Golden Apples. See APPLE; HESPERIDES; TREE

(See also: Golden Age, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

New Age Movement

A loose organization of people, many of them "Yuppies," who believe the world has entered the Aquarian Age when peace on earth and one-world gov-ernment will rule. They see themselves as advanced in consciousness, rejecting Judeo-Christian values and the Bible in favor of Oriental philosophies and religion. Among them may be found environmentalists, nuclear-freeze proponents, Marxist-socialist utopians, mind-contol advocates, ESP cultists, spiritists, witchcraft practitioners, and others using magical rites.

(See also: New Age Movement, New Age, Body mind and Soul)

KALPA

A day of Brahma. 4,320,000,000 years long, divided unequally into 4 ages. Satya Yuga was the first age (Golden Age).

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

rishi: (Sanskrit) "Seer."

A term for an enlightened being, emphasizing psychic perception and visionary wisdom. In the Vedic age, rishis lived in forest or mountain retreats, either alone or with disciples. These rishis were great souls who were the inspired conveyers of the Vedas. Seven particular rishis (the sapta-rishis) mentioned in the Rig Veda are said to still guide mankind from the inner worlds.

See: shruti.

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

Foundation for Inner Peace

Organization and publisher for A Course in Miracles.

(See also: Foundation for Inner Peace, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Urantia Foundation

Established in 1950. Holds the copyright on The URANTIA Book.

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

Golden Dawn

A hermetic order founded in 1888 and the most famous of modern initiatory occult organizations. Its heyday was the 1890s, when its London lodge was famous for both the literary figures it attracted, such as W. B. Yeats, and the scandals and upheavals that devastated it at the end of the decade.

Though the Golden Dawn divided and dwindled in the twentieth century, its ritual practices and elaborate system of grades, each requiring significant esoteric learning and accomplishment, have served as models for many later occult orders in the Western tradition.

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

A Theosophical definition of Mesmerism :

Mesmerism

An ill-understood branch of human knowledge, developed within fairly recent times, connected with the existence of the psychomagnetic fluid in man which can be employed by the will for purposes either good or evil.

Mesmerism has been called animal magnetism, but more often in former times than at present. The first European who rediscovered and openly proclaimed the existence of this subtle psychomagnetic fluid in man was Dr. Friedrich Anton Mesmer, born in Germany in 1733, who died in 1815. His honesty and his theories have been more or less vindicated in modern times by later students of the subject.

There are distinct differences as among mesmerism, hypnotism, psychologization, and suggestion, etc. (See also Hypnotism)

See also: Mesmerism , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Phanes, Phanes-Protogonos (Greek) [from phaino to make visible, appear, shine forth + protogonos first-born]

In Orphic mythogony, Aether (the Father, spirit) and Chaos (the Mother, primordial matter) produce the world-egg, silvery and gleaming white, out of which Phanes, the Third Logos, is born. He is the Orphic counterpart of Eros, the divine love which sets the atoms of spirit in motion, and is both male and female, mythologically said to have golden wings which carry him everywhere and four eyes gazing in every direction.

As Phanes, he is the first of the five cosmic rulers successively to appear; parent of the gods, the demiurge and creator of the world. Being thus the primordial father of gods, of the world, and hence of men, every such derivative offspring from Phanes contains Phanes in itself. Thus man, as an individual, contains Phanes as the primordial essence or original force of this own being. From another point of view, Phanes is equivalent to cosmic mahat, which as the universal formative spiritual power of the universe is at once the parent as well as the primordial substance of whatever is -- as well as cosmic intelligence.

Nux (night) is associated with Phanes as both mother and wife. Zeus does not appear in the Orphic mythogony until later, as the fourth in the line of succession; but eventually, due to a loss in popular conception of the ancient verity, he absorbs his great prototype, who apparently did not figure largely in popular mythology.

Phanes was connected mystically and esoterically with four animal symbols of the zodiac -- Aries the ram, Taurus the bull, Leo the lion, and Draco the dragon or serpent.

(See also: Phanes, Phanes-Protogonos, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Judaism

World religion founded approximately 1500 BC by the prophet Moses (Thothmoses - prince and high-priest of Egypt)

The foundation of Judaism is the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), which is said to have been written by Moses. The Israelites returned to the promised land of Canaan and became a small but powerful nation there under the rule of King David and his son Solomon.

After Solomon's death the kingdom split into a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah (the name of David's tribe). The northern kingdom was conquered and decimated by the Assyrians in 722 BC, after which the term Judeans, or Jews, gradually came into use to refer to all Israelites.

The Jews suffered conquests by a succession of foreign powers - the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and finally the Romans in the first century BC. Throughout this period the Jews developed a strong sense of national identity, identification with the Promised Land, and anticipation of a coming Messiah (ÒAnointed PrinceÓ).

There are three main branches of modern Judaism: Orthodox (traditional, literal adherence to the Torah as interpreted by the Talmud), Conservative (a middle position advocating traditional beliefs and practices up to a point), and Reform (liberal, non-literal stance on the Torah and Talmud; often non-religious or secular with emphasis on Jewish culture).

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

A Theosophical definition of Vahana :

Vahana

(Sanskrit) A "vehicle" or carrier. This word has a rather wide currency in philosophical and esoteric and occult thought. Its signification is a bearer or vehicle of some entity which, through this carrier or vehicle, is enabled to manifest itself on planes or in spheres or worlds hierarchically inferior to its own. Thus the vahana of man is, generally speaking, his body, although indeed man's constitution comprises a number of vahanas or vehicles, each one belonging to  - and enabling the inner man, or manifesting spiritual or intellectual entity, to express itself on  - the plane where the vahana is native.

Vahana is thus seen to have a number of different meanings, or, more accurately, applications. E.g., the vahana of man's spiritual monad is his spiritual soul; the vahana of man's human ego is his human soul; and the vahana of man's psycho-vital-astral monad is the linga-sarira working through its vahana or carrier, the sthula-sarira or physical body. The wire which carries the current of electricity can be said to be the vahana of the electric current; or again, the intermolecular ether is the vahana of many of the radioactive forces of the world around us, etc. Every divine being has a vahana or, in fact, a number of vahanas, through which it works and through which it is enabled to express its divine powers and functions on and in worlds and planes below the sphere or world or plane in which it itself lives. (See also Soul; Upadhi)

See also: Vahana , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Medium :

Medium

A word of curiously ill-defined significance, and used mostly if not exclusively by modern Spiritists. The general sense of the word would seem to be a person of unstable psychical temperament, or constitution rather, who is supposed to act as a canal or channel of transmission, hence "medium," between human beings and the so-called spirits.

A medium actually in the theosophical teaching is one whose inner constitution is in unstable balance, or perhaps even dislocated, so that at different times the sheaths of the inner parts of the medium's constitution function irregularly and in magnetic sympathy with currents and entities in the astral light, more particularly in kama-loka. It is an exceedingly unfortunate and dangerous condition to be in, despite what the Spiritists claim for it.

Very different indeed from the medium is the mediator, a human being of relatively highly evolved spiritual and intellectual and psychical nature who serves as an intermediary or mediator between the members of the Great Brotherhood, the mahatmas, and ordinary humanity. There are also mediators of a still more lofty type who serve as channels of transmission for the passing down of divine and spiritual and highly intellectual powers to this sphere. Actually, every mahatma is such a mediator of this higher type, and so in even larger degree are the buddhas and the avataras. A mediator is one of highly evolved constitution, every portion of which is under the instant and direct control of the spiritual dominating will and the loftiest intelligence which the mediator is capable of exercising. Every human being should strive to be a mediator of this kind between his own inner god and his mere brain-mind. The more he succeeds, the grander he is as a man.

Mediator, therefore, and medium are the polar antitheses of each other. The medium is irregular, negative, often irresponsible or quasi-irresponsible, and uncertain, and is not infrequently the victim or plaything of evil and degenerate entities whom theosophists call elementaries, having their habitat in the astral light of the earth; whereas the mediator is one more or less fully insouled or inspirited with divine, spiritual, and intellectual powers and their corresponding faculties and organs.

See also: Medium , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

endocrine system

System of glands that through their secretions control many vital physiological processes; physical counterparts to the chakras

(See also: Endocrine system, Body Mind and Soul)

Saturn The sixth planet from the sun in our solar system, the last of the seven sacred planets of the ancients. In theosophy the regent or rector of Saturn exercises its own characteristic influence especially on our earth, globe D, and closely combines in this respect with the influence emanating from the moon; its influences was likewise especially felt over the fourth root-race. In astrology, its zodiacal houses are Aquarius and Capricorn; its day of the week is Saturday.

Family-races also are born under the especial influence or partial regency of Saturn -- as for instance the Jews; but though Saturn in astrology is called the great malefic this is a one-sided view; and indeed astrologers themselves realize that there are influences which Saturn showers from itself, as does every planet, which are of distinctly spiritual and beneficent character.

With the Jews, the tribal deity Jehovah represents the racial divinity or Saturn, and hence it is that the Jews considered Jehovah as their own god, for he is in fact the dominating planetary influence on their race. The mystical type-figure for Saturn in the lands of the Near East was the ass, that patient, faithful animal, as greatly beloved as a companion of man in the Near East even today as the dog is in many parts of the West. One is reminded of the conqueror of Jerusalem who, entering the Holy of Holies in the temple of Jerusalem, stated that all he saw was a golden ass -- nor was there either irony or sarcasm intended, for the ancients recognized all these matters as being allegorical and mystical. One is likewise reminded of the statement made in the New Testament that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass and the foal of an ass.

The planet Saturn in one sense is spiritually farther advanced than is the earth, although in quite different sense it is younger in its present embodiment.

Saturnus [possibly from Latin sero to sow] was one of the oldest Italic deities -- among other things patron of agriculture -- who became assimilated with the Greek Chronos or Kronos. Like Kronos he dethrones his father Uranus and is himself dethroned by Jupiter (Zeus); his mutilation of his father indicates that eternal time becomes limited; his devouring of his children is symbolic of time which both gives birth to events and then destroys them. He presides over the Golden Age of innocent but unprogressive peace, when men are unable to rule themselves and are ruled by genii; his kingdom was Lemuria. The Latins represented him as having, after his dethronement by Jupiter, become king of Italy, which was therefore called Saturnia, and presiding over the Golden Age; and Vergil voices the prophecy that such a Saturnian Age shall one day return.

The same idea underlies the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbath, a period of rest), the Lord's day, and Jehovah in one of its meanings is Saturn, the genius of the Hebrew nation. It was from Saturn that came the teachings revealed to Qutamy in Nabathean Agriculture. Among the many equivalents of Saturn are Chium, Seth, Cain, Ildabaoth among the Egyptian Gnostics, Agruerus, Sydyk (Melchisedec), and Satan -- the girdle about the loins of Satan is the rings of the planet Saturn. In the Biblical list of Gnostic emanations, Saturn corresponds to Thrones.

(See also: Saturn, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Lucius Apulieus: (123 AD -170 AD)

the author of The Golden Ass, one of the most famous romances in the world, contains the story of Cupid and Psyche. The Golden Ass; is a romance of witchcraft and illustrates the beliefs which were held about witches in pre-Christian times.

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

Chogyam Trungpa

(1940-87) Tibetan teacher noted for his propagation of Tibetan Buddhism in North America.

Trungpa was recognized as the eleventh Trungpa tulku ("incarnate lama"), an important line of Kagyu tulkus who presided over the Surmang monasteries in eastern Tibet. He was found and enthroned when he was eighteen months old, was subsequently ordained, and received the rigorous training reserved for high tulkus. He fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959, first working in India under appointment by the Dalai Lama, then traveling to England in 1963, where he relinquished his monastic vows, married, and taught Tibetan Buddhism and its contemplative practices to Westerners.

Arriving in the United States in 1970, Trungpa spent the next seventeen years teaching, writing, founding contemplative centers, and inaugurating various organizations, including the Vajradhatu association of (Tibetan) Buddhist churches (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), the Naropa Institute, an upper division accredited college (Boulder, Colorado), the Nalanda Translation Committee (Halifax and Boulder), and Shambhala Training, a nonsectarian program in meditation.

Trungpa was known for his innovative, sometimes unconventional approach to transmitting Buddhism to the West and for his insistance that meditation is the cornerstone of Buddhism.

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

High Priestess: One of the trumps of the Major Arcana of the tarot. Numbered II. In the system of Eliphas Levi, it corresponds to the Hebrew letter Beth. In the system of the Golden Dawn, The High Priestess corresponds to the Hebrew letter Gimel and the Moon.

Also See: Juno, La Papesse, Papess

(See also: High Priestess, Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Rosicrucian Foundation

Oldest Rosicrucian group in the U. S. Founded by Swinburne Clymer in Quakertown, PA. Emphasis sexual occultism.

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

Diana

Ancient Roman deity worshiped in wooded areas and in the city of Rome; she was related to human fertility, childbirth, and children.

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

Foundation for Inner Peace

Organization and publisher for A Course in Miracles.

(See also: Foundation for Inner Peace, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)