Kingdom Dictionary

Buddha [one of true wisdom]: Buddha is a title bestowed on an enlightened master. The Buddha in the present cycle is Siddhartha Gautama (563 BC) who was born in a small kingdom in present day Nepal. After a renunciation of his kingdom and a long period of asceticism, he became enlightened and began teaching. His sermons form the school of philosophy called Buddhism.

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

Anga:

Anga. A kingdom in Eastern Bihar, adjoining Bengal.

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

Human Kingdom One of the great kingdoms or divisions of monads on earth. Below it are the animal, plant, mineral, and also three elemental kingdoms; above are kingdoms of dhyanis or highly evolved human beings and gods. One of the critical points in evolution, at which self-consciousness is attained, although by no means fully developed. Here the spiritual and the material meet: the spiritual self finds its house in the organism built up of lower elements, and the two-natured human being of earth is thus formed. See MAN; ROOT-RACES

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

TAV

The last Hebrew letter. Its numerical value is 400. In the Book of Thoth it is number 21, the Final Enigma: The World or "Kingdom." Its left leg is pulled out a bit as the result of an encounter with the evil Kingdom of Darkness, next to which Tav stands as the last outpost of the magical letters. (See Dr. Berg's The Power of Aleph Beth.)

TECHNIKRYM

One's "operational" name, chosen by inspiration or logic to particularize one's aims. Writers have a pen name, actors have a stage name and so on, because artists recognize the need to set themselves apart. Magicians also choose new names as the first step in the transformation of reality. As the adept rises through the grades of initiation, he frequently takes on a new name to reflect the new direction he has taken. Others refuse to change their birth name at all or they take on frivolous pseudonyms simply to prove that character, not name, is what counts.

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

Shechinah (Hebrew) [from the verbal root shachan to settle down or around, dwell]

An emanation, a dwelling; referring both to the primordial emanation and to the dwelling or kingdom containing the Sephiroth, collectively considered the cosmic Tree of Life. In Jewish religious and mystical thought, the cloud of glory, or veil, surrounding a spiritual or divine manifestation. In the Qabbalah, used in a cosmic sense -- termed the superior Shechinah -- as the first splendor, or divine or spiritual substance, emanating from 'eyn soph and enveloping it as a veil, from which proceeded the hierarchy of the Sephiroth. This thought corresponds to the Hindu parabrahman and its splendorous veil mulaprakriti, from which proceed the hierarchies of the manifested universe. The inferior Shechinah is associated with the tenth or lowest Sephirah, Malchuth (kingdom or dwelling), which is equivalent to the material or physical universe, as the vehicle or carrier of all the preceding hierarchies of Sephiroth.

Whatever the stage of manifestation, there may always be said to be a radiance or splendor enveloping that stage; just as in ancient Hindu philosophy, pradhana is considered the veil or emanation of Brahman. The Jews also spoke of the cloud of glory enveloping the tabernacle, and its sanctum sactorum, the holy of holies. Carrying the idea still farther, we might speak of the Shechinah which envelops the human being, his vital aura, which is the carrier of all his higher principles.

Shechinah is equivalent to Devamatri or Aditi -- mother of the gods; to Vach; the music of the spheres of Pythagoras; and the Holy Ghost in the Christian Trinity. Shechinah is always regarded as feminine in the Qabbalah, "And so it is considered in the exoteric Puranas, for Shekinah is no more than Sakti -- the female double or lining of any god, in such case. And so it was with the early Christians whose Holy Spirit, was feminine, as Sophia was with the Gnostics. But in the transcendental Chaldean Kabala or 'Book of Numbers,' 'Shekinah' is sexless, and the purest abstraction, a State, like Nirvana, not subject or object or anything except an absolute Presence.

"Thus it is only in the anthromorphised systems (such as the Kabala has now greatly become) that Shekinah-Sakti is feminine. As such she becomes the Duad of Pythagoras, the two straight lines of the symbol that can never meet, which therefore form no geometrical figure and are the symbol of matter. Out of the Duad, when united in one basic line of the triangle on the lower plane (the upper Triangle of the Sephirothal Tree), emerge the Elohim, or Deity in Cosmic Nature, with the true Kabalists, the lowest designation, translated in the Bible 'God'" (SD 1:618-9).

(See also: Shechinah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Zoonisation [from Greek zoon animal]

Also Inzoonization. Coined by Master KH (ML 81), signifying the monads performing that phase of their evolution through the animal kingdom.

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

MIND

Mind very much resembles matter, both in its degrees of density and in its peculiarity of design. That's not surprising since the one derives from the other. We might also say that they are mirror images of one another. Just as matter varies in the size of its conglomerations, from the circumferences of giant stars and galaxies to the infinitely small subatomic world of its constituents, so mind ranges through the levels of experience infinitely above and below consciousness. There is no Not-Mind - not ever - except within the Ultimate Void itself.

Hypnosis sheds a faint light on certain levels of consciousness beneath the ordinary. By means of the intense concentration and focusing of attention that hypnosis evokes, we are able to accomplish feats of mind and body that otherwise only yogis know. Hypnosis works by forcing a thread of memory awareness deep into the mind labyrinth, which, however deeply it may penetrate the darkness, is always tied tightly to the ordinary consciousness at the top. Without that Ariadne's thread, the more deeply we were to concentrate on something, the more we would be lost to the world. The more attention we bring to bear on anything, the deeper into a simulacrum of sleep we proceed, as our surroundings and the outside world disappear into this darkness and outer sensations are walled off - presumably to prevent distraction. Since this state of concentration so much resembles sleep, in fact, the slightest lapse of the will sends us drifting towards unconsciousness. Ordinary sleep is a mirror-like repetition of the fragmentation of superconsciousness that we shall see results in abandonment of the self. However, as concentration proceeds ever more inward, the more the inner landscape is illuminated and narrowed. This "inner light" of laser-like consciousness is shared by the vegetable kingdom. (Its character can be recognized in psychedelic intoxication of various kinds). Finally, as we proceed into the unconscious itself we enter a quantum universe of our own. Here we find ourselves in the very "consciousness" of matter itself, with its links to everything in the universe. Presumably, death is but a deeper descent still, a proceeding into the actual heart of Mind, leading into the Void, which is the womb of all manifestations. Ordinary consciousness is obviously the link between higher and lower planes. It is a delicate balance between retreat into self-absorption and abandonment of the self to the sensory experience. It is maintained with great difficulty, for we have a tendency to drift out of it into one or the other of the two diametrically opposed realms of experience that it separates. These realms, of course, are infinitely more attractive than boring, old, routine mind. Within this narrow water-hole of ordinary consciousness, however, lie all the accomplishments and discoveries of human history. Indeed, it is this narrow and unreliable bridge that human society has learned to exploit as "civilization". Unfortunately, it has been examined but superficially and little has been done to stretch its dimensions or protect it from disintegration. Consequently we know almost nothing either of its limitations or its potential powers.

Heightened awareness is the opposed of focused attention or concentration. Attention becomes more and more generalized and cognizant of every petal on every flower in the garden, then every vein in every leaf. . . But now, as attention fans out, mind loses its coherency and begins to fragment. Under the influence of psychedelic drugs the attention is so fragmented that it merges altogether with the outer world and the inner self is abandoned to the chaos of the interface. The loss of the inner self, however, is usually accompanied by extreme panic as it attempts to jump from scintilla to scintilla.

For a time, the fragmentation of expanding mind can be kept under control by the use of amphetamines or cocaine in ever-increasing dosages. By means of these substances, alertness and intelligence are increased because attention is spread infinitely thin across a wider and wider spectrum of sensory experience coming in from the outer world. The "outer world" includes, of course, the consciousness of one's own body, as well as reflexive self-observation. At the same time, the inner self is being supplied with increased energy and speed too, so that it can maintain consciousness of itself and stave off chaos by racing back and forth around the ever-enlarging periphery of experience. As we are all very well aware, however, this path quickly comes to an end.

Fortunately, the heightening of externalized consciousness can be achieved without drugs, through mysticism. The sensory awareness can either be bypassed or used as the vehicle of its own transcendence. If the inner self is voluntarily released to heightened consciousness, which we sometimes refer to as leaving the ego behind in order to enter Nirvana, peace descends at once and chaos is transformed into the so-called "mystical experience." This process, once begun, can continue into such total absorption that the individual consciousness ceases to exist at any point and we could refer to that as a more or less permanent trance.

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

Nu or Noo (Egyptian) The primeval cosmic deep, described in the Egyptian creation as a watery mass in a state of perduring, intense activity, eternally in motion in its structural detail yet eternally quiescent as a whole. Shu and Tefnut, the two firstborn deities, arose from Nu, the father.

The Eye of Nu is the sun -- any sun or star. In later dynasties there was also a god called Nu the son of Ra, referring to the solar system considered as the sun's kingdom and as the waters of the cosmic kingdom infilled with Ra's life. The ancient Hebrew in Genesis had the same conception when they spoke of the face of the deep over which brooded the soul of the 'elohim.

(See also: Nu, Noo , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

rajya:

rajya (raajya). Kingdom.

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

Asgard (Scandianvian Norse). The kingdom and the habitat of the Norse gods, the Scandinavian Olympus ; situated "higher than the Home of the Light-Elves", but on the same plane as Jotunheim, the home of the Jotuns, the wicked giants versed in magic, with whom the gods are at eternal war. It is evident that the gods of Asgard are the same as the Indian Suras (gods) and the Jotuns as the Asuras, both representing the conflicting powers of nature - beneficent and maleficent. They are the prototypes also of the Greek gods and the Titans.

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

Lanka:

Lanka: Island kingdom ruled by Ravana.

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

Amenti (Egypt, Egyptian). Esoterically and literally, the dwelling of the God Amen, or Amoun, or the "hidden", secret god. Exoterically the kingdom of Osiris divided into fourteen parts, each of which was set aside for some purpose connected with the after state of the defunct.

Among other things, in one of these was the Hall of Judgment. It was the "Land of the West", the "Secret Dwelling", the dark land, and the "doorless house". But it was also Ker-noter, the "abode of the gods", and the "land of ghosts" like the " Hades" of the Greeks (q.v.). It was also the "Good Father’s House" (in which there are "many mansions").

The fourteen divisions comprised, among many others, Aanroo (q.v.), the hall of the Two Truths, the Land of Bliss, Neter-xev "the funeral (or burial) place" Otamer-xev, the "Silence-loving Fields", and also many other mystical halls and dwellings, one like the Sheol of the Hebrews, another like the Devachan of the Occultists, etc., etc. Out of the fifteen gates of the abode of Osiris, there were two chief ones, the "gate of entrance" or Rustu, and the "gate of exit" (reincarnation) Amh. But there was no room in Amenti to represent the orthodox Christian Hell.

The worst of all was the Hall of the eternal Sleep and Darkness. As Lepsius has it, the defunct "sleep (therein) in incorruptible forms, they wake not to see their brethren, they recognize no longer father and mother, their hearts feel nought toward their wife and children. This is the dwelling of the god All-Dead. . . . Each trembles to pray to him, for he hears not. Nobody can praise him, for he regards not those who adore him. Neither does he notice any offering brought to him." This god is Karmic Decree; the land of Silence - the abode of those who die absolute disbelievers, those dead from accident before their allotted time, and finally the dead on the threshold of Avitchi, which is never in Amenti or any other subjective state, save in one case, but on this land of forced re-birth. These tarried not very long even in their state of heavy sleep, of oblivion and darkness, but, were carried more or less speedily toward Amh the "exit gate".

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

Animal Monad

During its evolution in the animal kingdom the monad is called animal monad. The vegetable monads become animal monads through acquiring emotional consciousness.

(See also: Animal Monad , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

First Round The first evolutionary cycling of the monadic hosts through all the globes of the planetary chain. A globe-round consists of seven respective circlings by the life-wave on one of the globes of the planetary chain: in the case of the human life-wave these circlings are termed the root-races.

In the case of the first round, the evolutionary procedure is different from all later rounds because the monadic hosts must themselves fashion the outlines of their houses of life -- these houses becoming the globes of the planetary chain. Thus, when the first host has completed its seven circlings on globe A, the greater portion of the monads -- termed the surplus of lives -- descend from globe A by attraction to the waiting laya-center on the second cosmic plane. Through this laya-center globe B comes into the first phases of manifestation, as the first host proceeds to go through its seven evolutionary circlings there. When the seventh turn is completed, then the surplus of lives of this first monadic host descends to the laya-center on a still lower cosmic plane, where globe C-to-be begins its first outlines of manifestation. In like manner the remaining globes of the chain are formed -- globes D, E, F, . . . Z. Each of the ten hosts individually thus leaves its own characteristic pattern or attribute in and on each globe.

In the first round, the highest monadic host works with the lowest monadic kingdom to produce the initial framework of each globe in turn, laying the foundations for all the intermediate monadic hosts to build upon in completing what finally becomes the fully manifested globes. Thus every monadic host contributes its own characteristic elements to every one of the globes during the first round, as the monadic hosts or life-waves follow each other in serial order in passing through the waiting laya-centers. In this way, the globes themselves become fit habitats for their respective classes of dwellers or life-waves.

The monads of the human kingdom passed through all the forms and kingdoms during the first round. In the first root-race of the first round on globe D (our earth), man was highly ethereal and, although necessarily what we would call non-intellectual, nevertheless spiritual.

The globes of the earth-chain during their first round were in their first or elementary rupa stage, a condition entirely different from anything commonly known today. For during the first round -- which followed upon three preliminary elemental rounds -- one cosmic element was developed, namely that of fire. Manifested material fire as we know it had not appeared, but this first fire could be described as cool and luminous. Thus even the grossest globe (globe D), although formed into a sphere, was without solidity or other quality than a cold radiance. The other cosmic elements developed in similar fashion in succeeding rounds.

(See also: First Round , Mysticism, Mysticism 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, Goddess , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mahabharata (Sanskrit) One of the two great epic poems of ancient India, the largest poetic work known to literature, consisting of 220,000 lines.

The masses of tradition and tales in this epic make it the national treasury from which bards, poets, dramatists, and artists, as from an inexhaustible source, draw their themes. It contains the history of the family of the Bharatas in addition to a great many beautiful truly mystical and occult teachings, and a few really splendid minor episodes like the Bhagavad-Gita and Anugita.

Tradition makes Vyasa -- a generic name of high literary authority, used by at least several archaic writers -- the author of this grand poem.

The main theme of the epic is the great struggle between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, descendants through Bharata from Puru, the great ancestor of one branch of the Lunar race. The object of the struggle was the kingdom whose capital was Hastinapura (elephant city), the ruins of which are said to be traceable 57 miles northeast of Delhi, on an old bed of the Ganges.

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

Ravana

The demonic king of Lanka who conquered the universe and abducted the wife of the Supreme Lord Rama, who therefore invaded his kingdom and killed him.

(See also: Ravana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Telepathy [from Greek tele far off, at a distance + pathos feeling]

The transference of thought or feeling from mind to mind independently of ordinary modes of communication. This very interesting and common fact may be noted as not only existing between human beings, and humans and animals, but likewise between animals and insects -- the last being one of the commonest phenomena of natural history -- and in the plant kingdom. People have always known that they talk to each other through the air, or through air vibrations, and that these strike the ear and are conveyed to the brain. The notion of transference from one mind to another across a distance is a physical conception, and its applicability to minds is questionable. Mind can hardly be regarded as physical, and though our brains are physical and separated by distances, the mind is not synonymous with the brain, for if it were telepathy would be impossible because brain does not physically touch brain in the transference of thought, therefore it is not brains which send and receive except as instruments, but it is minds which touch or interpenetrate along the inner planes.

We live in a common mental atmosphere, taking in and giving out thoughts and feelings, which must often pass from mind to mind, though we may not be aware of the fact. The undoubted fact of our having separate minds does not mean that these minds are closed systems, and not mutually penetrable. The experiments which are made to prove thought transference defeat their object to a great extent, because the mind of the transmitter is not concentrated on the idea to be transmitted, so much as on the idea that he is trying to transfer it. The most conclusive proofs, and curiously enough the most common, are unpremeditated, and actually are daily occurrences.

A thought entertained by one person may pass inwardly through planes of consciousness until it reaches a point where minds are no longer separate, and from thence it may travel outwardly to the brain of another person. It may even be said that what we require is not so much an explanation of thought transference as an explanation of why thoughts are so seldom transferred -- why our minds are so separate; and the explanation is the concentration of each individual's normal daily consciousness upon affairs immediately concerning himself. This clothes the individual in a mental shell of interests, around which rush the radiatory influences emanating from the thinker. Universality of sympathy therefore is the key to successful telepathic communication.

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

Damayanthi:

Damayanthi (Dhamayanthee). Wife of King Nala of Nishada, who lost his kingdom at dice.

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

Mahabharata:

An epic poem that recounts the struggle between the Kauravas and Pandavas over the disputed kingdom of Bharata, the ancient name for India. Within this vast narrative is contained a wealth of Indian secular and religious lore. The Bhagavad Gita occurs in the latter portion of the Mahabharata.

(See also: Mahabharata , Yoga, Yoga Dictionary, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Yoga Dictionary)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z

Koshala

The kingdom of north-central India ruled by great kings like Sagara, Bhagiratha, Khatvanga, Raghu, Dasharatha, and Lord Ramachandra. Its capital was Ayodhya.

(See also: Koshala , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Malada:

Malada (Maladha). A kingdom mentioned in Ramakatha I.

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