Pythagoras Dictionary

Arithmancy:

Alternatively 'Arithmomancy' and 'Arithomancy'. The term comes from the Greek 'arithmos' (number) and 'manteia' (divination), relating to forecasting future events by the use of numbers; esoterically it is concerned with the science of correspondences between gods, men and numbers, as taught by Pythagoras.

The Caldeans also practiced this type of divination, as well as the Platonists and Pythagoreans. Arithmancy is also a part of the Jewish "Kabbalah".

(See also: Arithmancy , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Arithmomancy (Ancient Greek). The science of correspondences between gods, men, and numbers, as taught by Pythagoras.

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

Agnoia (Ancient Greek). "Divested of reason", lit., "irrationality", when speaking of the animal Soul. According to Plutarch, Pythagoras and Plato divided the human soul into two parts (the higher and lower manas) - the rational or noëtic and the irrational, or agnoia, sometimes written "annoia".

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

Curetes Kouretes (Greek) The priests in the Mysteries of Rhea Cybele in Crete, and in Classical mythology daemons or demigods to whom Cybele entrusted the infant Zeus. Identified with the kabiri, who belong to the septenary creative groups of dhyan-chohans which incarnated in the elect of the third and fourth root-races -- Zeus is said to be the god of the fourth race (SD 2:360, 766, 776).

In connection with the Mysteries of Cybele in Crete, initiation in the temples of the Curetes was extremely arduous, lasting a lunar month (27 days), during which the initiant was left by himself in a crypt, undergoing the severest kind of tests; Pythagoras is stated to have successfully undergone initiation in these rites (TG 91).

(See also: Curetes, Kouretes , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Solar System Commonly, the Sun with the nine principal planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto -- their satellites, and the minor planets, comets, and meteors; in theosophy, however, the solar system is a far more complex entity, for many of its worlds manifest on planes of being invisible to our senses.

The planets are individual manifestations of conscious intelligences, their distances from the sun being generally in rhythmical progression and their motions directed by mind and volition, as Kepler declared in his doctrine of Rectors, following the ancient teachings. The nebular hypothesis, once so popular in European scientific thought and now more or less rejected, was first suggested by Swedish seer Swedenborg and German philosopher Kant, and around the beginning of the 19th century was worked out in mathematical detail by the Frenchman Laplace. Though the nebular hypothesis as scientifically presented was unacceptable to theosophical thinkers, it nevertheless was based upon facts of cosmic evolution accepted by the ancient wisdom-religion and approximated somewhat more closely to what theosophy teaches as the facts of cosmogony than do the later tidal or planetesimal theories.

In theosophy the universe is the product of cosmic mind or intelligence, whose all-permeant activities manifest on our material plane as the laws of nature. The universe and all in it, proceeding from cosmic consciousness, is imbued throughout with the qualities and attributes of its divine originators; and as there is but one primordial fundamental life -- and therefore one fundamental law -- energizing and guiding all, the ancient teaching of analogy is the master key to understanding universal nature.

Calling the primordial origins of every being and thing by the term monads, as Leibniz did following Pythagoras, these monads may be looked upon as the seeds of cosmic life, life-centers or energy points, and in such case naught in the universe is the product of chance, but is the offspring of mind. Thus the solar system itself sprang from such a cosmic seed or monad; and the same holds true for the planets, nebulae, comets, and all other individually enduring cosmic bodies.

Comets are coordinated with earlier and later stages of nebular evolution, playing an activating part in the formation of individual celestial bodies. The planets did not emerge from the sun, but the sun is their "co-uterine brother" with the same nebular origin. The sun is the great distributor of light and other radiations, including vital energy, throughout the solar system, and is itself a member of a hierarchy of solar beings.

The ancient wisdom speaks of seven sacred planets which are especially connected with the earth, as indeed our own earth is likewise especially connected with various planetary chains, which mutually assisted in the formation of the seven or twelve globes of the planetary chains. These sacred planets are: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the Sun and Moon being substitutes for esoteric and invisible planets. The complete number of the planets of a solar system is twelve, which is the number of globes composing a planetary chain. These twelve sacred planets are closely linked with the twelve houses of the zodiac, these links of unity being the energic coordinates tying our solar system in with the life and structure of the galaxy.

Theosophy makes a distinction between the solar system and the universal solar system -- the former has especial reference to the twelve sacred planets, while the universal solar system refers to all bodies belonging to and revolving around a master- or king-sun (raja-sun) and within the latter's far-flung realm on seven or more planes of being. It therefore contains planets and suns invisible to our present range of sense perception. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are said not to belong to the solar system (nor are they included among the twelve sacred planets), but are members of the universal solar system.

In the Brahmanical system the solar system was regarded as an Egg of Brahma (brahmanda), the prakritic or prithivi-form of Brahma, so that its life span is equivalent to the length of Brahma's manifested life. A Day of Brahma for a planetary chain consists of a planetary manvantara -- seven rounds of the various life-waves around that chain -- a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. The ensuing pralaya or Night of Brahma is of an equivalent length, together equaling 8,640,000,000 terrestrial years. Forty-nine such planetary Days and Nights equal one solar manvantara, equivalent to a Year of Brahma; and each such year of Brahma is figured as being 360 of his Days; and 100 such Years of Brahma equal Brahma's Life, a period of 311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years -- including in this vast time period the various twilights and dawns. Theosophic philosophy states that one-half of Brahma's Life has been spent, or 50 Years of Brahma. At the end of Brahma's Life, the final consummation of the solar system, so far as the planetary chain is concerned, will occur, and everything within the bounds of this system will vanish, and the succeeding solar pralaya will commence.

(See also: Solar System , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Soulless Beings :

Soulless Beings

"We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote H. P. Blavatsky. This is an actual fact. The statement does not mean that those whom we thus elbow have no soul. The significance is that the spiritual part of these human beings is sleeping, not awake. Soulless Beings are animate humans with an animate working brain-mind, an animal mind, but otherwise "soulless" in the sense that the soul is inactive, sleeping; and this is also just what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the "living dead."

Soulless Beings are everywhere, these people. We elbow them, just as H. P. Blavatsky says, at every turn. The eyes may be physically bright, and filled with the vital physical fire, but they lack soul; they lack tenderness, the fervid yet gentle warmth of the living flame of inspiration within. Sometimes impersonal love will awaken the soul in a man or in a woman; sometimes it will kill it if the love become selfish and gross. The streets are filled with such "soulless" people; but the phrase soulless people does not mean "lost souls." The latter is again something else.

The term soulless people therefore is a technical term. It means men and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritual essence within them, but who are not self-consciously so connected. They live very largely in the brain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness. They turn with pleasure to the frivolities of life. They have the ordinary feelings of honor, etc., because it is conventional and good breeding so to have them; but the deep inner fire of yearning, the living warmth that comes from being more or less at one with the god within, they know not. Hence, they are "soulless," because the soul is not working with fiery energy in and through them.

A lost soul, on the other hand, means an entity who through various rebirths, it may be a dozen, or more or less, has been slowly following the "easy descent to Avernus," and in whom the threads of communication with the spirit within have been snapped one after the other. Vice will do this, continuous vice. Hate snaps these spiritual threads more quickly than anything else perhaps. Selfishness, the parent of hate, is the root of all human evil; and therefore a lost soul is one who is not merely soulless in the ordinary theosophical usage of the word, but is one who has lost the last link, the last delicate thread of consciousness, connecting him with his inner god. He will continue "the easy descent," passing from human birth to an inferior human birth, and then to one still more inferior, until finally the degenerate astral monad  - all that remains of the human being that once was  - may even enter the body of some beast to which it feels attracted (and this is one side of the teaching of transmigration, which has been so badly misunderstood in the Occident); some finally go even to plants perhaps, at the last, and will ultimately vanish. The astral monad will then have faded out. Such lost souls are exceedingly rare, fortunately; but they are not what we call soulless people.

If the student will remember the fact that when a human being is filled with the living spiritual and intellectual fiery energies flowing into his brain-mind from his inner god, he is then an insouled being, he will readily understand that when these fiery energies can no longer reach the brain-mind and manifest in a man's life, there is thus produced what is called a soulless being. A good man, honorable, loyal, compassionate, aspiring, gentle, and true-hearted, and a student of wisdom, is an "insouled" man; a buddha is one who is fully, completely insouled; and there are all the intermediate grades between.

See also: Soulless Beings , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Unlucky Numbers Even numbers, and preeminently the binary, have been regarded by Pythagoras, Gnostics, and others as pertaining to matter; hence even numbers have shared the obloquy so often attached to this side of nature, as illustrated by such epithets as evil and unlucky. The primordially odd numbers stood for the unfolding or evolution of spirit and were considered good and propitious.

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

Curetes. The Priest-Initiates of ancient Crete, in the service of Cybele. Initiation in their temples was very severe ; it lasted twenty-seven days, during which time the aspirant was left by himself in a crypt, undergoing terrible trials. Pythagoras was initiated into these rites and came out victorious.

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

Druids Members of a priestly hierarchy among the ancient Celts of Britain, Gaul, and Ireland, composed of the three Orders of Druids, Bards, and Ovates. According to the Gaulish reports mentioned by Julius Caesar, Druidism was founded in Britain, which remained in his time its headquarters, candidates for the priesthood being sent to that island from Gaul for their training.

The Welsh tradition confirms this, stating the The Wisdom had always existed; that in remote times it was known simply as Gwyddoniaeth (science) and its teachers as the Gwyddoniaid (sing., Gwyddon); that knowledge of it had declined until at some unknown period a wiseman named Tydain Tad Awen arose and taught it to his three disciples, Plenydd, Gwron, and Alawn, who in their turn taught it to the race of the Cymry. From that time forth it was known as Derwyddoniaeth or Druidism, "the wisdom taught in oak groves."

Classical references to the Druids are many, coming from about 200 B.C. until about 200 A.D. Those written before Caesar made his attack on Gaul speak of the Druids as possessors of a high wisdom; the very first reference says that it was held in Greece that philosophy came to the Greeks from the barbaroi or foreigners: the Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the Egyptian priesthood, and the Druids.

While the Romans were fighting the Celts, writers, beginning with Caesar, repeat more or less what has been said before about the wisdom of the Druids but, following Caesar, have much to say about their atrocities. When the Romans were no longer at war with the Druidic Celts, however, the references to the Druids are similar to the early ones, with no mention of atrocities.

Blavatsky stated that Druidism was the one branch of the sacred Mysteries of antiquity in the Western world which had not degenerated; and that during the campaigns of Caesar and his forces in Gaul, three million Gauls were killed and Druidism virtually wiped out there. It is Caesar who is responsible for the current notion that the Gauls and Britons were crude savages and the Druids barbarous and cruel. He stated first that the Druids of Gaul, who were judges as well as priests, inflicted excommunication as their severest sentence, passed even on the worst criminals. Excommunication was their capital punishment. Later on in his book he describes the famous wicker cages filled with criminals (with just men added when there were not criminals enough) who were then burnt. The two statements are contradictory. The later statement is entirely unsupported; the former is not only compatible with the Druids' reputation for profound wisdom and great humanity, but is supported indirectly by practically every classical reference which mentions the Druids at all.

In Gaul in Caesar's time Druidism was very highly organized and controlled the whole civilization, a fact Caesar is known to have deliberately understated, for in many respects Gaulish civilization was more advanced than Roman. We know nothing of Druidism in Britain from the classical writers, except that Britain was its headquarters and place of origin, and that the Druids were massacred in Mona (Anglesea), an island in northwest Wales which seems to have been the Druids headquarters in Britain.

Of Druidism in Ireland we know even less: the Irish Sagas do not indicate that the Druids there were either priests or jurists, or indeed very important people; they appear rather as necromancers at the royal courts, astrologers, magicians, etc. Had Druidism been an organized system, as in Gaul and presumably in Britain, Patrick, the Christian missionary, could hardly have converted the whole island with the little trouble he had. In Britain, however, as soon as the Romans with their proscription of Druidism had departed in 410, there is every reason to think that Druidism flamed up again: Welsh literature, from the 6th to the end of the 15th century, is full of interesting references.

Greek and Roman authors all make much of the Druidic belief in reincarnation. One of them relates that you could always borrow money to be repaid in such and such a future life on earth -- showing that it was reincarnation, the coming back as a human being, and not transmigration, the coming back as an animal, that was taught. The likeness between Druidism and Pythagoreanism is often mentioned, which perhaps suggested the legend that Pythagoras studied not only under Eastern but also under Western or Druidic teachers; and that other belief, that philosophy came to Greece not only from the East, but also from the Druids.

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

Ahura-Mazda (Avestan) Aura-Mazda (Old Persian) Auhr-Mazd (Pahlavi) Hormazd, Hormoz, Ormazd, Ormuzd (Persian) (from Avestan ahura lord of life from the verbal root ahu conscious life + mazda the creator of mind, remembering, bearing in mind from the verbal root man to think + da the creator, bestower; cf Pahlavi dehesh creation)

The lord of life and creator of mind; the immutable light, the uncreated supreme deity of the Mazdean system. Pythagoras said that "the Iranian Magis consider Ahura Mazda a being whose body is of light and his soul is of truth." He is referred to as the maker of the material world and father of the six Amesha-Spentas. In later Persian literature similar descriptions of the supreme creator have been given. Ferdowsi refers to him as the lord of jan (consciousness) and kherad (intellect).

Regarding the dualistic cosmic system of the Zoroastrians -- good and evil -- Blavatsky comments: "No more philosophically profound, no grander or more graphic and suggestive type exists among the allegories of the World-religions than that of the two Brother-Powers of the Mazdean religion, called Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, better known in their modernized form of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Of these two emanations, 'Sons of Boundless Time' -- Zeruana-Akrana -- itself issued from the Supreme and Unknowable Principle, the one is the embodiment of 'Good Thought' (Vohu-Mano), the other of 'Evil Thought' (Ako-Mano). The 'King of Light' or Ahura Mazda, emanates from Primordial Light and forms or creates by means of the 'Word,' Honover (Ahuna-Vairya), a pure and holy world. But Angra Mainyu, though born as pure as his elder brother, becomes jealous of him, and mars everything in the Universe, as on the earth, creating Sin and Evil wherever he goes.

"The two Powers are inseparable on our present plane and at this stage of evolution, and would be meaningless, one without the other. They are, therefore, the two opposite poles of the One Manifested Creative Power, whether the latter is viewed as a Universal Cosmic Force which builds worlds, or under its anthropomorphic aspect, when its vehicle is thinking man" (BCW 13:123-4).

Because Maz or Mez in the word Mazda can also be another way of pronouncing myth, Mazda can mean that which is created by Mez, by the hidden truth. Then Ahura-Mazda would mean the life-bearer who is created by the hidden truth.

(See also: Ahura-Mazda , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mysteries, The [from Greek mysteria Mysteries from mystes one initiated into the Mysteries from mueo to initiate from muo to close the eyes or lips]

Applies chiefly to Greece, but once extended to Asiatic cults of religio-philosophical character, it acquired a wider range under the Romans, and is used in The Secret Doctrine in reference to equivalent institutions in any part of the world. The most celebrated in Greece were those of Eleusis pertaining to Demeter and Persephone, which gave rise to many branches and influenced schools of older foundation.

Others were those of Samothrace, the Orphic Mysteries, and the Festivals devoted to Dionysos. Schools like that of Pythagoras diffused their influence, as did Academies such as that of Plato. The history of Greece furnishes notable examples of great men who had been initiated into such Mysteries. The Mysteries came into Greece from India and Egypt, and their origin goes back to Atlantean times. They were in historic times, what remained of the means whereby man's divine ancestors communicated truths concerning the mysteries of cosmos and of human nature and of the communion divinity and man.

In times when sacred knowledge was whole and not divided into sacred and profane, the human body, not yet desecrated, was held as sacred as any other part of function of human nature; so that the teaching embraced medicine, hygiene, singing, dancing, the useful arts and crafts; and the teachers of religion, philosophy, science, and of crafts, the founders of cities, and great artists derived their powers from this source.

The Mysteries were divided into the Greater and Less, inner and outer, esoteric and partly exoteric; and, as the former were guarded by well-observed secrecy the sources of ordinary information are mostly based on the latter. The more recondite Mysteries could not, from their very nature, be publicly divulged; they were revelations, appreciable only by an awakened spiritual perception and incommunicable to anyone not thus awakened. The Greater Mysteries were successive initiations for prepared candidates. The Less consisted of symbolic and dramatic representations for the public, in which, among other things, the profound symbology of the Greek mythology was employed.

The elevating and unifying influence of these institutions was acknowledged by Greek and Roman authorities and is apparent from a study of Greek history. With the advance of a cycle of materialism, the Mysteries became degraded, especially in Asia Minor in Roman times; the symbolism was perverted and even made to palliate licentious practices. What little was left to abolish was formally abolished by Justinian, who closed the mystic and quasi-esoteric Neoplatonic School of Athens in 529.

In a recognition of the ancient Mysteries we find a clue to the meaning of the universal prevalence, among peoples fallen into a degenerate and falsely called primitive state of life, of strange rites and black magical practices. These are the very dregs and distortions of the ancient holy teachings; but even here unprejudiced inquirers find that, when sympathetically approached, the existence of secret cults which preserve at least remnants of some of the essential teachings of the ancient wisdom.

As formal institutions, the Mysteries had their earliest origin during the fourth root-race, Atlantis, after its fourth subrace. Indeed, the still more primitive roots of the Mysteries can be traced to a much earlier time, probably during the third subrace of the Atlanteans, when the rapid degeneration of mankind into the worship of matter had brought about the absolute need of segregating the nobler and finer spirits of the human race into groups or schools where they could, under the vows of inviolable secrecy, study the deeper mysteries of nature and their own oneness with the divine. From that time the Mysteries became with every subrace more and more secret and entrance into them became ever more difficult. After the fifth root-race came upon the scene, the Mysteries had become well established in all countries of the globe, and their rites and functions, both of the Greater and the Less, were conducted as functions of the State.

Even from the time of the incarnation of the manasaputras in the third root-race, there has been an unbroken line, stream, or succession of lofty spiritual teachers guarding the ancient god-wisdom received in primordial ages from the dhyanis; and the Mysteries, even in their heyday of splendor and in their most secret lines of work, were the outer side of clothing of this inner stream of inspiration and sublime teaching. The light has not yet died from off the earth, and the spiritual stream still exists and does its work in the world, although for ages it has been acting more secretly and esoterically than ever. However, the time is coming when the Mysteries will again be reestablished and will receive the common reverence and respect from mankind that in former ages they universally had.

(See also: Mysteries , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Vibration, Vibrations Motion is a fundamental principle in universal nature, coeval with boundless space, ceasing not even during pralaya; and we can form only a relative idea of its real nature, yet can have intuitions of it through its manifestations, the most fundamental of which is vibration. The essential characteristic of vibration is periodicity or cyclic motion. It appears in the alternation of manvantara and pralaya in the cosmic Great Breath and in the most rapid oscillations of minutest particles. The relative periodicity of various vibrations is found to constitute a mathematical scale, according to which phenomena may be classified.

The principle of sympathetic vibration involves mysteries relating to the tremendous potency of sound, some of which are familiar to physicists. The discoveries of John Worrell Keely (cf SD 1:555-66) were of this nature. He was able to develop enormous energy in an engine without using the principle of pressure; but his discoveries were premature and their results were frustrated.

Sound is a universal principle which manifests itself physically as vibrations in the mass and particles of bodies. Physicists, by a logical confusion, have called the effects "sound," whereas they are only one of the productions of causal sound. We might as well define fear as a trembling of the body; whereas we know that the trembling is an effect produced by the emotion. The same applies to heat, light, and others of the list of physical forces which manifest themselves in vibrations.

Vibration, in all its myriad manifestations, is the consequence of inner hidden causal agencies. The vibrations ensuing from such inner movements expressing themselves through bodies or veils, are always in accordance with the causal rhythms and mathematics involving quantities such as rate, intensity, and quality, there being vibrations of as many kinds as there are different causal agents. Thus there are vibrations as effects on our gross physical plane, other vibrations which manifest themselves on the astral, emotional, and psychological or lower mental planes. There are again vibrations of higher type which originate in the intellectual and spiritual monads of the human constitution.

Furthermore, because it is an expression of energy, all vibration is force and energy itself, and hence capable of arousing energies or forces of exactly the same quality or rate of intensity in other beings which they affect -- this being the reason behind sympathetic vibration. When vibrations thus interlock and synchronize in rate, intensity, and quality, we have what is called sympathy, love, or attraction, and such sympathetic vibration is operative on all the planes of universal nature. Not only is this the case in all relations of humans with each other, but likewise sympathetic vibration plays an enormous part in such matters as mob psychology, quick electrical sympathies affecting audiences, hates and rebellions -- even what is known as health and disease are communicated by means of vibrations, the one first affected being able to communicate his "affection" of whatever kind to others who are at the time negative to the vibrational impact and in time vibrating synchronously with the impacting energy. There is, of course, such a thing as resistance, which expresses itself in manifold ways, such as being able to throw off the vibration affecting it, and even to return it upon the sender, consciously or unconsciously; and herein lies the secret of the old medieval saying that curses come home to roost, or that if the magician is not stronger than the elementals or nature spirits he attempts to control, he is almost invariably destined to become their victim.

All vibrational activity of whatever rate, intensity, or attributive characteristic is always an effect, although always capable of becoming in its turn a cause producing effects of its own type. In other words, there is always the originating or causal agent for any specific instance of vibration; thus the thinker produces mental vibrational activity which we call thinking or thoughts, or emotion or feeling.

Indeed, every entity or thing in the universe is in incessant motion or vibrational activity arising from force inherent in the entity or thing itself; and these interblending activities of vibration produce the vast diversity of the universe around us. Thus every atom, electron, molecule, or being anywhere, sings its own vibrational note, which is the sound production of its own characteristic svabhava or individuality; so that our physical bodies, could we but hear their mystical music, would sound like a vast and marvelous symphony of interblended sound. For this reason Pythagoras spoke of the music of the spheres, ascribing to each celestial body its own dominant note, and pointing out that from the blending of such individual notes or sounds arise the harmony of the spheres.

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

Iamblichus (Ancient Greek). A great Theurgist, mystic, and writer of the third and fourth centuries, a Neo-Platonist and philosopher, born at Chalcis in Cœle-Syria. Correct biographies of him have never existed because of the hatred of the Christians; but that which has been gathered of his life in isolated fragments from works by impartial pagan and independent writers shows how excellent and holy was his moral character, and how great his learning. He may be called the founder of theurgic magic among the Neo-Platonists and the reviver of the practical mysteries outside of temple or fane.

His school was at first distinct from that of Plotinus and Porphyry, who were strongly against ceremonial magic and practical theurgy as dangerous, though later he convinced Porphyry of its. advisability on some occasions, and both master and pupil firmly believed in theurgy and magic, of which the former is principally the highest and most efficient mode of communication with one’s Higher Ego, through the medium of one’s astral body. Theurgic is benevolent magic, and it becomes goetic, or dark and evil, only when it is used for necromancy or selfish purposes; but such dark magic has never been practised by any theurgist or philosopher, whose name has descended to us unspotted by any evil deed.

So much was Porphyry (who became the teacher of Iamblichus in Neo-Platonic philosophy) convinced of this, that though he himself never practised theurgy, yet he gave instructions for the acquirement of this sacred science. Thus he says in one of his writings, "Whosoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely luminous appearances fasmata ( knows also on what account it is requisite to abstain from all birds (and animal food) and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from terrestrial concerns and to be established with the celestial gods". (See Select Works by T. Taylor, p. 159.) Moreover, the same Porphyry mentions in his Life of Plotinus a priest of Egypt, who, "at the request of a certain friend of Plotinus, exhibited to him, in the temple of Isis at Rome, the familiar daimon of that philosopher ". In other words, he produced the theurgic invocation (see "Theurgist") by which Egyptian Hierophant or Indian Mahatma, of old, could clothe their own or any other person’s astral double with the appearance of its Higher EGO, or what Bulwer Lytton terms the " Luminous Self", the Augoeides, and confabulate with It.

This it is which Iamblichus and many others, including the medieval Rosicrucans, meant by union with Deity. Iamblichus wrote many books but only a few of his works are extant, such as his "Egyptian Mysteries" and a treatise "On Demons", in which he speaks very severely against any intercourse with them. He was a biographer of Pythagoras and deeply versed in the system of the latter, and was also learned in the Chaldean Mysteries. He taught that the One, or universal MONAD, was the principle of all unity as well as diversity, or of Homogeneity and Heterogeneity; that the Duad, or two (" Principles"), was the intellect, or that which we call Buddhi-Manas; three, was the Soul (the lower Manas), etc. etc. There is much of the theosophical in his teachings, and his works on the various kinds of demons (Elementals) are a well of esoteric knowledge for the student. His austerities, purity of life and earnestness were great. Iamblichus is credited with having been once levitated ten cubits high from the ground, as are some of the modern Yogis, and even great mediums.

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

Unity Kosmic unity, incomprehensible to humans, implies wholeness, homogeneity, uniformity, indivisibility -- individuality. Its primary expression is kosmic space. Unity can be applied to any individual, such as the First Logos or any subordinate logos; again, any individual monadic unit is de facto a unity. Unity, in contrast with duality or multiplicity, is relative, as when we speak of a whole in relation to its parts, the unitary essence of a compound body, or the hyparxis of a hierarchy. The tendency of evolution on an upward arc is towards unity; on a downward arc, towards diversity; and both tendencies are active in the human being.

With Pythagoras, one is not a number but the root of all numbers flowing out of it, but in modern views it is the first number. It may be called mystically dual, for as a power of 2 it must be even, while as 1 less than 2 it must be odd. Unity may be viewed as simple or as all-inclusive; it appears as the goal of both analysis and synthesis.

In considering how the One becomes the many, how the homogeneous becomes heterogeneous, during the differentiations during manvantara, we are posing the ultimate problem. The unity during manvantaric kosmic differentiation does not lose its unity in the vast diversities of such differentiation, for the unity forever remains the originant and expresses itself at the same time as its integral unity and as the emanated hierarchies which temporarily flow forth from it, in time to return into it again.

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

Anaxagoras (Ancient Greek) A famous Ionian philosopher who lived 500 B.C., studied philosophy under Anaximenes of Miletus, and settled in the days of Pericles at Athens. Socrates, Euripides, Archelaus and other distinguished men and philosophers were among his disciples and pupils.

 He was a most learned astronomer and was one of the first to explain openly that which was taught by Pythagoras secretly, namely, the movements of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, etc. It was he who taught the theory of Chaos, on the principle that "nothing comes from nothing"; and of atoms, as the underlying essence and substance of all bodies, "of the same nature as the bodies which they formed".

 These atoms, he taught, were primarily put in motion by Nous (Universal Intelligence, the Mahat of the Hindus), which Nous is an immaterial, eternal, spiritual entity; by this combination the world was formed, the material gross bodies sinking down, and the ethereal atoms (or fiery ether) rising and spreading in the upper celestial regions.

Antedating modern science by over 2000 years, he taught that the stars were of the same material as our earth, and the sun a glowing mass; that the moon was a dark, uninhabitable body, receiving its light from the sun; the comets, wandering stars or bodies ; and over and above the said science, he confessed himself thoroughly convinced that the real existence of things, perceived by our senses, could not be demonstrably proved. He died in exile at Lampsacus at the age of seventy-two.

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

Two The prime religious and mystical meaning in the science of numeration is finite completion, involving defined limits, and hence standing in sharp contrast to the indefiniteness associated with the nonfinite or cosmic; and therefore Pythagoras and his school looked upon two as beginning the series of even numbers, each one signifying a completion or a balance, suggesting the material worlds as contrasted with the spiritual. The binary was regarded as "the origin of differentiation, hence of contrasts, discord, or matter, the beginning of evil. . . . With the early Pythagoreans, however, the duad was that imperfect state into which the first manifested being fell when it got detached from the Monad. It was the point from which the two roads -- the Good and the Evil -- bifurcated. All that which was double-faced or false was called by them 'binary' " (SD 2:574-5). It was represented geometrically as a line, because two is produced by the first motion from indivisible spiritual nature: the line also forms the tie or union between two points.

Two is the significant primal number of manifestation, of the famous pairs of opposites. Pure unmanifested spirit is in human understanding unitary, and not broken up into manifested and therefore contrasting minor points or units, and for this reason partakes of some of the attributes of non-finity, which becomes through manifestation finite points -- generated by the duality emanating at the beginning of manifestation, which duality is expressible mathematically by the duad or the number two: "the Duad, although the origin of Evil, or Matter -- thence unreal in philosophy -- is still Substance during Manvantara, and is often called the third monad, in Occultism, and the connecting line as between two Points . . . And from this Duad proceeded all the Scintillas of the three upper and the four lower worlds or planes -- which are in constant interaction and correspondence" (SD 1:618).

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

NUMEROLOGY, NUMEROMANCY: The system of magick and divination developed by Pythagoras. In numerology, all words, names and numbers may be reduced to single digits which correspond to certain occult characteristics that influence one’s life. Numerology is used to analyze a person’s character; assess weaknesses, strengths and natural gifts; predict one’s future and fate; determine the best place to live; and discover the best times to make decisions and take action.

(See also: NUMEROLOGY, NUMEROMANCY , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Daiviprakriti daiviprakrti (Sanskrit) (from daivi divine from the verbal root div to shine + prakriti original substance or nature)

Divine or original evolver; original source; divine matter or original substance. "As original substance manifests itself in the kosmic spaces as primordial kosmic Light . . . many mystics have referred to Daiviprakriti under the phrase 'the Light of the Logos.' Daiviprakriti is, in fact, the first veil or sheath or ethereal body surrounding the Logos, as Pradhana or Prakriti surrounds Purusha or Brahman in the Sankhya philosophy, and as, on a scale incomparably more vast, Mulaprakriti surrounds Parabrahman.

As Daiviprakriti, therefore, is elemental matter, . . . matter in its first and second stages of its evolution from above, we may accurately enough speak of those filmy ethereal wisps of light seen in the midnight skies as a physical manifestation of Daiviprakriti, because when they are not actually resolvable nebulae, they are worlds, or rather systems of worlds, in the making.

"When Daiviprakriti has reached a certain state or condition of evolutionary manifestation, we may properly speak of it under the Tibetan term Fohat. . . . although Fohat is the energizing power working in and upon manifested Daiviprakriti, or primordial substance, as the rider rides the steed, it is the kosmic Intelligence, or kosmic Monad as Pythagoras would say, working through both Daiviprakriti and its differentiated energy called Fohat, which is the guiding and controlling principle, not only in the Kosmos, but in every one of the subordinate elements and beings of the hosts of multitudes of them infilling the Kosmos.

The heart or essence of the sun is Daiviprakriti working as itself, and also in its manifestation called Fohat, but through the Daiviprakriti and the fohatic aspect of it runs the all-permeant and directive Intelligence of the solar divinity. The student should never make the mistake, however, of divorcing this guiding solar Intelligence from its veils or vehicles, one of the highest of which is Daiviprakriti-Fohat" (OG 32-3).

Blavatsky explains various meanings of daiviprakriti:

"Thus in the Esotericism of the Vedantins, Daiviprakriti, the Light manifested through Eswara, the Logos, is at one and the same time the Mother and also the Daughter of the Logos or Verbum of Parabrahmam; while in that of the trans-Himalayan teachings it is -- in the hierarchy of allegorical and metaphysical theogony -- 'the Mother' or abstract, ideal matter, Mulaprakriti, the Root of Nature; -- from the metaphysical standpoint, a correlation of Adi-Bhuta, manifested in the Logos, Avalokiteshwara; -- and from the purely occult and Cosmical, Fohat, the 'Son of the Son,' the androgynous energy resulting from this 'Light of the Logos,' and which manifests in the plane of the objective Universe as the hidden, as much as the revealed, Electricity -- which is Life" (SD 1:136).

Further she says that theosophy "teaches that it is this original, primordial prima materia, divine and intelligent, the direct emanation of the Universal Mind -- the Daiviprakriti (the divine light emanating from the Logos) -- which formed the nuclei of all the 'self-moving' orbs in Kosmos. It is the informing, ever-present moving-power and life-principle, the vital soul of the suns, moons, planets, and even of our Earth" (SD 1:602).

(See also: Daiviprakriti, daiviprakrti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Seal of the Theosophical Society

Composed of a serpent in the form of a circle (Ananta-sesha) biting its tail -- standing for eternity and boundless wisdom.

Its scales signify the illimitable diversity of wisdom or truth, and likewise the innumerable smaller cycles within boundless duration. The circumscribed swastika at the meeting point of the head and tail is a practically universal ancient emblem portraying evolution, the endless movement of spirit in and through matter.

Within the large circle formed by the serpent are two interlaced triangles (called in India the seal of Vishnu, in the West the seal of Solomon). The white triangle pointing upwards denotes the spiritual fire of consciousness, concealed wisdom, or spirit. The downward-pointing black triangle, sometimes colored blue or red, refers to the manifested worlds of matter, or to wisdom revealed in the worlds of manifestation. The two triangles interlaced form a six-pointed star, which means the manifested Logos, or the third cosmic emanation of the ineffable One. Again, the six-pointed star refers to the six general forces or powers of nature, the six principles, the six planes -- which are represented as being all synthesized by their origin, the seventh, when a point or dot is placed within the star, for this point is what Pythagoras called the Monas monadum (the monad of monads).

"The double triangle -- the Satkiri Chakram of Vishnu -- or the six-pointed star, is the perfect seven. In all the old Sanskrit works -- Vedic and Tantrik -- you find the number 6 mentioned more often than the 7 -- this last figure, the central point being implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix. It is then thus . . . {drawing]

-- the central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha -- endless space -- for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense, both are viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the Macrocosm and the microcosm. The interlaced triangles -- the upper pointing one -- is Wisdom concealed, and the downward pointing one -- Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world). The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the Universal Principle which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. As the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced -- they are identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and Avidya -- (illusion and ignorance) -- one is separated from the other by the manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three gunas -- finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma (the 7th principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the manifested 'Voice' (or Logos), the germ point of manifested activity; -- hence -- in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists 'the Son of the Father and Mother,' and agreeably to ours -- 'the Self manifested in Self' -- Yih-sin, the 'one form of existence,' the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female. Parabrahm or 'Adi-Buddha' while acting through that germ point outwardly as an active force, reacts from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but latent Potency. The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active; the male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a Trinity because presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in its straight lines: Gnanam -- (Knowledge); Gnata -- (the Knower); and Gnayam -- (that which is known). The black -- form, colour, and substance, also the creative, preservative, and destructive forces and are mutually correlating . . ." (ML 345-6).

Within the star is placed the crux ansata, the handled cross or tau, one aspect of which is the particularized functions or activity of spirit in matter so far as our own world is concerned, and more especially insofar as intelligence is working upon cosmic matter. It is a symbol often associated with the adept or initiate as typifying his union with spiritual intelligence rather than with the powers and potencies of unspiritualized life in the material world.

When Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott went to India in 1879, the Sanskrit word Aum was placed above the seal, while below it was added the phrase: Satyan nasti paro dharmah (there is no religion [law]

higher than truth [reality]) which was adopted as the motto of the Theosophical Society.

In some respects the seal of the Theosophical Society is similar to the personal seal of Blavatsky: however, in place of the tau within the interlaced triangles, her seal had the initials E B (E standing for Elena, pronounced Yelena in Russian, and B for Blavatsky). Inside the circle are astrological and Qabbalistic signs stated by some to refer to Blavatsky herself, while above the seal is a countess' coronet belonging to her family.

The seal of the Theosophical Society can be said to refer to a universe expanding into manifestation from its origin in cosmic spirit, emanation picturated by the comprehending serpent of space and duration. Just as the serpent periodically sheds its old skin, a universe, after a period of rest or dormancy, is again emanated, the child of its former self, for another period of cosmic manifestation.

(See also: Seal of the Theosophical Society , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Qabbalah (Hebrew) [from qabal to receive, hand down]

Also Cabala, Kabala, Kabbalah, etc. Tradition, that which is handed down; the theosophy of the Jews. Originally these truths were passed on orally by one initiate to chosen disciples, hence were referred to as the Tradition. The first one historically alleged to have reduced a large part of the secret Qabbalah of the Chaldees into systematic, and perhaps written, form was the Rabbi Shim`on ben Yohai, in the Zohar; but the work of this name that has come down to the present day -- through the medieval Qabbalists -- is but a compilation of the 13th century, presumably by Moses de Leon.

The principal doctrines of the Qabbalah deal with the nature of the divine incomprehensible All ('eyn soph); the divine emanations of the Sephiroth; cosmogony; the creation or emanation of angels and men, and of their destiny. The Jewish Qabbalah was derived from the Chaldean Qabbalah, and "mistaken is he who accepts the Kabalistic works of to-day, and the interpretations of the Zohar by the Rabbis, for the genuine Kabalistic lore of old! For no more to-day than in the day of Frederick von Schelling does the Kabala accessible to Europe and America, contain much more than 'ruins and fragments, much distorted remnants still of that primitive system which is the key to all religious systems' . . . The oldest system and the Chaldean Kabala were identical. The latest renderings of the Zohar are those of the Synagogue in the early centuries" (SD 2:461-2).

Blavatsky refers to a work no longer extant, the Chaldean Book of Numbers, as the basis for the Qabbalah. Tentative mention is also made of an alleged manuscript left by Count Saint-Germain giving keys for interpreting the Qabbalah.

"The kabalist is a student of 'secret science,' one who interprets the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the help of the symbolical Kabalah, and explains the real one by these means. The Tanaim were the first kabalists among the Jews; they appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third century before the Christian era. The books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Henoch, and the Revelation of St. John, are purely kabalistical. This secret doctrine is identical with that of the Chaldeans, and includes at the same time much of the Persian wisdom, or 'magic.' History catches glimpses of famous kabalists ever since the eleventh century. The Mediaeval ages, and even our own times, have had an enormous number of the most learned and intellectual men who were students of the Kabala . . . The most famous among the former were Paracelsus, Henry Khunrath, Jacob Bohmen, Robert Fludd, the two Van Helmonts, the Abbot John Trithemius, Cornelius Agrippa, Cardinal Nicolao Cusani, Jerome Carden, Pope Sixtus IV., and such Christian scholars as Raymond Lully, Giovanni Pico de la Mirandola, Guillaume Postel, the great John Reuchlin, Dr. Henry More, Eugenius Philalethes (Thomas Vaughan), the erudite Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, Christian Knorr (Baron) von Rosenroth; then Sir Isaac Newton, Leibniz, Lord Bacon, Spinosa, etc., etc., the list being almost inexhaustible. As remarked by Mr. Isaac Myer, in his Qabbalah [p. 170], the ideas of the Kabalists have largely influenced European literature. 'Upon the practical Qabbalah, the Abbe de Villars (nephew of de Montfaucon) in 1670, published his celebrated satirical novel, "The Count de Gabalis," upon which Pope based his "Rape of the Lock." Qabbalism ran through the Mediaeval poems, the "Romance of the Rose," and permeates the writings of Dante.' No two of them, however, agreed upon the origin of the Kabala, the Zohar, Sepher Yetzirah, etc. Some show it as coming from the Biblical Patriarchs, Abraham, and even Seth; others from Egypt, others again from Chaldea. The system is certainly very old; but like all the rest of systems, whether religious or philosophical, the Kabala is derived directly from the primeval Secret Doctrine of the East; through the Vedas, the Upanishads, Orpheus and Thales, Pythagoras and the Egyptians. Whatever its source, its substratum is at any rate identical with that of all the other systems from the Book of the Dead down to the later Gnostics" (TG 167-8).

The Jewish Qabbalah even in its present partial or mutilated form is a more or less faithful echo of that once universal archaic wisdom-religion of mankind, which as the Qabbalah itself plainly states was originally delivered by " 'Divinity' to a select company of angels in Paradise," and from these angels -- occult initiates or adepts -- disseminated as the ages passed more or less faithfully among the different races of mankind.

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