Literature Dictionary

Angels

Jacob wrestled the angel, and the angel was overcome.

- Bono, U2, Rattle and Hum

The word 'angel' literally means 'messenger.' Often, delivery of a particular message in the dream is the role filled by these beings. As the needs arise, they may provide additional help to the dreamer beyond simply delivering information. Since so many religions and contemporary worldviews have made room for angels in their understanding of the universe, this topic needs to be broken down a little more.

The philosopher Carl Jung had room in his worldview for 'spirit guides'. These were apparitions that shared both knowledge and insight. This insight came as dialogue. Consequently, the Jungian angel was something of a spiritual mentor.

Religious angels have usually served more as ambassadors. They come with specific information, but not much dialogue. They are dispatched for specific purposes. Revelation, not dialogue, is the mission of the angel in this context.

Beginning with popular literature of the 1970s, angels have become more involved with tangible needs of this world. Tyres are repaired, oncoming traffic is diverted, and rickety homes are preserved from the weather by angels. This seems to be a reflection on the growing interest in finding a reliable help in a malevolent world.

Angels have also become, in a sense, the sort of instant wish-granter. Some people dream of angels helping them in this way. In this sort of case, you may be turning toward an actual friend in real life to give you something.

Many angels in dreams represent help from an unknown and unseeable origin to survive a difficult situation. You are turning out into the unknown, expecting help from beyond your actual means. This could be called 'wish-projection.'

Finally, the angel may be what the name implies: a message.

To discern which type of angel you have in your dreams requires some energy. Does your worldview include the possibility of such beings? If not, your angel may be wish-projection.

Did your angel speak or act mysteriously? If the angel spoke, what was the content? If the angel merely acted, what was the nature of the action?

What area of your life seems to need a special solution that exceeds your resources? Do you feel emotionally unsupported in one of your personal quests or spiritual struggles?

See also Death and Magical powers

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

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

Thrones An angelic group in the Christian celestial hierarchy, as outlined by the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The Thrones rank third in the ninefold scheme, being preceded by the Seraphim and Cherubim; the second and intermediate triad is formed of Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; while the third triad is formed of Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.

This scheme was derived from Hebrew angelology, which comes from the Chaldean; although this Christian angelic scheme has been philosophically powerfully affected by Neoplatonic and neo-Pythagorean thought. "They who are called in Theology 'the Thrones,' and are the 'Seat of God,' must be the first incarnated men on Earth" (SD 2:80). The Zohar states that the Benei 'Elohim (sons of god) belong to the tenth subdivision of the Thrones. The ancient Syrians defined their world of Rulers similarly to the Chaldeans: the lowest world was the sublunary, our earth, ruled by Angels; then Mercury, Archangels; Venus, Principalities; Sun, Powers; Mars, Virtues; Jupiter, Dominions; and Saturn, Thrones.

The pseudo-Dionysius was a Christian writer of unknown date; the first authentic mention in extant early Christian literature of his writings is found in the records of the Council held at Constantinople, 532 AD, under Emperor Justinian.

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

Vedas

Veda is a generic name for the most ancient Indian sacred literature, i.e. the Rg-veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-veda and Atharva-veda. Each of these books is divided into two portions, mantra and brahmana. The term Veda is generally reserved for the mantras or metrical hymns, especially those of the Rg-veda. Sri Aurobindo has translated and/or commented on many of the Vedic hymns. Most of his writings related to the Vedas have been collected in Volumes 10 and 11of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library(SABCL), The Secret of the Veda, and Hymns to the Mystic Fire.

"I propose...that the Rig-Veda is itself the one considerable document that remains to us from the early period of human thought of which the historic Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries were the failing remnants, when the spiritual and psychological knowledge of the race was concealed, for reasons now difficult to determine, in a veil of concrete and material figures and symbols which protected the sense from the profane and revealed it to the initiated. One of the leading principles of the mystics was the sacredness and secrecy of self-knowledge and the true knowledge of the Gods.

The Veda...is an inspired knowledge as yet insufficiently equipped with intellectual and philosophical terms. We find a language of poets and illuminates to whom all experience is real, vivid, sensible, even concrete, not yet of thinkers and sytematisers to whom the realities of the mind and soul have become abstractions.

The Vedic Rishis believed that their Mantras were inspired from higher planes of consciousness and contained this secret knowledge. The words of the Veda could only be known in their true meaning by one who was himself a seer or mystic; from others the verses withheld their hidden knowledge.

Many of the lines, many whole hymns even of the Veda bear on their face a mystic meaning; they are evidently an occult form of speech, have an inner meaning.

Under pressure of the necessity to mask their meaning with symbols and symbolic words...the Rishis resorted to fix double meanings, a device easily manageable in the Sanskrit language where one word often bears several different meanings, but not easy to render in an English translation and very often impossible....The Rishis, it must be remembered, were seers as well as sages, they were men of vision who saw things in their meditation in images, often symbolic images which might precede or accompany an experience and put it in a concrete form, might predict or give an occult body to it. ...The mystics were and normally are symbolists, they can even see all physical things and happenings as symbols of inner truths and realities, even their outer selves, the outer happenings of their life and all around them."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, SABCL Vol. 10

(See also: Vedas , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Dugpa 'drug pa dug-pa (Tibetan) Adherents of the Buddhist religion of Tibet who, previous to the reform by Tsong-kha-pa in the 14th century, followed sorcery and other more or less tantric practices, which are entirely foreign to the pure teachings of Buddhism. In theosophical literature dugpa has been used as a synonym for Brother of the Shadow -- especially in The Mahatma Letters.

The four surviving schools of Tibetan Buddhism are the Rnying ma pa (Nying-ma-pa), the Bka' rgyud pa (Kar-gyu-pa), the Sa skya pa (sa-kya-pa), and the Dge lugs pa (Ge-lug-pa). The Kar-gyu-pa, the lineage of Marpa and Milarepa, is more than the others divided into many subschools. One of these is the Dugpa sect, dominant in the Indo-Tibetan border areas of Ladakh in the west and Bhutan in the east.

The Bhutanese and Tibetan name of Bhutan is 'brug yul (dug-yul), "country of the thunder-dragon" ('Brug means both thunder and dragon). One explanation for the name of the sect refers to an experience of the sect's founder, Tsand-pa Gya-re (Gtsang pa rgya ras, 1161-1211). In the course of establishing a monastery he was either startled by intense thunder or witnessed a flight of dragons, and named the monastery thunder-dragon ('brug). The sect and its adherents were named after the monastery, and the country where they prevailed was named after the sect. The dugpa subschool is further subdivided into three branches, known as Middle Dugpa ('bar 'brug), Lower Dugpa (smad 'brug), and Upper Dugpa (stod 'brug).

See also DAD-DUGPA

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

Hinduism (Hindu Dharma): (Sanskrit) India's indigenous religious and cultural system, followed today by nearly one billion adherents, mostly in India, but with large populations in many other countries. Also called Sanatana Dharma, "eternal religion" and Vaidika Dharma, "religion of the Vedas."

Hinduism is the world's most ancient religion and encompasses a broad spectrum of philosophies ranging from pluralistic theism to absolute monism.

It is a family of myriad faiths with four primary denominations:

• Saivism,
• Vaishnavism,
• Shaktism and
• Smartism.

These four hold such divergent beliefs that each is a complete and independent religion. Yet, they share a vast heritage of culture and belief:

• karma,
• dharma,
• reincarnation,
• all-pervasive Divinity,
• temple worship,
• sacraments,
• manifold Deities,
• the guru-shishya tradition and
• a reliance on the Vedas as scriptural authority.

From the rich soil of Hinduism long ago sprang various other traditions. Among these were Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, which rejected the Vedas and thus emerged as completely distinct religions, disassociated from Hinduism, while still sharing many philosophical insights and cultural values with their parent faith.

Though the genesis of the term is controversial, the consensus is that the term Hindu or Indu was used by the Persians to refer to the Indian peoples of the Indus Valley as early as 500 bce. Additionally, Indian scholars point to the appearance of the related term Sindhu in the ancient Rig Veda Samhita. Janaki Abhisheki writes (Religion as Knowledge: The Hindu Concept, p. 1): "Whereas today the word

Hindu connotes a particular faith and culture, in ancient times it was used to describe those belonging to a particular region. About 500 bce we find the Persians referring to 'Hapta Hindu.' This referred to the region of Northwest India and the Punjab (before partition).

The Rig Veda (the most ancient literature of the Hindus) uses the word Sapta Sindhu singly or in plural at least 200 times. Sindhu is the River Indus. Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian, also uses the word Sindhu to denote the country or region.

While the Persians substituted h for s, the Greeks removed the h also and pronounced the word as 'Indoi.' Indian is derived from the Greek Indoi."

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan similarly observed,

"The Hindu civilization is so called since its original founders or earliest followers occupied the territory drained by the Sindhu (the Indus) River system corresponding to the Northwest Frontier Province and the Punjab. This is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, which give their name to this period of Indian history. The people on the Indian side of the Sindhu were called Hindus by the Persians and the later Western invaders. That is the genesis of the word Hindu" (The Hindu View of Life, p. 12).

See: Hindu.

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

Jesus (Latin of Greek Iesous from Hebrew Yeshua` contraction of Yehoshua` a proper name meaning savior or helper, or that which is spacious or widespread)

Indubitably a historical character, whose life as narrated in the Gospels is pure allegory, a story of the initiation chamber. There is a story current from medieval times among the Jews, mentioned in the Sepher Toledoth Yeshua` (Book of the Generations of Jesus), to the effect that the Jesus of the Gospels was a Jehoshua ben Panthera, a Jewish adept living about 100 BC. Jesus illustrates the typical sequence in occult history: 1) the coming of a leader or teacher to a people needing to be led and taught; 2) his passing, followed by the adoration, even worship, of his followers; 3) the gradual transformation of historic facts into more or less embroidered legends or mythological tales, which in time cluster so thickly about his memory that his identity as a person, and even his name, are lost; 4) the myth, allegory, or legend; and 5) the efforts of other, later teachers to explain, interpret, and reinstate this earlier teacher, now a purely mythic figure or else materialized and misunderstood.

The Christian Gospels appear to have originated in mystery-dramas, beautiful and often sublime in their inner significances, in which were depicted the experiences of the neophyte and adept in his union with the Logos, and hence such unified individual was called a Logos incarnate as a man, the Logos itself being variously named as Christos or Dionysos, and to have been by stages adapted and given a semi-historical guise, as has happened in other instances besides the Christian mythos. Christ therefore, or the Christos, is not a particular man or an especial incarnation of divinity, but a generic term for the divine as incarnated in all human beings, although Jesus was undoubtedly the name of this great Jewish initiate-avatara as an individual. Hence this universal allegory in its Christian version has a true historical peg to hang from; for there did appear, sometime before the Christian era, a special cyclic messenger who was due to come on the change of the ecliptic point from one sign of the celestial zodiac to another, from the sign of Aries to Pisces. In theosophical literature, Jesus is considered to be an avatara, the messenger for the European Messianic or Piscean cycle. As such, Jesus represented a ray sent from the Wondrous Being or spiritual hierarch of the earth into the soul of a pure human being, while the racial buddha, Gautama Buddha, supplied the intermediate or psychological nature in this act of white magic.

"But it is probable that the theosophic effort which Jesus attempted to initiate did not endure for fifty years after his death. Almost immediately after his passing, his disciples, all half-instructed, and in some cases almost illiterate, men . . . foisted upon the world of their time the forms and beliefs of early Christianity; and had there been nothing but these, that religious system had not lived another fifty years. But what happened? During the oncoming of the dark cycle after Jesus (which began as before said about the time of Pythagoras), the last few rays from the setting sun of the ancient light shone feebly in the minds of certain of these Christian Fathers, Clement of Alexandria for one, and Origen of Alexandria for another, and in one or two more like these, who had been initiated at least in the lowest of some of the then degenerate pagan Mysteries; and these men entered into the Christian Church and introduced some poor modicum of that light, . . . which they still cherished; and these rays they derived mainly from the Neo-pythagorean and the Neoplatonic system" (Fund 486-7).

The Hebrew name Jah or Jehovah became identified in the mind of Christians with the name of Jesus, although Jesus never was in any wise identical with the Jewish Jehovah, but was identified in initiation through his own inner god or Father in Heaven, and the Jewish Jehovah mystically was the regent of the planet Saturn.

The first three letters in Greek make I.H.S. placed at the head of representations of the crucified Jesus, often said to stand for Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus the savior of men) or In hoc signo (in this sign), with reference to the alleged vision of a cross of the Emperor Constantine. Jesus is a form of a worldwide mystery-name, whose importance was its meaning, usually given as a three-letter monogram, analogous to the Sanskrit Aum. We find it in the Greek Gnostic Iao and variants are common in ancient Greece, such as Iasios, Iasion, Iason, Iasos; and initiates were known as Iasides or sons of Iaso.

See also AVATARA

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

Solomon, King of Israel and Judah shelomoh (Hebrew) [from shalom prosperous cf Arab zuleima, Greek Salomon Latin solomo, genitive solomonis, French Salomon]

Peace, prosperity; according to orthodox Biblical chronology, he lived 993-953 BC, the youngest son of David whom he succeeded through the influence of his mother Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan. Throughout the East, especially in Arabia and thence in Europe, there are many legends of his wisdom and magical powers, and notably with regard to his seal, the six-pointed star or double interlaced equilateral triangles (Solomon's seal); his meeting with the Queen of Sheba and his answering of the questions and riddles propounded by her and others; and his judgments. Solomon is said to have gotten "his secret learning from India through Hiram, the king of Ophir, and perhaps Sheba" (IU 1:135, 136n).

If the exoteric literal account in the Bible is accepted, Solomon in his later years showed himself as very far from wise, indulging in licentiousness and idolatry (1 Kings 11); further, he began his reign with the murder of Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei and his last recorded act was that he sought to kill Jereboam.

In Freemasonry, King Solomon is especially honored as the builder of the Temple and as the first of the Three Grand Masters -- the other two being Hiram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abif -- all of whom were concerned with the building of the Temple. The evil ending of Solomon's life, according to the Biblical account, is almost overlooked in Masonic ritual and literature. In the Jewish Encyclopedia ("Solomon"), according to one writer, Solomon is represented as "the wise king par excellence"; and "in Arabic literature, Solomon is spoken of as 'the messenger of God' "; according to another writer in the same work, however, "a critical sifting of the sources leaves the picture of a petty, Asiatic despot, remarkable, perhaps, only for a love of luxury and for polygamous inclinations." Only by interpreting the Bible esoterically can we arrive at the truth regarding King Solomon; and such interpretation fully corroborates the characterization of "the wise king par excellence"; and fully supports both Masonic ritual and tradition in regarding King Solomon as the first and chief of the Three Grand Masters.

What then is the explanation of the otherwise contradictory statements in the Bible regarding Solomon? Even from a historical and ethnological standpoint one may find a clue, for along purely exoteric lines there is nothing foreign in Solomon's "idolatry" and his worship of other deities. The same racial strain ran through all the surrounding peoples as in Israel, and the respective worships, gods, and goddesses were all closely interrelated, derived from the same Babylonian concepts, appearing under different names -- Blavatsky shows the identity of the mystery gods of the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and Israelites (SD 2:3). The gods and goddesses of the nations surrounding the Jews were all theologically interrelated, aspects or permutations of the same basic idea; and, as worshiped by the people, all were variants and, in their exoteric forms, degradations of the original conception on which every great theogony and cosmogony was built (cf SD 2:535 et seq).

As for Solomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines, these "are merely the personations of man's attributes, feelings, passions and his various occult powers: the Kabbalistic numbers 7 and 3 showing it plainly. Solomon himself, moreover, being, simply, the emblem of Sol -- the 'Solar Initiate' or the Christ-Sun, is a variant of the Indian 'Vikarttana' (the Sun) shorn of his beams by Visvakarman, his Hierophant-Initiator, who thus shears the Chrestos-candidate for initiation of his golden radiance and crowns him with a dark, blackened aureole -- the 'crown of thorns.' (See The Secret Doctrine for full explanation.) Solomon was never a living man. As is described in Kings, his life and works are an allegory on the trials of Initiation" (BCW 10:162-3n).

Solomon the Wise is a type-figure, and the legendary story of his life, wisdom and glory, and temptations and apparent fall, is a variant of the traditional history of certain wise ones recounted in every world-religion. Even granting that a king names Shelomoh reigned over Judah and Israel, the Biblical account and the many traditions of his life are an allegory of initiation.

(See also: Solomon, King of Israel, Judah, Shelomoh , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Bharata, Bharata-varsha bharata-varsa (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root bhri to uphold, bear, carry, supporting, producing + varsha plains, lowlands, land)

The ancient Hindu name for India; Bharata was a name borne also by many divinities as well as great men, heroes, and men of less note. In the Mahabharata, the celebrated hero who was the son of Dushyanta and Sakuntala was named Bharata, the first of twelve Chakravartins.

In theosophical literature Bharata has also been applied to an ancient sacred land. " 'Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men, in Bharata-Varsha!' exclaim the incarnated gods themselves, during the Third Root-Race. Bharata is India, but in this case it symbolized the chosen land in those days, and was considered the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwipa, as it was the land of active (spiritual) works par excellence; the land of initiation and of divine knowledge" (SD 2:369).

(See also: Bharata, Bharata-varsha , bharata-varsa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Atlantis In Theosophical literature the fourth great land-massif or continental system which composed the land area of this globe several million years ago, and which was the home of the fourth root-race. Atlantis was not the name of this land area when inhabited by its own populations, but is borrowed by theosophists from Plato.

A surprising number of very ancient traditions besides those of Greece support the Atlantean hypothesis. Some of the widespread deluge stories, certainly those surviving during the Classic period in the nations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, relate only to Plato's relatively small island, Poseidonis, more or less the size of modern Ireland, if we follow Plato's statements of size; but in addition to these there have been many deluges noticed in the traditions of other peoples scattered over the face of the globe.

The chief great flood referred to the principal collapse of Atlantis, the main sinking occurring during the Miocene period several million years ago. Other island-continents sank later, e.g., Daitya and Ruta (Sanskrit name for one of the last great islands of the Atlantean system in the Pacific Ocean) which went down during the Pliocene times -- in Geikie's Nomenclature, about 850,000 years ago. (SD 2:314).

"The Atlantic portion of Lemuria was the geological basis of what is generally known as Atlantis. The latter, indeed, must be regarded rather as a development of the Atlantic prolongation of Lemuria, than as an entirely new mass of land upheaved to meet the special requirements of the fourth root-race. Just as in the case of Race-evolution, so in that of the shifting and re-shifting of continental masses, no hard and fast line can be drawn where a new order ends and another begins. Continuity in natural processes is never broken" (SD 2:333).

Referring to the vast expanse of lands, including both continents and islands, occupied by the populations of the fourth root-race, Blavatsky wrote: "at a remote epoch a traveller could traverse what is now the Atlantic Ocean, almost the entire distance by land, crossing in boats from one island to another, where narrow straits then existed" (IU 1:558).

 While the term Atlantis derived from Greek sources undoubtedly gave its name to what we now call the Atlantic Ocean, yet the Atlantic continental system reached even into what is now called the pacific; and the islanders of this body of water almost universally amongst themselves have legends all pointing to the fact that their ancestors lived on and came from "great islands" which preceded the present distribution of land and sea.

See also ALTANTEANS; ROOT-RACE, FOURTH

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

Repercussion Striking back, as when a wave rebounds from a surface.

In theosophical literature, applied to the phenomenon in which a blow aimed at the phantom of a living person takes effect on the person himself, as though it rebounded. It can occur in spiritualistic seances, when something done to a materialized form takes effect on the body of the medium. It is one of the secrets of black magical practices, such as that where a wax image of a person is made, and objects stuck into it, thus causing equivalent injury to the living person aimed at.

A similar effect may be produced in an unborn child by something which happens to the mother. A mental picture, an astral form, and a physical form are three linked stages in a series; which explains how a sorcerer can use his imagination for his evil purposes, and how the imagination of a mother can affect the body of the unborn child.

(See also: Repercussion , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Trailokya (Sanskrit) [from tri three + loka world, sphere]

Also Triloka. The three worlds -- heaven, earth, and the lower regions (esoterically the spiritual, psychic or astral, and terrestrial spheres); as ordinarily given in Brahmanical philosophy as Bhur (earth), Bhuvah (firmament, heaven), and Svar (skyey atmosphere). The Buddhist trailokya or division into three worlds is somewhat different, being from lowest to highest: kama-dhatu or -loka (desire world), rupa-dhatu (form world), and arupa-dhatu (formless world).

The trailokya are all, in each case, nonphysical spheres, and pertain to the postmortem states of entities. These three worlds are wholly exoteric groupings -- not meaning false, but not sufficiently explained in the exoteric literature to develop the real significances. In theosophy there are seven or ten groupings of the postmortem realms or states. These states cannot be grouped under the Brahmanical three worlds, but under the three Buddhist dhatus or lokas. Rupa-dhatu and arupa-dhatu may be called dhyanas (contemplation), thus designating the deeply contemplative character of the excarnate egos sunken in the profound deeps of consciousness.

See also TRIBHUVANA

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

A Theosophical definition of Transmigration :

Transmigration

This word is grossly misunderstood in the modern Occident, as also is the doctrine comprised under the old Greek word metempsychosis, both being modernly supposed to mean, through the common misunderstanding of the ancient literatures, that the human soul at some time after death migrates into the beast realm and is reborn on earth in a beast body. The real meaning of this statement in ancient literature refers to the destiny of what theosophists call the life-atoms, but it has absolutely no reference to the destiny of the human soul, as an entity.

Theosophy accepts all aspects of the ancient teaching, but explains and interprets them. Our doctrine in this respect unless, indeed, we are treating of the case of a "lost soul,"is "once a man, always a man." The human soul can no more migrate over and incarnate in a beast body than can the psychical apparatus of a beast incarnate in human flesh. Why? Because in the former case, the beast vehicle offers to the human soul no opening at all for the expression of the spiritual and intellectual and psychical powers and faculties and tendencies which make a man human. Nor can the soul of the beast enter into a human body, because the impassable gulf of a psychical and intellectual nature, which separates the two kingdoms, prevents any such passage from the one up into another so much its superior in all respects. In the former case, there is no attraction for the man beastwards; and in the latter case there is the impossibility of the imperfectly developed beast mind and beast soul finding a proper lodgment in what to it is truly a godlike sphere which it simply cannot enter.

Transmigration, however, has a specific meaning when the word is applied to the human soul: the living entity migrates or passes over from one condition to another condition or state or plane, as the case may be, whether these latter be in the invisible realms of nature or in the visible realms, and whether the state or condition be high or low. The specific meaning of this word, therefore, implies nothing more than a change of state or of condition or of plane: a migrating of the living entity from one to the other, but always in conditions or estates or habitudes appropriate and pertaining to its human dignity.

In its application to the life-atoms, to which are to be referred the observations of the ancients with regard to the lower realms of nature, transmigration means briefly that the particular life-atoms, which in their aggregate compose man's lower principles, at and following the change that men call death migrate or transmigrate or pass into other bodies to which these life-atoms are attracted by similarity of development  - be these attractions high or low, and they are usually low, because their own evolutionary development is as a rule far from being advanced. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that these life-atoms compose man's inner  - and outer  - vehicles or bodies, and that in consequence there are various grades or classes of these life-atoms, from the physical upwards (or inwards if you please) to the astral, purely vital, emotional, mental, and psychical.

This is, in general terms, the meaning of transmigration. The word means no more than the specific senses just outlined, and stops there. But the teaching concerning the destiny of the entity is continued and developed in the doctrine pertaining to the word metempsychosis.

See also: Transmigration , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Seasons The seasons are at least in part due to the inclination of the earth's axis, and wholly according to this explanation in modern astronomy. If there were no inclination -- if the ecliptic coincided with the equator, and the earth's axis with the poles of the equator -- there would be no seasons.

In satya yuga there were no changes of season, but an eternal spring which lasted as long as the lack of polar inclination endured, but which came to an end when the third root-race fell into "sin" -- the two events coinciding. The earth's axis when without inclination is at right angles with the plane of the ecliptic. The titans or kabiri are described in The Secret Doctrine as the generators and regulators of the seasons, thus showing that they take their part with the karmic lipikas in the cosmic history of the globe. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter correspond with other quaternaries, such as the four points of the compass and the four elements; and also represent a cycle of changes from birth to dissolution and rebirth.

In theosophical literature the earth's axis is said to undergo a secular movement of inclination with interims of pausings and smaller changes, or what may be called librations; and this secular movement is on the whole continuous, so that in course of long ages the axis of the earth becomes inverted, and consequently the poles are reversed; continuing their movement, they finally return to the position of right angularity with the plane of the ecliptic. Enormous changes must take place during this cycle upon the earth, not only as regards seasons, but likewise as regards geological and marine convulsions and cataclysms -- evidences of which are apparent not only in the geological record, but in many otherwise unexplained and perhaps unexplainable botanical and zoological migrations. What is at one time land becomes sea, and vice versa.

See also EQUINOX; SOLSTICE

(See also: Seasons , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Asura (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root as to breathe)

A title frequently given to the hierarch or supreme spirit of our universe, as being the primal "Breather"; also a class of spiritual-intellectual beings. In Hinduism it commonly signifies elemental and evil gods or demons. "Primarily in the Rig-Veda, the 'Asuras' are shown as spiritual divine beings; their etymology is derived from asu (breath), the 'Breath of God,' and they mean the same as the Supreme Spirit or the Zoroastrian Ahura. It is later on, for purposes of theology and dogma, that they are shown issuing from Brahma's thigh, and that their name began to be derived from a privative, and sura, god (solar deities), or not-a-god, and that they became the enemies of the gods" (SD 2:59).

Further, the asuras "are the sons of the primeval Creative Breath at the beginning of every new Maha Kalpa, or Manvantara; in the same rank as the Angels who had remained 'faithful.' These were the allies of Soma (the parent of the Esoteric Wisdom) as against Brishaspati (representing ritualistic or ceremonial worship). Evidently they have been degraded in Space and Time into opposing powers or demons by the ceremonialists, on account of their rebellion against hypocrisy, sham-worship, and the dead-letter form" (SD 2:500).

Asura is employed with frequency in theosophical writings to signify the class of spiritual-intellectual beings called manasaputras, kumaras, or angishvattas. As a matter of fact, asuras, maruts, rudras, and daityas are but various ways of describing the intellectual gods or manasas, as contrasted with the as yet incompleted devas or suras.

Asura is used in the earliest Vedic literature as a title of the cosmic hierarch or supreme spirit. The Vedic Asura is nothing other than the Great Breath of archaic occult literature -- the Great Breath coming and going as manvantara and pralaya. The other Vedic gods mentioned so much more frequently in the slokas, such as Agni, Indra, and Varuna, are all subordinate hierarchically and cosmogonically to the Vedic Asura, which is really Brahman-pradhana or the Second Logos, Father-Mother; Varuna is the acme or summit of akasa-tattva; Agni is the summit or hierarch of cosmic taijasa-tattva; and Indra is often identified with Vayu as the summit of cosmic Vayu-tattva.

See also MAHASURA

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

Ahura-Mazda (Avestan) Aura-Mazda (Old Persian) Auhr-Mazd (Pahlavi) Hormazd, Hormoz, Ormazd, Ormuzd (Persian) (from Avestan ahura lord of life from the verbal root ahu conscious life + mazda the creator of mind, remembering, bearing in mind from the verbal root man to think + da the creator, bestower; cf Pahlavi dehesh creation)

The lord of life and creator of mind; the immutable light, the uncreated supreme deity of the Mazdean system. Pythagoras said that "the Iranian Magis consider Ahura Mazda a being whose body is of light and his soul is of truth." He is referred to as the maker of the material world and father of the six Amesha-Spentas. In later Persian literature similar descriptions of the supreme creator have been given. Ferdowsi refers to him as the lord of jan (consciousness) and kherad (intellect).

Regarding the dualistic cosmic system of the Zoroastrians -- good and evil -- Blavatsky comments: "No more philosophically profound, no grander or more graphic and suggestive type exists among the allegories of the World-religions than that of the two Brother-Powers of the Mazdean religion, called Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, better known in their modernized form of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Of these two emanations, 'Sons of Boundless Time' -- Zeruana-Akrana -- itself issued from the Supreme and Unknowable Principle, the one is the embodiment of 'Good Thought' (Vohu-Mano), the other of 'Evil Thought' (Ako-Mano). The 'King of Light' or Ahura Mazda, emanates from Primordial Light and forms or creates by means of the 'Word,' Honover (Ahuna-Vairya), a pure and holy world. But Angra Mainyu, though born as pure as his elder brother, becomes jealous of him, and mars everything in the Universe, as on the earth, creating Sin and Evil wherever he goes.

"The two Powers are inseparable on our present plane and at this stage of evolution, and would be meaningless, one without the other. They are, therefore, the two opposite poles of the One Manifested Creative Power, whether the latter is viewed as a Universal Cosmic Force which builds worlds, or under its anthropomorphic aspect, when its vehicle is thinking man" (BCW 13:123-4).

Because Maz or Mez in the word Mazda can also be another way of pronouncing myth, Mazda can mean that which is created by Mez, by the hidden truth. Then Ahura-Mazda would mean the life-bearer who is created by the hidden truth.

(See also: Ahura-Mazda , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Therapeute (Ancient Greek) or Therapeutes. A school of Esotericists, which was an inner group within Alexandrian Judaism and not, as generally believed, a "sect". They were "healers" in the sense that some "Christian" and " Mental" Scientists, members of the T.S., are healers, while they are at the same time good Theosophists and students of the esoteric sciences. Philo Judeus calls them "servants of god". As justly shown in A Dictionary of . . . Literature, Sects, and Doctrines (Vol. IV., art. "Philo Judmus ") in mentioning the Therapeutes - " There appears no reason to think of a special "sect", but rather of an esoteric circle of illuminati, of ‘wise men’ . . . They were contemplative Hellenistic Jews."

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

pneumo-acupuncture: Technique described in ancient Chinese literature. It involves injecting air under the skin.

(See also: Pneumo-acupuncture , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Theosophists. A name by which many mystics at various periods of history have called themselves.

The Neo-Platonists of Alexandria were Theosophists; the Alchemists and Kabbalists during the medieval ages were likewise so called, also the Martinists, the Quietists, and other kinds of mystics, whether acting independently or incorporated in a brotherhood or society.

All real lovers of divine Wisdom and Truth had, and have, a right to the name, rather than those who, appropriating the qualification, live lives or perform actions opposed to the principles of Theosophy. As described by Brother Kenneth R. Mackenzie, the Theosophists of the past centuries - " entirely speculative, and founding no schools, have still exercised a silent influence upon philosophy; and, no doubt, when the time arrives, many ideas thus silently propounded may yet give new directions to human thought. One of the ways in which these doctrines have obtained not only authority, but power, has been among certain enthusiasts in the higher degrees of Masonry.

This power has, however, to a great degree died with the founders, and modern Freemasonry contains few traces of theosophic influence. However accurate and beautiful some of the ideas of Swedenborg, Pernetty, Paschalis, Saint Martin, Marconis, Ragon, and Chastanier may have been, they have but little direct influence on society."

This is true of the Theosophists of the last three centuries, but not of the later ones. For the Theosophists of the current century have already visibly impressed themselves on modern literature, and introduced the desire and craving for some philosophy in place of the blind dogmatic faith of yore, among the most intelligent portions of human-kind. Such is the difference between past and modern THEOSOPHY.

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

A Theosophical definition of Mahatma :

Mahatma

(Mahatman, Sanskrit) "Great soul" or "great self" is the meaning of this compound word (maha, "great"; atman, "self").

The mahatmas are perfected men, relatively speaking, known in theosophical literature as teachers, elder brothers, masters, sages, seers, and by other names. They are indeed the "elder brothers" of mankind. They are men, not spirits  - men who have evolved through self-devised efforts in individual evolution, always advancing forwards and upwards until they have now attained the lofty spiritual and intellectual human supremacy that now they hold. They were not so created by any extra-cosmic Deity, but they are men who have become what they are by means of inward spiritual striving, by spiritual and intellectual yearning, by aspiration to be greater and better, nobler and higher, just as every good man in his own way so aspires. They are farther advanced along the path of evolution than the majority of men are. They possess knowledge of nature's secret processes, and of hid mysteries, which to the average man may seem to be little short of the marvelous  - yet, after all, this mere fact is of relatively small importance in comparison with the far greater and more profoundly moving aspects of their nature and lifework.

Especially are they called teachers because they are occupied in the noble duty of instructing mankind, in inspiring elevating thoughts, and in instilling impulses of forgetfulness of self into the hearts of men. Also are they sometimes called the guardians, because they are, in very truth, the guardians of the race and of the records  - natural, racial, national  - of past ages, portions of which they give out from time to time as fragments of a now long-forgotten wisdom, when the world is ready to listen to them; and they do this in order to advance the cause of truth and of genuine civilization founded on wisdom and brotherhood.

Never  - such is the teaching  - since the human race first attained self-consciousness has this order or association or society or brotherhood of exalted men been without its representatives on our earth.

It was the mahatmas who founded the modern Theosophical Society through their envoy or messenger, H. P. Blavatsky, in New York in 1875.

See also: Mahatma , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Rabbi (Hebrew) [from rab great, a chief, leader]

My master, my teacher; the master was addressed by his pupils with the word rabbi or rabbenu (our teacher), Moses being customarily called Mosheh rabbenu (our teacher Moses). Equivalent to the Sanskrit guru, but during the closing decades of the Second Temple, the term became commonly associated with the scribes as merely an honorary title. Then during the time of the Mishnah period, all scholars were termed Rabs (or Chaldean plural Rabbin). Later the sect of the Qaraites, who rejected the Talmud, designated all believers in its by this term. Rabbi is likewise now applied to the modern Jewish clergy.

Rabbinical literature is generally understood to mean writings concerning the Jewish traditions since the beginning of the Talmudic period.

(See also: Rabbi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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.

(See also: Yima, Yam, Yama , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Druids Members of a priestly hierarchy among the ancient Celts of Britain, Gaul, and Ireland, composed of the three Orders of Druids, Bards, and Ovates. According to the Gaulish reports mentioned by Julius Caesar, Druidism was founded in Britain, which remained in his time its headquarters, candidates for the priesthood being sent to that island from Gaul for their training.

The Welsh tradition confirms this, stating the The Wisdom had always existed; that in remote times it was known simply as Gwyddoniaeth (science) and its teachers as the Gwyddoniaid (sing., Gwyddon); that knowledge of it had declined until at some unknown period a wiseman named Tydain Tad Awen arose and taught it to his three disciples, Plenydd, Gwron, and Alawn, who in their turn taught it to the race of the Cymry. From that time forth it was known as Derwyddoniaeth or Druidism, "the wisdom taught in oak groves."

Classical references to the Druids are many, coming from about 200 B.C. until about 200 A.D. Those written before Caesar made his attack on Gaul speak of the Druids as possessors of a high wisdom; the very first reference says that it was held in Greece that philosophy came to the Greeks from the barbaroi or foreigners: the Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the Egyptian priesthood, and the Druids.

While the Romans were fighting the Celts, writers, beginning with Caesar, repeat more or less what has been said before about the wisdom of the Druids but, following Caesar, have much to say about their atrocities. When the Romans were no longer at war with the Druidic Celts, however, the references to the Druids are similar to the early ones, with no mention of atrocities.

Blavatsky stated that Druidism was the one branch of the sacred Mysteries of antiquity in the Western world which had not degenerated; and that during the campaigns of Caesar and his forces in Gaul, three million Gauls were killed and Druidism virtually wiped out there. It is Caesar who is responsible for the current notion that the Gauls and Britons were crude savages and the Druids barbarous and cruel. He stated first that the Druids of Gaul, who were judges as well as priests, inflicted excommunication as their severest sentence, passed even on the worst criminals. Excommunication was their capital punishment. Later on in his book he describes the famous wicker cages filled with criminals (with just men added when there were not criminals enough) who were then burnt. The two statements are contradictory. The later statement is entirely unsupported; the former is not only compatible with the Druids' reputation for profound wisdom and great humanity, but is supported indirectly by practically every classical reference which mentions the Druids at all.

In Gaul in Caesar's time Druidism was very highly organized and controlled the whole civilization, a fact Caesar is known to have deliberately understated, for in many respects Gaulish civilization was more advanced than Roman. We know nothing of Druidism in Britain from the classical writers, except that Britain was its headquarters and place of origin, and that the Druids were massacred in Mona (Anglesea), an island in northwest Wales which seems to have been the Druids headquarters in Britain.

Of Druidism in Ireland we know even less: the Irish Sagas do not indicate that the Druids there were either priests or jurists, or indeed very important people; they appear rather as necromancers at the royal courts, astrologers, magicians, etc. Had Druidism been an organized system, as in Gaul and presumably in Britain, Patrick, the Christian missionary, could hardly have converted the whole island with the little trouble he had. In Britain, however, as soon as the Romans with their proscription of Druidism had departed in 410, there is every reason to think that Druidism flamed up again: Welsh literature, from the 6th to the end of the 15th century, is full of interesting references.

Greek and Roman authors all make much of the Druidic belief in reincarnation. One of them relates that you could always borrow money to be repaid in such and such a future life on earth -- showing that it was reincarnation, the coming back as a human being, and not transmigration, the coming back as an animal, that was taught. The likeness between Druidism and Pythagoreanism is often mentioned, which perhaps suggested the legend that Pythagoras studied not only under Eastern but also under Western or Druidic teachers; and that other belief, that philosophy came to Greece not only from the East, but also from the Druids.

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