A Wisdom Archive on Material Force

Demon est Deus inversus (Latin) A Kabbalistic axiom; lit., "the devil is god reversed"; which means that there is neither evil nor good, but that the forces which create the one create the other, according to the nature of the materials they find to work upon.

 
(See also: Demon est Deus inversus, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Vaisheshika (Sanskrit). One of the six Darshanas or schools of philosophy, founded by Kanada. It is called the Atomistic School, as it teaches the existence of a universe of atoms of a transient character, an endless number of souls and a fixed number of material principles, by the correlation and interaction of which periodical cosmic evolutions take place without any directing Force, save a kind of mechanical law inherent in the atoms; a very materialistic school.

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

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Universal Soul At one time identified as mahat or mahabhuddhi, the vehicle of kosmic spirit or paramatman, but more frequently called anima mundi, the world-soul, alaya, the astral light of the Qabbalists, the spiritually and ethereally material reflection of the immaterial cosmic paramatmic ideal; hence the universal soul is the source of life of all beings. ''
 
It is regarded as sevenfold, tenfold, or twelvefold in its nature and structure. Taking the triad of spirit, soul, and body, it stands for the middle region, being at once the vehicle of spirit and the prototypical model of the material worlds. Thus it stands for the higher ranges of the astral light as the storehouse of ideas impressed upon it by the creative spiritual forces, and the transmitter of them to the world of material and physical objectivity. In this view it would be the source of the intermediate human principles.
 
See also UNIVERSAL MIND

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Material Force Dictionary

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Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akasa and with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it is something quite on another plane. The seventh principle of the earth’s atmosphere, as said, the Astral Light, is only the second on the Cosmic scale. The scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and Planes, of Emanations - on the metaphysical - and Evolutions - on the physical plane - is the Cosmic Serpent biting its own tail, the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and reflected in its turn by the lower Serpent. The Caduceus explains the mystery, and the four-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the universe is said by Plato to have been built by the manifested Logos - synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born - yields geometrically the key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic reflection - our Earth.

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

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Yang (Chinese) The bright aspect -- as the sunny side of a hill -- in contrast to yin, the dark side. In mystic Chinese literature and in Taoism, yang is associated with the masculine aspect, while yin refers to the feminine aspect. Thus tao is regarded as the interaction of the revolving changes produced by the yang and yin: yang referring to immaterial, celestial force and substance; yin, to material equivalents.
 
Popularly everything of a beneficial aspect is associated with yang, while everything of maleficent tendency is related to yin. However, this limits the original conception of yang and yin as forming the two contrasted sides of the universe, for one cannot exist without the other, and each in its own way is as important as the other.

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

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Volundr (Icelandic) In Norse mythology, the hero of "Volundarkvida" or "Volundskvadet"; in German tales he is named Wieland, in English Wayland. In all versions he is a smith, a legendary artisan who was captured and imprisoned by King Nidud (an evil age) and forced to forge treasures of gold and silver for the king.
 
The symbology suggests that the smith represents a race of humanity which had fallen prey to influences of a totally material age when human genius and craftsmanship were prostituted to unworthy ends. The tale ends with the artisan escaping in a flying device of his own making, leaving the evil king bereft of his sons, his daughter, and his smith.

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

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Heavenly Adam. The synthesis of the Sephirothal Tree, or of all the Forces in Nature and their informing deific essence. In the diagrams, the Seventh of the lower Sephiroth, Sephira Malkhooth - the Kingdom of Harmony - represents the feet of the ideal Macrocosm, whose head reaches to the first manifested Head.
 
This Heavenly Adam is the natura naturans, the abstract world, while the Adam of Earth (Humanity) is the natura naturata or the material universe. The former is the presence of Deity in its universal essence; the latter the manifestation of the intelligence of that essence. In the real Zohar not the fantastic and anthropomorphic caricature which we often find in the writings of Western Kabbalists - there is not a particle of the personal deity which we find so prominent in the dark cloaking of the Secret Wisdom known as the Mosaic Pentateuch.

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

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Vitalism The theory that the phenomena of organic life cannot be explained by the properties of physical matter alone, and that consequently they must be due to some nonphysical vital principle. Attempts to define such a principle have been vague and various. If it is spirit, then what can spirit be, apart from matter, or how can it act on matter? Perhaps it is another kind of matter -- an aether, fluid, or what not.
 
The theory amounts to trying to correct one error by means of another. If we suppose the physical universe to be composed of inert particles, how can we explain their activity? Materialistic science has simply shelved the difficulty. It is necessary to postulate an immaterial force, which in its origin is immaterial and in its manifestations substantial or material, but materialistic science does not recognize anything basically immaterial. It speaks of energy and matter as twin in destructibles, but merely assumes the former without explaining its nature. Moreover the words force and energy are used by science to denote effects occurring in matter. Are these effects without causes?
 
The difficulty encountered by vitalists, as regards the nature of the vital principle and its power of acting upon matter, is fundamental in the entire materialistic philosophy. The matter and force of materialistic science are highly metaphysical abstractions. No such thing as an inert material particle exists or can exist, for all such inert matter is but life or force in one of its multiform phases of quiescence or equilibrium. Nor can there be an absolutely immaterial force, without relation of function or action in the material worlds. The universe consists of living beings, whose activities may be expressed collectively by the word life. The term matter has been applied to the static aspect of life, and the term force to the dynamic aspect. No distinction valid for this purpose can be drawn between organic and inorganic beings. If there is need of a vital principle for animals and plants, working upon yet other than essential stuff or substance, there is equal need in the case of minerals; but there is no need to postulate such divorce between force and matter in either case.
 
The jiva or prana of theosophy is not an immaterial spirit different from matter acting on a lifeless body; it is itself substantial, consisting in fact of streams of living beings, life-atoms; and so far from acting on something other than itself called the body, it actually composes the body. The minute analysis to which science is now able to subject physical matter has not succeeded in finding anything more rudimentary than living, moving fire, light, and electricity -- in short, the ocean of jiva.

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

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Brahma’s Day. A period of 2,160,000,000 years during which Brahma having emerged out of his golden egg (Hiranyagarbha), creates and fashions the material world (being simply the fertilizing and creative force in Nature). After this period, the worlds being destroyed in turn, by fire and water, he vanishes with objective nature, and then comes Brahma's Night.

 
(See also: Brahma’s Day, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

For more dictionary entries, see » Material Force Dictionary