Lilith (Hebrew) (from layil night)

In popular Jewish legend a female demon, commonly but erroneously supposed to be nocturnal, counterpart of the Babylo-Assyrian Lilit or Lilu. In Rabbinical writings Lilith is the first consort or wife of the mindless Adam, and it was from the snares of Eve-Lilith that the second Eve, the woman, become his savior (IU 2:445).

"The numberless traditions about Satyrs are no fables, but represent an extinct race of animal men. The animal 'Eves' were their foremothers, and the human 'Adams' their forefathers; hence the Kabalistic allegory of Lilith or Lilatu, Adam's first wife, whom the Talmud describes as a charming woman, with long wavy hair, i.e., -- a female hairy animal of a character now unknown, still a female animal, who in the Kabalistic and Talmudic allegories is called the female reflection of Samael, Samael-Lilith, or man-animal united, a being called Hayoh Bishah, the Beast or Evil Beast. (Zohar, ii, 255, 259). It is from this unnatural union that the present apes descended" (SD 2:262).

Lilith or the Liliths in the common Talmudic idea are nocturnal specters or female creatures usually appearing at night and haunting human beings. The Rabbis describe these entities as having the female form, as being elegantly dressed, and as lying in wait for children by night. These Jewish fables,which have direct reference to female elementaries and other denizens of the astral light, and correspond to the Roman and Greek empusas, stringes, and lamiae; the Arabian ghulah (masculine ghul), entities of monstrous character dwelling in the sandy deserts, awaiting men and destroying them if possible; and to the Hindu pramlocha, khados, and dakinis.

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

Labyrinth (from Greek labyrinthos probably from laura crypt)

The complex prison built for King Minos of Crete by Daedalus to house the Minotaur. Theseus succeeded in finding his way out with the aid of the thread given him by the king's daughter, Ariadne. Symbolically, it may be the celestial labyrinth, into which the souls of the departed plunge, and also its earthly counterpart, as shown in the tortuous subterranean chambers in ancient Egypt, or similar constructions under temples in various ancient lands.

These labyrinths also symbolized the races of mankind, and the succession of gods, demigods, and heroes who preceded mortal kings. These underground chambers in general were used as initiation chambers in the Mysteries, where candidates were taught by actual experience various truths regarding human destiny after death; hence there was an exact analogy between the physical construction of these chambers and the truths thus symbolized.

The labyrinth therefore refers both to an inner and outer mystery. One of the coins unearthed at Knossos in Crete showed a diagram of such a maze, and this identical pattern, exact to the last important detail, has been found among the Pima Indians of Arizona (cf Theosophical Path, April 1925). Clearly its real significance was common knowledge to initiates in all parts of the world.

Concerning the labyrinth of ancient Egypt, "Herodotus, preserved for posterity the remembrance of that wonder of the world, the great Labyrinth. . . . Herodotus says that he found therein 3,000 chambers; half subterranean and the other half above-ground. 'The upper chambers,' he says, 'I myself passed through and examined in detail. In the underground ones (which may exist till now, for all the archaeologists know), the keepers of the building would not let me in, for they contain the sepulchres of the kings who built the Labyrinth, and also those of the sacred crocodiles. The upper chambers I saw and examined with my own eyes, and found them to excel all other human productions' " (IU 1:522-3).

The series of chambers in the labyrinth was an attempt to portray in the Mysteries by means of a construction -- whether subterranean or above ground -- the peregrinations of the human monad in its postmortem destiny, as it wandered from chamber to chamber -- from sphere to sphere or globe to globe -- in the celestial spaces, finally returning to its point of departure, in this instance to human reimbodiment.

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

Kumara (Sanskrit) (from ku with difficulty + mara mortal)

Mortal with difficulty; often used for child or youth, but philosophically pure spiritual beings, unself-conscious god-sparks uninvolved with matter who, destined by evolution to pass through the realms of matter, become mortal, i.e., material, only with difficulty because of their lofty spirituality. They are the classes of arupa or solar pitris, along with the agnishvattas and manasaputras. Of all the seven great divisions of dhyani-chohans, there is none with which humanity is more concerned than with the kumaras, the mind-born sons of Brahma-Rudra or Siva, the inveterate destroyer of human passions:

"it is they who, by incarnating themselves within the senseless human shells of the two first Root-races, and a great portion of the Third Root-race -- create, so to speak, a new race: that of thinking, self-conscious and divine men" (SD 1:456-7). In the Puranas their number varies, given as seven, four, and five. They are often called the Four, because Sanaka, Sanada, Sanatana, and Sanat-Kumara are the names of four important groups of kumaras as they spring from the fourfold mystery. The three secret names of the seven are variously given: Sana, Sanat-Sujata, and Kapila; or Kapila, Ribhu, and Panchasikha; or Jata, Vodhu, and Panchasikha, all of which are but aliases. The patronymic name of the kumaras is Vaidhatra (from vidhatri a title of Brahma as creator of the universe)

These kumaras are sometimes also called rudras, adityas, gandharvas, asuras, maruts, and vedhas. The seven kumaras -- both as groups and as aggregated individuals -- are intimately connected with the dhyani-buddhas who watch over the seven rounds of our planetary chain. The four groups of kumaras generally spoken of are connected equally intimately with the four celestial bodhisattvas of the four globes of our round, and by correspondence with the four completed root-races of our earth. They are identical with the angels of the seven planets, and their name shows their connection with the constellation Makara or Capricorn. Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual microcosm, and the death or dissolution of the physical universe (its passage into the realm of the spiritual) as are the kumaras.

Mara is the god of darkness, the Fallen one, and death, i.e., death of every physical thing; but through the karmic lessons learned also the quickener of the birth of the spiritual. The kumaras are connected also with the sage Narada. An allegory in the Puranas says that the kumaras, the first progeny of Brahma, were without desire or passion, inspired with the holy wisdom, and undesirous of progeny. They refused to create, but were compelled later on to complete divine man by incarnating in him. The barhishads or lunar pitris formed the "senseless" astral-physical humanity of the early root-races. Those beings possessing the living spiritual fire were the agnishvattas or solar pitris.

The sons of Brahma, the kumaras, being originally themselves unconscious (in our sense) could be of no use in supplying the mental and kamic principles, as they did not possess them: they had attained no individual karmic elevation in merit of their own as had the agnishvattas. The perfection of the kumaras was passive and negative (nirguna). The kumaras eventually "sacrifice" themselves by incarnating in mankind, thus corresponding to the manasaputras and fallen angels cast into hell (material spheres, our earth).

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

Lost Word According to the Masonic ritual of the third or Master Mason's degree, the Word which was in the possession of the three Grand Masters of the Craft, King Solomon, Hiram of Tyre, and Hiram Abif, and could be given only when the three were "present and agreed," was said to have been lost on the death of Hiram Abif, in consequence of which it was decreed that until the True Word was again found, a Substitute Word should be used.

By the death of Hiram Abif not only was the Master's True Word lost, but it was discovered that there were no plans upon the Trestle-Board for continuing the work of the building of the Temple. This gives a clue to the meaning of the Lost Word which "ought to stand as 'lost words' and lost secrets, in general, for that which is termed the lost 'Word' is no word at all, as in the case of the Ineffable Name" (TG 191). Communicated to man in the childhood of the human race, these lost secrets were passed on from hierophant to hierophant in turn.

Every true Mason is in search of the Lost Word, the secret knowledge or gupta-vidya, yet the lost secrets of the Royal Art can never be communicated to, because they cannot be comprehended by, one who does not recognize and in degree at least realize his own inner divinity, the immanent christos or buddha within, which is his true self; i.e., through initiation become, actually and in fact, a Christos, an Osiris, a Hiram Abif. Every degree of initiation into the Mysteries has its secrets, its Word, its sacred formula, which may be communicated only to those who, according to Masonic ritual "are duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified," else the penalty is death to the one so revealing the Word or secrets.

The mythos of Orpheus and Eurydice is a Mystery-story of the loss of the Word -- Eurydice being a personification of the esoteric wisdom. The recovery of the Word is possible only to him who, during initiation, descends into the Underworld fully prepared, and who fulfills the inescapable conditions for return therefrom in possession of the Word, as was Orpheus through his marriage with Eurydice. Should he like Orpheus lose it -- fail to bring Eurydice back with him -- such loss brings inevitable death, or at least a rupture between the personal man and his higher spiritual nature, so that the personal man, unprotected by his spiritual nature, becomes the prey of remorse and of the lower terrestrial passions, the Bacchantes, and is finally slain by them.

But this is not necessarily final failure, for in the next or in a succeeding life he may again begin his search for the Word, and if undaunted by obstacles, even by repeated failures, he continue in his search, he may and probably will ultimately find it.

(See also: Lost Word, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jupiter (Latin) (from Jov + pater father; probably from same root as Greek Zeus and Sanskrit dyaus bright sky)

The sky god or the ruler of heaven, the father of gods, identified in popular thought among the ancients with the Greek Zeus. He corresponds to the Hindu Brihaspati. The sixth world of the ancient Syrians was that of Jupiter or Bel, and was ruled by the Dominions (SD 1:435).

See also ZEUS

Also the fifth planet from the sun in the solar system, regarded as one of the seven sacred planets of the ancients. In theosophy the regent or rector of Jupiter exercises a particular influence over globe B of the earth-chain, and also the globe on the ascending arc preceding globe A. Its zodiacal houses are Sagittarius and Pisces; its day is Thursday.

The Master KH remarked to Sinnett:

"your science has a theory, I believe, that if the earth were suddenly placed in extremely cold regions -- for instance where it would exchange places with Jupiter -- all our seas and rivers would be suddenly transformed into solid mountains; the air, -- or rather a portion of the aeriform substances which compose it -- would be metamorphosed from their state of invisible fluid owing to the absence of heat into liquids (which now exist on Jupiter, but of which men have no idea on earth). Realize, or try to imagine the reverse condition, and it will be that of Jupiter at the present moment.

"The whole of our system is imperceptibly shifting its position in space. The relative distance between planets remaining ever the same, and being in no wise affected by the displacement of the whole system; and the distance between the latter and the stars and other suns being so incommensurable as to produce but little if any perceptible change for centuries and millenniums to come; -- no astronomer will perceive it telescopically, until Jupiter and some other planets, whose little luminous points hides now from our sight millions upon millions of stars (all but some 5000 or 6000) -- will suddenly let us have a peep at a few of the Raja-Suns they are now hiding. There is such a king-star right behind Jupiter, that no mortal physical eye has ever seen during this, our Round.

Could it be so perceived it would appear, through the best telescope with a power of multiplying its diameter ten thousand times, -- still a small dimensionless point, thrown into the shadow by the brightness of any planet; nevertheless -- this world is thousands of times larger than Jupiter. The violent disturbance of its atmosphere and even its red spot that so intrigues science lately, are due -- (1) to that shifting and (2) to the influence of that Raja-Star. In its present position in space imperceptibly small though it be -- the metallic substances of which it is mainly composed are expanding and gradually transforming themselves into aeriform fluids -- the state of our own earth and its six sister globes before the first Round -- and becoming part of its atmosphere" (ML 167).

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

Jesus (Latin of Greek Iesous from Hebrew Yeshua` contraction of Yehoshua` a proper name meaning savior or helper, or that which is spacious or widespread)

Indubitably a historical character, whose life as narrated in the Gospels is pure allegory, a story of the initiation chamber. There is a story current from medieval times among the Jews, mentioned in the Sepher Toledoth Yeshua` (Book of the Generations of Jesus), to the effect that the Jesus of the Gospels was a Jehoshua ben Panthera, a Jewish adept living about 100 BC. Jesus illustrates the typical sequence in occult history: 1) the coming of a leader or teacher to a people needing to be led and taught; 2) his passing, followed by the adoration, even worship, of his followers; 3) the gradual transformation of historic facts into more or less embroidered legends or mythological tales, which in time cluster so thickly about his memory that his identity as a person, and even his name, are lost; 4) the myth, allegory, or legend; and 5) the efforts of other, later teachers to explain, interpret, and reinstate this earlier teacher, now a purely mythic figure or else materialized and misunderstood.

The Christian Gospels appear to have originated in mystery-dramas, beautiful and often sublime in their inner significances, in which were depicted the experiences of the neophyte and adept in his union with the Logos, and hence such unified individual was called a Logos incarnate as a man, the Logos itself being variously named as Christos or Dionysos, and to have been by stages adapted and given a semi-historical guise, as has happened in other instances besides the Christian mythos. Christ therefore, or the Christos, is not a particular man or an especial incarnation of divinity, but a generic term for the divine as incarnated in all human beings, although Jesus was undoubtedly the name of this great Jewish initiate-avatara as an individual. Hence this universal allegory in its Christian version has a true historical peg to hang from; for there did appear, sometime before the Christian era, a special cyclic messenger who was due to come on the change of the ecliptic point from one sign of the celestial zodiac to another, from the sign of Aries to Pisces. In theosophical literature, Jesus is considered to be an avatara, the messenger for the European Messianic or Piscean cycle. As such, Jesus represented a ray sent from the Wondrous Being or spiritual hierarch of the earth into the soul of a pure human being, while the racial buddha, Gautama Buddha, supplied the intermediate or psychological nature in this act of white magic.

"But it is probable that the theosophic effort which Jesus attempted to initiate did not endure for fifty years after his death. Almost immediately after his passing, his disciples, all half-instructed, and in some cases almost illiterate, men . . . foisted upon the world of their time the forms and beliefs of early Christianity; and had there been nothing but these, that religious system had not lived another fifty years. But what happened? During the oncoming of the dark cycle after Jesus (which began as before said about the time of Pythagoras), the last few rays from the setting sun of the ancient light shone feebly in the minds of certain of these Christian Fathers, Clement of Alexandria for one, and Origen of Alexandria for another, and in one or two more like these, who had been initiated at least in the lowest of some of the then degenerate pagan Mysteries; and these men entered into the Christian Church and introduced some poor modicum of that light, . . . which they still cherished; and these rays they derived mainly from the Neo-pythagorean and the Neoplatonic system" (Fund 486-7).

The Hebrew name Jah or Jehovah became identified in the mind of Christians with the name of Jesus, although Jesus never was in any wise identical with the Jewish Jehovah, but was identified in initiation through his own inner god or Father in Heaven, and the Jewish Jehovah mystically was the regent of the planet Saturn.

The first three letters in Greek make I.H.S. placed at the head of representations of the crucified Jesus, often said to stand for Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus the savior of men) or In hoc signo (in this sign), with reference to the alleged vision of a cross of the Emperor Constantine. Jesus is a form of a worldwide mystery-name, whose importance was its meaning, usually given as a three-letter monogram, analogous to the Sanskrit Aum. We find it in the Greek Gnostic Iao and variants are common in ancient Greece, such as Iasios, Iasion, Iason, Iasos; and initiates were known as Iasides or sons of Iaso.

See also AVATARA

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

In (Japanese) Equivalent to the Chinese yin; in Shintoism, the feminine principle of matter or earth, impregnated by Yo (the heavens), the male ethereal principle, and then precipitated into the universe. She forms the first ethereal, sexless objective being, and with him produces the seven divine spirits who emanate the seven creation.

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

A E I O V These five vowels (V is the classic U) were often inscribed on Roman temples, after the manner of the Greeks, who recorded the number of the root-races in their temples "by the seven vowels, of which five were framed in a panel in the Initiation halls of the Adyta" (SD 2:458).

These five vowels have the same essential meaning as the Oeaohoo of The Secret Doctrine. They are symbolic of the seven kosmic breathings of the universal spirit or primal logos; in other words, of the seven kosmic original fires or energies whose breathings throughout the universe are the life or streams of lives which form the background of the universe.

Consonants were mystically considered to be the vehicles of sounds or breathings or "voices" which were the vowels. Consonants gave the vowels body, in the same way as spirit expresses itself through the rigid structural framework of entities. "The manner of pronunciation depends on the accent. This is an esoteric term for the six in one or the mystic seven. The occult name for the 'seven-vowelled' ever-present manifestation of the Universal Principle" (TG 239).

These five- or seven-voweled voices, sounds, or breathings also represent the seven fundamental fires or energies of the human constitution. All ancient mystical schools had their own way of viewing and explaining these vowels.

(See also: A E I O V, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Book of Changes. See I CHING

(See also: Book of Changes, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Y-King.

See I CHING

(See also: Y-King, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Huan (Chinese) Also hwun. Spirit; used in the I Ching, equivalent to atman.

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

Huan (Chinese) Also hwun. Spirit; used in the I Ching, equivalent to atman.

(See also: Hu', Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Eteroprosopos "an other than I under the features of my person" (BCW 7:197).

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

'Asher (Hebrew) Who, which, that; in The Secret Doctrine (2:468, 539), used in connection with the phrase 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh (I am that I am -- Exodus 3:14).

(See also: 'Asher, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Soham (Sanskrit) [from sah he + aham I]

He is I; a mystical permutation of Ahamsa (I am he). Shoam contains the mystical teaching of the identity of man's essence with divinity.

See also AHAMSA; HAMSA

(See also: Soham, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Y Ching, Yi King.

See I CHING

(See also: Y Ching, Yi King, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

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Mysticism Dictionary - M, Mysticism Dictionary - N, Mysticism Dictionary - O,

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Mysticism Dictionary - S, Mysticism Dictionary - T, Mysticism Dictionary - U,

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Ma (Sanskrit) In Hindu mythology a name of Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, goddess of prosperity, welfare, and happiness.

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

Magnus Annus. See ANNUS MAGNUS

(See also: Magnus Annus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Magus. See MAGI

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

Mahabharata (Sanskrit) One of the two great epic poems of ancient India, the largest poetic work known to literature, consisting of 220,000 lines.

The masses of tradition and tales in this epic make it the national treasury from which bards, poets, dramatists, and artists, as from an inexhaustible source, draw their themes. It contains the history of the family of the Bharatas in addition to a great many beautiful truly mystical and occult teachings, and a few really splendid minor episodes like the Bhagavad-Gita and Anugita.

Tradition makes Vyasa -- a generic name of high literary authority, used by at least several archaic writers -- the author of this grand poem.

The main theme of the epic is the great struggle between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, descendants through Bharata from Puru, the great ancestor of one branch of the Lunar race. The object of the struggle was the kingdom whose capital was Hastinapura (elephant city), the ruins of which are said to be traceable 57 miles northeast of Delhi, on an old bed of the Ganges.

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

Mahabhashya mahabhasya (Sanskrit) (from maha great + bhashya commentary on technical sutras, usually in the vernacular)

Great commentary; Patanjali's Commentary on the Sutras (Grammar) of Panini and the Varttikas of Katyayana (Katyayana's critical annotations of Panini's Sutras). Sometimes referred to simply as the Bhashya, it is one of the three known writings of Patanjali.

(See also: Mahabhashya, mahabhasya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)