Nirvani, Nirvanin (Sanskrit) Also nirvanee. One who enters, or has entered, nirvana; a jivanmukta. One who is liberated for the remainder of the entire solar manvantara from the cycle of spiritual transmigrations through the various spheres of being, visible and invisible.

The nirvanin, therefore, rests in crystallized bliss and purity, relatively at one with the cosmic spirit or Logos for the remainder of the cosmic manvantara and throughout the long pralaya which succeeds it. Only when the next manvantara opens will the nirvanin, through karmic necessity, be obliged to enter the pathways of experience in the new system of worlds.

(See also: Nirvani, Nirvanin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Bacteria A numerous and varied class of microorganisms which exist in the air, earth, water, and in and on the bodies of plants, animals, and men. Bacteria, like all manifested things, are dual in action, being both beneficial and injurious to others: some of them provide the necessary enzymes for functional use, and others produce dangerous toxins. They are vital factors throughout the plant and animal kingdoms between which they are an organic link; and they are also a medium of contact between the astral and physical planes. As such they serve as material agents for certain phases of the operations of the laws of nature on the terrestrial plane.

Bacteria, then, are a host of visible and invisible agents which, on our plane, subconsciously carry out many processes of evolutionary life and death. They are links in the karmic chain by which the divine recorders, who follow the immutable laws in the universal mind, return to each being the results of whatever it was the antecedent cause.

Thus the bacteria of a disease will multiply and produce their injurious toxins only when the karmic conditions within or surrounding the individual provide a suitable culture-medium for them. Even then, the toxemia may or may not be modified or overcome by the natural antitoxins of the blood aided by competent medical treatment. The typical disease germs found inactive in healthy throats, etc., are instances of a karma which, paradoxically, provides a dangerous contact with individual protection. The healthy person may be an unconscious carrier of the disease germ to someone who is due to reap the full effects of causes he had set in motion at some time.

The selective functions of these creative and destructive microorganisms are impersonally, and as it were automatically, directed by the invisible hierarchy of intelligences which guide the nature forces and so affect us physically and metaphysically as we have merited. The whole process is as natural as the analogous way in which a person's trillions of body cells are dominated by, and react to, the stimulation or depression of his harmonious or discordant state of mind and emotions. Both cells and bacteria are living entities, sentient but not intelligent in the human sense.

The typical appearance of bacteria in certain diseases gives them a place as diagnostic signatures of physical conditions. But to regard them as the primal cause of the disease is mistaking the phenomena for the noumena which is working out karmic effects.

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

Epidemics (from Greek epi upon + demos the people)

The causes usually assigned to epidemic diseases are: individual susceptibility; earth conditions of heat, moisture, soil, water, hygiene, and sanitation; and mass movements of people, as in wars, pilgrimages, etc. While all these factors provide physical and psychological conditions favorable for the spread of certain epidemic diseases and emotional disorders, there remain potent invisible causes to be reckoned with.

Blavatsky discusses unusual and serious effects of certain causes which in some cases are cosmic rather than bacterial (BCW 13: 109). She explains that all such mysterious epidemics as influenza are due to an exuberance of ozone in the air, where an excess of oxygen has become ozone under the powerful stimulus of electricity.

The pranic life-atoms of the human body make an electrical field which, permeating our astral-vital-physical constitution, puts us in contact with the natural flow of ethereal currents of electric and magnetic force. These forces emanate from great cosmic entities who are the intelligent agencies for the karmic action of the so-called laws of nature. They function in the noumenal realm of causes which are due to appear on earth as phenomena of all kinds. These entities, leaving aside solar forces, are the regents of the seven sacred planets, who help to build the body and oversee the destiny of both humanity and the earth. They act automatically and impersonally in harmony with the combined causes and effects of ethereal and terrestrial conditions.

The sun, moon, planets, earth, and human brain are all magnets in contact with a common network of "live" wires of consciousness. The atoms in the solar system not only probably change their combining equivalents on every planet, but they undergo a certain change in their rapid passage through our atmosphere: concerning "the Spirit, the noumenon of that which becomes in its grossest form oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen on Earth. . . . Before these gases and fluids become what they are in our atmosphere, they are interstellar Ether; still earlier and on a deeper plane -- something else, and so on in infinitum" (SD 1:626). These fluids and gases, then, have been stepped down, plane after plane, bringing to us the karmic influences of the hierarchies of entities which compose the solar organism. They are the tangible carriers of the cosmic electrical fire of divine, spiritual, mental, psychic, astral, and material forces which infill the universe. Here, in brief, are the astrological causative influences in typical epidemics, which are variously operating in other karmic diseases and mental and emotional disorders such as popular uprisings, fanatical movements, and waves of crime and vice. Happily, the same impersonal agents of the karmic law, under the influences of far higher spiritual agents, are equally active and helpful during human cycles of ethical and spiritual aspiration and progress.

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

World-germs A metaphor for cosmic monads, fundamental elementary principles of all ancient religious and philosophical systems. Each monad is an eternal cosmic unity, albeit they appear, disappear, and reappear during the eternally revolving cosmic cycles. In themselves they are divine consciousness-centers, divine-spiritual particles, points of abstract, conscious, cosmic substance existing during manvantaras in a state of primeval differentiation.

The world-germs, are scattered like spawn throughout space. Each one pursues its karmic destiny, descending from a state of pure spirit through various phases by emanating from itself a series of sheaths or veils until the karmic limit has been reached, when each has become the cosmic spirit of a universe, world, sun, planet, etc., as the case may be. The spiritual essence of any world-germ or cosmic monad at no time actually descends or leaves its own high plane or status, but in the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, each establishes a world, universe, or hierarchy with karmically destined portions of itself, and yet remains separate, transcendent.

During the course of this descent into manifestation, fohat sets in motion the primordial world-germs, the aggregation of cosmic atoms and matter, some one way, some another. The world-germs come into frequent meetings and separations, or collisions and partings, until forming their final cosmic aggregation; afterwards as individuals they pass through the nebular phase and then become comets in space.

World-germs are "viewed by Science as material particles in a highly attenuated condition, but in Occult physics as 'Spiritual particles,' i.e., supersensuous matter existing in a state of primeval differentiation" (SD 1:200-1).

(See also: World-germs, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Pranayama (Sanskrit) [from prana breath + ayama restraining, stopping]

The fourth of the eight states of yoga, consisting of various methods of regulating the breath. The three forms of pranayama are puraka (the inhaling); kumbhaka (the retaining); and rechaka (the exhaling).

Any practice of pranayama can be fraught with serious danger, not merely to physical health, but in extreme cases to mental balance or stability. Pranayama, when actually practiced according to the exoteric rules, is a very different thing from the excellent and common sense advice given by doctors to breathe deeply, and to fill the lungs with fresh air. Pranayama should never be practiced by anyone unless under the guidance of initiated teachers, and these never proclaim themselves as teachers of pranayama, for the adepts use it only in rarest cases for certain pupils who for karmic reasons can be helped in this unusual and extraordinary way.

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

Human Monad In the human constitution, the fourth monadic focus or center on the descending scale of individualizing consciousness. It is the basis or root of the human ego from which emanates the human soul -- a temporary or periodic appearance enduring for one incarnation, having for its range of consciousness the ordinary human consciousness of daily life.

At death the essence of the human soul is united to the human ego, which in its turn at the second death is reunited with the upper duad (atma-buddhi); and the human ego thereupon enters into the state of consciousness called devachan.

Having become at one with its spiritual parent, at least for the duration of devachan, the ego rests and digests its garnered store of wisdom, knowledge, and experience, and upon the completion of this period of devachanic recuperation it issues forth again when the karmic hour strikes, once more to become the human ego at its succeeding birth.

(See also: Human Monad, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Guardian Angel Christian term for the various classes of dhyanis which guard the worlds, races, nations, and mankind pertaining to them.

The five middle human principles are the essence of the sixfold dhyani-chohans and of the pitris. Equivalents are daimones, genii, theoi, devas, gods, Paracelsus' flagae, etc. The personal quality that pervades so much of Christianity represents them as special to each individual, which is true enough in a sense; and they may be anything from a ray of divine light from the core of our being, to the kind of karmic heirloom designated as one's lucky star.

As a matter of fact, there is for each human individual an ever watching, forever guiding and stimulating spiritual power within himself, his own spiritual ego which, when allowed by the brain-mind, infills the individual with its strength, wisdom, and peace.

(See also: Guardian Angel, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Human Monad In the human constitution, the fourth monadic focus or center on the descending scale of individualizing consciousness. It is the basis or root of the human ego from which emanates the human soul -- a temporary or periodic appearance enduring for one incarnation, having for its range of consciousness the ordinary human consciousness of daily life.

At death the essence of the human soul is united to the human ego, which in its turn at the second death is reunited with the upper duad (atma-buddhi); and the human ego thereupon enters into the state of consciousness called devachan.

Having become at one with its spiritual parent, at least for the duration of devachan, the ego rests and digests its garnered store of wisdom, knowledge, and experience, and upon the completion of this period of devachanic recuperation it issues forth again when the karmic hour strikes, once more to become the human ego at its succeeding birth.

(See also: Human Kingdom, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jara-marana (Sanskrit) (from jara aging, old age from the verbal root jri to age, grow old + marana dying, death from the verbal root mri to die)

Old and age and death. The skandhas or groups of attributes -- everything finite in the human constitution which is brought over from the last life as karmic tendencies or impulses -- reunite at a person's new birth. They thus constitute his new personality, making the new person not only the child of the person of the last life, but actually a reappearance of that personality plus whatever changes or modifications death and the devachanic interval have brought to pass.

After the maturity of the incarnating person is reached, these skandhas which form the human personality slowly begin to weaken and separate in preparation for death. This process continuing finally brings about jara-marana, decrepitude and death.

(See also: Jara-marana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Karmabandha (Sanskrit) (from karma action, activity + bandha bond, fetter)

The bonds of karma or action; the repeated existences of an entity brought about by the karmic bonds of continuation, born of thought, feeling, and action. A being which has no karmabandha has attained freedom from the enthralling chains and attractions of material existence; but such a jivanmukta nevertheless has karma belonging to and suitable to the plane on which it then is. Thus a jivanmukta can rise above karma relative to the lower realms of being; but as long as any entity, however high, endures as an individualized monadic center, it inevitably produces karma of some kind appropriate to its own high sphere of life and activity. For the meaning of karma is action or activity of any kind -- spiritual, intellectual, psychological, astral, or physical. We human beings, living in the lower planes, produce karma corresponding to us and our environment; but the gods, because individualized and active beings in their own spheres, produce of necessity karma corresponding with their own lofty state.

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

Karanatman (Sanskrit) (from karana cause + atman self)

The causal self; the divine source of one's being, from which flow forth in a descending scale in continuously less ethereal grades and qualities the various elements which form the human compound constitution. It is the causal self because from it as the primordial fountain of consciousness and being flow forth all the elements, principles, qualities, characteristics -- the svabhava -- of any entity undergoing its long evolutionary peregrination in the realms of the manifested universe. It is equivalent to atman, called in Hindu literature Isvara (Lord). The various monads in the human constitution -- divine, spiritual, human, animal, and astral-vital -- are derivatives from this fundamental or supreme atman in the constitution, its children or offspring.

These various monads by their reproductive action actually are the causal principles or instruments of the various and unending series of reimbodiments that any entity during the kosmic manvantara is under karmic necessity of undergoing; and it is, therefore, these various monads in their outer or vehicular aspect which are the respective karanopadhis or karana-sarira.

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

Airavata (Sanskrit) (from iravat moisture-possessing from ira drink, food)

Son of Iravati; a vast elephant produced at the churning of the ocean and appropriated by the god Indra. When seated upon Airavata, Indra blesses the earth with rain, i.e., with the water that is drawn up by Airavata from the underworld. According to the Matangalila, Airavata was born when Brahma sang over the halves of the shell from which Garuda hatched, followed by seven more male and eight female elephants.

In the Mahabharata (Adi-parvan, ch 66) Airavata guards the eastern zone. Four such "elephants" (sometimes eight, each with its sakti or feminine potency) uphold the structure of the earth. The mighty four-tusked Airavata, therefore, represents one of the lokapalas (world protectors) -- called by Buddhists maharajas (great kings) -- which are the guardians and supporters of the universe. They are also mystically connected with the lipikas, the eternal karmic scribes. In the Bhagavad-Gita (10:2, 7) Krishna, in naming his divine manifestations, says that among elephants he is Airavata.

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

Arambha (Sanskrit) Beginning; the Hindu philosophic stance that a supreme divinity formed the universe out of pre-existing material. It includes the Nyaya and Vaiseshika schools of philosophy, the two atomistic schools, and corresponds to the scientific outlook in the Western division of science, religion, and philosophy.

It "envisions the universe as proceeding forth as a 'new' production of already pre-existent cosmic intelligence and pre-existent 'points' of individuality, what we would call monads rather than atoms. Although such newly produced universe is recognized as being the karmic resultant of a preceding universe, the former 'self' of the present, nevertheless emphasis is laid upon beginnings, upon the universe as a 'new' production, very much as scientists construe the universe to be" (FSO 101; SOPh 33).

See also PARINAMA, VIVARTA

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

Bhutesa or Bhutesvara (Sanskrit) (from bhuta living being + isa, isvara lord)

Lord of beings, lord of manifested entities and things; a name applied to each member of the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva). Siva in exoteric mythology and popular superstition is supposed to possess the special status of lord of the bhutas or kama-lokic spooks, and is the special patron of ascetics, students of occultism, and of those training themselves in mystical knowledge; so that this superstitious characterization of Siva is an entirely exoteric distortion of a profound esoteric fact.

The real meaning is that Siva, often figurated as the supreme initiator, is the lord of those who "have been," but who now are become regenerates through initiation -- the mystical idea here being of the preservation of self-conscious effort through darkness into light, from ignorance to wisdom, and from selfishness into the divine compassion of the cosmic heart. In view of the karmic past of such progressed entities, their former selves in this cosmic time period are the bhutas (have-beens) of what now they are. Bhutesa is also applied to Krishna in this sense.

(See also: Bhutesa, Bhutesvara, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Fate (from Latin fatum that which is divinely decreed from fari to speak)

The regents of the kosmos, acting as karmic agents of past destiny, are said to be the establishers of fate or destiny for the world or universe then beginning its manvantaric evolution. They establish in the noumenal worlds the roots, and in the phenomenal worlds the fruits, of the essential laws of being.

Fatalism is the belief that human beings have no free will; however, in actual fact, though perhaps we cannot maintain our own personal will against the laws of the universe except in very moderate degree, yet we have considerable latitude to make experiments and learn from our mistakes.

The Latin fatum means the laws of nature or the will of the gods, personified as the Parcae or three Fates, the Greek Moirai. In the best sense therefore it means our lot, appointed by the destiny born of our own past thoughts, feelings, and acts.

See also KARMA; MOIRA

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

Guardian Angel Christian term for the various classes of dhyanis which guard the worlds, races, nations, and mankind pertaining to them.

The five middle human principles are the essence of the sixfold dhyani-chohans and of the pitris. Equivalents are daimones, genii, theoi, devas, gods, Paracelsus' flagae, etc. The personal quality that pervades so much of Christianity represents them as special to each individual, which is true enough in a sense; and they may be anything from a ray of divine light from the core of our being, to the kind of karmic heirloom designated as one's lucky star.

As a matter of fact, there is for each human individual an ever watching, forever guiding and stimulating spiritual power within himself, his own spiritual ego which, when allowed by the brain-mind, infills the individual with its strength, wisdom, and peace.

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

Dharma-Smriti-Upasthana Dharma-Smrti-Upasthana (Sanskrit) (from dharma law + smriti remembrance + upasthana the act of placing oneself)

In Buddhism, the act of placing oneself in remembrance of the Law. Blavatsky paraphrases the term from another angle: "Remember, the constituents (of human nature) originate according to the Nidanas, and are not originally the Self" (TG 100). The nidanas are the chain of causal concatenation, the 12 causes of existence or manifestation which developed each one by itself, usually in serial and periodic order and strictly in accordance with stored-up karmic seeds of various kinds.

Equally important is the fact that the atmic core of selfhood clothes itself in the various sheaths of consciousness, which therefore actually are the seeds or, in one sense, the very being of these nidanas; so that the nidanas may be referred back to the self as their originators. The idea is the same as that imbodied in the Christian statement: "As a man thinks so is he."

(See also: Dharma-Smriti-Upasthana, Dharma-Smrti-Upasthana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Disk Worship Another form of sun worship; however, the ancients, especially whose who had been initiated in the Mystery schools, did not worship the physical sun but reverenced the central source of life and vivifying power of which the sun is the focus in its own kingdom, and which it therefore represents.

In ancient Egypt the various forms of the disk were favorite symbols, representing either the sun or moon. The deities specially connected with the solar disk were Amen-Ra, Aten, and Horus. In ancient India the disk or chakra was frequently associated with Vishnu; with the Buddhists it appears in the symbol of the wheel which every buddha is represented as turning or setting in motion.

The winged disk is a symbol of the soul or reincarnating ego. The wings represent the movement of the peregrinating ego through space and time, drifting by karmic destiny and its own inner impulses. The disk carried by the wings is the emblem of the ego itself.

(See also: Disk Worship, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Great Day Be With Us The lipikas, karmic recorders of the universe, make a barrier -- the so-called ring pass-not -- impassable during its existence but passable through evolution, between the personal ego and the impersonal or cosmic self.

The incarnating monads cannot pass this "ring" until they have through evolutionary risings and development become merged once more in the universal or cosmic soul. The lipikas "are directly connected with Karma and what the Christians call the Day of Judgment; in the East it was called the Day after Mahamanvantara, or the 'Day-Be-With-Us.'

Then everything becomes one, all individualities are merged into one, yet each knowing itself . . . then, that which to us now is non-consciousness or the unconscious, will then be absolute consciousness" (TBL 112). This is called with the Egyptians the Day of Come-to-Us and refers to what the Hindus call the paranirvana or great night of union in Brahman.

(See also: Great Day Be With Us, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Police

Dreaming about the police could symbolize many different things, so please consider all of the details carefully. If the police are chasing you, it suggests that you may be feeling some guilt about something that you have done or have been thinking of doing. The police could be addressing Karmic Law as well as the laws in our physical world. If you are feeling that you can't meet all of your obligations and fear repercussions due to an unmet commitment, the police may be an unwelcome sight. On a more positive note and depending on the details of your dream, the police could symbolize support and protection. Your emotional response to the dream will provide you with good clues to interpreting this dream accurately. Old dream interpretation books say that dreaming about police is an indication that you will obtain unexpected assistance with a current problem.

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

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

Winged Wheel Used in mystic philosophy worldwide, depicted under many forms, whether as a winged wheel, globe, egg, disk, etc. The Stanzas of Dzyan state that "Fohat takes five strides, and builds a winged wheel at each corner of the square for the four holy ones." Here winged wheel is a name for the four Maharajas who are the guardians or regents of the cosmic forces of the cardinal points north, south, east, and west (SD 1:122).

More generally, the winged wheel or globe suggests cyclic time unrolling its mysterious destiny, emerging from the darkness of the mists of the past, passing through the present, and pursuing its equally mysterious but always karmic courses into the future. In a more restricted sense, it applies to the reimbodying monads, the egg, wheel, or disk representing the monad or consciousness-center, and its wings suggesting its passage through not only duration but space.

See also WHEEL

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

West The forces of the four cardinal points have each a distinct occult property, and are ruled over by the four regents.

Blavatsky states that there is occult philosophy in the early Christian doctrine, echoes of which still linger in both the Orthodox Greek and the Roman Catholic Churches, that public calamities are due to invisible messengers from the north and west, and particularly from the west, the conjunction of the two points being combined in the northwest (SD 1:123).

Most good, on the other hand, flows forth from the north and east. The Egyptian goddess Hathor is spoken of as the infernal Isis, the goddess preeminently of the west or nether world. East and west are not localities but directions, and when used in reference to localities the meaning is purely relative. Good and evil, too, are relative terms as experienced by human beings, for such messengers and influences are in all cases strictly karmic agents; and often what people in their blindness and weakness think a calamity or misfortune may indeed be a blessing in disguise.

See also CARDINAL POINTS

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