Place Dictionary

Meditation

According to Swami Vishnu Devananda, meditation is "….a continuous flow of perception or thought, just like the flow of water in a river." A practice wherein there is constant observation of the mind, meditation brings awareness, harmony and natural order into life. It helps you dig deep into your inner self to discover the wisdom and tranquility that lie within.

Principles of Meditation

The basic points to be kept in mind in practicing meditation are:

·      Have a special place and specific time for meditation. Try doing it daily.

·      Choose a time when your mind is not clouded with worries.

·      Sit up straight with your back, neck and head in one line. Facing north or east.

·      Condition your mind such so as to remain quiet for the duration of your meditation session.

·      Regulate your breathing. Start with 5 minutes of deep breathing. Then gradually slow it down.

·      Follow a rhythmic breathing pattern - inhale and exhale.

·      Initially let your mind wander. It grows more restless if you force to concentrate.

·      Then slowly bring it to rest on the focal point of your choice.

·      Hold your object of concentration at this focal point throughout your session.

·      Meditation happens when you reach a state of pure thought. Even while retaining an awareness of duel self.

Followed diligently you will soon be able to attain a super-conscious state.

Tips on Concentration

·      At the outset, it is hard to keep your attention to keep focussed on one object.

·      So it is better to start off by limiting your field of concentration to a category of objects.

·      Choose your objects with care e.g. any four flowers, fruits, trees...etc. You must feel at ease with what you choose.

·      After concentrating on one, you can move on to the next, if & when your mind starts wandering.

This style of meditative exercise will help you control your mind down to a finer focus, teaching you the principle of single point concentration.

Meditative Postures

Yoni Mudra

·  Close your ears with thumbs.

·  Cover your eyes with your index finger.

·  Close your nostrils with your middle fingers.

·  Press your lips together with your remaining fingers.

·  Release the middle fingers gently to inhale and exhale while you meditate.

Frontal & Nasal Gazing

·  Gaze at a point between your eyebrows, seat of the 'Third Eye' or at the tip or your nose.

·  This would improve your level of concentration. At the same time, strengthening your eye muscles. Nasal gazing has a positive effect on the central nervous system.

·  Remember not to strain your eyes. Start with one minute of gazing and then slowly build it up to ten minutes.

Candle Gazing

• Place a candle at eye-level in a darkened, draught-free room.
• Close your eyes and hold an after-image of the bright flame.
• The practice steadies the wandering mind, leading you to focus with pin-point accuracy.

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

Gate

Think of the gate in larger terms as an opening in a boundary or secured area where one is not normally allowed access. Is the gate locked or unlocked? Do you have to open it or is it opened for you? Depending on your answers, these questions may reveal some level of tension concerning an opportunity that may exist for you. What is inside the gate: a building, a sacred or taboo place, or a place of tranquility and safety? You may see yourself going to such a place alone or with a helper for some kind of ritual experience.

If you go through the gate with somebody, it may herald that a relationship in your life is moving on to a different level (for good or bad).

Are you at a loss for opportunities, or do you feel prevented from making progress towards a particular goal? The gate may reflect potential progress, or the hope thereof, depending upon where it leads in your dream.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

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

Circle: The magic circle is drawn in the astral world about the Magus and the place where the ritual is worked. It forms a division between the magical place and the ordinary world, setting the interior space apart. This allows the region inside the circle to hold a heightened charge of magical potency, and because it is a pure space devoted to worship and magic, it permits the manifestation of spiritual Intelligences that could not be readily perceived in the ordinary environment. The circle also acts as a barrier that protects the Magus from the intrusion of discordant, chaotic forces that seek to disrupt communications with higher spiritual beings, or even to harm the Magus in emotional and physical ways.

The circle is always inscribed from the inside, ideally from the center, in a sunwise direction, and visualized as a glowing or flaming band of light that sustains itself in the air at the level of the heart. Often a corresponding physical circle of the same radius is marked on the floor of the chamber beforehand; but the magic circle does not actually exist until it is made in the astral by a deliberate act of will. For convenience, the circle is made of a size great enough to enclose the ritual place. A single ritualist, if working without an altar in a confined space, might project a circle of six feet in diameter. With an altar at the center, the circle might be nine feet in diameter to permit movement around the altar. Since the circle is drawn in the astral, it can be made larger than the actual physical chamber.

Whatever its size, the circle should always be large enough to comfortably hold all who work within it. Because the circle is magically real, even though immaterial, it must never be casually broken. It is extended from the heart center of the Magus clockwise from the point of the right index finger, or the point of the wand, sword, or knife. It should be reabsorbed at the end of the ritual in through the left index finger, or magical instrument held in the left hand, by retracing it widdershins—against the course of the Sun. It must never be stepped through, although this is a common mistake among occultists. To disregard the substantiality of the circle is to weaken it, and so render it a less useful tool.

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

Sutala (Sanskrit) [from su good, excellent + tala sphere, place]

Good place, i.e., still better for matter; the third counting downwards of the seven talas. Its corresponding loka or pole is janarloka. Sutala is a differentiated state of highly ethereal astral substance, corresponding with sabda (sound) and with the higher manas in man, and therefore with the higher ego; likewise with the Manushya-buddha state, like that of Gautama on earth.

Sutala is the abode of the hierarchies of some of the manasaputras, every one in this series of seven talas having its own respective inhabitants; and due to the evolutionary ascents and descents that take place through the ages, there is a more or less continual intercourse between tala and tala.

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

Religion

• If you dream of discussing religion and feel religiously inclined, you will find much to mar the calmness of your life, and business will turn a disagreeable front to you.
• If a young woman imagines that she is over religious, she will disgust her lover with her efforts to act ingenuous innocence and goodness.
• If she is irreligious and not a transgressor, it foretells that she will have that independent frankness and kind consideration for others, which wins for women profound respect, and love from the opposite sex as well as her own; but if she is a transgressor in the eyes of religion, she will find that there are moral laws, which, if disregarded, will place her outside the pale of honest recognition. She should look well after her conduct. If she weeps over religion, she will be disappointed in the desires of her heart. If she is defiant, but innocent of offence, she will shoulder burdens bravely, and stand firm against deceitful admonitions.
• If you are self-reproached in the midst of a religious excitement, you will find that you will be almost induced to give up your own personality to please some one whom you hold in reverent esteem.
• To see religion declining in power, denotes that your life will be more in harmony with creation than formerly. Your prejudices will not be so aggressive.
• To dream that a minister in a social way tells you that he has given up his work, foretells that you will be the recipient of unexpected tidings of a favorable nature, but if in a professional and warning way, it foretells that you will be overtaken in your deceitful intriguing, or other disappointments will follow.
• (These dreams are sometimes fulfilled literally in actual life. When this is so, they may have no symbolical meaning. Religion is thrown around men to protect them from vice, so when they propose secretly in their minds to ignore its teachings, they are likely to see a minister or some place of church worship in a dream as a warning against their contemplated action. If they live pure and correct lives as indicated by the church, they will see little of the solemnity of the church or preachers.)

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

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

Maqom (Hebrew) A place, a dwelling place; also a city, a village.

In the Qabbalah a secret place, in the cosmos referring to the heavenly celestial matrix or womb, on earth to the mystical Holy of Holies, and in the human being to the womb.

This purely physiological usage is a degradation of the original highly mystical and impersonal sense as the womb of space or of the Vedic Aditi -- the cosmic Virgin Mother, continuously bringing into manifested birth universes and all that are in them.

(See also: Maqom , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Vayu (Sanskrit). Air: the god and sovereign of the air; one of the five states of matter, namely the gaseous; one of the five elements, called, as wind, Vata. The Vishnu Purana makes Vayu King of the Gandharvas.

He is the father of Hanuman, in the Ramayana. The trinity of the mystic gods in Kosmos closely related to each other, are " Agni (fire) whose place is on earth; Vayu (air, or one of the forms of Indra), whose place is in the air ; and Surya (the sun) whose place is in the air (Nirukta.) In esoteric interpretation, these three cosmic principles, correspond with the three human principles, Kama, Kama-Manas and Manas, the sun of the intellect.

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

Akkadians, Accadians A non-Semitic race which preceded the Semites in Babylonia, evidence for whom is mainly found in some of the cuneiform inscriptions. The name comes from the city of Agade, the capital of Sargon I. Blavatsky says in The Secret Doctrine that the Akkadians were not Turanian, but were emigrants from India and were the Aryan instructors of the later Babylonians. There is an Akkadian Genesis, which stands in the line of descent leading to the Biblical Genesis.

The ethnology of the ancient peoples inhabiting Mesopotamia is extremely obscure. The records of occult history show that in a previous geological period, all that portion of western and central-western Asia, which includes Persia, Babylonia, Turkestan, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, etc., was once a highly fertile and well-populated portion of the earth's surface, not only bearing once famous and brilliant civilizations, but likewise the seat of different peoples living side by side.

When immense climatic and geological changes took place, this vast stretch of territory became the seeding-place or focus whence spread to the east, south, and west various emigrant offshoots which populated what were then less fertile territories, which in time became on the one hand northern India, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Turkestan, and on the southwest Iran, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus district.

It was far later that a reverse current of emigration left what is now northern India and proceeded westward settling to a certain extent in the lands of their ancient forefathers, and this accounts not only for the similarities between the west and east of this district, but the Indian influence perceptible in Mesopotamia and the close linguistic and other links that existed between the ancient Zoroastrians and the Brahmanical streams of thought.

(See also: Akkadians, Accadians , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vayu (Sanskrit) Air; one of the five cosmic elements. Personified, the god and sovereign of the air and the king of the gandharvas. Agni, Vayu, and Surya formed the primeval Vedic Trimurti: " 'Agni (fire) whose place is on earth; Vayu (air, or one of the forms of Indra), whose place is in the air; and Surya (the sun) whose place is in the air' [celestial spaces]. (Nirukta.)

In esoteric interpretation, these three cosmic principles, correspond with the three human principles, Kama, Kama-Manas and Manas, the sun of the intellect" (TG 361). These three deities in this connection are three manifestations of cosmic fohat, guided and directed by cosmic mahat.

In later mythology Vayu is the father of Hanuman, the monkey-king who aids Rama in the Ramayana. The allegory of Hanuman becoming the son of Vayu by Anjuna (an ape-like monster) refers to the first glimmering of mind coming into the highest apes through the miscegenation of unevolved late third root-race and early fourth root-race humans with certain simians, themselves the descendants of a previous and parallel origin during an earlier time of the third root-race.

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

Atala (Sanskrit) (from a not + tala place)

No place, no material locality; the first and most spiritual of the seven talas, so nearly one with satyaloka, its corresponding loka or pole, that the two nearly conjoin into one -- hence it is called "no place." Atala bears somewhat the same relation to satyaloka that prakriti bears to Brahma; hence it is the first quasi-spiritual, quasi-material plane in the solar universe. "In satyaloka-atala, the highest loka combines into or rejoins the monadic essence of the planetary chain.

The differentiation so marked on the lower planes ceases here and, because of this, the two blend into or become one" (FSO 264). Cosmically atala emanates directly from the solar logos and contains with satyaloka the substantial seeds of all that was, is, and will be, from the beginning to the end of the solar mahamanvantara. Atala, with satyaloka, may be considered from one standpoint the sphere of the hierarchies of the dhyanis, who are, when completely in this condition, in a state of parasamadhi, and hence clothed in the dharmakaya.

Blavatsky relates that Atala was also the name applied by the earliest of the fifth root-race to Atlantis as a whole (SD 2:322).

See also LOKAS

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

NEW AGE -

1. mixing metaphysical practices with a structured religion. (TRASB)

2. movement of emerging planetary consciousness devoted to making Earth a healthier, happen and more peaceful place to live based on respect for humanity’s diverse traditional way of life in harmony with the environment.

3. holistic community in general, including practitioners of yoga, meditation, natural foods, spiritual development, humanistic psychology, environmental and peace activism, psychic arts and sciences and many other approaches and disciplines.

4. Aquarius Age, coming era of peace and spiritual understanding.

5. age of group interplay, group idealism and group consciousness (Bailey)

6. an added dimension to our daily, ordinary living, a sense of empowerment and enthusiasm arising from the presence of the unexpected in our lives. (David Spangler).

7. waking up from our somnambulistic existence, turning the lights an ‘inside’ and letting live fill its place. (Swami Virato)

8. a major and unprecendened cultural transformation. (Diane Eisler) (NAD)

(See also: NEW AGE , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Bar, Pub

When I was in college, I read in a theology book that a monk on a mountain top and a man with his bottle of wine are really trying to get to the same place. That "place" translates to peace and a genuine feeling of being connected to the rest of the universe. Dreaming about being in bars and drinking may symbolize a need that you have for some type of a meaningful transformation. On the other hand, this dream may be a form of wish fulfillment, and you are escaping into a pleasurable environment where daily cares and concerns are meaningless. If you rarely allow yourself to relax and socialize, this dream may be compensatory in nature.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Bar, Pub , Meaning of Dreams about Bar, Pub , Dream Interpretation Bar, Pub )

BUDDHISM

Since we waste our youth suffering from boundless ignorance and unfulfilled desire and since age is mostly a time of physical hardship and blunted hopes, it seems clear that life, for all its promises, is more a burden than a joy. Since, however, to die is to be instantly reborn into life, death is apparently an even more absolute cheat. Considering also that all things have arisen in the Mind, in the midst of the Void, and since we are ourselves our own creators and gods (in a multiplicity of aspects and a simultaneous gallimaufry of forms), there is no escaping from the inevitability of either the existing or the potential cosmos. Indeed, it is this very weariness which Reality seeks to assuage by confusing itself as to its own identity.

The Buddha, sensing the horror and outrage of life on earth, wants to lead us to the perfection of the Absolute.

He teaches that birth and death (the wheel of Samsara), together with the Karmic burden, can be dropped in enlightenment and we can enter into Nirvana directly. In an even deeper understanding we are shown that Samsara and Nirvana are already one so there is not even any need for enlightenment! (But of course you have to be enlightened before you can understand that you are already enlightened!)

To the average westerner this seems fairly tame stuff and much too intellectual for his taste. He doesnt want contemplation, he wants action. But he should understand that Buddhism is a discipline of conscious mind and is meant to accompany action, not to take its place. It is serenity of the mind which enables creative work to be done and acceptance of life to take place. The other thing the westerner sometimes fails to recognize is that death and reincarnation are as much a part of his belief system as they are that of a Hindu philosopher. What, after all, is Heaven but the prospect of rebirth on a higher plane? What is Hell but the karma of past lives?

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

Eden (Hebrew, Jewish). "Delight", pleasure. In Genesis the "Garden of Delight" built by God ; in the Kabbala the

"Garden of Delight", a place of Initiation into the mysteries. Orientalists identify it with a place which was situated in Babylonia in the district of Karduniyas, called also Gan-dunu, which is almost like the Gan-eden of the Jews. (See the works of Sir H. Rawlinson, and G. Smith.)

That district has four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Surappi, Ukni. The two first have been adopted without any change by the Jews; the other two they have probably transformed into " Gihon and Pison", so as to have something original. The following are some of the reasons for the identification of Eden, given by Assyriologists. The cities of Babylon, Larancha and Sippara, were founded before the flood, according to the chronology of the Jews.

"Surippak was the city of the ark, the mountain east of the Tigris was the resting place of the ark, Babylon was the site of the tower, and Ur of the Chaldees the birthplace of Abraham." And, as Abraham,

"the first leader of the Hebrew race, migrated from Ur to Harran in Syria and from thence to Palestine", the best Assyriologists think that it is "so much evidence in favour of the hypothesis that Chaldea was the original home of these stories (in the Bible) and that the Jews received them originally from the Babylonians".

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

VISHNU INCARNATION

One of the Gods of the Hindu Trinity (Trimurti), who volunteered for incarnation in order to help the righteous and bring them to enlightenment. Some say there have been eleven so far and the 12th is the coming incarnation, which will take place in this century, whilst others claim it to have taken place, 2000 years ago with the birth of X. Prithivi (earth) is supposed to have been the first avatar. HPB gives the ten subsequent avatars in this progression:

(See also: VISHNU INCARNATION , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Rasatala (Sanskrit) [from rasa taste + tala sphere, place]

Place of taste or contact; a place or sphere where the apparatus of the inner and outer organs of sense are active. The fourth counting downwards of the seven talas. The corresponding loka or pole is maharloka. Rasatala corresponds to sparsa (touch), and to some of the hierarchies of ethereal, semi-objective dhyani-chohans of the astral matter of the manasa-manas.

(See also: Rasatala , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Dream Interpretation Earthquake

Dreaming of an earthquake is a warning: if you can withstand disturbances in life, you will find a new place or starting point. Earthquakes usually stand for sudden changes which take place in our personal or social lives. This dream does not mean that you can prevent these changes, but tells you to be firm and true to yourself if you want a positive outcome.

Source: Dream-Land, http://www.dream-land.info

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

temple

A dwelling place for the holy. A place within ourselves, such as a dedicated heart, or in the outer world that has been purified and dedicated to spiritual purposes

(See also: Temple , Body Mind and Soul)

Café (Cafe, Restaurant)

If you dream of a busy café when you sit alone at a table, this indicates a feeling of “being lonely in a crowd,” of alienation from the world around you. If you’re with a group of friends, however, support of all kinds is available from people who care for you. If the café is chic and nicely decorated, your world is pretty much in order, but if it’s a shabby place, both your spirits and your life circumstances could use a lift, and you may need to seek it outside your usual domain.

Source: Astrocenter, http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/DreamDictionary.aspx

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Café, Cafe, Restaurant , Meaning of Dreams about Café, Cafe, Restaurant , Dream Interpretation Café, Cafe, Restaurant )

Magic: Magic is the art of affecting the manifest through the Unmanifest. The manifest is all that can be seen, touched, perceived, manipulated, imagined, or understood. The Unmanifest is none of these things. It is the place, or rather the non-place, from which everything issues. All that comes into being comes from the Unmanifest. All that passes away goes back to the Unmanifest.

Also See: magick

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

Cave

Caves are rich and thought-provoking dream symbols. At times, a woman with reproductive issues may have a cave dream, in which case it represents the womb. The cave, as the womb, can represent new life, creativity, warmth and safety. The cave can be a general symbol of a safe place, a sanctuary or a refuge. If you are experiencing much anxiety in daily life, in your dream state you may retreat to a warm cave where you cannot be disturbed by worldly demands. The cave could also represent the mysterious and unexplored parts of ourselves. It could be symbolic of the unconscious mind, which could be a pleasant or a frightening experience. Your personal associations and experiences with caves, as well as the details and the emotional content of this dream, need to be carefully considered before making an interpretation.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

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