Intuition Dictionary

Hydra (Greek) A water serpent, feminine, corresponding to a masculine hydros; usually the monster which Hercules overcomes in one of his twelve labors.

As the twelve labors signify, among other things, the trials of an initiant in the Mysteries, the mythologic hydra symbolizes the psycho-astral forces which have to be mastered.

In past stages of evolution, when inchoate attempts at formation were made, and when planes and states of matter were not as they are now, strange monsters existed, which were at first purely lower astral, then astral-physical, and finally physical, before they died out. Hence the idea that the hydra was derived from traditions or astral visions of some reptile-monster of the Mesozoic Age may be an imperfect intuition of the facts.

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

Leo: The best quality of Leo is kindness. The worst quality is domination. A key phrase is "I lead." The Leo personality is strong, even majestic. Leo wants to be dignified in every situation, and also may want to dominate. Stability is a pronounced trait. The Leo mental process tends toward large ideas. Leo is determined to rise to a position of authority and despises petty tasks. The desire for personal glory sometimes leads Leo’s reach to exceed the grasp in the pursuit of honors or high office. The individual will is generally focused, and cannot be easily swayed.

The passionate temperament of Leos makes you exciting to be around. You can be entertaining, as you seek the limelight, if not the love of the audience. You act from emotion or intuition, and may fail to consider the price of your actions. Impulsive and daring, you make good leaders, determined to win. You can also be willful, holding your own position in spite of the wisdom of the alternative.

The Leo disposition is sympathetic and warm-hearted for the most part. In leadership situations these qualities may manifest in the fact that you do not demand the impossible of others – that you reserve for yourself. Once committed Leos are faithful and trust in others. You are not very good at taking orders.

Leos are fair opponents. You recognize a good challenge and bring courage and nobility to the battle. You can be persistent in the pursuit of your goals, and thus provide leadership in difficult situations where others might quit. Like the lion, Leos wish to dominate your surroundings, but are willing to bask in the sun in a dignified manner. Once you have made a decision, you are outspoken in your expression of your position. You can be overbearing when you determine to get your own way. It is better to seek your agreement than to try to force you to accept someone else’s views.

(See also: Leo , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Disease Broadly stated, disease is a disordered or inharmonious vital state of the organism, with more of less excess, defect, or perversion of functional activity. The condition may be some chemical or mechanical wrong which renders the body unable to respond naturally to the psychoelectric and other forces which play through and sustain the physical person.

Moreover, the material and immaterial elements of the human constitution react upon each other for health or disease, because the mind and emotions on the one hand, and the organs and their functions on the other, are interrelated parts of the same entity. As a rule, this interplay between the material and the conscious person becomes a vicious circle in disease. Mental or emotional shock or strain can so affect function as to result in organic disease. Long continued selfish emotions cause a distorted and inharmonious interaction of the pranic or vital currents of the body, resulting in one or another disorder, according to the type of the emotions and the individual karma.

In view of the electric nature of matter, physical disorder may be regarded as an electrical disharmony or wrong, since disease always changes the polarity of the body, more or less. The vital currents of human electricity connect the conscious person with his body by the living wires of nerves. The rhythmic motion or natural harmony vibrating in each cell and organ at its own rate, is responsive to the universal vibration or Great Breath which in other modes of motion manifests as heat, light, sound, density, etc. But beyond the electrical and vibrational states of the body, and above the mental influence, is the essential self, the source of all harmony or rhythmic procedures in all below it, keyed to harmony and striving to raise the lower nature to act in unison with its finer and greater powers. When the instinct of the animal body, the mental reasoning faculties, and the reimbodying ego's intuition are functioning together, the person is keyed to health, sanity, and wisdom. Otherwise, the real inner conflict manifests in some form of disorder.

As the human being, then, is a dynamo of balanced forces, some disorder in their operation is the basic wrong in human diseases. Moreover, as all matter is alive, conscious in some degree, and vibrationally responsive to the laws of nature, the same general principle applies also to disease in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. In mankind, the organic vital fluid of the reimbodying ego is the cohering factor for the entire constitution, dominating over all minor vital expressions of the life-atoms. The intense and ceaseless activity of these life-atoms builds and composes the body, and as age comes on, and the physical vehicle naturally and normally weakens, the uninterrupted activity of the vital power becomes too strong to be held in check by the gripping influence of the vital-electrical field. Thus the atomic forces, really the vital energies, continuing unabated within the body structure, slowly weaken it and finally destroy it, and this is death.

"It is likewise these internal vital activities of the life-atoms held in insufficient check by the organic vitality which bring about many if perhaps not all of the various forms of disease of a lasting character. Cases of malignant disease are due to the same general cause but on account of specific and unusual circumstances are localized in some portion of the body where the power or control of the organic vitality becomes greatly weakened" (ET 813n).

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

Sanskrit [from Sanskrit sanskrita or samskrita]

The ancient sacred language of the Aryans, originally the sacred or secret language of the initiates of the fifth root-race. The Sanskrit language possesses voluminous and valuable works in prose and in verse, some of which, like the Vedas, date back, in the opinion of certain scholars, to the years 30,000 BC or even far beyond. Almost every phase of philosophic thought, expressed and studied in the West, is represented in one form or another in ancient Hindu literature. Besides this, these old Sanskrit writings are replete with recondite subjects dealing with the wondrous potentialities of the human spirit and mind, the building and destruction of worlds and universes, etc.

The Sanskrit language, derives from one of the earliest of the Aryan tongues, a lineal descendant of an Atlantean progenitor.

"In ancient times in India, and in the homeland of the Aryans before they reached India by way of Central Asia, this very early Aryan speech was used not only by the Aryan populace, but in the sanctuaries of the Temples was taken in hand and developed or composed or builded to be a far finer vehicle for expressing abstract religious and philosophic conceptions and thoughts. This tongue thus composed or developed by initiates of the Aryan stock, because of this formative work upon it was finally given the name Sanskrita, signifying an original natural language which had become perfected by initiates for the purpose of expressing far more subtle and profound distinctions than ordinary people would ever find needful. So great was the admiration in which the Sanskrit language thus perfected was held, that it was commonly said of it that it was the work of the Gods, because it had thus become capable of expressing godlike thoughts: profound spiritual subtleties and philosophical distinctions. Thus it was that Sanskrit is really the mystery-language of the initiates of the Aryan race; as the Senzar of very similar history was the mystery-language of the later Atlanteans; and is still used as the noblest mystery-language by the Mahatmas.

"Sanskrit was not known as a spoken tongue to the Atlanteans in their prime, but in the degenerate or later times of Atlantis, when the earliest Aryans already had appeared on the scene of history, this early Aryan speech above alluded to, was already in existence; and the Aryan initiates were then in the course of perfecting it as their temple-language or mystery-tongue . . . Thus Sanskrit was not spoken among the Atlanteans, nor can it therefore be called an Atlantean language; although its verbal roots of course go back to earliest Atlantean times, but only its verbal roots" -- G. de Purucker

"The Vedas, Brahmanism, and along with these, Sanskrit, were importations into what we now regard as India. They were never indigenous to its soil. There was a time when the ancient nations of the West included under the generic name of India many of the countries of Asia now classified under other names. There was an Upper, a Lower, and a Western India, even during the comparatively late period of Alexander; and Persia (Iran) is called Western India in some ancient classics. The countries now named Tibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary were considered by them as forming part of India. When we say, therefore, that India has civilized the world, and was the Alma Mater of the civilizations, arts, and sciences of all other nations (Babylonia, and perhaps even Egypt, included) we mean archaic, pre-historic India, India of the time when the great Gobi was a sea, and the lost 'Atlantis' formed part of an unbroken continent which began at the Himalayas and ran down over Southern India, Ceylon, and Java, to far-away Tasmania" (Five Years of Theosophy 179).

Blavatsky states that Sanskrit has never been known nor spoken in its true systematized form except by the initiated Brahmins. This form of Sanskrit was called -- as well as by other names -- Vach, the mystic speech, which resides in the sounds of the mantra. "The chanting of a Mantra is not a prayer, but rather a magical sentence in which the law of Occult causation connects itself with, and depends on, the will and acts of its singer. It is a succession of Sanskrit sounds, and when its strings of words and sentences is pronounced according to the magical formulae in the Atharva Veda, but understood by the few, some Mantras produce an instantaneous and very wonderful effect" (BCW 14:428n). This Vach, or the mystic self of Sanskrit, was the sacerdotal speech of the initiated Brahmins and was studied by initiates from all over the world.

"It is admitted that, however inferior to the classical Sanskrit of Panini, the language of the oldest portions of Rig Veda, notwithstanding the antiquity of its grammatical forms, is the same as that of the latest texts. Every one sees -- cannot fail to

See and to know -- that for a language so old and so perfect as the Sanskrit to have survived alone, among all languages, it must have had its cycles of perfection and its cycles of degeneration. And, if one had any intuition, he might have seen that what they call a 'dead language' being an anomaly, a useless thing in Nature, it would not have survived, even as a 'dead' tongue, had it not its special purpose in the reign of immutable cyclic laws; and that Sanskrit, which came to be nearly lost to the world, is now slowly spreading in Europe, and will one day have the extension it had thousands upon thousands of years back -- that of a universal language. The same as to the Greek and the Latin: there will be a time when the Greek of Aeschylus (and more perfect still in its future form) will be spoken by all in Southern Europe, while Sanskrit will be resting in its periodical pralaya; and the Attic will be followed later by the Latin of Virgil. Something ought to have whispered to us that there was also a time -- before the original Aryan settlers among the Dravidian and other aborigines, admitted within the fold of Brahmanical initiation, marred the purity of the sacred Sanskrita Bhasha -- when Sanskrit was spoken in all its unalloyed subsequent purity, and therefore must have had more than once its rise and fall. The reason for it is simply this: classical Sanskrit was only restored, if in some things perfected, by Panin. Panini, Katyayana, or Patanjali did not create it; it has existed throughout cycles, and will pass through other cycles still" (Five Years of Theosophy 419-20).

See also DEVANAGARI

(See also: Sanskrit , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Neptune (Poseidon)

The Roman god Neptune and the Greek god Poseidon is the god of the waters of the earth. He is also known as the god of the earthquakes, as the movements of the oceans create disturbances on the earth. Poseidon is not a kind god, but a terrifying one that creates stormy seas and puts fears into mortals; his offspring are monsters. Poseidon is the son of Crones and the brother of Zeus and Pluto. He has a strong sexual appetite and has affairs with countless goddesses and mortal woman. He represents the primeval earth before civilization and spiritualization. Poseidon may resist the evolution of man (consciousness) and possibly this is why he appears so angry and inaccessible. He symbolizes a powerful part of the unconscious.

In astrology, the planet Neptune represents the unconscious forces and powers of the human psyche. It is believed to influence paranormal faculties, psychic abilities, irrational fears and insanity. The unconscious shows itself in dreams. However, we do not understand the language of dreams. It takes a very long time to develop the ability to interpret dreams with accuracy and satisfaction. Thus, the forces that come up from the unconscious are often frightening and disturbing. The unconscious holds different information than the conscious mind: It may be the dwelling place of intuition and the sixth sense. Dreaming of Neptune is symbolic of the unconscious, which holds positive and negative attributes, just like the conscious mind does. The information that is coming up in your dream may be interpreted based on what is occurring in daily life. Are you experiencing moments of "madness" or are you developing intuitive abilities and using them to guide your decisions?

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

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

five states of the mind: A view of the mind in five parts: conscious mind, subconscious mind, subsubconscious mind, superconscious mind and subsuperconscious mind.

Also about the three phases of mind: A perspective of mind as instinctive, intellectual and superconscious: individual mind, universal mind and instinctive mind.

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

Basement

The house generally represents your psychological and emotional self. Each part of the house may deal with a different part of you. The basement is built first. It is often below ground (or at least some parts of it), and is essentially the foundation of the house. Dreaming about a basement and understanding the dream, may provide you with valuable information which may lead to greater self-awareness. A recurring dream about basements (i.e. being in a basement, cleaning a basement, furnishing a basement, etc.) should not be ignored. These dreams may be symbolic of your unconscious, instincts and intuition, and degree of awareness of a current situation or a problem. The look of the basement may provide you with clues about your current feelings and state of contentment. If the basement is a mess, and you see great disorder and clutter, it suggests that you may be experiencing confusion and that it is a very good time to "sort" things out emotionally and psychologically. At times, the activities which are going on in the basement of your dream may be based on past experiences or childhood memories. As with all dreams, their main purpose seems to be to bring the dreamer to higher consciousness so that he may deal with his current issues more effectively, rather than to dwell on the past.

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

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

Hydra (Greek) A water serpent, feminine, corresponding to a masculine hydros; usually the monster which Hercules overcomes in one of his twelve labors.

As the twelve labors signify, among other things, the trials of an initiant in the Mysteries, the mythologic hydra symbolizes the psycho-astral forces which have to be mastered.

In past stages of evolution, when inchoate attempts at formation were made, and when planes and states of matter were not as they are now, strange monsters existed, which were at first purely lower astral, then astral-physical, and finally physical, before they died out. Hence the idea that the hydra was derived from traditions or astral visions of some reptile-monster of the Mesozoic Age may be an imperfect intuition of the facts.

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

Bach flower therapy (Bach flower essence method, Bach flower essence system):

 Homeopathic system of diagnosis and treatment developed in the 1930s by British physician Edward Bach (1886-1936). Bach put forth his philosophy in Heal Thyself: An Explanation of the Real Cause and Cure of Disease, first published in 1931. Therein he described five fundamental truths, in sum:

(1)           Souls, invincible and immortal sparks of the Almighty, are the real, Higher selves of humans.

(2)           Humanity's purpose is to develop virtues and wipe out all intrapersonal wrongs. Souls know what circumstances conduce to the perfection of human nature.

(3)           One's lifetime is a minuscule part of one's evolution.

(4)           When one's Soul and personality are in harmony, one is healthy and happy. The straying of the personality from the dictates of the Soul is the root cause of disease and unhappiness.

(5)           The Creator of all things is Love, and everything of which humans are conscious manifests the Creator.

Bach held that disease was essentially beneficial and that its design was to subject the personality to the Divine will of the Soul. He psychically discovered the specific healing effects of 38 wildflowers. The life force (soul quality or energy wavelength) of each of these flowers is transferable to water and thence to humans. Each of the so-called Bach flower remedies is a liquid that contains a soul quality with an affinity to a human soul quality; and each vegetable soul quality harmonizes its human counterpart with the Soul. The bases of classical diagnosis are conversation and intuition. Administration of the remedies is usually oral but may be external.

(See also: Bach flower therapy , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Deity or God. Intelligence and will superior to the human, forming the intelligent and vital governing essence of the universe, whether this universe be large or small.

The principal views as to the nature of deity may be classed as

1)    pantheistic,

2)    polytheistic,

3)    henotheistic, and

4)    monotheistic.

Pantheism, which views the divine as immanent in all nature and yet transcendent in its higher parts, is characteristic of certain Occidental philosophical systems and of all Oriental systems.

Polytheism implies the recognition of an indefinite number of deific powers in the universe, the plural manifestations of the ever immanent, ever perduring, and manifest-unmanifest One. Polytheism is thus a logical development of pantheism.

Henotheism is the belief in one god, but not the exclusion of others, such as is found in the Jewish scriptures, where the ancient Hebrews frankly worshiped a tribal deity and fully recognized the existence of other tribal deities.

Monotheism is the belief in only one god, as is found in Christianity and Islam. These religions, in inheriting the Jewish tradition, have confounded this merely personal and local conception with the First Cause of the universe, which in theosophy would be called the formative cosmic Third Logos, thus producing an inconsistent idea of a God who is both infinite, delimited, and personal in character, with an intuition, however, of the necessarily impersonal cosmic intelligent root of all.

In theosophical philosophy, the cosmic divine in the hierarchical sense is both transcendent and immanent, during manifestation breaking as it were into innumerable rays which produce the various deific powers in inner and outer nature; each such immanent divinity, however, itself emanating from the all-encompassing and forever unmanifest Rootless Root or parabrahman.

The various universes, sometimes referred to as sparks of eternity, spring from parabrahman at periodic intervals called manvantaras, and then resolve back into the pre-manvantaric condition or pralaya, only to issue forth again when the pralaya of whatever magnitude has run its course. Therefore, at one and the same time divinity is transcendent and immanent, eternal and unmanifest, while its rays or cosmic sparks of whatever magnitude are periodic and manifested. Hence from each such manifested One or cosmic hierarch proceed the multiple rays, to which in various theogonies are given names and attributes of superior deities. Thus the words god and deity become generic, and the general definition may be applied to the core of the core of any being, great or small, cosmic or human, for all are sparks of the cosmic flame of life.

The word deity, in the sense of beings which are more spiritual than the human being of today, may be applied to the divine rulers of human races before the times of the demigods and heroes; or more generally to an indefinite range of nonphysical beings, spiritual or ethereal in character, including among the latter the so-called "spirits of the elements."

See also GOD; GOD(S)

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

Adrishta (Sanskrit) (from a not + the verbal root dris to see, learn, perceive with the mind or intuition)

Unseen, unforeseen, invisible; an unforeseen danger. In philosophy, that which is beyond the reach or observation of the percipient consciousness. W. Q. Judge defines it as "the merit or demerit attaching to a man's conduct in a former incarnation, and the corresponding (apparently arbitrary) punishment or reward in the present or a future incarnation" (WG 2). This is clearly seen in the compound term adrishta-phala (unseen fruit), karma not yet come into force. Hence the connotation of fate, luck (sometimes bad luck) that is attached to adrishta. (BCW 5:580 connects with Kanada as "unseen force"; 4:61 with Nyayas as invisible principle)

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

Mushin: No mind, spirit, soul, nor intuition.

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

Speaking:

1. If someone is speaking to you, make sure you write down what he or she is saying immediately upon awakening. Even if what's being said is cryptic, or seems to make no sense, it is a message from your Higher Self and needs to be heeded. If the message is in fact rather mysterious, look to other symbols in the dream to see what it actually means. If the speaker is male, then the message from your Higher Self is being filtered through your intellect, and if female, through your supportive mind (emotions and intuition).

2. If someone is speaking to you and yet you don't hear what he or she is saying, then there is some sort of situation in your life that you don't understand, and which you need to understand. Again, for the actual message, look to other symbols in the dream.

3. If you are the one doing the speaking, this is a dream of contrary. Again, it's a message from your Higher Self that you need to understand. If you are giving the message to others, the message is designed not only for you, but for those close to you as well. See 1. and 2. above.

4. If you dream that you or someone else is giving a speech, this is a harbinger of increased social and professional status.

Source: Astrocenter, http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/DreamDictionary.aspx

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

ARACHNE - 'the spider', reputed 13th sign of the zodiac, between Taurus, and Gemini, governing intuition (Greek) (NAD)

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

prathibha:

prathibha (prathibhaa). Intuition, thought.

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

Star

Old dream interpretation books say that seeing stars in your dream means that your wishes are going to be fulfilled. Even from a more pragmatic point of view, stars seem to be positive dream symbols. They could represent insight, luck, fortune and the mysteries of the universe. Stars represent those wonderful things that we aspire to but have difficulty obtaining. To follow a star is to follow a dream, an insight, or your intuition to a more desirable location or position in life. Thus, stars in your dreams could also symbolize internal or external guidance and truth.

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

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

Arhatic Yoga (Arhatic Yoga System): Syncretic form of yoga developed by Choa Kok Sui, an exponent of Kriyashakti, Pranic Healing, and pranic psychotherapy. Its design is to activate and align chakras, safely awaken the 'sacred fires' of the body, and increase longevity. Its theory posits golden energy, kundalini, and physical and spiritual bodies. The Center for Pranic Healing, in New York City, defines arhatic as a highly integrated human being equipped with very developed intuition, advanced mental powers, highly refined emotions and engaged in a great contribution to the Divine Plan.

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

MEDITATION - n. or adj.

1. art and science of contemplation and concentration spanning Paleolithic hunting rituals. Neolithic mysteries and historic religious traditions East and West, especially Zen, Yoga, Sufism and Coptic, Carmelite, Trappist and Quaker Christianity.

2. contemplation reflection, intuition, doing nothing; in duration from a movement to a kalpa, through most frequently for periods of 10 minutes to several hours or days; performed anytime, anywhere or in any position or activity, through often setting on the Earth, floor, a chair, rock or pennacle standing straight or holding a posture, walling, dancing, jogging, making love; sometimes accompanied by chanting silently or aloud alone or with a group; focusing on the breath, the chakras, the mind, parts of the body, light, sound, God, a tutelary deity, symbols, archetypes, a candle or another internal, external or transcendental object.

3. practice leading to cosmic consciousness, enlightenment truth-consciousness-bless, developing body consciousness, rooting in the here and now perfecting harmony and balance with the Earth.

5. discipline of mind awareness and control of thoughts, emotions and states of consciousness.

6. return to the source or emptiness to erase delusions, refresh ourselves day to day and begin a new. (Michio Kushi).

7. exercise or practice of just being experiencing ourselves at whatever we are, without any extra thing added. (Gary Snyder)

8. going into the mind to see wisdom for yourself-over and over again until it becomes the mind you live in. (Gary Snyder)

9. space to work or fears, hopes, neurotic games, self-deception. (Trungpa)

10. self-analysis, self-cultivation, self-enlightenment.

11. thought-form building, bring down to the concrete levels of the mental plane abstract ideas and intuitions and shattering of forms, establishing of a direct channel between the nomad and the purified personality and between the seven centers in the human etheric vehicle; freedom to work on any path (Bailey)

12. the Tao of cats n. mediator, meditativeness, adj. meditative. v. meditate (from meditari, Latin). (NAD)

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

A dictionary of Parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

A dictionary of parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

Third Eye

Organ of intuition, located between the eyebrows; sixth chakra. The etheric correspondence of the pineal gland which sees, creates, communicates, heals, destroys obstacles, unveils mysteries, and controls and directs energies

(See also: Third Eye , Body Mind and Soul)

Ushnisha usnisa (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ush to be warm, flaming; mystically warmth through inner light, intuition, vision]

A turban, diadem, or crown; also a kind of "excrescence" on the head of a buddha. Like the long ears so often seen in figures of the buddhas, the meaning of the ushnisha is entirely occult, and was in no sense whatsoever intended to signify a tuft of hair, nor any fleshly excrescence on the skull, but was a way of suggesting the radiating power of the eye of Siva or organ of vision and of intuition, working at relatively full power within the skull of a great adept.

The eye of Siva is the pineal gland; originally an external and active eye in the head of primitive mankind during this fourth round on earth, it gradually retreated within the skull, which grew to cover its place with bones, skin, and hair. As this presently so-called third eye retreated within the skull, its place was progressively taken by the two present organs of vision. At this period of our racial development it is buddhas, avataras, and other initiates of relatively high status who alone use the organ of spiritual vision, for in them the pineal gland has become active and is to some extent physiologically enlarged; although in everyone else it is more or less nonfunctional, yet to some degree functional.

Hence the ushnisha represents that radiant crown of buddhic fire that surrounds the head of initiates when they are in deep samadhi or meditation. The initiate's head becomes surrounded with rays from the vital inner fire of the third eye, the spiritual organ of the brain, which likewise is the source from which radiates the spiritual, intellectual, and psychovital nimbus or aura surrounding the head -- known to the iconographies of every religion. These rays thus form a glory around the head and sometimes even around the entire body. "They stream upwards from the back of the head, often symbolically represented in the buddha-iconography as one single, lambent flame soaring upwards from and over the top of the skull. In this case you may perhaps find that the ushnisha is missing, its place being taken by this flame issuing from the top of the head, a symbolic representation of the fire of the spirit and of the aroused and active buddhic faculty in which the man is at the time" (Fund 493).

Many statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas possess certain peculiar headgear called crowns or ushnishas. Hence ushnisha is also used in the sense of turban, because this particular headgear, given to these statues, somewhat resembles a turban of spiral conical form, somewhat like the spiral shell of some snails.

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