Separated Dictionary

Yana (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ya to go]

Path, road, vehicle; there are two recognized paths of action in nature, the pratyeka-yana (the path of each one for himself) and the amrita-yana (the immortal vehicle or path of immortality). There are also two schools of philosophy in India using this term: the Hinayana (the lesser, inferior, or defective vehicle) and the Mahayana (the greater or superior vehicle).

This contrast is an exoteric rather than an esoteric one. It is a recognition of the fact that the religion of Gautama Buddha has separated into two general paths of action; but both the Hinayana and the Mahayana are recognized because known to possess each one its own particular value in training. The combination of the two is what one might call the esoteric path.

The Hinayana is that portion of the esoteric path in which the mystic traveler takes the lower passional and elemental sides of himself into strict discipline and self-control, the while following certain simple rules of day-to-day procedure; whereas the Mahayana aspect includes rather the training of the spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic parts of the human constitution, such as is brought about by a profound study of philosophy, of the truths of nature, the mystical side of religion, and the higher parts of kosmic philosophy -- all these collected together around the heart of the Mahayana which is mystical study and aspiration.

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

A Theosophical definition of Man :

Man

Man is in his essence a spark of the central kosmic spiritual fire. Man being an inseparable part of the universe of which he is the child  - the organism of graded consciousness and substance which the human constitution contains or rather is  - is a copy of the graded organism of consciousnesses and substances of the universe in its various planes of being, inner and outer, especially inner as being by far the more important and larger, because causal.

Human beings are one class of "young gods" incarnated in bodies of flesh at the present stage of their own particular evolutionary journey. The human stage of evolution is about halfway between the undeveloped life-atom and the fully developed kosmic spirit or god.

From another point of view, man is a sheaf or bundle of forces or energies. Force and matter, or spirit and substance being fundamentally one, hence, man is de facto a sheaf or bundle of matters of various and differing grades of ethereality, or of substantiality; and so are all other entities and things everywhere.

Man's nature, and the nature of the universe likewise, of which man is a reflection or microcosm or "little world," is composite of seven stages or grades or degrees of ethereality or of substantiality; or, kosmically speaking, of three generally inclusive degrees: gods, monads, and atoms. And so far as man is concerned, we may take the New Testament division of the Christians, which gives the same triform conception of man, that he is composed of spirit, soul, body  - remembering, however, that all these three words are generalizing terms.

Man stands at the midway point of the evolutionary ladder of life: below him are the hosts of beings less than he is; above him are other hosts greater than he is only because older in experience, riper in wisdom, stronger in spiritual and in intellectual fiber and power. And these beings are such as they are because of the evolutionary unfoldment of the inherent faculties and powers immanent in the individuality of the inner god  - the ever-living, inner, individualized spirit.

Man, then, like everything else  - entity or what is called "thing"  - is, to use the modern terminology of philosophical scientists, an "event," that is to say, the expression of a central consciousness-center or monad passing through one or another particular phase of its long, long pilgrimage over and through infinity, and through eternity. This, therefore, is the reason why the theosophist often speaks of the monadic consciousness-center as the pilgrim of eternity.

Man can be considered as a being composed of three essential upadhis or bases: first, the monadic or divine-spiritual; second, that which is supplied by the Lords of Light, the so-called manasa-dhyanis, meaning the intellectual and intuitive side of man, the element-principle that makes man Man; and the third upadhi we may call the vital-astral-physical.

These three bases spring from three different lines of evolution, from three different and separate hierarchies of being. This is the reason why man is composite. He is not one sole and unmixed entity; he is a composite entity, a "thing" built up of various elements, and hence his principles are to a certain extent separable. Any one of these three bases can be temporarily separated from the two others without bringing about the death of the man physically. But the elements that go to form any one of these bases cannot be separated without bringing about physical dissolution or inner dissolution.

These three lines of evolution, these three aspects or qualities of man, come from three different hierarchies or states, often spoken of as three different planes of being. The lowest comes from the vital-astral-physical earth, ultimately from the moon, our cosmogonic mother. The middle, the manasic or intellectualintuitional, from the sun. The monadic from the monad of monads, the supreme flower or acme, or rather the supreme seed of the universal hierarchy which forms our kosmical universe or universal kosmos.

See also: Man , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Ayuta (Sanskrit) (from a not + the verbal root yu to be interrupted, separated)

Unimpeded; unseparated; ayuta-siddha is a philosophical term meaning proved to be not separated (by the intervention of space), hence inherent or innate. As an adjective, unbound, unfastened (from the verbal root yu to bind, fasten)

. Also, ten thousand, a myriad.

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

ARIDIAN - One of several traditions of Italian Witchcraft. Separated from the Triad Clans in 1981 & became the 1st independent Italian tradition in America. It is a rejoining of the Triad Traditions into one complete tradition. (WOTS)

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

Paramhansa: Literally: Supreme Swan, a person of the highest spiritual realization, from the fact that a swan can separate milk from water and is therefore an apt symbol for one who has discarded the unreal for the Real, the darkness for the Light, and mortality for the Immortal, having separated himself fully from all that is not God and joined himself totally to the Divine, becoming a veritable embodiment of Divinity manifested in humanity.

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

Tuat (Egyptian) Also Tiau, Tiaou. The region of the underworld or of the dead, though it was not situated under the earth, or answer to the popular conception of the Christian hell, even though the Tuat is often described as a place of retribution. One of the post-mortem states described in The Egyptian Book of the Dead as being situated in the region of the moon.

In popular mythology the Tuat was separated from the world by a range of mountains and consisted of a great valley, shut in by mountains, through which ran a river (the counterpart of the Nile, reminding one of the Jordan of the Jews and Christians), the banks of which were the abode of evil spirits and monstrous beasts. As the sun passed through the Tuat great numbers of souls were described as making their way to the boat of the sun, and those that succeeded in clinging to the boat were able to come forth into new life as the sun rose from the eastern end of the valley to usher in another day. Tuat was also depicted as the region where the soul went during night, returning to join the living on earth during the day.

Originally it was described as the abode of the night-sun, through which the sun god Ra passed during the night, only to arise renewed in the morning. "What is the Tiaou? The frequent allusion to it in the 'Book of the Dead' contains a mystery. Tiaou is the path of the Night Sun, the inferior hemisphere, or the infernal region of the Egyptians, placed by them on the concealed side of the moon. The human being, in their exotericism, came out from the moon (a triple mystery -- astronomical, physiological, and psychical at once); he crossed the whole cycle of existence and then returned to his birth-place before issuing from it again. Thus the defunct is shown arriving in the West, receiving his judgment before Osiris, resurrecting as the god Horus, and circling round the sidereal heavens, which is an allegorical assimilation to Ra, the Sun; then having crossed the Noot (the celestial abyss), returning once more to Tiaou: an assimilation to Osiris, who, as the God of life and reproduction, inhabits the moon" (SD 1:227-8).

The Tuat was divided into twelve regions, called fields (sekhet), corresponding to the number of hours of the night; or again it was described as being composed of seven circles (arrets), each under the guardianship of a watcher. The realm of Osiris is represented as Sekhet-Aarru or -Aanre (the fields of Aanroo), which was divided into 15 Aats (houses), having 21 Pylons. One of the regions of the Tuat was known as Amenti (Egyptian Amentet, "the hidden place"]

, a term often applied to the whole region of the dead.

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

Hinduism, Soul and God

There are several theories in Hinduism to explain this and no one knows for sure which one is correct. Besides it is all very confusing, as confusing perhaps as the theory of relativity by Einstein. According to one approach the whole universe is one self same reality. There is no distinction or duality between God and the soul except in our perception. God and the soul are one and the same. There is nothing like a soul separating itself from God and then entering the body as a separate entity. The soul has never been separated from God and would never be. The same Supreme Self acts as individual souls without undergoing any change or division. This is the Advaita or non dualistic school of philosophy. 

Read more here: » Hinduism, Soul and God: Are the souls different from God?

Yima (Zend). In the Vendidad, the first man, and, from his aspect of spiritual progenitor of mankind, the same as Yama (q.v.).

His further functions are not given in the Zend books, because so many of these ancient fragments have been lost, made away with, or otherwise prevented from falling into the hands of the profane.

Yima was not born, for he represents the first three human Root-races, the first of which is "not born"; but he is the "first man who dies", because the third race, the one which was informed by the rational Higher Egos, was the first one whose men separated into male and female, and "man lived and died, and was reborn". (See Secret Doctrine, II., pp. 60 et seq.)

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

Tabernacle Used mainly to describe the portable sanctuary instituted during the wandering of the Israelites. The references in the Jewish history before Deuteronomy are different from later writings in the Old Testament which mention a very elaborate edifice containing a courtyard, outer and inner chambers, with sacrificial and atoning rituals, albeit erected so that it could readily be taken down and transferred to another place. The sanctuary referred to in the Priestly Code, however, is the sanctuary of the ark (in Hebrew mishkan ha`eduth, "the tabernacle of revelation"), i.e., the receptacle in which lay the ark of testimony, the chest in which it is alleged that the stones containing the inscriptions of the decalog were placed.

The real meaning of the tabernacle can be traced to Egypt:

"In the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an immense curtain separated the tabernacle from the place for the congregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was drawn over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five senses and five Root-races esoterically, while the four colours of the curtain represented the four cardinal points and the four terrestrial elements. The whole was an allegorical symbol. It is through the four high Rulers over the four points and Elements that our five senses may became cognisant of the hidden truths of Nature; and not at all, as Clemens would have it, that it is the elements per se that furnished the Pagans with divine Knowledge or the knowledge of God. . . . . For what was the meaning of the square tabernacle raised by Moses in the wilderness, if it had not the same cosmical significance? 'Thou shalt make an hanging . . . of blue, purple, and scarlet' and 'five pillars of shittim wood for the hanging . . . four brazen rings in the four corners thereof . . . boards of fine wood for the four sides, North, South, West, and East . . . of the Tabernacle . . . with Cherubims of cunning work." (Exodus, Ch. xxvi, xxvii.) The Tabernacle and the square courtyard, Cherubim and all, were precisely the same as those in the Egyptian temples. The square form of the Tabernacle meant just the same thing as it still means, to this day, in the exoteric worship of the Chinese and Tibetans -- the four cardinal points signifying that which the four sides of the pyramids, obelisks, and other such square erections mean. Josephus takes care to explain the whole thing. He declares that the Tabernacle pillars are the same as those raised at Tyre to the four Elements, which were placed on pedestals whose four angles faced the four cardinal points: adding that 'the angles of the pedestals had equally the four figures of the Zodiac' on them, which represented the same orientation (Antiquites I, VIII, ch. xxii).

"The idea may be traced in the Zoroastrian caves, in the rock-cut temples of India, as in all the sacred square buildings of antiquity that have survived to this day" (SD 2:125-6).

The sacred chest or receptacle -- in which was supposed to reside either a god's presence or mystically holy or sacred emblems connected therewith -- is also virtually universal throughout the world.

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

Ta'aroa (Tahitian) The chief Tahitian god who broke out of the darkness within the cosmic egg. After living alone, he created a daughter with whom he made the manifested world. Later he fashioned man out of red earth, and then put him to sleep for ages -- referring to the ages during which the mind principle had not yet awakened to conscious activity. During this sleep Ta'aroa extracted a bone from the man, and from this fashioned woman, a reference to the third root-race when the androgynous mankind separated into the present type of sexual humanity. The mental sleep of the third root-race mankind lasted from a number of minor time periods after the separation, and before mind really incarnated in the relatively mindless bodies. Whether the myths relating to the creation of man and woman are indigenous or imported from Christianity is debated.

(See also: Ta'aroa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Lemures (Latin) Shades of the departed; used in archaic Rome for a class of entities of the underworld or the astral light, in an inclusive sense embracing both kama-rupic shells, called larvae, and the higher portions of the human constitution which have separated from the shells and were called lares or manes.

Zoologists called the animal the lemur, on account of its nocturnal habits.

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

Demiurge, Demiourgos (Greek) (from demos the people + ergon work)

In Gnosticism, the deity as creator or cosmic artificer was a secondary or subordinate god, distinct from the supreme deity of the hierarchy, acting as creator or former of worlds, with which function the supreme is not directly concerned. Because of this seeming duality of rival gods, monotheistic Christian theology classed the demiurge among the powers hostile to God and mankind, as it did with Satan, the Serpent, Lucifer, and so many others. Marcion (2nd century) and his school attempted to reconcile these by equating the Demiourgos with the Jewish Jehovah.

The Demiourgos, however, is the deity in its creative aspect, the Second Logos -- not a personal deity, but an abstract term denoting the host of creative powers. Later, the conception was anthropomorphized. It is the elohim of the Bible who make kosmos out of chaos; the universal mind, separated from its fountain-source; the four-faced Brahma; the seven principal dhyani-chohans.

In the Qabbalah, Hokhmah (wisdom) becomes united with Binah (intelligence), which latter is Jehovah or the Demiourgos. But the Demiourgos itself is dual in the same sense as are those formative powers for which the name stands: acting on all planes from the highest to the lowest, the contrast between above and below, light and its shadow, is shown; added to which, it includes potencies which are symbolized by human minds as masculine and feminine. There was plenty of scope, then, for confusion as to the meaning and application of the word.

See also ARCHITECT; DHYANI-CHOHANS; LOGOS

(See also: Demiurge, Demiourgos , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Homoeomerian (Homoiomerian) System (from Greek homoios similar + meros part)

The theory of the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras that the spiritual originants or seeds of all classes of beings and things existed in the primordial cosmic chaos, and that each such originant or seed was of like substance with all others, and therefore in a more extended sense likewise with the species to which these gave rise through emanational evolution. These seeds, particles, monads, or spiritual atoms were called homoiomere (of similar part -- often verging in meaning into identity).

It was the action of nous (cosmic intelligence) on chaos -- or in Hindu terms, of mahat on svabhavat -- which at the opening of a period of cosmic evolution separated and discriminated these quasi-identical atoms, starting them on their respective evolutions in the families of hierarchies to which they belong, the various individuals thereof manifesting as beings and things of various kinds, such as atoms of grain or gold, etc., each according to its original nature or svabhava.

This profound system of philosophy traces all things back to an original cosmic fountain or identical source, as seeds from the world tree, out of which has grown the theosophical concept of universal brotherhood.

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

Karanopadhi (Sanskrit) (from karana cause + upadhi base, vehicle, disguise)

Causal instrument, or instrumental cause in the long series of reimbodiments to which reimbodying entities are subject. An upadhi is certain natural properties or constitutional characteristics supposed to be the disguises, clothing, or masks in and through which the spiritual monad works, bringing about the repetitive manifestations upon the earth-chain of certain of its functions and powers, and intimately connected with the peregrinations of the monad through the various spheres of the solar kosmos. In one sense, therefore, karanopadhi is almost interchangeable with maya or the illusory disguises through which spiritual monadic entities work and manifest themselves.

The lower karanopadhi or cause bringing about reimbodiment is avidya (nescience). When a reimbodying entity through repeated reimbodiments in material spheres rises into self-conscious recognition of its own divine powers, it shakes off the disguises of maya and becomes a jivanmukta. As an entity grows more and more like its divine-spiritual counterpart, it is less subject to avidya.

"It is, in a sense, the seeds of Kama-manas left in the fabric or being of the reincarnating entity, which act as the karana or reproducing cause, or instrumental cause, of such entity's reincarnations on earth" (OG 78).

The higher karanopadhi, belonging to the spiritual-intellectual part of the human constitution, is the reproductive impulse in the spiritual monad which causes it to reemerge into a new series of imbodiments at the dawn of the solar manvantara. This karanopadhi is directly related to buddhi or buddhi-manas, the spiritual soul as a veil or vehicle of the monadic essence or spiritual monad. Its role is similar to that of prakriti with Purusha, or pradhana surrounding Brahman, or mulaprakriti with parabrahman. The karanopadhi is also the vehicle produced by the spiritual bija (seed).

Though there are seven human principles, there are but three distinct upadhis, in each of which the atman may work independently of the rest. These three upadhis can be separated by an adept without killing himself, but he cannot separate the seven principles from each other without destroying his constitution. According to the Taraka-Raja-Yoga, these three upadhis are karanopadhi, sukshmopadhi, and sthulopadhi. Karanopadhi corresponds to the anandamaya-kosa of the Vedantic classification and to the sushupti or deep dreamless sleeping state. The avatara doctrine is closely connected with these various human upadhis.

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

Loka (Sanskrit) Place, locality; in Brahmanic literature, heavens; in theosophical literature, world, sphere, plane. Used in the metaphysical systems of India, both in contrast to and in conjunction with tala (inferior world).

"Wherever there is a loka there is an exactly correspondential tala, and in fact, the tala is the nether pole of its corresponding loka. Lokas and talas, therefore, in a way of speaking, may be considered to be the spiritual and the material aspects or substance-principles of the different worlds which compose and in fact are the kosmic universe" (OG 168). The lokas and talas must be thought of by twos: a loka and its corresponding tala can no more be separated than can the two poles of a magnet. They are the two sides of being, the two contrasting forces of nature, the light-side and the night-side.

There are many different divisions of the lokas and talas used in Hindu literature, but many are merely exoteric blinds. Dividing the universe into seven manifested grades or planes of being, which are really worlds, these worlds are polarized into lokas and talas, two by two throughout. The seven lokas and seven talas together form the seven cosmic planes.

Of these seven loka-tala pairs, the three highest belong to the relatively arupa (formless) or spiritual worlds, and are often called arupa lokas and arupa talas. The four lowest pairs belong to the rupa (form) or material worlds, and are often called rupa lokas and talas. These lokas and talas are not placed in nature's structure above each other like steps of a stair, but are within each other, interblending and continually interacting. Each inner one is finer and more ethereal than the next outer one; the inmost of either series is the most ethereal and spiritual of all. The more spiritual the center, the wider is its outflow of radiation and influence, and it therefore reaches far beyond the more material ones. Exoteric Hindu literature details specific limitations or frontiers to the reach of each loka and tala, as for instance when it is said that svarloka and talatala extend to the pole star, or that the reach of influence of bhuvarloka and mahatala extend to the sun.

Our earth, globe D of the earth-chain, is patala if we look at it from the material standpoint; and it is bhurloka if we look at it from the energy-consciousness side. In this globe the loka and tala are equally bipolarized because it is the only globe on the lowest cosmic plane. It is the turning point of our planetary chain where matter and spirit are equilibrated. The field of influence of this loka and tala -- and indeed of all the lokas and talas -- extends little farther than the psychomagnetic region of globe D.

The solar system as a whole has its corresponding cosmic lokas and talas; so has any planetary chain of the solar system and any globe of such chain. Each one of these different scales is built of its own series of lokas and talas on the analogical principle that what prevails in the cosmic whole as its fundamental structure must necessarily prevail in its every portion.

Just as the kosmos is divided into seven planes with its kosmic lokas and talas, its tattvas and bhutas -- its principles and elements -- so is every globe of our planetary chain, and indeed every human being, of necessity divided in a similar manner, with its own seven lokas and seven talas, which in the case of man are the principles and elements of his constitution. Thus,

"the seven principles of our globe are the seven lokas and seven talas belonging especially to earth; and the seven principles of each one of the other six globes of our planetary chain, are the respective lokas and talas belonging to each one of them. Now the two other globes on each plane of the three planes above ours, making thus the other six globes of our planetary chain, receive their respective life force, recieve their respective inflow of intellectual and spiritual energies and beings, from the respective lokas and talas of the sun. There are seven suns, but only one sun on this plane, as our globe is but one on this plane, the lowest of the seven kosmical planes."

"each one of these lokas and each one of these talas produces the following lower one of the scale from itself, . . . The highest of either line projects or sends forth the next lower. It, in addition to its own particular characteristic or swabhava, contains also within itself the nature of the one above it, its parent, and also sends forth the one lower than it, the third in the line downwards. And so on down the scale. So that each one of the principles or elements (or lokas or talas)

is likewise sevenfold, containing in itself the subelements of that or those of which it is the reflection from above" (Fund 472, 481-2).

The lokas, in our present fourth planetary round, are dominant on the luminous arc, while the talas are recessive; whereas the talas are the dominant factors or worlds on the shadowy arc of descent, where the lokas are recessive or involving. Virtue, purity, kindness, compassion are signs that the entity possessing them is evolving the spirit within, and therefore is ascending along the lokas of the luminous arc and thus is a denizen of the lokas as the dominant factors in his evolution. Selfishness, impurity, unkindness, cruelty, and deception are the signs that the entity possessing them is then under the influence or dominance of the talas, and is for the time being on a shadowy arc -- the particular and characteristic effect of the working of the influences of the talas.

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

Gnosticism

(from Gk. gnosis, "knowledge")

A pre- Christian category of religions which emphasizes that a personal experience, or knowlege, is essential to salvation.

The oldest oldest known Christian scriptures, The Nag Hammadi Library, are Gnostic. Neither unequivocally Christian, Jewish, Greek, nor Iranian, Gnosticism is not a clearly delineated religion, but rather a specific religious interpretative perspective.

Gnosticism lives mainly in or on the edges of Christianity and Judaism and it bears a number of philosophical, astrological, and magical marks loosely belonging in the Near Eastern and Inner Mediterranean areas.

Common to many Gnostic texts and systems are an emphasis on dualistic speculations (e. g. , light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, the earthly realm vs. the heavenly world, or the Lightworld); a reevaluation of many biblical traditions (especially Genesis and the New Testament) so that the Old Testament God, for instance, becomes an inferior figure ignorant of Lightworld entities above and prior to himself; and a keen interest in the salvation of the human soul, which, due to its Lightworld origin, is opposed to the body it inhabits and possesses a superior knowledge.

Gnostic mythologies offer intricate, detailed speculations on cosmic geographies, provide emotional descriptions of the fate of the soul in its material prison, and, in frequently impressive poetry, describe the soul's journey back to its lofty home.

In brief, Gnosticism exemplifies the common religious and creative response of Late Antiquity to a feeling of alienation toward bodily, material, even social existence, and a burning interest in arriving at a higher, more authentic level of life. Far from leading to paralytic pessimism, this orientation caused Gnostics to create mythologies, ideologies, rituals, and organized communities.

Subversive Gnostic interpretations, especially of the biblical traditions, elicited horrified, swift denunciations from the early fathers of the church, who rightly perceived the Gnostics as a menace to the budding Christian orthodoxy. Much of what we know about Gnostic doctrines and practices comes from these church fathers, but their accounts are unavoidably colored by a strong hostility toward Gnostics.

Direct Gnostic testimonies are available from numerous sources: the Nag Hammadi texts (a cache of fifty-odd documents unearthed in Egypt in 1945); manuscripts found or bought by European scholars in recent centuries; and voluminous texts from two Gnostic groups-the Manichaeans (whose system became a "world religion" stretching from North Africa to China) and the Mandaeans (a still-extant community of Gnostics in Iran and Iraq). Various Gnostic texts show strong affinities with Greek philosophy, Syriac Christianity, and Iranian traditions.

Gnostic speculations tend to pose a "prehistory" to the creation accounts in Genesis, imagining a number of Lightworld angelic (aeonic) beings emanating or springing from one or more original, ineffable entities. A progression of male and female emanations eventually result in the lowest levels of aeons where the Old Testament God belongs. Ignorant of-or rebelling against-his more elevated predecessors, this god (sometimes called Samael, "the blind one") creates the visible, material world, the human body (an androgynous Adam or the pair Adam and Eve), and imprisons the human soul in it.

Having thus separated the supreme god from the creator god, Gnostics give a negative evaluation of the latter and his minions. In parallel, heroic figures in the Bible turn into villains and vice versa, so that the serpent in paradise and Cain become principles of the light and of gnosis, while Noah turns into a collaborator with the ignorant creator. Gnostic ideas about Jesus tend toward splitting his personality, with Christ, the Lightworld aspect of Jesus, escaping crucifixion, while the bodily Jesus, a mere shadow of his real self, is destroyed on the cross.

 The principle of evil originates within the Lightworld itself, results unavoidably from the emanation process, or exists as a separate, anti-Lightworld entity from the beginning of creation. Personified (or hypostasized) evil is in many Gnostic myths portrayed as a tragic figure: he (it is usually male) knows of his wrongdoing and ignorance but seems unable to act differently, though he still hopes for his own, final redemption and return to home in the upper worlds. His mother, personified Wisdom or Error, is likewise tragic, but possesses more insight than her son. Human responsibilities include knowledge about the good and evil principles, the numerous aeonic beings populating the spheres between earth and Lightworld, and a firm sense of cosmic geography so that the ascending soul may know its way home.

 Anthropological models often correspond to cosmic maps: the upper human component is the spirit, the mid-level is the soul, and the material body roughly correlates with the macrocosm. Gnostic religions undoubtedly possessed a rich cultic life alongside the mythological/speculative component, but except for Manichaeism and Mandaeism-and a few scattered texts from other, less delineated traditions-we have only hazy evidence of the intricacies of Gnostic rituals. Initiations, baptisms, sacred meals, rituals for the dead, and techniques for ecstatic experiences are attested in various traditions. Community ethics, class divisions based on levels of gnosis, and aggressively polemical interests against "normative" Christianity and Judaism testify to organized Gnostic schools and groups eager to define themselves against outsiders and against one another.

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

Soma (Sanskrit) In Hinduism, the moon astronomically; mystically, a sacred beverage of initiates, "made from a rare mountain plant by initiated Brahmans" (TG 304).

As the moon, Soma is an occult mystery, for the moon as a symbol stands for both good and evil, yet more often a symbol of evil than of good. Astrologically, Soma is the regent of the invisible or occult moon, while Indu represents the physical moon. "Soma is the mystery god and presides over the mystic and occult nature in man and the Universe" (SD 2:45). Soma or lunar worship was once purely occult and its rites were based upon a minute and profound knowledge of nature.

According to Hindu tradition, Soma as a sacred juice gave mystic visions and trance-revelations, the result of which union was Budha (esoteric wisdom). This sacred beverage was drunk by Brahmins and initiates during their mysteries and sacrificial rites.

"The 'Soma' plant is the asclepias acida, which yields a juice from which that mystic beverage, the Soma drink, is made. Alone the descendants of the Rishis, the Agnihotri (the fire priests) of the great mysteries knew all its powers. But the real property of the true Soma was (and is) to make a new man of the Initiate, after he is reborn, namely once that he begins to live in his astral body . . .; for, his spiritual nature overcoming the physical, he would soon snap it off and part even from that etherealized form. . . .

"The partaker of Soma finds himself both linked to his external body, and yet away from it in his spiritual form. The latter, freed from the former, soars for the time being in the ethereal higher regions, becoming virtually 'as one of the gods,' and yet preserving in his physical brain the memory of what he sees and learns. Plainly speaking, Soma is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge forbidden by the jealous Elohim to Adam and Eve or Yah-ve, 'lest Man should become as one of us' " (SD 2:498-9&n).

"A 'soma-drinker' attains the power of placing himself in direct rapport with the bright side of the moon, thus deriving inspiration from the concentrated intellectual energy of the blessed ancestors. . . .

"This which seems one stream (to the ignorant) is of a dual nature -- one giving life and wisdom, the other being lethal. He who can separate the former from the latter, as Kalahamsa separated the milk from the water, which was mixed with it, thus showing great wisdom -- will have his reward" (BCW 12:203-4).

"This Hindu sacred beverage answers to the Greek Ambrosia or nectar, drunk by the gods of Olympus. A cup of kykeon was also quaffed by the mysta at the Eleusinian initiation. He who drinks it easily reaches Brahma, or the place of splendor (Heaven). The soma-drink known to Europeans is not the genuine beverage, but its substitute; for the initiated priests alone can taste of the real soma; and even kings and rajas, when sacrificing, receive the substitute. . . . We were positively informed that the majority of the sacrificial priests of the Dekkan have lost the secret of the true soma. It can be found neither in the ritual books nor through oral information. The true followers of the primitive Vedic religion are very few; these are the alleged descendants from the Rishis, the real Agnihotris, the initiates of the great Mysteries. The soma-drink is also commemorated in the Hindu Pantheon, for it is called King-Soma. He who drinks of it is made to participate in the heavenly king, because he becomes filled with it, as the Christian apostles and their converts became filled with the Holy Ghost, and purified of their sins. The soma makes a new man of the initiate; he is reborn and transformed, and his spiritual nature overcomes the physical; it gives the divine power of inspiration, and develops the clairvoyant faculty to the utmost. According to the exoteric explanation the soma is a plant, but, at the same time it is an angel. It forcibly connects the inner, highest 'spirit' of man, which spirit is an angel like the mystical soma, with his 'irrational soul,' or astral body, and thus united by the power of the magic drink, they soar together above physical nature and participate during life in the beatitude and ineffable glories of Heaven.

"Thus the Hindu soma is mystically, and in all respects the same that the Eucharist supper is to the Christian. The idea is similar. By means of the sacrificial prayers -- the mantras -- this liquor is supposed to be transformed on the spot into real soma -- or the angel, and even into Brahma himself" (IU 1:xl-xli).

The mystical drink has been known in all ages and among all peoples. The ancient Teutonic tribes, whether of the Germanic or Anglo-Saxons, spoke of their divine mead, the drink of the gods. The Hindus spoke of Soma, the direct distillation from the moon and from the overseeing and guiding eye of the sun; the Greeks of the Homeric age spoke of ambrosia or nectar, a drink of the gods which renewed their understanding and gave them inspiration as well. Another branch of the Greeks belonging to the Dionysian and Orphic branches of mystical thought, spoke equally mystically of the mystic wine, and also of the mystic cereal, partaken of during the Mysteries, and it is from this last that the mystical wine and cereal or bread of the Christians was taken over almost completely from the Dionysian Eucharist, only among Christians even from quite early times it became degraded into actual blood and flesh of Jesus.

The evident meaning must be connected with the old occult thought that wine, or the mead of the northern peoples where the grape and soma were unknown or uncultivated, all had the meaning of the inspiration of initiation, a kind of ecstasy of vision and knowledge brought about through initiation, of which the physical intoxication of wine, mead, or the soma juice has all the lower and materialized aspect, every spiritual thing having its material counterpart, every right-hand thought or rule in occultism having its left-hand or sorcerer perversion or counterpart. Thus in the highest initiation, even today and from immemorial time, the holy drink or potation was entirely mystical, and had a dozen of these significances, all bound up together; yet despite this fact, for some of the lower initiations where a student found difficulty in throwing off the physical and astral influences, a harmless -- when administered rightly -- drug or drink was given which temporarily stupefied the lower quaternary; but it is to be noted that this substitute of the physical drink came about when neophytes began to find it very difficult to do what their more spiritual forerunners had done: raising themselves solely by inner aspiration up to inspiration, by inner insight up to the epopteia or vision.

Thus the question whether the mystical drink was an actual drink, or merely a mystical one, cannot be answered by a simple yes or no. Originally it was entirely mystical, later it remained as mystical as ever, but the body with its grossness, and the astral influences with their terrible power over the men and women of the time, were temporarily reduced to quiescence by a preparation known to initiates to have the power of bringing about the condition required, without any permanent or even long after-effect, very much as a sedative will be given by a physician today. It is of course true that if this drink, however relatively innocent in a single instance, were to be constantly repeated, it would have developed into a drug habit.

Some of the later peoples in their initiations actually did use a kind of physical soma which had the effect of bringing about a dulling of the restless brain-mind for the time being, so that the inner powers were temporarily freed from the clogging influences of the astral light and the body.

The use of drugs in initiatory ceremonies of any kind, however, is a relatively late and degenerate practice, and has never at any time been, nor will it ever be, introduced by the Mother-Lodge coming down to us even from the middle of the third root-race. With it the old tradition burns more brightly than ever that the true soma, the true mead of the gods or wine of the spirit, is the raising of the human into the spiritual by aspiration, training, and strict following of the traditional laws of discipleship, so that finally the neophyte feels the sunlight from above stealing through the moon of his mind.

So strongly is this the case, that even today in theosophical occult studies, drug taking of any kind is strictly forbidden, including alcohol, for alcohol is a drug, a product of natural decay and decomposition, and while less spectacular and violent as a rule than drugs such as opium and its derivatives, it is far more easily procurable and is therefore more specifically pointed to as objectionable. The idea of the occult student is to have the body absolutely normal, healthy, clean, and functioning in the smoothness of health, so that even overeating is seen to be a harmful thing, because it clogs the body, dulls the mind, and could even actually lead to physical disability.

There is and has been a great deal of confusion, not only at present but throughout the ages, about these matters, and several mystical schools have even chosen the language of the tavern and drinking house as the cloak for conveying occult or semi-occult teaching. A noted example is the Sufi school with its poems lauding the flowing bowl and the joys of the tavern and the bosom friends therein, and the beloved's breast. Here the tavern was the universe, the flowing cup or wine was the wine of the spirit bringing inner ecstasy, the bosom of the beloved was the raising oneself into inner communion with the god within, of which the Jewish bosom of Abraham is a feeble correspondence. The friends of the tavern are those perfect human relations brought about by a community of spiritual and intellectual interests, and the associations of the tavern are the mysteries of the world around us with their marvels and arcana. Nevertheless in various countries as the fourth root-race ran toward its evil culmination, the mystic became translated into the material, the spiritual degenerated into the teaching of matter, so that indeed in later Atlantean times the drugging of initiates was common, and the results always disastrous, this being one of the sorceries for which the Atlanteans in occult history have remained infamous. Yet even in the fifth root-race, due to the heavy Atlantean karma still weighing on us, many nations as late as historic times employed more or less harmless potations to bring about a temporary dulling or stupefying of the brain and nervous system -- a procedure always vigorously opposed by the theosophic occult school which has never at any time allowed it.

(See also: Soma , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Arghyavarsha arghyavarsa (Sanskrit) (from arghya worthy, valuable + varsha raining, cloud, division of the earth separated by a mountain range from vrish to rain, bestow abundantly)

Land of libations; "the mystery name of that region which extends from Kailas mountain nearly to the Schamo Desert -- from within which the Kalki Avatar is expected" (SD 2:416n).

See also AIRYANA-VARSEDYA

(See also: Arghyavarsha, arghyavarsa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

A Christian theological definition of Kingdom of God according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

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Kingdom of God

See also: Kingdom of God , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Vampire While discussions of vampirism generally center on Slavonic and other countries of southeastern Europe, vampirism was known to the Hindus and Hebrews as well as many other peoples.

If was believed that a deceased person whose instincts were very degraded and sensual may leave behind a kama-rupic spook strong enough to be able to suck the blood of the living, especially if the deceased was a sorcerer. In cases of vampirism it was said that if the grave was opened, that the corpse of the vampire was always fresh and rosy.

Isis Unveiled explains that such evil persons may be buried before the astral has entirely separated from the body -- when they are in a state of catalepsy. In this case the part of the astral buried with the body draws back the rest of the astral into the body, and the being either perishes with the natural processes of suffocation or becomes a vampire, and is thus enabled to perpetuate its cataleptic life in the tomb.

The traditional remedy consisted in driving a stake through the heart of the vampire's corpse, or otherwise destroying it. The meaning of the word can be extended to include other forms of obsession of the living by the astral reliquiae of the dead.

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

Pitri, Pitris pitr (Sanskrit) Fathers; referring to the merely human deceased father and grandparents; also to the progenitors of the human race. The pitris (progenitors) are of seven classes: three classes of arupa-pitris or higher dhyanis, which in our own solar system we call the solar pitris or agnishvattas; and the four lower classes known as barhishads or lunar pitris. The lunar pitris came from the moon-chain, while the solar pitris are those dhyan-chohans which have all the spiritual-intellectual fires, although they are too spiritual to have the physical creative fire. In preceding manvantaras they had finished their physical and astral evolution, but by cyclic necessity, enlightened the lunar pitris which had only the physical creative fire.

The pitris "are called 'Fathers' because they are more particularly the actual progenitors of our lower principles; whereas the Dhyani-Chohans are actually, in one most important sense, our own selves. We were born from them; we were the monads, we were the atoms, the souls, projected, sent forth, emanated, by the Dhyanis.

". . . the Lunar Pitris may briefly be said to be those consciousness-centers in the human constitution which feel humanly, which feel instinctually, and which possess the brain-mind mentality. The Agnishwatta-Pitris are those monadic centers of the human constitution which are of a purely spiritual type" (OG 125-6). These pitris were not forefathers of present humanity, but of our distantly remote ancestors named formerly by some writers the Adamic races.

The evolution of the first root-race of mankind from the astral bodies of the pitris took place on seven distinctly separated regions of the earth existing then at the arctic pole (cf SD 2:329). Of the succession of the root-races the Stanzas of Dzyan say: "First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the 'Spiritual Lives' projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine 'Sishta,' (the seed-Manus, or the Prajapati and the Pitris)" (SD 2:164). As progenitors of the various human root-races, pitris refer pointedly to the life-waves, manus, prajapatis, and sishtas.

Brahma occasionally, as the generalized Progenitor, stands in Hindu literature for the pitris collectively, and is thus called Father.

(See also: Pitri, Pitris, pitr , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bosheth (Hebrew) Israelite nazars "separated or consecreated themselves to Bosheth" {IU 2:130}.

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