Voodoo: Voodoo is both a corruption of the African Fon word 'Vodou' (which means 'spirit' or 'mystery') and now a powerful spiritual tradition in its own right, most associated with New Orleans and the American South.

Voodoo travelled from Africa in the hearts and souls of Africans who were transported to the Americas during the slave trade. There it became blended with the spiritual practices of the indigenous peoples, who often had a shamanic or animistic belief system, and with the Catholic religion of the slave owners. It recognises one creator-god and a pantheon of angel-like spirits (called Loa) who work on his behalf. The ancestors are a third spiritual force.

All of these spirits may be appealed to for practical help, advice, and support, through prayer, divination and magic. Herbalism also plays a major role in New Orleans Voodoo, where it is known as Hoodoo or root doctoring, and the Voodoo priest and priestess are often powerful healers, working with herbs and with more spiritual and magical healing tools.

Famous names associated with New Orleans Voodoo include Marie Laveau and Dr. John.

(See also: Voodoo , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

HOODOO: An American magickal system drawn from African magickal practice, Native American botanical healing knowledge and European folklore. It is often confused with Voodoo and it's practitioners are called Hoodoo, Hoodoo Doctors, Hoodoo Men/Women, Conjure Men/Women Conjurers, Root Doctors or Root Workers. Also known as Rootwork.

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

Padma (Sanskrit) The lotus, a flower which has been held sacred from remotest antiquity by the Aryan Hindus, as well as revered in other lands such as Egypt.

Mystically, it was looked upon as an emblem of productive nature growing between the spiritual sunlight above and the water or the astral light below; or in a more general sense between spirit and matter. It has also other meanings, such as in India, of the prolific earth, and even of Mount Meru.

The lotus is "a very ancient and favourite simile for the Kosmos itself, and also for man. The popular reasons given are, firstly, . . . that the Lotus-seed contains within itself a perfect miniature of the future plant, which typifies the fact that the spiritual prototypes of all things exist in the immaterial world before those things become materialised on Earth. Secondly, the fact that the Lotus plant grows up through the water, having its root in the Ilus, or mud, and spreading its flower in the air above.

The Lotus thus typifies the life of man and also that of the Kosmos; . . . The root of the Lotus sunk in the mud represents material life, the stalk passing up through the water typifies existence in the astral world, and the flower floating on the water and opening to the sky is emblematical of spiritual being" (SD 1:57-8).

(See also: Padma, lotus , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mulaprakriti (Sanskrit). The Parabrahmic root, the abstract deific feminine principle - undifferentiated substance. Akasa. Literally, "the root of Nature" (Prakriti) or Matter.

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

Mana (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root man to think]

Opinion, conception, idea; also self-conceit, arrogance, pride (especially in the compound aham-mana). In Buddhism, one of the six evil feelings or one of the ten fetters to be discarded. As a neuter noun, consideration, respect, honor. In astrology the name of the tenth mansion or house.

Mana [from the verbal root ma to measure] as a masculine noun means dwelling, building, house; as a neuter noun, measuring, dimension, computation as of time; in philosophy, proof, demonstration.

See also PRAMANA

(See also: Mana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Attachment

In the Four Noble truths, Buddha Shakyamuni taught that attachment to self is the root cause of suffering:

• From craving (attachment) springs grief,
• from craving springs fear;
• For him who is wholly free from craving, there is no grief, much less fear. (Dhammapada Sutra. In Narada Maha Thera, The Buddha and His Teachings.)

If you don't have attachments, naturally you're liberated ... In ancient times, there was an old cultivator who asked for instructions from a monk,

"Great Monk, let me ask you, how can I attain liberation?" The Great monk said, "Who tied you up?" This old cultivator answered, "Nobody tied me up." The monk said, "Then why do you seek liberation?"

 (Hsuan Hua, tr., Flower Adornment Sutra, "Pure Conduct," chap. 11.)

For the seasoned practitioner, even the Dharma must not become an attachment. As an analogy, to clean one's shirt, it is necessary to use soap. However, if the soap is not then rinsed out, the garment will not be truly clean. Similarly, the practitioner's mind will not be fully liberated until he severs attachment to everything, including the Dharma itself.

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

Gibborim (Hebrew) (pl of geber mighty man from gabar to be strong)

Generally refers to the antediluvian giants or Atlanteans, the fourth root-race of mankind. In the fifth root-race they became known as the kabiri -- the early mighty men of wisdom (SD 2:273).

See also GEBER

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

Abhijit (Sanskrit) (from abhi towards + the verbal root ji to conquer)

Sometimes Abhijita. As a noun, a soma sacrifice, a lunar mansion, the principal star in the constellation Lyra, a name of Vishnu, etc. As an adjective, victorious, also referring to one born under the constellation Abhijit.

Equivalent to aghijin-muhurta, the eighth muhurta or period, comprising 24 minutes before and 24 minutes after midday -- an auspicious period; Sankaracharya is said to have been born at this time.

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

Avyakta (Sanskrit) (from a not + vyakta manifested from vy-anj to anoint, adorn, cause to appear, manifest)

Unmanifested; applied to Vishnu and Siva, and in the Bhagavad-Gita to Krishna. Hence Avyakta is the unmanifest or the undifferentiated, as opposed to vyakta, the manifest or differentiated. In the Sankhya philosophy, it is mulaprikriti (root- or primordial nature), the veil of parabrahman, or parabrahman manifested in mulaprakriti.

Mulaprakriti is the unmanifested side of differentiated nature, and hence avyakta; but the term is equally applicable to the consciousness side of the universe, during those immensely long time periods when cosmic consciousness is sunken in its own essence and not manifesting. Similarly, the higher or divine-spiritual parts of cosmic consciousness may be said to be avyakta even during periods of cosmic manifestation. To the Sankhyas, avyakta is the one cosmic principle which is the root of all essential selfhood and which during cosmic manvantara is in its lower parts differentiated in and through the innumerable hierarchical organisms. It therefore subsists in every kind of upadhi and is the real spiritual entity which a person has to reach in his progress towards spirit.

In the Vedantic system of Krishna, however, avyakta is also parabrahman, that which will not perish even at the time of cosmic pralaya, because parabrahman is the one essence, not only of the whole cosmos, but even of mulaprakriti itself, the foundation of the manifested cosmos. "In case you follow the Sankhyan doctrine, you have to rise from Upadhi to Upadhi in gradual succession, and when you try to rise from the last Upadhi to their Avyaktam, there is unfortunately no connection that is likely to enable your consciousness to bridge the interval. If the Sankhyan system of philosophy is the true one, your aim will be to trace Upadhi to its source, but not consciousness to its source.

The consciousness manifested in every Upadhi is traceable to the Logos and not to the Avyaktam of the Sankhyas. It is very much easier for a man to follow his own consciousness farther and farther into the depths of his inmost nature, and ultimately reach its source -- the Logos -- than to try to follow Upadhi to its source in this Mulaprakriti, this Avyaktam. Moreover, supposing you do succeed in reaching this Avyaktam, you can never fix your thoughts in it or preserve your individuality in it; for, it is incapable of retaining any of these permanently" (Notes on BG 98). Nevertheless the Sankhya philosophy is as true as is the Vedanta, and reaches the same ultimates of philosophic thought and understanding, although along differing systemic lines.

In the Law of Manu avyakta is used as an equivalent to paramatman (universal spirit).

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

Eve Hawwah (Hebrew) (from hawah to breathe, live)

Mystically the mother of all living, an allegorical yet actual figure in all archaic cosmogonies. Genesis describes three Eves:

1)    the archetypal Eve, the feminine aspect of the divine androgyne which is on the one hand `Adam Qadmon, and on the other hand Sephirah-Eve (ch. l);

2)    the Eve of the early third root-race, after the separation of the sexes but before the awakening of mind (ch. 2); and

3)    Eve the mother of Abel and of Seth, here beginning the course of human history after the awakening of mind.

The first Eve was no woman but, like the first Adam, the spiritual feminine aspect of an archetypal spiritual host; the second was no woman but womankind; while the third was woman and mother as now known. They companion and correspond to the three Adams: the first, the spiritual albeit masculine type of the archetypal host; the second, the mindless first human race; and the third, "the race that (had fully)

separated, whose eyes are opened" (SD 2:46n). Between the Eve of Genesis and Eve the mother of Seth (Genesis 4) passed long ages, involving millions of years during which the archetypal preparation of the globe for human habitation was followed by distinct root-races and three Edens, with millions of years between even these latter.

The original from which the Hebrew Genesis was later compiled is lost. Yet even as the latter has reached us -- first veiled, then probably remodeled by Ezra with shiftings that confuse the chronology -- despite important words and clauses mistranslated by European scholars, its resemblance to the esoteric account is unmistakable. For Jehovah, who gave the human body and (physical) breath of life, is the hyparxis of Saturn and an earthly, not a celestial, hierarchy.

The human mind and spirit are essentially emanations from the immortal spiritual monad coeval with the universe, and subsequent human evolutionary development was both from and aided by the elohim, a spiritual host. Adam and Eve, once mind appeared in them, enter the path of self-directed evolution, a reference to the second and third Eves mentioned above. The eating of the fruit of the tree is the awakening or lighting of mind in man. It shows Eve as consorting with spiritual, not demoniacal, forces and incidentally reconciles the two creation stories.

Like the serpent, the tree is an ancient and universal symbol of sacred and esoteric knowledge. To eat of its fruit is to acquire the knowledge that only the gods possess, and the possession confers immortality under the law.

There is neither relationship nor historic nor philosophic resemblance between Eve and Lilith, Adam's "first wife."

(See also: Eve, Hawwah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Tree A variant of the cross or tau, to be considered in connection with the serpent which is wound round it. The two together symbolize the world tree with the spiritual, intellectual, psychic, and psychological aggregate of forces encircling the world tree and working in and through it -- these forces often grouped in the Orient under the name of kundalini. In minor significance, the two together symbolize the life-waves, or any life-wave, passing through the planes, spirit circling through matter, fohat working in the kosmos. Thus the tree symbol stands for the universe, and correspondentially for man, in whom the monadic ray kindles activity on the several planes; while the physiological key of interpretation applies to the analogies in the human body with its various structures through which play the pranic currents.

The tree, by its form, represents evolution, for it begins with a root and spreads out into branches and twigs; only as applied to the kosmos the root is conceived to be on high and the branches to extend downwards. Thus there is the Asvattha tree of India or bodhi tree, the Norse Yggdrasil, the tree Ababel in the Koran, the Sephirothal Tree which is 'Adam Qadmon. In the Garden of Eden it is stated that there were two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which signifies the two knowledges. It is said in Gnosticism that Ennoia (divine thought) and Ophis (serpent), as a unity, are the Logos; as separated they are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, the former spiritual, the latter manasic. Adam eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which means in one important allegory of human evolution that mankind after the separation of the sexes became endowed with manas, or that when humanity began to be endowed with dual manas, the rays then separated into the opposite sexes; and lest he should partake of the Tree of Life and become immortal, in the then imperfect state of evolution, he is turned out of Eden.

 It is stated that buddhi becomes transformed into the tree whose fruit is emancipation and which finally destroys the roots of the Asvattha, which here is the symbol of the mayavi life. This latter tree is also the emblem of secret and sacred knowledge, guarded by serpents or dragons; it may also refer to a sacred scripture. Dragons guarded the tree with the golden apples of the Hesperides; the trees of Meru were guarded by a serpent; Juno, on her wedding with Jupiter, gave him a tree with golden fruit, as Eve gave the fruit to Adam. Blavatsky says of Eve: "She it was who first led man to the Tree of Knowledge and made known to him Good and Evil; and if she had been left in peace to do quietly that which she wished to do, she would have conducted him to the Tree of Life and would thus have rendered him immortal" (La Revue Theosophique 2:10).

See also ASVATTHA, YGGDRASIL

Both adepts and sorcerers were called trees. Tree worship in decadent times degenerated into a variety of phallicism.

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

Amarakosa (Sanskrit) (from a not + mara dying from the verbal root mri to die + kosa treasury, sheath, dictionary)

Also Amarakosha. Immortal treasury; a dictionary written by Amara or Amara-Simha, sage, scholar, and Buddhist, about whom not very much is definitely known. Orientalists place him anywhere between the 2nd and 6th centuries. They are unanimous, however, in rating the Amarakosa as equal in quality and importance for the Sanskrit language as is Panini's grammar.

Amarakosa is also sometimes applied to the highest of the kosas (sheaths).

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

Yuga (Sanskrit) Age; an age of the world, of which there are four -- satya yuga, treta yuga, dvapara yuga, and kali yuga -- which proceed in succession during the manvantaric cycle. Each yuga is preceded by a period called in the Puranas, sandhya (twilight, transition period, dawn) and followed by another period of like duration often called sandhyansa (a portion of twilight). Each of these transition periods is one-tenth of its yuga. The group of four yugas is first computed by the divine years or years of the gods -- each such year being equal to 360 years of mortal men.

Thus we have, in divine years:

1. Krita or Satya Yuga . . 4,000

Sandhya . . . . . . . . 400

Sandhyansa . . . . . . 400

4,800 or 1,728,000 mortal years

2. Treta Yuga . . . . . . . 3,000

Sandhya . . . . . . . . 300

Sandhyansa . . . . . . . 300

3,600 or 1,296,000 mortal years

3. Dvapara Yuga . . . . . . 2,000

Sandhya . . . . . . . . 200

Sandhyansa . . . . . . . 200

2,400 or 864,000 mortal years

4. Kali yuga . . . . . . . 1,000

Sandhya . . . . . . . . 100

Sandhyansa . . . . . . 100

1,200 or 432,000 mortal years

Total: 12,000 a Mahayuga or 4,320,000 mortal years

Of these four yugas, our present racial period is the kali yuga (black age), often called the Iron Age, said to have commenced at the moment of Krishna's death, usually given as 3102 BC. These yugas do not affect all mankind at the same time, as some races, because of their own special cycles in running, are in one or in another of the yugas, while other races are in a different cycle. This series of 4, 3, 2, 1, with ciphers added or not according to circumstances, are among the sacred computations of archaic esotericism, which shows that all the various kinds of yugas, the small being included within the great, are each governed by the same periodic and regular series -- all of which makes calculation no easy thing.

"All races have their own cycles, which fact causes a great difference. For instance, the Fourth Sub-Race of the Atlanteans was in its Kali-Yug, when destroyed, whereas the Fifth was in its Satya or Krita Yuga. The Aryan Race is now in its Kali Yuga, and will continue to be in it for 427,000 years longer, while various 'family Races,' called the Semitic, Hamitic, etc., are in their own special cycles. The forthcoming 6th Sub Race -- which may begin very soon -- will be in its Satya (golden) age while we reap the fruit of iniquity in our Kali Yuga" (SD 2:147n).

The four yugas refer to any root-race, although indeed a root-race from its individual beginning to its individual ending is about double the length of the great yuga as set forth in the above chart. The racial yugas, however, overlap because each new great race is born at about the middle period of the parent race, although the individual length of any one race is as above stated. Thus it is that by the overlapping of the races, a race and its succeeding race may for a long time be contemporaneous on the face of the globe.

As the four yugas are a reflection in human history of what takes place in the evolution of the earth itself, and also of the planetary chain, the same scheme of yugas applies on larger scales: there exist the four yugas in the time periods of the evolution of a planetary chain, as well as in the general time period of a globe manvantara. These cosmic yugas are very much longer than the racial yugas, but the same general scheme of 4, 3, 2 applies throughout.

"The sacredness of the cycle of 4320, with additional cyphers, lies in the fact that the figures which compose it, taken separately or joined in various combinations, are each and all symbolical of the greatest mysteries in Nature. Indeed, whether one takes the 4 separately, or the 3 by itself, or the two together making 7, or again the three added together and yielding 9, all these numbers have their application in the most sacred and occult things, and record the workings of Nature in her eternally periodical phenomena. They are never erring, perpetually recurring numbers, unveiling, to him who studies the secrets of Nature, a truly divine System, an intelligent plan in Cosmogony, which results in natural cosmic divisions of times, seasons, invisible influences, astronomical phenomena, with their action and reaction on terrestrial and even moral nature; on birth, death, and growth, on health and disease. All these natural events are based and depend upon cyclical processes in the Kosmos itself, producing periodic agencies which, acting from without, affect the Earth and all that lives and breathes on it, from one end to the other of any Manvantara. Causes and effects are esoteric, exoteric, and endexoteric, so to say" (SD 2:73-4).

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

Seven The fundamental number of manifestation, frequently found in the different cosmogonies as well as in many religious dogmas and observances of the different ancient peoples.

Although ten was called one of the perfect numbers by the Pythagoreans, seven was unique in their series of numbers because it has all the "perfection of the Unit -- the number of numbers. For as absolute unity is uncreated, and impartite (hence number-less) and no number can produce it, so is the seven: no digit contained within the decade can beget or produce it" (SD 2:582). Seven is the number of the manifested universe, while ten or twelve is the number of the unmanifested universe.

Pythagoras taught that seven was composed of the numbers three and four, explaining that "on the plane of the noumenal world, the triangle was, as the first conception of the manifested Deity, its image: 'Father-Mother-Son'; and the Quaternary, the perfect number, was the noumenal, ideal root of all numbers and things on the physical plane" (ibid.). Further, seven was called by the Pythogoreans the vehicle of life for it consisted of body and spirit: the body was held to consist of four principal elements, while the spirit was in manifestation triple, comprising the monad, intellect or essential reason, and mind.

There are innumerable instances of sevening -- the seven days of the week, the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the musical scale -- while special emphasis is placed upon the seven human and cosmic principles; the seven senses (five senses now in manifestation and two more to be attained in the future through evolutionary unfolding); the seven cosmic elements; the seven root-races and seven subraces; the seven kingdoms, human and below; the seven rounds; the seven lokas and talas; the seven manifested globes of the planetary chain; the seven sacred planets; the seven racial buddhas; the seven dhyani-bodhisattvas and -buddhas; the seven Logoi; etc.

Man as well as nature is called saptaparna (seven-leaved plant), symbolized by the triangle above the square {illust}. While the senary was applied to man in all ranges from the physical to the spiritual, when completed by the atman, thus making the septenary, the latter signified the entire range of the constitution, whether of man or nature, crowned by the immortal spirit.

In Hindu literature the number seven continually appears: the saptarshis (the seven sages), the seven superior and inferior worlds, the seven hosts of deities, the seven holy cities, the seven holy islands, seas, or mountains, the seven deserts, the seven sacred trees, etc. In Greece seven was often connected with the gods and goddesses: Mars had seven attendants, seven was sacred to Pallas Athene and to Phoebus Apollo -- the latter with his seven-stringed lyre playing hymns to septenary nature as well as to the seven-rayed sun; Niobe's seven sons and seven daughters, etc.

Apart from mythological considerations, in physical life manifestations of the number seven occur continuously: "if the mysterious Septenary Cycle is a law in nature, and it is one, as proven; if it is found controlling the evolution and involution (or death) in the realms of entomology, ichthyology and ornithology, as in the Kingdoms of the Animal, mammalia and man -- why cannot it be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural (though occult) divisions of time, races, and mental development?" (SD 2:623n).

Seven is indeed the sacred number of life, and with the circle and the cross it forms a triad of primordial symbols of the ancient wisdom.

(See also: Seven , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Alaya :

Alaya

(Sanskrit) A compound word: a, "not"; laya, from the verb-root li, "to dissolve"; hence "the indissoluble." The universal soul; the basis or root or fountain of all beings and things  - the universe, gods, monads, atoms, etc. Mystically identical with akasa in the latter's highest elements, and with mulaprakriti in the latter's essence as "root-producer" or "root-nature." (See also Akasa, Buddhi, Mulaprakriti)

[NOTE: The Secret Doctrine (1:49) mentions Alaya in the Yogachara system, most probably referring to alaya-vijnana, but adds that with the "Esoteric 'Buddhists' . . . 'Alaya' has a double and even a triple meaning."  - PUBLISHER]

See also: Alaya , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Euhemerization The theory of Euhemeros, a Greek of about 316 BC, that the ancient Greek myths were imaginative or allegorical renderings of historical events, the gods once having been mortals or men, and their deeds the poetized actions of archaic human worthies. Hence to euhemerize is to interpret myths as having been once historical events. It is sometimes used in The Secret Doctrine as equivalent to anthropomorphism.

A great deal of archaic mythology, however, is the half-forgotten and often distorted racial tradition or memory of events in the lives of once semi-divine humans, who actually were in most cases the demigods, god-men, or initiates of the later third and early fourth root-races.

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

Aditi (Sanskrit) (from a not + diti bound from the verbal root da to bind)

Unbounded, free; as a noun, infinite and shoreless expanse. In the Vedas, Aditi is devamatri (mother of the gods) as from and in her cosmic matrix all the heavenly bodies were born. As the celestial virgin and mother of every existing form and being, the synthesis of all things, she is highest akasa. Aditi is identified in the Rig-Veda with Vach (mystic speech) and also with the mulaprakriti of the Vedanta. As the womb of space, she is a feminized form of Brahma. The line in the Rig-Veda: "Daksha sprang from Aditi and Aditi from Daksha" has reference to "the eternal cyclic re-birth of the same divine Essence" (SD 2:247n). In one of its most mystic aspects Aditi is divine wisdom.

Aditi has correspondences in many ancient religions: the highest Sephirah in the Zohar; the Gnostic Sophia-Achamoth; Rhea, mother of the Greek Olympians; Bythos or the great Deep; Amba; Surarani; Chaos; Waters of Space; Primordial Light; and the source of the Egyptian seven heavens. Sometimes she is linked with the Greek Gaia, goddess of earth, to denote dual nature or the mother of both the spiritual and physical: Aditi, cosmic expanse or space being the mother of all things; and Gaia, mother of earth and, on the larger scale, of all objective nature (cf SD 2:65, 269).

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

Clean-Me-Out Program (Arise & Shine Cleanse Thyself Program): Neo-Christian variation of self-healing developed principally by Richard Anderson, N.D., N.M.D. Two herbal supplements constitute its backbone: Chomper, whose eleven herbs include cascara sagrada (a laxative) and lobelia (ingestion of which is risky); and Herbal Nutrition, whose ten herbs include alfalfa, comfrey, horsetail (a weak diuretic), and licorice root. (In April 1997 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers that use of Chomper could cause serious heart problems.) Besides these and other supplements, the program involves enemas and avoiding intake of meat and dairy products.

Its theory posits a life force. In Cleanse & Purify Thyself (1994), Anderson describes a profound Divine experience wherein a female Divine Being filled him with information. He states that purification is a guaranteed entrance into heaven and that people who are willing to purify themselves shall have the help of God's mightiest messengers and, if necessary, legions of angelic beings.

(See also: Clean-Me-Out Program , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Adisesha (Sanskrit) (from adi first + sesha from the verbal root sish to leave remainders)

Primeval residue; the mythological thousand-headed serpent (naga) upon which Vishnu "sleeps" during the pralayas (intervals between manifestations); also represented as supporting the seven patalas (hells) with the seven regions above them and therefore the entire world (VP 2:5). More often called simply Sesha; or Ananta, infinite; or Ananta-sesha.

As sesha means "remainder," "what is left over," the main significance is that during the pralayas Vishnu, representing the cosmic divinity, is conceived as sleeping upon the substance of a spiritual character remaining over after the dissolution of the worlds. Thus Adisesha (primeval substance or remainder) is the cosmic spatial ocean of consciousness-substance left over from the previous cosmic manvantara which acts as the mother-substance or chaos from and in which the future worlds of manifestation will be born when pralaya ends.

See also ANANTA; ANANTA-SESHA

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

Vishnu (Sanskrit). The second person of the Hindu Trimurti (trinity), composed of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. From the root vish, "to pervade". in the Rig -Veda, Vishnu is no high god, but simply a manifestation of the solar energy, described as "striding through the seven regions of the Universe in three steps and enveloping all things with the dust (of his beams ".) Whatever may be the six other occult significances of the statement, this is related to the same class of types as the seven and ten Sephiroth, as the seven and three orifices of the perfect Adam Kadmon, as the seven "principles" and the higher triad in man, etc., etc. Later on this mystic type becomes a great god, the preserver and the renovator, he "of a thousand names - Sahasranama ".

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

Panchkarma: Enema Therapy

Considered the best treatment for a deranged vata, it purifies and rejuvenates the colon that then nourishes the entire body and helps to gain control of the disease process before it goes into a migratory phase. Classified into Oily Enema, Decoction Enema, and Enema therapies, it is administered through the anal passage or vagina.

Because vata is the force behind retention or elimination of all items, its imbalance is the root cause of diseases related to tissues and organs of the body. This therapy thus proves effective for nearly all types of ailments discussed in Ayurveda. Helping rejuvenate the body and providing strength and long life.

Vasti is essentially of two types: Nirooha that cleanses toxins from the dhatus and removes naturally accumulated malas (body waste) from the colon, and Anuwasana that which is meant to be retained in the body for a longer period of time in order to have its intended effect.

But it cannot be applied in case of particular skin diseases, obese patients, problems of the gastro-intestinal tracts, loss of appetite, enlargement of liver & spleen, thirst, dyspnea, edema and in states of grief and shock.

(See also: Panchakarma , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)