Altar - A sacred space. Often a small table or shelf for sacred objects which vary by tradition

(See also: Altar, Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary)

QUARTERS - the four directions or elements used in creating a magick circle or sacred space.

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

NEMED: The name of one of the invader races of Ireland; also an old Irish word meaning "sacred space." The word is derived from the better known Gualish word nemeton.

(See also: NEMED, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

CIRCLE: Sacred space wherein all magick is to be worked and all ritual contained. It both holds ritual energy until the witch is ready to release it, and provides protection for the witch.

(See also: CIRCLE, Paganism, Pagan, Pagan Dictionary)

Svar (Sanskrit) Also svah. Heaven, the ethery spaces, or the sky, popularly supposed to be the cosmic space between the sun and the polar star, also in the Veda signifying the sun. It is likewise the last of the four sacred words uttered by every orthodox Brahmin when beginning his daily devotions: Om vyahritis, bhur, bhuvas, svar.

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

HIEROGLYPHICS

(From Greek: "sacred carvings.") To the ancients all writing was magical or sacred, insofar as it could relate or influence events happening at distances of time (past, present, future) and space (heaven or earth). But to the Egyptians, particularly, their language was sacred already and Thoth-given. Pharaoh himself was "The Great Word." Indeed it is from the Egyptians that the Greek Logos ("word") came to have its occult meaning. The Egyptian word for "word," medu, also meant a "sceptre," "magic wand" or "sacred staff." Medu-Neter = "hieroglyph."

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

Adytum:

From the Greek term 'aduton', which means a place to which entrance is forbidden. This is a term alternatively used with 'sanctum sanctorum' or 'Holy of Holies' to describe the innermost sanctum of a temple or church, or an area of sacred space in occult practices.

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

Triscale or Triskele: A Celtic symbol used by the Druids to represent the sacred number three. It was a cirlce devided into three equal spaces separated by swirling lines which radiate out from the center.

(See also: Triscale, Triskele, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

BESOM - Some traditions see the besom/nbroom as others use the athame or wand. It is often used to sweep physical debris and meta-physical negativity from a place to serve as sacred space, ie. casted circle.

(See also: BESOM, Wiccan, Wicca, Witchery, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Sapta-sindhavas (Sanskrit) [from sapta seven + sindhu river from the verbal root syand to flow, trickle, pour forth]

The seven sacred rivers spoken of in the Vedas, connected with the sapta-samudra (seven oceans). From the standpoint of the planetary chain, the oceans or seas of space which surround the different globes are intimately interconnected by similar lines of communication, which likewise can be called circulations. In Avestic works these sacred streams are called Hapta Heando.

See also CIRCULATIONS OF THE COSMOS

(See also: Sapta-sindhavas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

CIRCLE - 1. the sacred space where in all magick is to be worked and all ritual contained. The circle both contained raised energy and provides protection for the witch and is created and banished with his/her energy. (CMM)

2. symbol of the cosmos and heaven (Plato)

3. witches’ coven

4. mediumistic or healing group. (NAD)

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

O - Letter O. - The fifteenth letter and fourth vowel in the English alphabet. It has no equivalent in Hebrew, whose alphabet with one exception is vowelless. As a numeral, it signified with the ancients 11; and with a dash on it 11,000. With other ancient people also, it was a very sacred letter. In the Devanagari, or the characters of the gods, its significance is varied, but there is no space to give instances.

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

Haoma (Avestan) Hum (Pahlavi) Homa (Persian) The Tree of Life; there are two haomas: the yellow or golden earthly haoma, which when prepared and used as an offering for sacrifice is the king of healing plants, the most sacred and powerful of all the offerings prescribed in the Mazdean scriptures. This haoma is equivalent to the Hindu soma -- the sacred drink used in the temples, and is said to endow he who drinks it with the property of mind.

The white haoma (or hom) is called the Gokard, the sacred tree of eternal life created by Ahura Mazda which grows up in the middle of the Farakhard ocean (unbounded ocean or the waters of space), surrounded by the ten thousand healing plants, created by Ahura Mazda to counteract the 99,999 diseases created by Angra Mainyu. By the drinking of the Gokard men will become immortal on the day of the resurrection, according to the Bundahish. From the white haoma was also cut the sacred baresma of the Mobeds.

In later esoteric Persian literature, Simorgh takes the place of haoma at the top of Mount Alborz. It finally becomes the mythical bird that brings happiness and good fortune to those he protects.

The fruit of the haoma was the fruit of the tree of knowledge and wisdom (later transformed into the forbidden fruit), similar to the apples of wisdom and the pippala.

See also ASVATTHA

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

Haoma (Avestan) Hum (Pahlavi) Homa (Persian) The Tree of Life; there are two haomas: the yellow or golden earthly haoma, which when prepared and used as an offering for sacrifice is the king of healing plants, the most sacred and powerful of all the offerings prescribed in the Mazdean scriptures. This haoma is equivalent to the Hindu soma -- the sacred drink used in the temples, and is said to endow he who drinks it with the property of mind.

The white haoma (or hom) is called the Gokard, the sacred tree of eternal life created by Ahura Mazda which grows up in the middle of the Farakhard ocean (unbounded ocean or the waters of space), surrounded by the ten thousand healing plants, created by Ahura Mazda to counteract the 99,999 diseases created by Angra Mainyu. By the drinking of the Gokard men will become immortal on the day of the resurrection, according to the Bundahish. From the white haoma was also cut the sacred baresma of the Mobeds.

In later esoteric Persian literature, Simorgh takes the place of haoma at the top of Mount Alborz. It finally becomes the mythical bird that brings happiness and good fortune to those he protects.

The fruit of the haoma was the fruit of the tree of knowledge and wisdom (later transformed into the forbidden fruit), similar to the apples of wisdom and the pippala.

See also ASVATTHA

(See also: Hanuman, Hanumat, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pururavas (Sanskrit) In Hindu philosophical mysticism and epic literature, the son of Budha, regent of the planet Mercury and equivalent to cosmic wisdom. Budha is given as the son of Soma, the moon, and Ila or Ida, the ethereal earth. Pururavas is an extremely occult character, mentioned both in the Vedas and Puranas.

In the Vedas he seems to be connected with the functions of the sun, Surya, while according to later writers he is one of the ten belonging to the class of visvadevas. His cosmic functions are those belonging to the realms of mahat or cosmic mind, and therefore Pururavas is that faculty of cosmic intelligence which guides cosmic evolution and directs it. The visvadevas are entities whose fields of activity are the intermediate region of our universe.

In the epics, Pururavas is the famous prince of the Soma-vansa (lunar dynasty), the father of Ayus and the ancestor of Puru, Dushyanta, Bharata, Kuru, Bhritarashtra, and Pandu. He is supposed to have instituted the three sacrificial fires, and is likewise the hero of the Vikramorvasi.

According to the Vedas and Puranas was famous for being the first to produce the sacred triad of fires by the friction of two sticks as many finger-breadths long as there are syllables in the Gayatri, and made of the wood of the asvattha tree (the tree of wisdom). This legend is full of occult meaning hid under archaic allusions.

Pururavas is a generalized name for the human monad which in imbodiment is at once the son of divine wisdom and spirit, and of space or mystic earth. The triad of sacred fires are the fire of spirit or inspiration and intuition, the fire of intellect, and the fires of matter or space; and the union of these three into the one generalized fire of the human constitution forms in a sense the field of self-consciousness as well as of the self-conscious ego itself.

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

Hamsa or Hansa (Sanskrit) "Swan or goose", according to the Orientalists ; a mystical bird in Occultism analogous to the Rosicrucian Pelican.

The sacred mystic name which, when preceded by that of KALA (infinite time), i.e. Kalahansa, is name of Parabrahm ; meaning the " Bird out of space and time". Hence Brahma (male)is called Hansa Vahana "the Vehicle of Hansa" (the Bird). We find the same idea in the Zohar, where Ain Suph (the endless and infinite) is said to descend into the universe, for purposes of manifestation, using Adam Kadmon (Humanity) as a chariot or vehicle.

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

Holy City Many spiritual traditions symbolize the goal of human attainment or the abode of the gods as a holy city. With the Hindus, Brahmapura is the capital of Brahma on Mt. Kailasa in the Himalayas or on Mt. Meru, as well as being the inmost chamber of the heart.

According to the Chhandogya Upanishad (8:1:1), within the Brahmapura "is an abode, a small lotus-flower; within it is a small space (antarakasa). What is within that, should be searched out; that, assuredly, is what one should desire to understand." Hiranyapura (golden city) stands for the sun and for the invisible, etheric regions of space; while the Siddhapura or White Island is both the indestructible home of adepts on earth and the poles of the earth or Mt. Meru.

The Jews and Christians speak of the City of God or heavenly Jerusalem, the secret or sacred Salem, which is the goal of human spiritual attainment. This is contrasted with the earthly Jerusalem, the earth or human world. In the Qabbalah, the Holy City symbolizes both the holy of holies and the maqom which is "(the Secret Place or the Shrine) on Earth: in other words, the human womb, the microcosmic copy and reflection of the Heavenly Matrix, the female space or primeval Chaos, in which the male Spirit fecundates the germ of the Son, or the visible Universe" (SD 2:84).

(See also: Holy City, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Holy City Many spiritual traditions symbolize the goal of human attainment or the abode of the gods as a holy city. With the Hindus, Brahmapura is the capital of Brahma on Mt. Kailasa in the Himalayas or on Mt. Meru, as well as being the inmost chamber of the heart.

According to the Chhandogya Upanishad (8:1:1), within the Brahmapura "is an abode, a small lotus-flower; within it is a small space (antarakasa). What is within that, should be searched out; that, assuredly, is what one should desire to understand." Hiranyapura (golden city) stands for the sun and for the invisible, etheric regions of space; while the Siddhapura or White Island is both the indestructible home of adepts on earth and the poles of the earth or Mt. Meru.

The Jews and Christians speak of the City of God or heavenly Jerusalem, the secret or sacred Salem, which is the goal of human spiritual attainment. This is contrasted with the earthly Jerusalem, the earth or human world. In the Qabbalah, the Holy City symbolizes both the holy of holies and the maqom which is "(the Secret Place or the Shrine) on Earth: in other words, the human womb, the microcosmic copy and reflection of the Heavenly Matrix, the female space or primeval Chaos, in which the male Spirit fecundates the germ of the Son, or the visible Universe" (SD 2:84).

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

Ganga (Sanskrit) The Ganges, the sacred river of India. The Puranas and old tales of India represent the goddess Ganga transforming herself into a river and then flowing from the toe of Vishnu. She is said to have been brought from heaven by the prayers of Bhagiratha to purify the ashes of the 60,000 sons of King Sagara who had been consumed by the angry glance of the sage Kapila.

The Ganges, like many other ancient, highly revered streams, was an emblem of the flowing from spirit to matter, or from celestial realms to material, of occult forces including streams of wisdom and power flowing from heaven to earth or from gods to mankind, an idea which once understood kept perennially before people's minds the reality of the spiritual worlds and their intimate interconnection with the realms of physical space and time.

As the true interpretation of this old tale gradually was lost, there arose the religious belief that the actual waters of the Ganges were sin-cleansing, reminiscent of the supposed sin-cleansing power of the river Jordan in Christian and even in certain Jewish thought.

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

Frog One of the oldest symbols in Egypt, for although associated particularly with the frog goddess Heqet, the four primeval gods of Egypt -- Heh, Kek, Nau, and Amen -- were each depicted with a frog's head, the reference here being to the cosmic waters of space, out of which all things arose in the beginnings. Frog gods and goddesses were associated with the beginning or formation of the world, the symbol of the frog itself being that of resurrection and hence of renewed birth.

"There must have been some very profound and sacred meaning attached to this symbol, since, notwithstanding the risk of being charged with a disgusting form of zoolatry, the early Egyptian Christians adopted it in their Churches. A frog or toad enshrined in a lotus flower, or simply without the latter emblem, was the form chosen for the Church lamps, on which were engraved the words 'I am the resurrection" . . . These frog goddesses are also found on all the mummies" (SD 1:386).

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