N - Letter N - The 14th letter in both the English and the Hebrew alphabets. In the latter tongue the N is called Nun, and signifies a fish. It is the symbol of the female principle or the womb. Its numerical value is 50 in the Kabalistic system, but the Peripatetics made it equivalent to 900, and with a stroke over it (900) 9,000. With the Hebrews, however, the final Nun was 700.

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

Toward a Celtic Numerology

What's in a word? Or a name? What special power resides in a word, connecting it so intimately to the very thing it symbolizes? Does each word or name have its own 'vibration', as is generally believed by those of us who follow the Western occult tradition? And if so, how do we begin to unravel its meaning? Just what, exactly, is in a word? Well, LETTERS are in a word. In fact, letters COMPRISE the word. Which is why Taliesyn's remark had always puzzled me. Why didn't he say he had been a 'letter among words'? That, at least, would seem to make more logical sense than saying he had been a 'word among letters', which seems backwards. Unless...  

Read more here: » Paganism: Toward a Celtic Numerology

Nauthiz: The tenth rune of the Elder Futhark, representing the letter n.

Nauthiz is another rune closely associated with one of the three Norns, in this case Skuld, who rules the future.... The word Skuld relates to the Dutch and German word Schuld, meaning "debt," i.e., that which is owed.... The spiritual concept of this rune is necessity...

Also See: Nied

(See also: Nauthiz , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Nun: The fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, N. Represents the number 50 (or, as a final letter, 700). The eighth of the twelve "single letters." A Hebrew word meaning "fish." Corresponds to Scorpio, the 24th Path (between Tiphareth and Netzach), and Tarot trump XIII Death.

Odic Force: There is a specific type of energy that many occultists call the Odic Force (pronounced Oh-dek). It is believed to be the underlying principle, of metaphysical nature, behind the physical forces of electricity and magnetism (as well as light and heat). In metaphysical terms Od (pronounced like the word owed) is the very fabric of the universe and is present in all things to varying degrees.

(See also: Nun , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Nuin: The fifth letter of the Ogham tree alphabet, corresponding to the letter N and meaning "ash."

The ash has always been regarded as a magical tree... The challenge is to realize that things are not always as they seem.

Also See: Nin

(See also: Nuin , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Abracadabra (possibly from Celtic abra or abar god + cad holy; Blavatsky from an elaboration of the Gnostic Abrasax or Abraxas, a corruption of a Coptic or Egyptian magic formula meaning "hurt me not")

Mystical word used as a charm by the Gnostic school of Basilides. The Gnostic physician Serenus Sammonicus (2nd-3rd century) prescribed it as a remedy for agues and fevers. On amulets the word is often inscribed as a triangle with the point down, beginning with all eleven letters, below which are the first ten, and so on down to the single letter at the point. The power of any charm lies, not in the word itself, but in the hidden science connecting sounds and symbols with the potencies in nature to which they correspond.

See also ABLANATHANALBA

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

Name The Word or Logos may be considered in a twofold aspect as Voice and Name, reminiscent of the Sanskrit nama-rupa (name and form), technical terms inasmuch as nama is not merely a human utterance but contains the idea of creative sound, and rupa (form) signifying not so much mere vehicle, but the conscious production of the creative akasa or sound.

In Simon Magus' Gnostic system, the first three pairs of emanations from divine fire are mind and thought, voice and name, reason and reflection; the first in each case is masculine, the second feminine. A name evokes a thought, which is a creative power, but in itself is the production of a creative thought.

People have concealed their names; others refrain from speaking theirs. The name becomes much more potent when spoken, for then is added the power of vibration. Most names of things are counters, for they differ in different languages; yet even these names acquire power by familiarity. But there are real natural vibrational names for things; to know the real name of a power gives one mastery over it and enables one thus to evoke that power. For this reason great secrecy throughout all past time among initiates has been preserved as to the real names of powers, deities, etc. The four-letter name of Jehovah is popularly described as ineffable and incommunicable, although the four letters are merely human makeshift for the vibrational energy of which the Tetragrammaton is a mere symbol. These epithets may mean that it cannot be spoken and communicated, or that it must not. If it cannot be spoken, then it has to be discovered by each one for himself.

Says the Christian Apocalypse: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." The name thus denotes the essential character of the being.

(See also: Name , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Paul A man by legend said to be of pure Jewish birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, at first a persecutor of Christians but who underwent a mystic enlightenment of which he speaks. His various letters prove that he was an initiate.

He recognizes Christ -- the Christos -- as being principally the higher self in man, and strives to convey this truth to the minds of many congregation, adapting it to their power of comprehension. He evidently does his best to promote as high an interpretation of Christianity as might be possible among the varied and unpromising, and often indeed refractory, elements which he found at hand.

His failure to mention the familiar gospel stories is due to the fact that the Gospels are of much later date. The brand of Christianity which has prevailed during the centuries would have been very different if Paul's philosophic teachings had been taken more seriously, for they are in the main clear enough even without any esoteric key.

Often they have been disfigured in interpretation, as in the doctrine of justification by faith and not by works, attributed to him. On reading Romans 3 with an unprejudiced eye, we find him insisting that man is not made virtuous by following the letter of the law and doing pious deeds alone, but also by pistis -- a full realization of the truth and determination to follow it. This has become perverted into the dogma that man cannot be saved by any amount of good deeds alone, but must believe that Jesus died in propitiation for his sins.

A contrast has been made between the teachings of Paul and of Peter -- respectively often referred to as the Pauline and Petrine theology -- as representing pagan and Jewish Christianity respectively; and these two have been the occasion of controversies and attempted reconcilements.

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

Pali Chanting in the Theravada Buddhist Tradition

With translation to enlglish, including

Vandan a - Homage to the Triple Gems

Ti-Sarana - The Three Refuges

Panca-sila - The Five Precepts

Buddha Vandana - Homage to the Buddha

Dhamma Vandana - Homage to the Teachings

Sangha Vandana - Homage to the Disciples of the Buddha

Maha-Mangala Sutta - Discourse on Blessings

Karaniya Sutta - Discourse on Loving Kindness

Ratana Sutta - The Jewel Discourse

Read more here: » Buddhism: Pali Chanting in the Theravada Buddhist Tradition

Dream Dictionary Index with links to 10.000 dream interpretations from many different sources.

Please note that all words in grey are hyperlinked to an archive with articles related to that word, including dream interpretations.

For more dream interpretation, see: Meaning of Dreams or Dream Dictionary

For articles about dreams, see: Dreams

Read more here: » Dream Interpretation Index: Dream Interpretation Index including links to 10.000 dream interpretations

Alectryomancy, Alectoromancy (from Greek alektyon, alektor cock)

Divination using a cock or other bird; "a circle was drawn and divided into spaces, each one allotted to a letter; corn was spread over these places and note was taken of the successive lettered divisions from which the bird took grains of corn." (TG 16)

(See also: Alectryomancy, Alectoromancy , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Abiegnus Mons (Latin) (from abies fir-wood, a letter inscribed on a wooden tablet + mons mountain)

Wooded mountain; according to Wynn Westcott, a mystic name "from whence, as from a certain mountain, Rosicrucian documents are often found to be issued -- 'Monte Abiegno.' There is a connection with Mount Meru, and other sacred hills" (TG 3).

(See also: Abiegnus Mons , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mantra (Sanskrit) That portion of the Vedas which consist of hymns as distinct from the Brahmana and Upanishad portions. The mantras considered esoterically were originally as magical as they were religious in character, although the former today is virtually forgotten, although remembered as a fact which once was.

In the composing of the mantras the rishis of old knew that every letter had its occult significance, and that the vowels especially contain occult and even formidable potencies when properly chanted. The words of the mantra were made to convey a certain hid meaning by certain secret rules involving first the secret potency of their sound, and incidentally the numerical value of the letters; the latter however was relatively unimportant. Hence their merely verbal significance is something quite different from their meaning as understood of old.

The language of incantations or mantras is the element-language composed of sounds, numbers, and figures. He who knows how to blend the three will call forth the response from the regent-god of the specific element needed. For, in order to communicate with the gods, men must learn to address each one of them in the language of his element. Sound is "the most potent and effectual magic agent, and the first of the keys which opens the door of communication between Mortals and the Immortals" (SD 1:464).

The hidden voice or active manifestation of the latent occult potency of the mantras is called vach. The would-be magician attempting to evoke the "spirits of the vasty deep" by uninstructed chanting or singing of any ancient mantras will never succeed in using the mantras effectively in a magical way, until he himself has become so cleansed of all human impurities as to be able at will and with inner vision to enter into communion if not direct confabulation with the inner realms.

The Scandinavian runes in certain respects correspond to the Hindu mantras.

(See also: Mantra , Mysticism, Mysticism 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)

Logograms (from Greek logos words + gramma letter)

A single letter or other sign representing a whole word. Many ancient esoteric writings are written wholly or partially in logograms, such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, certain names in the Vedas, and to some extent in the Bible, so that they have a hidden meaning beneath the sense of the words and sentences. The Chinese written language itself is logographical. In Hebrew and Greek, letters represent numbers, which also is often a key to hidden meanings.

See also GEMATRIA

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

Smartava (Sanskrit) [from smriti tradition from the verbal root smri to remember]

A follower of Sankaracharya and the Advita Vedantic doctrines.

According to Blavatsky "this sect, founded by Sankaracharya, (which is still very powerful in Southern India) is now almost the only one to produce students who have preserved sufficient knowledge to comprehend the dead letter of the Bhashyas. The reason of this is that they alone, I am informed, have occasionally real Initiates at their head in their mathams, as for instance, in the 'Sringa-giri,' in the Western Ghauts of Mysore. On the other hand, there is no sect in that desperately exclusive caste of the Brahmins, more exclusive than is the Smartava; and the reticence of its followers to say what they may know of the Occult sciences and the esoteric doctrine, is only equalled by their pride and learning" (SD 1:271-2). What the original Hebrew Qabbalists were -- qabbalah itself meaning tradition or traditional knowledge handed down from generation to generation of adepts -- was exactly what the Smartava-Brahmanas were.

Traditional teaching holds that truth is preserved far more clearly by oral transmission of knowledge than by its reduction to writing, whether openly or disguisedly expressed, which latter is called sruti in India, involving the static delivery of the written word without the atmosphere and life accompanying the traditional handing on of knowledge orally.

(See also: Smartava , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Smaragdine Tablet The emerald tablet, alleged mystically to be of the Egyptian Hermes or Thoth, on which was inscribed, according to the Hermeticists, "the whole of magic in a single page."

In a letter to the Sophists, Paracelsus says: "The ancient Emerald Table shows more art and experience in Philosophy, Alchemy, Magic, and the like than ever could be taught by you or your crowd of followers."

Masons and Christian Qabbalists alleged it to have been found on the dead body of Hermes by Sarai, Abraham's wife; this allegory may mean that Sarasvati (wife of Brahma and a legendary prototype of Sarai) found much of the ancient wisdom latent in the dead body of humanity and revivified it. It is also said that the Emerald Tablet was found at Hebron, the city of the kabeiroi or cabiri (the gibborim, the Four Mighty Ones), by an Essenian initiate (TG 302, SD 2:556). It exists only in a late Latin form referred to the 7th century.

Hermes was the Greek god of mystical thinking and interpretations, corresponding to the Egyptian Thoth, both divinities being overseers or hierophants of works of initiation concealing the archaic secrets of the god-wisdom. Thus the ascription to Hermes of profoundly mystical allegories is properly assigned, whoever their actual writers may have been.

A fundamental law of interpretation -- analogy -- is expressed in the Emerald Tablet in the famous aphorism, "That which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below, is as that which is above, for performing the marvels of the Kosmos. As all things are from the One, by the mediation of the One so all things arose out of this One Thing by evolving . . ."

(See also: Smaragdine Tablet, Emerald tablet , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Shi`ites [from Arab shi`a sectary]

Moslems are divided into two main groups: the Sunnites, the most numerous, who accept the orthodox tradition (sunna), basing their beliefs on the words of the Koran); and the Shi`ites who uphold `Ali as the representative of Allah, and reject the pronouncements of the other caliphs. The shi`ites are located principally in Iran, although they are represented throughout the Moslem world. They incline towards interpreting the Koran, rather than holding to the letter of the law as do the Sunnites.

(See also: Shi`ites , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Gamma Third letter in the Greek alphabet. Its capital form often stands for Gaia, the goddess or divinity of earth, which in its cosmic aspect is the third stage of evolution. Alphabetically it corresponds to gimel, the third letter in the Hebrew alphabet; and in the English alphabet is replaced by the hard guttural, C.

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

Brihaspati (Sanskrit) (from brih prayer + pati lord)

Sometimes Vrihaspati. A Vedic deity, corresponding to the planet Jupiter, commonly translated lord of prayer, the personification of exoteric piety and religion, but mystically the name signifies lord of increase, of expansion, growth.

He is frequently called Brahmanaspati, both names having a direct significance with the power of sound as uttered in mantras or prayer united with positive will. He is regarded in Hindu mythology as the chief offerer of prayers and sacrifices, thus representing the Brahmin or priestly caste, being the Purohita (family priest) of the gods, among other things interceding with them for mankind. He has many titles and attributes, being frequently designated as Jiva (the living), Didivis (the bright or golden-colored). In later times he became the god of exoteric knowledge and eloquence -- Dhishana (the intelligent), Gish-pati (lord of invocations). In this aspect he is regarded as the son of the rishi Angiras, and hence bears the patronymic Angriasa, and the husband of Tara, who was carried off by Soma (the moon). Tara is "the personification of the powers of one initiated into Gupta Vidya (secret knowledge) . . .

"Soma is the moon astronomically; but in mystical phraseology, it is also the name of the sacred beverage drunk by the Brahmins and the Initiates during their mysteries and sacrificial rites . . . .

"Soma was never given in days of old to the non-initiated Brahman -- the simple Grihasta, or priest of the exoteric ritual. Thus Brihaspati -- 'guru of the gods' though he was -- still represented the dead-letter form of worship. It is Tara his wife -- the symbol of one who, though wedded to dogmatic worship, longs for true wisdom -- who is shown as initiated into his mysteries by King Soma, the giver of that Wisdom. Soma is thus made in the allegory to carry her away. The result of this is the birth of Budha -- esoteric Wisdom -- (Mercury, or Hermes in Greece and Egypt). He is represented as 'so beautiful,' that even the husband, though well aware that Budha is not the progeny of his dead-letter worship -- claims the 'new-born' as his Son, the fruit of his ritualistic and meaningless forms. Such is, in brief, one of the meanings of the allegory" (SD 2:498-9).

Tara's abduction gave rise to the Tarakamaya -- the first war in heaven. The earth was shaken to its very center and turned to Brahma requesting him to restore Tara to her husband, which request was granted. Soma had for his allies the Daityas and Danavas, whose leader is Usanas (Venus) and Rudra (Siva), while the gods who sided with Brihaspati were led by Indra.

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