Organism Dictionary

Stone, Stones There is available numerous testimony as to animated stones, speaking stones, etc. There is the Christ-stone, which followed the Israelites; the Jupiter Lapis swallowed by Saturn; the testimony of Pausanias as to the Grecian worship of stones; the Ophites and Siderites, serpent-stones and star-stones, the former being alleged to have the gift of speech; the baituloi or alleged animated stones mentioned by Sanchoniathon and Philo Byblius; the liafail or speaking stone of Westminster; Pliny's stones which ran away when a hand approached them; the importance attached to stone monuments and rocking stones; etc. (SD 2:341 et seq). Again, we have the vast subject of talismans and of gems with potent properties.

A stone is an organism enshrining a divine spark or monad. The difference between the stone and the man consists largely in the fact that what is expressed in man is latent in the stone. Why then should not the hierophants of genuine magic or occult science have been able to evoke from the stone its latent potencies? Why should not particular stones, like particular plants, animals, or men, possess particular virtues?

Unless modern science is prepared to make of the physical atom a primordial existence, it must seek the origin elsewhere. Physical matter is a concretion of universal light or radiation; but it needs the eye of a seer to perceive what starry virtue lies sleeping in the gem or the talisman; the skill of the magician to known what can be done by placing stones in a particular grouping, perhaps with certain ceremonies, etc.

The word has symbolic uses, as in the white stone with a new name inscribed in it, which is given to him that overcomes in Revelations; the stone that the builders rejected; stones in the Guardian Wall; etc.

(See also: Stone, Stones , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

anthroposophical medicine (anthroposophically-extended medicine, anthroposophical therapeutics): Medical phase of anthroposophy, the occult philosophy of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Anthroposophical medicine, a extension of practical medicine, encompasses curative eurythmy. According to anthroposophy, the human organism consists of a physical body, a vegetal etheric body, an animalistic astral or soul body, and an ego or spirit. Anthroposophical remedies smooth the interaction of these components.

(See also: Anthroposophical medicine , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Omen [from Latin os mouth, as the voice of a god]

As in augury and divination, the laws of correspondences and of the interrelation of all parts of the cosmos imply that it is possible to interpret the invisible and to forecast the future by observing visible signs. The right interpretation of omens demands knowledge and skill, and the subject affords a fertile field for self-deception and quackery. As with astrology, an undue concern with influences tends to subject a person to them; it is advisable to discriminate between what might happen and what must happen.

There was in ancient times a fairly exact and, when properly practiced, accurate science of divination based on omens. Since the kosmos is an organism, an organic whole -- every part intimately interconnected with every other part, so that the smallest atom can affect a star as well as a star affect the smallest atom -- logically whatever happens takes place because of a chain of events; so if one knew enough and were wise enough to interpret what one knew, it would be a fairly simple matter not merely to understand the invisible from the appearances of the visible, but likewise to foretell the future.

(See also: Omen , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Gaia philosophy is a broadly inclusive term for related concepts that living organisms on a planet will affect the nature of their environment - to make it more suitable for life. This set of theories holds that all organisms on a planet regulate the biosphere to the benefit of the whole. The Gaia concept draws a connection between the survivability of a species, (hence its evolutionary course) and their usefulness to the survival of other species.

Read more here: » Gaia: The Gaia philosophy - an overivew

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.

(See also: Holistic Health , New Age, Body mind and Soul)

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)

Cell (from Latin cella a small room)

A small enclosed space; applied to the unit of organic life since the mid-17th century, when Robert Hooke, using one of the early microscopes, discovered that cork consisted of many little empty enclosed spaces separated from each other, which he called cells. A century later these cells were found to contain a semi-transparent substance occurring in all vegetable and animal matter, which thereafter was regarded as the basis of organic life and so received the name of protoplasm. The cells is a collective entity containing subordinate symbiotic entities. Its structure is divided into two major parts: the central nucleus which contains the genetic material, and the surrounding cytoplasm. Theosophically, human cells sprang originally from the inner human entity, who functions as their oversoul.

The earliest human root-races were astral protoplasts that reproduced by division as cells do today. The late second and early third root-races, the "sweat-born," reproduced by throwing off germ cells which then grew into the new entity. Because each cell is an individual being or organism with its own inherent characteristics and possibilities, some of these vital cells thrown off by early human beings were used by the entities that evolved into the higher mammals. Human cells were not as thoroughly dominated by their parent entity as they are today:

"Hence, when any one of the cells forming part of such early human bodies freed itself from the psychical and physical control that then existed, it was enabled to follow, and instinctively did follow, the path of self-expression. But in our days when the psychical and physical dominance of the human incarnated entity over the human cells composing the human body is so strong, and because the cells have largely lost their power to individual self-expression through the biologic habit of subjecting to that overlordship of the human entity, such an individualized career of a cell in self-development is a virtual impossibility. . . .

"These cells which compose his body, had they not been held in the grip of the forces flowing from the inner dominating entity, man himself, for so long a time that their own individual lives, as it were, have been overpowered and bent in his direction and can now follow almost no other path than his; had they not been so dominated they would, by the amputation of a limb for instance, immediately begin to proliferate along their own tendency-line, to build up bodies of their own kind, each one following out that particular line of life force, or progressive development, which each such cell would contain in its cellular structure as a dominant, thus establishing a new ancestral or genealogical tree" (MIE 144-5).

See also GERM CELL.

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

Secret Order

• To dream of any secret order, denotes a sensitive and excited organism, and the owner should cultivate practical and unselfish ideas and they may soon have opportunities for honest pleasures, and desired literary distinctions.
• There is a vision of selfish and designing friendships for one who joins a secret order.
• Young women should heed the counsel of their guardians, lest they fall into discreditable habits after this dream.
• If a young woman meets the head of the order, she should oppose with energy and moral rectitude against allurements that are set brilliantly and prominently before those of her sex. For her to think her mother has joined the order, and she is using her best efforts to have her mother repudiate her vows, denotes that she will be full of love for her parents, yet will wring their hearts with anguish by thoughtless disobedience.
• To see or hear that the leader is dead, foretells severe strains, and trials will eventually end in comparative good.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Secret Order , Meaning of Dreams about Secret Order , Dream Interpretation Secret Order )

A Theosophical definition of Invisible Worlds :

Invisible Worlds

The ancient wisdom teaches that the universe is not only a living organism, but that physical human beings live in intimate connection, in intimate contact, with invisible spheres, with invisible and intangible realms, unknown to man because the physical senses are so imperfectly evolved that we neither see these invisible realms nor feel nor hear nor smell nor taste them, nor cognize them except by that much more highly evolved and subtle sensorium which men call the mind.

These inner realms interpenetrate our physical sphere, permeate it, so that in our daily affairs as we go about our duties we actually pass through the dwellings, through the mountains, through the lakes, through the very beings, mayhap, of the entities of and dwelling in these invisible realms. These invisible realms are built of matter just as this our physical world is, but of a more ethereal matter than ours is; but we cognize them not at all with our physical senses. The explanation is that it is all a matter of differing rates of vibration of substances.

The reader must be careful not to confuse this theosophical teaching of inner worlds and spheres with what the modern Spiritism of the Occident has to say on the matter. The "Summerland" of the Spiritists in no wise resembles the actuality which the theosophical philosophy teaches of, the doctrine concerning the structure and operations of the visible and invisible kosmos. The warning seems necessary lest an unwary reader may imagine that the invisible worlds and spheres of the theosophical teachings are identic with the Summerland of the Spiritists, for it is not so.

Our senses tell us absolutely nothing of the far-flung planes and spheres which belong to the ranges and functionings of the invisible substances and energies of the universe; yet those inner and invisible planes and spheres are actually inexpressibly more important than what our physical senses tell us of the physical world, because these invisible planes are the causal realms, of which our physical world or universe, however far extended in space, is but the effectual or phenomenal or resultant production.

But while these inner and invisible worlds or planes or spheres are the fountainhead, ultimately, of all the energies and matters of the whole physical world, yet to an entity inhabiting these inner and invisible worlds or planes, these latter are as substantial and "real"  - using the popular word  - to that entity as our gross physical world is to us. Just as we know in our physical world various grades or conditions of energy and matter, from the physically grossest to the most ethereal, precisely after the same general plan do the inhabitants of these invisible and inner and to us superior worlds know and cognize their own grossest and also most ethereal substances and energies.

Man as well as all the other entities of the universe is inseparably connected with these worlds invisible.

See also: Invisible Worlds , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Group-souls The idea that there are entities which express themselves through the collectivity of the individuals of a race or nation, or other similar group, somewhat as the soul of a person may express itself through the collectivity of the living units which compose his organism.

However, the living units of our body do not of themselves engender a unitary entity but, having been drawn together by similarity of karma and by the vital magnetism of the imbodied soul, form the vehicle for the expression of the entity of a higher order. The individuals of a race or nation, though drawn by similarity of karma and character into the same race or nation, do not thereby constitute a vehicle for the manifestation of any entity of a higher order which is the predominant and almost exclusive factor in the case.

There are, nonetheless, such things as the national genius, which can be metaphysically explained by calling it a minor ray from the logos, to which belong the already relatively highly evolved individual units of the group thus overenlightened. Such a national or racial aggregation of individuals of like karma and character likewise create a vital atmosphere, a manifestation of the genius, which exists in the creative ideation of the planetary spirit, both as an imbodied idea and as an abstract spiritual entity. It is in this sense that such expressions were used in ancient Greek and other mythologies when speaking of nature spirits, genii loci, or denoting families and races by an eponym, ancestor, or the name of a god.

A misunderstanding of certain teachings has also given rise in some minds to the idea that animals, when they die, become merged in a group-soul, which is entirely erroneous when connected with the implication that they lose their individuality and do not reappear as the same partially egoic individuals. Every animal, as also every organism down to an atom, has its monad or permanent individuality, which is on the path of evolution just as human monads are, though at a lower stage.

This individuality cannot be lost. Yet the manifested quality of individuality is so little developed in the animals, as compared with human beings, that their monads to our minds, although not in themselves, are much more alike than are human monads, so that they seem to us to fall together more readily into a group. But the word group here is a collective noun and denotes an entity, but of an extremely abstract -- to us -- type.

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

Group-souls The idea that there are entities which express themselves through the collectivity of the individuals of a race or nation, or other similar group, somewhat as the soul of a person may express itself through the collectivity of the living units which compose his organism.

However, the living units of our body do not of themselves engender a unitary entity but, having been drawn together by similarity of karma and by the vital magnetism of the imbodied soul, form the vehicle for the expression of the entity of a higher order. The individuals of a race or nation, though drawn by similarity of karma and character into the same race or nation, do not thereby constitute a vehicle for the manifestation of any entity of a higher order which is the predominant and almost exclusive factor in the case.

There are, nonetheless, such things as the national genius, which can be metaphysically explained by calling it a minor ray from the logos, to which belong the already relatively highly evolved individual units of the group thus overenlightened. Such a national or racial aggregation of individuals of like karma and character likewise create a vital atmosphere, a manifestation of the genius, which exists in the creative ideation of the planetary spirit, both as an imbodied idea and as an abstract spiritual entity. It is in this sense that such expressions were used in ancient Greek and other mythologies when speaking of nature spirits, genii loci, or denoting families and races by an eponym, ancestor, or the name of a god.

A misunderstanding of certain teachings has also given rise in some minds to the idea that animals, when they die, become merged in a group-soul, which is entirely erroneous when connected with the implication that they lose their individuality and do not reappear as the same partially egoic individuals. Every animal, as also every organism down to an atom, has its monad or permanent individuality, which is on the path of evolution just as human monads are, though at a lower stage.

This individuality cannot be lost. Yet the manifested quality of individuality is so little developed in the animals, as compared with human beings, that their monads to our minds, although not in themselves, are much more alike than are human monads, so that they seem to us to fall together more readily into a group. But the word group here is a collective noun and denotes an entity, but of an extremely abstract -- to us -- type.

(See also: Group-souls , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ahath-Ruah-Elohim-Hayyim (Hebrew) One soul, gods, lives; the Ancient of the Ancient (the cosmic originant, the hierarch of a cosmic hierarchy) which, being the source of the universe rolled out from within its own divine essence, thus becomes the universe itself; the Ancient of Days -- not human days but cosmic manvantaras -- or the Ancient of the Ancient is the soul (ruah), which thus expresses itself through the hierarchies of gods ('elohim) and the innumerable minor hierarchies of lives (hayyim) of which the universe as an organism is built.

There is a close connection in thought with the theosophic and Hindu teaching of the atman or paramatman -- Brahman, the egg out of which the universe is born, filling the universe with divine and spiritual inspirations and dwelling in and working through the innumerable hierarchies of minor beings which compose and build that hierarchy, and which indeed are the universe. Another parallel is the Pythagorean teaching of Monas monadum (monad of monads). In the Qabbalah itself the correspondence is to Kether the Crown, out of which all the other, lower hierarchical grades flow emanationally.

This Kether, the highest of the Sephiroth, is the Macroprosopus (the great or immense cosmic face) -- an intuition of which may be gained by looking into the violet dome of night begemmed with worlds and instinct with life; the Chaldean 'Arik 'Anpin (the vast countenance of nature), hiding the indwelling spirit. Kether, Macroprosopus, 'Arik 'Anpin, and 'Adam Qadmon are but different manners of expressing the same hierarchical acme or originant which thus is the manifested vehicle of the Qabbalistic 'eyn soph, the parabrahman of the Vedantists, or the Boundless. Speaking of this phrase, Blavatsky remarks that it "denotes the Elohim as androgynous at best, the feminine element almost predominating, as it would read, 'One is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life" ' (SD 1:130n).

See also ARBA-IL

(See also: Ahath-Ruah-Elohim-Hayyim , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Homeostasis - The maintenance of steady states (well or healthy states) in the organism by coordinated physiological processes.

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

Waking State The state of human consciousness when perceiving the physical world, conscious of other people and things. Termed the jagrat state in Hindu philosophy, it is the lowest of the four states into which human consciousness is divided: jagrat, svapna, sushupti, and turiya.

The reason we cannot remain continuously in the waking state, but must seek another aspect of consciousness during sleep, is that "our senses are all dual, and act according to the plane of consciousness on which the thinking entity energizes. Physical sleep affords the greatest facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time it is a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapna and Sushupti. . . . As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water; so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical organism, and that the force of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep, and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in rhythmical vibrations of life currents -- golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness" (TBL 58).

Human beings, animals, and plants die not because of a lack of life, but because their vehicles become finally worn out, precisely because the life-currents within have become too strong, and the building power of the vehicles less able to repair the damages of the life-force. Paradoxically, it is the life-force which itself brings about both sleep and death, and thus life repairs its own damage, both building and destroying.

(See also: Waking State , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Human Kingdom One of the great kingdoms or divisions of monads on earth. Below it are the animal, plant, mineral, and also three elemental kingdoms; above are kingdoms of dhyanis or highly evolved human beings and gods. One of the critical points in evolution, at which self-consciousness is attained, although by no means fully developed. Here the spiritual and the material meet: the spiritual self finds its house in the organism built up of lower elements, and the two-natured human being of earth is thus formed. See MAN; ROOT-RACES

(See also: Human Ego , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Geological Eras When H. P. Blavatsky was writing about the age of the earth in The Secret Doctrine she compared the teachings of the scientists of that time and found nothing but confusion and uncertainty as to geological figures. However, Professor Lefevre in his Philosophy adopted an original method of interpreting the data available. Instead of trying to reach exact figures in regard to the length of the entire fossil-bearing period of sedimentation from the Laurentian period to the present day, or of its subdivisions, he worked out the relative durations of the sedimentary deposits.

With this for a background the actual duration of the eras and periods could easily be calculated when reliable evidence was found. Lefevre's studies were based on the erosion of rocks and the deposition of sediments, and his conclusions have stood with little modification till now. H. P. Blavatsky noticed that his estimates of the relative duration of the geological ages agreed fairly well with the 'esoteric' information in her possession, and so by adapting her knowledge of the real figures to Lefevre's proportional scale she constructed a time table which, she says, approximates the truth "in almost every particular." Her total of "320,000,000 years of sedimentation" is much less than that of modern geologists, even though she includes the Laurentian period in her table, which they omit. Her "Esoteric" table (Sd 2:710) is as follows:

ROUGH APPROXIMATIONS.

Primordial lasted 171,200,000 years.

Laurentian

Cambrian

Silurian

Primary lasted 103,040,000 years

Devonian

Coal

Permian

Secondary lasted 36,800,000 years

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

Tertiary lasted 7,360,000 years (probably in excess)

Eocene

Miocene

Pliocene

Quaternary lasted 1,600,000 years (probably in excess).

A glance at the modern table alongside hers will show how greatly modern geologists have extended their time periods. Two reasons are given for this great extension: first, the supposedly known and constant rate of radioactive disintegration in certain minerals found in the rocks; second, the modern belief that biological evolution by natural selection, etc., required far more time than formerly seemed necessary or permissible.

In her Esoteric table Blavatsky, following Lefevre's arrangement, combines the three oldest periods, the Laurentian, Cambrian and Silurian, into her Primordial era. The two latter are now placed in the Paleozoic era, and the Laurentian and older rocks are included within the preceding Precambrian era, an enormously long complex of sedimentary, plutonic and metamorphosed rocks lying in tangled confusion below the Paleozoic strata, and in which forms of life are very scanty or altogether absent. The Precambrian era was longer than all the subsequent eras combined, and probably covers much of the "third round" evolution of life on this globe, for Blavatsky says that her 320,000,000 years of sedimentation, which approximates to the time elapsed since the Precambrian era, refers to this round (the fourth) of the human life-wave, for "it must be noted that even a greater time elapsed during the preparation of this globe for the Fourth Round previous to stratification" (SD 2:715). The tremendous cataclysms and the general transformations of the earth's crust that took place at the end of the third round (greater than any of the "revolutions" that have happened since) destroyed nearly all traces of the third round forms of life. A few living entities, mostly or entirely marine, managed to exist in and survive the great disturbances during the dawning of the opening drama of the fourth round. Their fossils are found in the earliest periods of the Paleozoic era associated with the rather more advanced forms which gradually superseded them (SD 2:712).

The scheme of terrestrial evolution from the standpoint of the ancient wisdom given in The Secret Doctrine is, in a few words: the earth we see is the fourth of a sevenfold "chain" of globes which constitutes a single organism, as we may call it. The other six globes are not visible to our gross senses but the entire group is intimately connected. The vast stream of human monads circulates seven times round the earth planetary chain during the great cycle. We are now in the fourth circulation or round of the great pilgrimage on our globe and so this period is called the fourth round. While on our globe we pass through seven stages called "root-races," each lasting for millions of years. Each in its turn is subdivided into smaller septenary sections. Each succeeding root-race is shorter than its predecessor, and there is some overlapping. Great geological changes separate each root-race from its successor and only a comparatively few survivors remain to provide the seed for the next root-race.

The individualized life cycles in the rounds are associated with diversities in environment. Each round is a component part of a great serial order of evolution which may be summarized as the gradual descent of spirit into matter and the subsequent ascent. The first round, even on this globe, was highly spiritual and ethereal: the succeeding rounds are less so, until the middle of the fourth round is reached. After that axial period the process is reversed and by degrees the original state of ethereality is reassumed. A similar process takes place within each round, but on a minor scale -- smaller cycles within a dominant one. The physical condition of the earth's substance is modified in a corresponding way. The amazing modern discoveries of the nature of the atom, of its transmutations, and of the transformation of 'matter' into energy have removed any prima facie objections to such a process.

The first root-race of the fourth round was by far the longest of its seven root-races, because within it were included advanced monads from the third round or life-wave on this globe, called sishtas (those left behind to serve as "seeds of life" for the returning life-wave in the succeeding round), and other forerunners, who preceded by millions of years the main aggregation of monads that formed the first root-race properly so called. The second root-race was not so long as the first, the third was considerably shorter, and so forth. We are now about halfway through the fifth root-race, and two-and-a-half root-races are still to come before the end of the fourth round on this globe. The fourth round contains the period of greatest materiality for the vehicles of the monad during the entire seven rounds, and during this middle round the ascent of the ladder of spiritual unfoldment begins. Although the "physical" conditions of the entire fourth round were denser than those of its predecessors, the early part of the fourth, which includes the first and second root-races and most of the third, was still quite ethereal and no material traces of man have been left for science to discover. In the fourth root-race, the earth itself became hard and dense.

In regard to the dates and duration of the earlier root-races of the fourth round we are given but little information. We can, however, place the early root-races approximately side by side with the periods and dates given by H. P. Blavatsky in her Esoteric table and reach a fairly close idea of their antiquity. From some casual hints contained in The Secret Doctrine it is clear that the first root-race began before the Mesozoic (Secondary) era, most probably in the Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) period in the Paleozoic, but possibly earlier. According to the Esoteric table this could even be almost 150,000,000 years ago. The ethereal first root-race, which did not know physical "death," gradually blended with the second root-race in the Permian period.

It is noteworthy that there is some parallelism between the root-races and the periods beginning with great geological, climatic, and biological changes called by geologists "revolutions." This applies even to the earliest or ethereal races. At least four and possibly more have taken place, the most important and earth-shaking being that which ushered in the fourth round (about the end of the Precambrian era as already mentioned). As we are only in the fifth root-race no doubt we shall experience other cataclysmic changes during the closing period of this round on this globe. We read in The Secret Doctrine:

As land needs rest and renovation, new forces, and a change for its soil, so does water. Thence arises a periodical redistribution of land and water, change of climates, etc., all brought on by geological revolution, and ending in a final change in the axis. -- 2:726

The exact duration of the rounds or the root-races has never been given out; and the geologists are not inclined to commit themselves definitely in regard to the length of their eras and periods. But there is no doubt of the actuality of the serial events or cyclic repetitions and of the order in which they occur, irrespective of the number of years that may be assigned to them.

Nothing definite is revealed about the chronology of the four earlier subraces of the third root-race, but approximately exact figures are given for the first time when we reach the fifth subrace, and we learn that about 18,618,000 years have elapsed from that subrace to the present day. This period is called by Blavatsky that of "our humanity" because the characteristics of mankind as we understand it -- physically, emotionally and mentally -- showed their first indications in the fifth subrace.

We have, however, so greatly changed since the monad emerged from the shadowy ethereal vestures or vehicles of "pre-human man" that as Blavatsky says:

that which Science -- recognizing only physical man -- has a right to regard as the prehuman period, may be conceded to have extended from the First Race down to the first half of the Atlantean (Fourth) race, since it is only then that man became the "complete organic being he is now." And this would make Adamic man no older than a few million of years. -- SD 2:315

According to the dating in the Esoteric table, the third root-race was at its peak in the Jurassic period, becoming denser in the Cretaceous period and ending in the early Cenozoic era. It overlapped the fourth root-race, commonly called the Atlantean, which reached its middle period 8-9,000,000 years ago, near the beginning of the earliest division of the Cenozoic era, the Paleocene. The disastrous breaking up of the main Atlantean continental area occurred in the Miocene period, but portions such as the great islands, Ruta and Daitya, lingered until much later, and Plato's small "island of Atlantis" perished only 11-12,000 years ago.

As Vaivasvata's humanity, in which we are particularly interested, began to develop 18-19,000,000 years ago, it is obviously far older than the Cenozoic era which, according to the Esoteric table, began about 8,960,000 years ago, but here we find a striking unconformity between modern geology and the esoteric teaching. In several places Blavatsky envisages the possibility that the geologists might increase their estimate of the length of the Cenozoic era, and says that this would not be disturbing.

It may make our position plainer if we state at once that we use Sir C. Lyell's nomenclature for the ages and periods, and that when we talk of the Secondary and Tertiary age, of the Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene periods -- this is simply to make our facts more comprehensible. Since these ages and periods have not yet been allowed fixed and determined durations, 2½ and 15 million years being assigned at different times to one and the same age (the Tertiary) -- and since no two geologists and naturalists seem to agree on this point -- Esoteric teachings may remain quite indifferent to whether man is shown to appear in the Secondary or the Tertiary age. If the latter age may be allowed even so much as 15 million years' duration -- well and good; for the Occult doctrine, jealously guarding its real and correct figures as far as concerns the First, Second, and two-thirds of the Third Root-Race -- gives clear information upon one point only -- the age of "Vaivasvata Manu's humanity." (SD 2:693)

Though Vaivasvata's humanity -- our humanity -- has existed for 18-19,000,000 years, and for less than half that time we have been complete organic beings, we may look forward to many more millions of years before any radical changes will take place in our physical structure. During the fourth root-race, the Atlantean, the lowest stage of materiality was reached, and we in the fifth root-race are now somewhat less physically dense. By the time we attain the seventh root-race of this fourth round, in the far distant future, our flesh will have become much more refined and almost translucent, and near the close of the manvantara or great life-period of planetary evolution in the seventh round we shall have risen so far above the lower cosmic plane in which our earth now functions that our highly ethereal bodies "will become self-luminous forms of light."

(See also: Geological Eras , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Wraith, Wraie The fleeting apparition of a person, about the moment of death, to another person in kinship or psychomagnetic sympathy. Though wraith may cover different cases, in general it is due to the mayavi-rupa of the person who is dying. It is produced by his thought, though he is unaware of the effect he is producing. An intense and anxious thought about the person he wishes to

See becomes objective to the seer, and the apparition wears the aspect and commonly the ordinary clothing of the dying person. In some cases the apparition may not be due to any thought on the part of the dying person, but to abnormal sensitiveness or clairvoyance on the part of the seer. Being in close sympathy with the dying one, he bears the image of that one in his latent memory; and when the event occurs, his higher senses, being aware of it, cause the objectivization of this memory as a visual apparition.

The thought itself is objective to a mind capable of perception on that plane; but to become objective to the physical senses, it must clothe itself in matter of a lower grade; and this objectivization may vary from a picture in the mind's eye to an apparition seen by the physical vision. In any case the organism of the seer can provide the necessary vehicle for such an objectivization. Distance plays no part in the phenomenon, and there is no projection of a physically substantial body through space from one place to another. The above case should be distinguished from an appearance of the astral double seen near the graves of the recently deceased.

See also EIDOLON; PHANTOM; SPECTER

(See also: Wraith, Wraie , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Macrocosm :

Macrocosm

The anglicized form of a Greek compound meaning "great arrangement," or more simply the great ordered system of the celestial bodies of all kinds and their various inhabitants, including the all-important idea that this arrangement is the result of interior orderly processes, the effects of indwelling consciousnesses.

In other and more modern phrasing the macrocosm is the vast universe, without definable limits, which surrounds us, and with particular emphasis laid on the interior, invisible, and ethereal planes. In the visioning or view of the ancients the macrocosm was an animate kosmic entity, an "animal" in the Latin sense of this word, as an organism possessing a directing and guiding soul. But this was only the outward or exoteric view.

In the Mystery schools of the archaic ages, the macrocosm was considered to be not only what is hereinbefore just stated, but also to consist more definitely and specifically of seven, ten, and even twelve planes or degrees of consciousness-substance ranging from the superdivine through all the intermediate stages to the physical, and even to degrees below the physical, these comprised in one kosmic organic unit, or what moderns would call a universe. In this sense of the word macrocosm is but another name for kosmic hierarchy, and it must be remembered in this connection that these hierarchies are simply countless in number and not only fill but actually compose and are indeed the spaces of frontierless SPACE.

The macrocosm was considered to be filled full not only with gods, but with innumerable multitudes or armies of evolving entities, from the fully self-conscious to the quasi-self-conscious downwards through the merely conscious to the "unconscious." Note well that in strict usage the term macrocosm was never applied to the Boundless, to boundless, frontierless infinitude, what the Qabbalists called Eyn-soph. In the archaic wisdom, the macrocosm, belonging in the astral world, considered in its causal aspect, was virtually interchangeable with what modern theosophists call the Absolute.

See also: Macrocosm , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Plexus (Latin) A network, used anatomically for certain networks of nerves or blood vessels. The nerve plexuses forming part of the sympathetic nervous system are closely related functionally to the viscera, and serve as coordinating centers for the various nerve tissues which regulate their muscular and organic action. They are intimately related to mental and emotional states, to such an extent that the chief of them, the solar plexus, has been called the abdominal brain.

The word has been used in theosophy to translate the Sanskrit chakra (wheel, nerve ganglion), but these chakras are better defined as forming centers in the vital-astral constitution of the organism. They are centers or foci of pranic energy, having special qualities which may be correlated to other groupings, such as the seven principles, the seven rays, etc. The seven chakras are: sacral, prostatic, epigastric (solar), cardiac, laryngeal, frontal, and cavernous.

Any attempt by an untrained student, without a teacher, to try to develop these chakras is sure to cause disaster, since it can result only in the arousing of powerful forces which he has not yet acquired the means to control, and which will therefore control him. Once awakened, they cannot be put to sleep again, and the result will be disorganization, physical or mental or both, manifested in disease, insanity, depravity, or death; in the worst cases, the unfortunate dabbler may set his feet on a path of black magic ending in the final separation of his spiritual ego from its hapless psycho-vital-astral-physical vehicle.

The spiritual and higher intellectual powers and faculties must be cultivated first; and this cannot be done by any attempt at artificial stimulation based on fixing the attention on spots in the body or head. The only safe way to practice the chela life is to forget about the body and its mechanism, thus allowing evolution to proceed in its natural course, and dangerous forces to life quiescent until they come naturally and harmoniously into operation.

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

life

A spiritual state that may exist in multiple spheres of universe composed of varied combinations of matter, form, force. Generally refers to a living organism of material earthly substance possessing spirit transcending death. Life may be in evolutionary continuum

(See also: Life , Body Mind and Soul)

Epigenesis (from Greek epi upon + genesis production)

A biological theory of generation which holds that the embryo is created from the original germinal elements by a process of gradual evolution, i.e., by a passage from a relatively homogeneous condition to a specialized condition through a process of differentiation. This replaced the older idea of encasement according to which the future organism existed entire, but of microscopic dimensions, within the ovum, and was afterwards merely enlarged; and it also replaced the idea that the organism was formed by a relatively sudden accretion of parts derived from the corresponding organs in the parents. It thus accommodated embryology to the modern theory of evolution. It is open to the objections that by attempting to view growth as a purely physical process, development is made to appear as a process of accretion or adding together, instead of as a process of unfolding; and suggests the notion that something entirely new can be formed by such an additive process. But nothing can be formed unless it has previously existed in entirety, though on a subtler plane of materiality; and the coming together of physical elements is merely the filling in of a plan that has already been sketched. The astral prototype of the physical organism, seeking incarnation, draws together the physical elements required, using the procreative processes as a means. The older theory of encasement contains as much truth as the epigenesis theory, though distorted by a too physical and theological view of the process.

See also EMBRYO

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

Anthropogenesis That stage of theogony when the spiritual monads of the central spiritual fire are passing through the human kingdom. If under human being everything was included from the primal spark to the culminating point of evolution, then anthropogenesis would become coextensive with cosmogenesis.

The two cannot be sharply separated, for not only is man involved in those cosmic kingdoms which are at other stages than the human, but the human being, in common with every other organism, is an epitome of the universe. Three lines of evolution converge in humankind: the monadic or divine-spiritual, the intellectual from the manasa-dhyanis, and the vital-astral-physical. But we are not a mere product generated by external forces or creative powers outside of ourselves; it is the growth outwards from our own inner essence that is fundamental.

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