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: Gold, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ideation The faculty, power, or process of forming ideas. Cosmic ideation denotes an abstraction, being one aspect of cosmic egoity, and also the more concrete reality represented by mahat. Cosmic ideation, focused in a basis or upadhi, results as the abstract consciousness of space working through the monad or vehicle; and the manifestations vary according to the degree of the different upadhis.

Cosmic ideation is sometimes called mahabuddhi or mahat, the universal world-soul, the cosmic or spiritual noumenon of matter. As mahat is the primordial essence or principle of cosmic consciousness and intelligence, it is the fountain of the seven prakritis -- the seven planes or elements of the universe -- and the guiding intelligence of manifested nature on all planes. Going deeper, we have precosmic ideation, which is an aspect of that metaphysical triad which is the root from which proceeds all manifestation.

Idea, as Plato pointed out, means primarily a prototype existing in the cosmic mind and manifested in forms by the action of cosmic energy, guided by ideation, working in matter. Therefore it must be regarded as innate, and our thoughts are mental manifestations of ideas.

With Plato and Aristotle (when not using the word to denote species), ideas were the fundamental roots of manifested things, as viewed under the aspect of consciousness rather than under that of matter. Hence the faculty of ideation, considered cosmically, is originative and creative of what lies latent in ideation itself, and can be so in the human being, since each individual is a microcosm. This is quite different from the faculty of making mental images of sensory experiences, these images being really what the Greeks called phantasmata. Yet even this is a degree of the original process and may be called, perhaps, astral ideation.

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

Atlantide (Ancient Greek) The ancestors of the Pharaohs and the forefathers of the Egyptians, according to some, and as the Esoteric Science teaches. (See S.D., Vol. II., and Esoteric Buddhism.) 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 Atlantide (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 Atlantide.

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

Proclus (Ancient Greek). A Greek writer and mystic philosopher, known as a Commentator of Plato, and surnamed the Diadochus. He lived in the fifth century, and died, aged 75, at Athens A.D. 485. His last ardent disciple and follower and the translator of his works was Thomas Taylor of Norwich, who, says Brother Kenneth Mackenzie, "was a modern mystic who adopted the pagan faith as being the only veritable faith, and actually sacrificed doves to Venus, a goat to Bacchus and designed to immolate a bull to Jupiter" but was prevented by his landlady.

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

X - Letter X. - This letter is one of the important symbols in the Occult philosophy. As a numeral X stands, in mathematics, for the unknown quantity; in occult numerals, for the perfect number 10; when placed horizontally, thus ?, it means 1,000; the same with a dash over it ? for 10,000; and by itself, in occult symbolism, it is Plato’s logos (man as a microcosm) decussated in space in the form of the letter X. The , or cross within the circle, has moreover a still clearer significance in Eastern occult philosophy: it IS MAN within his own spherical envelope.

(See also: X - Letter X, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Circle. There are several "Circles" with mystic adjectives attached to them. Thus we have:

(1) the  "Decussated or Perfect Circle" of Plato, who shows it decussated in the form of the letter X ;

(2) the "Circle-dance" of the Amazons, around a Priapic image, the same as the dance of the Gopis around the Sun (Krishna), the shepherdesses representing the signs of the Zodiac ;

(3) the "Circle of Necessity"  of 3,000 years of the Egyptians and of the Occultists, the duration of the cycle between rebirths or reincarnations being from 1,000 to 3,000 years on the average. This will be treated under the term

"Rebirth" or "Reincarnation".

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

ATLANTIS

Plato's legendary continent "West of the Pillars of Hercules" which achieved great technological heights of civilization and then sank beneath the sea. Whether or not we choose to lend credence to its historical reality is less important than what it symbolizes - the incessant rise and fall of civilizations in the past, as "scientifically advanced" as our own. Indeed, many of these are said to have been further advanced than our own by several leagues. Thus, Atlantis warns us to avoid unnecessary futility.

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

Rector (Latin) Ruler, regent; the seven hierarchies of the creative Logos have each its rector or chief dhyanis, and these may be called cosmocratores, maharajas, pillars, etc. Kepler supposed that the motions of the planets are due to rectors -- sidereal and cosmic forces, and Plato assigns to the planets their rulers. In theosophy every cosmic body has its rector or indwelling spiritual monad.

Rectores Temebrarum harum (the rulers of these darknesses) is an ecclesiastical expression equivalent to the cosmocratores of Ephesians 6:12. But the rectors of light are really the same as the cosmocratores, the two being merely opposite poles -- the former the higher pole and the latter the lower pole; but ecclesiasticism has turned the lower aspect into evil demons and powers of darkness.

(See also: Rector, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Gyges (Greek) One of three giants having a dual aspect as a god and a mortal, imprisoned by Kronos for their rebellion against him. The Ring of Gyges is a familiar metaphor in European literature. Plato relates that Gyges was a Lydian who murdered King Candaules and then married his widow. He once descended into a chasm and found a brazen horse with an opening in its side in which was the skeleton of a man, on whose finger was a brass ring. Gyges took the ring and when placed upon his own finger, it made him invisible.

The ring here signifies the circle of knowledge or cycle of initiatory experience and wisdom thus gained, which the fully completed initiate thereafter carries with him in the form of the ring or circle of wisdom and power. One of the powers of the adept, for instance, is to render himself invisible at will, which is achieved by throwing around himself a veil of akasa. The descent into the earth points emphatically to the descent into the pit or underworld which every neophyte of the higher degrees must undertake before completing the initiatory cycle.

See also BRIAREUS

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

Pantheism [from Greek pan all + theos god]

According to Plato, theos is derived from theein (to move); hence pantheism may be defined as belief in an all-moving or all-living principle. It is the doctrine that the root-essence of the universe is utter divinity, that divinity pervades throughout and is the substratum, the inmost, of all beings and things -- every atom, sun, universe, man, god.

Theosophic pantheism excludes the idea that deity is separate from the universe; and while denying monotheism and polytheism when these two are regarded as being exclusive of each other, theosophy recognizes both as complementary albeit partial statements of truth. Everything that is, is a manifestation, in one degree or another, of the all-permeant, divine essence.

Pantheism, in its root-meaning, is thus the basis and cause of evolution, by which the inner divinity, the monadic essence, or the hosts of monads progressively evolve from lower to higher manifestation, because the same ultimate essence is the very heart of each.

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

Gyges (Greek) One of three giants having a dual aspect as a god and a mortal, imprisoned by Kronos for their rebellion against him. The Ring of Gyges is a familiar metaphor in European literature. Plato relates that Gyges was a Lydian who murdered King Candaules and then married his widow. He once descended into a chasm and found a brazen horse with an opening in its side in which was the skeleton of a man, on whose finger was a brass ring. Gyges took the ring and when placed upon his own finger, it made him invisible.

The ring here signifies the circle of knowledge or cycle of initiatory experience and wisdom thus gained, which the fully completed initiate thereafter carries with him in the form of the ring or circle of wisdom and power. One of the powers of the adept, for instance, is to render himself invisible at will, which is achieved by throwing around himself a veil of akasa. The descent into the earth points emphatically to the descent into the pit or underworld which every neophyte of the higher degrees must undertake before completing the initiatory cycle.

See also BRIAREUS

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

Ark of Isis. At the great Egyptian annual ceremony, which took place in the month of Athyr, the boat of Isis was borne in procession by the priests, and Collyrian cakes or buns, marked with the sign of the cross (Tat), were eaten.

This was in commemoration of the weeping of Isis for the loss of Osiris, the Athyr festival being very impressive. "Plato refers to the melodies on the occasion as being very ancient," writes Mr. Bonwick (Eg. Belief and Mod. Thought). " The Miserere in Rome has been said to be similar to its melancholy cadence, and to be derived from it Weeping, veiled virgins followed the ark. The Nornes, or veiled virgins, wept also for the loss of our Saxon forefathers’ god, the ill-fated but good Baldur."

(See also: Ark of Isis, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akasa and with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it is something quite on another plane. The seventh principle of the earth’s atmosphere, as said, the Astral Light, is only the second on the Cosmic scale. The scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and Planes, of Emanations - on the metaphysical - and Evolutions - on the physical plane - is the Cosmic Serpent biting its own tail, the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and reflected in its turn by the lower Serpent. The Caduceus explains the mystery, and the four-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the universe is said by Plato to have been built by the manifested Logos - synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born - yields geometrically the key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic reflection - our Earth.

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

Hermetic. Any doctrine or writing connected with the esoteric teachings of Hermes, who, whether as the Egyptian Thoth or the Greek Hermes, was the God of Wisdom with the Ancients, and, according to Plato, "discovered numbers, geometry, astronomy and letters".

Though mostly considered as spurious, nevertheless the Hermetic writings were highly prized by St. Augustine, Lactantius, Cyril and others. In the words of Mr. J. Bonwick, "

They are more or less touched up by the Platonic philosophers among the early Christians (such as Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus) who sought to substantiate their Christian arguments by appeals to these heathen and revered writings, though they could not resist the temptation of making them say a little too much.

Though represented by some clever and interested writers as teaching pure monotheism, the Hermetic or Trismegistic books are, nevertheless, purely pantheistic. The Deity referred to in them is defined by Paul as that in which "we live, and move and have our being" - notwithstanding the "in Him" of the translators.

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

Tiryns A city in Argolis, belonging to the Achaean age, said to have been founded by Proetus, brother of Acrisius, who was succeeded by Perseus; and the scene of the early life of Heracles. The site was excavated by Schliemann and Dorpfeld, and an ancient palace discovered.

The walls, together with cyclopean masonry in other places, were constructed under the guidance of very late Atlantean initiates, who colonized parts of Europe when it had begun to arise from under the waters of the Atlantic, and when their own vast continental system had largely disappeared.

Actually, it may be that the builders of the so-called cyclopean stonework or masonry structures in Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, and perhaps elsewhere, were immigrants from Plato's Atlantis or Poseidonis, as related in the Timaeus, and referred to by other Greek and Roman writers.

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

ARCHETYPE –

1. Archetypes are universal symbols defined by Funk & Wagnall as a "standard pattern" or a "prototype". Archetypal symbol speaks to all of us in the ecumenical language of the subconscious. They are the images which cloud our dreams, they are the inherent power of our deities and they are the machinery which makes all forms of divination possible. Archetypal images are used heavily throughout path working for this is the only language our subconscious (sometimes called our super-conscious or deep mind) can understand, utilize and with which it can communicate back to our conscious minds. (CMM)

"basic type for form"

2. an ideal pattern or form to which all things of a certain type conform (Plato)

3. unrepresentable, unconscious, preexistent from in the psyche that can nevertheless express itself personally or collectively in forms conditioned by the times (Jung, from Greek) (NAD)

(See also: ARCHETYPE, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

CARPOCRATES

A 2nd Century Gnostic, who advocated promiscuity and thereby earned the hatred of orthodox Xtianity, which in turn delighted in distorting his philosophy. What Carpocrates intended to show was that the flesh is of so little importance compared to the soul, that it can be used and abused for a higher purpose. Since the body is a prison, it is necessary to transcend the flesh through experiencing it and thereby free oneself of all desire. Any human experience missed will simply cause reincarnation in another body. If we do not break all the divine laws, we cannot free ourselves to return to the Unbegotten. Carpocrates is credited with having said, "Nothing is evil by nature" and his ideas can be traced to Plato and Pythagoras. Another thing that made Carpocratians unpopular with the orthodox Xtians was their idea of communal property, an early form of Communism.

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

Manticism [from Greek mantis seer from mainomai to act ecstatically under a divine impulse]

A seer, one inspired with divine ecstasy; according to Plato, one who uttered oracles while under a divine impulse, which in its lowest forms was a kind of frenzy, while a prophetes (prophet) was one who interpreted the oracles. Frenzy, now used only to denote madness or anger, meant in classic times a state of exaltation both of mind and psychical nature which enabled inner faculties of perception to come into play, whereby seership and prophetic power were attained.

Certain exhalations from the earth would often act upon the body of the seer or seeress, inducing a state of physical receptivity, as occurred in the grotto of Delphi; and Cicero speaks highly of the better side of the power thus conferred. The condition produced by Bacchic rites was similar, but in later times degenerated into mere frenzy or ravings in the modern sense of the word; and as these rites became degraded into profligacy, the meaning of the word frenzy naturally altered pari passu.

(See also: Manticism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Ogygia An island inhabited by the nymph Calypso, far from Greece to the west, on which Odysseus was shipwrecked. Despite her promise of immortality if he stays, Odysseus wishes to leave, and the gods compel her to let him go after seven years.

Ogyges is an early king in the legends of Boeotia and Attica, a son of Poseidon, in whose reign a great flood overwhelmed the land. It refers to the tradition of the sinking of one of the last remnants of Atlantis and previous migrations of some of its inhabitants to Greece, where they founded new settlements.

Ogygia was one of the last islands of the vast Atlantean continental system, and it may very readily be but another name for the Poseidonis referred to by Plato. As Egypt was settled originally by emigrants from Poseidonis or Ogygia, Egypt's most ancient name was Ogygia.

(See also: Ogygia, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Atlantis In Theosophical literature the fourth great land-massif or continental system which composed the land area of this globe several million years ago, and which was the home of the fourth root-race. Atlantis was not the name of this land area when inhabited by its own populations, but is borrowed by theosophists from Plato.

A surprising number of very ancient traditions besides those of Greece support the Atlantean hypothesis. Some of the widespread deluge stories, certainly those surviving during the Classic period in the nations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, relate only to Plato's relatively small island, Poseidonis, more or less the size of modern Ireland, if we follow Plato's statements of size; but in addition to these there have been many deluges noticed in the traditions of other peoples scattered over the face of the globe.

The chief great flood referred to the principal collapse of Atlantis, the main sinking occurring during the Miocene period several million years ago. Other island-continents sank later, e.g., Daitya and Ruta (Sanskrit name for one of the last great islands of the Atlantean system in the Pacific Ocean) which went down during the Pliocene times -- in Geikie's Nomenclature, about 850,000 years ago. (SD 2:314).

"The Atlantic portion of Lemuria was the geological basis of what is generally known as Atlantis. The latter, indeed, must be regarded rather as a development of the Atlantic prolongation of Lemuria, than as an entirely new mass of land upheaved to meet the special requirements of the fourth root-race. Just as in the case of Race-evolution, so in that of the shifting and re-shifting of continental masses, no hard and fast line can be drawn where a new order ends and another begins. Continuity in natural processes is never broken" (SD 2:333).

Referring to the vast expanse of lands, including both continents and islands, occupied by the populations of the fourth root-race, Blavatsky wrote: "at a remote epoch a traveller could traverse what is now the Atlantic Ocean, almost the entire distance by land, crossing in boats from one island to another, where narrow straits then existed" (IU 1:558).

 While the term Atlantis derived from Greek sources undoubtedly gave its name to what we now call the Atlantic Ocean, yet the Atlantic continental system reached even into what is now called the pacific; and the islanders of this body of water almost universally amongst themselves have legends all pointing to the fact that their ancestors lived on and came from "great islands" which preceded the present distribution of land and sea.

See also ALTANTEANS; ROOT-RACE, FOURTH

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

Inductive Method, Induction In logic, the process of reasoning from the parts to the whole, from the particular to the general, or from the individual to the universal; contrasted with the deductive method, which reasons from the whole to the parts, from the general to the particular from the universal to the individual.

It is associated with Aristotle as contrasted with Plato, also with Francis Bacon and modern science in general. Science endeavors to establish general laws by reasoning from particular observations; but it is necessary to assume that what is true in an individual case will be true in the general case of which it is only an instance. The hypotheses thus framed are necessarily and naturally regarded as provisional, subject to modification in the light of subsequent, more extended observations of nature.

This method endeavors to come to an understanding of nature by a continued process of trial and error, the formulation of its laws becoming ever wider. But an essential part of this method itself is deductive, since we continually reason back from the provisional hypotheses we have laid down to the new facts which we seek to discover in support or in refutation of them. For this reason, the method of science has often been called a deductive-inductive method. Indeed, pure induction is probably inconceivable, since we cannot enter upon a mental process unless we first entertain some general ideas. Induction and deduction are interdependent functions of the ratiocinative mind.

Further, the data of scientific induction are sensory percepts; and no amount of such data will enable us to ascertain the truth about the causal worlds which underlie phenomena. If we admit, with Plato, the existence of intuition or direct perception of essential truths, or if we accept his doctrine of the existence of soul memories latent in the mind, we have a resource which will free us from complete reliance on this synthetic method of reaching general truths.

See also BACONIAN METHODS

(See also: Inductive Method, Induction, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

NEOPLATONISM

By the 3rd Century A.D., an eclectic occultism composed of Neoplatonism and Qabalah seriously rivalled Christianity. All those who wrote on this subject went under the name of "Hermes," the best known book of which is "The Pymander." Later, Hermes was equated with alchemy. With Ammonius Saccas and Plotinus, the religion of the Orient were fused to Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle and Stoicism eventually to form a doctrine of three hypostases (Monos, Nous, Psyche). The material world and its glories are the work of demons but union with the gods, our higher souls, our higher egos, can be accomplished only by theurgical means, which join us according to individual capacity to the divinely creative realm. Vatic powers reside in the higher ego which we all possess. In the 4th Century, Iamblichus (author of De Mysteriis), in struggling against the Galileans, stressed intellectual meditation and vigorously opposed magic and religion. But he virtually equated theurgy with raja yoga, calling samadhi manteia. In the 5th Century, Neoplatonism under Porphyry (who was Jewish), split into a Xtian version at Alexandria and an extremely short-lived Pagan version at Athens under Proclus. Porphyry and Plotinus also disapproved of "phenomenal theurgy" (physical magic). Neoplatonism was revived during the Renaissance by Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, whereafter it survived through the XIXth Century.

Its chief philosophy can probably be summed up as simple pantheism, but which the Xtians complexified to "the Logos that derives from One Divine Source."

Neoplatonism regarded Egypt as the source of all occult knowledge. Saccas himself rejected Xtianity totally, as it had in it nothing that could not be found in previous teachings. Paul Christian in his History of Magic tells us that, according to Proclus, Plato underwent a 13-year initiation in the mysteries of Thoth-Hermes by famed magi of Memphis -- Patheneitb, Ochoaps, Sechtnouphis and Etymon of Sebennithis. He emerged with what we now know as the "Platonic Doctrine."

At its best, Neoplatonism encouraged in the West an interest in Oriental systems, picking up Qabalah, Buddhism and Hinduism as enrichments. At its worst, it popularized an "anything goes" bubble-headed mysticism.

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