Mother Dictionary

Buddhism: Basic Buddhist Dictionary

A basic dictionary of Buddhism terms. Please note that all words in grey like " Buddhism " are links to an archive with related articles.

Divine Mother: Shakti, especially as Personal Goddess, as conceived of and worshiped by Shaktas.

See: Shakti, Shaktism.

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

Earth-Mother:

Female personification of the Life force, fertility of the Earth and its inhabitants. One of the most widespread deity concepts in the world (though far from universal); She is now worshiped in the West as Mother Nature.

(See also: Earth-Mother , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Thataki:

Thataki (Thaatakee). Fierce demoness mother of Maricha and Subahu; wife of Sunda.

(See also: Thataki , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Parvati: (Sanskrit) "Mountain's daughter."

One of many names for the Universal Mother. Prayers are offered to Her for strength, health and eradication of impurities. Mythologically, Parvati is wedded to Siva.

See: Goddess, Shakti.

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

Mahayama

The mother of Shakaymuni. She was a Koliyan Princess and married to Suddhodana.

 (See also: Mahayama , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Great Sacrifice, Renunciation. See WATCHER; WONDROUS BEING

(See also: Great Mother , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Rohini

The wife of Vasudeva who was the mother of Krishna’s principal expansion, Balarama.

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

Father-Mother. See LOGOS; SVABHAVAT

(See also: Father-Mother , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Adisesha (Sanskrit) (from adi first + sesha from the verbal root sish to leave remainders)

Primeval residue; the mythological thousand-headed serpent (naga) upon which Vishnu "sleeps" during the pralayas (intervals between manifestations); also represented as supporting the seven patalas (hells) with the seven regions above them and therefore the entire world (VP 2:5). More often called simply Sesha; or Ananta, infinite; or Ananta-sesha.

As sesha means "remainder," "what is left over," the main significance is that during the pralayas Vishnu, representing the cosmic divinity, is conceived as sleeping upon the substance of a spiritual character remaining over after the dissolution of the worlds. Thus Adisesha (primeval substance or remainder) is the cosmic spatial ocean of consciousness-substance left over from the previous cosmic manvantara which acts as the mother-substance or chaos from and in which the future worlds of manifestation will be born when pralaya ends.

See also ANANTA; ANANTA-SESHA

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

Ammon (Egypt, Egyptian). One of the great gods of Egypt. Ammon or Amoun is far older than Amoun-Ra, and is identified with Baal. Hammon, the Lord of Heaven. Amoun-Ra was Ra the Spiritual Sun, the "Sun of Righteousness", etc., for - "the Lord God is a Sun".

He is the God of Mystery and the hieroglyphics of his name are often reversed. He is Pan, All-Nature esoterically, and therefore the universe, and the "Lord of Eternity". Ra, as declared by an old inscription, was "begotten by Neith but not engendered". He is called the "self- begotten" Ra,, and created goodness from a glance of his fiery eye, as Set-Typhon created evil from his. As Ammon (also Amoun and Amen), Ra, he is "Lord of the worlds enthroned on the Sun’s disk and appears in the abyss of heaven".

A very ancient hymn spells the name "Amen-ra", and hails the "Lord of the thrones of the earth...Lord of Truth, father of the gods, maker of man, creator of the beasts, Lord of Existence, Enlightener of the Earth, sailing in heaven in tranquillity. . . All hearts are softened at beholding thee, sovereign of life, health and strength We worship thy spirit who alone made us", etc., etc. (See Bonwick’s Egyptian Belief.)

Ammon Ra is called "his mother’s husband" and her son. (See "Chnourmis" and "Chnouphis" and also Secret Doctrine I, pp. 91 and It was to the "ram-headed" god that the Jews sacrificed lambs, and the lamb of Christian theology is a disguised reminiscence of the ram.

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

Smell

At times you may experience the sense of smell in your dreams. The smell could be environmental. If there is a strong smell in your sleeping environment, you may perceive it and incorporate it into your dream. Otherwise, the smell in your dreams is triggered by a memory. You may be associating your dream experience with a pleasant or unpleasant order. For example, if you are dreaming about your mother, you may smell the aroma of a food she once cooked. The smell may trigger emotions and reflect the general quality of the experience in your dream.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

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

Annunciation Announcing; in Christianity, the foretelling to Mary of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel, celebrated on Lady Day, March 25. The fire and lamps used in this ceremony apparently point back to the marriage of Vulcan with Venus, to the Magi watching over the sacred fire in the East, to the Vestal Virgins in the West, and to the marriage of Father Sun with Mother Nature.

Some parallels from other religions are the luminous San-tusita (Bodhisat) appearing to Maya and announcing the coming birth of Gautama Buddha; the Hindu legend that there would be born the son of the Virgin (Krishna), the date of whose death marked the beginning of kali yuga; and in Egypt where scenes of an annunciation appear in the temple of Luxor.

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

Ptah, or Pthah (Egypt, Egyptian). The son of Kneph in the Egyptian Pantheon. He is the Principle of Light and Life through which "creation" or rather evolution took place. The Egyptian logos and creator, the Demiurgos.

A very old deity, as, according to Herodotus, he had a temple erected to him by Menes, the first king of Egypt. He is "giver of life" and the self-born, and the father of Apis, the sacred bull, conceived through a ray from the Sun. Ptah is thus the prototype of Osiris, a later deity. Herodotus makes him the father of the Kabiri, the mystery-gods; and the Targum of Jerusalem says: "Egyptians called the wisdom of the First Intellect Ptah"; hence he is Mahat the "divine wisdom"; though from another aspect he is Swabhavat, the self-created substance, as a prayer addressed to him in the Ritual of the Dead says, after calling Ptah "father of fathers and of all gods, generator of all men produced from his substance": "Thou art without father, being. engendered by thy own will; thou art without mother, being born by the renewal of thine own substance from whom proceeds substance".

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

prakriti: (Sanskrit) "Primary matter; nature."

In the 25- tattva Sankhya system - which concerns itself only with the tangible spectrum of creation - prakriti, or pradhana, is one of two supreme beginningless realities: matter and spirit, prakriti and purusha, the female and male principles. Prakriti is the manifesting aspect, as contrasted with the quiescent unmanifest - purusha, which is pure consciousness.

In Shaktism, prakriti, the active principle, is personified as Devi, the Goddess, and is synonymous with Maya. Prakriti is thus often seen, and depicted so in the Puranas, as the Divine Mother, whose love and care embrace and comfort all beings. In Saivite cosmology, prakriti is the 24th of 36 tattvas, the potentiality of the physical cosmos, the gross energy from which all lower tattvas are formed. Its three qualities are sattva, rajas and tamas.

See: odic, purusha, tattva.

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

666

Many have been the designators of this apocalyptic finger, from Nero to the Popes, to Mohammed, to Ronald Wilson Reagan. But only through careful numerological analysis can we be certain of its true meaning. In The Dimensions of Paradise, John Mitchell shows clearly how this "number of the beast" is actually the Gnostic designation for Jesus Christ and the Crucifiction foisted on the world by the corrupt Church. Christ as an historical figure instead of a spiritual force was repugnant to the Gnostics. Decadent Babylon and the New Jerusalem are one and the same City of God, symbolizing the death rattle for the perverted religion and the birth of a new understanding. In Revelation, 666 refers to the phrase kai ho arithmos Chi-Xi-Sigma and stands for Jesus Christ as the idol on the cross rather than the Gnostic idea of the new Christ spirit, "the son of man," present in all men (much like our own "New Aeon" feeling). The New Jerusalem numbers are 3168, 1080, 1224 and 1764, but especially 864 and 666 (all of these, by the way, reduce to 9). New Jerusalem itself is 961 (seven), as is "the number of the leaves of the Tree of Life which are for the healing of nations."

A similar attribution can be found in Kenneth Grant's work (Outside the Circles of Time). For him, as for the writer of Revelation, the number has special apocalyptic meanings: "The Christians misunderstood the Unspeakable Name (IHVH) and supposed that by causing a rift between the Old Ones and the life-wave on earth they could 'save' mankind, and incidentally [of course!] gain total mastery of the planet." In order to do this, they inserted the Hebrew letter Shin (Grant calls this the letter of "Spirit," others associate it with "fire") between IH and VH, the Sh of Spirit. Thus we derive the name Yeheshuah or Johoshuah (IHShVH), which in Latin we call Jesus. The Xtians proceeded from there to identify this mythological name with a real person who, as Gerald Massey demonstrated, could only have been -- in an historic sense -- Jesus ben Pandira, an Egyptian who lived a century earlier. This wizard's mother was named Mary Magdalene, and he was stoned to death for sorcery. But the letter Shin, Grant tells us, "represents the triple-tongued flame of the Great Old Ones, whose supreme concentration -- Choronzon -- exhibits the triple Firetongue in the number 333." The latter is "mirrored in the final Heh of Tetragrammaton, the daughter-letter, whose number becomes the trebled Hex and the Unholy Act of Earth's destruction, under the rule of the Son of Typhon who is Set/Satan and the Anti-Christ."

Thus, to this very day, the idol that the entire "Christian" world bows down to is not the Christos spirit at all, but the Anti-Christ. The washed faces, the white gloves, the alb and pale lilies of Sunday worship cannot dispel the blood of ages. Average Galileans are unable to display love of any kind for their fellow-man. Instead, they constantly evoke the images of sin, corruption, misery and damnation. All "holy books" contain contradictions, lies and false teachings, but the Xtian Bible is a monument of fabrications and contradictions, second only to the Koran.

(See also: 666 , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Aroueris (Ancient Greek). The god Harsiesi, who was the elder Horus. He had a temple at Ambos. if we bear in mind the definition of the chief Egyptian gods by Plutarch, these myths will become more comprehensible; as he well says: "Osiris represents the beginning and principle; Isis, that which receives; and Horus, the compound of both. Horus engendered between them, is not eternal nor incorruptible, but, being always in generation, he endeavours by vicissitudes of imitations, and by periodical passion (yearly re-awakening to life) to continue always young, as if he should never die."

Thus, since Horus is the personified physical world, Aroueris, or the "elder Horus", is the ideal Universe; and this accounts for the saying that "he was begotten by Osiris and Isis when these were still in the bosom of their mother" - Space. There is indeed, a good deal of mystery about this god, but the meaning of the symbol becomes clear once one has the key to it.

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

Yudishthira (Sanskrit). One of the heroes of the Mahabharata.

The eldest brother of the Pandavas, or the five Pandu princes who fought against their next of kin, the Kauravas, the sons of their maternal uncle. Arjuna, the disciple of Krishna, was his younger brother.

The Bhagavad Gita gives mystical particulars of this war. Kunti was the mother of the Pandavas, and Draupadi the wife in common of the five brothers -  an allegory. But Yudishthira is also, as well as Krishna, Arjuna, and so many other heroes, an historical character, who lived some 5,000 years ago, at the period when the Kali Yuga set in.

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

Ida or Ila (Sanskrit) Refreshment, flow; the goddess of sacred speech, similar to Vach; in the Rig-Veda called the instructress of Manu, instituting the rules for the performing of sacrifices. The Satapatha-Brahmana represents Ida as arising from a sacrifice which Manu had performed for the purpose of obtaining offspring.

Although claimed by the gods Mitra and Varuna, she became the wife of Manu, giving birth to the race of manus. In the Puranas, she is daughter of Vaivasvata-Manu, wife of Budha (wisdom), and mother of Pururavas. In some accounts she is born a woman, becomes a man named Sudyumna, then rebecomes a woman before finally becoming a man again. This refers to the androgynous third root-race, as well as to the later part of the second root-race.

"In their most mystical meaning, the union of Swayambhuva Manu with Vach-Sata-Rupa, his own daughter (this being the first 'euhemerization' of the dual principle of which Vaivasvata Manu and Ila are a secondary and a third form), stands in Cosmic symbolism as the Root-life, the germ from which spring all the Solar Systems, the worlds, angels and the gods" (SD 2:148).

See also ILA

(See also: Ida, Ila , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Iacchos (Ancient Greek). A synonym of Bacchus. Mythology mentions three persons so named: they were Greek ideals adopted later by the Romans. The word Iacchos is stated to be of Phœnician origin, and to mean "an infant at the breast ". Many ancient monuments represent Ceres or Demeter with Bacchus in her arms.

One Iacchos was called Theban and Conqueror, son of Jupiter and Semele; his mother died before his birth and he was preserved for some time in the thigh of his father; he was killed by the Titans. Another was son of Jupiter, as a Dragon, and Persephone ; this one was named Zagremus. A third was Iacchos of Eleusis, son of Ceres: he is of importance because he appeared on the sixth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Some see an analogy between Bacchus and Noah, both cultivators of the Vine, and patrons of alcoholic excess.

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

Anaitis, Anait (Chaldean) Also Anaitia, Aneitis, Tanais, Nanaea. A goddess whose worship was widespread over large portions of the Near East; "identical with the Hindu Annapurna, one of the names of Kali -- the female aspect of Siva -- at her best" (TG 21). Identified with the Greek Artemis and Aphrodite. "Anna (the name of the Mother of the Virgin Mary) . . . is derived from the Chaldean Ana, heaven, or Astral Light, Anima Mundi; whence Anaitia, Devi-durga, the wife of Siva, is also called Annapurna, and Kanya, the Virgin; 'Uma-Kanya' being her esoteric name, and meaning the 'Virgin of light,' Astral Light in one of its multitudinous aspects" (SD 1:91-2).

(See also: Anaitis, Anait , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ramakrishna: (Sanskrit) (1836-1886) One of the great saints and mystics of modern Hinduism, a champion and exemplar of monistic theism- fervent devotee of Mother Kali and staunch monist who taught oneness and the pursuit of nirvikalpa samadhi, realization of the Absolute. He was guru to the great Swami Vivekananda (18631902), who internationalized Hindu thought and philosophy.

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