Anamnesis (Greek) (from ana back again + mimnesco remember)

Recollection; used by Plato in his theory of knowledge. He taught that the human elements of consciousness sprang from seeds of inherent knowledge in the soul, present in the mind as the result of past experiences of the egoic center or reincarnating ego. Thus the acquisition of knowledge is a process of reminiscence or recollection of former experiences.

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

Aristophanes (448?-380 BC) Athenian comedic playwright, of whose 44 plays 11 survive -- the only complete Greek comedies to reach modern times. Well-thought of as a person, he is mentioned in Plato's Symposium as among the noblest of men. His penetration, patriotism, sarcasm and satire, scorn of what is evil and base, imagination, command of language, and technical skill make him one of the great writers of comedies of all time. (SD)

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

Dodecahedron The regular solid with twelve pentagonal faces, or the rhombic dodecahedron of crystallography; in The Secret Doctrine usually a synonym of dodecad, a group of twelve or the number twelve. Plato in Phaedo says that the world, if seen from above, would look like a ball covered with twelve differently colored pieces of leather. The Pythagoreans investigated regular solids, attaching great importance to them as symbols, including the regular dodecahedron which was a symbol of the universe in full manifestation.

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

Poseidonis Plato's Timaeus gives a story related to Solon by Egyptian priests, that a great island called Atlantis with a numerous population and a high culture, once existed west of the Pillars of Hercules and opposite Mt. Atlas.

The name Poseidonis is given to this island in The Secret Doctrine, and it is said to have sunk in 9564 BC (ML 151). This last remnant in the Atlantic Ocean of the originally vast Atlantean continent, was said by ancient Mediterranean writers such as Plato to have been approximately the size of Ireland and, due to the wickedness of its otherwise highly civilized inhabitants, to have been swallowed up and submerged by the ocean in a night and a day.

Stories in ancient Sanskrit literature about Sankha-dvipa refer to the catastrophe which befell the great Atlantean continent, as well as its last island-remnant.

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

Platonic School The philosophers of the Academy, who followed Plato and can be traced down to the days of Cicero, gradually undergoing change during that period and divisible into schools connected with the names of prominent philosophers.

Distinguished from the Aristotelian or Peripatetic school, much as philosophy is distinguished from science or as idealism is distinguished from naturalism. The principal feature is the Platonic dualism: of noumenon and phenomenon, of the self-moving and that which is moved, of the Idea and its manifestation in an organic being, of the permanent and the impermanent, of soul and body, nous and psyche, etc.

In epistemology this dualism appears as philosophia and sense experience -- the wisdom which apprehends reality and that which forms concepts from the data of sense experience; in morals, as the contrast between the Good, which is altruistic because it apprehends the unity of all beings, and the ethic of self-seeking based on the illusion of separateness.

Plato's message was that of a person initiated in the sacred Mysteries, but under the usual necessity of reticence, of speaking in veiled language, and of casting his knowledge into the prevalent molds of thought.

(See also: Platonic School, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Primum Mobile (Latin) The first movable, signifying the first or original movement or motion; the tenth and outermost of the crystalline spheres which surround the earth in the Ptolemaic cosmic system -- a system common to nearly all the peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and which Ptolemy copied in his own cosmographic description.

It answers to Plato's and Aristotle's aeikinetos (the evermoving), that which is perpetually in motion; but beyond this, Aristotle and Plato have an "unmoving motion," the inherent motion or life and intelligence of boundless space, comparable to the svabhavat of Mahayana Buddhism, which as the cosmic womb of all hierarchies in being, and as their periodic producer, seems to answer to the arche kineseos (beginning or origin of motion), the nous of Anaxagoras (Key sec 6).

According to the popular enumeration of the crystalline spheres, they begin with the first sphere surrounding the earth, and count outwards towards the fixed stars and the vastness beyond; but it would perhaps be better to invert this system of counting, making the primum mobile, or the first movement of a system, the originator, and all within it its descending scale of enumerated spheres.

(See also: Primum Mobile, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Aristotle (384-322 BC) One of the two most influential Greek philosophers, he studied under Plato, tutored Alexander the Great (c. 342-335), and taught in Athens at the Lyceum as head of the Peripatetic school. His works, about half of which have been preserved, treat of logic, metaphysics, natural science, ethics, politics, rhetoric, and poetics.

Of his dialogues, written in a more accessible and graceful style, only fragments remain. His method is empirical, critical, and inductive, in contradistinction to Plato's, and he is considered the father of scientific terminology. One of the most influential figures in Western thought, he was the preeminent philosophic and scientific authority for medieval Arabs and Europeans, and still remains authoritative in the field of logic. (SD, BCW)

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

Anoia (Ancient Greek). "Want of understanding", "folly". Anoia is the name given by Plato and others to the lower Manas when too closely allied with Kama, which is irrational (agnoia). The Greek word agnoia is evidently a derivation from and cognate to the Sanskrit word ajnana (phonetically, agnyana) or ignorance, irrationality, absence of knowledge. (See "Agnoia" and "Agnostic".)

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

Demiurgos (Ancient Greek) The Demiurge or Artificer; the Supernal Power which built the universe. Freemasons derive from this word their phrase of "Supreme Architect ". With the Occultists it is the third manifested Logos, or Plato’s "second god", the second logos being represented by him as the "Father", the only Deity that he dared mention as an Initiate into the Mysteries.

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

Gyges (Ancient Greek) "The ring of Gyges" has become a familiar metaphor in European literature.

Gyges was a Lydian who, after murdering the King Candaules, married his widow. Plato tells us that Gyges descended once into a chasm of the earth and discovered a brazen horse, within whose open side was the skeleton of a man who had a brazen ring on his finger. This ring when placed on his own finger made him invisible.

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

Stoicheia (Greek) [plural of stoichos a row of steps, succession of similar things]

First principles, elements as used by Plato and Aristotle; employed by Greek physicists for the first and simplest component parts; likewise the elements of a science, or the points, lines, and surfaces in geometry, or the signs of the zodiac in astrology. It corresponds quite loosely with the planes, degrees, or stages in a cosmic hierarchy -- the degrees or divisions of the one undivided divine element. Yet the reference here is not to boundless infinitude, but to the summit of a cosmic hierarchy or universe.

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

Thumoeides (Greek) [from thymos passional soul + eidos form]

The name given by Plato to a division of the psychomental nature, the animal or passional soul, kama-manas, in contrast with a still lower division of kama-manas which he called epithumetikon (appetitive, or that which has appetite for). Above both these, which together comprise what other Greek philosophers called the psyche, is the nous, the seat of inspiration, intuition, the highest intellection, and similar noble attributes or faculties, corresponding to the buddhi-manas or atma-buddhi-manas.

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

Theosebeia (Greek) Reverence for divinity; used by Plato and others as the adjective theosebes (plural theosebeis), "those who know." It imbodies the principle of occult training that reverence for spiritual things is based on intuition, and hence those who are intuitive or reverent in their attitude towards truth are those who know. Skepticism itself closes the door to the gaining of larger increments of knowledge: there are none so blind as those who refuse to know.

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

ECLECTIC MAGICK: A form of Ceremonial Magick which  is Magick that calls upon the aid of beneficent spirits  and is based upon a blend of doctrines of Plato and other Greek philosophers, Oriental mysticism, Judaism and Christianity. Eclectic Magick draws from these sources in addition to a variety of different sources including Enochian Magick, Thelemic Magick, Egyptology, Alchemy and Chaos Magick.

(See also: ECLECTIC MAGICK, Pagan Organisations, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary, Wicca, )

ECLECTIC MAGICK: A form of Ceremonial Magick which is Magick that calls upon the aid of beneficent spirits and is based upon a blend of doctrines of Plato and other Greek philosophers, Oriental mysticism, Judaism and Christianity. Eclectic Magick draws from these sources in addition to a variety of different sources including Enochian Magick, Thelemic Magick, Egyptology, Alchemy and Chaos Magick.

(See also: ECLECTIC MAGICK, Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

IAMBLICHUS

Neoplatonic magus (250-325) of whom Julian the Apostate said, "He is posterior to Plato only in time, not in genius." Author of On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians, which is the foundation of Cabalism. It was Iamblichus, also, who popularized Proclus. In his practice of sacred magic he advocated that the soul could be divinized through mantrams and invocations.

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

Golden Age The first of the four Hesiodic Ages -- Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron -- signifying the beginning of a new root-race and, on a smaller scale, the beginning of any subordinate racial period. This four-fold division applies not only to root-races but to all their subdivisions.

The Golden Age was under the rule of Kronos (Saturnus) who, according to Plato, not believing that men could rule themselves, caused them to be ruled by gods. It was a time of innocence and happiness: truth and justice prevailed, the earth brought forth without toil all that was necessary for mankind, perpetual spring reigned, and the heroes passed away peacefully into spiritual existence. Equivalent to the Hindu satya yuga.

(See also: Golden Age, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Phoebus (Greek) Pure, bright, radiant, beaming; the solar regent, and in Latin mystic mythology the sun god, offspring of Zeus and Latona: also known by the Greeks as Apollo or Phoebus-Apollo.

This deity represented both physical and spiritual purity and radiance to the Greeks; and to the Greek mind the solar divinity bore intimate relationships with mankind through his Oracle at Delphi, situated on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Phocis, where a temple and oracular sanctuary were erected in his honor, to which consultants and suppliants thronged from all parts of the ancient world. Inscribed on the temple was the phrase associated with Socrates and Plato -- gnothi seauton (know yourself).

See also APOLLO; ORACLE

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

Angels of the Presence In Christianity, the seven Virtues or personified attributes of God, which were created by him and became the archangels. Equivalent to the seven manus produced by the ten prajapatis created by Brahma.

"As it is the Lipika who project into objectivity from the passive Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the 'Builders' reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya, it is they who stand parallel to the Seven Angels of the Presence, whom the Christians recognise in the Seven 'Planetary Spirits' or the 'Spirits of the Stars;' for thus it is they who are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation" or of Plato's divine thought (SD 1:104) (SD 2:237, 573).

(See also: Angels of the Presence, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Atlantidae (Greek) Descendants of Atlantis; "The ancestors of the Pharaohs and the forefathers of the Egyptians, according to some, and as the Esoteric Science teaches. . . . Plato heard of this highly civilized people, the last remnant of which was submerged 9,000 years before his day, from Solon, who had it from the High Priests of Egypt. Voltaire, the eternal scoffer, was right in stating that 'the Atlantidae (our fourth Root Race) made their appearance in Egypt. . . . . It was in Syria and in Phrygia, as well as Egypt, that they established the worship of the Sun.' Occult philosophy teaches that the Egyptians were a remnant of the last Aryan Atlantidae" (TG 42).

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

Formless Equivalent to the Sanskrit arupa (without body or form). Because an absolutely formless thing on its own plane would have no qualities by which it could be distinguished from any other entity or thing there, the word seems rather to mean without body or form as seen from our earthly point of view.

Hence it implies that entities in the arupa spheres exist as what Plato would call ideas, which will become imbodied in the various lower planes in one or another period during the immensely long cosmic existence.

Cosmic pralaya is not such for arupa entities, as only the rupas are dissolved; but this statement, while true, is made from our earthly standpoint.

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

Epithumia (Greek) In Greek metaphysics, equivalent in the human constitution to kama or the desire principle. Psyche or soul was a union of bios (physical vitality, prana), epithumia, and phren or mens (mind, manas). (BCW 1:292, 365) "Pythagoras and Plato both divided soul into two representative parts, independent of each other -- the one, the rational soul, or ((logos)), the other irrational, ((alogos))-- the latter being again subdivided into two parts or aspects the ((thymichon)) and the ((epithymichon)), which, with the divine soul and its spirit and the body, make the seven principles of Theosophy" (BCW 7:229).

See also PRINCIPLES

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