A Wisdom Archive on Hindu Occultism

Arasa Maram (Sanskrit). The Hindu sacred tree of knowledge. In occult philosophy a mystic word.

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

Usanas (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root vas to desire, wish]
 
The regent of the planet Venus, or Sukra; also the planet itself. In Hindu myth Usanas is described as the guru of the daityas or asuras, and also as being possessed of vast wisdom and knowledge -- the attribute of spiritualized intellectuality corresponding to occult characteristics ascribed to the regent of Venus.

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

Waters of Space Chaos, the great deep, the great cosmic Mother, the universal cosmic matrix. According to Thales and other ancient philosophers, the water of cosmic space was the first principle emanating from the spatial deeps of spirit and producing the universe through emanational evolution. Various Greek philosophers have represented aether, fire, air, or water as the primordial cosmic principle; and each of these was true, though giving only a part of the truth. These philosophies as aspects of a whole in much the same way as the several great schools of Hindu philosophy are.
 
Thus the waters of space are equivalent to the veil of cosmic spirit. Water in ancient cosmogonies corresponded to the Hindu prakriti or pradhana, and like the Greek Second Logos was endowed with feminine or productive characteristics. Thus the archaic Greeks in one form of their cosmogonical philosophy taught that all things, including the gods, came forth from Ocean and his wife Tethys:
 
"Ocean is the immeasurable space (Spirit in Chaos), which is the Deity . . .; and Tethys is not the Earth, but primordial matter in the process of formation" (SD 2:65).
 
"But there are two distinct aspects in universal Esotericism, Eastern and Western, in all those personations of the Female Power in nature, or nature -- the noumenal and the phenomenal. One is its purely metaphysical aspect, . . . the other terrestrial and physical, and at the same time divine from the stand-point of practical human conception and Occultism. They are all the symbols and personifications of Chaos, the ''Great Deep'' or the Primordial Waters of Space, the impenetrable veil between the Incognisable and the Logos of Creation" (SD 1:431).

 
(See also: Waters of Space, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

Vajra (Sanskrit) Diamond or thunderbolt; one possessing this scepter, or diamond-thunderbolt, possesses great spiritual, intellectual, and psychic powers; among others, the occult ability to repel evil influences by purifying the air, as ozone does in chemistry.
 
The vajra mystically refers to indestructibility and to the wondrous reflective powers of the diamond. One who possesses the vajra reflects the suffering, joys, and sorrows -- and beauties -- of the world, but can never be injured by them. It has been said that the heart of the perfect person is a mirror: it reflects all things, but holds nothing for self alone. Thus also is the heart of one wielding the scepter of the vajra.
 
In Hindu literature this vajra is the scepter of Indra (similar to the thunderbolt of Zeus), with which he as the god of the skies was said to slay evildoers. In mystical Buddhism it is the magic scepter of priest-initiates and adepts, the symbol of the possessions of siddhis (superhuman powers), wielded during certain mystical ceremonies by initiated priests and theurgists. It is also the symbol of the Buddha''s power over evil spirits or elementals. The possessors of this scepter are called vajrapanins.

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

Yama (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root yam to subdue, control]
 
A curb, rein, bridle; hence the act of curbing, suppression, self-control. Especially prominent in yoga as self-restraint: it is the first of the eight angas or means of attaining mental concentration.
 
As a proper name, the deity who rules over the shades of the dead in the Rig-Veda, corresponding to the Greek Hades or Roman Pluto. Hence Yama is the personification of the third root-race, because these were the first to taste death -- the first self-consciously intellectual humans who died and departed after death to devachan. Hence also the ascription in Hindu mythology to Yama as the ruler of the pitris. In the Mahabharata, he is described as dressed in blood-red garments, with a glittering form, a crown on his head, glowing eyes and, like Varuna, he holds a noose with which he binds the spirit after drawing it from the body after death.
 
"Yama is represented as the son of Vivaswat (the Sun). He had a twin-sister named Yami, who was ever urging him, according to another hymn, to take her for his wife, in order to perpetuate the species" (TG 375-6). Yama and his twin sister is a distinct reference to the androgynous character of the human race from the middle of the third root-race forward.
 
The Rig-Veda "nowhere shows Yama ''as having anything to do with the punishment of the wicked.'' As king and judge of the dead, a Pluto in short, Yama is a far later creation. One has to study the true character of Yama-Yami throughout more than one hymn and epic poem, and collect the various accounts scattered in dozens of ancient works, and then he will obtain a consensus of allegorical statements which will be found to corroborate and justify the Esoteric teaching, that Yama-Yami is the symbol of the dual Manas, in one of its mystical meanings.
 
For instance, Yama-Yami is always represented of a green colour and clothed with red, and as dwelling in a palace of copper and iron. Students of Occultism know to which of the human ''principles'' the green and the red colours, and by correspondence the iron and copper, are to be applied. The ''twofold-ruler'' -- the epithet of Yama-Yami -- is regarded in the exoteric teachings of the Chino-Buddhists as both judge and criminal, the restrainer of his own evil doings and the evil-doer himself. In the Hindu epic poems Yama-Yami is the twin-child of the Sun (the deity) by Sanjna (spiritual consciousness); but while Yama is the Aryan ''lord of the day,'' appearing as the symbol of spirit in the East, Yami is the queen of the night (darkness, ignorance) ''who opens to mortals the path to the West'' -- the emblem of evil and matter. In the Puranas Yama has many wives (many Yamis) who force him to dwell in the lower world (Patala, Myalba, etc., etc.); and an allegory represents him with his foot lifted, to kick Chhaya, the handmaiden of his father (the astral body of his mother, Sanjna, a metaphysical aspect of Buddhi or Alaya).
 
As stated in the Hindu Scriptures, a soul when it quits its mortal frame, repairs to its abode in the lower regions (Kamaloka or Hades). Once there, the Recorder, the Karmic messenger called Chitragupta (hidden or concealed brightness), reads out his account from the Great Register, wherein during the life of the human being, every deed and thought are indelibly impressed -- and, according to the sentence pronounced, the ''soul'' either ascends to the abode of the Pitris (Devachan), descends to a ''hell'' (Kamaloka), or is reborn on earth in another human form" (TG 376).

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

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 )

Year There are several years -- the sidereal, tropical, lunar, and others -- known to astronomy and calendrical science. Among nations we find numerous artificial years used for purposes of adapting civil requirements to celestial necessities, or for carrying out particular methods of computation: e.g., the year of 365 days, the Julian year of 365 1/4 days, an ancient Mexican year of 260 days, and a variety of Hindu years.
 
There is also the occult year of 360 days, which may be looked upon as a year based upon a deep knowledge of astronomy and celestial principles. The year of 360 days may likewise be considered as an average, i.e., the year which the earth hovers around and attempts through the evolving cycles of time to attain and to hold. The lunar year of twelve lunations has been widely used in ancient times, and is still used by some nations; and there is a large number of intercalary devices for accommodating this to the solar year. Blavatsky speaks of years of six months and of two months (SD 2:621), and uses the word year as synonymous with cycle as applicable to various periods, known or secret, and even to so long a cycle as that of the precession.
 
The solstices and equinoxes are found in history as starting points for the year among different nations. Our own was intended for the winter solstice, but confusions of the calendar have shifted the date. The 4th of January is mentioned in theosophical writings as being the right time for the beginning of the civil year, as marking the date of the first full moon after a winter solstice coincident with a new moon. This has relation to initiatory rites.
 
The solar year has sometimes been used correctly enough as a symbol of solar gods and powers. Its length in full days, 365, is given by the letters in certain names, taken as numerals in accordance with the rules of the Greek alphabet: Abraxas, Meithras, Neilos, all add up to 365. This is often contrasted with the lunar year of 354 days, for which similar symbolism may be found.
 
The actual mysteries connected with the computations of the annual cycle of the sun are very numerous, yet all have a common background of identic fact, though the details vary considerably from people to people. As an example of the many ideas connected with the year, what is now popularly but rather mistakenly called the Babylonian method of dividing the circle or a cycle of time into 360 divisions called degrees, and each such degree again into 60 minutes, and each minute again into 60 seconds, was itself based on the occult year of 360 days, each day consisting of 12, or indeed 24, hours, each hour consisting of 60 minutes, and each minute again comprising 60 seconds.

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