Introduction and links to related topics Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Prayer - Prayer As usually understood in the West, prayer implies the existence -- whether actually so in nature or not -- of a divine entity, such as God, Christ, an angel or saint, to whom petitions may be addressed and by whose favor benefits may be obtained, a view of prayer held in nearly all exoteric religious systems. Yet even among those who believe in personal divinities, some take a higher view of prayer than that of asking for special favors, rather looking upon it as an act of resignation to the divine will: "Not my will, but thine, be done."
Theosophy speaks of this as the endeavor of the aspiring human mind to establish individual communion between the personal man and his spiritual counterpart or inner god, the true meaning of the injunction to pray to our Father which is in secret. Thus prayer takes the form of aspiration combined with deep meditation, as has been the case with mystics, Eastern and Western. This involves a laying aside of personal wishes and a conscious desire for intuitive perception of the truth and for the power to follow it.
If a personal wish is present, precisely because all personal wishes in the last analysis are restricted, and hence either physically or spiritually selfish, the act becomes one of black magic, for the person is seeking to evoke interior powers in furtherance of his own purposes, which in such cases are usually founded in self-seeking of some kind. Also, a well-intentioned person, praying on behalf of another, may unwittingly exercise on that other an interference with the latter''s will, similar in many respects to that of hypnotism.
The absurdity of warring nations praying to the same God for victory over each other is often commented on; and the practice of many people combining together to pray for the conversion of people of another sect, or even for worse objects, is equally open to reprobation. This kind of prayer is merely a survival of one of the lower magic arts, where religious practice consists mainly in the invocation of tribal and local deities.
Prayer - A privilege and an obligation of the Christian where we communicate with God. It is how we convey our confession (1 John 1:9), requests (1 Tim. 2:1-3), intercessions (James 5:15), thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6), etc., to our holy God. We are commanded to pray (1 Thess. 5:17).
Some personal requirements of prayer are a pure heart (Psalm 66:18), belief in Christ (John 14:13), and that the prayer be according to God''s will (1 John 5:13). We can pray standing (Neh. 9:5), kneeling (Ezra 9:5), sitting (1 Chron. 17:16-27), bowing (Exodus 34:8), and with lifted hands (1 Tim. 2:8).
Honavar - Honavar, Ahunavar (Pahlavi) Ahuna-Vairya (Avestan) Ancient Persian name for the Logos or cosmic reason, Word or Verbum; the Holy Word of the Avesta is given by Ahura Mazda to Zorroaster "in the boundless time," and it is the great weapon of Zoroaster in prevailing over Angra Mainyu. It was by reciting the Honavar at the beginning of the world that Ahura Mazda likewise confounded Angra Mainyu.
Also a prayer in the Avesta.
Sandalphon - Sandalphon (Hebrew) Qabbalistic term alleged to be the name of the chief of angels: "the Kabbalistic Prince of Angels, emblematically represented by one of the Cherubim of the Ark" (TG 289).
In the Zohar the name of the "supreme chief" of the seventh heaven who "introduces the prayer into the seven palaces, to wit, the Palaces of the King" (Sperling's trans 4:185); again Sandalphon is described as the "angel in charge of the prayers of Israel," who "takes up all those prayers and weaves out of them a crown for the Living One of the worlds" (ibid., 2:143).
Chnouphis - Chnouphis (Ancient Greek). Nouf in Egyptian. Another aspect of Ammon, and the personification of his generative power in actu, as Kneph is of the same in potentia. He is also ram-headed.
If in his aspect as Kneph he is the Holy Spirit with the creative ideation brooding in him, as Chnouphis, he is the angel who "comes in" into the Virgin soil and flesh. A prayer on a papyrus, translated by the French Egyptologist Chabas, says; ‘ 0 Sepui, Cause of being, who hast formed thine own body! 0 only Lord, proceeding from Noum ! 0 divine substance, created from itself! 0 God, who hast made the substance which is in him! 0 God, who has made his own father and impregnated his own mother."
This shows the origin of the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and immaculate conception. He is seen on a monument seated near a potter’s wheel, and forming men out of clay. The fig-leaf is sacred to him, which is alone sufficient to prove him a phallic god - an idea which is carried out by the inscription: "he who made that which is, the creator of beings, the first existing, he who made to exist all that exists." Some see in him the incarnation of Ammon-Ra, but he is the latter himself in his phallic aspect, for, like Ammon, he is " his mother’s husband", i.e., the male or impregnating side of Nature.
His names vary, as Cnouphis, Noum, Khem, and Khnum or Chnoumis. As he represents the Demiurgos (or Logos) from the material, lower aspect of the Soul of the World, he is the Agathodemon, symbolized sometimes by a Serpent ; and his wife Athor or Maut (Mot mother), or Sate, "the daughter of the Sun", carrying an arrow on a sunbeam (the ray of conception), stretches "mistress over the lower portions of the atmosphere". below the constellations, as Ne?th expands over the starry heavens. (See "Chaos".)
Litany - Long prayer or incantation with constantly repeating refrain.
Invocation - A "calling or summoning," as to a God, saint, etc., for blessings and assistance. Also, a formal prayer or chant.
See: mantra.
Great Invocation - A universal prayer written in 1937 by Alice Bailey (see Arcane School) and circulated by various New Age groups. It has been translated into over 80 languages. The purpose of this prayer is to invoke the presence of the Cosmic Christ on earth, thus leading to the unity and brotherhood of all mankind.
Bidding - A specific prayer or an incantation.
Voodoo - Voodoo or Voodooism [from Fongbe dialect vodunu from vodu moral and religious life of the Fons of Dahomey]
A definite system of African black magic or sorcery, including various types of necromantic practice. It reached the Americas with the African slaves brought from the West Coast, and in and around the Caribbean various degrees of the cult persist and constitute a recognized if little understood social feature in the history and life of the people.
Especially significant in the original Fon religion are the principal temples in the sacred forests, with symbolic hieroglyphics on the walls, depicting the exploits of their kings, voodoo legends, etc., and explaining their belief in the unknowable god Meru (Great Master); this unmanifest god, too far removed from men for them to give to him any form, dealt with them through lesser gods and nature spirit, i.e., voodoo; the priestesses serving the temple in a secret cult with four degrees of initiation, and having passwords unknown to laymen; the cult of the snake or adder as the most primitive form of the religion.
Such findings in voodoo history, however degraded in course of time and overlaid by beliefs and customs of cruder native tribes, have the basic elements of a hierarchic religion so enveloped in mystery as to indicate an origin far beyond the creative imagination of any people. Rather, here in strange temples of dark mystery, were the lingering echoes of some ancient wisdom teaching of those who were truly "as wise as serpents." The least altered of the original system is probably the voodoo music with its solemn, insistent rhythm in the mood of prayer or an invocation. This rhythm persists, even when the ritual songs in Haiti are composed entirely of Creole words, or of a series of unintelligible sounds.
Counterparts of the debasing and malign system of voodoo are found elsewhere under many different names, like the left-hand Tantrika of India, and the Dugpas of Tibet. In general, all of these unholy practices date back to the abuse of spiritual knowledge and power by the late Atlanteans.
Kabah - Kabah or Kaaba (Arab). The name of the famous Mahommedan temple at Mecca, a great place of pilgrimage.
The edifice is not large but very original; of a cubical form 23 X 24 cubits in length and breadth and 27 cubits high, with only one aperture on the East side to admit light. In the north-east corner is the "black stone" of Kaaba, said to have been lowered down direct from heaven and to have been as white as snow, but subsequently it became black, owing to the sins of mankind
The "white stone", the reputed tomb of Ismael, is in the north side and the place of Abraham is to the east. If, as the Mahommedans claim, this temple was, at the prayer of Adam after his exile, transferred by Allah or Jehovah direct from Eden down to earth, then the "heathen" may truly claim to have far exceeded the divine primordial architecture in the beauty of their edifices.
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