Indus Valley Civilization (ca. 4000-1,500 BC): an advanced civilization in ancient India concurrent with the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations. Numerous sites of ruins lie along the Indus River in present-day Pakistan.

(See also:  Indus Valley Civilization , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

COBRA

The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous explains the metaphorical aspects of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The first entry is about serpents. It seems the Egyptians used the cobra to designate royalty because of its power over life and death. Since, when coiled, its tail disappears, it is also a fitting symbol for eternity. The Greeks called the serpent oura, or "tail", whence the "Uraeus", which is the Greek word for the cobra-shaped crown worn by kings and gods alike. To demonstrate its "eternal" aspect, the Greeks depicted the serpent devouring its own tail (Ouroboros "tail-devouring"). Oddly enough, the Greek letter rho is similar in shape to the beta, and some scholars think oura (read ouba) is taken from an old Hebrew word for sorcery ob. (See OBEAH).

This is all very instructive, to be sure, but what interests us is that the Egyptians believed that the cobra was so deadly that it didn't even have to sink its fangs into a person. It barely needed to graze him. In fact, it merely had to "breathe" on someone to inflict its venom. Now, since we already know that the "king" cobra was associated with royalty, its not surprising that the Greeks should call it, in their language, "the little king" or basilisk, bringing along with the word the Egyptian version of its natural history.

By the time we reach the Middle Ages in Europe, the basilisk (since cobras don't exist in Europe) had turned into a fabulous beast with wings and a fiery breath fatal to every living thing. A similar transformation happened to the poor white rhinoceros of Africa; in Europe the unicorn was turned into a fabulous horse with a horn. And when we learn that the most fearsome of sea serpents, the Nichus, was born of a medieval monk's mistranslation of an original misspelling of the Latin version of the "Nile" river (Nilus), an obnoxious pattern emerges: the decay of truth into superstition, simply because of linguistic ignorance.

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

Aditi (Sanskrit) (from a not + diti bound from the verbal root da to bind)

Unbounded, free; as a noun, infinite and shoreless expanse. In the Vedas, Aditi is devamatri (mother of the gods) as from and in her cosmic matrix all the heavenly bodies were born. As the celestial virgin and mother of every existing form and being, the synthesis of all things, she is highest akasa. Aditi is identified in the Rig-Veda with Vach (mystic speech) and also with the mulaprakriti of the Vedanta. As the womb of space, she is a feminized form of Brahma. The line in the Rig-Veda: "Daksha sprang from Aditi and Aditi from Daksha" has reference to "the eternal cyclic re-birth of the same divine Essence" (SD 2:247n). In one of its most mystic aspects Aditi is divine wisdom.

Aditi has correspondences in many ancient religions: the highest Sephirah in the Zohar; the Gnostic Sophia-Achamoth; Rhea, mother of the Greek Olympians; Bythos or the great Deep; Amba; Surarani; Chaos; Waters of Space; Primordial Light; and the source of the Egyptian seven heavens. Sometimes she is linked with the Greek Gaia, goddess of earth, to denote dual nature or the mother of both the spiritual and physical: Aditi, cosmic expanse or space being the mother of all things; and Gaia, mother of earth and, on the larger scale, of all objective nature (cf SD 2:65, 269).

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

Isarim 'issarim (Hebrew) (from 'asar to bind, confirm, frequently used in the sense of vows of abstinence)

A name for initiates or adepts among the ancient Hebrew, and particularly among the ancient Jewish Essenes, counterparts of the Egyptian hierophants.

(See also: Isarim, 'issarim , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mut, Mout (Egyptian) Mother; the second member of the triad of Thebean deities, generally known as the Lady of Thebes, and holding with Amen-Ra (Ammon-Ra) the principal position among the gods of the New Empire. Although mother of Khensu (or Khonsu -- the third member of the triad) and wife of Amen-Ra, she is often called his mother.

Her attributes are those of the world-mother, the inscriptions upon the ruins of her temple at Thebes address her as "Lady of Heaven, Queen of the Gods, she who giveth birth, but was herself not born." Sometimes she is represented with androgynous aspects (with the head of a man and with the phallus). She is associated with Isis and Nekhebet, although more often made equivalent to Nut, goddess of the watery deep, mother of the gods, and of all that is. Mut also in many respects has the characteristics that were attributed to Hathor.

From these attributes of cosmic fecundity, Mut came to be associated on a smaller scale with the moon, the mother of earth and giver of material life.

See also NEKHEBET

(See also: Mut, Mout , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar

A amll book compiled by the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith while he was: "translating" The Book of Abraham

(See also: Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Heqet or Heqtit (Egyptian) A goddess, represented as frog-headed, generally identified with Hathor, but in Hermopolis also associated with Isis, as the two goddesses were the abstract and the concrete aspects of the same cosmic power. Originally the female counterpart of the god Khnemu, by whom she became the mother of Aroeris (Heru-ur or Horus the Elder). She is also connected with resurrection.

See also FROG

(See also: Heptakis, heptaktys , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Konx-Om-Pax (Ancient Greek). Mystic words used in the Eleusinian mysteries. It is believed that these words are the Greek imitation of ancient Egyptian words once used in the secret ceremonies of the Isiac cult. Several modern authors give fanciful translations, but they are all only guesses at the truth.

(See also: Konx-Om-Pax , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Hippopotamus (Ancient Greek) In Egyptian symbolism Typhon was called "the hippopotamus who slew his father and violated his mother," Rhea (mother of the gods). His father was Chronos. As applied therefore to Time and Nature (Chronos and Rhea), the accusation becomes comprehensible.

The type of Cosmic Disharmony, Typhon, who is also Python, the monster formed of the slime of the Deluge of Deucalion, "violates" his mother, Primordial Harmony, whose beneficence was so great that she was called "The Mother of the Golden Age". It was Typhon, who put an end to the latter, i.e., produced the first war of elements.

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

Typheus (Ancient Greek). A famous giant, who had a hundred heads like those of a serpent or dragon, and who was the reputed father of the Winds, as Siva was that of the Maruts - also "winds ". He made war against the gods, and is identical with the Egyptian Typhon.

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

Zipporah tsipporah (Hebrew) A circling, revolving, hence song or singing as a circling of sound; in the Bible, one of the seven daughters of Jethro, the Midianite priest, given in marriage to Moses after the latter had assisted her at the well (Ex 2). In one interpretation, "Jethro is called the 'father-in-law' of Moses; not because Moses was really married to one of his seven daughters. Moses was an Initiate, if he ever existed, and as such an ascetic, a nazar, and could never be married. It is an allegory like everything else. Zipporah (the shining) is one of the personified Occult Sciences given by Revel-Jethro, the Midian priest Initiator, to Moses, his Egyptian pupil. The 'well' by which Moses sat down in his fight from the Pharaoh symbolizes the 'well of Knowledge' " (SD 2:466n).

Zipporah is similar to the City Sippara -- situated on the Euphrates River north of Babylon -- where the casting of the infant Sargon occurred, which is practically identical with the story of Moses, only said to have happened about 1100 years earlier. Blavatsky concludes that Ezra applied this story to that of the prophet Moses when he compiled his history in Exodus.

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

Emepht (Egyptian) "The One, Supreme Planetary principle, who blows the (world)

egg out of his mouth, and who is, therefore, Brahma"; (SD 1:367) "the supreme, first principle, produced an egg; by brooding over which, and permeating the substance of it with its own vivifying essence, the germ contained within was developed; and Phtha, the active creative principle proceeded from it, and began his work." (IU 1:146; 2:41)

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

Aroueris (Ancient Greek). The god Harsiesi, who was the elder Horus. He had a temple at Ambos. if we bear in mind the definition of the chief Egyptian gods by Plutarch, these myths will become more comprehensible; as he well says: "Osiris represents the beginning and principle; Isis, that which receives; and Horus, the compound of both. Horus engendered between them, is not eternal nor incorruptible, but, being always in generation, he endeavours by vicissitudes of imitations, and by periodical passion (yearly re-awakening to life) to continue always young, as if he should never die."

Thus, since Horus is the personified physical world, Aroueris, or the "elder Horus", is the ideal Universe; and this accounts for the saying that "he was begotten by Osiris and Isis when these were still in the bosom of their mother" - Space. There is indeed, a good deal of mystery about this god, but the meaning of the symbol becomes clear once one has the key to it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Definition and meaning of Insurance :

A contract whereby an insurer promises to pay the insured a sum of money or some other benefit upon the happening of one or more uncertain events in exchange for the payment of a premium. There must be uncertainty as to whether the relevant event(s) may happen at all or, if they will occur (e.g. death) as to their timing.

(Source Lloyd's )

Also see these pages: Insurance , Insurance, Insurance Sitemap, Insurance Dictionary - I

Cardinal Points Either the four chief points of the compass (north, east, south, west), or the four chief zodiacal constellations which have descended to us from antiquity as Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, though due to the precession of equinoxes these constellations shift as the ages pass. These four points are connected with the four arms of the equal-armed cross or with the swastika, as also with the cube -- the four points with zenith and nadir added.

Cosmically the four cardinal points represent a certain stage of manifestation where the three become four, in this case the number of matter. The Zohar says that the three primordial elements and the four cardinal points and all the forces of nature form the Voice of the Will, which is the manifested Logos. The Dodonaean Zeus includes in himself the four elements and the four cardinal points. Brahma is likewise four-faced.

The pyramid is the triangle repeated on the four cardinal points and symbolizes, among other things, the phenomenal merging into the noumenal.

The four cardinal points are presided over, or are manifestations of, four cosmic genii, dragons, maharajas -- in Buddhism the chatur-maharajas (four great kings) -- hidden dragons of wisdom, or celestial nagas. Hinduism has the four, six, or eight lokapalas. In the Egyptian and Jewish temples these points were represented by the four colors of the curtain hung before the Adytum.

See also EAST; NORTH; SOUTH; WEST

(See also: Cardinal Points , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mastaba (Arabic) Bench; a long, low oblong ancient Egyptian structure, with sloping sides and flat top, used as a mortuary chapel and place for depositing offerings; it generally covered a sepulchral pit which led to the burial chamber, where the mummy was placed.

"These tombs of the ancients were symbolical like the rest of their sacred edifices, and . . . this symbology points directly to the septenary division of man. But in death the order is revered; and while the Mastaba with its scenes of daily life painted on the walls, its table of offerings, to the Larva, the ghost, or 'Linga-Sarira,' was a memorial raised to the two Principles and Life which has quitted that which was a lower trio on earth; the Pit, the Passage, the Burial Chambers and the mummy in the Sarcophagus, were the objective symbols raised to the two perishable 'principles,' the personal mind and Kama, and the three imperishable, the higher Triad, now merged into one. This 'One' was the Spirit of the Blessed now resting in the Happy Circle of Aanroo" (TG 209).

During the reigns of Userkaf and Men-kau-Heru (5th dynasty) the mastaba was surmounted with a pyramidal structure, erected in honor of Ra.

(See also: Mastaba , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Absolute (from Latin ab away + solvere to loosen, dissolve)

Freed, released, absolved; parallel to the Sanskrit moksha, mukti (set free, released), also to the Buddhist nirvana (blown out), all three terms signifying one who has obtained freedom from the cycle of material existence.

Absolute, in European philosophy, is used somewhat loosely for the unconditional or boundless infinitude. On the other hand, Sir W. Hamilton (Disc 13n) considers the Absolute as "diametrically opposed to, . . . contradictory of, the Infinite," which is correct from the standpoint of both etymology and abstract philosophy. Blavatsky uses the term both ways: sometimes equating it with infinity, at other times with the first cause or one divine substance-principle.

Strictly speaking, absolute is a relative term. It is the philosophic One or cosmic originant, but not the mystic zero or infinitude. An absolute or a cosmic freed one is not That (infinity), for infinity has no attributes: it is neither absolute nor nonabsolute, conscious nor unconscious, because all attributes and qualities belong to manifested and therefore noninfinite beings and things (cf FSO 89-90). The boundless or infinite, in which exist innumerable absolutes, includes the cognizer, the cognized, and the cognition, and is both matter and spirit, subject and object; all egos and non-egos are included within it.

From the zero emanate an infinite number of cosmic Ones or monads. Every absolute is not only the hierarch of its own hierarchy, the One from which all subsequent differentiations emanate, but is also a cosmic jivanmukta, a released monad freed from the pull of the lower planes. Every monad at the threshold of paranirvana reassumes its primeval essence and becomes at one with the absolute of its own hierarchy once more. The absolute is thus the goal of evolution as well as the source, the highest divinity or Silent Watcher of the hierarchy of compassion, which forms the light side of a universe or cosmic hierarchy.

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

ISIAN TRADITION:

1) a Wiccan tradition founded in Texas by an English Traditional Wiccan High Priestess and a Qabalistic ceremonial magician. It is Egyptian-oriented, and its training and initiatory system are based on the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

2) a Wiccan tradition founded in Canada and consisting of a family of related covens including Isis-Artemis, Isis-Urania, and others. It is basically English Traditional in approach.

3) a Pagan tradition founded by The Fellowship of Isis, and originating in Ireland.

(See also: ISIAN TRADITION , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Primordial Water Chaos, "the great green one," the Egyptian Nu, the waters of space; a graphic descriptive term of cosmic space before manvantara begins.

(See also: Primordial Water , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Yawning

• If you yawn in your dreams, you will search in vain for health and contentment.
• To see others yawning, foretells that you will see some of your friends in a miserable state. Sickness will prevent them from their usual labors.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Yawning , Meaning of Dreams about Yawning , Dream Interpretation Yawning )

Evestrum Equivalent of astral body, sidereal man, or Egyptian kha (SD 2:633).

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