Mysticism Glossary - T

ANKH, (W)UDJA(T), SENEB

"May he live, be prosperous, be healthy". A common Egyptian salutation appropriate for kings - abbreviated to L.H.S. (Life,Health, Strength).

(See also: ANKH, WUDJA, T, SENEB , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

A Theosophical definition of Chakra :

Chakra

(Cakra, Sanskrit) A word signifying in general a "wheel," and from this simple original meaning there were often taken for occult and esoteric purposes a great many subordinate, very interesting, and in some cases highly mystical and profound derivatives.

Chakra also means a cycle, a period of duration, in which the wheel of time turns once. It also means the horizon, as being circular or of a wheel-form. It likewise means certain centers or pranic spherical loci of the body in which are supposed to collect streams of pranic energy of differing qualities, or pranic energies of different kinds. T

hese physiological chakras, which are actually connected with the pranic circulations and ganglia of the auric egg, and therefore function in the physical body through the intermediary of the linga-sarira or astral model-body, are located in different parts of the physical frame, reaching from the parts about the top of the skull to the parts about the pubis.

It would be highly improper, having at heart the best interests of humanity, to give the occult or esoteric teaching concerning the exact location, functions, and means of controlling the physiological chakras of the human body; for it is a foregone conclusion that were this mystical knowledge broadcast, it would be sadly misused, leading not only in many cases to death or insanity, but to the violation of every moral instinct. Alone the high initiates, who as a matter of fact have risen above the need of employing the physiological chakras, can use them at will, and for holy purposes  - which in fact is something that they rarely, if indeed they ever do.

See also: Chakra , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

LANGUAGE

Maurice Nicoll in Living Time says: "We communicate badly, partly because we never notice how we are doing it, and partly because it is an extremely difficult matter to communicate anything save the simplest observations, without the danger of our signals being misinterpreted. Also, as often as not, we do not exactly know what it is we are trying to communicate. Finally, nearly everything of importance cannot be expressed."

Since this is so, doesn't it stand to reason that we should devote a good deal more time to language than we do? And since the more tongues we learn the better we understand our own, shouldn't learning other languages have a high priority? Part of the teaching we should impart to our chelas is never to stop struggling with language, recognizing that it must always be welcomed as a challenge. In every M/magic(k)al community - whether in a sophisticated modern city or in the midst of a Stone Age tribe, the magician is always the one who knows the longest words and can use them. What is a "spell", after all? What is gematria, but an attempt to dissect words and rebuild them? A "grimoire" was originally a "grammar." "Vedanta" is actually the "grammar" of the Sanskrit Vedas! As we begin to understand more about the Past and the necessity to turn back to it, we see that language looms larger and larger in human consciousness. The ancients understood what we have forgotten - birds fly and lions predate, but language is what man does. It is language that lies behind everything we make, which is why the word "poet" derives from a Greek word meaning "one who makes," the most important thing being, for the Greeks, to make words and which is why in the bible it is said, "In the beginning was the word." Words, like all things that are made, come out of the Void, magically. And words come before the thing! A spider may weave a web but it is always the same web built on the same blueprint resident in her instincts, no different from the eggs she lays instinctively. Compare that to the variety of human works! By the same token, the man who has no language is not just a spider that can't weave webs. He is a frog that can't leap, a seal that can't swim, a deer that can't run.

The reason Latin, Greek and Sanskrit are hard to learn is that they are ancient tongues and our linguistically-diminished consciousness is no longer able to deal with convolutions of thought and esoteric syntax. Nevertheless, it's still true that if you really want to understand Plato or the author of Genesis you must learn Ancient Greek and Hebrew. There was a time when English also used conjugations and declensions as highly structured as Latin. Today we can barely translate Shakespeare. The progress of language always mirrors the deterioration of the human spirit and moves downward from difficult to easy. And in return, as language decays it brings civilization down with it. Already it's virtually impossible for all but a handful of scholars in the world even to attempt to master anything bizarre, like Babylonian cuneiform or Mayan hieroglyphs - although a century ago, when all well-educated people knew Latin and Greek, such studies, had the material been available, would have been relatively common. If the day ever comes that we should actually encounter an extraterrestrial civilization, we will discover to our dismay that our technology is useless. Because we have lost our sense of language, to attempt to learn what they are saying may be completely beyond our capacity. We've traded communication for the ease of machines.

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

NAME

Nomen est numen. No name ever does justice to the person or thing designated by it and so, in the strictest sense, to call anything by its name is to blaspheme it.

The Egyptians -- certainly Ra and Isis -- insisted that the names of the Gods were even more powerful than the Gods themselves. Everything has a secret name which is its real name. "To be" and "to name" are the same thing in the Babylonian language. Amongst the Dogon so means "real" language as distinct from the howling of beasts or the gibberish of foreign tongues.

It was because the ancient Egyptians believed so strongly in the vitality of names that a person's name (ren) was considered one of his "bodies." All magicians experiment with assuming different names because our names determine the nature of the events that gravitate toward us. We must never forget, however, that no one is his name. To identify totally with any name is to turn to stone.

Names are also like clothes -- they can become you or you can become them. Along with all the other bodies we inhabit, the Egyptians also had the renpit ("name" body), an extra post-life soul. "John" or "Mary" are actually manifestations of you. We can assume these masks as we need them -- or not, if we don't. Those who have been disfigured and must undergo plastic surgery and skin grafts must dwell in the lowest circle of their own private hell. They actually become the horrible demon, Yog-Sothoth, God of Infernal Transitions and Lord of the Abyss, with the bulging eyes, tentacles, etc. But what such patients become is really only the renpit body of the monster, so they identify with it only long enough to draw on its hideous strength. Otherwise they wouldn't have anything to hold onto. It is in this way that the ugliest devils and most dangerous dragons can also serve as resources for us. Later on, with a bit of effort, supposedly, we can return to being the Buddha or Odin or Apollo.

Note: To disguise the true nature of a thing, just give it a new name!

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Jehovah punished this king of Babylon for the hubris of presuming himself to be divine, by causing him to behave like an animal and eat grass.

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

ANTI-CHRISTIAN STRATEGIES

"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years," said Abraham Lincoln, a century and a half ago. "What are the fruits of Christianity? Bigotry, superstition and persecution," said President James Madison some two centuries ago. "For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm" said Voltaire 230 years ago. Quotations of this sort by the wisest of thinkers and leaders, extending as they do back through the millennia, should serve as a skull and crossbones over the door of the church.

Xtianity, obviously, is the worst of all worlds (with the possible exception of Islam). On the one hand, it exhorts its believers to live vicariously, to reach for nothing, inasmuch as Christ has done all the work of redemption for them. In this way it thoroughly discourages individualism, especially in its most creative aspects. On the other hand, it pledges salvation to the dregs of mankind - the lowest ranks of morality - to the mindless and the vicious. Thus it espouses egoism at the cheapest level.

Arrogant Xtians are fond of saying, "You can't have it both ways." By that they mean that you can't accept the interconnectedness of everything and at the same time believe in the separation of the individual. But Xtianity, founded as it is on the veneration of stupidity, has always confused paradox with inconsistency.

The wise man leans neither on belief nor on non-belief. The whole issue of God/Not-God is unnecessarily dichotomous, as is our analysis of morality/immorality. The Either-Or world is dangerous. Indeed, it is so dangerous that even to proceed in a line midway between this Scylla and Charybdis is to hem oneself in by unwanted limitations. "God" is a word that has yet to be defined and even the certainty of divine singularity vs. plurality is debatable. It is a common conceit that monotheism is a step is a step forward from polytheism and one which some serious metaphysicians are finally beginning to question. The initiate may declare that there is but one "God", but he means that in a quite different sense from the common notion of exclusivity.

Monotheism (see MONOLATRY) always leads to monolithism. We are one another only be differing from one another. It is uniqueness that makes us divine. It is quite possible to deny the existence of "God" without elevating man (in his present condition) to apotheosis. There is, for example, the teaching of Pantheism, in which all plants, animals and, in fact, matter itself, are all equally God. This is also one God.

Anti-christians are admittedly defensive about "Salvation through Christ". First of all, non-Christians insist, there can be no salvation without one's own immolation - not the crucifiction of some 2000 year old personage of legend. Secondly, Christ is a type of supraconsciousness already potential, but undeveloped, in all men and women. It must not be confused with the self-pitying figures depicted in stained glass windows. The Christ level of consciousness is, in fact, certainly not available to the average, plastic-coated, postmodern illiterate, whose vision scarcely extends beyond that of an insect and whose tenacity is no firmer than a worm's pull. Therefore, to make salvation available to all men on a believe-as-you-go basis is idiotic. And finally, the Galilean mode is only one of many modes of consciousness - most of which are a lot more interesting. (See 666.)

(See also: ANTI-CHRISTIAN STRATEGIES , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

AIDS (GENETIC WAR)

Since some believe that the virus is man-made, specifically designed to attack the most important alternative to procreation (male homosexuality), we cannot see it as responding to psychic suggestions to change its habits. If it were a naturally occurring life-form, it would be automatically part of the evolutionary stream and quite attuned, even ready for "mental" implementation of punctuated morphogenesis. We are beginning to see that this is indeed a "war" and learning at the same time that war at every level derives from a basic misunderstanding of human social interaction and hardly occurs at all within the biosphere itself

Evolution is neither a battle for the survival of the fittest, nor is it the chaotic result of random mutations. We now know that the origin of species proceeds in cooperation with and as part of the conscious continuum of all life. Evolution, when the time is right, moves by quantum leaps to sudden new stages, as if by common consent. It's only through human interference that some single, bizarre weed winds up choking everything else out. In the highly unnatural case of the HIV virus, what we are seeing is a device specifically designed to pollute all the streams of life at once (generation, nurture and maintenance). It is a quite human-like biological tyrant bent on specific genocide

In studying Sheldrake's "punctuated evolution" we suddenly understand why our intuition has already told us that the HIV virus was man-made (or engineered). As a naturally-occurring genetic leap, HIV is too fantastic to consider. Even if abrupt evolutionary leaps were the rule, not the exception, and even if evolution itself is part of the omni-conscious sphere of synchronous reality-alternation, it's still too giant a biodic jump for a virus suddenly to decide to take up residence within the human DNA factory merely in order to bypass that annoying (to it!) "somatic individuation" phase. Viruses don't become that sophisticated that quickly. It's the equivalent of the next generation of the human race suddenly to be born with fully-functioning wings sprouting out of everyone's shoulder blades.

The theory, or course, amongst bio-metaphysicians, is that the body is merely a highly practical mechanism for the housing and passing on of the genetic code. One of the body's more clever defenses is the brain, designed to repair itself, built to last at least twice as long as any other organ and encased in a hard, nearly impregnable shell (the skull). But the cerebrum isn't just a defender of the body. It has, so to speak, a mind of its own and its own goals preempt the instincts. What's more, cerebral goals conflict with the goals of the genes. AIDS and the whole contemporary world of the 90's - with its pollution, rain forest depletions, baby boom, etc. - constitute the casualties of a genetic war directed specifically against the cortex, occurring on a deeply subnatural level of the global collective unconscious

As there are mental and spiritual planes, so there are various material planes. The "common consent" of the whole earth consciousness has been shattered in our time and the result is an insane interplanary (sic) war between the goals of the DNA and the goals of the human brain. Ideally, these goals should coincide, as with planned eugenics. Instead, we have mindless acquiescence to the genetic urge to procreate at any cost - regardless of the hideous consequences of overpopulation. Genetic consciousness knows only bodily success. It has no way of perceiving the larger context which is visible to the cortex: pollution, famine, despair, etc.

(See also: AIDS, GENETIC WAR , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

COBRA

The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous explains the metaphorical aspects of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The first entry is about serpents. It seems the Egyptians used the cobra to designate royalty because of its power over life and death. Since, when coiled, its tail disappears, it is also a fitting symbol for eternity. The Greeks called the serpent oura, or "tail", whence the "Uraeus", which is the Greek word for the cobra-shaped crown worn by kings and gods alike. To demonstrate its "eternal" aspect, the Greeks depicted the serpent devouring its own tail (Ouroboros "tail-devouring"). Oddly enough, the Greek letter rho is similar in shape to the beta, and some scholars think oura (read ouba) is taken from an old Hebrew word for sorcery ob. (See OBEAH).

This is all very instructive, to be sure, but what interests us is that the Egyptians believed that the cobra was so deadly that it didn't even have to sink its fangs into a person. It barely needed to graze him. In fact, it merely had to "breathe" on someone to inflict its venom. Now, since we already know that the "king" cobra was associated with royalty, its not surprising that the Greeks should call it, in their language, "the little king" or basilisk, bringing along with the word the Egyptian version of its natural history.

By the time we reach the Middle Ages in Europe, the basilisk (since cobras don't exist in Europe) had turned into a fabulous beast with wings and a fiery breath fatal to every living thing. A similar transformation happened to the poor white rhinoceros of Africa; in Europe the unicorn was turned into a fabulous horse with a horn. And when we learn that the most fearsome of sea serpents, the Nichus, was born of a medieval monk's mistranslation of an original misspelling of the Latin version of the "Nile" river (Nilus), an obnoxious pattern emerges: the decay of truth into superstition, simply because of linguistic ignorance.

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

SCHIZOPHRENIA

It has been defined as a cognitive handicap in which reason is limited to purely concrete processes and neither symbol nor abstraction can be used or understood. What we see, however, is not necessarily impairment, but misplacement. The schizophrenic demands exactitude because he needs firm guidelines in a world that is arbitrary, hostile and irrational. The world, however, believing itself to be sane, views such allergy as a disease, rather than as the simple, psychic defense that it obviously is.

Far from being despised as socially undesirable, schizophrenia should be hailed as one of mankind's invaluable resources. Functional schizophrenia is not madness but a focussing of consciousness that is simply not sanctioned by ordinary society, except in sleep. Animals also inhabit worlds of their own -- the elephant world, the eagle world, the rattlesnake world, etc. which society misunderstands and condemns. Both "incurable" schizophrenics and "untameable" wild animals, therefore, are systematically crowded out to make room for the breeding, conforming multitudes of homo sap.

Admittedly, the "afflicted" have little or no control over their mental state and often feel themselves to be drowning in raging psychic seas, but that is generally in reaction to the insanity of the consensual world and lack of special training in how to use these precious, divine talents. At any rate, our society's longing to "medicate" it totally out of existence is stupid. We can only wish that schizophrenes were better provided for, even pampered -- and very carefully educated -- so as to help them cast off the miserable and crippling paranoia which is its natural enough accompaniment, given the hostility of our world for anything it fails to understand. Most schizophrenes are as abysmally ill-educated as the rest of our society and so can't take advantage of their talent or defend themselves. Their "madness" is, more often than not, no more than the quite "logical" result of ignorance, confusion and fear. If anything, schizophrenics are superrational beings coping with enormous burdens of logic.

Marijuana produces a similar panic which has to be overcome. It too removes the filter that normally keeps us from experiencing the underlying, fundamental chaos of the world. From a functional (i.e., not physically diseased) standpoint, the paranoia resulting from schizophrenia is a normal and successfully adaptive reaction to an extreme and untenable situation, e.g., contemporary society in its habitually evil and mindless mode. And society, in failing to provide a place for these people, is doing all of us a great disservice.

It is as if we forced athletes to run in lead-soled, lumberjack boots and to keep their hands in their pockets at all times. It is as if we expected Rembrandt to content himself with a monochromatic spray-paint gun and an untagged bus.

Since schizophrenia bypasses the psychic censor, it affords tremendous insight into many metaphysical mysteries and considerably increases the level of extrasensory perception. Moreover, it is out of the same matrix that art, discovery, invention and genius evolve. Even "chemical" schizophrenia (whether naturally or artificially induced), can, to a moderate degree be a positive condition. But it is logic and reason, unhampered by any fawning to authority or family values, that most often lead the schizophrenic person into trouble. That is hardly an "illness" to be "cured." It's a line of inner resourcefulness, originality and survival.

Oddly enough, talk like that doesn't, as you might think, go right over my shrink's head. We both realize that he only nods to the establishment flakes in order to survive professionally.

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

This is a sitemap for Theosophy - T . Click on a link and you will find multiple definitions and articles related to the word.

T - Letter T, Taaroa, Ta'aroa, Taat-Eshmunen, Taaut, Tablet of Bembo, Tablets of, Table-turning, Tabnith, Tab-nooth, Tabula Smaragdina, Tad, Tadaikya, Tad-aikya, Tafne, T'Agathon, Tahmurath, Tahor, Taht Esmun, Taht-Esmun, Taijasa, Taijasa-bhuta, Taijasa-tattva, Taimuraz, Tairyagyonya, Taittiriya, Taittriya, Taka Mi Musubi No Kami, Tala, Talapoin, Talatala, Taley, Taliesin, Talisman, Talmidai Hakhameem, Talmud, Tamala Pattra, Tamala-pattra, Tamarisk, Tamas, Tamasa, Tamasha, Tamaz, Tamil, Tammuz, Tamra, Tamra-Parna, Tamra-parna, Tamti, Tamtu, Tanaim, Tanga-Tango, Tanga-tango, Tanha, Tanjur, Tanmatras, Tannaim, Tantalus, Tantras, Tantric, Tao Te King, Tao Teh Ching, Taoer, Tao-teh-king, Taparloka, Tapas, Tapasa-taru, Tapasvi, Tapasvin, Taphos, Tapo-loka, Tara, Tara-daitya, Taraka, Taraka Raja Yoga, Taraka Tarak‰, Tarakajit, Tarakamaya, Taraka-Raja-Yoga, Tarakasuras, Tarakasurs, Taramaya, Tarchon, Targum, Taro, Tartaros, Tartarus, Tashi Lama, Tashi Lhunpo, Tashilhumpa, Tasichozong, Tassissudun, Taste, Tathagatagupta, Tathagata-gupta, Tattva, Tattva-jnanin, Tattvatraya, Tattwa, Tau, Ta-urt, Taurus, Taut, Taw, Taygeta, Taygete, Tchaitya, Tchakchur, Tchakra, Tchandalas, Tchandragupta, Tchang-chub, Tchatur Maharaja, Tcherno-Bog, Tchertchen, Tchhanda Riddhi Pada, Tchigadze, Tchikitsa Vidya Shastra, Tchitta Riddhi Pada, Tchitta Smriti Upasthana, Tchy-Yeoo, Teachers, Teba`, Tebel, Tefnant, Tefnut, Tehom, Teimuraz, Tejas, Telchines, Teleological Principle, Telepathy, Telesphoros, Telete, Tellurian, Tellus, Telugu, Temple of Solomon, Tempter, Temura, Temurah, Ten Pythagorean Virtues, Ten Sho Dai Jiu, Ten-brel Chug-nyi, Ten-man-gu, Tenshoko Daijin, Tephireth, Terah, Teraphim, Teratology, Terrestrial Poles, Tertiary Age, Tertullian, Teshu Lama, Testimonium Paupertatis, Tet, Teth, Teth teith, Tethys, Tetractis, Tetrad, Tetragrammaton, Tetraktys, Tetratomic, Teufel, Teulu, Tevijja, Tevijja Sutta, Tezcatlipoca, Thalassa, Thalatth, Thales, Thallath, Thamasa, Thammuz, Tharana, Thar-lam, Thaumaturgy, Thavatth, The All, The Forty-nine Fires, The Four, the Four, The Ring, The Seven Jewels of Wisdom, the Three, The Two, Theanthropism, Theiohel, Theist, Theli, Theli tali, Themis, Themura, Theocrasy, Theodice, Theodicy, Theodidaktos, Theogony, Theoi, Theomachy, Theomancy, Theopathy, Theophany, Theophilanthropism, Theophilanthropists, Theophilosophy, Theopneusty, TheopÏa, Theopoea, Theosebeia, Theosophers, Theosophia, Theosophists, Theosophy, Thera, Therapeutae, Therapeute, Theraphim, Theravada, Thermodynamics, Thermuthis, Thermutis, Thero, Thesmophoria, Thetis, Theurgia, Theurgist, Theurgy, Theurgy theurgia, Thevetat, Thevetata, Third Eye, Third Logos, Third Root-race, Third Round, Third World, Thirteen, Thirty-two Ways of Wisdom, This, Thlinkithians, Thohu-Bohu, Thomas Charnook, Thomei, Thong-lam, Thong-lam-pa, Tho-og, Thor, Thor's Hammer, Thorah, Thor's Hammer, Thot, Thoth, Thothori Nyan Tsan, Thot-Sabaoth, Thought Transference, Thraetaona, Thread Soul, Thread-self, Thread-soul, Three Ancient Grand Masters, Three Degrees, Three Faces, Three Fires, Three Pillars, Three precious Gems, Three-dimensional, Three-in-One, Three-tongued Flame, Thretaona, Thrones, Thrud, Thrudgelmir, Thrudr, Thsang Thisrong tsan, Thumi Sambhota, Thummim, Thummim tummin, Thumoeides, Thumos, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Thyan-kam, Thymichon, Tiahuanaco, Tia-Huanaco, Tiamat, Tiaou, Tiau, Tibetan Book of the Dead, T'ien, T'ien Hsin, T'ien-chan, Tien-Hoang, T'ien-huang, Tien-Sin, T'ien-Sin, T'ien-T'ai, Tikkoun, Tikkun, Timaeus, Time, Tiphereth, Tiph'ereth, Tiqqun, Tirthakas, Tirthankara, Tirthika and Tirthyas, Tirthikas, Tirukkanda Panchanga, Tiryakarota, Tiryaksrotas, Tiryns, Tishya, Tishya tisya, Tismat, Tistrya, Titanidae, Titans, Tithi-Kshaya, titiksa, Titiksha, Tityus, Tivi, T'murah, To Agathon, To On, Tobo, Todas, Tohu Bohu, Tohu-vah-bohu, Tomaso Campanella, Tong-pa-ngi, Tong-pa-nid, Tongshaktchi Sangye Songa, Toom, Tope, Tophet, topheta, Torah, Toralva, Tortoise, Touch, Toum, Tower of Babel, Towers, Toyambudhi, Trailokya, Traividya, Trance, Transcendentalists, Transfiguration, Transformation, Transformism, Translucid Earth, Transmigration, Transmutation, Transubstantiation, Trees of Life, Trefoil, Treta Yuga, Tretagni, Triassic, Tribal Generation, Tribal Race, Tribeni, Tribhuja, Tribhuvana, Tri-bhuvana, Tri-bochana, Tricephalos, Tridandi, Tridandin, Tridasa, Tri-dasha, trideni, Trigunas, Trijnana, Trikaya, Trikephalos, Trikuta, Tri-kuta, Trilcohana, trilocana, Trilochana, Triloka, Tri-loka, Trilokya, Trimorphos, Trimurti, Tripada, Tripitaka, Triplex, Tripurantaka-Siva, Tripurasura, Triratna, Trisarana, Trisharana, Trishna, Trishula, Trisula, Trisuparna, Triteye, Trithemius, tritiya, Triton, Triune, Trividha Dvara, Trividha-dvara, Trividya, Trivikrama, Triyana, Triyuga, Trizna, Trojans, Troll, Trophonius, Tropical Year, Trulpa, Tsaba', tsaddiq, Tsadiq, Tsadoq, Tsala, Tsanagi-Tsanami, Tsang bTsan, Tsaphon, tsaphon, -Tsebaoth, Tseba'oth, Tsedeq, Tsela`, Tselem, Tsien'sin, Tsien-Sin, Tsien-sin, Tsien-Tchan, Tsimtsum, tsipporah, Tsiruph, Tsi-tsai, Tso-ch'an, Tsong-kha-pa, Tsu No Gai No Kami, Tsulma', Tsung-men, Tsurah, Tuan Ying T'u, Tuat, Tubal Qayin, Tubal-Cain, Tukui, Tula, Tulku, Tullia, Tulpa, Tum, Tumo, Turanian, Turiya, Turiya Avastha, Turiya-avastha, Turiya-samadhi, Turvasa, Tushita, Tushitas, tusitas, Tvashtri, tvastr, Twashtri, Twelve, Twice-born, Twilight, Twin-Souls, Two-dimensional Space, Twofold Man, Tylwyth Teg, Tyndareus, Tyndaridae, Tyndarus, Types, Typheus, Typhoeus, Typhon, Tyr, Tzaila, Tzedeq, Tzelem, Tzigadze, Tzim-tzum, Tziruph, Tzite, Tzon-kha-pa, Tzool-mah, Tzuphon, Tzurah, Tzure, Tzyphon,

More sitemaps here:

Theosophy Dictionary

Theosophy Dictionary - A, Theosophy Dictionary - B, Theosophy Dictionary - C,
Theosophy Dictionary - D, Theosophy Dictionary - E , Theosophy Dictionary - F,
Theosophy Dictionary - G, Theosophy Dictionary - H, Theosophy Dictionary - I,
Theosophy Dictionary - J, Theosophy Dictionary - K, Theosophy Dictionary - L,
Theosophy Dictionary - M, Theosophy Dictionary - N, Theosophy Dictionary - O,
Theosophy Dictionary - P, Theosophy Dictionary - Q, Theosophy Dictionary - R,
Theosophy Dictionary - S, Theosophy Dictionary - T, Theosophy Dictionary - U,
Theosophy Dictionary - V, Theosophy Dictionary - W, Theosophy Dictionary - X,
Theosophy Dictionary - Y, Theosophy Dictionary - Z,

Also see these pages for material related to Theosophy:

Sanskrit Dictionary , Hinduism Dictionary , Buddhism Dictionary, Mysticism Dictionary , Spiritual Dictionary

Read more here: » Theosophy Sitemap I - T

SET/SETH

Dark god of Egypt -- ruled the Redlands, or Desert, hence those things that were most fearful to the Egyptians. Sometimes associated with Satan. That etymological connection, however, is very uncertain. Satan, in Hebrew means "to accuse," hence Satan is the "adversary" or "critic." On the other hand S-T or Sh-T, in Egyptian, nearly always has something to do with the "South" or travel thereto, a sense that is totally lacking in the Hebrew word.

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

Castes, Hindu. See CHATUR-VARNA

(See also: Castes, Hindu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

TRINITY, CHRISTIAN

The Trinity derives from the Neoplatonic, Gnostic understandings of ancient philosophy in which 3 basic facts prevail:

a) There is one Immutable, Ineffable, Pre-manifestational Reality.

b)  Everything is periodic or cyclic.

c) The cosmos is a hologram in which each  part is a reflection of the whole.

These 3 facts are symbolized in Hinduism by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; in Egypt by the Uas, the Ank and the Djed and in Xtianity by "Father, Son and Holy Ghost." In my own system, I sometimes refer to them symbolically as Abraxas, Khronos and Isis.

Spiritus Sanctus est Spiritus in Materia. Id Est Aqua Hydor Theon Hypostatis Metres. The sanctified spirit is that which has been made into matter, that is put into water. Mary impregnated by the Holy Ghost is just another way of saying that many are conceived naturally. To be baptized is to be born into the body, i.e., to manifest.

Speaking out of the "Holy Ghost," which is apparently what all masses, communions, oblations and sacrifices refer to, any sexual act itself joins or reaffirms the "hologram" to the Unity. In the embrace of another, the Holy Ghost re-connects, in a physical way, its separations. The two, formerly separate and opposed, have created a third thing, which is their union. (What happens on the physical level is simple reproduction and is of no metaphysical concern, except insofar as it paralyzes spiritual "reproduction"). The Xtians prefer to do all this symbolically, what with their "brides of Christ" and all. Moreover, when we speak of Mary as "conceived by the Holy Ghost," we simply mean metaphorically that she has conceived "naturally." The Satanists, therefore, assume (incorrectly) that overt, gross public copulation or multiple orgies constitute a defilement of Christ, when in fact, the Son is hardly involved with sex at any level and the Holy Ghost, actually, is exalted by "publicity." The true "sin against the Holy Ghost" is not blasphemy per se, but commercial advertising (including Church propaganda) or special interest exploitation which seeks to use, abuse, pollute, destroy, subvert or pervert the unity, ecology or collective holo-mind/body/spirit of the world for the sake of personal, private gain.

The "sacrifice of the child" -- that is, not the actual, living child, but merely the protoplasm of conception --which is what takes place in redirected or deferred heterosexual orgasm (can we refer to this as "tantric" sex?) should be especially appealing to us in today's crisis of pathological Mega-Birth. That is, it has much needed Neo-Catharist overtones. But the creation of a Moonchild (described by Crowley, Grant, Parsons, et al.) would apparently be the opposite goal, resulting in the "psychic foetus" of an astral entity.

We mustn't overlook the meaning of homosexuality and masturbation, however, since these lead to culminations without any question of issue from outset, and so, constitute refinements on sex magick. Grant, in his Nightside of Eden says that the "qliphotic" version of Arcanum XIII, "Death," is sodomy. In other words, sex which avoids the production of life is absolutely restricted to physical re-union of Self with Other. And the only other "physical" way we can "reunite" is to pass through the gates of Death. Thus heterosexual "tantric" sex and homosexuality are exactly the same thing so far as the physical plane goes. The union of homosexuality, however, extends beyond Eros into brotherhood and thus is closer to the "spirit" of the "Holy Ghost."

Since the union of self with other is specifically what we're concerned with, masturbation would seem to be pointless until we recall that the purpose of union is not orgasm. Orgasm merely affirms the authenticity of the union. Whether the "other" is another person (or thing!) or one's own body, scarcely matters. Mind and body are reunited in all cases. The physical is simply the mirror of the spiritual. For the solitary union of self with other, the orgasm is not just the ultimate and most subtle link, its the only link between the physical and spiritual planes. As a device for astral impregnation, moonchildren aside, masturbation obviously ought to be considerably more effective than sex with a physical partner (provided it doesn't degenerate into sense-gratification). But as a substitute for "transcendental sodomy" it is much less satisfactory.

Finally, I'm bound to say that those who have closed and forever locked the sexual door may still be able to unite self and other in a number of asexual, exotic and abstract ways, some of which may have a certain limited but unique value.

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

FAITH

Current sloppiness of language attaches the same simple-minded and lackluster meaning to "belief" and "faith" alike. Faith is not a synonym for superstition, nor does it even mean strong belief. It is a state of mind characterized by a supreme trust in the rightness of whatever may happen and a sublime indifference to one's future well-being or survival. It need not be based on any religion at all. It doesn't even have to be specific.

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

ELEMENTS

The four principles of reality. They derive their nature from the phases of the Moon (Waxing, Full, Waning, Disappearing) and can be associated with the four points of the compass (see TETRAMORPH), but we should be wary of trying to assign a logical progression to them. For instance, science tends to see them merely as matter, energy, space and time. But contemporary scientific rationalism does not apply to ancient intuitional philosophy.

The ancients were correct to advise us not to try to separate the elements from one another (the "unified field" theory, however, doesn't apply to this aspect either). They take their being from the context of one another acting in unison. Thus Earth is the materialized, magnetic form which seeks contraction (coagula) and Air is the medium of space, freedom and dispersion (solve). Water is the dual flow of involution and evolution, the End and the Beginning, quicksilver-like Creation and Dissolution, Surface and Depth. The waters are divided into the upper waters of the potential and the lower waters of the actual. Water is the element of transition between the other elements. Fire, the plasmic state of transmutation, is the energy behind all things.

Each element is unique in its relationship to the others and in fully exercising that uniqueness, disappears. Water confluences the elements into a duality, Earth contains them all and is their united totality. Air is the separation in which they individuate themselves and vanish, while Fire is the uniqueness itself that extracts anything from its context, particularly the separation of "something" from Nothing, or vice-versa.

The quartering of the elements takes innumerable forms. Eliphas Levi, for instance, even gives a tetramorphic quaternity to Alchemy (Salt, Sulphur, Mercury and Azoth) and to the Qabalah (Macroposopus, Microposopus and the 2 "Mothers").

In Facing the Sphinx, Marie Farrington gives the number of elements as seven: earth, water, fire, air, ether or vapor, blossom (the seminal principle) and the Wind of Purpose (or Ghost). Amongst the Hindus the sixth was Bala-Rama, "the representation of masculine virility, the semen virile. The 7th was the summit and soul of the rest." In Ancient China, we observe earth, water, fire, wind and space (wood is only a physical element). The seven Latin verbs are Velle, Audere, Scire, Tacere, Revelare, Resurgere, Renunciare.

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

Crux Ansata (Latin). The handled cross,T; whereas the tau is T, in this form, and the oldest Egyptian cross or the tat is thus +. The crux ansata was the symbol of immortality, but the tat-cross was that of spirit-matter and had the significance of a sexual emblem.

The crux ansata was the foremost symbol in the Egyptian Masonry instituted by Count Cagliostro; and Masons must have indeed forgotten the primitive significance of their highest symbols, if some of their authorities still insist that the crux ansata is only a combination of the cteis (or yoni) and phallus (or lingham). Far from this. The handle or ansa had a double significance, but never a phallic one; as an attribute of Isis it was the mundane circle; as symbol of law on the breast of a mummy it was that of immortality, of an endless and beginningless eternity, that which descends upon and grows out of the plane of material nature, the horizontal feminine line, surmounting the vertical male line - the fructifying male principle in nature or spirit. Without the handle the crux ansata became the tau T, which, left by itself, is an androgyne symbol, and becomes purely phallic or sexual only when it takes the shape +.

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

SYMBOL

A symbol, whose meaning is unconscious or indirect, must not be confused with a sign, which is obviously a resemblance or conscious pointer. A symbol represents something that can't be defined or expressed. Otherwise it is an allegory or a sign. A phallic symbol, for instance, is not a symbol because we know what it stands for. Nor is a skull a "symbol" of death. Nor are the cross (standing for Christ), a heart (standing for love) or a bird (standing for freedom) anything more than signs, i.e., equivalents. Examples of true symbols might be the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone, or even a personalized mandala, since we have no (conscious) idea what these things represent. Most certainly of all, Christ and Buddha are symbols of human perfection. A.B. says their purpose is pedagogical, preserving encapsulizations of truth and developing intuition. Moreover, every symbol can be read in many different ways. And there are four kinds of symbols (physical, astral, numerical, geometrical). There are also symbolic "books" of the "Masters," the words of which are interpreted by color, their position above or below the line, their connection to one another and by their "key," that is, right to left (greater cycles), left to right (lesser cycles), from above down (involution), from below up (evolution).

Postmodern man tends to believe that symbols generate meanings in infinite concentric waves from their centers. Indeed, symbols come to have different meanings in different times and places. For example, the triskelion, tripes, or "three-legs of man," originally meant the 3 ages riddled by the Sphinx or three faces of the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). But in Europe, according to Goblet d'Aviella (The Migration of Symbols) it eventually came to acquire purely political meanings, standing, amongst other things, for the "Land of the Three Capes," i.e., Sicily, for Norwegian royalty and for The Isle of Man. In our time many once very fertile and numinous symbols are all but dead.

Says Carlyle: "In a symbol lies concealment or revelation." And further, "It is in and through symbols that man consciously or unconsciously lives, works, and has his being."

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

RELIGION

The word "religion" derives from the Latin prefix, re (an intensive) + ligio, "to tie, to bind," hence "a practice designed to tie down tightly, as though by a spell-binding force." If religions were not impervious to change, they would quickly dissolve into the chaos of the occult.

Religion is worship. It is based on the strict separation of divinity and humanity. Magic, on the contrary, is the invocation or evocation of spirits or divinity based on kinship or identity with them.

Living religions begin by being as creative, spontaneous and iconoclastic as the arts. But that creative fire quickly damps down to immutable dogma and robot-priests. Worship for its own sake amounts to little more than useless idolatry. It is utterly infra dig for any intelligent human being. The sole purpose of ritual is the arousal of consciousness in the participant. When such awakening fails to take place, it is time to throw the ikons to the dogs. The universe is self-created and everything in it created itself and goes on creating itself. There are higher beings, to be sure, but it is a perilous mistake to worship "The Creator" who is as far from perfect as you can get and still live on this side of Nothing. Nor should we consider humanity, in its present condition, to be anything but imperfect. Along with Nietzsche, we should see man as capable of infinite improvement. But Nietzsche's so-called "superman" will never evolve without struggle -- and not be the easy struggle of fascistic tyranny over material forms, but by the infinitely more difficult way of universal internal enlightenment.

Since there are infinite levels of enlightenment the majority of people are incapable of consensus or agreement, hence any idea of a religious "congregation" is absurd. As for the profane multitudes... unaware that omniscience, omnipotence and immortality comprise the deepest foundation of existence, they consider their own confusion to be the highest expression of consciousness. The ultimate purpose of creation is to know itself through the experience of eternal expansion of the mind. It is physical or fiscal expansion, however, that is of primary interest to homo vulgaris.

The mission of the magician isn't necessarily to bring down the traditional houses of religion -- especially the monoliths: Islam, Christendom or Judaism. But neither can he support them. For it is a truism that there is wisdom in the individual and it is difference that we should value, not sameness. For the magician, far more acceptable alternatives to monotheism can be found in India, Egypt, Tibet, etc. with their practices of Lamaism, Tantrism, Yoga and so on, or in the atheistic systems of the Tao and Buddhism. But always -- though he understands and honors tradition, the magus creates his own rituals and observances, tailored to his own needs. He does not serve established orders. As Madame Blavatsky so hopefully put it, "There is no religion higher than truth."

RING-PASS-NOT

As the magician draws his circle to keep the demons from entering his world, so other monads draw their own circles to keep out the magician. The ring-pass-not is that Level of attainment beyond which you cannot go. In occult literature, according to Alice Bailey, it is a term used "to denote the periphery of the sphere of influence of any central life force, and is applied equally to all atoms, from the atom of matter as dealt with by the physicist or chemist through the human planetary atoms up to the great atom of a solar system. The ring- pass-not of the average person is the spheroidal form of his mental body which extends considerably beyond the physical and enables him to function on the lower levels of the mental plane."

HPB (The Secret Doctrine) defines the RPN as: "The circumference of the sphere of influence of any center of positive life. This includes the fire sphere of magnetic work of the solar orb, viewing it as the body of manifestation of a Solar Logos or to a planetary scheme and could equally well be applied to the sphere of activity of the human Ego."

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

OZ

A full statement of Thelemic law. See Crowley's Liber 77 (77 being the number of Oz). It is a Semitic root for "strength." Liber Oz was printed originally in 1942 and deals with Thelemic politics. During the creation, monsters from Unive rse B were irresponsibly unleashed, referred to in the Bible as Nefilim, "Giants" (literally, "fallen ones"). Says K. Grant, "The generic name for them is Oza, [of numerical value] 78, [the value] of Aiwass and of the influence from Kether (Mezla). The Oz is the entity that casts its monstrous and ape-like shadow over The Magician in Crowley's design of the Tarot Pack (Atu II, ascribed to Mercury and hence the Ape of Thoth)." All manifestation is illusion, including the words of creation, and the Dog-Headed Ape mocks even the languages of the Gods. Personal revelations indicate that Oz is the "home of the Beast-Doom" (Typhon as shown on the Tenth Enigma of the Book of T), i.e., the lowest circle of Hell, Hades.

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

MOUNTAIN

Mountains, being the exaltation of earth and the home of the gnomes, mountains enjoy special occult prestige. Mt. Meru was to the Hindus the navel of the world, Mt. Olympus the home of the Greek Gods, and so on. The Chinese philosopher, Hiouen-Thsang found his deliverance to the Buddha in a mountain of light. Many magicians, Crowley in particular, were fond of alpinism because its sheer life-and-death physicality differs so markedly from the purely mental world of occult practice. In California, Mt. Shasta has recently been the site of much New Age work and the following verse is dedicated to it:

The Mountain of the Mountains

Oreads rise and climb with me,

As palmers did on  pilgrimage,

A very Ararat and magic Alp:

Whose craving peak a  snowy pyramid doth crown

A faerie kingdom high

Above all humdrum  vales.

Come with me where kappas reach,

Where Elementals and Archangels  teach,

Where Aliens craft down to visit Earth

And covered,  creviced Shangrilas do hide

Their minarets and migdalors

From  spies and eye of plane,

Where rainbow cliffs o'er green-decked  trees

Through gold-lipp't clouds connect

The several astral  skies.

-- Anon.

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

Quaternary Era or Period.

See GEOLOGICAL ERAS

(See also: Quaternary Era, Period , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)