Ring Employed in the early days of the Theosophical Society, especially in connection with the correspondence held by the mahatmas with A. P. Sinnett and A. O. Hume, to signify any one of the many evolutionary cyclings followed by the monads in and through the different kingdoms of nature, such as the elemental, mineral, vegetable, etc.

Any group of such monads thus collected together is called a life-wave. Every one of the seven, ten, or twelve classes of monads must follow every one of such rings in order to evolve the karmic and latent powers and capacities involved in the monad and held by it as evolutionary tendencies or urges.

In connection with the human kingdom or life-wave, ring or rings has been superseded by the term root-races.

See also ROUND

(See also: Ring, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Phlogiston [from Greek phlog fire]

In the 17th century modern chemistry was in process of birth and alchemical ideas still survived, particularly those of the four elements and of the triad of sulphur, salt, and mercury. Stahl (1660-1734) enumerated four elements -- water, acid, earth, phlogiston; and the phlogiston theory was elaborated by Priestley (1733-1804).

All combustible bodies, it was said, contain phlogiston, and when they are burnt the phlogiston leaves its latent state and escapes from the body in the form of heat and light, leaving behind the ash or dephlogisticated residue. For example, magnesium gives out its phlogiston in an intense light and an inert ash is left. But later chemistry banished the imponderables, and formulated a physical system composed of ponderable matter and energy.

Accordingly, when it was shown that the ash weighs more than the original substance, the phlogiston theory was abandoned, and in its place came abstract and indefinite conceptions quite as difficult of explanation as was the phlogiston theory itself, which may be grouped under the general term energy, and include heat, light, chemical energy, etc.

The more recent progress of science has proved that the atomo-mechanical system, the representation of the physical world as divisible into matter and energy, or mass and motion, however useful in interpreting molar physics and facilitating practical applications, does not suffice for an interpretation of the intra-molecular world. The distinction between matter (or mass) and energy has become obliterated.

The Mahatma Letters state that phlogiston is the lowest and densest form of a universal essence and serves as the vehicle for dhyanis of a corresponding degree (p. 56); and the name is also given to the magnetic electric aura of the photosphere (p. 164). The idea of phlogiston overlaps that of caloric, with which is it sometimes confused.

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

P'u-to (Chinese) A sacred island in China, a famous seat of Buddhist teaching. Many statues are erected to Kwan-yin, the patron deity, and to Kwan-shai-yin.

(See also: P'u-to, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

P'o (Chinese) In the I Ching "the full manifestation of the kwei" -- the kama-manas or animal soul.

(See also: P'o, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

P - Letter P. - The 16th letter in both the Greek and the English alphabets, and the 17th in the Hebrew, where it is called pé or pay, and is symbolized by the mouth, corresponding also, as in the Greek alphabet, to number 80. The Pythagoreans also made it equivalent to 100, and with a dash thus ( P) it stood for 400,000. The Kabbalists associated with it the sacred name of Phodeh (Redeemer), though no valid reason is given for it.

(See also: P - Letter P, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Pippala (Sanskrit) Also pimpala. The sacred Indian fig tree, Ficus religiosa, which holds a highly mystical and symbolic position in Hindu mythology. It is closely connected with the Asvattha, the cosmic Tree of Life, or tree of the cosmic hierarchical structure, thus symbolized also in other countries of the world.

It is interesting to note that both Asvattha and Pippala are names sometimes given to the sun, and that Buddhist legend has it that it was under such a tree, now commonly called the Bo or Bodhi Tree, that Gautama Buddha attained his final enlightenment.

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

Pippalada (Sanskrit) Eating the fruit of the pippala or Ficus religiosa; an ancient teacher of the Atharva-Veda, and also of a school of magic alleged to have been founded by him. The mystical significance refers to this tree's association with initiation or nirvanic attainment; it was under a pippala that Gautama Buddha is said to have attained nirvana, as well as buddhahood.

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

Saraph (Hebrew) Plural seraphim. Fiery, burning, glowing, filled with light and warmth; also serpent. In the Old Testament, the serpent that Moses is ordered to make is the mystical Saraph, and in this almost purely physiological connection it represents Jehovah, the chief of the fiery serpents (SD 2:387).

Flying serpent is the generally accepted translation of saraph me`opheph (Isaiah 30:6) -- commonly connected in Christian theology with the Devil; but the expression is metaphorical and has nothing to do with the Evil One. This curious, significant phrase more accurately means both covered or enwrapped flame or fire, or flying fire. And as saraph also signifies serpent, it could equally mean covered or concealed serpent, or flying serpent.

There is a strong mystical parallel, and possibly some remote etymological connection, between the Sanskrit sarpa (serpent) and the Hebrew saraph, the parallel doubtless arising in the same esoteric thread of mystical thought.

See also SERAPHIM

(See also: Saraph, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Saraswati, Dayanand.

See DAYANANDA SARASWATI

(See also: Saraswati, Dayanand, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarasvati, Saraswati (Sanskrit) The ethereal, the elegant one; the divine consort or wife of Brahma, his feminine alter ego, a later form or aspect of Vach (voice or the Word), a title of the Third Logos in Greece as well as in India.

This parallels the Bath Qol (daughter of the voice, daughter of the Word) of mystical Hebrew thought, which can be taken either as the feminine aspect of the Logos itself, or as its daughter -- the inspiration flowing forth from, or the feminine or vehicular side of, the Logos. The goddess of hidden learning and esoteric wisdom, Sarasvati is usually shown riding on a peacock with its tail spread. She is similar to the Gnostic Sophia, to the Sephirah of the Hebrew Qabbalah, and to the Holy Ghost of the Christians.

Sarasvati is also a sacred river spoken of in the Vedas, and as a river goddess she was often invoked to bestow vitality, renown, and riches; elsewhere she is described as moving along a golden path and as destroying the monster-demon Vritra.

(See also: Sarasvati, Saraswati, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Saratman (Sanskrit) [from sarva all + atman self]

The all-self; in the Vedas, the all-pervading spirit of the universe.

(See also: Saratman, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarcode sarkodes (Greek) Fleshly; the name given by Dujardin (1835) to the rudimentary substance of unicellular organisms, and since replaced by the words protoplasm or bioplasm.

(See also: Sarcode, sarkodes, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarcophagus (Greek) Flesh-eating; limestone in Assus in the Troad had the property of consuming the bodies placed in coffins made of it, and so was called sarcophagos lithos (flesh-eating stone) or lapis Assius (stone of Assus), and the name came to be applied to stone coffins in general.

A sarcophagus was placed in the adytum of a temple and mystically signified the matrix of nature and resurrection. In initiation ceremonies the candidate, representing the energizing ray, descended into the sarcophagus representing nature's fecund womb, and emerged therefrom, which symbolized resurrection after death. In the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid, the candidate descended into the sarcophagus, where his body was entranced while his spiritual ego confabulated with the gods, descended into Amenti or the Underworld, and did works of charity to invisible beings; being carried during the night before the third day to the entrance of a gallery where the beams of the rising sun awoke him as an initiate.

The Mysteries of ancient times, and the rites connected with them, were very largely based on the secret and carefully hid events which occurred to a person after death, so that the secrets of death, and the resurrection from death, formed a large part of the initiation ceremonies of the ancient Mysteries. Thus it was that the sarcophagus or coffin, the emblem of death, held not only the physical body of the dead person, but likewise the entranced body of the neophyte whose soul was peregrinating into the invisible worlds and in and through the Underworld.

(See also: Sarcophagus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sargon Sharru-konu (Assyrian) Also Sarru-kinu. The legitimate king; of the two Sargons in Babylonian history, one is regarded as the first historical king in the old Babylonian period, whose reign has been placed about 3800 BC.

He ruled over northern Babylonia, making Agade (Akkad) his capital. He made conquests in Syria and erected the temple Eulbar in honor of Anunit. His story is cited by Blavatsky as the original of the familiar Biblical story of Moses: the mother of Sargon was a princess who placed her babe in an ark of rushes, sealing the ark with bitumen and setting it adrift on the river. The ark was found by a watercarrier, Akki, who brought up the child as his own. In time Sargon became the monarch of Babylonia, reigning at Agadi, which was near the city of Sippara (cf Zipporah, the name of the wife of Moses).

The second Sargon was king of Assyria from 722-705 BC.

(See also: Sargon, Sharru-konu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarira (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root sri to protect, shelter, enter into; or from the verbal root sri to waste away, decay]

Body, bodily frame; that which is impermanent and subject to dissolution.

(See also: Sarira, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarisripa sarisrpa (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root srip to crawl]

Those who wish to crawl or creep; a creeping animal, reptile, snake, insect, or anything which, being small, crawls or creeps. As a proper noun, a name of Vishnu, with reference to the preserver's constant vital essence pervading or creeping throughout the manifested universe.

(See also: Sarisripa, sarisrpa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarku (Babylonian, Chaldean) Light race; in the Babylonian legends, the name of one of the two first races. While the dark race (Zalmat-Qaqadi) was the first to fall into generation or mortality, the light race remained apart for a long while -- hence was considered to be a race of gods.

The dark race has also been called by Europeans the Adamic race, which was "one of the two principal races that exited at the time of the 'Fall of Man' (hence our third Root-race) . . ." (TG 384).

(See also: Sarku, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sapta-ratnani (Sanskrit) [from sapta seven + ratnani jewels]

Seven jewels; applied by the ancient esoteric schools of the Orient to seven key teachings or master keys, a knowledge of which gives one a relatively complete understanding of nature and its operations, being a synopsis of all possible human knowledge on this earth during this present fourth round. These seven key teachings when properly understood in all their ramifications and recognized to be absolutely interconnected in meanings, supply the student with a relatively complete picture of the sevenfold nature in both its spiritual and material aspects.

In modern theosophy, the seven jewels are given as reimbodiment, karma, hierarchies, svabhava, evolution, the two paths, and atma-vidya (self-knowledge, the One and the many).

(See also: Sapta-ratnani, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Saptarshis saptarsis [from sapta seven + rishi sage]

Seven sages or rishis; the seven great planetary spirits intimately connected with the constellation Ursa Major. Their names are commonly given as Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vasishtha.

"By the seven great Rishis, the seven great rupa hierarchies or classes of Dhyan Chohans, are meant. Let us bear in mind that the Saptarshi (the seven Rishis) are the regents of the seven stars of the Great Bear, therefore, of the same nature as the angels of the planets, or the seven great Planetary Spirits. They were all reborn, all men on earth in various Kalpas and races. Moreover, 'the four preceding Manus' are the four classes of the originally arupa gods -- the Kumaras, the Rudras, the Asuras, etc.: who are also said to have incarnated. They are not the Prajapatis, as the first are, but their informing principles -- same of which have incarnated in men, while others have made other men simply the vehicles of their reflections" (SD 2:318n).

The seven rishis are also said to mark the time and the duration of events in our septenary life cycle.

The stars of our entire galaxy are all intimately connected together, spiritually, intellectually, psychically, vitally, and physically, which means a connection extending back to a unity of origin in a past so greatly remote that its period can be reckoned only in astronomical figures. In an exactly similar way all the planets of our solar system, especially the so-called seven sacred planets of the ancients, are connected in origin in a distant past, although in a past greatly nearer than the former.

(See also: Saptarshis, saptarsis, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sapta-samudra (Sanskrit) [from sapta seven + samudra ocean]

The seven oceans of the Puranas, whether cosmic or terrestrial, the latter referring to geologic ages. Mystically, the seven globes of our planetary chain (cf Sapta-sindhavas).

(See also: Sapta-samudra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)