Nastika (Sanskrit) [from na not + astika one who believes in the existence of the orthodox exoteric divinity and divinities]

One who rejects the orthodox and exoteric religious teachings concerning the divinities, and who in consequence is apt to be called an atheist by orthodox exotericists. As all such orthodox exotericism really consists, at least in very large measure, in looking upon the divinities in the universe as objects of adoration, much after the manner in which the populace worships idols, hence nastika can likewise be considered to mean one who rejects idols, including every anthropomorphic god.

In this sense every genuine occultist is a nastika, although every occultist will affirm the existence of divinities, gods, spiritual beings, or dhyani-chohans -- call them by what name is preferred -- in the universe, stating indeed that the universe is filled full with divinities or essentially spiritual beings in the myriad stages of evolutionary development.

But the occultist, while revering the more grandly spiritual hierarchies of these divinities, worships or adores none of them, reserving his unspeakably deep reverence for that nameless ineffable mystery which is beyond, above, and within the boundless All, and therefore is not only unspeakable but unthinkable.

(See also: Nastika, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Golden Calf In the Old Testament, an object (Hebrew agel, egel, calf or globe) made in the wilderness by Aaron at the request of the Israelites when Moses had not returned from Mt. Sinai (BCW 3:130). Upon his return, Moses destroyed the idol by burning it, grinding it to powder, strewing it on water, and making the Israelites drink it (Ex 32:20) -- which Blavatsky holds has an alchemical significance (BCW 11:44). In one sense the golden calf stands for the secret knowledge the Jews took from the Egyptians. In another sense it is "the sacred heifer, the symbol of the 'Great Mother,' first the planet Venus, and then the moon . . . as says G. Massey . . .:

'This (the Golden Calf) being of either sex, it supplied a twin type for Venus, as Hathor or Ishtar (Astoreth), the double Star, that was male at rising and female at sunset, and therefore the Twin-Stars of the "First Day" ' " (BCW 8:308-9).

The calf is synonymous symbolically with the cherub and the globe, all meaning strength and creative or generative power. ()

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

Golden Calf In the Old Testament, an object (Hebrew agel, egel, calf or globe) made in the wilderness by Aaron at the request of the Israelites when Moses had not returned from Mt. Sinai (BCW 3:130). Upon his return, Moses destroyed the idol by burning it, grinding it to powder, strewing it on water, and making the Israelites drink it (Ex 32:20) -- which Blavatsky holds has an alchemical significance (BCW 11:44). In one sense the golden calf stands for the secret knowledge the Jews took from the Egyptians. In another sense it is "the sacred heifer, the symbol of the 'Great Mother,' first the planet Venus, and then the moon . . . as says G. Massey . . .:

'This (the Golden Calf) being of either sex, it supplied a twin type for Venus, as Hathor or Ishtar (Astoreth), the double Star, that was male at rising and female at sunset, and therefore the Twin-Stars of the "First Day" ' " (BCW 8:308-9).

The calf is synonymous symbolically with the cherub and the globe, all meaning strength and creative or generative power. ()

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

Baphomet (Ancient Greek). The androgyne goat of Mendes. (See Secret Doctrine, I. 253).

According to the Western, and especially the French Kabalists, the Templars were accused of worshipping Baphomet, and Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Templars, with all his brother-Masons, suffered death in consequence.

But esoterically, and philologically, the word never meant "goat", nor even anything so objective as an idol. The term means according to Von Hammer, "baptism" or initiation into Wisdom, from the Greek words bafh and mhtiz and from the relation of Baphometus to Pan. Von Hammer must be right. It was a Hermetico Kabalistic symbol, but the whole story as invented by the Clergy was false.

(See "Pan ".)

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

Lares (Latin). These were of three kinds: Lares familiares, the guardians and invisible presidents of the family circle; Lares parvi, small idols used for divinations and augury: and Lares prestites, which were supposed to maintain order among the others.

The Lares are the manes or ghosts of disembodied people. Apuleius says that the tumulary in scription, To the gods manes who lived, meant that the Soul had been transformed in a Lemure ; and adds that though "the human Soul is a demon that our languages may name genius", and "is an immortal god though in a certain sense she is born at the same time as the man in whom she is, yet we may say that she dies in the same way that she is born".

Which means in plainer language that Lares and Lemures are simply the shells cast off by the EGO, the high spiritual and immortal Soul, whose shell, and also its astral reflection, the animal Soul, die, whereas the higher Soul prevails throughout eternity.

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

AMBROSIA

The Greeks confused nectar with ambrosia exactly as we do. Originally it was thought that this "drink (not food!) of the gods" derived from some such word as ambrotos, that is "immortal", similar to Hindu amrita, "deathless". We now know that the source is the Greek word for "blood" or "gore," brotos (a cognate of our word "blood") referring to the blood sprinkled upon altars and idols in ancient times - as our word, "to bless", derives from Anglo-Saxon bletsian "to sprinkle with blood."

This, combined with haoma > AM (Gk. hemo), formed the bloody "unguent" of religious ritual.

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

Shaman [from Tungusian saman; Russian shaman an idolator]

Originally magician or sorcerer of the wandering tribes of Tartary, Mongolia, or Siberia (either man or woman); follower of the primeval religions, such as the Bhon religion of Tibet. Today applied to sorcerers, medicine men, etc., among traditional peoples, or what is based on their practices, anywhere in the world.

There are two classes of Shamans, however; "The Shamans of Siberia are all ignorant and illiterate. Those of Tartary and Thibet -- few in number -- are mostly learned men in their own way, and will not allow themselves to fall under the control of spirits of any kind. The former are mediums in the full sense of the word; the latter, 'magicians. . . .'

"But, while the illiterate Shaman is a victim, and during his crisis sometimes sees the persons present, under the shape of various animals, and often makes them share his hallucination, his brother Shaman, learned in the mysteries of the priestly colleges of Thibet, expels the elementary creature . . ." (IU 2:625-6).

(See also: Shaman, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Nergal (Chaldean) The Chaldean deity presiding over the realms of the dead. The entrance to his domain was through a large subterranean cavern named Aralu or Irkalla, which was under the special surveillance of the goddess Allatu (though his consort was Laz). His symbol was the lion, thus the colossal lions engraved upon edifices represented Nergal's guardianship. He was regarded as regent of the planet Mars.

As a deity with certain solar attributes, he was associated, especially in later times, with the summer solstice, and with the sun at its noon-day position, which was regarded as bringing calamities and destruction upon mankind. Thus Nergal became also associated with wars and pestilences.

In the Bible Nergal is named as an idol of the Cuthites (2 Kings 27:30). He "is also the Hebrew name for the planet Mars, associated invariably with ill-luck and danger. Nergal-Mars is the 'shedder of blood.' In occult astrology it is less malefic than Saturn, but is more active in its associations with men and its influence on them" (TG 228).

(See also: Nergal, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Garage

This is an interesting symbol and many people have requested that it be added to the dictionary. Traveling is very common theme in dreams and traveling in a car is the most common. Traveling in a vehicle generally can represent our journey through life -- or a portion of our life's journey. If in your dream you find yourself in a garage or a parking lot, two varying connotations can be made. Please consider the content of your dream, the mood in it, and your current dilemma or situation in life. The parked car could represent a period of inactivity and indecision in your life. The dream could be pointing out that you have been idol for a period of time and that it may be a good time to "get a move on." The more positive interpretation of this dream may be that the parked car is symbolic of a reflective period or mood. You may be in "park" for a while so that you can rest, relax, regroup, and think things over.

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

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

Jagannatha (Sanskrit) (from jagat world + natha protector, lord)

World protector, governor or lord of the world; title of Vishnu and Krishna, especially in his avataric manifestation from Vishnu; also of Rama, a previous avatara.

"This deity is worshipped equally by all the sects of India. . . . He is the god of the Mysteries, and his temples, which are most numerous in Bengal, are all of a pyramidal form" (IU 2:301). Applied specifically to the idol of Vishnu-Krishna at Puri in Orissa, Bengal, which is drawn through the street in a huge vehicle, under the wheels of which devotees were supposed to allow themselves to be crushed -- the modern English form is Juggernaut, meaning any law, custom, or belief that demands blind devotion and ruthless sacrifice.

In cosmology, Jagannatha is the cosmic hierarch of a particular cosmic unit out of which all flows in evolutionary procession, forming the periods of that universe's manifestation, and back into which in due course all again is gathered, to reissue forth again when the new cosmic manvantara opens. Thus in a sense Jagannatha parallels the productive member of the Hindu triad, Brahma.

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

Asherah 'asherah (Hebrew) A Syrian goddess of fortune having close similarities with the Roman divinity Venus, and connected by analogy of attributes with Ashtoreth or Astarte, another Syrian divinity.

Also a sacred wooden pole or image standing close to the massebah and altar in early Shemitic sanctuaries, part of the equipment of the temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem till the Deuteronomic reformation of Josiah (2 Kings 23:6). The plural, 'asherim, denotes statues, images, columns, or pillars; translated in the Bible by "groves." Maachah, the grandmother of Asa, King of Jerusalem, is accused of having made for herself such an idol, which was a lingham -- for centuries a religious rite in Judaea.

Sometimes called the Assyrian Tree of Life, "the original Asherah was a pillar with seven branches on each side surmounted by a globular flower with three projecting rays, and no phallic stone, as the Jews made of it, but a metaphysical symbol. 'Merciful One, who dead to life raises!' was the prayer uttered before the Asherah, on the banks of the Euphrates. The 'Merciful One,' was . . . the higher triad in man symbolized by the globular flower with its three rays" (TG 37).

See also ASTARTE.

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

Gold: See Colors (Yellow).The riches of the glory of God; enduring capacity of the believer as overcomer; unchanging holiness; wisdom; glory; righteousness; glorifying self when used as adornment or as idol worship. (Lam. 4:2; Ps. 19:10, 119:72; Rev. 3:18, 21:18. 21; 1 Cor. 3:12; Ex. 20:23; Is. 40:19; Job 22:25)

(Source: Tehillah Ministries)

Related pages: Christian Dream Interpretation, Dream Symbols, Dream Interpretation, Dream Symbol Gold, Dream Dictionary Gold, Meaning of dreams about Gold, Dream Interpretation Gold, Dream Analysis Gold, Dreaming of Gold

gold, colors, yellow, metals,

AMULET

Any unusual object or token whose fascination is intended to fascinate the Fascinator and thereby distract the Fascinator from wreaking his destruction. It is an occult charm serving as a protection against evil. Quite different from a talisman. Although one's own tailored creation is always best, there are a few traditional amulets, such as the kamea, holy inscriptions, idols, garlic, crucifixes, rose madder, etc. In order to provide its protection, the amulet must be worn (and preferably should be clearly visible) or remain in contact with that which is being guarded, such as the animal heads hanging over doorways that the druids and others used.

The value of quartz as an amulet is twofold: it bestows vitality and, as Antitoxin, routs evil spirits. It is effective because it derives from the detritus of other, possibly malignant spirits, in dark mineral springs. However, quartz crystal has been so exploited by New Age merchants that it is rapidly losing its meaning and power.

The most popular origin of the word (Arabic: hamala, "something carried") is the least correct. Latin amuletum, which was a little case or receptacle for carrying magical objects (like the Judaic mezuzah), derives from ampla, ama ("bucket" or something with handles, like a jug). The ama was also a bucket used in putting out fires.

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

BAPHOMET

Idol (chiefly its head) said to have been worshipped by the Templars. It is also the God of the Sabbath of Sorcerers. Its obvious association with Mohamet is possibly the result of unexamined Islam. Its also a symbol of Gnosticism. The Knights Templars (1118-1300) were involved with Gnosticism, Cathars, Albigensians, Manichaeans, and many other groups.

Since the Tarot appears in the 14th Century and since it bears some indications of Muslim origin (primarily the word, Al-Tariqa, or the way) and the Naipes of Spain (Arabic nabi, prophet), then perhaps Baphomet was supposed to be Mohammed. Crowley's Devil Baphomet certainly is alchemical, phallic and capric enough (with a 3rd eye).

Lévi: "To know how to extract from all matter the pure salt concealed therein is to possess the secret of the Stone that the Qabalists gave to their Mercury, the personification of Hermanubis and to Sulfur, the Templars' Baphomet." The name can also be given backwards: TEM OPH AB, Templum Omnium Hominum Pacis Abbas.

Satan, in an important sense, has no existence. He's perennially invented by a perverse will again and again, strictly for evil purposes. All inferior magicians worship the devil. The Devil, says Crowley, is created by the Black Brothers to imply a unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God.

Baphomet has his own tetramorph: Dog, Bull, Ass and Goat, representing perversions of the cardinal signs.

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

666

Many have been the designators of this apocalyptic finger, from Nero to the Popes, to Mohammed, to Ronald Wilson Reagan. But only through careful numerological analysis can we be certain of its true meaning. In The Dimensions of Paradise, John Mitchell shows clearly how this "number of the beast" is actually the Gnostic designation for Jesus Christ and the Crucifiction foisted on the world by the corrupt Church. Christ as an historical figure instead of a spiritual force was repugnant to the Gnostics. Decadent Babylon and the New Jerusalem are one and the same City of God, symbolizing the death rattle for the perverted religion and the birth of a new understanding. In Revelation, 666 refers to the phrase kai ho arithmos Chi-Xi-Sigma and stands for Jesus Christ as the idol on the cross rather than the Gnostic idea of the new Christ spirit, "the son of man," present in all men (much like our own "New Aeon" feeling). The New Jerusalem numbers are 3168, 1080, 1224 and 1764, but especially 864 and 666 (all of these, by the way, reduce to 9). New Jerusalem itself is 961 (seven), as is "the number of the leaves of the Tree of Life which are for the healing of nations."

A similar attribution can be found in Kenneth Grant's work (Outside the Circles of Time). For him, as for the writer of Revelation, the number has special apocalyptic meanings: "The Christians misunderstood the Unspeakable Name (IHVH) and supposed that by causing a rift between the Old Ones and the life-wave on earth they could 'save' mankind, and incidentally [of course!] gain total mastery of the planet." In order to do this, they inserted the Hebrew letter Shin (Grant calls this the letter of "Spirit," others associate it with "fire") between IH and VH, the Sh of Spirit. Thus we derive the name Yeheshuah or Johoshuah (IHShVH), which in Latin we call Jesus. The Xtians proceeded from there to identify this mythological name with a real person who, as Gerald Massey demonstrated, could only have been -- in an historic sense -- Jesus ben Pandira, an Egyptian who lived a century earlier. This wizard's mother was named Mary Magdalene, and he was stoned to death for sorcery. But the letter Shin, Grant tells us, "represents the triple-tongued flame of the Great Old Ones, whose supreme concentration -- Choronzon -- exhibits the triple Firetongue in the number 333." The latter is "mirrored in the final Heh of Tetragrammaton, the daughter-letter, whose number becomes the trebled Hex and the Unholy Act of Earth's destruction, under the rule of the Son of Typhon who is Set/Satan and the Anti-Christ."

Thus, to this very day, the idol that the entire "Christian" world bows down to is not the Christos spirit at all, but the Anti-Christ. The washed faces, the white gloves, the alb and pale lilies of Sunday worship cannot dispel the blood of ages. Average Galileans are unable to display love of any kind for their fellow-man. Instead, they constantly evoke the images of sin, corruption, misery and damnation. All "holy books" contain contradictions, lies and false teachings, but the Xtian Bible is a monument of fabrications and contradictions, second only to the Koran.

(See also: 666, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Cherubim (Hebrew, Jewish) According to the Kabbalists, a group of angels, which they specially associated with the Sephira Jesod. in Christian teaching, an order of angels who are "watchers".

Genesis places Cherubim to guard the lost Eden, and the O.T. frequently refers to them as guardians of the divine glory. Two winged representations in gold were placed over the Ark of the Covenant; colossal figures of the same were also placed in the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple of Solomon. Ezekiel describes them in poetic language.

 Each Cherub appears to have been a compound figure with four faces - of a man, eagle, lion, and ox, and was certainly winged. Parkhurst, in voc. Cherub, suggests that the derivation of the word is from K, a particle of similitude, and RB or RUB, greatness, master, majesty, and so an image of godhead. Many other nations have displayed similar figures as symbols of deity ; e.g., the Egyptians in their figures of Serapis. as Macrohius describes in his Saturnalia; the Greeks had their triple-headed Hecate, and the Latins had three-faced images of Diana, as Ovid tells us, ecce procul ternis Hecate variata figuris. Virgil also describes her in the fourth Book of the Eneid.

Porphyry and Eusebius write the same of Proserpine. The Vandals had a many-headed deity they called Triglaf. The ancient German races had an idol Rodigast with human body and heads of the ox, eagle, and man. The Persians have some figures of Mithras with a man’s body, lion’s head, and four wings. Add to these the Chimera Sphinx of Egypt, Moloch, Astarte of the Syrians, and some figures of Isis with Bull’s horns and feathers of a bird on the head.

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

Harmachus (Ancient Greek) The Egyptian Sphinx, called Har-em-chu or "Horus (the Sun) in the Horizon", a form of Ra the sun-god; esoterically the risen god. An inscription on a tablet reads "0 blessed Ra Harmachus Thou careerest by him in triumph. 0 shine, Amoun-Ra Harmachus self-generated ‘.

The temple of the Sphinx was discovered by Mariette Bey close to the Sphinx, near the great Pyramid of Gizeh All the Egyptologists agree in pronouncing the Sphinx and her temple the "oldest religious monument of the world " - at any rate of Egypt.

"The principal chamber", writes the late Mr. Fergusson "in the form of a cross, is supported by piers, simple prisms of Syenite granite without base or capital . . no sculptures or inscriptions of any sort are found on the walls of this temple, no ornament or symbol nor any image in the sanctuary". This proves the enormous antiquity of both the Sphinx and the temple. "The great bearded Sphinx of the Pyramids of Gizeh is the symbol of Harmachus, the same as each Egyptian Pharaoh who bore, in the inscriptions, the name of ‘living form of the Solar Sphinx upon the Earth ‘,"writes Brugsh Bey. And Renan recalls that "at one time the Egyptians were said to have temples without sculptured images" (Bonwick).

Not only the Egyptians but every nation of the earth began with temples devoid of idols and even of symbols. It is only when the remembrance of the great abstract truths and of the primordial Wisdom taught to humanity by the dynasties of the divine kings died out that men had to resort to mementos and symbology. In the story of Horus in some tablets of Edfou, Rouge found an inscription showing that the god had once assumed "the shape of a human-headed lion to gain advantage over his enemy Typhon.

Certainly Horus was so adored in Leontopolis. He is the real Sphinx. That accounts, too, for the lion figure being sometimes seen on each side of Isis. . . It was her child." (Bonwick.) And yet the story of Harmachus, or Har em-chu, is still left untold to the world, nor is it likely to he divulged to this generation. (See "Sphinx".)

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

Shamanism Generally regarded as spirit worship, commonly and often unjustly classed with the religions of primitive peoples referring particularly to the beliefs of wandering tribes in Siberia, Tartary, and Monglia. Belief in a supreme being is a prominent feature but this supreme being must be propitiated through secondary powers, both beneficent and malevolent, by means of intermediaries -- priests or shamans.

Blavatsky had contacted several shamans and wrote concerning it: "What is now generally known of Shamanism is very little; and that has been perverted, like the rest of the non-Christian religions. It is called the 'heathenism' of Mongolia, and wholly without reason, for it is one of the oldest religions of India. It is spirit-worship, or belief in the immortality of the souls, and that the latter are still the same men they were on earth, though their bodies have lost their objective form, and man has exchanged his physical for a spiritual nature. In its present shape, it is an offshoot of primitive theurgy, and a practical blending of the visible with the invisible world." "The true Shamanism . . . can no more be judged by its degenerated scions among the Shamans of Siberia, then the religion of Gautama-Buddha can be interpreted by the fetishism of some of his followers in Siam and Burmah. It is in the chief lamaseries of Mongolia and Thibet that it has taken refuge" (IU 2:615-6).

"Its followers have neither altars nor idols, and it is upon the authority of a Shaman priest that we state that their true rites, which they are bound to perform only once a year, on the shortest day of winter, cannot take place before any stranger to their faith. . . . Whenever they assemble to worship, it is always in an open space, or a high hill, or in the hidden depths of a forest -- in this reminding us of the old Druidical rites. Their ceremonies upon the occasion of births, deaths, and marriages are but trifling parts of their worship" (IU 2:624).

(See also: Shamanism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

QLIPHOTH/QLIPPOTH

Lit. "shells" (singular: qliphah). Shades of the dead whose names appear in the books of Dyzan or Thoth, or the Book of the Law (AL). They may contain formulae of magical powers. RAW calls them "souls of those who died insane... the tulpas of Tibet... avatars of Coyote, the American Indian prankster-god." RAW also identifies them with the Celtic "little people" or faeries. Some of the twenty-two qliphotic entities of the Black Tarot, as envisioned by Grant, are defined herein under separate entries, although strictly speaking, the qlippoth are the names of the guardians of the tunnels, not the tunnels themselves. To understand the qliphothic atus fully and to do them justice can be more deleterious to the artist or researcher than one might suspect. Conceivably, such complete understanding could result in the destruction of the ego without restoration in the Oversoul and therefore lead to actual madness. Dealing with the Qliphoth is the psychic equivalent of working with toxic wastes, dangerous animals or high voltage wires.

To invoke any force is to invoke automatically its opposite as well. In the more conventional sense, qliphoth are negative cosmic energies equating with the ten positive Sephiroth (e.g., Lilith is the evil counterpart of Malkuth). All positive aspects of divinity have their "excremental" sides, or demons: Beelzebub, Satanas, etc. The difference between metamorphosis and excretion is thinner than you might guess.

From the universal lexicon:

          scall         English                 scab

          chale         Cupeno                  husk, shell

          skalli        Icelandic               a peeled head

          geled         Hebrew                  skin

          kulit         Malay                   skin

          skull         English                 the "shell" of the brain

          azal          Basque                  peeling

          soale         Hausa                   to peel off

          scale, shell  English

          scalp< shell a Dutch M. schelpe Qabalah the of ?demons? or refuse? ?peelings, Qlipphoth discard husk, Hebrew qliphah husk peel; skin; to Malay kupas sheath English Middle>

In the waning years of Alchemy, occultists were fond of saying that the Philosopher's Stone was "that which all men despise" -- and this in turn led the puffers to experiment with various types of excrement in order to see if that substance, perchance, could possibly yield the Secret of the Ages, since nothing so far had succeeded in doing so. And of course all such experiments accomplished was to mark the nadir of human folly.

What is this word "excrement", after all? It's from Latin, excernere, "to separate." It is a separation, a peeling away, as when we peel away a scab or a blister, making it no longer a part of ourselves. German scheiden/schieden (divide, separate, divorce) is simply another form of the word Scheisse (Fr. chier, Engl. shit) or its Greek equivalent schizo, "to split."

Latin cutis (skin), we should notice, first of all, is a cognate of Greek skatos (dung). Like the snake, what we throw away begins with the "skin" -- a word which probably represents a form of one of the universal roots. Compare Peruvian kina (the bark, or tree peeling, whence we get quinine) and Malay sisek (fish scales). Perhaps even the Austrian Kakadu word, k…ngir meaning "skin" is distantly related. At any rate, k…ngir is almost certainly the origin of "kangaroo," particularly since the Australian Warramunga word, nguru, meant "foreskin." These two are clearly connected and the marsupial associations are plain enough.

The puffers didn't understand that excrement isn't exactly what all men despise. Or to be more precise, what matters isn't so much what is discarded and thrown away, but the value we place on the kept, as opposed to the trash. That faulty decision itself is where the problem lies. In fact, the Finnish proverb: Kulta kultainen v„lkkya roskatta, "gold glitters in what is thrown away", is a sentiment well understood by shamans, witches and other marginal people, who are drawn to the rubbish heaps and middens, much as the money-vultures circle the stock market.

What all men despise is "that out there," that is to say, the world. And they try incessantly to dissociate themselves from it. Yet, obviously, if we really were one with the world, then we'd have in hand "the universal solvent," we'd have immortality because the world is immortal. In the world's all-powerful Nature is the very secret of turning lead into gold. Instead man tries desperately to throw out everything that is not self.

Part of the problem is that the verb "to be" has two meanings (as in Spanish): one is an expression of permanent identity or equivalence to something else and the other an expression of a changing, on-going process. When we accept the error that we are not gods, we cease all self-examination, self-disciplines and self-improvement. We define god as an embodiment of "pefection" (or completion) instead of as the avenue of evolution and becoming. Only idols are perfect. Not even Odin ever thought of himself as perfect: he had to make many sacrifices in order to gain wisdom. Ditto Osiris, who was so far from being "together" that he was chopped up into little pieces. Granted, Jehovah is perfect, or thinks He is, but He is also a difficult God to respect, for that same reason. When you say we are not gods, you mean we are not idols. But an idol is precisely what modern man has made of himself. He worships himself, even though gods never worship themselves. Obviously, they don't have to. Only man worships himself, though not really as a god or potential god. He worships himself just as he is: as a fatted, golden pig wearing Gucci shoes.

The reason people push gods "outside" is the same reason they shove everything else outside, separating everything and calling it evil because it is unwanted. Anything which is not self, including the planet earth, is felt to be of no real value. In fact, matter is simply unwanted "dirt." Most of the self is thrown away, at least that part of the self which demands the most work or struggle. All that may remain is the momentary gratification of physical need: food, drink, sex, rest, entertainment. To put a god into that strait-jacket, even a minor one, is to disrupt the routine, to interfere with the direct line of ice cream to mouth. Besides, the puffing up of an imaginary personal ego is a thousand times easier than the expression of difficult, real Divinity. Standing far enough away from the world empowers objectivity to serve as the perfect defense of the ego. Here ego cannot be challenged and "Science" and "Reason" become the last refuges of Subjective Solipsism.

In the Qabalah this peeling away of the self, this separation or "excrement" is called a Qlipha (pl. qlipphoth). The qliphoth are the negative personifications. All the expressions of Divinity have their "qlipphoth": Samael, Beelzebub, Satanas, etc., as we've said. And, in truth, these are what people actually bow down to: these idols that are made up out of excrement. Divinity that lies outside of self is not divinity.

In contemporary Occidental man's desperate struggle to separate himself we would do well to remember Alan Watts' comparison of the self to an onion. You can peel and peel until there is nothing left.

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

QLIPHOTH/QLIPPOTH

Lit. "shells" (singular: qliphah). Shades of the dead whose names appear in the books of Dyzan or Thoth, or the Book of the Law (AL). They may contain formulae of magical powers. RAW calls them "souls of those who died insane... the tulpas of Tibet... avatars of Coyote, the American Indian prankster-god." RAW also identifies them with the Celtic "little people" or faeries. Some of the twenty-two qliphotic entities of the Black Tarot, as envisioned by Grant, are defined herein under separate entries, although strictly speaking, the qlippoth are the names of the guardians of the tunnels, not the tunnels themselves. To understand the qliphothic atus fully and to do them justice can be more deleterious to the artist or researcher than one might suspect. Conceivably, such complete understanding could result in the destruction of the ego without restoration in the Oversoul and therefore lead to actual madness. Dealing with the Qliphoth is the psychic equivalent of working with toxic wastes, dangerous animals or high voltage wires.

To invoke any force is to invoke automatically its opposite as well. In the more conventional sense, qliphoth are negative cosmic energies equating with the ten positive Sephiroth (e.g., Lilith is the evil counterpart of Malkuth). All positive aspects of divinity have their "excremental" sides, or demons: Beelzebub, Satanas, etc. The difference between metamorphosis and excretion is thinner than you might guess.

From the universal lexicon:

          scall         English                 scab

          chale         Cupeno                  husk, shell

          skalli        Icelandic               a peeled head

          geled         Hebrew                  skin

          kulit         Malay                   skin

          skull         English                 the "shell" of the brain

          azal          Basque                  peeling

          soale         Hausa                   to peel off

          scale, shell  English

          scalp< shell a Dutch M. schelpe Qabalah the of ?demons? or refuse? ?peelings, Qlipphoth discard husk, Hebrew qliphah husk peel; skin; to Malay kupas sheath English Middle>

In the waning years of Alchemy, occultists were fond of saying that the Philosopher's Stone was "that which all men despise" -- and this in turn led the puffers to experiment with various types of excrement in order to see if that substance, perchance, could possibly yield the Secret of the Ages, since nothing so far had succeeded in doing so. And of course all such experiments accomplished was to mark the nadir of human folly.

What is this word "excrement", after all? It's from Latin, excernere, "to separate." It is a separation, a peeling away, as when we peel away a scab or a blister, making it no longer a part of ourselves. German scheiden/schieden (divide, separate, divorce) is simply another form of the word Scheisse (Fr. chier, Engl. shit) or its Greek equivalent schizo, "to split."

Latin cutis (skin), we should notice, first of all, is a cognate of Greek skatos (dung). Like the snake, what we throw away begins with the "skin" -- a word which probably represents a form of one of the universal roots. Compare Peruvian kina (the bark, or tree peeling, whence we get quinine) and Malay sisek (fish scales). Perhaps even the Austrian Kakadu word, k…ngir meaning "skin" is distantly related. At any rate, k…ngir is almost certainly the origin of "kangaroo," particularly since the Australian Warramunga word, nguru, meant "foreskin." These two are clearly connected and the marsupial associations are plain enough.

The puffers didn't understand that excrement isn't exactly what all men despise. Or to be more precise, what matters isn't so much what is discarded and thrown away, but the value we place on the kept, as opposed to the trash. That faulty decision itself is where the problem lies. In fact, the Finnish proverb: Kulta kultainen v„lkkya roskatta, "gold glitters in what is thrown away", is a sentiment well understood by shamans, witches and other marginal people, who are drawn to the rubbish heaps and middens, much as the money-vultures circle the stock market.

What all men despise is "that out there," that is to say, the world. And they try incessantly to dissociate themselves from it. Yet, obviously, if we really were one with the world, then we'd have in hand "the universal solvent," we'd have immortality because the world is immortal. In the world's all-powerful Nature is the very secret of turning lead into gold. Instead man tries desperately to throw out everything that is not self.

Part of the problem is that the verb "to be" has two meanings (as in Spanish): one is an expression of permanent identity or equivalence to something else and the other an expression of a changing, on-going process. When we accept the error that we are not gods, we cease all self-examination, self-disciplines and self-improvement. We define god as an embodiment of "pefection" (or completion) instead of as the avenue of evolution and becoming. Only idols are perfect. Not even Odin ever thought of himself as perfect: he had to make many sacrifices in order to gain wisdom. Ditto Osiris, who was so far from being "together" that he was chopped up into little pieces. Granted, Jehovah is perfect, or thinks He is, but He is also a difficult God to respect, for that same reason. When you say we are not gods, you mean we are not idols. But an idol is precisely what modern man has made of himself. He worships himself, even though gods never worship themselves. Obviously, they don't have to. Only man worships himself, though not really as a god or potential god. He worships himself just as he is: as a fatted, golden pig wearing Gucci shoes.

The reason people push gods "outside" is the same reason they shove everything else outside, separating everything and calling it evil because it is unwanted. Anything which is not self, including the planet earth, is felt to be of no real value. In fact, matter is simply unwanted "dirt." Most of the self is thrown away, at least that part of the self which demands the most work or struggle. All that may remain is the momentary gratification of physical need: food, drink, sex, rest, entertainment. To put a god into that strait-jacket, even a minor one, is to disrupt the routine, to interfere with the direct line of ice cream to mouth. Besides, the puffing up of an imaginary personal ego is a thousand times easier than the expression of difficult, real Divinity. Standing far enough away from the world empowers objectivity to serve as the perfect defense of the ego. Here ego cannot be challenged and "Science" and "Reason" become the last refuges of Subjective Solipsism.

In the Qabalah this peeling away of the self, this separation or "excrement" is called a Qlipha (pl. qlipphoth). The qliphoth are the negative personifications. All the expressions of Divinity have their "qlipphoth": Samael, Beelzebub, Satanas, etc., as we've said. And, in truth, these are what people actually bow down to: these idols that are made up out of excrement. Divinity that lies outside of self is not divinity.

In contemporary Occidental man's desperate struggle to separate himself we would do well to remember Alan Watts' comparison of the self to an onion. You can peel and peel until there is nothing left.

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

God (Gods) and Goddess (Goddesses) A generalizing term signifying all self-conscious entities superior to humankind, most often restricted to the three dhyani-chohanic kingdoms. The gods have differing places in nature's hierarchical scheme, running through innumerable grades of cosmic intelligences. Theosophy teaches that human beings who successfully reach the seventh round on this earth chain will pass, at the conclusion of this last round, into the kingdom superior to the human, that of the lowest dhyani-chohans.

One function of dhyani-chohans (gods or demigods of a lower type) is the watching over of all hierarchies below them, some being guardians of the human host, others guarding and protecting the less evolved kingdoms. The higher hierarchical ranges of gods or divinities in our universe "are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as Gods, and collectively -- God. . . . To the highest, we are taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth; which progeny is indissoluble linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us" (SD 1:133).

These beings belong to two general divisions, the arupa (formless) and the rupa (form) divinities. Those having forms should not be imagined as necessarily having human forms as in the ancient pantheons, yet rupa gods do have highly ethereal forms, some perhaps resembling the present human shape and others of quite different construction. But the arupa divinities are to our power of imagination "beings of pure intelligence and of understanding, pure essences, pure spirits, formless as we conceive form" (Fund 347).

Tradition has it that in the immemorial past, certain lower gods associated intimately with their children, humanity, on this globe; but as time went by and mankind became more immersed in material pursuits, people grew to become increasingly forgetful of their divine origin and of the presence of the shining divinities instructing and guiding their forebears, so that the gods and demigods were remembered only in mythologies and religious metaphors of the various races.

What did the ancients mean by their gods and goddesses? They were intended to represent the guiding intelligences present within or in back of all invisible secrets, as well as astral and physical manifestations of nature. During the third root-race there were beings who were

"endowed with the sacred fire from the spark of higher and then independent Beings, who were the psychic and spiritual parents of Man, as the lower Pitar Devata (the Pitris) were the progenitors of his physical body. That Third and holy Race consisted of men who, at their zenith, were described as, 'towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the depositaries of all the mysteries of Heaven and Earth.'. . .

". . . the chief gods and heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races, as of later antiquity, are the deified images of these men of the Third. The days of their physiological purity, and those of their so-called Fall, have equally survived in the hearts and memories of their descendants. Hence, the dual nature shown in those gods, both virtue and sin being exalted to their highest degree, in the biographies composed by posterity" (SD 2:171-2).

The primeval human deity worship degenerated during the fourth root-race (the Atlantean), the ideal at first becoming confused with the form, and the latter finally almost superseding the spirit -- thus in the relatively complete materialization of idea into form, the later Atlanteans in time began to worship themselves, what was to them the powers of nature appearing through themselves as human beings; the degeneration of the ideal proceeding so far that ultimately the worst kind of idol worship became relatively universal, except for the seed of the newer and somewhat higher mankind of the fifth root-race then beginning.

"The moderns are satisfied with worshipping the male heroes of the Fourth race, who created gods after their own sexual image, whereas the gods of primeval mankind were 'male and female,' " i.e., hermaphrodite (SD 2:135).

See also DEITY

(See also: God, Goddess, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

God (Gods) and Goddess (Goddesses) A generalizing term signifying all self-conscious entities superior to humankind, most often restricted to the three dhyani-chohanic kingdoms. The gods have differing places in nature's hierarchical scheme, running through innumerable grades of cosmic intelligences. Theosophy teaches that human beings who successfully reach the seventh round on this earth chain will pass, at the conclusion of this last round, into the kingdom superior to the human, that of the lowest dhyani-chohans.

One function of dhyani-chohans (gods or demigods of a lower type) is the watching over of all hierarchies below them, some being guardians of the human host, others guarding and protecting the less evolved kingdoms. The higher hierarchical ranges of gods or divinities in our universe "are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as Gods, and collectively -- God. . . . To the highest, we are taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth; which progeny is indissoluble linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us" (SD 1:133).

These beings belong to two general divisions, the arupa (formless) and the rupa (form) divinities. Those having forms should not be imagined as necessarily having human forms as in the ancient pantheons, yet rupa gods do have highly ethereal forms, some perhaps resembling the present human shape and others of quite different construction. But the arupa divinities are to our power of imagination "beings of pure intelligence and of understanding, pure essences, pure spirits, formless as we conceive form" (Fund 347).

Tradition has it that in the immemorial past, certain lower gods associated intimately with their children, humanity, on this globe; but as time went by and mankind became more immersed in material pursuits, people grew to become increasingly forgetful of their divine origin and of the presence of the shining divinities instructing and guiding their forebears, so that the gods and demigods were remembered only in mythologies and religious metaphors of the various races.

What did the ancients mean by their gods and goddesses? They were intended to represent the guiding intelligences present within or in back of all invisible secrets, as well as astral and physical manifestations of nature. During the third root-race there were beings who were

"endowed with the sacred fire from the spark of higher and then independent Beings, who were the psychic and spiritual parents of Man, as the lower Pitar Devata (the Pitris) were the progenitors of his physical body. That Third and holy Race consisted of men who, at their zenith, were described as, 'towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the depositaries of all the mysteries of Heaven and Earth.'. . .

". . . the chief gods and heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races, as of later antiquity, are the deified images of these men of the Third. The days of their physiological purity, and those of their so-called Fall, have equally survived in the hearts and memories of their descendants. Hence, the dual nature shown in those gods, both virtue and sin being exalted to their highest degree, in the biographies composed by posterity" (SD 2:171-2).

The primeval human deity worship degenerated during the fourth root-race (the Atlantean), the ideal at first becoming confused with the form, and the latter finally almost superseding the spirit -- thus in the relatively complete materialization of idea into form, the later Atlanteans in time began to worship themselves, what was to them the powers of nature appearing through themselves as human beings; the degeneration of the ideal proceeding so far that ultimately the worst kind of idol worship became relatively universal, except for the seed of the newer and somewhat higher mankind of the fifth root-race then beginning.

"The moderns are satisfied with worshipping the male heroes of the Fourth race, who created gods after their own sexual image, whereas the gods of primeval mankind were 'male and female,' " i.e., hermaphrodite (SD 2:135).

See also DEITY

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