Messiah

(Hebrew - annointed, as a prince - an heir apparent)

1)    according to Jewish tradition, a prince who would occupy the throne of David and lead the Jewish nation to become a world power

2)    Early Christian theologians quickly noted the similarity in meaning between Messiah and Christ and reached the conclusion that Jesus, being a Messiah, must also have been a Christ.

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

A Christian theological definition of Messiah according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Messiah

See also: Messiah , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Messiah mashiah (Hebrew) Anointed; translated into the Greek as Christos. The Hebrews had their special form of the universal belief in the coming of avataras, and the Christians claimed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the particular Hebrew expectation.

Hence Messiah is often used as a title for Jesus. Generally, a Messiah is an esoteric spiritual sun, surrounded by his spiritual family composed of twelve less powers (as in the 12 disciples); the term is connected with fish and water symbols and with the zodiacal sign Pisces (Fishes).

Early Christian astrologers expected the coming of the Messiah to be signalized by a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, in connection with other planetary configurations. As regards the future, the looked-for great avatara is the Kalki-avatara of the Brahmins, virtually identical with Maitreya, the fifth buddha.

(See also: Messiah, mashiah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hinduism and Polytheism

According to the tenets of Hinduism, God is one as well as many. He is to be found every where and in every thing. He is there in the sky, in the rivers, in the plants and trees and even in a particle of dust. He is an enigma, because He is in many things at a time and is many things at a time. He is visible as well as invisible. He is here and He is there. He is above and He is below. He is with forms and also without form. He speaks and He speaks not. He is the self and also the not'self. To say that this is God and this is not is perhaps much more sacrilegious, if there is anything like sacrilegious in the world of God, than seeing God in images and idols and worshipping Him.

Read more here: » Hinduism and Polytheism: Why do Hindus worship so many gods and goddesses?

Christ. See CHRESTES; CHRISTOS; MESSIAH

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

Peace Mission Movement

Based on the teaching of founder Father Divine, which contains elements of New Thought, asceticism, perfectionism, utopian communalism, and denies existence of race and strictly prohibits discrimination among members. Requires all members to turn over all property and income, severing all ties to everything but the Peace Mission.

Room, board, and a small allowance for incidentals are provided in exchange for otherwise unpaid labor in Peace Mission owned businesses or projects. Father Divine did not actually claim to be God, but he fostered the belief in his followers, and required loyalty and obedience from them due only to God. The group claims the biblical prophecies about the coming Jewish Messiah and Christ's second coming were all fulfilled by Father Divine.

(See also: Peace Mission Movement , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Antichrist (from Greek anti against + christos anointed)

An adversary of Christ. The Epistles of John refers to the belief in the coming of an antichrist, and also use the word to signify any of the deniers of Christ who existed in those times. This refers to the belief among Jews and Jewish Christians that the second coming of the Messiah would be preceded by a reign of wickedness under Antichrist, as found in Paul's Epistles and in Revelation.

Moslem literature tells of the false messiah (mesihu 'd-dajjal) who will overrun the earth, ruling for 40 days and leaving only Mecca and Medina unharmed. Such beliefs are ancient and universal: the nether pole of manifestation which, though a necessary factor in cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis, has been converted by doctrinal theology into an evil demon, such as Satan, Devil, Lucifer, Angra-Mainyu, and Prometheus.

A more mystical significance is founded in the fact that when a buddha or avatara appears or whenever an effort is made to aid mankind along spiritual lines, the powers of darkness automatically react along their own lines. This corresponding tendency to evil is the fundamental significance of Antichrist -- Christos being the name of the high initiate in whom was imbodied a ray of the Logos.

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

Ghost Dance

A new religious movement among Native Americans of the western United States.

The Ghost Dance had two distinct phases, both of which originated in the visions of a Paiute shaman living in western Nevada.

The Ghost Dance of 1870: Wodziwob (d. ca. 1872), the prophet of the 1870 dance, proclaimed that the world would soon be destroyed, then renewed; the dead would be brought back to life and game animals restored. He instructed his followers to dance a nocturnal circle dance.

This dance was similar to both older Paiute traditions and an earlier regional movement, the Plateau Prophet Dance, but it addressed very present conditions of deprivation resulting from white incursions into tribal territories. It spread to California, Oregon, and Idaho but, with the death of Wodziwob and the nonfulfillment of his prophecies, died out within a few years. The Shoshone and Bannock of Fort Hall, Idaho, however, continued to perform the Ghost Dance at least intermittently up to 1890.

The Ghost Dance of 1890: Wovoka (ca. 1856-1932), a Paiute Native American prophet, inaugurated the Ghost Dance of 1890 on the basis of a vision he had received during a total eclipse of the sun. His message was in direct continuity with the 1870 dance: there was to be an immanent renewal of the world in which dead Native Americans would be resurrected and the living would no longer be subject to sickness and old age, game animals would be restored to their former abundance, and the old way of life would once more flourish. Euro-Americans, by this time firmly in control, would be eliminated by supernatural means, such as a flood or earthquake. It is uncertain whether Wovoka announced a specific date for these events, but many expected them in the spring of 1891.

Wovoka's message also contained ethical admonitions (e. g. , members of different tribes should live in peace with each other; they should cooperate with, not war against, the whites). In anticipation of the great event and to speed its arrival, Wovoka instructed his followers to perform circle dances periodically. They did so in large numbers, and (especially among Plains tribes) dancers often fell into trances, subsequently reporting that they had visited the spirit world and spoken with dead relatives, who were living a life like the one that had flourished before the coming of the whites. The 1890 dance spread mainly eastward along the length of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. In some tribes (e. g. , Paiute, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Pawnee) acceptance was almost unanimous; in others (like the Sioux) only segments of the population became believers. No Pueblo (except at Taos) or Navajo accepted it, the latter because of a culturally conditioned aversion to ghosts. As news of the Paiute prophet Wovoka began to spread, tribes sent delegations to the Walker Lake Reservation in western Nevada to see him. They returned with versions of his teachings that were sometimes shaped by the particular needs of their tribe.

Among the Pawnee, the dance provided the basis for an important cultural renewal, for the visions of the dancers made possible the revival of old ceremonial activities that had fallen into disuse because knowledge of their correct performance had been lost. The Sioux, who had a number of current grievances against the government (e. g. , loss of reservation lands, cuts in rations), altered Wovoka's message in the direction of greater hostility toward the whites. Delegates like Short Bull and Kicking Bear advocated the use of "ghost shirts" (special garments that were supposed to make the wearer invulnerable to bullets) and spoke of the possibility of armed conflict with the government soldiers.

During 1890, newspapers around the country carried often sensational stories about the "messiah craze" (Wovoka was often called the "Indian messiah") and the possibility of renewed warfare with the Sioux. Violence did erupt in December: during an attempt to arrest him, Chief Sitting Bull was shot to death, and Chief Big Foot and almost three hundred of his band were massacred by the cavalry at Wounded Knee. These events were more the result of government blunders than of a Sioux outbreak. Following the violence among the Sioux and the failure of the expected transformations the next spring, the popularity of the dance began to fade. However, it did not die out altogether.

Wovoka remained active, but shifted his message in the direction of ethical admonitions. As late as 1896 some Kiowa were still dancing, and one of the early Northern Cheyenne delegates, Porcupine, led a brief revival of the dance in 1900. The movement continued elsewhere in a more substantive way. In the first decade of the twentieth century, Fred Robinson, an Assiniboin who had been instructed in the Ghost Dance by Kicking Bear and had corresponded with Wovoka, brought the dance to a small community of Sioux living in Saskatchewan. Combined with a traditional Medicine Feast, apocalyptic elements disappeared and the themes of ethical admonition and community solidarity predominated.

Among the Wind River Shoshone (Wyoming), the Ghost Dance apparently combined with an earlier ceremony (the Father Dance) of thanksgiving to God for food. As a result, the annual renewal of nature took on a cosmic dimension: shamans reported dreams in which they saw the dead assembled in heaven waiting to return to earth at some unspecified time in the future. The people on earth anticipated this event and performed a dance thought to imitate that of the dead. In both these places the Ghost Dance continued to be performed into the 1950s.

In the 1970s the dance was revived by the activist American Indian Movement. Even among persons and groups who no longer practice it, knowledge of the Ghost Dance has not died out and lessons are still derived from it. Thus ca. 1970 the Sioux medicine man Lame Deer reinterpreted an old Ghost Dance song about straightening arrows and killing and butchering buffalo to mean that individuals must live upright lives in order to help bring about a new earth.

(See also: Ghost Dance , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Anointing

Anointing can mean many things. From ancient times, oil has been used for healing. Among Jews annointing is used by God to appoint someone to be a priest, prophet and king.

Many Jews have looked forward to a very special Òanointed one,Ó (in Hebrew Messiah), will come to reign over Israel. Christians Have taken the Greek word (Christos, which can be used to mean the same as Messiah) and use it as a title for their savior/god Jesus.

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

Psychic Reading

One hazard and lesson of this business I learned the hard way when I first got into it, is what I have come to call the MESSIAH COMPLEX. I almost fell into it myself, and it was a rough lesson to learn. Over the years, I have learned that many other people connected to this business also suffer from it in one form or another, and it can sometimes become quite detrimental, not only in the professional field, but also in your personal life.

An excerpt from Expanding the Psychic You by Keith Atkinson.

Read more here: » Psychic Reading: Beware The Messiah Complex

Twenty-five years ago, in the light of a full moon, I sat facing the lying Buddha in Polonnaruwa in central Sri Lanka. It was Buddha Purnima . I noticed the Buddha’s smile as he lay dying, and the concern on his disciple, Ananda’s face, standing before him.

Buddha’s last words were: “Be lamps unto yourselves”. As he left us, the Sakyamuni did not ask us to pray to him or believe in him as a messiah. Unfortunately, over time, his life and teachings have become encrusted in layers of religiosity.

(See also: Buddhism , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Buddhism: Day Of Buddha’s Enlightenment  

Dharma: Path of Powerful Dharma Beings

One takes refuge in the Buddha's path because it allows the freedom to modulate it to one's self-awareness, provided one takes responsibility of one's own suffering. Buddhism's view of dependent origination and the inherent emptiness of all phenomena is a profound and radical one.

It dispenses with the existence of a Creator God or a Superior Being. The view is taught not as an article of faith or an exclusive revelation to a messiah or prophet, but is one that can be ascer-tained by study, debate, and direct experience.

Read more here: » Dharma: Path of Powerful Dharma Beings

Christianity

Major world religion whose development was begun by Plato 300 BC in the School of Philosphers in Athens. It was more fully developed in the fourth century AD when the Emperor Constantine established a universal (Catholic) church. At this time, the belief that Jesus the Nazarite was the promised Messiah or Christ of Israel was accepted, along with a set of books, known as the New Testament. (See Christianity)

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

CHRISTIANITY: The doctrine of faith based on the acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and the Son of God (Yahweh/Jehovah) in accordance with the New Testament in the Bible. Christianity encompasses religions including Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Morman and Fundamentalist Christian sects.

(See also: CHRISTIANITY , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Druzes. A large sect, numbering about 100,000 adherents, living on Mount Lebanon in Syria.

Their rites are very mysterious, and no traveller, who has written anything about them, knows for a certainty the whole truth. They are the Sufis of Syria.

They resent being called Druzes as an insult, but call themselves the "disciples of Hamsa ", their Messiah, who came to them in the ninth century from the "Land of the Word of God", which land and word they kept religiously secret. The Messiah to come will be the same Hamsa, but called Hakem - the "All-Healer ". (See Isis Unveiled, II 308, et seq.)

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

ROMULUS AND REMUS

The author's name is merely old Roman "Remus". The intrusive "h" was a German grandfather's idea to give the correct pronunciation for other Teutons. Latin names are (or were) common in Germany and Scandinavia (cf. Rommel). A permutation of the name is also seen in Arminius, a German prince who defeated the Romans in the First Century. See Amullus Silvius (also Armand, Herman, etc.). According to Jung, the twins represent the religious conviction (like Moses in the bulrushes) that one is a prince by birth and forced to live as an ordinary person until destiny reveals his true status to the world: Romulus and Remus, Remus being the poor victim of oppression, Romulus the emerging prince:

O Gemini of Latium, gentle and cruel,

Princes, wolf-suckled,  born to rule:

O Gemini of Latium, gentle and cruel,

Princes,  wolf-suckled, born to rule:

The one to be ground in the dust,

The  other to rise as he must...

Twins in mythology and in Geminian symbolism refer to the One in its manifestational phase of self and other, as the union of opposites (Yang and Yin, Light and Darkness, Being/Non-Being, etc.). Together with his brother, Remus, Romulus founded Rome as a haven for abductors of the Sabine women. The twins, who were the sons of Mars and Vestal Priestess, Rhea Silva, were abandoned at birth and suckled by a wolf. Originally both presided over the building of Rome, but they quarreled (a parallel of Cain and Abel) over every decision. One day, while Romulus was constructing the city wall, Remus jumped over it, saying: IN HOC MODO SUPERSALIT HOSTIS MURUM ("Look how easily the enemy can leap over this wall!"). At this, Romulus shouted, "And look how easily I can kill you!" and ran him through with his sword. In this way Romulus achieved harmony without union and thereafter set the tone for Roman conquest and empire by will and force.

After his death, Romulus was transported to heaven and wassometimes identified with Mars and sometimes worshiped under the godly Sabine name, Quirinus. Quiris, lit. "spear", also referred to citizens of Cures, the Sabine town, and it eventually came as well to mean a citizen of Rome. The Quirinalia was a military holiday in honor thereof.

Furthermore, according to Jung, "Armilus begot by Satan on a block of marble, is the Anti-Messiah. Messiah ben Joseph must die in order to atone with his blood for the children of Yahweh. Messiah ben Joseph will in turn be felled by Armilus and will succumb during the conflict between Gog and Magog. Armilus will be killed in turn by Messiah ben David." Armilus = Romulus, the Antichrist. From Methodius: "Romulus, who is also Armaeleus." According to some authorities, Romulus was the product of an incubus and a salamander.

Remus, the slain geminus, is represented by the lute, whereas Romulus is the mace. This is the usual Greco-Roman view of the Gemini.

In John Puhvel's Comparative Mythology, things take on a different color. We discover that when the Romans referred to the beginning of time, it was 'AB REMO ET ROMULO', whereas now it's "Romulus and Remus". Remus, it seems, is the true founder of Rome -- its sacrificial origin -- whereas Romulus is but secondary, the name meaning merely "or Roman". The twins, Rhomos and Rhomulos in Greek, are the equivalent of the twin Norse god, Ymir and the Vedic Yama and Yami.

"Romulus" in Egyptian Hieroglyphics

(See also: ROMULUS AND REMUS , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Christ

"Messiah, Annointed One" Christos, 1. Jesus of Nazareth's divine manifestation. 2. (Greek) Any fully realized person

(See also: Christ , Body Mind and Soul)

Judaism

World religion founded approximately 1500 BC by the prophet Moses (Thothmoses - prince and high-priest of Egypt)

The foundation of Judaism is the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), which is said to have been written by Moses. The Israelites returned to the promised land of Canaan and became a small but powerful nation there under the rule of King David and his son Solomon.

After Solomon's death the kingdom split into a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah (the name of David's tribe). The northern kingdom was conquered and decimated by the Assyrians in 722 BC, after which the term Judeans, or Jews, gradually came into use to refer to all Israelites.

The Jews suffered conquests by a succession of foreign powers - the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and finally the Romans in the first century BC. Throughout this period the Jews developed a strong sense of national identity, identification with the Promised Land, and anticipation of a coming Messiah (ÒAnointed PrinceÓ).

There are three main branches of modern Judaism: Orthodox (traditional, literal adherence to the Torah as interpreted by the Talmud), Conservative (a middle position advocating traditional beliefs and practices up to a point), and Reform (liberal, non-literal stance on the Torah and Talmud; often non-religious or secular with emphasis on Jewish culture).

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

Hakem The wise one, the Messiah to come, of the Druzes or the Disciples of Hamsa (TG 133).

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

A Theosophical definition of Christos :

Christos

(Greek) Christos or "Christ" is a word literally signifying one who has been "anointed." This is a direct reference, a direct allusion, to what happened during the celebration of the ancient Mysteries. Unction or anointing was one of the acts performed during the working of the rites of those ancient Mysteries in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The Hebrew word for an anointed one is mashiahh  - "messiah" is a common way of misspelling the Hebrew word  - meaning exactly the same thing as the Greek word Christos.

Each human being is an incarnation, an imbodiment, of a ray of his own inner god  - the divinity living in the core of the core of each one. The modern Christians of a mystical bent of mind call it the Christ Immanent, the immanent Christos, and they are right as far as they go, but they do not carry the thought far enough. Mystically speaking, the Christos is the deathless individuality; and when the striving personal ego becomes united permanently with this stainless individuality, the resultant union is the higher ego, "the living Christ"  - a Christ among men, or as the Buddhists would say, a human or manushya-buddha.

See also: Christos , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul