Dattoli (Sanskrit) One name of Agastya, a sage of the first manvantara, in his former birth as the son of the progenitor of the rakshasas. Variants are Dattotti, Dattoi, Dattali, Dattotri, Dattobhri, Dambhobhi, and Dhambholi.

These "seven variants have each a secret sense, and refer in the esoteric comments to various ethnological classifications, and also to physiological and anthropological mysteries of the primitive races. For, surely, the Rakshasas are not demons, but simply the primitive and ferocious giants, the Atlanteans, who were scattered on the face of the globe as the Fifth Race is now.

Vasishta is a warrant to this, if his words addressed to Parasara, who attempted a bit of jadoo (sorcery), which he calls 'sacrifice,' for the destruction of the Rakshasas, mean anything. For he says, 'Let no more of these unoffending "Spirits of Darkness" be destroyed'. . ." (SD 2:232n).

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

Dakini (Sanskrit) Female demons, vampires, and blood-drinkers, feeding on human flesh, attendant upon Kali, the consort of Siva; a type of evil elemental. Outside of mythologic explanations, the dakinis may be said to be one type of advanced elemental beings. "But with the Fourth Race we reach the purely human period.

Those who were hitherto semi-divine Beings, self-imprisoned in bodies which were human only in appearance, became physiologically changed and took unto themselves wives who were entirely human and fair to look at, but in whom lower, more material, though sidereal, beings had incarnated.

These beings in female forms (Lilith is the prototype of these in the Jewish traditions) are called in the esoteric accounts 'Khado' (Dakini, in Sanskrit). Allegorical legends call the chief of these Liliths, Sangye Khado (Buddha Dakini, in Sanskrit); all are credited with the art of 'walking in the air,' and the greatest kindness to mortals; but no mind -- only animal instinct" (SD 2:284-5).

See also LILITH

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

Conjunction A conjunction of two heavenly bodies occurs when, as seen from the earth, they are in the same ecliptic longitude, according to astrology; or in the same right ascension, according to astronomy. More than two bodies appearing in exact conjunction is an exceedingly rare occurrence. The planets and the sun and moon are usually considered, but the fixed stars may be included. Such conjunctions have always been held in astrology to indicate, prefigure, or cause important events and changes, and to mark the changes of cycles. The conjunctions of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars together are specially mentioned. The conjunctions of the sun and moon are related to human and animal physiological conception. Also, the fact that the planetary orbits have nodes and apsides with their own periods of revolution, affords us material for the calculation of many longer periods.

See also ANNUS MAGNUS.

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

Eye of Siva The third eye; physically the pineal gland, which when awakened into activity becomes the organ of the inner spiritual vision of a seer.

The pineal gland was in former ages an active physical exterior organ before the present-day two eyes were developed, and was then the faculty both of physical vision and of interior illumination. As the ages passed, this third eye or pineal gland receded within the skull, finally being covered by hardened bone and the scalp. This eye may be described as the organ on this plane of spiritual intuition, through which direct and certain knowledge is obtainable at any time at the will of the seer.

"The 'eye of Siva' did not become entirely atrophied before the close of the Fourth Race. When spirituality and all the divine powers and attributes of the deva-man of the Third had been made the hand-maidens of the newly-awakened physiological and psychic passions of the physical man, instead of the reverse, the eye lost its powers" (SD 2:302).

(See also: Eye of Siva, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hallucination. A state produced sometimes by physiological disorders, sometimes by mediumship, and at others by drunkenness. But the cause that produces the visions has to be sought deeper than physiology.

All such visions, especially when produced through mediumship, are preceded by a relaxation of the nervous system, in variably generating an abnormal magnetic condition which attracts to the sufferer waves of astral light. It is the latter that furnishes the various hallucinations. These, however, are not always what physicians would make them, empty, and unreal dreams. No one can see that which does not exist - i.e., which is not impressed - in or on the astral waves.

A Seer may, however, perceive objects and scenes (whether past, present, or future) which have no relation whatever to himself, and also perceive several things entirely disconnected with each other at one and the same time, thus producing the most grotesque and absurd combinations.

Both drunkard and Seer, medium and Adept, see their respective visions in the Astral Light; but while the drunkard, the madman, and the untrained medium, or one suffering from brain-fever, see, because they cannot help it, and evoke the jumbled visions unconsciously to themselves, the Adept and the trained Seer have the choice and the control of such visions.

They know where to fix their gaze, how to steady the scenes they want to observe, and how to see beyond the upper outward layers of the Astral Light. With the former such glimpses into the waves are hallucinations: with the latter they become the faithful reproduction of what actually has been, is, or will be, taking place.

The glimpses at random caught by the medium, and his flickering visions in the deceptive light, are transformed under the guiding will of the Adept and Seer into steady pictures, the truthful representations of that which he wills to come within the focus of his perception.

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

Yoni (Sanskrit) The womb; more generally, the female principle. In ancient India the yoni was the common female symbol of the universal Mother of the gods. This symbol corresponds to Noah's ark, and to the navis or shiplike form of the crescent, the sidereal vessel.

The ancient Hindu interpretation of the linga and yoni is entirely metaphysical and psychological, but the once highly philosophical and sublime worship of the linga and yoni of Siva worship has degenerated in modern times to mere phallic worship.

The Hebrew interpretation of these same symbols likewise finally became realistic and physiological (cf SD 2:469-70). However, as Monier-Williams wrote in Folklore Record (vol 3, pt 1, p. 118): "[The linga and yoni are] mystical representations, and perhaps the best possible impersonal representatives, of the abstract expressions of paternity and maternity."

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

Atrophy: A wasting or diminution of size or physiological activity of a part of the body.

(See also: Atrophy, Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Definition and meaning of green fluorescent protein:

green fluorescent protein (GFP) - a protein produced by a jellyfish Aequorea victoria which fluoresces in the lower green portion of the visible spectrum when exposed to blue light. GFP has become an invaluable tool in contemporary cell and molecular biology research, because its intrinsic fluorescence can be visualized in living cells. GFP has become well established as a marker of gene expression and protein targeting in intact cells and organisms. Mutagenesis and engineering of GFP into chimeric proteins are opening new vistas in physiological indicators, biosensors, and photochemical memories

(Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) )

Also see these pages: Oceanography, Oceanography Sitemap, Coral Reef, Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change,

Definition and meaning of reproductive isolating mechanism:

reproductive isolating mechanism - a mechanism that prevents reproduction from occurring between two populations. Pre-zygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms (which take effect before fertilization) include environmental, temporal, behavioral, mechanical, and physiological barriers that prevent individuals of different populations from producing viable progeny. Post-zygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms (which take effect after fertilization) include gamete incompatibility, hybrid inviability, and hybrid sterility

(Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) )

Also see these pages: Oceanography, Oceanography Sitemap, Coral Reef, Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change,

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)

Hallucination Commonly, perception of objects without reality or an experience of sensations without external cause, usually thought to arise from a disorder of the nervous system. However, hallucination means something different to an occultist.

"A state produced sometimes by physiological disorders, sometimes by mediumship, and at others by drunkenness. But the cause that produces the visions has to be sought deeper than physiology. All such visions, especially when produced through mediumship, are preceded by a relaxation of the nervous system, invariably generating an abnormal magnetic condition which attracts to the sufferer waves of astral light. It is the latter that furnishes the various hallucinations. These, however, are not always what physicians would make them, empty and unreal dreams. No one can see that which does not exist -- i.e., which is not impressed -- in or on the astral waves.

A Seer may, however, perceive objects and scenes (whether past, present, or future) which have no relation whatever to himself, and also perceive several things entirely disconnected with each other at one and the same time, thus producing the most grotesque and absurd combinations. Both drunkard and Seer, medium and Adept, see their respective visions in the Astral Light; but while the drunkard, the madman, and the untrained medium, or one suffering from brain-fever, see, because they cannot help it, and evoke the jumbled visions unconsciously to themselves, the Adept and the trained Seer have the choice and the control of such visions.

They know where to fix their gaze, how to steady the scenes they want to observe, and how to see beyond the upper outward layers of the Astral Light. With the former such glimpses into the waves are hallucinations: with the latter they become the faithful reproduction of what actually has been, is, or will be, taking place. The glimpses at random caught by the medium, and his flickering visions in the deceptive light, are transformed under the guiding will of the Adept and Seer into steady pictures, the truthful representations of that which he wills to come within the focus of his perception" (TG 133-4).

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

Chakra cakra (Sanskrit) Wheel; cycle; the horizon, as being circular or of a wheel-form; likewise certain pranic centers of the body.

"These physiological chakras, which are actually connected with the pranic circulations and ganglia of the Auric Egg, and therefore function in the physical body through the intermediary of the linga-sarira, or astral model-body, are located in different parts of the physical frame, reaching from the parts about the top of the skull to the parts about the pubis. . . . were this mystical knowledge broadcast, it would be sadly misused, leading not only in many cases to death or insanity, but to the violation of every moral instinct. Alone the high initiates, who as a matter of act have risen above the need of employing physiological chakras, can use them at will, and for holy purposes -- which in fact is something that they rarely, if indeed they ever do" (OG 26-7).

In exoteric works six chakras are named. De Purucker lists seven:

1)    muladhara, the parts about the pubis, ruled by Saturn;

2)    svadhisthana, the umbilical region, ruled by Mars;

3)    manipura, the pit of the stomach or epigastrium, ruled by Jupiter;

4)    anahata, the root of the nose, ruled by Venus;

5)    visuddha, the hollow between the frontal sinuses, ruled by Mercury;

6)    ajnakhya, the fontenelle or union of the coronal and sagittal sutures, ruled by the Moon; and

7)    sahasrara, the pineal gland in the skull, ruled by the Sun.

"The human body as a microcosm may be looked upon as containing every power or attribute or energy in the solar system. . . . all the seven (or twelve) logoic forces that originally emanate from the sun, and pass in and through the various sacred planets, are transmitted to us as human beings and directly to the physical body. Thus each one of these solar logoic forces has its corresponding focus or organ in the human body, and these are the chakras" (FSO 459).

(See also: Chakra, cakra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hallucination Commonly, perception of objects without reality or an experience of sensations without external cause, usually thought to arise from a disorder of the nervous system. However, hallucination means something different to an occultist.

"A state produced sometimes by physiological disorders, sometimes by mediumship, and at others by drunkenness. But the cause that produces the visions has to be sought deeper than physiology. All such visions, especially when produced through mediumship, are preceded by a relaxation of the nervous system, invariably generating an abnormal magnetic condition which attracts to the sufferer waves of astral light. It is the latter that furnishes the various hallucinations. These, however, are not always what physicians would make them, empty and unreal dreams. No one can see that which does not exist -- i.e., which is not impressed -- in or on the astral waves.

A Seer may, however, perceive objects and scenes (whether past, present, or future) which have no relation whatever to himself, and also perceive several things entirely disconnected with each other at one and the same time, thus producing the most grotesque and absurd combinations. Both drunkard and Seer, medium and Adept, see their respective visions in the Astral Light; but while the drunkard, the madman, and the untrained medium, or one suffering from brain-fever, see, because they cannot help it, and evoke the jumbled visions unconsciously to themselves, the Adept and the trained Seer have the choice and the control of such visions.

They know where to fix their gaze, how to steady the scenes they want to observe, and how to see beyond the upper outward layers of the Astral Light. With the former such glimpses into the waves are hallucinations: with the latter they become the faithful reproduction of what actually has been, is, or will be, taking place. The glimpses at random caught by the medium, and his flickering visions in the deceptive light, are transformed under the guiding will of the Adept and Seer into steady pictures, the truthful representations of that which he wills to come within the focus of his perception" (TG 133-4).

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

Egg-born The earlier divisions of the third root-race, which produced their offspring from eggs -- a method which may still be said to exist in humans today, as well as among the animals. This race and its method of reproduction was the logical outcome of the so-called "sweat-born" of the later second and earliest third root-race.

The human race from its beginnings on globe D passed through different modes of reproduction which again depended upon the physiological characteristics of the various phases through which humanity progressed from ethereal through astral into physical types. At first humanity was sexless and then, through various phases of seeding, budding, and egg-bearing, became androgynous, its offspring as time passed appearing with one or the other sex predominating, and finally during the latter third root-race appeared distinct males and females from birth as at present.

The higher intellectual dhyanis (manasas, sons of wisdom) would not incarnate in the earliest forms, nor even in the bodies of the early egg-born. The first half of the egg-born race was therefore mortal in its lower or personal aspects, there being as yet no personal ego to survive; the inner monadic fires were there, but with no proper vehicle into which to pour their flames.

The second half became intellectually immortal at will and spiritually immortal by reason of the development and incarnation of the fifth or manas principle through the agency of the informing manasas. In the days of Lemuria, the middle and later third root-race, the egg-born are to be referred not only to the physiological processes of reproduction then current, but to the seven dhyani-chohanic classes who incarnated in the "seven Elect" of the third root-race.

See also ROOT-RACE, THIRD

(See also: Egg-born, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jehovah (Hebrew, Jewish). The Jewish "Deity name J’hovah, is a compound of two words, viz of Jah (y, i, or j, Yodh, the tenth letter of the alphabet) and hovah (Havah, or Eve)," says a Kabalistic authority, Mr. J. Ralston Skinner of Cincinnati, U.S.A. And again, "The word Jehovah, or Jah-Eve, has the primary meaning of existence or being as male female".

It means Kabalistically the latter, indeed, and nothing more; and as repeatedly shown is entirely phallic. Thus, verse 26 in the IVth chapter of Genesis, reads in its disfigured translation . . . . "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord", whereas it ought to read correctly . . . . "then began men to call themselves by the name of Jah-hovah" or males and females, which they had become after the separation of sexes. In fact the latter is described in the same chapter, when Cain (the male or Jah) "rose up against Abel, his (sister, not) brother and slew him"(spilt his blood, in the original). Chapter IV of Genesis contains in truth, the allegorical narrative of that period of anthropological and physiological evolution which is described in the Secret Doctrine when treating of the third Root race of mankind.

It is followed by Chapter V as a blind; but ought to be succeeded by Chapter VI, where the Sons of God took as their wives the daughters of men or of the giants. For this is an allegory hinting at the mystery of the Divine Egos incarnating in mankind, after which the hitherto senseless races "became mighty men, . . . men of renown" (v. 4), having acquired minds (manas) which they had not before.

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

Quickening Physiologically, the first feeling on the part of the prospective mother of fetal movements, occurring between the fourth and fifth months, about the middle of pregnancy.

Up to that period, the embryonic development of the human germ-cell has been animated and guided largely by the psycho-vital-magnetic influence of the reincarnating ego, "yet it is only when the infant thus generated first moves in the bosom of its mother what occurs what may be called the actual and real entrance into the unborn child of the characteristic, because higher, attributes and qualities of the Reincarnating Ego. Yet these 'higher qualities and attributes' are not of course the highest parts of the constitution of the man-to-be.

Hitherto the embryo or foetus has been the growing of the solely vegetative part of the incarnating being, in other words, the vital-astral part of it, . . ." (ET 906). Blavatsky speaks of the earlier stages of the embryo which has not yet become "either human or immortal, for the Kabalists tell us that this only occurs at the 'fourth hour.' One by one the foetus assumes the characteristics of the human being, the first flutter of the immortal breath passes through its being; it moves; and the divine essence settles in the infant frame, which it will inhabit until the moment of physical death, when man becomes a spirit" (SD 2:188).

As the developing embryo epitomizes the stages of racial history, this quickening, relatively halfway through its intrauterine cycle, suggests the analogy of the lighting of the fires of mind by the agnishvattas in the later third root-race and early fourth when the human life-wave had reached the upward turn of its septenary racial and planetary round. {delete or rewrite -- SBD}

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

Pramlocha pramloca (Sanskrit) [from pra forth + the verbal root mluch to go]

One sent forth; one of the apsarasas or celestial nymphs sent on earth by Kamadeva or Indra to tempt the sage Kandu from his devotions and austerities. She succeeded in her unholy purpose, and according to the account stayed with him 907 years six months and three days, which were to the sage as one day. After this she flew away, wiping the perspiration from her body with the leaves of the tress as she passed through the air.

The child she had conceived by the rishi came forth from the pores of her skin in drops of perspiration: the trees received the living dews, the winds collected them into one mass, Soma (the moon) matured them till they became the lovely girl Marisha. This story is an allegory founded on the physical mode of procreation of the second root-race or sweat-born.

"Pramlocha is the Hindu Lilith of the Aryan Adam; and Marisha, the daughter born of the perspiration of her pores, is the 'sweat-born,' and stands as a symbol for the Second Race of Mankind." The figures 907 years six months and three days are but the "exoteric figures given in a purposely reversed and distorted way, being the figure of the duration of the cycle between the first and second human race." The allegory "shows the psychic element developing the physiological, before the birth of Daksha, the progenitor of real physical men, made to be born from Marisha and before whose time living beings and men were procreated 'by the will, by sight, by touch and by Yoga' . . ." (SD 2:175-6).

(See also: Pramlocha pramloca, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Patriarchs One of the names given to rulers over men and racial periods. Chaldeo-Judaism has presented its gods as patriarchs. In the Qabbalah, the Sephiroth become the creators and afterwards temporal patriarchs, both of time and space.

Mankind from the first root-race to the beginning or even middle of the third root-race, is ruled by watchers or guides; after, by patriarchs or demigods, heroes, etc., the names given to these different classes of overseeing entities varying in different countries. But the word patriarch has special reference to the genealogies in Genesis: Adam to Noah, the descendants of Noah's three sons, the sons of Jacob.

Those from Adam to Noah are given in two ways which do not agree; but, as is the case with Indian rishis, they are at times convertible and interchangeable. They represent, among other things, pre-diluvian races and ages; and if Adam be regarded as pertaining to the fifth root-race only, to pre-Adamic races.

They are at different times chronological data, symbols of solar and lunar years, of astronomical periods, and even of physiological functions when applied to races, as in other symbolic systems of mythological belief. The number for Enoch is 365, which is recognizable; the sons of Jacob stand for the signs of the zodiac. We have here a fragment of the ancient mystery-language with its seven keys; a single name, for instance, standing for a person, a race, or an age, etc. The Sanskrit prajapatis (progenitors) is parallel in one sense, as are the Mazdean Ameshaspentas.

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

Arani (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ri to tend upward, move, insert, fix)

Moving around; being fitted in or inserted. Arani (sing) is one of the two ceremonial rubbing-sticks used to ignite the sacrificial fire: the upper stick, uttararani or pramantha, is held upright and set into a groove in the lower stick, adhararani, and when twirled or rotated rapidly it generates heat and flame. According to the Rig-Veda, the upright stick was made from the sami tree (Mimosa suma), and the horizontal from the asvattha or pipal tree (Ficus religiosa), the sacred fig tree. In the Satapatha-brahmana, however, both sticks were carved from the wood of the asvattha.

The arani (dual) represent the father and mother elements in nature, the creative, generative energy producing the offspring from the receiver, the mother. While the male/female metaphor has application physiologically, it may be interpreted cosmically: "this idea of the creative power of fire is explained at once by the ancient assimilation of the human soul to a celestial spark" (M. G. Dech 261); again "The 'female Arani,' the mistress of the race, is Aditi, the mother of the gods, or Shekinah, eternal light -- in the world of Spirit, the 'Great Deep' and Chaos; or primordial Substance in its first remove from the Unknown, in the manifested Kosmos" (SD 2:527).

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

Cain qayin (Hebrew) (from qayin spear)

In the Bible, the son of Adam and Eve, and a tiller of the ground. Becoming jealous of the offering which his brother Abel presents to the Lord, Cain according to the legend slays him (Genesis 4). This allegory signifies that "Jehovah-Cain, the male part of Adam the dual man, having separated himself from Eve, creates in her 'Abel,' the first natural woman, and sheds the Virgin blood" (SD 2:388). Cain and Abel represent the third root-race or the "Separating Hermaphrodite" (SD 2:134).

Again "beginning with Cain, the first murderer, every fifth man in his line of descent is a murderer. . . . In the Talmud this genealogy is given complete, and thirteen murderers range themselves in line below the name of Cain. This is no coincidence. Siva is the Destroyer, but he is also the Regenerator. Cain is a murderer, but he is also the creator of nations, and an inventor" (IU 2:447-8).

In Biblical genealogy, the line of Cain is Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, and Lemech, whose sons were Jubal, Jabal, and Tubal-cain; the line of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, is Enos (Enoch), Cainan, Mehalaleel, Jarad (or Irad), Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah (Genesis 4-5). Blavatsky calls it "fruitless (to) attempt to disconnect the genealogies of Cain and of Seth, or to conceal the identity of names under a different spelling. . . . all these are symbols (Kabalistically) of solar and lunar years, of astronomical periods, and of physiological (phallic) functions, just as in any other pagan symbolical creed" (SD 2:391n).

See also ABEL

(See also: Cain qayin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bones The hard tissues that constitute the framework or skeleton of the physical body. They have an organic matrix for the inorganic mineral salts, which go through cycles of dissolution, changed location, crystallization, and reconstruction.

Mineral molecules dissolving in their matrix and re-forming themselves anew occurs at that zero-point of transition between the living mineral matter and that of the live animal tissue. This transformation of the mineral atom through crystallization is "the same function, and bears the same relation to its inorganic (so-called) upadhi (or basis) as the formation of cells to their organic nuclei, through plant, insect and animal into man" (SD 2:255).

The bones also furnish blood cells and mineral content to the blood stream. In the embryonic resume of racial imbodiments, the process of ossification appears after the progressive stages of its protoplasmic, gelatinous, and cartilaginous frames, analogous to those forms through which nascent humanity passed in the first two and one-half root-races.

With the deposit of bones in the fetal framework, and its functional relation to the blood, and with the development of the placenta and of the organs in the mesoderm, the conditions review the gradual physicalization of the gelatinous androgynes of the early third root-race into the bisexual humanity with organized functions like the present mammalian type.

The functions, physiological and other, that the bones play in the human body are really far more than acting as the skeletal framework. There are vital, psychomagnetic, and even electromagnetic currents passing in life through the entire bone structure of the body, and hence a constant interchange, not only by osmosis but also by action and reaction, between the bony structure of the body and the soft compact of flesh, nerves, veins, etc.

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

Physical Body [cf Sanskrit sthula-sarira, annamaya-kosa]

The most material sheath or instrument used by the forces manifesting as the human composite nature. This body is the evolutionary product of the inner man's experience during vast ages of time in and through all the kingdoms of nature. Thus the reimbodying ego, having acquired knowledge of the earth's manifesting forms and forces, combines or correlates the principles and products of the mineral and vegetal life-atoms in its animal body, while evolving through its human incarnations. The atoms of a person's body which are dispersed on earth at death, are karmically drawn to him again in the next life. As the quality of his own thought and feeling has been impressed upon these atoms, their automatic magnetic return to him insures the justice of his self-made physical heredity.

The continuous interchange of the physical material of the earth itself and that of everything upon it, provides for the body's nutrition, endurance, and renewal. The similarity of material, chemically and otherwise, in the earth and in man has prevailed from the time when the filmy presentments of early root-races appeared on the then condensing globe. When the earth reached its depth of materiality during the middle of the Atlantean or fourth root-race, the physical bodies of the Atlanteans were the grossest and coarsest of any before or after this long period. Since then, everything having begun the turn on the upward or luminous arc, matter and man are slowly radiating finer qualities of substance and of force. This progressive refinement of matter reflecting humanity's mental and spiritual evolution, will continue until, in the far distant future, the human encasement will be "relatively transparent, or diaphanous and luminous -- an ethereal body of actually condensed light" (ET 65).

The human body has "Manasic as well as Kamic organs," so that the cells answer to physical, mental, and spiritual impulses. The higher ego cannot act directly on the body, as its consciousness belongs to another plane of ideation; it has to act through its alter ego -- the personal self (BCW 12:368-9; or St in Oc 90-1). The inert physical body is built, cell for cell, upon the invisible substance of the astral model-body or linga-sarira. The latter contains the real organs of the senses and sensations, and it transmits the mental, emotional, and instinctual impulses to which the physical body reacts.

The lower mind acts upon the physical organs and their cells; but only the higher mind can influence the atoms in these cells, and arouse the brain to a mental conception of spiritual ideas. That is to say, ideal, mental, and physiological wholeness depend upon the dominance of the atomic, spiritual impulses over the desires of the selfish kama-manasic nature. The personal nature is limited in action to the material, molecular cell. This subtle but practical interplay of his physical and superphysical nature points to the natural unity of purpose in the trend of ethics and physiology.

With power to know good and evil, and free will to choose, man is responsible for refining and perfecting his material, personal nature into becoming a responsive and powerful medium for manifesting his spiritual and higher intellectual individuality. The inner man is ever acting with the cosmic evolutionary urge toward perfection of type. It is this reincarnating ego which directs the atomic life of the fertilized germ-cells in upbuilding the body according to pattern; this is the mysterious organizer which eludes all analyses of biological researchers. Likewise, the morally and intellectually irresponsible entities evolving in the lower kingdoms are impulsed, in addition to the urge of each individual entity's monad, by the instinctual phase of the universal mind which is directed by celestial beings acting with the so-called laws of nature.

The universe being a living organism functioning throughout consciously, has its analogy in the physiological operation of the human body. Hence, biological scientists who tamper with the natural arrangements of chromosomes or artificially combine different embryonic elements, instead of solving the problem of life, are only dealing with the matter which is manifesting the conscious creative powers of ideation.

(See also: Physical Body, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)