Pineal Gland Dictionary

Pineal Gland: A small gland located between the cerebral hemispheres of the brain that secretes melatonin.

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

Pineal Gland, Conarium, or Epiphysis Cerebri A small organ in the brain with a fancied resemblance to a pine cone; technically called the epiphysis, as being an "upgrowth" from the embryonic tissues which later form part of the ventricular or hollow center of the brain, which space is continuous with the central canal of the spinal cord.

The pineal gland is described as a rounded, oblong body, about one-third of an inch long, of a deep reddish color, connected with the posterior part of the third ventricle, and intimately related to the optic thalami which physiologists find to be the organs of reception and condensation of the most sensitive and sensorial incitations from the periphery of the body.

Thus this organ is in central relation to the coordinating organs of all the senses and sensations, and to the thinking brain which perfects and coordinates ideas. Its purpose, however, remains a mystery to the medical profession. A standard anatomy says: "The ancients had a grotesque theory that the epiphysis is the favorite and peculiar abiding-place of the human soul. Modern morphologists have shown it to be the homologue of the third eye which some reptiles possess."

Blavatsky, repeating the ancient belief, says that this concealed third eye is the "seat of the highest and divinest consciousness in man -- his omniscient spiritual and all-embracing mind" (Key 121). She sketches the evolutionary history of this Deva Eye (SD 2:294 et seq) which was the only seeing organ in the beginning of the present human race, when the spiritual element in the then humanity reigned supreme over the as yet unawakened intellectual and psychic elements in the nature. Later on, as the ethereal and psychospiritual early races became self-conscious and physicalized, they used their spiritual and intellectual powers and faculties for selfish and sensual purposes. Meantime, the third eye withdrew, pari passu, into the central cavity of the developing brain. There it has remained until the present -- a symbol of that past spiritual vision which we will regain as we progress consciously along the upward arc of the evolutionary cycle. As to scientific evidence of a once active third eye of objective vision in animals, the Hatteria punctata, a lizard type found in New Zealand, is pointed out. This land, being a part well above the waters of the ancient continent Lemuria, the home of the third root-race, would be likely to retain some remnants of early types of the creatures which once existed when "the third eye was primarily, as in man, the only seeing organ" (SD 2:299).

An ancient commentary says that by the middle of the fourth root-race, the "inner vision had to be awakened and acquired by artificial stimuli, the process of which was known to the old sages" (SD 2:294). Even now, the adept, with trained will, can arouse this ordinarily quiescent organ into activity, so that he becomes illuminated throughout and by it with a vision of infinitude. It was this sublime vision which overwhelmed Arjuna when Krishna, acting as the Logos within, gave the aspiring human monad the divine eye (BG ch 11). The analogy of enlarged vision holds good, in degree, when the spiritual teacher arouses the chela's latent ability to see for himself hidden truth.

Descartes reasoned that the seat of the soul was the pineal gland which, he said, though it was tied to the brain, was yet capable of being put into a kind of swinging motion by the animal spirits that cross the cavities of the skull. He was right about the cavities being open during life, and about the organ's response in oscillations; and what the ancients called animal spirits, is otherwise expressed in theosophical literature as circulating currents of the nerve-aura of occultism.

In the adept, the third eye is aroused by aspiration and concentration of his human will upon the attainment of union of his mental with his spiritual faculties. By this conscious effort, he rises to the higher powers of will which, in its ordinary automatic and emotional phases, is usually diffused throughout the activities of the animal body and brain, by way of the main organ of will, the pituitary gland, the psychic associate of the pineal center. The x-ray may yet reveal ethereal emanations of nerve-aura in the human brain, as living evidence of the interrelation of mind and matter. Meantime, concrete examples of such interaction are found in the pineal gland, in the form of "brain sand," or (acervulus cerebri).

See also EYE OF SIVA; THIRD EYE; CYCLOPES; DEVAKSHA; TRI-LOCHANA

(See also: Pineal Gland, Conarium, Epiphysis Cerebri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Medulla Oblongata Pineal gland, nadis, trideni, and {SD 2:296; BCW 12:616, 700}

(See also: Medulla Oblongata Pineal gland, nadis, trideni, and , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Pituitary Gland or Hypophysis Cerebri A small, bi-lobed, ductless gland, resting on the bony floor of the brain just above the palate. Its familiar name came from the mistaken notion that it secreted pituita (phlem) which was discharged through the nose. The technical term describes it as the "growth underneath" the brain with which it is connected. It is also closely related to the optic and other sensory nerves, as well as to the general coordinating centers of mental and physical sense and sensation in the region of the third ventricle, including the pineal gland.

Modern physicians have called the pituitary the driver gland, because of its active influence upon the growth and function of different parts of the body. Theosophy holds that the pituitary body is the seat of the organ of will; likewise, as an organ that functions through the sympathetic nervous system upon various levels of the psychic plane, it is one of the links that connect the intermediate nature of man with both his spiritual mind and his instinctual, animal mind. Thus it serves as manifesting point where the cosmic force of will, flowing through the spiritual center of man's being, works as a physical energy. As the bodily organ of will, it acts as a vital transformer, stepping down the high power, electromagnetic currents of universal will and desire, thus providing a series of special currents of growth which are diffused through the thyroid and other ductless glands. These currents, acting as automatic or vegetative will power, first affect the linga-sarira (model-body), and through it stimulate the physical body.

The pituitary, as a transformer, may also step up these diffused currents of physical and animal will and desire, raising them into the aspiring mental-spiritual will and desire, as when the high adepts concentrates his whole consciousness upon attaining spiritual vision and knowledge. When the focused power of the active pituitary is directed to the higher psychic levels, its influence, through radiated wave-energy, reaches the pineal gland which responds with spiritual clairvoyance. If, however, the increased activity is upon the lower astral levels, the effects are distorted and misleading. The pituitary being closely connected with the optic and other sensory nerves, and with the important nerve centers, its enlargement or uncontrolled, abnormal activity often give rise to strange hallucinations of vision, hearing, etc. This explains the bizarre sights, sounds, odors, or what not, which are so real to the sufferers from brain fever, delirium tremens, insanity, epilepsy, and some other disorders.

However, no one of the organs of a human being can function alone and apart from coordinated activity with the other parts of the human constitution; thus it is that while the pituitary body can stimulate or arouse to increased activity the pineal gland, nevertheless the pineal gland in its turn can act strongly upon the pituitary body; and as the pineal gland is the physical seat of the spiritual and higher intellectual faculties of the human constitution descending to the physical brain through the linga-sarira, when the pineal gland thus influences by radiated wave-energy the pituitary, the latter is awakened and begins to vibrate, strongly influencing the physical brain with will-currents guided by the spiritual and higher intellectual inspiration from the pineal.

(See also: Pituitary Gland, Hypophysis Cerebri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Acupuncture and acupressure are two non-drug therapies which are making their presence felt in the complementary medicine scene. And acupressure and reflexology are getting the crowds because of ease of practice. But how do these gentle systems work?

Read more here: » Acupuncture and Acupressure: How do Acupuncture and Acupressure work?

Acervulus Cerebri Brain-sand; minute particles of a yellowish, semi-transparent, hard, brilliant substance found in the pineal gland in the human brain. Its exceptional absence occurs in congenital idiots, in young children, and in the senile aged. The physiologists report that this "sand" is composed of alkaline phosphates and carbonates and some animal matter, but they fail to account for its presence or purpose.

The fact that this brain-sand is of mineral rather than of osseous character is in keeping with the occult history of the once external, active third eye of early humanity. The ancients knew that, with the racial evolutionary descent into gross matter, this spiritual eye, gradually becoming atrophied and petrified, retreated deeply within the developing brain when its course was run (SD 2:294&n). The pineal gland being the chief organ of spirituality in the human brain at present, this mysterious sand is the result of the work of mental electricity upon the surrounding matter. This is based on the ancient idea that every atom of matter is only a concretion of crystallized spirit or akasa, the universal soul.

See also PINEAL GLAND.

(See also: Acervulus Cerebri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Devakshi or Devakasha devaksi, devakasa (Sanskrit) (from deva spiritual, celestial + akshi eye)

The deva eye; the name given by Eastern occultists to the pineal gland, also called the Eye of the Dangma or the Eye of Siva.

(See also: Devakshi, Devakasha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

The Emerald Tablet is an ancient artifact that reveals a profound spiritual technology, which has survived to this day despite centuries of effort to suppress it. Encoded within the tablet's mysterious wording is a powerful formula that works in very specific and comprehensible steps on all levels of reality at once -- the physical, the mental, and the spiritual -- and shows us how to achieve personal transformation and even accelerate the evolution of our species. The seven-stepped Emerald Formula is the basis of all the transformations in the Great Work.

Read more here: » Alchemy: The Emerald Tablet and The Emerald Formula

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)

Third Eye Possessed by early humans and, up to the physicalization of the third root-race, it was the only seeing organ in most living species. At the beginning of that root-race, the organ which has developed into the eye was beneath a semitransparent covering or membrane, like some of the blind vertebrata today.

In early humanity, the third eye was the organ of spiritual vision, as it was that of objective vision in the animals (SD 2:299), as indeed it still remains, and it appears as the pineal gland inside the skull of modern mankind. In the course of physical evolution, with corresponding loss of spiritual vision, the cyclopean eye was gradually replaced by the physical vision of the two front eyes. The original eye has since then continued to function -- although unrecognized by the vast majority of people -- as the organ of intuitive discernment. As this recession was not complete before the close of the fourth root-race, there were late subraces of Lemurians and of early Atlanteans who were still in some degree at least physically three-eyed (SD 2:302).

Hindu mystics speak of this inner organ as the eye of Siva, the Tri-lochana (three-eyed). In Tibet the same functional organ was called the eye of Dangma, and references to it may be found under various names scattered throughout the world's literatures.

See also PINEAL GLAND

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

Thalamus, Optic [from Greek optikos visual from op to see + thalamos chamber]

The optic thalami are the two great posterior ganglia at the base of the brain, forming part of the wall of the third ventricle. They are the bed from which the optic fibers arise, as well as a special center for the correlation and transmission of sensory, motor, and ideational impressions which, consciously and subconsciously, interact between the body and the brain. The thalami are a central station for the reception, condensation, and transmission of all the intercommunicating lines between the conscious, thinking person and the external world.

Embryology shows the optic thalami playing an early and leading part in connection with the pineal gland, then at the apex of the developing head, a biological review of early racial conditions when the pineal gland functioned as the only eye of vision. At that stage of evolution, the human was as unselfconscious in personality and as gelatinous in physical structure as the embryo now is at first. Nevertheless, he was a spiritual being, as he now is, being the reincarnating ego which directs the evolution of its marvelous body from the unit of a fertilized cell.

The embryo repeats the gradual growth and dominating position of the cerebral hemispheres which, in the history of the third root-race, gave play to intellectual faculties at the expense of spiritual vision. Then the pineal "eye," no longer active, retired to the hollow of the brain where the optic thalami became concerned with the development of the two eyes of physical vision. "It is a curious fact that it is especially in human beings that the cerebral hemispheres and the lateral ventricles have been developed, and that the optic thalami, corpora quadrigemina, and corpora striata are the principal parts which are developed in the mammalian brain" (SD 2:301).

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

Brain and cranial nerves are the chief parts of the whole nervous system. It is a mass of nervous tissues made up of soft grey and white matter. It occupies the whole of cranium. Cranium is like the iron safe to keep up the treasure ‘brain’. It is surrounded by three membranes or Meninges, viz., (1) dura mater, the fibrous connective tissue by the side of the cranial bones; (2) pia mater, the connective tissue containing a network of blood vessels, which penetrates and nourishes all the parts of the brain; and (3) arachnoid, a very fine membrane around the brain. Below the arachnoid there is the space which contains the cerebro-spinal fluid that is intended to prevent any injury to the brain. The brain looks as if it is floating on this liquid.

Excerpt from the book Kundalini Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » The Brain and the chakras

Ida and Pingala Nadis are not the gross sympathetic chains. These are the subtle Nadis that carry the Sukshma Prana. In the physical body these tentatively correspond to the right and left sympathetic chains.

Read more here: » Nadis: Ida Nadis And Pingala Nadis

Feng Shui Giving Us Direction

In Taoist thought, everything is made of qi or energy. In modern terms, this is a perspective of the laws of nature which views our world as made of multiple energy phases or magnetic patterns. Consequently, everything around us has the potential to affect our well-being. Qi is the energy that gives us life, that makes rivers flow and plants grow. Qi is our spirit, our emotions, our subconscious, our creative intellect. Imagine if you could see all the wavelengths of light from ultra-violet to infra-red, you would see that qi is everywhere. It is in the chair you are sitting in, it is in the words you are reading, flowing in the space around you. Qi is the essence of existence.

Read more here: » Feng Shui: Feng Shui and Qi

Qi - Light and Color

In the Taoist philosophy of feng shui, everything is made of energy or qi. Qi is categorized into the Five Elements which is also known by their colors: earth is yellow; fire is red; water is black; wood is green; and metal is white. The names for different colors are a convention for people to refer to different wavelengths of light. Adhering to this mode of thought, everything is made of a variation of light energy or color.

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Ushnisha usnisa (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ush to be warm, flaming; mystically warmth through inner light, intuition, vision]

A turban, diadem, or crown; also a kind of "excrescence" on the head of a buddha. Like the long ears so often seen in figures of the buddhas, the meaning of the ushnisha is entirely occult, and was in no sense whatsoever intended to signify a tuft of hair, nor any fleshly excrescence on the skull, but was a way of suggesting the radiating power of the eye of Siva or organ of vision and of intuition, working at relatively full power within the skull of a great adept.

The eye of Siva is the pineal gland; originally an external and active eye in the head of primitive mankind during this fourth round on earth, it gradually retreated within the skull, which grew to cover its place with bones, skin, and hair. As this presently so-called third eye retreated within the skull, its place was progressively taken by the two present organs of vision. At this period of our racial development it is buddhas, avataras, and other initiates of relatively high status who alone use the organ of spiritual vision, for in them the pineal gland has become active and is to some extent physiologically enlarged; although in everyone else it is more or less nonfunctional, yet to some degree functional.

Hence the ushnisha represents that radiant crown of buddhic fire that surrounds the head of initiates when they are in deep samadhi or meditation. The initiate's head becomes surrounded with rays from the vital inner fire of the third eye, the spiritual organ of the brain, which likewise is the source from which radiates the spiritual, intellectual, and psychovital nimbus or aura surrounding the head -- known to the iconographies of every religion. These rays thus form a glory around the head and sometimes even around the entire body. "They stream upwards from the back of the head, often symbolically represented in the buddha-iconography as one single, lambent flame soaring upwards from and over the top of the skull. In this case you may perhaps find that the ushnisha is missing, its place being taken by this flame issuing from the top of the head, a symbolic representation of the fire of the spirit and of the aroused and active buddhic faculty in which the man is at the time" (Fund 493).

Many statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas possess certain peculiar headgear called crowns or ushnishas. Hence ushnisha is also used in the sense of turban, because this particular headgear, given to these statues, somewhat resembles a turban of spiral conical form, somewhat like the spiral shell of some snails.

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

Gland. See PINEAL GLAND; PITUITARY GLAND

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

Sight Among the elements, correlated with fire or light. Like the other senses it has its spiritual originant which expresses itself through its several forms, corresponding to the different planes.

The organ of spiritual vision in the human body is the third eye. Some of the Atlantean magicians and initiates had this inner sight, which was even in their material race highly developed, so that their vision could pass any distance and penetrate opaque bodies.

In the order of evolution of the physical senses and their organs, sight comes third, and was evolved as a physical sense towards the end of the third root-race, though existing in rudimentary form in the preceding root-race. The third eye was once external and an organ of physical vision, but retreated inwards when it was replaced by the two eyes as at present functioning; the third eye has now become the pineal gland.

(See also: Sight , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

THIRD EYE

Ocellus frontis. Today, generally regarded as the pineal gland, vestigial organ serving an unknown sense, formerly believed to be the seat of the soul.

(See also: THIRD EYE , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

THIRD EYE: this is the sensitive area between the eyes & up on the forhead about an inch. Site of a Major Chakra, the Pineal gland. It relates to intuitive input to the Conscious Mind & is often called The Mind's Eye.

(See also: THIRD EYE , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)