Carl-Johan Calleman is an internationally recognized authority in the studies of the Mayan Calendar. He has appeared in Swedish, Finnish and Mexican television and American Web-TV. He has published two books about the Mayan Calendar and he was one of the main speakers at a Mexican conference in Yucatan 1998 about the Mayan Calendar.

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Aphrodite (Greek) Greek Goddess of love and beauty, in older times regarded as signifying the harmony of cosmos. Originally the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a lunar deity like Aphrodite, both being represented with the horns of the moon or of the zodiacal sign Taurus; but the same deity in ancient mystical philosophy may be at once mother, wife, and daughter -- so difficult is it to find among our common notions a symbolism that will convey the full meaning anciently intended.

Later, under Eastern influence, she was said to have been born from the sea foam and to have landed in a seashell on the isle of Cythera. A sea goddess as well as an earth goddess of gardens, groves, and springtime, she was the wife of Hephaestus and connected also with Ares and Adonis; mother of Eros.

As Aphrodite Urania, she was identified with the goddess of heaven Astarte, and later under Platonic influence came to represent spiritual love as opposed to earthly love, represented by Aphrodite Pandemos. Among her analogs are Isis, Ishtar, Mylitta, Eve, Vach, etc., all the mother of all living beings and of the gods, cosmically. The Romans identified Aphrodite with Venus, and the Egyptians with Hathor.

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

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Pre-existence. The term used to denote that we have lived before. The same as reincarnation in the past. The idea is derided by some, rejected by others, called absurd and inconsistent by the third yet it is the oldest and the most universally accepted belief from an immemorial antiquity.

And if this belief was universally accepted by the most subtle philosophical minds of the pre-Christian world, surely it is not amiss that some of our modern intellectual men should also believe in it, or at least give the doctrine the benefit of the doubt. Even the Bible hints at it more than once, St. John the Baptist being regarded as the reincarnation of Elijah, and the Disciples asking whether the blind man was born blind because of his sins, which is equal to saying that he had lived and sinned before being born blind. As Mr. Bonwick well says: it was "the work of spiritual progression and soul discipline.

The pampered sensualist returned a beggar; the proud oppressor, a slave ; the selfish woman of fashion, a seamstress. A turn of the wheel gave a chance for the development of neglected or abused intelligence and feeling, hence the popularity of reincarnation in all climes and times. . . . thus the expurgation of evil was . . . gradually but certainly accomplished." Verily "an evil act follows a man, passing through one hundred thousand transmigrations" (Panchatantra).

"All souls have a subtle vehicle, image of the body, which carries the passive soul from one material dwelling to another" says Kapila; while Basnage explains of the Jews: "By this second death is not considered hell, but that which happens when a soul has a second time animated a body". Herodotus tells his readers, that the Egyptians "are the earliest who have spoken of this doctrine, according to which the soul of man is immortal, and after the destruction of the body, enters into a newly born being. When, say they, it has passed through all the animals of the earth and sea, and all the birds, it will re-enter the body of a new born man." This is Pre-existence. Deveria showed that the funeral books of the Egyptians say plainly "that resurrection was, in reality, but a renovation, leading to a new infancy, and a new youth. (See "Reincarnation".)

(See also: Pre-existence , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

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Atum (Egyptian) Adam of the Egyptians (BCW 9:20-1; 14:204).

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

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Astrology (Ancient Greek) The Science which defines the action of celestial bodies upon mundane affairs, and claims to foretell future events from the position of the stars. Its antiquity is such as to place it among the very earliest records of human learning.

It remained for long ages a secret science in the East, and its final expression remains so to this day, its exoteric application having been brought to any degree of perfection in the West only during the period of time since Varaha Muhira wrote his book on Astrology some 1400 years ago. Claudius Ptolemy, the famous geographer and mathematician, wrote his treatise Tetrabiblos about 135 A.D., which is still the basis of modern astrology.

The science of Horoscopy is studied now chiefly under four heads: viz.,

(1) Mundane, in its application to meteorology, seismology, husbandry, etc.

(2) State or civic, in regard to the fate of nations, kings and rulers.

(3) Horary, in reference to the solving of doubts arising in the mind upon any subject.

(4) Genethliacal, in its application to the fate of individuals from the moment of their birth to their death.

The Egyptians and the Chaldees were among the most ancient votaries of Astrology, though their modes of reading the stars and the modern practices differ considerably. The former claimed that Belus, the Bel or Elu of the Chaldees, a scion of the divine Dynasty, or the Dynasty of the king-gods, had belonged to the land of Chemi, and had left it, to found a colony from Egypt on the banks of the Euphrates, where a temple ministered by priests in the service of the "lords of the stars" was built, the said priests adopting the name of Chaldees.

Two things are known:

(a) that Thebes (in Egypt) claimed the honour of the invention of Astrology; and

(b) that it was the Chaldees who taught that science to the other nations.

Now Thebes antedated considerably not only "Ur of the Chaldees", but also Nipur, where Bel was first worshipped - Sin, his son (the moon), being the presiding deity of Ur, the land of the nativity of Terah, the Sabean and Astrolatrer, and of Abram, his son, the great Astrologer of biblical tradition. All tends, therefore, to corroborate the Egyptian claim.

If later on the name of Astrologer fell into disrepute in Rome and elsewhere, it was owing to the fraud of those who wanted to make money by means of that which was part and parcel of the sacred Science of the Mysteries, and, ignorant of the latter, evolved a system based entirely upon mathematics, instead of on transcendental metaphysics and having the physical celestial bodies as its upadhi or material basis. Yet, all persecutions notwithstanding, the number of the adherents of Astrology among the most intellectual and scientific minds was always very great.

If Cardan and Kepler were among its ardent supporters, then its later votaries have nothing to blush for, even in its now imperfect and distorted form. As said in Isis Unveiled (1. 259): "Astrology is to exact astronomy what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and psychology one has to step beyond the visible world of matter, and enter into the domain of transcendent spirit." (See " Astronomos.")

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

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Week The period of seven days was known to the Hindus, Egyptians, Hebrews, and other ancient nations, but not used by the Greeks or Romans until the Christian Emperor Theodosius. It is not based on any exact astronomical cycle, so far as is ordinarily known, though it may be considered roughly as a subdivision of the month. It was well known to the Hebrews, and in the New Testament the word week translates the Greek Sabbator which is the Hebrew Shabbath. Though commonly Sabbath is taken to mean a seventh day after six, a more esoteric sense makes it a period of seven time units of rest after a period of seven active time units -- in other words after a septenary manvantara comes a septenary pralaya. The word is also used of other sevenfold time periods, such as a week of years or of ages; for each of the days in a week of years represents 360 solar years, and the whole week 2,520 years. The Hebrews "had a Sabbatical week, a Sabbatical year, etc., etc., and their Sabbath lasted indifferently 24 hours or 24,000 years -- in their secret calculations of the Sods. We of the present times call an age a century" (SD 2:395).

The nomenclature of the seven days of the week according to the seven sacred planets is serially uniform in the various calendars, and points to a common origin of this knowledge. It can be arrived at by dividing the day into 24 hours and assigning a planet to each hour, for instance, first counting from Saturn, then Jupiter, then Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, down to the Moon when, by this system of counting and pausing at every fourth, both inclusive, the first planetary hour of each day, beginning with the sunrise, will be found to be governed by the planet which is assigned to that day. The same occurs with a ten-hour day, or by counting the planets in order and giving one to each quarter of the day (cf Fund 250).

Here are the names of the days of the week in the English, ancient Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, Greek, and Latin systems as being sacred to their deities:

English // Anglo-Saxon // Scandinavian // Greek // Latin

Sunday // Sunnandaeg // Day of the Sun // Phoebus // Apollo

Monday // Monandaeg // Day of the Moon // Artemis // Diana

Tuesday // Tiwesdaeg // Day of Tiw // Ares // Mars

Wednesday // Wodnesdaeg // Day of Odin // Hermes // Mercurius

Thursday // Thunresdaeg // Day of Thor // Zeus // Jupiter

Friday // Frigedaeg // Day of Frigga // Aphrodite // Venus

Saturday // Saeterndaeg // Day of (?) // Kronos // Saturnus

Blavatsky writes that in the course of time the seven-headed or septenary Dragon-logos became split up into "four heptanomic parts or twenty-eight portions," which suggests the division of the week and the month, into the seven days of the week, and the 28 days of the lunar month, and the four seasons of the year. "Each lunar week has a distinct occult character in the lunar month; each day of the twenty-eight has its special characteristics; as each of the twelve constellations, whether separately or in combination with other signs, has an occult influence either for good or for evil" (SD 1:409).

The ancient Mexicans had a different system of dividing their weeks and months: their week consisted of five days, and their month of 20 days. There were likewise other weeks among other nations or peoples as, for instance, the Athenians had a week of ten days, etc.

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

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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,)

For more dictionary entries, see » Egyptians Dictionary

SET/SETH

Dark god of Egypt -- ruled the Redlands, or Desert, hence those things that were most fearful to the Egyptians. Sometimes associated with Satan. That etymological connection, however, is very uncertain. Satan, in Hebrew means "to accuse," hence Satan is the "adversary" or "critic." On the other hand S-T or Sh-T, in Egyptian, nearly always has something to do with the "South" or travel thereto, a sense that is totally lacking in the Hebrew word.

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

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Holy Water As practiced in the Roman Catholic Church the rite is virtually identical with that of the ancient Egyptians: the water which has been blessed or consecrated is used to sprinkle the worshipers and objects used in the church service.

It was unquestionably adopted from the ancient Mysteries, and became a rite of external symbolic purification. In Egypt and pagan Rome, it "accompanied the rite of bread and wine. 'Holy water was sprinkled by the Egyptian priest alike upon his gods' images and the faithful. It was both poured and sprinkled.

A brush has been found, supposed to have been used for that purpose, as at this day.' (Bonwick's Egyptian Belief (p. 418)) As to the bread, 'the cakes of Isis . . . were placed upon the altar. Gliddon writes that they were "identical in shape with the consecrated cake of the Roman and Eastern Churches." Melville assures us "the Egyptians marked this holy bread with St. Andrew's cross." The Presence bread was broken before being distributed by the priests to the people, and was supposed to become the flesh and blood of the Deity. The miracle was wrought by the hand of the officiating priest, who blessed the food. . . . Rouge tells us "the bread offerings bear the imprint of the fingers, the mark of consecration".' (Ibid, page 418)" (TG 144-5).

(See also: Holy Spirit , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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Thummim (Hebrew, Jewish). "Perfections." An ornament on the breastplates of the ancient High Priests of Judaism. Modern Rabbins and Hebraists may well pretend they do not know the joint purposes of the Thummim and the Urim; but the Kabbalists do and likewise the Occultists.

They were the instruments of magic divination and oracular communication -  theurgic and astrological. This is shown in the following well-known facts  -

(1) upon each of the twelve precious stones was engraved the name of one of the twelve sons of Jacob, each of these "sons" personating one of the signs of the zodiac;

(2) both were oracular images, like the teraphim, and uttered oracles by a voice, and both were agents for hypnotisation and throwing the priests who wore them into an ecstatic condition.

The Urim and Thummim were not original with the Hebrews, but had been borrowed, like most of their other religious rites, from the Egyptians, with whom the mystic scarabeus worn on the breast by the Hierophants, had the same functions. They were thus purely heathen and magical modes of divination ; and when the Jewish "Lord God" was called upon to manifest his presence and speak out his will through the Urim by preliminary incantations, the modus operandi was the same as that used by all the Gentile priests the world over.

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

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Reincarnation. The doctrine of rebirth, believed in by Jesus and the Apostles, as by all men in those days, but denied now by the Christians. All the Egyptian converts to Christianity, Church Fathers and others, believed in this doctrine, as shown by the writings of several.

In the still existing symbols, the human-headed bird flying towards a mummy, a body, or "the soul uniting itself with its sahou (glorified body of the Ego, and also the kamalokic shell) proves this belief. "The song of the Resurrection" chanted by Isis to recall her dead husband to life, might be translated "Song of Rebirth", as Osiris is collective Humanity. "Oh! Osiris [here follows the name of the Osirified mummy, or the departed], rise again in holy earth (matter), august mummy in the coffin, under thy corporeal substances", was the funeral prayer of the priest over the deceased.

"Resurrection" with the Egyptians never meant the resurrection of the mutilated mummy, but of the Soul that informed it, the Ego in a new body. The putting on of flesh periodically by the Soul or the Ego, was a universal belief; nor can anything be more consonant with justice and Karmic law. (See "Pre-existence".)

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Egyptians Dictionary

Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God In the New Testament, used by John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul; it indicates a state of relative spiritual completion and attainment, not merely the afterdeath state of the "righteous" or "saved," as seen in the statement, "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Blavatsky interprets the answer in the Gospel of the Egyptians as to when the kingdom of heaven will come -- "When the Two has been made One, and the Outward has become as the Inward, and the Male with the Female neither Male nor Female" -- as signifying among other things, 1) the union of lower manas with the higher manas, the self-conscious raising of the personality to the individuality; and 2) the return of humankind to the androgynous state in future root-races.

"Thus this Kingdom may be attained by individuals now, and by mankind in Races to come" (BCW 13:48-9; 14:55; ET).

(See also: Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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CANCER

The fourth sign of the Zodiac (June 22-July 23). The Crab is the final resolution of material manifestation, symbolized by the depth of the sea or the lake between the mountains. It is the sign of the soul's incarnation and the beginning of material life.

All the other creatures of the Zodiac move in a forward direction, but the Crab is able to move backwards and sideways as well. This indicates that Cancer is the sign of the time-traveler. (The Chariot is a time machine). Colin Wilson (a Cancerian himself) believes that the Crab symbolizes the fact that when we have our skeletons on the outside we are undeveloped followers of the will of others and must learn to grow our own skeletons on the inside so that we can become leaders. Thus Cancer is the sign of both slaves and rebels.

For the Egyptians, Cancer, coinciding with the rising of Sirius, was the "Theme of the World", the universal horoscope (what today we call the "mundane chart") in which, according to Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, the planets, etc. were in the position they occupied at the very beginning, long before the Age of Aries. It is therefore, associated with Sirius, the Dog Star, or beginning of the Egyptian year.

Famous Cancerians: Alexander the Great, John the Baptist, Count von Zeppelin, Mary Baker Eddy, George Orwell, Helen Keller, P.T. Barnum, Jean Cocteau, Rousseau, Pirandello, Charles Laughton, James Cagney, Buckminster Fuller, Ingmar Bergman, Jerry Rubin, Hermann Hesse, Kafka, Hawthorne, Proust, Thoreau, Rembrandt, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, George McGovern, Marshall McLuhan, Rube Goldberg and Nicola Tesla.

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

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Cedrus libani, commonly known as the Lebanon Cedar or Cedar of Lebanon, is a coniferous tree native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region, in Lebanon, western Syria and south central Turkey; varieties of it (some treated as separate species by some authors) occur in southwest Turkey, Cyprus, and the Atlas Mountains in Algeria and Morocco in northwest Africa: Cedrus libani var. libani (Lebanon Cedar): Lebanon, western Syria and south central Turkey Cedrus libani< ...

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Different cultures, time periods, and belief systems have diverse variations in their opinions on the morality of homosexuality, bisexuality and the choice of sexual orientation in general. In recent decades, many societies which formerly treated homosexuality as a crime have now repealed those laws on the basis of civil rights, privacy rights, and changing social attitudes. The increasing social acceptance of homosexuality has been attributed to a range of diverse causes, including the sexual revolution, the gay rights movement, a gr ...

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(Eg.) The second division of Amenti. The celestial field of Aanroo is encircled by an iron wall. The field is covered with wheat, and the "Defunct" are represented gleaning it, for the "Master of Eternity"; some stalks being three, others five, and the highest seven cubits high. Those who reached the last two numbers entered the state of bliss (which is called in Theosophy Devachan); the disembodied spirits whose harvest was but three cubits high went into lower regions (Kamaloka). Wheat was with the Egyptians the symbol of the Law of Retribution or Karma. The cubits had reference to ...

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Canada - Mexico - South Africa - U.S. Rail Transport - Science - Sports Births - Deaths 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). In the ISO 8601 calendar, 1875 is defined as the year the Convention du Mètre was originally signed, by way of a reference year. 1875 - Events. January 12 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China. February 27 - Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor ...

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An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. There are other systems of writing such as logograms, in which each symbol represents a morpheme, or word, and syllabaries, in which each symbol represents a syllable. The word "alphabet" itself comes from alpha and beta, the first two symbols of the Greek alphabet. There are dozens of alphabets in use today. Most o ...

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Several instances of interaction between Buddhism and the Roman world are documented by Classical and early Christian writers. Buddhism and the Roman world - Pandion embassy. Roman historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the "Indian king Pandion (Pandya?), also named Porus," to Caesar Augustus around 13 CE. The embassy was travelling with a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a sramana who burned himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was ...

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Amethyst is a violet or purple variety of quartz often used as an ornament. The name is generally said to be derived from the Greek a, "not," and methuskein, "to intoxicate," expressing the old belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness. It was held that wine drunk out of a cup of amethyst would not intoxicate. However, the word may probably be a corruption of an Oriental name for the stone. In the 20th century, the color of amethyst was attributed to the presence of manganese. However, since it is ...

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-logy - A. Acarology, the study of ticks and mites Acridilogy, the study of Grasshoppers and Locusts Actinobiology, the study of the effects of radiation upon living organisms Actinology, the study of the effect of light on chemicals Aerobiology, a branch of biology that studies organic particles, such as bacteria, fungal spores, very small insects and pollen, which are passively transported by the air. Aerology, the study of the free atmosphereSee also:

-logy, -logy - Etymology, -logy - Other words ending in ology, -logy - Usage, -logy - List of -ologies, -logy - A, -logy - B, -logy - C, -logy - D, -logy - E, -logy - F, -logy - G, -logy - H, -logy - I, -logy - J, -logy - K, -logy - L, -logy - M, -logy - N, -logy - O, -logy - P, -logy - R, -logy - S, -logy - T, -logy - U, -logy - V, -logy - X, -logy - Z, -logy - Ologies that are not fields of study

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A flood occurs when an area of land, usually low-lying, is covered with water. The worst floods usually occur when a river overflows its banks. An example of this is the January 1999 Queensland floods, which swamped south-eastern Queensland. Floods happen when soil and vegetation cannot absorb all the water ; water then runs off the land in quantities that cannot be carried in stream channels or kept in ...

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