Reborn Dictionary

videhamukti: (Sanskrit) "Disembodied liberation."

Release from reincarnation through nirvikalpa samadhi -

the realization of the Self, Parasiva - at the point of death.

Blessed are those who are aware that departure,

mahasamadhi, is drawing near. They settle all affairs,

make amends and intensify personal sadhana. They seek

the silver channel of sushumna which guides kundalini

through the door of Brahman into the beyond of the

beyond. They seek total renunciation as the day of

transition looms strongly in their consciousness. Those

who know that Lord Yama is ready to receive them, seek

to merge with Siva. They seek nirvikalpa samadhi as the

body and earthly life fall away. Those who succeed are the

videhamuktas, honored as among those who will never be

reborn. Hindu tradition allows for vows of renunciation,

called atura sannyasa diksha, to be taken and the orange

robe donned by the worthy sadhaka or householder in the

days prior to death.

See: jivanmukti, kaivalya, moksha,

Parasiva, Self Realization.

(See also: Videhamukti , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Hiram Abif, Huram Abif Huram 'abiu or 'abiv (Hebrew) (from hawar to become white or pale; or from harah to burn (as with ardor), be noble or free-born; or haram to devote, consecrate as to religion or destruction, be killed or destroyed)

The last derivation is descriptive of the character and fate (according to Masonic tradition) of Hiram Abif; while the second derivation befits the character of Hiram King of Tyre. Hiram Abif is described as a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali (1 Kings 7:14), and a skillful, knowledgeable man, a worker in gold, silver, brass, and iron, as was his father (2 Chron 2:12). Hiram Abif was sent by Hiram King of Tyre to King Solomon to aid in the building of his Temple.

In Freemasonry Hiram Abif is the central figure in the drama of the Third or Master Mason's degree, and one of the Three Ancient Grand Masters of the Craft (the other two being King Solomon and Hiram King of Tyre). Before the completion of the building of the Temple he was slain by three ruffians because he refused to communicate to them the Master Mason's Word, which on account of his death was said to be lost, for it can be communicated only when all the Three Ancient Grand Masters are present. Hiram Abif was hastily buried in a shallow grave marked by a sprig of acacia or myrtle, which led to its discovery and the subsequent raising of Hiram Abif by the power of a Substitute Word which, it was decreed, should be used until the Lost Word be again found.

The Masonic initiation was modeled on that of the Lesser Mysteries of Egypt, also used in India from time immemorial with Loka-chaksu (eye of the world) and Dinkara (day-maker or the sun).

"In Egypt the third degree was called Porte de la Mort (the gate of death) . . . in the modern rite, one finds the reproduction of this Egyptian myth, except that in place of Osiris, inventor of the arts, or the Sun, one finds the name of Hiram, which signifies raised -- eleve, (the epithet which belongs to the Sun) and who is skillful in the arts" (Ragon, Orthodoxie Ma�onnique 101-2). The slaying of Hiram signifies the annual slaying of the sun by the last three months of the year, the sun being reborn or raised at the winter solstice, one of the four great initiation periods celebrated in antiquity.

Hiram Abif is a type-figure of all the saviors of humanity who sacrificed themselves for the salvation of mankind, a direct human representative of its prototype among the divinities, such as Odin and Visvakarman, the builder and artificer of the gods. Hiram Abif is also the type-figure of the individual's inner god, crucified upon the cross of material existence.

The legend and drama of the Master Mason's degree constitutes an indisputable link between Freemasonry and the ancient Mysteries, and few have fathomed the esoteric significance of this degree and of the legend of Hiram Abif: 1) the relation of the upper triad to the lower quaternary of the sevenfold human nature; 2) the incarnation or sacrifice of the manasaputras; 3) the symbolism of Solomon's Temple; 4) the instruments with which the death of Hiram Abif was accomplished; and 5) the reference to Hiram as a potter (2 Chron 4:16), which connects him with Kneph in the Egyptian Mysteries as creator of the mundane egg. A variant of the Hiramic legend is given in the parable of the householder and the vineyard, whose servants and finally son whom he sent to receive the fruits of the harvest were slain (Matt 21:33).

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

Mara (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root mri to die]

That which kills, death, destroyer; in exoteric Indian literature, the representation of temptation, esoterically personified temptation through men's vices, which kill the soul. Maha-Mara is the king of the maras, or temptations collectively, the great ensnarer, and is usually represented "with a crown in which shines a jewel of such lustre that it blinds those who look at it, this lustre referring of course to the fascination exercised by vice upon certain natures" (VS 76).

Mara is the god of darkness and death: "Death of every physical thing truly; but Mara is also the unconscious quickener of the birth of the Spiritual" (SD 2:579n). The hosts of Mara refer to the unconquered passions that the neophyte must slay or transmute before he is reborn spiritually, or can become a dvija (twice-born). Mara is also a name frequently given to Kama, the personified god of love or desire.

(See also: Mara , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Papa-purusha papa-purusha (Sanskrit) [from papa wicked, sinful + purusha man]

A wicked man; used as a personification of all sin, or the type of a sinner. Esoterically "one who is reborn, or reincarnated from the state of Avitchi -- hence 'Soulless' " (TG 248).

See also SOULLESS BEINGS

(See also: Papa-purusha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Egg One of the most comprehensive symbols, equally suggestive in a spiritual, physiological, and cosmological sense. Among other things, it stands for primordial chaos, the universal matrix, the great Deep, the Virgin Mother, and also for the kosmos or world egg produced from it. As chaos or space, it is the virgin egg, unproduced; this is fructified by the spiritual ray, and from it then issues the Third Logos.

"The Virgin-egg being in one sense abstract Egg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation, is eternal and for ever the same. And just as the fecundation of an egg takes place before it is dropped; so the non-eternal periodical germ which becomes later in symbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges from the said symbol, 'the promise and potency' of all the Universe . . . The simile of an egg also expresses the fact . . . that the primordial form of everything manifested, from atom to globe, from man to angel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations the emblem of eternity and infinity" (SD 1:64-5).

As the symbol of generation, birth, and rebirth, it is "the most familiar form of that in which is deposited and developed the germ of every living being" (IU 1:157), used not only on account of the mystery of apparent self-generation, but from its spheroidal shape, the sphere and circle both being symbols of encompassing space.

The egg symbol appears in many cultures. In the Laws of Manu, for instance, it is stated that the Self-existent Lord, becoming manifest, created water alone; in that he cast seed which became a golden egg (hiranyagarbha); having dwelt in that egg for a divine year, Brahma splits it, forming heaven and earth. Brahma thus both fructifies the egg and is produced from it. Again, the female evolver or emanator is first a germ, a drop of heavenly dew, a pearl, and then an egg; the egg gives birth to the four elements with the fifth (akasa); it splits, the shell being heaven, the meat earth, and the white the waters of both space and earth. Vishnu, too, emerges from the egg. In Egypt, Osiris is born from an egg, like Brahma; the egg was sacred to Isis and therefore the priests never ate eggs.

The egg is used in Easter celebrations as the symbol of the renewal of life. The Easter egg derives from the pagan custom of exchanging eggs at the birth-time of the year. Originally it had a deep esoteric hint completely lost sight of today where the custom is still held in the Occident, although commonly candies in the shape of eggs are exchanged. Giving a fellow disciple an egg in the old Mystery schools suggested the rebirth of nature, so apparent in the springtime, or again the initiation ceremonies that prevailed at the spring equinox, thereby expressing the hope that he too might at some time be "reborn," able to free his spiritual nature from the enveloping shell as a chick frees itself from the egg.

Sometimes the word is used for the circle or zero, for the egg combines the senses of fertility and sphericity in one symbol. The egg with its central germ is the circle with the point. In company with the stroke for the masculine power in nature -- sometimes represented as a vertical line -- it makes the number 10, or the figure of relatively perfected or complete emanation. The egg was the symbol of life in immortality and eternity, and also the glyph of the generative matrix. The anatomy of a hen's egg shows a wonderful analogy with the stages in comic evolution and the human principles.

See also BRAHMANDA; WORLD EGG

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

Beltaine - May 1

Beltaine is the fertility sabbat. It celebrates live above all. This is the final planting time. This is the time when the Goddess and the God mate to spread fertility all over the earth. On this day, many Pagans celebrate the marriage of Goddess and God, and the sexual union of the God with the Goddess, who will later be reborn as her son. Beltaine is a very sexual sabbat, as well as being joyous and carefree. It is a time for feasting, rejoicing, frivolity, and celebration. It is the time to look forward and is a yearly reenactment of the primal joy all creatures and plants of the earth feel. It is a time to celebrate the final ending of the long winter.

(See also: Beltaine , Pagan Holidays, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

Saptarshis saptarsis [from sapta seven + rishi sage]

Seven sages or rishis; the seven great planetary spirits intimately connected with the constellation Ursa Major. Their names are commonly given as Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vasishtha.

"By the seven great Rishis, the seven great rupa hierarchies or classes of Dhyan Chohans, are meant. Let us bear in mind that the Saptarshi (the seven Rishis) are the regents of the seven stars of the Great Bear, therefore, of the same nature as the angels of the planets, or the seven great Planetary Spirits. They were all reborn, all men on earth in various Kalpas and races. Moreover, 'the four preceding Manus' are the four classes of the originally arupa gods -- the Kumaras, the Rudras, the Asuras, etc.: who are also said to have incarnated. They are not the Prajapatis, as the first are, but their informing principles -- same of which have incarnated in men, while others have made other men simply the vehicles of their reflections" (SD 2:318n).

The seven rishis are also said to mark the time and the duration of events in our septenary life cycle.

The stars of our entire galaxy are all intimately connected together, spiritually, intellectually, psychically, vitally, and physically, which means a connection extending back to a unity of origin in a past so greatly remote that its period can be reckoned only in astronomical figures. In an exactly similar way all the planets of our solar system, especially the so-called seven sacred planets of the ancients, are connected in origin in a distant past, although in a past greatly nearer than the former.

(See also: Saptarshis, saptarsis , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

sakadagami (sakadaagaamii): Once-returner. A person who has abandoned the first three of the fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth (see samyojana), has weakened the fetters of sensual passion and resistance, and who after death is destined to be reborn in this world only once more.

 (See also: Sakadagami , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Pretas (Sanskrit) [from pra away + the verbal root i to go]

Gone ahead, departed; the remains in the astral light of the human dead, popularly called spooks or ghosts, and commonly in India signifying evil astral entities. In theosophy, the astral shells of human beings, especially of avaricious and selfish people, and more generally of those who have lived evil lives on earth. Pretas also can be the elementaries reborn as such in the kama-loka.

See also BHUTAS

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

Gungnir (Scandinavian) (from gunga to swing)

In Norse myths, the spear wrought for Allfather Odin by the giant-god Loki and the dwarf Dvalin. The name seems an allusion to alternating opposites, such as activity and rest, or spirituality and materiality.

Gullveig (thirst for gold, wisdom) was transfixed on it and burned, "thrice burned and thrice reborn, again and again, yet still she lives." It was then that Odin hurled his spear into the throng of gods, thus instigating the war in heaven which caused the aesir (active gods) to be ousted from Asgard, leaving the vanir in possession of their heavenly abode.

The vanir are "water gods": cosmic deities having reference to the mystic void, the waters of space. The vanir do not participate directly in our system of worlds, whereas the aesir are the creative powers in our universe and dwell in its globes, seen and unseen.

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

Scarab [from Latin scarabaeus cf Greek karabos a beetle, Sanskrit sarabha a locust, Egyptian khepera from kheper to become, come into being anew]

The Egyptian symbol of the god Khepera -- the urgent spiritual impulse of creation, or regenerative revolving and reimbodiment. In modern times applied to the beetle Scarabaeus sacer or aegyptorum -- the sacred scarab. Orientalists generally regard the scarab as the symbol of resurrection because the beetle rolls a ball of dung containing its eggs, which it leaves to be hatched by the sun's rays.

This is said to represent in the small what was believed to take place in the great, that the sun was moving across the heavens holding within itself the germs which in course of stellar time evolve forth and remanifest in the solar cosmos. "Khem, 'the sower of seed,' is shown on a stele in a picture of Resurrection after physical death, as the creator and the sower of the grain of corn, which, after corruption, springs up afresh each time into a new ear, on which a scarabaeus beetle is seen poised; and Deveria shows very justly that 'Ptah is the inert, material form of Osiris, who will become Sokari (the eternal Ego) to be reborn, and afterwards be Harmachus,' or Horus in his transformation, the risen god. The prayer so often found in the tumular inscriptions, 'the wish for the resurrection in one's living soul' or the Higher Ego, has ever a scarabaeus at the end, standing for the personal soul. The scarabaeus is the most honoured, as the most frequent and familiar, of all Egyptian symbols" (TG 293).

"This mystical symbol shows plainly that the Egyptians believed in reincarnation and the successive lives and existences of the Immortal entity. Being, however, an esoteric doctrine, revealed only during the mysteries by the priest-hierophants and the Kings-Initiates to the candidates, it was kept secret" (SD 2:552).

(See also: Scarab , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Tolerance of Non-Birth

"Tolerance" (insight) that comes from the knowledge that all phenomena are unborn. Sometimes translated as "insight into the non-origination of all existence/nonorigination of the dharmas."

A Mahayana Buddhist term for the insight into emptiness, the non-origination or birthlessness of things or beings realized by Bodhisattvas who have attained the eighth Stage (Ground) of the path to Buddhahood. When a Bodhisattva realizes this insight he has attained the stage of non-retrogression. (Ryukoku University.)

The Pure Land School teaches that anyone reborn in the Pure Land attains the Tolerance of Non-Birth and reaches the stage of non-retrogression, never to fall back into samsara. See also "Non-Birth."

 (See also: Tolerance of Non-Birth , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Gullveig, Gultweig (Icelandic) (from gull gold + veig thirst, drink)

The Norse Edda's principal poem, Voluspa, contains a cryptic allusion to Gullveig as "thrice burned, thrice reborn, yet still she lives." Speared by the gods, "thirst for gold" arose each time from her baptism of fire more beautiful than before. She was the cause of the first war in the world when the aesir (creative gods) were ousted from their heavenly abode by the vanir (superior gods), the latter remaining in Asgard.

Several meanings are possible: thirst for gold may be taken as the thirst for wisdom which causes deities to imbody in worlds, leaving their divine spheres to higher powers. This is reminiscent of the Hindu agnishvattas and kumaras. The thrice purified gold has been identified with manas, the conscious soul (SD 2:520). A more obvious meaning is that thirst for gold represents greed for possessions, and that Gullveig was an enchantress who brought sin into the world and with it the action of karma.

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

Brighu:

Brighu. A son of Brahma and a great sage. He had two incarnations. The second was when he was reborn from fire at Varuna's sacrificial rite and was brought up by Varuna as his son. Also, One of 10 great sages created by the first Manu.

(See also: Brighu , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Neophyte [from Greek neophytos newly-grown]

One who, precisely because he has newly grown, is newly reborn, signifying one who has already passed successfully at least the first degree in initiation. Used for a novice in the Greek Septuagint and the New Testament, and often used for a candidate for initiation into the Mysteries, though not found in Greek literature in that sense; mystae, for example, describes neophytes or beginners who have already passed the first stages in initiation and who are therefore sworn to silence.

(See also: Neophyte , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Lif and Lifthrasir (Icelandic) (from lif to live, live on, remain (when others are gone on); lifthrasir tough, hard to kill from thrasir sturdy one)

Life, and survival; in the Norse Edda, the enduring life principles of the human race which live on after the end of the world, "concealed in the memory hoard of the sun (Hoddmimir's holt): morning dew is their food, and from them will be born ages to come" -- when the world is reborn.

In this allegory life (or the monadic lives) remains sleeping during the cosmic, solar, or planetary pralayas, manifesting again when the periods of activity recommence. Also applied to racial cycles (TG 188).

(See also: Lif and Lifthrasir , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pure Land School

When Mahayana Buddhism spread to China, Pure Land ideas found fertile ground for development.

In the fourth century, the movement crystallized with the formation of the Lotus Society, founded by Master Hui Yuan (334-416), the first Pure Land Patriarch.

The school was formalized under the Patriarchs T'an Luan (Donran) and Shan Tao (Zendo). Master Shan Tao's teachings, in particular, greatly influenced the development of Japanese Pure Land, associated with Honen Shonin (Jodo school) and his disciple, Shinran Shonin (Jodo Shinshu school) in the 12th and 13th centuries. Jodo Shinshu, or Shin Buddhism, places overwhelming emphasis on the element of faith. (Pure Land comprises the schools) of East Asia which emphasize aspects of Mahayana Buddhism stressing faith in Amida, meditation on and recitation of his name, and the religious goal of being reborn in his "Pure Land" or "Western Paradise." (Keith Crim.)

Note: An early form of Buddha Recitation can be found in the Nikayas of the Pali Canon: In the Nikayas, the Buddha ... advised his disciples to think of him and his virtues as if they saw his body before their eyes, whereby they would be enabled to accumulate merit and attain Nirvana or be saved from transmigrating in the evil paths ... (D.T. Suzuki, The Eastern Buddhist, Vol.3, No.4, p.317.)

 (See also: Pure Land School , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Pure Land

Generic term for the realms of the Buddhas.

In this text it denotes the Land of Ultimate Bliss or Western Land of Amitabha Buddha. It is not a realm of enjoyment, but rather an ideal place of cultivation, beyond the Triple Realm and samsara, where those who are reborn are no longer subject to retrogression. This is the key distinction between the Western Pure Land and such realms as the Tusita Heaven.

There are two conceptions of the Pure Land: as different and apart from the Saha World and as one with and the same as the Saha World.

When the mind is pure and undefiled, any land or environment becomes a pure land (Vimalakirti, Avatamsaka Sutras ...).

See also "Triple Realm."

 (See also: Pure Land , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Gungnir (Scandinavian) (from gunga to swing)

In Norse myths, the spear wrought for Allfather Odin by the giant-god Loki and the dwarf Dvalin. The name seems an allusion to alternating opposites, such as activity and rest, or spirituality and materiality.

Gullveig (thirst for gold, wisdom) was transfixed on it and burned, "thrice burned and thrice reborn, again and again, yet still she lives." It was then that Odin hurled his spear into the throng of gods, thus instigating the war in heaven which caused the aesir (active gods) to be ousted from Asgard, leaving the vanir in possession of their heavenly abode.

The vanir are "water gods": cosmic deities having reference to the mystic void, the waters of space. The vanir do not participate directly in our system of worlds, whereas the aesir are the creative powers in our universe and dwell in its globes, seen and unseen.

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

Druze/Druse

Adherents of a heterodox Ismaili Shiite sect, called Duruz after Muhammad al-Darazi (d. ca. 1919), an Ismaili missionary.

Founded in 1017 in Egypt, the Druze community was oppressed by the larger group of Ismaili Shiites, the Muslim Fatimid dynasty that ruled Egypt and North Africa. The Druze sought refuge in the mountains of Syria-Lebanon, where they since have played a historic role. Professed monotheists, the Druze hold the Fatimid Caliph al- Hakim (r. 996-1021) to be the sole incarnation of divinity, appearing in all ages.

Al-Hakim is believed by the Druze to have created five cosmic principles or ranks: the Intellect, Universal Soul, Word, Preceder, and Follower, which were incarnated in five Druze missionaries.

Baha al-Din al-Muqtana (the Follower), who occupies the lowest rank in this cosmic hierarchy, was the author of most of the Druze scriptures, known as the Epistles of Wisdom. Faced with serious problems of schism led by ambitious missionaries, in 1333 Baha al-Din closed the door of initiation. The Druze have since remained a closed community. Below the five incarnate principles are the fully initiated leaders and then the larger community of ordinary Druze believers.

In opposition to these are evil principles representing the darker side of the cosmic order. At death, human souls are immediately reborn in human form. At the end of time al-Hakim, along with one of the incarnate principles (Hamza, who is in occultation), will return to usher in the end of this age and a new messianic era.

(See also: Druze , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Horus (Latin) Heru (Egyptian) (from heru above)

Egyptian deity associated with the sun god Ra, equivalent in certain respects to Apollo of the Greeks and, similarly, a slayer of a serpent. Originally two distinct deities were recognized: Heru-ur (Aroeris or Haroiri, Horus the Elder) and Heru-pa-khart (Harpocrates, Horus the Younger or Horus the Child). The older Horus was represented as the winged globe or solar disk, while the younger Horus represented the sun reborn each morning from the waters, carried on the lotus flower.

But in later times the characteristics of the two were merged into one, and a further change was made from an original self-born deity to the mythological aspect of a holy child found in the triad Osiris-Isis-Horus -- Father-Mother-Son. Thus the representations of Isis suckling the babe Horus are numerous. Each aspect of this god was represented in a different manner, yet all portrayed the deity as hawk-headed: the hieroglyph for Horus is a hawk.

Horus is helper to the dead in the Book of the Dead, where he is shown as presenting the justified pilgrim to Osiris, pleading in his behalf, so that the former may enter the regions of the glorified. In the Pyramid Texts, Horus and Set are portrayed as setting the ladder so that the deceased may proceed on his journey, Horus helping the pilgrim to mount the ladder into the other regions.

"If we bear in mind the definition of the chief Egyptian gods by Plutarch, these myths will become more comprehensible; as he well says: 'Osiris represents the beginning and principle; Isis, that which receives; and Horus, the compound of both. Horus engendered between them, is not eternal nor incorruptible, but, being always in generation, he endeavours by vicissitudes of imitations, and by periodical passion (suffering)

(yearly re-awakening to life) to continue always young, as if he should never die.' Thus, since Horus is the personified physical world, Aroueris, or the 'elder Horus' is the ideal Universe; and this accounts for the saying that 'he was begotten by Osiris and Isis when these were still in the bosom of their mother' -- Space" (TG 31).

And further:

"the older Horus was the Idea of the world remaining in the demiurgic mind 'born in Darkness before the creation of the world'; the second Horus was the same Idea going forth from the Logos, becoming clothed with matter and assuming an actual existence" (SD 1:366).

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

magga (magga): Path. Specifically, the path to the cessation of suffering and stress. The four transcendent paths - or rather, one path with four levels of refinement - are the path to stream-entry (entering the stream to nibbana, which ensures that one will be reborn at most only seven more times), the path to once-returning, the path to nonreturning, and the path to arahantship. See phala.

 (See also: Magga , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)