Material Force Dictionary

Mars: Mars rules Aries. Mars is energy. It is the kind of energy that your body uses to contract muscles, to assimilate food, and to fire synapses in the brain. It is the kind of energy that makes gasoline burn, pushing pistons up and down, thereby moving your car. It is the dynamic energy of all action in the material world.

The god Mars was responsible for two distinctive kinds of energetic activity: He was the god of war, going around sowing terror and fear in the enemy and inspiring courage as well. On the other hand, he was a god of agriculture, encouraging the planting and tending of crops, and even encourage the crops themselves to grow.

The sign and house of Mars show where your personal energies tend to go when you are not guiding them. It also shows where you can concentrate your energy through decisive action for the strongest results. There is a certain reckless quality to Mars. This planet has to do with sharp instruments and vigorous force. We need to understand this planet in order to manage energy well, or it can become angry and destructive. Thus reading about Mars in your chart can provide answers to your questions about why some situations may have turned out badly, and how to use your physical and emotional energy more successfully in the future.

Mars is also the planet of desire. We all tend to use our energy to get what we want when we want it. Desire is a good thing, because it impels us forward to something new and better. It helps us to find partners and mates. It helps us to find satisfying food, clothing and shelter. On the mental level, desire helps us to choose an area of study, to select books or movies we want to experience. On a still higher level, Mars indicates the direction of our spiritual passion. It shows what religious or spiritual path will satisfy our desire to understand the universe and master our own actions.

The aspects of Mars in your chart indicate the directions in which you can most easily direct your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energies. Understanding Mars helps you to direct your actions to gain the best results.

(See also: Mars , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Ch'i: literally "breath," important philosophical term of varied meaning throughout Chinese history; early Chinese writings see it as a physiological principle of vital energy, whereas Neo-Confucian writers such as Chu Hsi see it as a metaphysical principal of material force in contrast with structural form (li).

 (See also: Ch'i , Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

Medical Astrology: In this second part of the article, Ingrid Naiman further explain the dynamics of Medical Astrology.

Read more here: » Medical Astrology: What is Medical Astrology? II

Conservation of Energy A scientific theory that the total energy of any material system is a quantity which cannot be increased or decreased by any action among the parts, and that when energy seems to disappear it is merely transformed into an equivalent quantity of another mode of energy.

The theory, interpreted in its widest sense, means no more than an affirmation that something cannot be created out of nothing or resolved into nothing, and so would seem a perfectly harmless generalization. However, theosophy teaches that there is a constant inflow of force into any such physical or material system, which in the scientific view is from sources exterior to a "closed material system."

Theosophy does not regard such forces as exterior but looks upon closed material systems as merely phenomena on the physical plane of inner and powerful forces which produce such physical systems as an appearance -- real enough for the entities within it while it lasts, but vanishing once the inner, controlling forces are withdrawn. Then the atoms simply vanish because the cohering energies which make them are likewise withdrawn.

From these considerations it is readily seen why the Masters or mahatmas in Blavatsky's time stated that the scientific theory of the conservation of energy was wrong in concept and therefore untrue in fact, although workable enough as a mere hypothesis for laboratory studies and the then closely restricted scientific theorizing of the day.

Correlation of forces, used by Sir William Grove (1842), is equivalent to the conservation of energy. It states that physical energies, such as light, heat, and mechanical energy, are convertible one into another, in equivalent quantities.

(See also: Conservation of Energy , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ama: Poorly digested food material that accumulates in the body.

(See also: Ama ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Consciousness :

Consciousness

In all its forms and protean manifestations, consciousness is spirit-matter  - force and matter, or spirit and substance, are one  - hence consciousness is the finest and loftiest form of energy, is the root of all things, and is coextensive with kosmic space. It is, therefore, the foundation and the essence of gods, of monads, and of atoms  - the three generalized degrees, kosmically speaking, of the universe.

A natural corollary from this is that the universe therefore is imbodied consciousness, or much more correctly we should call it a quasi-infinite aggregate of imbodied consciousnesses.

See also: Consciousness , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Seal of the Theosophical Society

Composed of a serpent in the form of a circle (Ananta-sesha) biting its tail -- standing for eternity and boundless wisdom.

Its scales signify the illimitable diversity of wisdom or truth, and likewise the innumerable smaller cycles within boundless duration. The circumscribed swastika at the meeting point of the head and tail is a practically universal ancient emblem portraying evolution, the endless movement of spirit in and through matter.

Within the large circle formed by the serpent are two interlaced triangles (called in India the seal of Vishnu, in the West the seal of Solomon). The white triangle pointing upwards denotes the spiritual fire of consciousness, concealed wisdom, or spirit. The downward-pointing black triangle, sometimes colored blue or red, refers to the manifested worlds of matter, or to wisdom revealed in the worlds of manifestation. The two triangles interlaced form a six-pointed star, which means the manifested Logos, or the third cosmic emanation of the ineffable One. Again, the six-pointed star refers to the six general forces or powers of nature, the six principles, the six planes -- which are represented as being all synthesized by their origin, the seventh, when a point or dot is placed within the star, for this point is what Pythagoras called the Monas monadum (the monad of monads).

"The double triangle -- the Satkiri Chakram of Vishnu -- or the six-pointed star, is the perfect seven. In all the old Sanskrit works -- Vedic and Tantrik -- you find the number 6 mentioned more often than the 7 -- this last figure, the central point being implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix. It is then thus . . . {drawing]

-- the central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha -- endless space -- for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense, both are viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the Macrocosm and the microcosm. The interlaced triangles -- the upper pointing one -- is Wisdom concealed, and the downward pointing one -- Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world). The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the Universal Principle which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. As the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced -- they are identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and Avidya -- (illusion and ignorance) -- one is separated from the other by the manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three gunas -- finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma (the 7th principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the manifested 'Voice' (or Logos), the germ point of manifested activity; -- hence -- in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists 'the Son of the Father and Mother,' and agreeably to ours -- 'the Self manifested in Self' -- Yih-sin, the 'one form of existence,' the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female. Parabrahm or 'Adi-Buddha' while acting through that germ point outwardly as an active force, reacts from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but latent Potency. The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active; the male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a Trinity because presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in its straight lines: Gnanam -- (Knowledge); Gnata -- (the Knower); and Gnayam -- (that which is known). The black -- form, colour, and substance, also the creative, preservative, and destructive forces and are mutually correlating . . ." (ML 345-6).

Within the star is placed the crux ansata, the handled cross or tau, one aspect of which is the particularized functions or activity of spirit in matter so far as our own world is concerned, and more especially insofar as intelligence is working upon cosmic matter. It is a symbol often associated with the adept or initiate as typifying his union with spiritual intelligence rather than with the powers and potencies of unspiritualized life in the material world.

When Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott went to India in 1879, the Sanskrit word Aum was placed above the seal, while below it was added the phrase: Satyan nasti paro dharmah (there is no religion [law]

higher than truth [reality]) which was adopted as the motto of the Theosophical Society.

In some respects the seal of the Theosophical Society is similar to the personal seal of Blavatsky: however, in place of the tau within the interlaced triangles, her seal had the initials E B (E standing for Elena, pronounced Yelena in Russian, and B for Blavatsky). Inside the circle are astrological and Qabbalistic signs stated by some to refer to Blavatsky herself, while above the seal is a countess' coronet belonging to her family.

The seal of the Theosophical Society can be said to refer to a universe expanding into manifestation from its origin in cosmic spirit, emanation picturated by the comprehending serpent of space and duration. Just as the serpent periodically sheds its old skin, a universe, after a period of rest or dormancy, is again emanated, the child of its former self, for another period of cosmic manifestation.

(See also: Seal of the Theosophical Society , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Vach :

Vach

(Sanskrit) A term which means "speech" or "word"; and by the same procedure of mystical thought which is seen in ancient Greek mysticism, wherein the Logos is not merely the speech or word of the Divinity, but also the divine reason, so Vach has come to mean really more than merely word or speech. The esoteric Vach is the subjective creative intelligent force which, emanating from the subjective universe, becomes the manifested or concrete expression of ideation, hence Word or Logos. Mystically, therefore, Vach may be said to be the feminine or vehicular aspect of the Logos, or the power of the Logos when enshrined within its vehicle or sheath of action. Vach in India is often called Sata-rupa, "the hundred-formed." Cosmologically in one sense daiviprakriti may be said to be a manifestation or form of Vach

See also: Vach , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Kama :

Kama

(Sanskrit) "Desire"; the fourth substance-principle of which man's constitution is composed. Kama is the driving or impelling force in the human constitution; per se it is colorless, neither good nor bad, and is only such as the mind and soul direct its use. It is the seat of the living electric impulses, desires, aspirations, considered in their energic aspect. Usually however, although there is a divine kama as well as an infernal one, this word is restricted, and wrongly so, to evil desire almost exclusively.

See also: Kama , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Sakti :

Sakti

(Sanskrit) A term which may be briefly defined to mean one of what in modern Occultism are called the seven forces of nature, of which six are manifest and the seventh unmanifest, or only partly manifest. Sakti in general may be described as universal energy, and is, as it were, the feminine aspect of fohat. In popular Hinduism the various saktis are the wives or consorts of the gods, in other words, the energies or active powers of the deities represented as feminine influences or energies.

These anthropomorphic definitions are unfortunate, because misleading. The saktis of nature are really the veils, or sheaths, or vehicular carriers, through which work the inner and ever-active energies. As substance and energy, or force and matter, are fundamentally one, as modern science in its researches has begun to discover, it becomes apparent that even these saktis or sheaths or veils are themselves energic to lower spheres or realms through which they themselves work.

The crown of the astral light, as H. P. Blavatsky puts it, is the generalized sakti of universal nature in so far as our solar system is concerned.

See also: Sakti , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Kena Upanisad

"The Kena Upanishad ...concerns itself only with the relation of mind-consciousness to Brahman-consciousness and does not stray outside the strict boundaries of its subject. The material world and the physical life are taken for granted, they are hardly mentioned. But the material world and the physical life exist for us only by virtue of our internal self and our internal life. According as our mental instruments represent to us the external world, according as our vital force in obedience to the mind deals with its impacts and objects, so will be our outward life and existence. The world is for us what our mind and senses declare it to be; life is what our mentality determines that it shall become. The question is asked by the Upanishad, what then are these mental instruments? what is this mental life which uses the external? Are they the last witnesses, the supreme and final power? Is mind all or is this human existence only a veil of something greater, mightier, more remote and profound than itself?"

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, SABCL 12 pp. 155-56

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

A Theosophical definition of Spirit (in reference to Matter) :

Spirit (in reference to Matter)

The theosophist points out that what men call spirit is the summit or acme or root or seed or beginning or noumenon  - call it by any name  - of any particular hierarchy existing in the innumerable hosts of the kosmic hierarchies, with all of which any such hierarchy is inextricably interblended and interworking.

When theosophists speak of spirit and substance, of which matter and energy or force are the physicalized expressions, we must remember that all these terms are abstractions, generalized expressions for certain entities manifesting aggregatively.

Spirit, for instance, is not essentially different from matter, and is only relatively so different, or evolutionally so different: the difference not lying in the roots of these two where they become one in the underlying consciousness-reality, but in their characters they are two evolutional forms of manifestation of that underlying reality. In other words, to use the terminology of modern scientific philosophy, spirit and matter are, each of them, respectively an "event" as the underlying reality passes through eternal duration.

See also: Spirit (in reference to Matter) , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Man :

Man

Man is in his essence a spark of the central kosmic spiritual fire. Man being an inseparable part of the universe of which he is the child  - the organism of graded consciousness and substance which the human constitution contains or rather is  - is a copy of the graded organism of consciousnesses and substances of the universe in its various planes of being, inner and outer, especially inner as being by far the more important and larger, because causal.

Human beings are one class of "young gods" incarnated in bodies of flesh at the present stage of their own particular evolutionary journey. The human stage of evolution is about halfway between the undeveloped life-atom and the fully developed kosmic spirit or god.

From another point of view, man is a sheaf or bundle of forces or energies. Force and matter, or spirit and substance being fundamentally one, hence, man is de facto a sheaf or bundle of matters of various and differing grades of ethereality, or of substantiality; and so are all other entities and things everywhere.

Man's nature, and the nature of the universe likewise, of which man is a reflection or microcosm or "little world," is composite of seven stages or grades or degrees of ethereality or of substantiality; or, kosmically speaking, of three generally inclusive degrees: gods, monads, and atoms. And so far as man is concerned, we may take the New Testament division of the Christians, which gives the same triform conception of man, that he is composed of spirit, soul, body  - remembering, however, that all these three words are generalizing terms.

Man stands at the midway point of the evolutionary ladder of life: below him are the hosts of beings less than he is; above him are other hosts greater than he is only because older in experience, riper in wisdom, stronger in spiritual and in intellectual fiber and power. And these beings are such as they are because of the evolutionary unfoldment of the inherent faculties and powers immanent in the individuality of the inner god  - the ever-living, inner, individualized spirit.

Man, then, like everything else  - entity or what is called "thing"  - is, to use the modern terminology of philosophical scientists, an "event," that is to say, the expression of a central consciousness-center or monad passing through one or another particular phase of its long, long pilgrimage over and through infinity, and through eternity. This, therefore, is the reason why the theosophist often speaks of the monadic consciousness-center as the pilgrim of eternity.

Man can be considered as a being composed of three essential upadhis or bases: first, the monadic or divine-spiritual; second, that which is supplied by the Lords of Light, the so-called manasa-dhyanis, meaning the intellectual and intuitive side of man, the element-principle that makes man Man; and the third upadhi we may call the vital-astral-physical.

These three bases spring from three different lines of evolution, from three different and separate hierarchies of being. This is the reason why man is composite. He is not one sole and unmixed entity; he is a composite entity, a "thing" built up of various elements, and hence his principles are to a certain extent separable. Any one of these three bases can be temporarily separated from the two others without bringing about the death of the man physically. But the elements that go to form any one of these bases cannot be separated without bringing about physical dissolution or inner dissolution.

These three lines of evolution, these three aspects or qualities of man, come from three different hierarchies or states, often spoken of as three different planes of being. The lowest comes from the vital-astral-physical earth, ultimately from the moon, our cosmogonic mother. The middle, the manasic or intellectualintuitional, from the sun. The monadic from the monad of monads, the supreme flower or acme, or rather the supreme seed of the universal hierarchy which forms our kosmical universe or universal kosmos.

See also: Man , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Principles A beginning, foundation, source, or essence from which things proceed; principles are thus the fundamental essences out of which and from which all things are and exist, usually enumerated as seven in theosophical writings. These kosmic principles, corresponding to the seven planes of the kosmos -- the seven basic types of consciousness-substance of which the universe is formed -- are manifested in the human being, so that we speak of the seven human principles, copies in the small of the seven principles of the universe.

The seven human principles are not a confederation of distinct entities, for man himself is essentially a unit, a monad, expressing his potentialities through a series of vehicles or vestures. The seven principles severally exist as aspects of human consciousness. Whether kosmic or human, they are usually divided into a higher triad and a lower quaternary, these being the numbers of the spiritual and material side of nature respectively.

The higher triad is atman, buddhi, and manas (or, more correctly expressed, atman, atma-buddhi, and atma-buddhi-manas); the quaternary was originally given as kama-rupa, prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira. In a later enumeration sthula-sarira was omitted from the list as not being a principle in itself but the vehicle of the other principles, and the quaternary was made up by adding the lower aspect of manas.

The septenate may also be regarded as a higher and lower triad united by manas, which can attach itself to either and in our present stage of evolution is oscillating between the two. Since these seven rudimentary principles are omnipresent, they give rise to subordinate septenates within the larger septenates, so that each principle is itself subdivided into seven, repeating nature's fundamental structure indefinitely. This becomes clearer when we bear in mind that the universe in all its parts is composed of monads, and that every monad in manifestation expresses itself as a septenate. Though principles and elements are essentially the same, it is convenient to make a distinction whereby the term principle is used for the force or spirit aspect, and element for the vehicular aspect; the principle being the inner, and the element the outer aspect, flowing forth from the principle as its vital vehicle or clothing.

Basically, these human principles are the original essences or elements in the constitution of any entity, macrocosmic or microcosmic, when these elements or essences are integrated into a unit by the power inherent in the essential self of such an entity. Thus there are principles of a cosmos or universe, of a sun, a globe, a man, beast, plant, mineral and of an elemental. All religions and philosophies in all times have taught, albeit after various manners, that man or world or any other being is much more than the physical body.

The physical bodies or vehicles are but the outer shells or carriers of inward invisible, ethereal, and spiritual potencies or essences. In attempting to define the various parts of which our being is composed, many methods of dividing the human constitution have been adopted by different schools following different ways. The theosophic system is a division into seven principles or ultimate elements or essences; and everything within the cosmos is built of the same fundamental spiritual essence or substance and after the same general pattern. Other systems of division are possible, for instance the Christian threefold division of spirit, soul, and body. But the septenary classification is the most ancient one, and it is the common inheritance of all the esoteric schools "left to the sages of the Fifth Root-Race by the great Siddhas [Nirmanakayas]

of the Fourth" (SD 2:636). The following table (cf SD 2:596, ET 952-4) shows the analogy between the seven human aspects and the cosmic aspects:

1. Atman Spirit, Essential Self ----- Unmanifested Logos, Essential Self ----- Paramatman Cosmic Monad, Self

2. Buddhi Spiritual Soul ----- Universal Ideation, Second Logos ----- Alaya, Adi-Buddhi,

3. Manas (Mind) Human Soul ----- Universal Intelligence, Third Logos ----- Mahat Cosmic Mind

4. Kama (Desire) Animal Soul ----- Cosmic Energy (Chaotic) ----- Cosmic Kama Womb of Fohat

5. Prana Life-essence Vitality----- Cosmic Life-Essence or Energy ------ Cosmic Jiva

6. Linga-sarira Model-body ----- Astral Ideation, reflecting terrestrial things ----- Cosmic Ether Astral Light

7. Sthula-sarira Physical body ----- Cosmos Physical universe ----- Sthura- or Sthula-sarira

In this classification atman is enumerated first of the human principles in order to convey the idea that all the other six principles emanate or unroll forth from it. Thus buddhi is emanated first and two portions of the scroll are unrolled, to adopt a Christian metaphor; then from buddhi is emanated manas (the other four principles being still infolded) and three portions of the scroll are unrolled; then from manas is emanated kama -- and so forth until all seven principles are unfolded.

The ancient Persians also had a sevenfold division of man's aspects (Theos 4:21):

1. Physical Body -----Tanwas (bones) ----- Sthula-sarira

2. Model-body ----- Keherpas (aerial form), Persian kaleb ----- Linga-sarira

3. Life-Essence ----- Ushtanas (vital heat) ----- Prana

4. Desire Principle ----- Tevishis (conscious will) ----- Kama-manas

5. Mind (Human Soul) ----- Baodhas (perception through senses) ----- Manas

6. Spiritual Soul ----- Urvanem (Soul), Persian rawan ----- Buddhi

7. Universal Spirit ----- Fravashem or Farohar (Spirit) ----- Atman

In the ancient Chinese I Ching a seven fold classification is also given; and Gerald Massey stated that the Egyptian text often mention "seven souls of the Pharaoh," which he enumerated as follows (with Blavatsky's correction in SD 2:632):

1. Physical Body ----- Kwei ----- Kha soul of blood

2. Model-body ----- Kwei shan vial soul ----- Khaba, the shade covering soul

3. Life Essence ----- Shan vital principle ----- Ba soul of breath

4. Desire Principle ----- Zhing or Zing Essence of Will ----- Akhu, intelligence soul of perception

5. Mind ----- Pho ------ Seb ancestral soul

6. Spiritual Soul ----- Khi ----- Putah, first intellectual father intellectual soul

7. Universal Spirit ----- Hwun pure spirit ----- Atmu divine or eternal soul

Lao-tzu in his Tao-Teh-Ching mentions five principles, pure spirit and the body being taken for granted therein (Key 117).

Adapting the classification of Egyptologist Franz Lambert who tabulated a Qabbalistic classification alongside a hieroglyphic division:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Guph ----- Chat elementary body

2. Linga-sarira ----- Nephesh ----- Ka astral body, Evestrum, Sidereal Man

3. Prana ----- Khoah hag-Guph ----- Anch vital force Archaeus, Mumia

4. Kama ----- Ruah ------ Hati animal soul // Ab heart, feeling

5. Manas ----- Neshamah ----- Bai intellectual soul, intelligence

6. Buddhi ----- Hayyah ------ Cheybi spiritual soul

7. Atman ----- Yehidah ----- Chu divine spirit

The classification usually met with in the Qabbalah is a fourfold division: 1) neshamah, the most spiritual principle, the breath of being; 2) ruah, the spiritual soul; 3) nephesh, the vital soul; and 4) guph, the physical vehicle.

A sevenfold classification is stated to have been taught by the Gnostics, presented in the Pistis Sophia. "The Inner Man is similarly made up of four constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious AEons of the Spheres, being the Power -- a particle of the Divine light ('Divinae particula aurae') yet left in themselves; the Soul (the fifth) 'formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their torments; . . . The Counterfeit of the Spirit (seemingly answering to our Conscience), (the sixth); and lastly the [Greek moira], Fate (Karmic Ego), whose business it is to lead the man to the end appointed for him . . .' -- the seventh!" (SD 2:604-5).

The Pymander of Hermes states that the self is clothed with

1)    the blissful garment of conscious selfhood;

2)    the garment of knowing or reason;

3)    the garment of fancy, etc., spoken of as the soul;

4)    the garment of life or breath; and

5)    the gross body.

The Vedantic classification commonly uses a sixfold division, while other systems employed by the Brahmins, especially the Taraka-Raja-Yogins, is fourfold:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Annamaya-kosa ----- Sthulopadhi

2. Linga-sarira ----- Pranamaya-kosa ------ "

3. Prana ----- " ------ "

4. Kama

5. Manas

. . . a) volitions, feelings ----- Manomaya-kosa ----- Sukshmopadhi

. . . b) vijnana ----- Vijnanamaya-kosa ----- "

6. Buddhi ----- Anandamaya-kosa ----- Karanopadhi

7. Atman ----- Atman ----- Atman

The ancient Greek writers had their own terms for the aspects of the universe or of man, besides the familiar nous and psyche:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Soma ----- Corpus

2. Linga-sarira ----- Phantasma or Phasma ----- Simulacrum or Imago

3. Prana ----- Bios ----- Anima

4. Kama-manas ----- Thymos ----- Animus

5. Higher Manas ----- Phren ----- )

6. Buddhi-manas ----- Nous ----- Mens

7. Atman ----- Pneuma ----- Spiritus

In the human constitution the archaic Latins discovered almost as many different spiritual, psychic, and astral elements as the ancient Hindus did. Thus, for instance, there was in man the genius (called in women the juno), closely corresponding to the manasaputric element or higher manas; and when a man died the genius sought its own sphere.

The other parts of the human constitution consisted of a member of the manes and a member of the lares, which two were probably closely identic with the lower human ego and the higher human ego; furthermore after the death of the man there appeared the lemur corresponding to the kama-rupa, shade, or specter; and the larva, which seems to have been identical with the lemur but with even less of the nobler human element in it; so that the lemur may be considered the kama-rupa in its early stages, and the larva when more greatly disintegrated. The physical body of course was considered simply to fall to pieces and to render its elements to the earth which gave it.

In the Scandinavian Eddas, Ask and Embla were two ash trees, and by means of the gifts bestowed upon them human beings were produced.

Another system of classification used in theosophical thought is the considering of the human constitution as composed of monads. The following table gives the monads and their relation to the principles.

See also FOURFOLD CLASSIFICATION

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

Sakti (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root sak to be powerful, energetic, have force]

Universal energy, the feminine aspect of fohat; one of the seven forces of nature, of which six are manifest and the seventh partly manifest. It is energy that proceeds through itself, not being due to the active or conscious will of the one that produces it. Popularly, the wives or consorts of the gods -- the energies or active powers of these deities represented as feminine influences.

"These anthropomorphic definitions are unfortunate, because misleading. The Saktis of Nature are really the veils, or sheaths, or vehicular carriers, through which work the inner and ever-active energies. As substance and energy, or force and matter, are fundamentally one, . . . it becomes apparent that even these Saktis, or sheaths, or veils, are themselves energic to lower spheres or realms through which they themselves work.

"The crown of the astral light, as H. P. Blavatsky puts it, is the generalized Sakti of Universal Nature in so far as our solar system is concerned" (OG 150).

Sakti in another sense is soul-power, the mental-psychic energy of the god as of the adept. In the Mahabharata, Draupadi, the wife or sakti of the five Pandava brothers, represents a spiritual power they all possessed in common. In legends and tales of the ancient peoples, the wives of the great heroes mystically represent the aggregate of the saktis or spiritual powers that the heroes had individually attained.

Considering the saktis as more or less conscious forces in nature, gives a picture of not only the turbulent and ever-active movements in the lower planes of nature, but likewise the calm and stately measures of spiritual activity. It is common in the West to associate power, activity, energy, and force with masculine correlations; but this is quite arbitrary, and an impassionate viewing of nature will show it to be continuously moved by vehicular as well as inspiriting causes.

Cosmically sakti or the saktis originate in the summit of the astral light or akasa, which in one sense may be considered as not only the womb of the cosmic saktis, but as their playground and in another sense as the saktis collectively themselves. In man, sakti is the buddhi in its higher aspect, and the activities of the various pranas in the human constitution in its lower aspect. There is no essential distinction between any divinity and its consort, between Brahman and pradhana, Brahma and prakriti, or between parabrahman and mulaprakriti. Furthermore, all the saktis are either conscious entities in nature, or vital effluxes or emanations, cosmic fluids, with which nature is infused throughout.

The reason the occultist of all ages looks askance at the tantric practices, or the Tantras dealing largely with the saktis, is because these tantric books and practices are almost wholly occupied in relations and correlations both in nature and in man of the saktis in their lower aspect. The kundalini, for instance, is likewise born in the buddhi in man, but descending through the human constitution has its pranic or psychovital physical representations in the various chakras or vital centers of the human frame, and thus the kundalini is an example of sakti or of its fluidic effluxes in the lower portions of the human constitution.

The early Christians looked upon the Holy Spirit as of distinctly feminine characteristics, influence, or svabhava, as the center not only of vital but of spiritual and intellectual activity, whether in the universe or man, so that the Holy Spirit corresponds to a divine sakti. A notable instance in Hinduism is the Sakti or goddess Durga, having both a lofty or spiritual, and an inferior or distinctly material, function in nature, and therefore a beneficent as well as a terrible action therein -- the very name Durga meaning "terrible in action," or "terrible in going." And yet Durga is the consort or sakti of Siva, often called the Mahesvara (Great Lord); and the name of this goddess arises from the utterly impartial, infinitely just, and yet often simply terrific action of the forces in nature, particularly when karmically directed to works of regeneration, often called destruction. Cosmic operations or cosmic justice are often indeed to human vision terrible in their operation, which can never be set aside, stayed, or diverted. Hence Durga is often represented in iconography as surrounded with a necklace of skulls or by similar ghastly emblems -- a series of ideas which the pragmatic West misinterprets and consequently depicts as horrible and revolting.

(See also: Sakti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Vaisesika - a later division of the nyaya school of philosophy, also known as vaisesika-darsana. It was founded by Kanada Rsi and differs from the nyaya system of Gautama

Kanada accepted six principles:

(1) dravya (elementary substances which are nine in number - earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, the soul, and the mind) ,

(2) guna (characteristics of all created things such as form, taste, smell, sound, and tangibility) ,

(3) karma (activity) ,

(4) samanya (universality; the connection of different objects by common properties) ,

(5) visesa (individuality; the essential difference between objects) , and

(6) samavaya (inseparable concomitance; the relation which exists between a substance and its qualities, between a whole and its parts, or between a species and its individuals).

According to the vaisesika-darsana the jivas are innumerable. The merit or demerit attaching to a man’s conduct in one state of existence and the corresponding reward or punishment which he receives in another is called adrsta (that which is beyond the reach of consciousness or observation). Due to the force of this unforseen accumulated karma, the jiva falls into the cycle of creation and undergoes birth, death, happiness, and distress. When the jiva obtains philosophical knowledge of the six principles, his adrsta is destroyed and he can attain liberation from the bondage of material existence. The vaisesikas define mukti as final release from material misery. There is no direct mention of Isvara in the vaisesika-darsana of Kanada.

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

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