Saint Martin, Louis Claude de. Born in France (Amboise), in 1743. A great mystic and writer, who pursued his philosophical and theosophical studies at Paris, during the Revolution. He was an ardent disciple of Jacob Boehme, and studied under Martinez Paschalis, finally founding a mystical semi-Masonic Lodge, "the Rectified Rite of St. Martin ", with seven degrees. He was a true Theosophist. At the present moment some ambitious charlatans in Paris are caricaturing him and passing themselves off as initiated Martinists, and thus dishonouring the name of the late Adept.

(See also: Saint Martin, Louis Claude de , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Quetzo-Cohuatl (Mex.). The serpent-god in the Mexican Scriptures and legends. His wand and other "land-marks" show him to be some great Initiate of antiquity, who received the name of "Serpent" on account of his wisdom, long life and powers. To this day the aboriginal tribes of Mexico call themselves by the names of various reptiles, animals and birds.

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

Tridasa (Sanskrit) [from tri three + dasa ten]

Thirty; as used in ancient India, it refers in round numbers to the general cycles of the Vedic deities, of which there were 33 ordinary ones: the 12 adityas, the 8 vasus, the 11 rudras, and 2 asvins. When the Hindu trimurti or triad is added to these, the number becomes 36, one of the archaic numbers of esoteric computation, not only in chronology but likewise in theology and theogony. Thirty-six is half of 72, which is 1/5 of 360, and 1/6 of the highly mystical key number 432, with ciphers added or not, according to the computation undertaken.

 Following the law of chronological analogy, thirty, which is 1/12 of 360, is the foundation number of esoteric computation, to which ciphers may be added according to the scheme held in mind. The 33 crores (330 million) deities usually enumerated in the Hindu pantheon are to be understood similarly, 33 being a round number for 36; for here too the 33 crores must be taken in connection with the trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, themselves aggregates, giving the important figure 36.

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

Rosicrucians (Mys.). The name was first given to the disciples of a learned Adept named Christian Rosenkreuz, who flourished in Germany, circa 1460.

He founded an Order of mystical students whose early history is to be found in the German work, Fama Fraternitatis (1614), which has been published in several languages.

The members of the Order maintained their secrecy, but traces of them have been found in various places every half century since these dates. The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia is a Masonic Order, which has adopted membership in the "outer"; the Chabrath Zereh Aur Bokher, or Order of the G. D., which has a very complete scheme of initiation into the Kabbalah and the Higher Magic of the Western or Hermetic type, and admits both sexes, is a direct descendant from medieval sodalities of Rosicrucians, themselves descended from the Egyptian Mysteries.

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

ASPECTING: when a person during a ritual or magickal exercise, manifests ASPECTS of a God, dess, with, in themselves.

(See also: ASPECTING , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

HOLOMOVEMENT

Boehm's word for things being enfolded in themselves: all consciousness is "implied" by any mind, all time in one nanosecond, all matter in any atom, &c. The universe and mind are the same substance. The holomovement embraces insight, implicate and explicate orders of being plus potentiality. The parts reach out to the whole and thereby create events. At the same time, for instance, the whole mind is available to any individual, but only explicitly. The brain is the medium for insights from the implicate order, as a radio is a medium for a speech or a song. Mind requires a brain for its perception of physical existence, but physical existence is only one manifestation of mind.

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

Tantric, Tantrika The adjectival form of tantra; sometimes employed to signify one who is deeply versed in some study -- a scholar; but more accurately pertains to the Tantras themselves and the doctrines in them.

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

Gravitation Attraction, and hence gravitation, is a manifestation of cosmic desire, which draws together separate things into unities. Desire is the attribute of living beings, and the universe is exclusively composed of living beings.

The effects of gravitation within our terrestrial limits are calculable; and by transferring these laws speculatively to the stellar spaces, we can construct a coherent mechanics not only of the solar system but of the galaxy. But in doing so we merely sketch the architecture of a mechanical universe; and it is not certain how far we are justified in applying the terrestrial to extraterrestrial regions, and using this as a basis for calculations as to mass, distance, etc.

Gravitation, like all the other phenomena of nature, is to be attributed to living beings of cosmic magnitude by reason of the vital electricity or vital magnetism emanating from these beings, which electricity or magnetism is at once one of the phenomena of life and of cosmic intelligence.

In the lower scale of magnitudes found in and among the molecules, atoms, and electronic particles, the same observations apply. Cohesion among the infinitesimals is the microcosmic working of the same fundamental qualities that manifest themselves in macrocosmic phenomena, such as gravitation.

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

Chaldeans, Chaldees To the seventh subrace of the third root-race belong the far-distant predecessors of the Mystery school; and to now forgotten geologic history the predecessors of those later called Chaldees, along with Hindu, Egyptian, Persian, and Phoenician sages.

In their records are mentioned divine dynasties preceding the human kings, and the cycle of 432,000 years. From them came the origins of all such thoughts as are contained in the occult Nabathean Agriculture, and in their ancient records is found the source of the original Biblical cosmogonic allegories. The mathematical and astronomical lore of the Chaldeans was celebrated in all the ancient Mediterranean world: the word Chaldee often meant simply an adept, magician, or astrologer. In the Bible they are usually spoken of as Babylonians.

The racial origin of the Chaldeans, and the original source of their secret knowledge, is to be found in Central Asia, for there was a long period of time, not so many scores of thousands of years ago, when all this region enjoyed a genial climate and was covered with populous cities and vast tracts of intensely cultivated soil; and was inhabited by a people not inferior to ourselves today, and indeed in some respects superior in knowledge (cf SOPh 16-25).

(See also: Chaldeans, Chaldees , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

ANTI-OCCULT STRATEGIES

Because of Hitler's occult interests, anti-occultists have tried time and again to establish that all those from whom he adopted his twisted ideas were themselves fascist and racist. Similarly, in the 1930's everyone was tagged with either the Communist or Fascist label, whether deservedly or not. Attempts to link Hitler to the sympathies of Aleister Crowley, HPB, Jung and the rest are constantly being forced upon gullible and confused people. The fact is, the Nazis used anyone and anything they could to gain power, as do all villains. Accusations against the occult, however, invariably come down not to anti-semitism practices, but, on the contrary, to a tendency to question Christian authority. Even Nietzsche, the 3rd Reich's most esteemed philosopher, though a strong enemy, it turns out, of the Catholic Church, was deeply opposed to Anti-semitism.

Jung's essay in 1936 on Wotan is often cited in which he simply stated that the God of the German people was not Jesus, but Wotan. That the Nazis could take inspiration from that is hardly Jung's fault, as he merely pointed out the obvious. Evil imagination can take what it needs from any source and we might with far more justification have accused the Vatican of Pro-Fascist tendencies. The charge against Mme. Blavatsky is equally irresponsible. A careful scrutiny of her writings will reveal a deep and abiding affection for the jews, alone with an equally strong antipathy for Xtianity. Attempts to link Blavatsky to "master race" ideas would seem to fare somewhat better, until we learn that she considered the Aryan, Semitic and Turanian branches to have derived from a common pre-Abrahamic source. And when she speaks of races, she really refers to the reincarnated human race itself.

It is true that Gurdjieff spent the war in Paris and survived the German occupation, but he did not survive through collaboration and he undoubtedly put himself in great danger by devoting his time to caring for elderly, impoverished refugees. As for Crowley, the fact that Mussolini shut down his Cefalu Lodge and that the German Gestapo put his Golden Dawn Society on the "Enemies of the Reich" list speaks for itself.

(See also: ANTI-OCCULT STRATEGIES , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Tetragrammaton [from Greek tetra four + gramma letter]

Used by Qabbalists to designate the four Hebrew characters  -- variously rendered in Roman letters YHVH, IHVH, JHVH, etc. -- forming the word Jehovah (Yehovah). Present-day scholars regard this rendition of the four letters as erroneous, and some suggest that the proper reading should be Yahveh or Yahweh -- depending on another manner of applying the vowel-points to the consonants. The Jews themselves, however, never pronounced the name when reading their sacred scriptures, but utter 'Adonai (the Lord) in its place. Nevertheless, the Qabbalists (more particularly medieval and modern authors) have attached special importance and significance to this four-lettered word, particularly to the Hebrew equivalent for Tetragrammaton, Shem-ham-Mephorash, sometimes called the mirific name.

The four letters themselves do not hold any especially occult significance, nor their sequence nor numerical value (10, 5, 6, 5, totaling 26), nor to which of the ten Sephiroth it is to be applied.

"The name [Jehovah] is a circumlocution, indeed, a too abundant figure of Jewish rhetoric, and has always been denounced by the Occultists. To the Jewish Kabalists, and even the Christian Alchemists and Rosicrucians, Jehovah was a convenient screen, unified by the folding of its many flaps, and adopted as a substitute: one name of an individual Sephiroth being as good as another name, for those who had the secret. The Tetragrammaton, the Ineffable, the sidereal 'Sum Total,' was invented for no other purpose than to mislead the profane and to symbolize life and generation. The real secret and unpronounceable name -- 'the word that is no word' -- has to be sought in the seven names of the first seven emanations, or the 'Sons of the Fire,' in the secret Scriptures of all the great nations, and even in the Zohar . . . This word, composed of seven letters in each tongue, is found embodied in the architectural remains of every grand building in the world . . ." (SD 1:438-9).

"Some students, in view of the sacredness of Tetraktis and the Tetragrammaton, mistake the mystic meaning of the Quaternary. The latter was with the ancients only a secondary 'perfection,' so to speak, because it related only to the manifested planes. Whereas it is the Triangle, the Greek delta, , which was the 'vehicle of the unknown Deity' " (SD 2:582).

Other forms of this same name were current among the nations surrounding the Jews, as among the Syrians, some sects of whom worshiped their Iao, sometimes spelled Iaho or Yaho. Iao was one of the most sacred divinities of the Phoenicians and was supposed to be the spiritual light understandable only by the highest human intellectual faculty, and this is the idea or spiritual light of the spiritual sun. The Gnostics likewise had a mystery-god of the same name, and with the same variations in spelling, and with the same significance that it had with the Phoenicians as representing the intellectual power or potency of the solar system.

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

HUBBARD, L. RON

Founder of Scientology. Perhaps his most useful and important teaching was that we can extinguish things by focusing our attention upon them. That derives from the psychological fact that when we make things enter ourselves they become unreal, because things are our world, not the world.

(See also: HUBBARD, L. RON , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Ancient of the Ancient (translation of Chaldean `Attiqa' de-`Attiqin)

Qabbalistic term referring to the primordial aspect of the first Sephirah: "He is formed and yet is not formed. He is formed to sustain All and not formed because He is not found. When He is formed nine flaming Lights go out from Him; and from these Lights are emitted flames and they expand themselves out to all directions, like a lamp which spreads light to all sides" (Zohar iii 288a). The nine flaming lights refer to the nine consequential emanations of the Sephirothal Tree.

The Qabbalah here uses "He" to describe one of the most profound and mystical -- because purely impersonal -- conceptions in cosmogony; because the first Sephirah is Kether the Crown and hence the first of the cosmic rays emanating from the abysmal cosmic deep. From this Crown, called Ancient of the Ancient, flowed forth in emanational procession all the other developments of the cosmic Tree of Life or cosmic hierarchy.

(See also: Ancient of the Ancient , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Gardnerian - Wiccan practices as laid down by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s, though many covens calling themselves Gardnerian today have expanded and modified these.

(See also: Gardnerian , Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Karanopadhi :

Karanopadhi

(Sanskrit) A compound meaning the "causal instrument" or "instrumental cause" in the long series of reimbodiments to which human and other reimbodying entities are subject.

Upadhi, the second element of this compound, is often translated as "vehicle"; but while this definition is accurate enough for popular purposes, it fails to set forth the essential meaning of the word which is rather "disguise," or certain natural properties or constitutional characteristics supposed to be the disguises or clothings or masks in and through which the spiritual monad of man works, bringing about the repetitive manifestations upon earth of certain functions and powers of this monad, and, indeed, upon the other globes of the planetary chain; and, furthermore, intimately connected with the peregrinations of the monad through the various spheres and realms of the solar kosmos.

In one sense of the word, therefore, karanopadhi is almost interchangeable with the thoughts set forth under the term maya, or the illusory disguises through which spirit works, or rather through which spiritual monadic entities work and manifest themselves.

Karanopadhi, as briefly explained under the term "causal body," is dual in meaning. The first and more easily understood meaning of this term shows that the cause bringing about reimbodiment is avidya, nescience rather than ignorance; because when a reimbodying entity through repeated reimbodiments in the spheres of matter has freed itself from the entangling chains of the latter, and has risen into self-conscious recognition of its own divine powers, it thereby shakes off the chains or disguises of maya and becomes what is called a jivanmukta. It is only imperfect souls, or rather monadic souls, speaking in a general way, which are obliged by nature's cyclic operations and laws to undergo the repetitive reimbodiments on earth and elsewhere in order that the lessons of self-conquest and mastery over all the planes of nature may be achieved. As the entity advances in wisdom and knowledge, and in the acquiring of self-conscious sympathy for all that is, in other words, as it grows more and more like unto its divine-spiritual counterpart, the less is it subject to avidya. It is, in a sense, the seeds of kama-manas left in the fabric or being of the reincarnating entity, which act as the karana or reproducing cause, or instrumental  cause, of such entity's reincarnations on earth.

The higher karanopadhi, however, although in operation similar to the lower karanopadhi, or karana-sarira just described, nevertheless belongs to the spiritual-intellectual part of man's constitution, and is the reproductive energy inherent in the spiritual monad bringing about its re-emergence after the solar pralaya into the new activities and new series of imbodiments which open with the dawn of the solar manvantara following upon the solar pralaya just ended. This latter karanopadhi or karana-sarira, therefore, is directly related to the element-principle in man's constitution called buddhi  - a veil, as it were, drawn over the face or around the being of the monadic essence, much as prakriti surrounds Purusha, or pradhana surrounds Brahman, or mulaprakriti surrounds and is the veil or disguise or sakti of parabrahman. Hence, in the case of man, this karanopadhi or causal disguise or vehicle corresponds in a general way to the buddhi-manas, or spiritual soul, in which the spiritual monad works and manifests itself.

It should be said in passing that the doctrine concerning the functions and operations of buddhi in the human constitution is extremely recondite, because in buddhi lie the causal impulses or urges bringing about the building of the constitution of man, and which, when the latter is completed, and when forming man as a septenary entity, express themselves as the various strata or qualities of the auric egg.

Finally, the karana-sarira, the karanopadhi or causal body, is the vehicular instrumental form or instrumental body-form, produced by the working of what is perhaps the most mysterious principle or element, mystically speaking, in the constitution not only of man, but of the universe  - the very mysterious spiritual bija.

The karanopadhi, the karana-sarira or causal body, is explained with minor differences of meaning in various works of Hindu philosophy; but all such works must be studied with the light thrown upon them by the great wisdom-teaching of the archaic ages, esoteric theosophy. The student otherwise runs every risk of being led astray.

I might add that the sushupti state or condition, which is that of deep dreamless sleep, involving entire insensibility of the human consciousness to all exterior impressions, is a phase of consciousness through which the adept must pass, although consciously pass in his case, before reaching the highest state of samadhi, which is the turiya state. According to the Vedanta philosophy, the turiya (meaning "fourth") is the fourth state of consciousness into which the full adept can self-consciously enter and wherein he becomes one with the kosmic Brahman. The Vedantists likewise speak of the anandamaya-kosa, which they describe as being the innermost disguise or frame or vehicle surrounding the atmic consciousness. Thus we see that the anandamaya-kosa and the karana-sarira, or karanopadhi, and the buddhi in conjunction with the manasic ego, are virtually identical.

The author has been at some pains to set forth and briefly to develop the various phases of occult and esoteric theosophical thought given in this article, because of the many and various misunderstandings and misconceptions concerning the nature, characteristics, and functions of the karana-sarira or causal body.

See also: Karanopadhi , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Rupa Gosvami

One of the six Goswamis of Vrindavana, principal followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Rupa is the prime authority on the science of rasa, loving exchanges with God, which he explained in his Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu and Ujjvala-nilamani. He was also an eminent playwright and poet. Most Gaudiya Vaishnavas consider themselves rupanugas, followers of Rupa Goswami.

(See also: Rupa Gosvami , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Second Round The evolutionary course of the life-waves once around the entire planetary chain is termed a round. A noteworthy difference between the first round and all succeeding rounds is that during the first round all the vestures of various kinds used by the evolving monads, whether grouped as life-waves or not, were constructed as elementary outlines, the monads pursuing their first cycling by building forms of a spiritual-ethereal character.

This applies not only the globes of a planetary chain themselves, but to the various bodies in which the individual monads of the life-waves manifest. Some of these bodies remain on each globe of the chain and become sishtas (remainders) when their respective life-waves pass to the next succeeding globe; and this procedure began during the first round. These remaining vestures or sishtas are ready as evolutionary type-forms when the incoming monads of the life-waves re-enter the different globes after having passed around the chain. These returning monads of the life-waves imbodying themselves in and through the sishtas, are the beginnings of the different root-races on each globe. Evolution proceeds through this process after the end of the first round, thus avoiding what would have otherwise been the need of the monads of the incoming life-waves to build bodies from the ground up -- the sishtas being relatively highly evolved vehicles waiting for the pioneer monads of the various life-waves.

Referring to the status of the human kingdom in the second round, man "is still gigantic and ethereal, but growing firmer and more condensed in body -- a more physical man, yet still less intelligent than spiritual; for mind is a slower and more difficult evolution than the physical frame and the mind would not develop as rapidly as the body" (ML 87).

During the second round even globe D of the earth-chain had not attained its present coarse consistency but was of an ethereal nature, although more dense and heavy than during the first round. Its characteristic was airy -- that element, "the purity of which would ensure continuous life to him who would use it. . . . From the second Round, Earth -- hitherto a foetus in the matrix of Space -- began its real existence: it had developed individual sentient life, its second principle" (SD 1:260).

"Matter in the second Round . . . may be figuratively referred to as two-dimensional. . . . equivalent to the second characteristic of matter corresponding to the second perceptive faculty or sense of man. But these two linked scales of evolution are concerned with the processes going on within the limits of a single Round" (SD 1:252). There is also a correspondence between the evolutionary development of the human principles and the rounds, so that the second round sees the development of the second human principle in its sevenfold or twelvefold aspects.

(See also: Second Round , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Livelihood: The means by which we make a living, support ourselves.

 (See also: Livelihood , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Shamanism:

an ancient spiritual and medical tradition practiced in native cultures around the world. Using ritual, shamans often enter altered states of consciousness to promote the healing of their clients. Shamans regard themselves as conductors of healing energy or sources from the spiritual realm.

(See also: Shamanism , Alternative Medicine, Body Mind and Soul)

Theopathy [from Greek theos god + pathos experience, feeling]

The seventh stage of initiation in the Mysteries, where the candidate becomes a selfless channel for communion with his inner god; the third and last stage of spiritual development -- the first being theophany, the second theopneusty. The sense of theopathy, originally used in the Greek Mysteries, was that the adept "suffered" the full influence of the god within him, becoming a selfless, consenting channel for the divine power pouring through him, in utter disregard of the personal self. Because of the immense personal renunciation involved, such an adept was said to suffer -- meaning to bear or carry the divinity within.

The second of these three initiatory grades, theopneusty, was the same as the third, but in less full degree, and signified that the initiate received the inspiration from above-within and, as it were, was breathed into from above, but did not carry the full load of the spiritual fire or inspirational flow. The first stage, theophany, was by comparison a temporary occurrence and signified the appearance of one's divinity to the initiant's self-conscious perception; the neophyte met his own inner god face to face, and the appearance or theophany lasted for a greater or less time depending upon various circumstances.

Such terms were held secret in the ancient Mysteries, although the words themselves, as time passed, slowly filtered outwards and often became misunderstood, as by Christian theologians.

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

Integrated Awareness (IA): IA is founded on the principle that movement at each level of consciousness-the mental, physical, energetic and emotional-affects movement of another. By exploring our habitual movement patterns, we become aware of limiting rules and inhibitions that prevent us from healing or manifesting what we most desire. Through touch, the IA processes guide us to find new choices that give us more freedom. When we feel increased freedom of movement, we experience life differently-feel less pain, enjoy a greater sense of fulfillment, and give ourselves permission to change.

(See also: Integrated Awareness , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

pluralism (pluralistic): Doctrine that holds existence to be composed of three or more distinct and irreducible components, such as God, souls and world.

See: dvaitaadvaita.

pluralistic realism: A term for pluralism used by various schools including Meykandar Saiva Siddhanta, emphasizing that the components of existence are absolutely real in themselves and not creations of consciousness or God.

(See also: Pluralism , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)