In recalling past lives, there are a number of variations that need to be examined, which are important to its adherants. In the Urantia Book, reincarnation does not always happen. Reincarnation takes place among those souls who have divined the divine meaning and purpose and signification of their life, basically having evolved sufficiently to awaken some form of immortal awareness. Otherwise, death is a permanent affair. The cosmology of the Urantia Book is very complex ...

See also:

Reincarnation, Reincarnation - Overview, Reincarnation - Reincarnation in various religions traditions and philosophies, Reincarnation - Eastern religions and traditions, Reincarnation - Western religions and traditions, Reincarnation - Contemporary movements and thinkers, Reincarnation - Common variations in the belief, Reincarnation - Reincarnation Research, Reincarnation - Objections to reincarnation, Reincarnation - Theories put forward to explain the phenomenon, Reincarnation - A theory of reincarnation

Read more here: » Reincarnation: Encyclopedia II - Reincarnation - Common variations in the belief

The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been published by Dr. Ian Stevenson in works such as Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects, which documents thousands of detailed cases where claims of injuries received in past lives sometimes correlate with atyptical physical birthmarks or birth defects. Perhaps the most significant anecdotal evidence in this regard is the phenomenon of young children spontaneously sharing what appear to be memo ...

See also:

Reincarnation, Reincarnation - Overview, Reincarnation - Reincarnation in various religions traditions and philosophies, Reincarnation - Eastern religions and traditions, Reincarnation - Western religions and traditions, Reincarnation - Contemporary movements and thinkers, Reincarnation - Common variations in the belief, Reincarnation - Reincarnation Research, Reincarnation - Objections to reincarnation, Reincarnation - Theories put forward to explain the phenomenon, Reincarnation - A theory of reincarnation

Read more here: » Reincarnation: Encyclopedia II - Reincarnation - Reincarnation Research

Belief in reincarnation is an ancient phenomenon; in various guises humans have believed in a future life since the Ancient Egyptians, perhaps earlier, and ancient graves containing both people and possessions may testify to beliefs that a person would have need for their treasured possessions once again despite physical death. In brief, there are several common concepts of a future life. In each of them either the person, or some essential component that defines that person (variously called the soul or spirit) persists in continuing ...

See also:

Reincarnation, Reincarnation - Overview, Reincarnation - Reincarnation in various religions traditions and philosophies, Reincarnation - Eastern religions and traditions, Reincarnation - Western religions and traditions, Reincarnation - Contemporary movements and thinkers, Reincarnation - Common variations in the belief, Reincarnation - Reincarnation Research, Reincarnation - Objections to reincarnation, Reincarnation - Theories put forward to explain the phenomenon, Reincarnation - A theory of reincarnation

Read more here: » Reincarnation: Encyclopedia II - Reincarnation - Overview

A Theosophical definition of Rebirth :

Rebirth

One of the several aspects or branches of the general doctrine of reimbodiment. A word of large and generalized significance. Signifying merely a succession of rebirths, the definition becomes generalized, excluding specific explanations as to the type or kind of reimbodiment. The likeness between the idea comprised in this word and that belonging to the term reincarnation is very close, yet the two ideas are quite distinct. (For this difference see Reincarnation; also Preexistence, Metempsychosis, Transmigration, etc.)

See also: Rebirth, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Whilst the main character of the series is Harry Keogh, a person endowed with ESP, the main focus of the books is on vampirism. The series also deals with all types of ESP, espionage, the Cold War, time travel, black holes, history, lycanthropy, metempsychosis, religion, sex and numerous other issues. The genre of the series could probably be best described as a cross between the horror and thriller genres and is ...

See also:

Necroscope, Necroscope - The Necroscope series, Necroscope - Series bibliography, Necroscope - Necroscope, Necroscope - Vampire World, Necroscope - The Lost Years, Necroscope - E-Branch trilogy, Necroscope - Related role-playing games, Necroscope - Supplements, Necroscope - Related comic books and graphic novels, Necroscope - Plot summary

Read more here: » Necroscope: Encyclopedia II - Necroscope - The Necroscope series

Transmigration The belief that human souls after death pass into other bodies either human or animal, and mistakenly given as a synonym for reincarnation, metempsychosis, etc. Transmigration in general means the passing of an entity from one imbodiment to another, without regard to the status of the entity or the form of the imbodiments, so that it includes various specific meanings denoted by other terms.

Actually the word refers to the transmigration of life-atoms, especially those of the human vehicles after dissolution. According to their own affinities and degree of development, these life-atoms which have composed the lower human principles transmigrate to other physical psychomental bodies, there to pursue each its own further specific evolution, unretarded by the temporary association with its former body. Eventually, when the proper cyclic time arrives, they are all again attracted back to the reincarnating human entity to which they formerly belonged. The teaching as to the transmigration of the life-atoms is very important in elucidation of the unity of all life, the interaction of all nature, and the working of karma.

The meanings of transmigration, metempsychosis, metensomatosis, the Hebrew gilgulim, etc., are not synonymous. Each one of these words has its own particular significance, although many of these different words overlap to a certain extent. Thus a being who reincarnates on earth -- takes up a body of flesh -- likewise transmigrates in the sense of passing over from one condition of life to another, followed by a third and yet others; and that during this process there is a certain change of the condition of the soul or migrating entity which is the particular meaning of metempsychosis; and furthermore, the assumption of a new physical body which is part of the meaning of reincarnation appears in the specific term metensomatosis, and yet again the phase of rebirth is likewise involved. Each one of these different terms, and others, sets forth one particular aspect of the destiny and adventures of the peregrinating entity.

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

Albigenses A sect arising in Southern France in the 11th century and opposed by the Roman Catholic Church, which exterminated it in the 13th century. It had affinity with the Catharists and also more distantly with the Paulicians, derivatives of the Eastern Church.

The doctrines and the pedigree of the Albigenses show it to be a distant offshoot of Manichaeism, so long the formidable rival of orthodox Christianity in Europe and Asia. There was the characteristic Manichaean dualism and belief in some form of transmigration and metempsychosis. There was, according to some, the Docetic view of Christ -- that his body was a mere appearance, his spirit being the reality. The authority of the Old Testament was not admitted as inspired.

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

A Theosophical definition of Reincarnation :

Reincarnation

An anglicized word of Latin derivation, meaning "reinfleshment," the coming again into a human body of an excarnate human soul. The repetitive reimbodiment of the reincarnating human ego in vehicles of human flesh  - this being a special case of the general doctrine of reimbodiment. This general doctrine of reimbodiment applies not solely to man, but to all centers of consciousness whatsoever, or to all monads whatsoever  - wheresoever they may be on the evolutionary ladder of life, and whatsoever may be their particular developmental grade thereon.

The meaning of this general doctrine is very simple indeed. It is as follows: every life-consciousness-center, in other words, every monad or monadic essence, reincorporates itself repeatedly in various vehicles or bodies, to use the popular word. These bodies may be spiritual, or they may be physical, or they may be of a nature intermediate between these two, i.e., ethereal. This rule of nature, which applies to all monads without exception, takes place in all the different realms of the visible and invisible universe, and on all its different planes, and in all its different worlds.

There are eight words used in the theosophical philosophy in connection with reimbodiment, which are not all synonymous, although some of these eight words have almost the same specific meaning. They are: preexistence, rebirth, reimbodiment, palingenesis, metensomatosis, metempsychosis, transmigration, reincarnation (see under each word for definition). Of these eight words, four only may be said to contain the four different basic ideas of the general doctrine of reimbodiment, and these four are preexistence, reimbodiment, metempsychosis, and transmigration.

In no case is the word reincarnation identical with any of the other seven words, though of course it has grounds of strong similarity with them all, as for instance with preexistence, because obviously the entity preexists before it reincarnates; and on the same grounds it is similar to rebirth, reimbodiment, and metensomatosis.

The meaning of the word reincarnation differs specifically from rebirth in this, that the latter word simply means rebirth in human bodies of flesh on this earth; while the former term also contains the implication, tacit if not expressed, of possible incarnations in flesh by entities which have finished their earthly pilgrimage or evolution, but who can and sometimes do return to this earth in order to incarnate for the purpose of aiding their less evolved brothers.

See also: Reincarnation, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Reimbodiment :

Reimbodiment

This term means that the living and migrating entity takes upon itself a new body at some time after death. Its meaning, therefore, is a highly generalized one, and the specific significance is that of assuming new imbodiments periodically. It teaches something more than that the soul merely preexists, the idea being that the soul takes unto itself a succession of new bodies  - on whatever plane it may happen to be.

This particular aspect or branch of the general doctrine of the migration of living entities tells us not what kind of body the soul newly assumes, nor whether that body be taken here on earth or elsewhere, that is to say, whether the new body is to be a visible body or an invisible one in the invisible realms of nature. It simply says that the life-center reimbodies itself; and this is the essence of the specific meaning of this word. (See also Preexistence, Rebirth, Metempsychosis, Reincarnation, etc.)

See also: Reimbodiment, Mysticism, 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)

A Theosophical definition of Preexistence :

Preexistence

This term means that the human soul did not first come into being or existence with its present birth on earth; in other words, that it preexisted before it was born on earth.

This doctrine of preexistence is by no means typically theosophical, for it likewise was a part of the early teachings of Christianity, as is evidenced in the writings that remain to us of Origen, the great Alexandrian Church Father, and of his school.

The theosophical student should be very careful in distinguishing the technical meanings that pertain to several words which in popular and mistaken usage are often employed interchangeably, as for example preexistence, metempsychosis, transmigration, reincarnation, reimbodiment, rebirth, metensomatosis, palingenesis.

Each one of these words has a specific meaning typically its own, and describes or sets forth one phase of the destiny of a reimbodying and migrating entity. In popular usage, several of these words are used as synonyms, and this usage is wrong. Preexistence, for instance, does not necessarily signify the transmigration of an entity from plane to plane nor, indeed, does it signify as does reincarnation that a migrating monad reinfleshes or reincarnates itself through its ray on earth. Preexistence signifies only that a soul, be it human or other, preexisted before its birth on earth.

The doctrine of the great Origen, as found in his works that remain to us, was that the human soul preexisted in the spiritual world, or within the influence or range of the divine essence or "God," before it began a series of reincarnations on earth. It is obvious that Origen's manner of expressing his views is a more or less faithful but distorted reflection of the teaching of the esoteric philosophy. The teaching of preexistence as outlined by Origen and his school and followers, with others of his mystical quasi-theosophical doctrines, was formally condemned and anathematized at the Home Synod held under Mennas at Constantinople about 543 of the Christian era. Thus passed out of orthodox Christian theology as a "newly discovered heresy" what was a most important and mystical body of teaching of the early centuries of the new Christian religion  - to the latter's great loss, spiritual and intellectual. The doctrines of Origen and his school may be said to have formed an important part of original Christian theosophy, a form of universal theosophy of Christianized character. (See under their respective heads the various correlated doctrines mentioned above.)

See also: Preexistence, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

reincarnation: "Re-entering the flesh." Punarjanma; metempsychosis. The process wherein souls take on a physical body through the birth process.

Reincarnation is one of the fundamental principles of Hindu spiritual insight, shared by the mystical schools of nearly all religions, including Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism (and even by Christianity until it was cast out by the Nicene Council in 787). It is against the backdrop of this principle of the soul's enjoying many lives that other aspects of Hinduism can be understood. It is a repetitive cycle, known as punarjanma, which originates in the subtle plane (Antarloka), the realm in which souls live between births and return to after death. Here they are assisted in readjusting to the "in-between" world and eventually prepared for yet another birth.

The quality and nature of the birth depends on the merit or demerit of their past actions (karma) and on the needs of their unique pattern of development and experience (dharma). The mother, the father and the soul together create a new body for the soul. At the moment of conception, the soul connects with and is irrevocably bound to the embryo. As soon as the egg is fertilized, the process of human life begins. It is during the mid-term of pregnancy that the full humanness of the fetus is achieved and the soul fully inhabits the new body, a stage which is acknowledged when the child begins to move and kick within the mother's womb. (Tirumantiram, 460: "There in the pregnant womb, the soul lay in primordial quiescence [turiya] state. From that state, Maya [or Prakriti] and Her tribe aroused it and conferred consciousness and maya's evolutes eight- desires and the rest. Thus say scriptures holy and true.")

Finally, at birth the soul emerges into earth consciousness, veiled of all memory of past lives and the inner worlds. The cycle of reincarnation ends when karma has been resolved and the Self God (Parasiva) has been realized. This condition of release is called moksha. Then the soul continues to evolve and mature, but without the need to return to physical existence. How many earthly births must one have to attain the unattainable? Many thousands to be sure, hastened by righteous living, tapas, austerities on all levels, penance and good deeds in abundance.

See: reincarnation, evolution of the soul, karma, moksha, nonhuman birth, samsara, soul.

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

Laws of Manu, Laws of Manava-dharma-sastra Also called the Manu-samhita; The Code of Manu (or Institutes of Manu).

Well-known archaic Hindu codes or institutes comprising maxims of various kinds, attributed to the first manu, known as Svayambhuva, who according to archaic records lived nearly 30 million years ago during the satya yuga of the race during which he appeared. One of the most important Smriti (unwritten traditional teachings).

The Laws of Manu is one of the main pillars of ancient Hindu law, and is held in the highest reverence. Tradition says that Manu wrote down the laws of Brahma in 100,000 slokas, which formed 24 books and a thousand chapters. He gave the work to Narada, one of the archaic sages, who abridged it for the use of mankind to 12,000 verses. Narada in his turn gave the Code to Sumati, a son of Bhrigu who for greater convenience reduced it to 4,000 verses.

The Laws of Manu is recognized as approaching the Vedas in age. It is not merely a law book in the European sense of being a mere code of legal enactments; the chief topics of its twelve extant books are

1)    cosmogony;

2)    the sources of the law, sacraments, initiation, discipleship;

3)    marriage and the duties of a householder or the second social order;

4)    means of subsistence, and private study and morals;

5)    diet, purification, and the duties of women;

6)    the duties of a recluse and ascetic, or the third and fourth social orders;

7)    government, and the duties of a king and the military caste;

8)    judicature and law, civil and criminal;

9)    duties of husband and wife, miscellaneous regulations concerning conduct and the duties of a king;

10) duties and occupations of the castes and mixed castes;

11) penances and expiations; and

12) metempsychosis and final liberation.

(See also: Laws of Manu, Laws of Manava-dharma-sastra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Gilgulim (Hebrew) (from the verbal root galal to roll, revolve; cf gilgula')

Wheels; cycling, whether of things or of periods of time; a whirlwind, and things driven by a whirlwind. In the Qabbalah, used to express the doctrine of the revolution, whirling, or cycling of souls in both space and time:

"All the souls go up into the gil-gool-ah (gilgula'), i.e. revolutions or turnings . . . How many Gilgoolem and how many hidden things, the Holy does with them? . . . And how many worlds turn around with them, and how the world turns around in so many hidden wonders? And the children of man do not know and do not comprehend, how the souls revolve like a stone which is thrown from a sling" (Zohar ii 99b).

Orthodox Qabbalists maintain that after death the soul goes through a series of whirlings or cyclings, finding no rest until the "immortal particle" reaches Palestine (the promised land).

"The process was supposed to be accomplished by a kind of metempsychosis, the psychic spark being conveyed through bird, beast, fish, and the most minute insect. . . . The Allegory relates to the atoms of the body, which have each to pass through every form before all reach the final state, which is the first starting point of the departure of every atom -- its primitive laya State. But the primitive meaning of Gilgoolem, or 'Revolution of Souls,' was the idea of the re-incarnating Souls or Egos" (SD 1:568n).

The lowest of the four `olams (worlds or spheres) named `Asiyyah is also called the world of the gilgulim. A further reference to gilgulim is in the representation of the Sephirothal scheme of the ten spheres, the first being called re'shith hag-gilgulim -- the commencement of whirling motions from and under the primum mobile.

One of the treatises usually included in the Zohar, "The Book of the Revolutions of Souls," is considered to be an explanation of Rabbi Loria's ideas contained in Beth 'Elohim -- also part of the Zohar.

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

REINCARNATION

Advanced minds seem to take reincarnation for granted: Plato, Emerson, Edison, Shaw, Jung -- even Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. All life transmigrates -- indeed, not just life, but everything "returns." Many find the latter idea hard to take -- as though there must be not only no mice in the Afterworld, but no machines! Yet, obviously, if one thing evolves, then everything evolves. Molecules of steel and granite cling tenaciously, as do we, to permanence and the spider chooses her life, even as we choose ours, because spiderdom is the acme of her aspirations. Where the will exists, there return exists.

Even if the evolution of life out of the inanimate does not indicate mind apart from brain, even if it demonstrates only the "accidental" fact that things must mutate "upward" or else dissolve downward into entropy, then "mind" or "purpose" is synonymous with or implicit in "accidence" itself. The one apodictic truth is that life and complexification have prevailed, whatever else has not, including the "content" of entropy.

The universe is mind, as we've pointed out elsewhere. The purpose of mind is to know itself, and knowing can succeed only through particularization.

One way to understand metempsychosis is to imagine our poor sublunary lives as pressings onto phonograph records, on the Akasha's etheric record. When the Atma particle, or Oversoul, incarnates, it shuffles off its generalized shell and starts to particularize. In so doing it may, under certain rare and privileged circumstances, find itself able to examine previous akashic recordings in which it formed similar particularizations. The Oversoul itself, however, is made up of all these countless recorded souls. With each experience it grows in metamorphic complexity. In the Oversoul the Whole is greater that its parts -- although when it separates individually the part is naturally greater than the Whole.

The Buddhists hold that there is no "immutable soul." Therefore reincarnation is simply a way of expressing the rebirth of unenlightened mind. Rebirth is then merely like the same sand pouring into different vessels: bucket, goblet, urn, etc. If death is the abandonment of personal self, then the dividing walls between us crumble and memory has access to all former lives. Most people tend to remember only the former lives of the more interesting or arresting personalities: kings, queens, martyrs, monsters, etc. That's why there are so many former Napoleons and Cleopatras and so few kitchenmaids and village idiots.

Finally, we must detach ourselves from the encapsulating Xtian belief in literal "Resurrection." We must understand that the "raising of the dead" is a metaphorical version, not of reincarnation, but of renewal within life. To be reborn of the flesh, of fire, of water and the spirit -- these are its tetramorphic aspects, to be sure, but resurrection, reincarnation and being "born again" are all symbols of the birth or rebirth of the spirit within the "dead" soul of materialistic greed. Rebirth begins before physical death and proceeds post-mortem into actual reincarnation. Reincarnation per se, however, is not acceptable to orthodox Xtianity in the slightest because it neutralizes Salvation.

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

Zohar, Sepher haz-Zohar (Hebrew) [from zohar light, splendor]

Book of the light; the principal work or compendium of the Qabbalists, forming with the Book of Creation (Sepher Yetsirah) the main canon of the Qabbalah. It is written largely in Chaldean interspersed with Hebrew, and is in the main a running commentary on the Pentateuch. Interwoven are a number of highly significant sections or books scattered apparently at random through the volumes: sometimes incorporated as parallel columns to the text, at other times as separate portions.

These auxiliary books, so casually appended to the text as we now have it, are considered by Qabbalists to be the chief contribution of the Zohar. The following form the bulk of the Zoharic writings outside of the commentary itself, as found in present editions, though in one or two editions a few additional fragments of minor importance are included:

1. Tosephta' (Additions or supplements);

2. Heichaloth (Mansions, Abodes) usually enumerated as seven, describing the structure of the upper and lower realms;

3. Sithrei Torah (Mysteries or Secrets of the Law [Pentateuch]) describing the evolution of the Sephiroth;

4. Midrash Han-Ne`elam (The Hidden Interpretation), deducing esoteric doctrine from the narratives in the Pentateuch;

5. Ra`ya' Meheimna' (The Faithful Shepherd), recording discussions between Moses the faithful shepherd, the prophet Elijah, and Rabbi Shim`on ben Yohai (the reputed compiler of the Zohar);

6. Razei deRazin (Secrets of Secrets), a treatise on physiognomy and higher psychology;

7. Saba' deMishpatim (The Aged in Decisions, Judgments), the Aged One or Scholar is Elijah who discourses with Yohai on the doctrine of metempsychosis;

8. Siphra' di-Tseni`utha' (The Book of the Mysteries), discourses on cosmogony and demonology;

9. Ha-'Idra' Rabba' Qaddisha' (The Great Holy Assembly), discourses of Rabbi Yohai to his disciples on the form of the deity and on pneumatology;

10. Yenoqa' (The Youth), discourses on the mysteries of ablutions by a young man of such high talent that he was thought to be of superhuman origin;

11. Ha-'Irda' Zuta' Qaddisha' (The Lesser Holy Assembly), discourses on the Sephiroth to six disciples.

The Zohar was compiled by Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochai, and completed by his son Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary Rabbi Abba. "But voluminous as is the work, and containing as it does the main points of the secret and oral tradition, it still does not embrace it all. It is well known that this venerable kabalist [Simeon] never imparted the most important points of his doctrine otherwise than orally, and to a very limited number of friends and disciples, including his only son. Therefore, without the final initiation into the Mercaba the study of the Kabala will be ever incomplete, . . . Since the death of Simeon Ben-Iochai this hidden doctrine has remained an inviolate secret for the outside worlds" (IU 2:348-9).

The Zohar contains the universal wisdom or theosophy of the ages. Nevertheless it "teaches practical occultism more than any other work on that subject; not as it is translated though, and commented upon by its various critics, but with the secret signs on its margins. These signs contain the hidden instructions, apart form the metaphysical interpretations and apparent absurdities . . ." (IU 2:350). The present "approximation of the Zohar was written by Moses de Leon in the 13th century. "Mistaken is he who accepts the Kabalistic works of to-day, and the interpretations of the Zohar by the Rabbis, for the genuine Kabalistic lore of old! For no more to-day than in the day of Frederick von Schelling does the Kabala accessible to Europe and America, contain much more than 'ruins and fragments, much distorted remnants still of that primitive system which is the key to all religious systems' . . . The oldest system and the Chaldean Kabala were identical. The latest renderings of the Zohar are those of the Synagogue in the early centuries -- i.e., the Thorah, dogmatic and uncompromising" (SD 2:461-2).

The Zohar has been widely studied by European mystical and other scholars for centuries past, and many speculations have been made by these scholars as to its age, some affirming with perfect truth that the roots or origins of the Qabbalah go back into the very night of time and are probably to be traced to now unknown originals in ancient Chaldea, while others points out that in several places the Zohar mentions facts of history that have taken place in Europe after the beginning of the Christian era, such as the Crusades, and the mentioning of the Massoretic vowel points which came into use at the time of the Rabbi Mocha, 570 AD, the mention of a comet which can be proved by the context to have appeared in 1264, etc. Moses de Leon was probably the first to edit or give to the world the volume of the Zohar as we now have it considered as a whole. We thus have a work of progressive compilation, the form in which it has reached our hands showing the labor of several, if not many, minds since the beginning of the Christian era, but which nevertheless in its typically Chaldean thought and manner of envisioning religious and philosophical principles prove it to have come down from an unknown time in Chaldean history.

(See also: Zohar, Sepher haz-Zohar, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

The Zohar is not considered complete without the addition of certain appendixes, which are often attributed either to the same author, or to some of his immediate disciples. These supplementary portions are almost always printed as part of the text with separate titles, or in separate columns. They are as follows: Sifra di-Ẓeni'uta, consisting of five chapters, in which are chiefly discussed the questions involved in the Creation, such as the transition from the infinite to the finite, that from absolute unity to multif ...

See also:

Zohar, Zohar - Origin, Zohar - Acceptance of authenticity, Zohar - Rejection of authenticity, Zohar - Mysticism, Zohar - Pardes and Biblical exegesis, Zohar - Effects on Judaism, Zohar - Influence on Christian mysticism, Zohar - Appendices and additions

Read more here: » Zohar: Encyclopedia II - Zohar - Appendices and additions

Necroscope - Necroscope. Necroscope (1986) Necroscope II: Wamphyri! (1988); US title: Necroscope II: Vamphyri! (1988) Necroscope III: The Source (1989) Necroscope IV: Deadspeak (1990) Necroscope V: Deadspawn (1991) Necroscope - Vampire World. Vampire World I: Blood Brothers (1992) Vampire World II: The Last Aerie (1993)

Infinite Jest - Surveys. Marshall Boswell, Understanding David Foster Wallace. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN 1570035172 Iannis Goerlandt and Luc Herman, "David Foster Wallace." Post-war Literatures in English: A Lexicon of Contemporary Authors 56 (2004), 1-16; A1-2, B1-2. Infinite Jest - In-depth studies. Tom LeClair, "The Prodigious Fiction of Richard Powers, William Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace." Cr ...

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Infinite Jest, Infinite Jest - Characters, Infinite Jest - The Incandenza family, Infinite Jest - The Enfield Tennis Academy, Infinite Jest - The Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, Infinite Jest - Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents, Infinite Jest - Subsidized time, Infinite Jest - More on the setting of the story, Infinite Jest - Literature, Infinite Jest - Surveys, Infinite Jest - In-depth studies, Infinite Jest - Interviews, Infinite Jest - Web resources

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Lycanthropy is often confused with transmigration; but the essential feature of the were-animal is that it is the alternative form or the double of a living human being, while the soul-animal is the vehicle, temporary or permanent, of the spirit of a dead human being. The vampire is sometimes regarded as an example of lycanthropy; but it is in human form, sometimes only a head, sometimes a whole body, sometimes that of a living pers ...

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Lycanthropy, Lycanthropy - Spiritual and supernatural implications of lycanthropy, Lycanthropy - Local animal forms found in lycanthropy, Lycanthropy - Lycanthropy in North America, Lycanthropy - Lycanthropy in South America, Lycanthropy - Lycanthropy in Europe, Lycanthropy - Lycanthropy in Africa, Lycanthropy - The were-tiger of the East Indies

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In the Yazidi worldview, God created the world, which is now in the care of a Heptad of seven Holy Beings, often known as Angels or heft sirr (the Seven Mysteries). Pre-eminent among these is Malak Ta’us (Tawûsê Melek in Kurdish), the Peacock Angel, who is equated with Satan or Devil by some Muslims and Christians. "The reason for the Yazidis reputation of being devil worshipers, is connected to the other name of Malak Ta'us, Shaytan, ...

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Yazidi, Yazidi - Origins, Yazidi - Religious Beliefs, Yazidi - Yazidism and Zoroastrianism, Yazidi - Religious Practices, Yazidi - Prayers, Yazidi - Pilgrimage, Yazidi - Festivals, Yazidi - Purity and Taboos, Yazidi - Customs, Yazidi - Myths, Yazidi - Recent History, Yazidi - Views of outsiders fiction and stereotypes, Yazidi - Academic texts about Yazidis

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