Some great links with more reading
Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Elijah Muhammad - See Nation of Islam.
Paganism - Historically, paganism has been used as a generic term to describe non-Christian religions and superstitions - primarily, but not limited to, the old religions of Europe and Indo-Europe and ancient mythologies (Celt, Norse, Egyptian, Greek and Roman). Any religion other than Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. The term literally means "country dweller" and was originally used by Romans todescribe religions and philosophies not of Rome.
Monotheism - The belief that there is only one God in all places at all times. Islam is monotheistic.
Black Muslim - Generic term referring to Nation of Islam and related groups of Black American Muslims.
Monotheism - Monotheism Belief in a single or supreme god; opposed to polytheism and pantheism, although all polytheistic forms of thought recognize a supreme divinity, of which all others were children or offspring; and pantheism itself, when properly understood, likewise includes all forms or varieties of polytheistic belief.
The Hebrews are a notable example of a people following a very definite monotheism in their religious beliefs; subsequent to this were the systems of Christianity and Islam. If deity be regarded as periodic cosmic mind or intelligence incessantly evolving through its emanated hierarchies -- the structure inner and outer of the universe -- which is the abode of such divinity, governed in its operations by its own spirit-wisdom, far transcending the remotest shadow of the limitations we call personality, then in this sense theosophists might be called pantheists, polytheists, and even monotheists, all in one.
But where deity is by human imagination endowed with human attributes, however sublimated, and with human limitations of personality, an unphilosophical, impossible, and unnatural monotheism results. Such a god -- being the offspring of human imagination, a creature of human fancy -- cannot be universal, and must submit to rivalry with the humanly imagined gods of other religions.
Nation Of Islam - A sect of Islam originating in America composed of black Americans. Followers, sometimes called Black Muslims, believe that Allah (God) appeared in 1930 to the last great prophet Elijah Muhammad, in the person of Wallace D. Fard.
Elijah Muhammad borrowed many beliefs from traditional Islam but introduced important differences. Most notable was the focus on black oppression and equating Satan and evil with the white race.
Malcolm X became a notable leader of the movement in the 1960s and the focus on black supremacy and militancy escalated. Malcolm X later converted to traditional Islam and rejected radical black supremacy and was subsequently murdered. The current leader of the Nation is Islam is Louis Farrakhan.
Koran - Koran al-Qur''an (Arabic) (from qara to read)
Book, reading; the holy scripture of Islam, regarded by Moslems as the word of God (Allah) as delivered to his prophet Mohammed. The Koran explains that in heaven there is the mother of the book, well concealed. Piece by piece it was sent down to the prophet by means of an angel, spirit, or the angel Gabriel. Mohammed issued these revelations serially, each one being called a reading (qur''an) or a writing (kitab), and each particular one was also called a sura (a series) -- a word now used for each section or chapter, of which there are 114.
Mohammed dictated these suras to his immediate followers, who memorized them. But when some of these original reciters had lost their lives in the conflicts which occurred after the death of Mohammed, Omar suggested to Caliph ''Abu-Bekr (the successor of Mohammed) that they be reduced to writing. The commission to collect as many as possible of the narrations or parts of the revelations was given to Zaid, a native of Medina who had often acted as an amanuensis to Mohammed. This collection became the first Koran, which Azid wrote down in Arabic. Some years later a second redaction was made and all previous parts or manuscripts were burned: Zaid dictated the work to four scribes, and these four copies have come down to our own day.
The contents of the Koran are varied both in style and material: a declaratory style predominates; denunciations abound; idolatry and deification of any beings or things are condemned -- especially in regard to the worship of Jesus as the son of God, although Jesus and Moses are both regarded as holy prophets. A similarity to the Jewish Bible is observable, even to attributing customs of the Jews to the Arabs. Allah is glorified as the one, all-powerful God, and Mohammed as his prophet. Believers receive special instruction, and terrible punishments are threatened for nonbelievers. The doctrines of heaven and hell in the Moslem conception are forcefully presented.
See also: Koran, al-Qur''an, Quran
Religion - The word "religion" derives from the Latin prefix, re (an intensive) + ligio, "to tie, to bind," hence "a practice designed to tie down tightly, as though by a spell-binding force." If religions were not impervious to change, they would quickly dissolve into the chaos of the occult.
Religion is worship. It is based on the strict separation of divinity and humanity. Magic, on the contrary, is the invocation or evocation of spirits or divinity based on kinship or identity with them.
Living religions begin by being as creative, spontaneous and iconoclastic as the arts. But that creative fire quickly damps down to immutable dogma and robot-priests. Worship for its own sake amounts to little more than useless idolatry. It is utterly infra dig for any intelligent human being. The sole purpose of ritual is the arousal of consciousness in the participant. When such awakening fails to take place, it is time to throw the ikons to the dogs. The universe is self-created and everything in it created itself and goes on creating itself. There are higher beings, to be sure, but it is a perilous mistake to worship "The Creator" who is as far from perfect as you can get and still live on this side of Nothing. Nor should we consider humanity, in its present condition, to be anything but imperfect. Along with Nietzsche, we should see man as capable of infinite improvement. But Nietzsche''s so-called "superman" will never evolve without struggle -- and not be the easy struggle of fascistic tyranny over material forms, but by the infinitely more difficult way of universal internal enlightenment.
Since there are infinite levels of enlightenment the majority of people are incapable of consensus or agreement, hence any idea of a religious "congregation" is absurd. As for the profane multitudes... unaware that omniscience, omnipotence and immortality comprise the deepest foundation of existence, they consider their own confusion to be the highest expression of consciousness. The ultimate purpose of creation is to know itself through the experience of eternal expansion of the mind. It is physical or fiscal expansion, however, that is of primary interest to homo vulgaris.
The mission of the magician isn''t necessarily to bring down the traditional houses of religion -- especially the monoliths: Islam, Christendom or Judaism. But neither can he support them. For it is a truism that there is wisdom in the individual and it is difference that we should value, not sameness. For the magician, far more acceptable alternatives to monotheism can be found in India, Egypt, Tibet, etc. with their practices of Lamaism, Tantrism, Yoga and so on, or in the atheistic systems of the Tao and Buddhism. But always -- though he understands and honors tradition, the magus creates his own rituals and observances, tailored to his own needs. He does not serve established orders. As Madame Blavatsky so hopefully put it, "There is no religion higher than truth."
RING-PASS-NOT
As the magician draws his circle to keep the demons from entering his world, so other monads draw their own circles to keep out the magician. The ring-pass-not is that Level of attainment beyond which you cannot go. In occult literature, according to Alice Bailey, it is a term used "to denote the periphery of the sphere of influence of any central life force, and is applied equally to all atoms, from the atom of matter as dealt with by the physicist or chemist through the human planetary atoms up to the great atom of a solar system. The ring- pass-not of the average person is the spheroidal form of his mental body which extends considerably beyond the physical and enables him to function on the lower levels of the mental plane."
HPB (The Secret Doctrine) defines the RPN as: "The circumference of the sphere of influence of any center of positive life. This includes the fire sphere of magnetic work of the solar orb, viewing it as the body of manifestation of a Solar Logos or to a planetary scheme and could equally well be applied to the sphere of activity of the human Ego."
Angel - A spiritual being, especially in Persian, Jewish, Christian and Islamic theologies, that is commonly portrayed as being winged and as serving as God''s messengers. The spiritual guide of an individual. Modern Christian angels come to us from the Gnostics and Persians.
Sufism - called tasawwuf in Arabic, it is a mystical, psycho-spiritual aspect of Islam. There are many different sects or orders of Sufism with varying practices.
Also See
Idol - Idol, Idolotry (from Greek eidolon image, idol)
The use of images of divinities, which pertains to exotericism, as do visible symbols, ceremonies, and rituals in general. Attitudes vary among religions: Judaism, Islam, and Protestant Christianity absolutely forbid it; Orthodox Christianity permits icons, such as pictures of saints; Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism permit it altogether.
Varying degrees of ignorance or enlightenment may regard an idol as in itself a species of imbodied divinity, as transmitting the influence of a divinity or, more spiritually, as a reminder of a divinity. In a real sense, idolatry is the attaching of undue importance to the form rather than to the spirit, and often becomes degraded into worshiping the images made in our imagination and imbodied in work of the hands.
"Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship dies out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (Chinamen, African Negroes, etc.) gradually brought the worship back. The Vedas countenance no idols; all the modern Hindu writings do" (SD 2:723).
Allah - The God or Supreme Being of Islam
Bumi Haptaiti - Bumi Haptaiti (Avestan), Haft Keshvar (Persian) (from bumi earth (cf Sanskrit bhumi) + haptaiti septempartite (cf Sanskrit sapta))
The septempartite or sevenfold earth, which indicates that the ancient Zoroastrians, like the ancient Hindus, taught of the seven manifest globes (keshvare) of the earth planetary chain.
In Persian literature both ancient and Islamic, apart from the seven keshvars, there are often references to seven seas and seven heavens. This term has been used in the Gathas in the sense of septenary spheres of life. In Pahlavi literature and in the introduction to the Abu Mansuri Shahnameh (the oldest version of Shahnameh and one of the main sources of Ferdauci), we find Bumi Haptaiti in this setting.
See also KESHVARE
Archangel - Archangel (from Greek arch higher, original + angelos messenger)
A higher or original order of angels; cosmic powers synonymous with the highest class of dhyani-chohans. In Christian legend, they number seven; in the Koran, four. In Catholic theology, the eighth of the nine divisions in the divine hierarchy.
Jewish astrology associates the archangels with the planets: Raphael with the Sun, Gabriel with the Moon, Michael with Mercury, Aniel (Anael) with Venus, Samael with Mars, Zadkiel (Sachiel) with Jupiter, and Kafziel (Cassiel) with Saturn. In medieval Europe, influenced by the Islamic system of Averroes, the planets of Michael and Raphael were reversed. The archangels parallel the Babylonian planetary spirits, the Zoroastrian amesha spentas, and the Hindu adityas.
Islam - The monotheistic religious doctrine as revealed by the Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah. There are many sects of Islam and believers are called Muslims.
Iblis - (Arabic, probably from Greek diabolos, "devil") Satan.
A complex demonic figure in Islamic religious thought, understood as the fallen angel, the tempter, and the head of the hosts of devils.
As an angel, he pridefully refused God''s command to bow down before the newly created man Adam and thus was cursed and banished from Paradise. Until the Day of Judgment Iblis will lead the legions of devils in tempting humans to do evil.
His major act of cunning was to persuade Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat of the tree of immortality in the Garden, which resulted in their consignment to earthly existence.
Jinn - In Islam, an invisible order of beings, created of fire, who possess extraordinary powers and, like humans, are accountable for their actions. Some jinn are good, others evil. Angel. Also known as djin and genie.
Firmament - Firmament Combines the meanings of support, expanse, and boundary; a translation of the Latin firmamentum (a support), which again renders the Greek stereoma (a foundation). The Hebrew is raqia` (an unfolding or expanse).
The ordinary European meaning is the vault of heaven or sky. It is often identified with air, called the breath of the supporters of the heavenly dome in Islamic mysticism; in India the ethery expanse is the domain of Indra, and one reads of the 1008 divisions of the devaloka (god-worlds) and firmaments. It also relates to the supporters, pillars, or cosmocratores in so many ancient cosmogonies, said to uphold or support the world.
In this connection "waters" in Hebrew often has the mystical significance of ethers or aether, and hence the division between the waters above and the waters below does not refer to the common fluid. In this sense firmament signifies one aspect of Ring-pass-not, the dividing line between one hierarchical division and another, which divisions, rings, or firmaments mutually support and complement each other, and thus build up the web or fabric of the cosmic structure.
Sacrifice - Anton LaVey''s Satanism frowns on self-sacrifice and the Catholic Church calls suicide a sin. Xtianity offers "eternal life" in "God," which is all very well, provided you know what "God" is. Once we stop separating from the Whole, we automatically place self-sacrifice above eternal life and, in doing so, paradoxically, we transform immolation into immortality. In Buddhism, which sees the true extinction of the ego in Nirvana, i.e., as release from both death and rebirth, sacrifice means having the compassion to remain in the world in order to help others. Thus, the self-incendiarism of Buddhists as protests against the war in Viet Nam were an extreme form of compassion. They were sacrifices in the Judeo-Christo-Islamic sense, but for a bodhisattva it is not a sacrifice to die, it''s a gift.
Islam - Islam, Islam (Arabic) (from salama to be free, devoted)
Signifies submission and obedience to Allah, being the name of the religion of Mohammed -- the name having been designated by Mohammed himself.
Pagan - One who is not Christian, Islamic or Jewish. From the latin,
Ancient Mystic Order Of Malchizedek - An organization founded by Malachi Z. York, in Eatonton, GA: Also known as AMOM, Nuwaubians, the Nubian Nation of Moors, Right Knowledge. A UFO group whose leader, (a. k. a. Dwight York) claims to be from the 19th galaxy, called Illyuwn.
A 1993 FBI report calls the group a "front for a wide range of criminal activity, including arson, welfare fraud and extortion. " York’s group has also operated under other names and organizations including the Nubian Islaamic [sic] Hebrew Mission, the Ansaaru Allah Community, (an Islamic sect with doctrines similar to Nation of Islam), and the Original Tents of Kedar.
Assassins - Assassins. A masonic and mystic order founded by Hassan Sabah in Persia, in the eleventh century. The word is a European perversion of "Hassan", which forms the chief part of the name. They were simply Sufis and addicted, according to the tradition, to hascheesl-eating, in order to bring about celestial visions.
As shown by our late brother, Kenneth Mackenzie, "they were teachers of the secret doctrines of Islamism; they encouraged mathematics and philosophy, and produced many valuable works. The chief of the Order was called Sheik-el-Jebel, translated the ‘Old Man of the Mountains’, and, as their Grand Master, he possessed power of life and death.’
Acteon - A Hunter who chanced to see the chaste goddess, Diana, nude in her midnight bath. Diana, being also the bright light of the full Moon (as Hecate is the dark of the moon) and its nearly hallucinative brilliance, he was immediately struck by anamnesis and "remembered" the naked omnipotence of pantheistic divinity in all creatures, including himself - so that, in this amazing illumination, he literally became one with everything, including the stag he had been chasing, whereupon his own dogs (not being in on the revelation) tore him apart.
''AD
Mythical giants of Arabian pre-Islamic history.
Atash-bahram - Atash-Bahram, Atash Behram (Persian) Verethraghna (Avestan), Varhran, Varhram (Pahlavi) The sacred fire of the Parsis, kept perpetually burning on the altars; the third fire in the septenary system represents the first created fire, the fire of consciousness. Philosophically it alludes to the idea of becoming.
It corresponds to the Hindu akasa (SD 1:338). Bahram (victorious) is one of the seven planets which rules over the first month of the Iranian year, Farvardin (Aries). In Vedic literature he is known as the slayer of the demon Vritra. In Islamic mystical writings Bahram is referred to as the fifth sphere or intellect. "As the earthly representative of the heavenly fire, it is the sacred center to which every earthly fire longs to return, in order to be united again, as much as possible, with its native abode.
The more it has been defiled by worldly uses, the greater is the merit acquired by freeing it from defilement" (Vendidad 113). The Vestals in ancient Rome also kept a fire burning perpetually on their altars, as did the Greeks in the temple on the Acropolis, thus keeping the remembrance of the "living fire" by means of a visible manifestation.
The fundamental idea in these various manners of adoring fire was that, because of the warming and life-giving functions of this universal element, it symbolized the vital and all-penetrating activity of cosmic life. Furthermore, because the sun was the focus or heart through which pours the life of any solar system, therefore the ideas connected with ancient fire worship are likewise intimately connected with the teachings concerning the solar orb and its indwelling divinity.
See also FIRE WORSHIP
Allah - Allah (Arabic) (from al the + ilah god; cf Hebrew eloah)
The one God of Islam, analogous to the Hebrew Jahweh. The pre-Moslem Arabic patron of Mecca, the god Hobal called Al-lahu (the god), was retained as the supreme god in Moslem theology; the other gods were transformed into demons. The unity and singularity of Allah is one of the primary beliefs of Islam. (SD, BCW)
Fakir - Fakir (Arabic) (from faqir poor)
An Islamic religious mendicant, synonymous with dervish; the term is loosely applied to any mendicant devotee or yogi in India. According to T. P. Hughes, there are five principal orders of fakirs in North India and Pakistan: the Naqshbandia, Qadiria, Chishtia, Jalalia, and Sarwardia -- all being ba-shara (with the law) fakirs -- those who govern their conduct according to the principles of Islam. Fakirs should not be confounded with sannyasins or Hindu yogis.
Muslim - Follower of the religion of Islam.
Magi - Magi (plural of Old Persian magus a wise man from the verbal root meh great; cf Sanskrit maha; cf Avestan mogaha, Latin plural magus, Greek magos, Persian mogh, Pahlavi maga)
An hereditary priesthood or sacerdotal caste in Media and Persia. Zoroaster, himself a member of the Society of the Magi, divides the initiates into three degrees according to their level of enlightenment: the highest were referred to as Khvateush (those enlightened with their own inner light or self-enlightened); the second were called Varezenem (those who practice); and the third, Airyamna (friends or Aryans). The ancient Parsis may be divided into three degrees of Magi: the Herbods or novitiates; the Mobeds or masters; and the Destur Mobeds or perfect masters -- the "Dester Mobeds being identical with the Hierophants of the mysteries, as practised in Greece and Egypt" (TG 197).
Pliny mentions three schools of Magi: one founded at an unknown antiquity; a second established by Osthanes and Zoroaster; and a third by Moses and Jambres.
"And all the knowledge possessed by these different schools, whether Magian, Egyptian, or Jewish, was derived from India, or rather from both sides of the Himalayas" (IU 2:361). According to Shahrestani (12th-century Islamic scholar) the Magi are divided into three sects: Gaeomarethians (Kayumarthians), Zarvanian (Zurvanian), and Zoroastrians. They all share the common belief that in this manifested universe the dualism of light and darkness is at work and that the final victory of the light is the day of resurrection.
Porphyry refers to the Magi as the learned men among the Persians who are in the service of the deity (Abst 4:16), while Philo Judaeus describes them as the most wonderful inquirers into the hidden mysteries of nature: holy men who set themselves apart from everything else on this earth, "contemplated the divine virtues and understood the divine nature of the gods and spirits, the more clearly; and so, initiated others into the same mysteries, which consist in one holding an uninterrupted intercourse with these invisible beings during life" (IU 1:94-5). It is likely that the use of the name and the order survived in times when their true dignity was no longer apparent.
In the Bible Magi is translated "wise men." The term has also become familiar through the story of the three wise men who came to the infant Jesus bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Hierophant - The 5th Enigma, lettered vav. The power of the priest and established religion. We should not discredit established religion entirely. Without tradition, distorted and perverted though it may be after the passage of millenia, there would be no vehicle of transmission for the most ancient wisdom. Tradition is essential if we are not continuously to repeat the same mistakes. By this yardstick we can commend the Vatican and the Orthodox Rabbinical libraries, but cannot criticize Islam enough for its arrogant destruction of historical material.
But popes and priests are only lowly mediators, after all, go-betweens representing human greed as often as divine inspiration. It is not their job to transform the world, but merely to maintain the status quo. Imagination is not their strong suit. Crowley presents the papal figureas pointing downwards rather than upwards, to show that the pope is a curse, rather than a blessing to mankind.
Mohammed - Founder of the world religion of Islam.
Familial Witchcraft - The practices and beliefs of those who claim to belong to (or have been taught by members of) families that supposedly have been underground Paleopagans for several centuries in Europe and/or the Americas, using their wealth and power to stay alive and secret. Even if they existed, none of them could have a pure religious or magical tradition by now; instead, they would have fragments of Paleopagan customs mixed with Christianity or Islam as well as every new occult wave that hit the West. 99.9% of all the people I have ever met who claimed to be Fam-Trad Witches were lying, or had been lied to by their teachers. Also sometimes called “Hereditary Witchcraft” or even “Genetic Witchcraft” by those who think they must claim a witch as an ancestor in order to be a witch today.
Hadith - The ancient narrative, prophetic tradition and written code of Islam.
Wallace D Fard - (b. , d. unknown) Known as Master Wali Farrad Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930.
Sufism - Ancient Persian mystical religious system which has been absorbed by Islam. Rather than focusing on the Five Pillars of Islam, Sufis seek ultimate religious experience through mystic trances or altered states of consciousness, often induced through twirling dances (the “whirling dervish”). Although the Qur''an is considered scripture, many practitioners have more in common with the New Age movement than with classic forms of Islam.
Muslim - "True believer." A follower of Islam.
See: Islam.
Yima - Yima (Avestan) Yam (Pahlavi) Yama (Sanskrit) Jam, Jamshid (Persian) The son of Vivanghan (the brilliant light of the good, father of duality, consciousness, or knowledge of good and evil), Yama has been mentioned in Vasna 30:3 in the sense of twins, and in the Gathas as one who made earthly things attractive and did not strive for the uplift of the spirit. Sometimes incorrectly called the first man of the Avesta. In the Vendidad, the first mortal before Zoroaster with whom Ahura-Mazda conversed, asking him to be a preacher and the bearer of his law; but Yima replied that he was not born or taught to do this. As Zoroaster is the third intellect and the bearer of the divine law, Yima is the second intellect, not yet developed for that task. Blavatsky explains that
"Yima . . . as much as his twin-brother Yama, the Son of Vaivasvata Manu, belongs to two epochs of the Universal History. He is the ''Progenitor'' of the Second human Race, hence the personification of the shadows of the Pitris, and the father of the postdiluvian Humanity. The Magi said ''Yima,'' as we say ''man'' when speaking of mankind. The ''fair Yima,'' the first mortal who converse with Ahura Mazda, is the first ''man'' who dies or disappears, not the first who is born. The ''Son of Vivanghat,'' was, like the Son of Vaivasvata, the symbolical man, who stood in esotericism as the representative of the first three races and the collective Progenitor thereof. Of these races the first two never died but only vanished, absorbed in their progeny, and the third knew death only towards its close, after the separation of the sexes and its ''Fall'' into generation" (SD 2:609).
In the Vendidad Ahura-Mazda informs Yima of a severe winter that will destroy life on earth and tells him to make a vara (enclosure) known as Var-jam-kard (enclosure built by Jam) and bring the seeds of men and women of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth, as well as the seeds of every kind of cattle, bird, trees, and fruit, and the sweetest of the odors, along with the red, blazing fires, excluding any deformity, impotency, lunacy, poverty, falsehood, meanness, jealousy, etc.
In later Persian literature, Jamshid has often been interchangeably taken for King Solomon, while some Islamic scholars consider him identical with Lamech in the Old Testament. Jamshid in Shah-Nameh is the Yima of the Avesta who, as a blessed king, ruled for 700 years over seven keshvars, created civilization, and categorized the people and their tasks into four groups. He built palaces and colossal monuments by channeling the savage powers of demons, discovered the secrets of nature, and cured all maladies. Such innovation and achievements called for festivities and celebration, called the New Age (Nou-Rouz). From then on, this day -- which coincides with the entrance of the sun into the sign of Aries; also the day that Gayomarth, the first man, became king of earth -- has been celebrated by the Iranians. For 300 years Jamshid gloriously ruled with justice, during which period death, pain, and evil disappeared, until vanity and narcissism blinded him and caused his downfall. Azi-Dahak, who takes over Jamshid''s throne, then appears on the scene by murdering his own father.
Bilal - First convert to Islam and first muezzin, a negro slave.
Hyperapotheosis - The promotion of one’s tribal deity to the rank of Supreme Being, as in Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
Dome Of The Rock - An octagonal domed shrine built by the Umayyad Muslim Caliph Abd al-Malik in 691 on the sacred place in Jerusalem known as the Haram al-Sharif. Enshrined beneath the dome is an outcropping of the bedrock atop the Jewish Temple Mount.
The shrine was built to symbolize the commonality yet dominion of Islam over the two other monotheistic religions that regard Jerusalem as a sacred city. For Muslims, the rock under the dome marks the from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended into the Seven Heavens (Qur''an 17:1).
Paradise - Paradise [from Greek paradeisos from Old Persian pairidaeza from Sanskrit paradesa region beyond]
Applied in Persian and Greek to a pleasure park or royal domain. A Hebrew version (pardes) is found in the Bible, translated "orchard" (Eccl 2:5, Cant 4:3) and "forest" (Neh 2:8). An equivalent is the Hebrew eden (delight). Stories of a Paradise or Eden are universal; and while the general idea is simple, its applications are complex. It is the state of innocence and bliss from which there is departure, and to which there is eventual return. This may apply to the human race as a whole, to particular races, to the lands they inhabit, or to the pilgrimage of the individual human soul.
Persian tradition places a Garden of Delight far to the north of Caucasus in the Arctic regions, where was the Imperishable Sacred Land whence issued a stream from the earth''s fount of life. Adi-varsha was the Eden of the first races and specifically of the primeval third root-race; the Eden of the fifth root-race is but its faint reminiscence. The Garden of Eden or of God (Ezek 31:3-9) was a home of initiates of Atlantis, now submerged.
The Eden in Genesis is a marvelous fusion of many meanings into one narrative, where the Adams of the various root-races are made into one. Eden was an ancient name for Mesopotamia and adjacent regions; and under that one name are comprised the meanings of an abode of initiates, a sacred land from which races emerged, and a goal of bliss in the future. The Eden of the Hebrew books, which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike have located in Mesopotamia and in the now sandy lands of Persia and Afghanistan, refers also to what was in prehistoric times a great and highly developed center of culture and the civilization which there had its seat, including a number of Mystery schools. When the changing cycles brought about a degeneration and final breakup of this seat of archaic wisdom, it was represented as the loss by the then human Adam -- the then race -- of the Paradise in which he had dwelt. Edens and Paradises always contain trees; and these, by one interpretation, signify the initiates in the sacred land, and by another they are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Wisdom for man himself. In the Qabbalah, Eden is a place of initiation.
In later times, the symbol of Paradise has come to mean a bliss of sensual pleasure, like the Moslem Paradise of the Houris, the Olympus of the Greeks, or Indra''s Heaven (svarga).
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