence in its own time period. In one allegory, Siva as Svetalohita, a root-kumara, goes through these (and other unmentioned) transformations of color. The moon-colored race disappeared entirely when the present fifth root-race appeared.

(See also: Moon-colored Races , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Stanzas of Dzyan Archaic verses of philosophical and cosmogonical content drawn from the Book of Dzyan, which form the basis of The Secret Doctrine. They present the esoteric teachings in regard to cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis, and are the ancient heritage of humanity as preserved by the brotherhood of mahatmas.

Every race and nation has drawn from this source through the medium of its initiated or inspired teachers and saviors. Only portions of the original verses are given in The Secret Doctrine, and Blavatsky's presentation there represents the first time that they have been set down in a modern European language; her endeavor always was to represent the meaning rather than to give a merely literal rendering of the words: "it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the allegorical phrases used. Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain" (SD 1:21).

Especially is this the case when the Stanzas refer to events and conditions of cosmic or human life of which mankind today has virtually lost all memory, except for the scattered fragments of archaic writings which have reached us out of the darkness of prehistory. Only deep meditation and contemplation upon the mystical symbols used will awaken the faculty to comprehend them:

"The history of cosmic evolution, as traced in the Stanzas, is, so to say, the abstract algebraical formula of that Evolution. . . . .

"The Stanzas, therefore, give an abstract formula which can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to all evolution: to that of our tiny earth, to that of the chain of planets of which that earth forms one, to the solar Universe to which that chain belongs, and so on, in an ascending scale, till the mind reels and is exhausted in the effort.

"The seven Stanzas given in this volume represent the seven terms of this abstract formula. They refer to, and describe the seven great stages of the evolutionary process, which are spoken of in the Puranas as the 'Seven Creations,' and in the Bible as the 'Days' of Creation" (SD 1:20-1).

These archaic stanzas are written preeminently in symbolic language, with the intention of giving, perhaps, a sevenfold meaning; "as there are seven keys of interpretation to every symbol and allegory, that which may not fit a meaning, say from the psychological or astronomical aspect, will be found quite correct from the physical or metaphysical" (SD 2:22n).

See also BOOK OF DZYAN

(See also: Stanzas of Dzyan , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)