Higher Self Dictionary

Higher Ego The individuality, as contrasted with the personality; the higher ego lies in atma-buddhi-manas as the reincarnating ego, and is a reflection or minor projection of the higher self or atman. The higher ego is contrasted with the lower or personal ego which is formed from the kamic, astral, and physical imbodiments of the former.

(See also: Higher Ego , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

HIGH MAGICK: Magick that calls upon the aid of beneficent spirits and is akin to religion. It is called theurgy, from theourgia "working things pertaining to the gods". High Magick is based upon a blend of doctrines of Plato and other Greek philosophers, Oriental mysticism, Judaism and Christianity and currently is divided into three forms: Enochian, Thelemic and Eclectic. Enochian Magick originated with John Dee and Edward Kelly in the 16th century and communication with spirits involved the Nineteen Calls (or Keys): incantations in the Enchonian language, a complex language of unknown origin.

This system of Magick was revived by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and studied at length by Aleister Crowley. In turn, Crowley developed the Thelemic Magick system from his studies and High Magickians have since expanded to develop Eclectic Magick systems based on a variety of different systems, inclusive of Alchemy, Egyptology, Kabbalistic doctrines, Chaos Magick etc..

High Magick requires a rigorous discipline and has an intellectual appeal, the mage derives power from God (the Judeo-Christian God) through the successful control of spirits, usually demons, which are believed easier to control than angels. Demons may be good, evil, or neutral. In its highest sense, High Magick is a transcendental experience that takes the mage into mystical realms and into communication with the Higher Self. Also known as Ceremonial Magick, Ritual Magick, Theurgic Magick, Theurgy.

(See also: HIGH MAGICK , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

MAGIC

From Latin magi, pl. (Greek magoi, pl. of magos, a Magian, one of the Median tribe; also an enchanter, properly a wise-man who interpreted dreams; Old Persian mugh, one of the Magi, a fire-worshipper; Sanskrit maga "a priest of the sun"; maybe related to maha, "great" and maya, illusion; perhaps, ultimately, even the Maya of Central America. Compare Hebrew makeshef, "magician"). Magic is actually short for "Magic Art". The connection between magus and magnus "great" also appears in Hebrew. As in Latin the word for "great", produces "master or teacher" (magister) , so Hebrew rab produces "rabbi". However the confusion in Hebrew does not arise because the word for "magic" (qeshem) is not related to rab".

The word in this form is found with precisely the same meaning (or mystery) in most European tongues and even in Japanese majutsu, (which they no doubt borrowed from the Portuguese). Elsewhere, however, we find different senses altogether, such as the old Teutonic Helliruna (lit. "Hell's secret") which is surely a folk etymology of the Arabic word for "mandrake", albiruhan or alyabruhin, the same word we find in Spanish as the word for "magician", el brujo, because alongside that there is indeed the Old High German word for "mandrake", Alruna. The only question we need ask is which form came first, but we find the Arabic influence extending east as far as Mongolia, where, in passing, we may note ilbi for "magic."

The otherness of ego enwraps each of us like a prison, but the magus takes all of earth as his body. Magic itself is but a symbol of the greater Magic, which is Unity. The Oneness frees us from the dungeon of darkness and the self and resembles the teaching of Buddhism.

From yet another perspective, magic, mind and life are the same thing: living cells are sometimes kept alive in labs. A specialized cell, so protected, fed and allowed to reproduce, eventually turns into a basic and undifferentiated cell. This indicates that life is not only exceedingly plastic but that it is also purposive. If such adaptation were attributable to mindless mechanics, a bone cell would go on reproducing a bone cell and a blood cell a blood cell forever.

Since all things are connected, then experiential reality, which is Mind, can be altered by the implementation of the Will and Visualization. There is no "orthodox" doorway of the "Self" through the various universes, so the magician must build his own bridge, without assistance, across the Abyss, from the otherness of the separate ego to Cosmic Unity. Since the goal and purpose of existence is knowledge, then the magus is obliged to seek experience on numerous planes of being reached via perichoresis and also to effect material changes in the earth's reality. Thinking isn't just the beginning of creation, it is creation itself.

Marc Edmund Jones classifies magic into categories. Divination is the effort to gain knowledge, particularly of the future (in order the better to assist the "Divine" plan). The evocation or invocation of elementals or angelic powers, functioning through the ethers, is another class of magic. Then there is hypnotism, which works through "imitative" magic. Finally, there is tantrism, or the development of supernatural siddhis.

Colin Wilson suggests that magic is simply the development of the Will and the Imagination, Versluis that it is "not a means to an end, but a means to heighten means." Clearly, the object of magic is the raising of consciousness. The magus is empowered to effect events only to the extent that he is able to recognize that inside and outside are one. To transform the world is to transform oneself and vice-versa. Traditional rituals, the using of symbols and the altering of consciousness through herbs, smells, sounds, repetitions and meditation are all inward-directed processes designed to educate, focus and strengthen the faculties of Imaging and Willing. Alchemy is the same endeavor directed outwardly. We fail to control the transformation of our selves to the degree that we isolate ourselves from the world, just as we lose our ability to change the world at the exact moment that we begin to lose touch with ourselves.

However, although those who don't know what they are doing are obliged to perform magic strictly through the observation of rituals, those who understand its real nature and purpose can move directly to its center and act from there, without incantations and conjurations.

Here are some definitions of M/magic(k) by various authorities on the subject:

ANONYMOUS: "Magus Nascitur Non Fit."

ALICE BAILEY: "No man is a magician, or worker in white magic, until his third eye is opened, or is in the process of opening." (That means 'transmission of consciousness to the universal mind').

WADE BASKIN: "The art and science of magic is based on three basic principles. 1) one may communicate with other realms, or planes of existence, through the medium of the Astral Light; 2) the power of the magician is unlimited; 3) external characteristics (signatures) are signs through which everything internal and invisible can be revealed."

MORRIS BERMAN: "Magic is not necessarily gnostic in nature, since it is not particularly dualistic, and it never includes the notion of an outside savior or redeemer, which Gnosticism (particularly in its early forms) sometimes does."

HELENA P. BLAVATSKY: "The art of divine Magic consists in the ability to perceive the essence of things in the light of nature (astral light), and - by using the soul-powers of the Spirit - to produce material things from the unseen universe, and in such operations the Above and the Below must be brought together and made to act harmoniously". (The Secret Doctrine).

"Magic is spiritual wisdom. Arcane knowledge misapplied is sorcery.

"Magic was considered a divine science which led to a participation in the attributes of Divinity itself."

"Magic was the highest knowledge of natural philosophy... and the magician differed from the witch in this, that, while the latter was an ignorant instrument in the hands of demons, the former had become their master by the powerful intermediation of science, which was only within reach of the few, and which these beings were powerless to disobey."

BERNARD BROMAGE: "The word has, more often than not, been used, not for illumination, not as a guide to ascertainable verity, but as a camouflage to conceal a man's ignorance; and, worse, his calculated ineptitude and folly. The word can be said to have ceased to be a word and to have become a byword: a symbol surrounded by an evilly phosphorescent light, of man's infernal capacity for avoiding the issues. . . Magic, tout court, is immensely concerned with the 'Extension of Consciousness'; the widening of frontiers; the increase and development of every variety of sense perception. To be a magician one must learn to investigate all phenomena with the eye of the scientist who scorns no possible hypothesis nor neglects to take into the fullest consideration the complete structure of our actual and potential being. . . it is not a solace for the frustrated, but a reward for the pure of heart. Its final appeal is not to curiosity or greed, but to reverence and acceptance."

PETER CARROLL: "The world is magical but designed to make us believe we are not magi."

"All events are basically magical, arising spontaneously without prior cause. Physical laws are only statistical approximations. Consciousness, magic and chaos are the same thing. Consciousness also makes things happen without prior cause."

ALEISTER CROWLEY: "All Art is Magick"

"The Goal of Magick is the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel."

NEVILL DRURY: "Magic is the technique of harnessing the secret powers of Nature and and seeking to influence events for one's own purpose. If the purpose is beneficial it is known as white magic, but if it is intended to bring harm to others, or to destroy property, it is regarded as black magic."

"High Magic is intended to bring about the spiritual transformation of the person who practices it. This form of magic is designed to channel the magician's consciousness towards the sacred light within, which is often personified by the high gods of different cosmologies. The aim of high magic has been described as communication with one's Holy Guardian Angel, or higher self. It is also known as Theurgy."

"Whereas science deals with empirically observable causes and effects, occultism deals pragmatically with methods of altering consciousness to produce certain effects. One of these is the assimilation within the self of the characteristics of a deity, another is the separation of consciousness from the physical body."

DION FORTUNE: "Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will."

KENNETH GRANT: "Magick is the apotheosis of the Irrational, the acme of the absurd, and the reification of the impossible."

GURDJIEFF: ". . .I decided to call those undertakings which required intentional action of higher centers - those centers which are properly the feeling and thinking centers, capable of emotional sensing and of mentation respectively, but which are ordinarily unformed through absorption of their rightful impressions by the false emotional and intellectual centers of the psyche - objective magic, having as its result the obtaining of real knowledge."

"I thus separated this objective magic from its ordinary counterpart, 'magic of the psyche', in which purely fantastic results are obtained, and self-calming and amusement are the only attainments. Under this category I placed my former endeavors as a medium and psychic, as well as those results obtained by theosophy, occultism and so forth, all of which up to then had quite fascinated and attracted my attention."

WILLIAM JAMES: "We all have a lifelong habit of inferiority to our full self. . ."

MARC EDMUND JONES: "Occult, as distinct from secular, science; Occult as the effort to compel the cooperation of others, as well as deity, nature, in enterprises of self, illustrated by miracle or thaumaturgy, known as white when ethical and black when amoral."

ELIPHAS LÉVI: "The Arcanum of the Magnum Opus is the mastery or government of Ignis."; "Would you learn to reign over yourself and others? Learn how to will. How can one learn to will? This is the first arcanum of magical initiation. . ."

MACGREGOR MATTHEWS: "To practice magic, both the imagination and the Will must be called into action, they are co-equal in the work. . . The Will unaided can send forth a current. . . yet its effect is vague and indefinite. . . the Imagination unaided can create an image. . . yet it can do nothing of importance, unless vitalized and directed by the Will."

JOHN MIDDLETON: "We may say that the realm of magic is that in which human beings believe that they may directly affect nature and each other for good or ill, by their own efforts (even when the precise mechanism may not be understood by them) as distinct from appealing to divine powers by sacrifice or prayer (i.e. religion)."

JOHN O'KEEFE: "Magic is the defense of the self against the malevolence of society."

PARACELSUS: "The exercise of true magic does not require any ceremonies or conjurations, or the making of circles and signs; it requires neither benedictions nor maledictions in words, neither verbal blessings or curses."

JOHN COWPER POWYS: "Magic is simply the choice between emphasis and rejection."

DIANE DE PRIMA: "Look at the forces behind the things rather than just at the object or event. If I have a working definition of magic it's that behind every single thing in the world an infinite tunnel opens of reference, cross-references, and forces, and how these things interlock in nets. What I basically say is, yeah, learning to see force. . . learning to see the etheric and the astral, etc. to the thinner and thinner layers of stuff. And learning to work off those layers rather than . . . if you want to push that rock you don't necessarily have to go out there and put your shoulder to it."

RIMBAUD: "The Poet transforms himself into a seer through a long, immense and determined, rational disordering of all his sense. Every form of love, suffering and madness he seeks within himself and exhausts in himself all poisons, preserving but their quintessences. Ineffable torture where he will need all of his faith and superhuman strength, making him among men, the great Sick Man, the Thrice-Damned, the Arch-Criminal - and the supreme Savant! - for he arrives at the Unknown! Since he has cultivated his soul, already richer than any other man's, he thereby reaches the Unknown, and, even if, insane in the end, he should lose every shred of understanding gained so laboriously, he will have had his Visions! He may perish in his leap into those innumerable, unnameable things, there will follow other terrible workers. They will begin at the horizons where he fell."

MARTIN DEL RIO: "An art or skill which, by means of a non-supernatural force, produces certain strange and unusual phenomena whose rationale eludes common sense."

ROMULUS: "Magic is living poetry."

"Magic is the invocation and exploitation of synchronicity. All practices build up a momentum of their own. What we desire eventually comes true, with interest."

"Every magician's tricks are his own, to help him with own special problems, to get himself over his own inner obstacles. Our Individual tasks are to learn and overcome our own obstacles. That's why the study of great men and women is so very instructional and worthwhile. Not because they teach us to be like them, but because they show us how they became themselves! "

"Self-confident, integrated personalities already are fairly much in control of their powers and are magical to some extent. When circumstances intrude, such as sickness, enmity, financial loss, etc. and self-confidence wanes, the 'magical' side begins to seem spurious. The more 'magical' we try to be, the more charlatanry rises to the surface in us."

FRANCIS KING & STEPHEN SKINNER: "Four basic assumptions of magic: 1. That the [physical] universe is only a part of total reality. 2. The human will-power is a real force, capable of being trained and concentrated, and that the disciplined will is capable of changing its environment and producing paranormal events. 3. That this will-power must be directed by the imagination. 4. That the universe is not a mixture of chance factors and influences, but an ordered system of correspondences, and the understanding of the pattern of correspondences enables the occultist to use them for his own purposes, good or evil.

HUTTON WEBSTER (1948): "As regards purpose, Magic is divinatory, productive and aversive. The magician discovers or foretells what is otherwise hidden in time or space from human eyes; he influences and manipulates the objects and phenomena of nature and all animate creatures so that they may satisfy actual or human needs; and finally he combats, neutralizes and remedies the onslaught of the evils, real or imaginary, afflicting mankind. The range of magic is thus almost as wide as the life of man. All things under heaven, and even the inhabitants of heaven become subject to its sway.

COLIN WILSON: "Human perception is 'intentional.'" (Consciousness is a muscle).

"The great personality-inhibitor is caution. . . even in a few people who seem fairly well integrated. I can suddenly catch a glimpse of a more sophisticated, confident personality that has never succeeded in emerging . . . Even criminality is a form of caution, the desire for immediate and tangible returns, based upon the feeling that the universe has no intention of giving you anything you are not prepared to take by force. In fact, the study of murder leaves one with an impression of weak and crippled personalities who left half their potentialities to stagnate."

"Outside our everyday personality there is a wider self that possesses greater powers than the everyday self. . . When the will is hindered by too much self-consciousness it often produces the opposite effect from the one intended. (Poe called it "the imp of the perverse"). The wider self would be happy to oblige, but the contracted ego is somehow opposing itself, like someone trying to open a door by pushing it instead of pulling it. So it does the next best thing." (Psychokinesis).

"Modern civilization induces an attitude of passivity. When a Stone Age hunter set out to trap wild animals, he was aware of his will as a living force. When the prehistoric farmer scored the surface of the earth with a crude plough, he knew that his family's survival through the winter depended on his effort, and his will responded to the challenge. When a modern city dweller walks down a crowded thoroughfare, he feels no sense of challenge or involvement. This city was built by other people, all these shops and offices are owned by other people. He can get through an ordinary day's work in a state approximating sleep. Most of his routine tasks are carried out by the 'robot'. There is neither the need or the opportunity to use the will."

ZORN ZUCKERMAN: "The 20th Century has been so much a time of everything 'losing its magic, that the only thing left is magic itself."

CONCLUSION:

Is magic simply the search for "ultimate knowledge" without the burden of "worship"? Not exactly. The Golden Dawn used to say, "The aim of religion, the method of science," which was as ambitious as it was inaccurate. The "Transcendental" without religion, as opposed to mere "Revelation" without religion, would be closer to the mark than soulless "Ultimate Knowledge." The latter is a logical, scientific goal, not a magical one. The Scientist is obliged to go wherever his will-o'-the-wisp may lead him, as Mary Shelley pointed out, stopping not even at Frankenstein's monster nor the Hydrogen Bomb nor tailor-made diseases. Thus, the scientist inevitably winds up in Hell, the epitome of "Reason". The Magician knows where he is going, dares to go there and will what he will discover and create. His work (ideally) is the transmogrification of Hell. Moreover, about what he does he can make no statement, because it is always unique, never a repeatable "trick". That is, he is in the business, not as the scientist is of "finding" meaning, but of "creating" it. But we have to remember that the phenomenological world is an illusion, which requires the magician always to remain watchful of the illusory nature of what he is doing.

Life without magic is not possible. Moreover, the important "passages" of life cannot be handled except in a frank context of High Magic: birth, adolescence, marriage, death, etc.

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

Alkahest First used by Paracelsus to denote the Menstruum or universal solvent which, according to Paracelsus and Van Helmont, can reduce all bodies, simple or compound, to the primum ens. In one sense it is akasa, which in its lower form is the anima mundi or astral light.

Van Helmont believed that such a general solvent is obtainable by chemical means, so far as it applies to physical things. But psychologically it signifies that the multiform and changing elements which rule our actions can be brought under control of the enlightened will by reducing them to the essence from which they all spring.

The alkahest from its metaphysical, psychological, and mystical aspect is therefore the higher self which by its intrinsic energies, working upon matter or "lead," produces in time the "pure gold," or in other words brings the entire human constitution into perfect harmony and spiritual sympathy with the alkahest, monadic essence, or higher self.

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

Raja Yoga (Sanskrit) Royal union; more generally, the balance of all the faculties -- physical, mental, moral, and spiritual. Raja yoga is a true system of developing psychic, intellectual, and spiritual powers and union with one's higher self, the inner divine source of all our being.

This royal union with the self within must be attained by self-directed evolution. Union with this inner divinity is the source of all human genius and inspiration. Man increases his receptivity to the divine powers in his inmost being by cooperating with nature on its spiritual even more than its physical and astral planes, and by intellectual and spiritual aspiration combined with a fervent love for all beings.

(See also: Raja Yoga , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Priest

The priest in your dream could represent spiritual needs, your conscience, a desire to be virtuous, inner guidance, or your higher self. This dream could be comforting if it reassures you that there is safety and strength in spiritual forces. Please remember that dream interpretation is very, very personal. Some people may have had negative experiences with clergy, and in that case the dream may have an entirely different tone. The spiritual forces represented in this dream could be intrinsic, revealing your own spiritual qualities, strengths, and abilities, or they could represent the spiritual forces around you.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

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

ASTRAL PLANE

A mental world shared by dreamers, OOBE travelers, perichoretic visitants, newly dead, beings/spirits from other worlds who have lived lives on other planets and so on. Here are also the formidable, native "Kamadevas" and finally the lower devic orders, including the Elementals and those who provide us with the spirit of a place (genius loci). Alchemical "elementals" also exist here, as do all the undispatched, artificial creations of magicians (Tibetan magi, for instance, are adept at creating thought-creatures known as tulpas). Many of the astral creations become powerful symbols or Jungian archetypes - collectively created.

We already exist on the Astral Plane as we exist on the physical plane. We have but to experience it consciously. Marc Edmund Jones says that it is the level of experience for simple individuality or is our "first transcendency of physical cause and effect". The Astral Plane is constructed by the mental imagery of those who travel there. (Xtians think themselves in heaven, others imagine they are wherever their fancy takes them). Astral is the first type of matter, much more subtle than our present version, of course. As far as we're concerned, on the astral plane, there is no "material reality, even though everything vaguely resembles our world. Things behave like the material world, except that the character of things is worn on the outside, rather than hidden inside as on earth. This is because the Astral lies midway between material earth and the spirit worlds, qabalistically on the Yesodic level. Classically, it is characterized (for the newly dead) by a central courtyard or "receiving field" receding into "the hills beyond" - beyond which lies the capital city: Sahasra Dalkenwal. This "courtyard", plaza, precinct, garden or whatever is generally considered to be merely a way-station or transfer point.

Most authorities are agreed that the first experience after death is total and absolute darkness, often accompanied by panic. As in every manifested thing, positive or negative, the mirroring of similarities takes place - so death, being similar to sleep, begins with darkness. Finally, again as in waking, appears a light as the world left behind begins to remember itself. One now enters the "desire world" or Kamaloka. It is in Kamaloka that the spirit creates the idealized world described above. Sooner or later we realize that eating, drinking, sleeping, making love are merely phantom acts because we have no physical body. At this moment comes a second surrender and we recapitulate our lives backward from death to birth, suffering or enjoying the effects of our actions while we lived in the world. So we experience for ourselves, first-hand, the harm we have done and recognize how we must compensate for it. Animals, of course, never get this far, but quickly lose their individuality, such as it is. Family pets may last a big longer because they have been so strongly individualized.

At any rate, we are now ready to present this refined and reformed earth-life personality to our higher self (Atma-Buddha-Manas). A separation of "I" and astral body is the Second Death. The self, rid of ego and earth-impedimenta can now ascend to the spirit world, as Osiris. The lower self is cast to the serpent, Urekh, to be consumed, while the spirit enters the clear sky of Sekten. The cast-off, ego-shorn astral husk, still contaminated by desire may hang around the borderland where it masquerades as some famous spirit or makes itself available to mediums and such.

Devachan is a mental plane in a world considerably higher than the astral, where the "I" then proceeds after its "second death."

At the apogee from earth the soul fills with desire (Trisha) for a personality. So we plummet down again through the seven levels. The Dhyan-Choans decide where the wheel of reincarnation will stop - but thereafter it's up to the individual. Gradually, as one falls into materialization, one forgets his old experiences and focuses on the life to come. At this point we call karma voluntarily to help us redress the past imbalances. Passing over into the conditional sphere of Space/Time (Samsara), we reincarnate over and over (Samtana) until ultimate deliverance (Moksha). Life is thus a system of checks and balances between Activity (Pravritti) and Renunciation (Nirvitti).

There is a parallel Battle of Armageddon now taking place on the Astral Plane that is experienced only in shadow on earth - resulting in our breakdown of civilization and planet wide pollution. Eventually, as the war breeches the spirit membrane separating our world from the Astral, the celestial war will break out on earth as well.

A rather interesting analog of the Astral Plane is given by C.S. Lewis in his "Pilgrim's Regress". Another, more satisfying version, is recounted by Tolkien in his story, "Leaf by Niggle". There are also Franz Werfel's "Star of the Unborn" and Sacheverell Sitwell's "Journey to the Ends of Time". Finally, it must be pointed out that there are many planes, of which the astral is only the first. The magician "rises through the planes", the astral, the magician's plane, the alchemist's plane, the Aethyrs, the God-planes, to the highest and innermost dimensions. (See DEVACHAN).

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

ONE LIGHT HEALING TOUCH

One Light Healing Touch focuses on clearing blockages and rebalancing the human energy field by using spiritual and energetic hands-on healing practices and techniques.

The application of these healing arts forms facilitates and increases our ambient energetic vibrations and awareness, strengthening the immune system and opening the client to her indwelling god or higher self.

As the higher self awareness becomes activated, an evolutionary healing journey begins, moving the client through clarity of understanding, health, spiritual autonomy, and ultimately, culminating in the fulfillment of her purpose of being: to heal herself and her fellow human beings and to find her place within the world.

(See also: ONE LIGHT HEALING TOUCH , Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

Teacher : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teacher

Teacher - A symbol for your higher self (spiritual or creative). Insights that show you the way on your path.

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Teacher , Dream Dictionary Teacher )

Annihilation Complete destruction of consciousness is an impossibility in nature, for there can be no annihilation of the consciousness which makes the essential person. The universe is built of illimitable hosts of evolving entities existing in all-various grades of evolutionary unfoldment. All are passing through a continual series of changes -- comprising the shedding of sheath after sheath -- involving their essential consciousness.

These entities continuously modify the vehicles through which they express themselves on the various cosmic planes. When the elements forming a compound become dissociated, the compound as such ceases to exist, at least temporarily; but there still exists that which brought the elements into the compound union.

The human personality is constantly changing, even during a single life, and even more greatly through rebirth; indeed, the higher states of individualized consciousnesses, though they may endure for periods so vast as to seem to be everlasting, must disappear for a time during the kosmic pralaya. Even then, when the physical, psychic, and spiritual vehicles are reduced to unity, it is not annihilation any more than a person in dreamless sleep is annihilated while his higher self is in its original state of absolute consciousness, though it leaves no impression on the sleeping and therefore unconscious brain. "Nor is the individuality -- nor even the essence of the personality, if any be left behind -- lost, because re-absorbed. For, however limitless -- from a human standpoint -- the paranirvanic state, it has yet a limit in Eternity. Once reached, the same monad will re-emerge therefrom, as a still higher being, on a far higher plane, to recommence its cycle of perfected activity" (SD 1:266).

Nirvana, then, does not mean utter annihilation, nor did the Buddha teach utter annihilation or wiping out. Thus fundamental consciousness is uninterrupted from eternity to eternity, although undergoing continual change. But such change is not a difference of essence, but a continuously enlarging and ever greater unfolding of the inner essence.

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

Guru (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root gur to be weighty, venerable, excellent)

Teacher, preceptor; applied not only to a chela's spiritual teacher, but to spiritual and metaphysical teachers of many kinds. The spiritual fire within each person, the higher self or atma-buddhi, is also called a guru, a divine instructor; and this higher self within each individual is, when all is said, the supreme guru for that person.

The Master outside of the disciple's own spiritual guide is a very necessary element in genuine occult instruction; but the outer guru, the Master who teaches and leads the disciple, has always in view the evocation and development of the guru within the disciple -- the bringing to birth of the chela's own inner divine and intellectual energies and powers.

(See also: Gupta-vidya , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Linga:

Linga: 'One is as long covered by the subtle body [the 'linga' of mind, intelligence and false ego in one] indeed as one is of fruitive activity; from that bondage is there the reversal [of control from soul to body] and the misery following the being identified with the illusory of matter' (SB 7:2-47 and B.G. 8.6.)

- Linga (Lingam): Oval form, mostly made from stone, metal or gold. It is a symbol of creation and of God, who is without beginning or end. Baba creates lingams inside his body, coming out of His mouth, mostly at Mahasivarathri, a holy day dedicated to the worship of S'iva. (SSS-II) The linga is a 'mark' or 'symbol' representing the merging of the particular in the universal, the dissolution of the mind (with its agitations, aspirations and accomplishments that attach and adhere) in the atma-awareness. The wise realize that the mind and the vast phantasmagoria that it weaves are all subsumed in the linga, in the beginningless endless ocean of existence-knowledge-bliss.

- Linga (Lingam): means that in which all things merge and out of which all things emerge. (SSS-III) In the Uttara Gita Krishna says, that lingam comes from the word lina, which means 'unite'. The lingam makes it possible to unite the lower self with the higher self and with God - with Jivatma and Paramatma. (source: 'Sai Baba, the Man of Miracles' by Howard Murphet)

- Linga (Lingam): 'The Linga is an illustration of the limitless, formless, beginningless, divine principle' (SSS-III) "The Lingam is that which has neither beginning nor end, that towards which all beings move, and that in which all beings merge." (SSS-IV)

- Linga (Lingam): It is the symbol of emergence of the five primordial elements," He clarified. "The Lingam is the essence of all attributes and names. It is the formless with form, the nameless with name, the primal emergent from the Divine (SSS-IV)

(See also: Linga , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Monad :

Monad

A spiritual entity which to us humans is indivisible; it is a divine-spiritual life-atom, but indivisible because its essential characteristic, as we humans conceive it, is homogeneity; while that of the physical atom, above which our consciousness soars, is divisible, is a composite heterogeneous particle.

Monads are eternal, unitary, individual life-centers, conscious-ness-centers, deathless during any solar manvantara, therefore ageless, unborn, undying. Consequently, each one such  - and their number is infinite  - is the center of the All, for the divine or the All is THAT which has its center everywhere, and its circumference or limiting boundary nowhere.

Monads are spiritual-substantial entities, self-motivated, self-impelled, self-conscious, in infinitely varying degrees, the ultimate elements of the universe. These monads engender other monads as one seed will produce multitudes of other seeds; so up from each such monad springs a host of living entities in the course of illimitable time, each such monad being the fountainhead or parent, in which all others are involved, and from which they spring.

Every monad is a seed, wherein the sum total of powers appertaining to its divine origin are latent, that is to say unmanifested; and evolution consists in the growth and development of all these seeds or children monads, whereby the universal life expresses itself in innumerable beings.

As the monad descends into matter, or rather as its ray  - one of other innumerable rays proceeding from it  - is propelled into matter, it secretes from itself and then excretes on each one of the seven planes through which it passes, its various vehicles, all overshadowed by the self, the same self in you and in me, in plants and in animals, in fact in all that is and belongs to that hierarchy. This is the one self, the supreme self or paramatman of the hierarchy. It illumines and follows each individual monad and all the latter's hosts of rays  - or children monads. Each such monad is a spiritual seed from the previous manvantara, which manifests as a monad in this manvantara; and this monad through its rays throws out from itself by secretion and then excretion all its vehicles. These vehicles are, first, the spiritual ego, the reflection or copy in miniature of the monad itself, but individualized through the manvantaric evolution, "bearing" or "carrying" as a vehicle the monadic ray. The latter cannot directly contact the lower planes, because it is of the monadic essence itself, the latter a still higher ray of the infinite Boundless composed of infinite multiplicity in unity. (See also Individuality)

See also: Monad , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Atma-droha:

Atma-droha (Aathma-dhroha). Self-tormenting, treason to the higher Self.

(See also: Atma-droha , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Paul A man by legend said to be of pure Jewish birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, at first a persecutor of Christians but who underwent a mystic enlightenment of which he speaks. His various letters prove that he was an initiate.

He recognizes Christ -- the Christos -- as being principally the higher self in man, and strives to convey this truth to the minds of many congregation, adapting it to their power of comprehension. He evidently does his best to promote as high an interpretation of Christianity as might be possible among the varied and unpromising, and often indeed refractory, elements which he found at hand.

His failure to mention the familiar gospel stories is due to the fact that the Gospels are of much later date. The brand of Christianity which has prevailed during the centuries would have been very different if Paul's philosophic teachings had been taken more seriously, for they are in the main clear enough even without any esoteric key.

Often they have been disfigured in interpretation, as in the doctrine of justification by faith and not by works, attributed to him. On reading Romans 3 with an unprejudiced eye, we find him insisting that man is not made virtuous by following the letter of the law and doing pious deeds alone, but also by pistis -- a full realization of the truth and determination to follow it. This has become perverted into the dogma that man cannot be saved by any amount of good deeds alone, but must believe that Jesus died in propitiation for his sins.

A contrast has been made between the teachings of Paul and of Peter -- respectively often referred to as the Pauline and Petrine theology -- as representing pagan and Jewish Christianity respectively; and these two have been the occasion of controversies and attempted reconcilements.

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

love-powered diet: Revolutionary system concocted by Victoria Moran and based on the Twelve Steps. In The Love-Powered Diet: When Willpower Is Not Enough (1992), Moran uses the expressions God, Goddess, Higher Power, Higher Self, Love, Nature, and Spirit interchangeably.

The first principles of her system add up to: People with eating-related problems (e.g., bingeing) cannot resolve them on their own; with their permission, however, a Higher Power will work some wonders in their lives. Moran advises writing, praying, and talking casually to God and provides anthroposophical, Christian, Hindu, Native American, and Sikh prayers.

(See also: Love-powered diet , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Sutratma-buddhi (Sanskrit) [from sutratma thread-self + buddhi human spiritual soul]

The buddhic monad passing from life to life as the thread-self or spiritual thread of self, and hence the spiritual essence of all past incarnations, the higher self in each person.

See also BUDDHI

(See also: Sutratma-buddhi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

CHANNELING - 1. New Age where a disincarnate entity borrows your body to speak to others, either writing or verbally. Edgar Cayce was a medium. (TRASB)

2. process in which a person communicates messages from a discarnate source.

3. communicating with the higher self or spiritual guardians. (NAD)

(See also: CHANNELING , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Psychic: Being sensitive to energy emanating from guides such as angels, or a higher self. The ability to hear, see, feel energy from a source other than self.

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

COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS - 1. a term used to describe the sentient connection of all living things, past and present. It is synonymous with the terms “deep mind” and “higher self”. This is believed to be the all knowing energy source that contains the entire sum of human knowledge and experience which is tapped through divination.

2. universal storehouse of knowledge with everyone (Jung) (NAD)

(See also: COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Quantum ReleaseWork: Process that uses the Higher Self to perform vibrational, multidimensional healing. Its originators are two former university professors: medical anthropologist Beatrix Pfleiderer, Dr.Phil., and consciousness researcher Andrew Terker, Ph.D.

According to Quantum ReleaseWork theory:

(a)   culture and frozen emotions suppress one's true core;

(b)  bodily cells hold emotional and psychological woundings;

(c)   woundings compress information in cells;

(d)  such compression prevents one from fulfilling one's true potential; and (e) as one decompress the information in one's cells, one slows aging and obtains access to one's hidden potential for bliss, energy, and creativity.

(See also: Quantum ReleaseWork , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)