Gemstones and the Vedas

Since ancient times India has been a source of gems and the knowledge of their uses. They were valued for healing, and for spiritual reasons. Their use as an ornament was of secondary importance. Gems were known to increase the flow of different energies. Individuals would use them both for their own personal uses, and in places where many could benefit from their energies, as in temples dedicated to God.

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New Age: The modern movement that involves combining metaphysical concepts with the practice of an organized religion.

(See also: New Age , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

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Amish

Christian sect founded by Swiss Mennonite, Jacob Amman, who came to America in the 18th century, noted for a traditional, non-technological lifestyle

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Great Awakening

A Christian revivalist movement that swept the American colonies from 1725 to 1760. In experiences of ecstatic joy and release, converts "awakened" to Christ and knew him experientially. By 1730, Theodore J. Frelinghuysen, a Dutch Calvinist, and Gilbert Tennent, a revivalist Presbyterian, had begun the Awakening from their churches in New Jersey. In 1734, Jonathan Edwards, the most formidable apologist for this experiential religion, witnessed to the "surprising work of God" in his Congregationalist church at Northampton, Massachusetts. British evangelist George Whitefield toured the colonies between 1738 and 1740 lending impetus and cohesiveness to the movement. Itinerant revivalists carried the Awakening to the South.

Its distinguishing characteristics included the insistence on the personal nature of conversion to Christ, itinerant ministry, and a novel preaching style appealing openly to the emotions. Mobile ministry and individual conversion tended to undermine the parish structure of the old tax-supported churches and led to a proliferation of separate and voluntary ones. The revivalists succeeded in revitalizing colonial Protestantism by a typically modern appeal to individual experience. They accommodated New World Calvinism and Anglicanism to conditions of dramatically expanded personal liberty.

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Chai

(Chinese, "fast") In Taoism, rites of fasting, repentance, or purification. The term refers to rites on behalf of the living and the dead, including exorcism, protection from illness, securing houses, and recitations for salvation. Unlike related folk rites involving animal sacrifice and alcohol, the Taoist rite stresses the offering of petitions and confessing of sins.

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Holistic Health - N

Holistic health sees the body as an inter-related organism. Its goal is to treat the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) as opposed to merely treating a particular sickness.

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Alien

An intelligent extraterrestrial being; of extraterrestrial origin; non-human. A visitor from another planet, another world or dimension.

Eyewitnesses report a number of different types of alien creatures; in fact, they vary in almost every imaginable way. These reports have been around for centuries, but the number of sightings have increase dramatically since the first flying saucers were seen in the late 1940's. And the aliens come in a baffling variety of shapes and sizes. Surprisingly, however, the aliens themselves are not so very different from human beings - most have two arms, two legs, and one head. For this reason some ufologists doubt their existence: surely, they say, visitors from outer space would not look so much like ourselves.

The late Carl Sagan , astronomer and author of ' The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective ', believes that the aliens sighted were "stodgy in their unimaginativeness" and were hence the inhabitants of human minds, not extraterrestrial spaceships. But whatever the experts may say, close encounters of the third kind continue to be reported till this day. See alien abductions, alien autopsy, men in black, UFO, area 51, flying saucer, grays.

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The ten Sepheroth

(emanations)

• Kether. Crown - Top of Head
• Hochma. . wisdom -Right Brain
• Binah. . Understanding - Left of Brain
• Hesed. . March - Right Arm
• Pechad. . Strength- Left Arm
• Tefereth. . Beauty-Heart
• Nezah. . Victory-Right of Pelvis
• Hod. . Glory-Left of Pelvis
• Yesod. . Foundation-Genitals
•  

The sephiroth form the central image of Kabbalistic meditation, the Sephirothic Tree of Life, which describes the path of descent from the divine to the material realm, and the path of ascent to the highest level of spirituality.

Each sephirath is a level of attainment in knowledge, corresponding to energy centers in the body, and is also divided into four interlocking sections or 'Worlds', which constitute the cosmos:

• emanation (Atziluth),
• creation (Briah),
• formation (Yetzirah), and
• action or making (Assiyah).

Through contemplation and meditation, similar to Eastern yogic disciplines, the Kabbalist ascends the tree of life.

The sephirot also comprise the sacred, unknowable, and unspeakable personal name of God: YHVH (Yahweh), the Tetragrammaton. So sacred is the Tetragrammaton that other names, such as Elohim and Jehovah, are substituted in its place in scripture.

A more systematic presentation of the basic doctrine is contained in Moses Cordovero's Pardes rimmonim (Garden of Pomegranates, 1548). Kabbalah was a major influence in the development of Hasidism and still has adherents among Hasidic Jews.

The Kabbalah, with its amulets, incantations, demonology, seals, and letter and number mysticism, had a profound influence on Western magical tradition. The Tetragrammaton especially was held in great awe for its power over all things in the universe, including demons.

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Transpersonal Psychology / Transpersonal Counseling

A school of psychology that aims at integrating Western science and Eastern thought by moving beyond Humanistic Psychology and its focus on the self or ego. Its orientation is a holistic one that focuses on the integration of mind, body and spirit and has ultimate psychological growth and well-being as its goals.

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11:11 - Eleven-Eleven

11:11 is said to be a pre-encoded trigger placed in our cellular memory banks prior to our descent into matter which when activated, signifies that our time of completion and ascension is near. It is believed that one knows when this particular gateway opens for them by continually seeing the numbers 11:11 in there every day lives as a continuous ocurrence. Activation of other gateways may be symbolized by other digits

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Charisma

An extraordinary power of leadership, often regarded as supernaturally bestowed, capable of arousing special loyalty or enthusiasm in followers. In the New Testament (especially 1 Corinthians 12-14) Paul presents a charism as a divine bestowal of power not capable of being induced by human effort.

It manifests itself in spiritual gifts (charismata) such as prophecy, healing, and speaking in tongues (glossolalia). This use of the term is appropriated by the modern Christian charismatic movement, whose members claim to reproduce these powers.

The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) expands this concept into a theory of leadership, both religious and secular, distinguishing charismatic authority from traditional and rational/legal authority. The former is found in the inherited office of kings, the latter in the legally defined and purposive bestowals of power characteristic of constitutional democracies.

The rational/legal and traditional types rely for their authority on extrinsic factors such as the inheritance of position or rationally justified powers of office; charismatic authority rests on the unique attributes of the leader. This individualistic quality results in the leadership of charismatic leaders being a stimulus to dramatic cultural change

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Druid

(Celtic, "true seer") A member of the priestly and intellectual elite of the Celts.

Druids were the religious and legal authorities in Gaul before its conquest by the Romans (51 BC) and were celebrated for their esoteric knowledge. The druid survived as a stock figure in medieval Irish literature. A priestly caste of the ancient Celtic people of France and the British Isles. They were the keepers of oral history and law, and officiates of religious practices.

Modern Druids are various new religious traditions that attempt to incorporate the insights of ancient Druidism, Celtic history and lore, and romanticized notions of the ancient Druids formed in the eighteenth century. In England today, there are the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and the Ancient Order of Druids, among others.

While there is no scholarly connection between the Druids and Stonehenge, the Ancient Order of Druids used Stonehenge for their rituals until instances of vandalism by the curious closed the ancient site.

In the United States, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) began in 1963 as a satirical protest against required attendance at chapel at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The RDNA developed rituals and lore from Celtic history, poetry, and anthropology, and the movement continued and became more serious, even after the chapel attendance requirement was dropped. The RDNA considered Druidism a philosophy of life, not a religion.

In 1966 the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA) reformed Druidism as a Neo- Pagan religion. A few chapters of both groups still exist. Other current American Druidic groups include Ar nDraiocht Fein ("Our Own Druidism"), founded by Isaac Bonewits in 1983. Currently the largest American revivalist Druid organization, it sees itself as a Neo-Pagan religion based on the beliefs and practices of the ancient Indo-Europeans but adapted to modern needs and sensibilities, such as the preservation of the earth and excellence in arts and scholarship.

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Aquarius

(Greek) "Waterbearer", 11th sign of the zodiac (approx. January 20 to February 20); ruler Uranus; the airy element; keywords: consecration, originality, eccentric innovative energy.

Recognized strengths: generous, inventive, detached, progressive, tolerant, ingenuous, open-minded, social, creative; problem-solver, humanitarian.

Potential weaknesses: unconventional, eccentric, changeable, independent to a fault, unsteady, aloof

(See also: Aquarius , Body Mind and Soul)

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Banshee

(Irish, bean, a woman, and sidhe, a fairie)

An attendant fairy that follows the old families, and none but them, and wails before a death. Many have seen her as she goes wailing and clapping her hands. The keen (caoine), the funeral cry of the peasantry, is said to be an imitation of her cry.

When more than one banshee is present, and they wail and sing in chorus, it is for the death of some holy or great one. An omen that sometimes accompanies the banshee is the "coach-a-bower" (coiste-bodhar), an immense black coach, mounted by a coffin, and drawn by headless horses. It will go rumbling to your door, and if you open it a basin of blood will be thrown in your face.

(See also: Banshee , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

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Power Centers, Power Spots, Power Places, Sacred Sites

Places on the planet that have extra special energy. Power Centers include places like Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid, Machu Picchu, Mt. Shasta, and the Vortexwa in Sedona. New Agers believe that Power Spots are directly connected with:

1)    Ancient civilizations

2)    Secret societies

3)    Flying saucers, and

4)    Planetary Chakras

New Agers like to visit Power Spots because they consider them places for

1)    Great Meditation and

2)    Great Sex

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Divination is the practice of ascertaining information from supernatural sources. If a distinction is to be made with fortune-telling, divination has a formal or ritual and often social character, usually in a religious context; while fortune-telling is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Divination is often dismissed by skeptics as being mere superstition: in the 2nd century, Lucian devoted a witty essay to the career of a charlatan, Alexander the false prophet, trained by "one of those who advertise enchantments, ...

Including:

• Divination - Methods of divination incomplete
• Divination - For further reading
• Divination - Popular
• Divination - Academic

Read more here: » Divination: Encyclopedia - Divination

Gaia

Greek - Earth) The goddess of the earth. It also refers to a scientific hypothesis formulated by James Lovelock whereby all living matter on the earth is believed to be a single living organism. In such a scheme, humanity is considered the nervous system of the living earth.

(See also: Gaia , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

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Jerome

(348-420) Also known as Eusebius Hieronymous, greatest of the early Roman Catholic Bible scholars. Jerome was the leading translator of the authoritative Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate.

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Ydromancy

Also known as hydromancy and hydrascopy, it is one of various different methods of predicting the future by means of water or rain. One technique supposedly involved a basin full of water which, at the command of the diviner, is activated by spirits in order to vibrate to a point where it appears to boil and give off meaningful sounds.

Methods of disturbing water (by means of suspended rings or by means of pebbles being dropped into the bowl) are also described as legitimate hydromantic techniques, and some diviners are supposed to read from the reflections on the surface or from the color of water, as well as from the movement of water in fountains or the pattern of ripples formed after an object is cast into the pool. Some of these techniques are Lecanomancy, Pegomancy, Eromanty and Castronomancy.

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Cosmic Consciousness - N

A spiritual and mystical perception that all in the universe is "one." To attain cosmic con-sciousness is to see the universe as God and God as the universe.

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teacher

1. A discarnate who relates to an entity for the purpose of introduction, instruction, guidance or serving in capacity of mentor

(See also: Teacher , Body Mind and Soul)

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Prana

The life force or energy which animates material forms. It is also present in breath. Prana can be compared to the concept of the "Breath of Life" in Genesis activating the created world and the physical being of man. Also Chi or Ki.

(See also: Prana , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

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