Aeonology of the Marcians Given by Blavatsky in her "Commentary on the Pistis Sophia" (BCW 13:53) as: First Tetractys -- 1) Arrhetos (ineffable) with 7 elements; 2) Sige (silence) with 5 elements; Pater (father) with five elements; and 4) Aletheia (truth) with 7 elements, for a total of 24 elements. Second Tetractys -- 1) Logos (word) with 7 elements; 2) Zoe (life) with five elements; 3) Anthropos (man) with five elements; and 4) Ekklesia (assembly) with 7 elements, for a total of 24 elements, which together with Christos gives a total of 49 elements. (could reproduce chart given in BCW)

(See also: Aeonology of the Marcians, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Dache-Dachus (Chaldean) "The dual emanation of Moymis, the progeny of the dual or androgynous World-Principle, the male Apason and female Tauthe. Like all theocratic nations possessing Temple mysteries, the Babylonians never mentioned the 'One' Principle of the Universe, nor did they give it a name.

This made Damascius (Theogonies) remark that like the rest of 'barbarians' the Babylonians passed it over in silence. Tauthe was the mother of the gods, while Apason was her self-generating male power, Moymis, the ideal universe, being her only-begotten son, and emanating in his turn Dache-Dachus, and at last Belus, the Demiurge of the objective Universe" (TG 93).

(See also: Dache-Dachus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Harpocrates (Greek) Heru-pa-khart (Egyptian) Horus the Younger, or Horus the Babe. Representations of his mother Isis with an infant are common in Egypt, and with his father, Osiris, a trinity is formed of Father-Mother-Son.

Harpocrates came to be regarded as the type of new birth and life, thus the first hours of the day, the first days of the month, and the first days of the year, were especially associated with him. He was the god of silence or of the Mysteries, and little has come down to the present day with regard to this aspect of the deity.

Finally, at least in some important aspects of his characteristics and worship, he was adopted by both Greeks and Romans, albeit recognized as being a foreign divinity.

(See also: Haroeris, Haroiri, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Dache-Dachus (Chald.) The dual emanation of Moymis, the progeny of the dual or androgynous World-Principle, the male Apason and female Tauthe. Like all theocratic nations possessing Temple mysteries, the Babylonians never mentioned the "One" Principle of the Universe, nor did they give it a name.

This made Damascious (Theogonies) remark that like the rest of " barbarians" the Babylonians passed it over in silence. Tauthe was the mother of the gods, while Apason was her self-generating male power, Moymis, the ideal universe, being her only-begotten son, and emanating in his turn Dache-Dachus, and at last Belus, the Demiurge of the objective Universe.

(See also: Dache-Dachus, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Shin-sieu (Chinese) A sage and seer; the sixth Buddhist Patriarch of North China who taught the esoteric doctrine of bodhidharma, one of whose sayings appears in The Voice of the Silence: "For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek, O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul"; "The human mind is like a mirror which attracts and reflects every atom of dust, and has to be, like that mirror, watched over and dusted every day" (VS 26, 83).

(See also: Shin-sieu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Nehashim (Hebrew) [from nahash to whisper, secrecy, silence, to practice magic, divine the future]

Serpents, serpent's works; the study and practice of occult wisdom and magic. According to the Zohar (iii 302): " 'It is called nehhaschim, because the magicians (practical Kabalists) work surrounded by the light of the primordial serpent, which they perceive in heaven as a luminous zone composed of myriads of small stars' . . . which means simply the astral light, so called by the Martinists, by Elephas Levi, and now by all the modern Occultists" (SD 2:409) -- but it likewise shows the luminous zone as the Milky Way. The astral light is often referred to as the great deceiving serpent.

(See also: Nehashim, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Pranava (Sanskrit) [from pra-nu to utter a droning or humming sound, as during the proper pronunciation of the world Om or Aum]

The mystical, sacred syllable Om or Aum, pronounced by Brahmins, Yogis, and others during meditation. In Vedanta philosophy and the Upanishads, used in another sense: "In one sense Pranava represents the macrocosm and in another sense the microcosm. . . . The reason why this Pranava is called Vach is this, that these four principles of the great cosmos correspond to these four forms of Vach" (N on G 25, 26) -- vaikhari, madhyama, pasyanti, para. These are called the four matras of pranava.

It is also equivalent to the second sign of the zodiac, Rishabha (Taurus).

The fact that this term is given to the mystical sacred syllable, and that it signifies a droning or humming sound, shows that anciently the word was uttered aloud, although in secret whenever possible. Modern Brahmins, however, are apt to condemn the vocal utterance of their sacred syllable, and sometimes assert that it should be uttered in silence -- i.e., in the mind.

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

Amrita-yana amrita-yana (Sanskrit) (from a not + mrita dead from the verbal root mrir to die + yana path, vehicle)

The path of immortality; in The Voice of the Silence the path followed by the Buddhas of Compassion or of Perfection. It is the "secret path," the arya (noble) path of the heart doctrine of esoteric wisdom. The Buddhas of Compassion instead of donning the dharmakaya vesture and then entering nirvana, as the Pratyeka Buddhas do, give up nirvana and assume the nirmanakaya robe, thus enabling them to work directly for all beings less evolved than they; and because of this great individual sacrifice, the nirmanakaya condition is in one sense the holiest of the trikaya (three vestures). The amrita-yana is thus a lofty spiritual pathway, and leads to the ineffable glories of self-conscious immortality in the cosmic manvantaric "eternity."

The term may also refer to the "immortal vehicle" within each person, the individuality in contradistinction to the evanescent personality; that is, "the Spiritual Soul, or the Immortal monad -- a combination of the fifth, sixth and seventh" principles (ML 114).

(See also: Amrita-yana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Adisanat (Sanskrit) (from adi first + sanat from of old, always)

The ever-primeval one, a name applied to Brahma. In the Stanzas of Dzyan, it expresses that which preceded svabhavat in cosmic evolution: first there was no-number; then adisanat, "the Number, for he is One"; then svabhavat, the numbers (SD 1:98). Comparable to the Qabbalistic `Attiqa' de`Atttiqin (the Ancient of Ancients) of the Zohar; also to the Pythagorean cosmic monad which, born in and from the womb of the Ever-enduring or No-number, manifests itself as the source of the cosmos and retires into "silence and darkness," retaining its own condition while acting as the ineffable source from which all manifestation hangs as a pendant in the spaces of space.

Again, adisanat is the ever-enduring germ of cosmic mind, and because it lasts from cosmic manvantara to cosmic manvantara, sinking merely into periods of nonmanifestation during the cosmic pralayas, it is named the Primeval Ancient, the Ever-primeval One.

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

Dharmakaya (Sanskrit). Lit., "the glorified spiritual body" called the "Vesture of Bliss". The third, or highest of the Trikaya (Three Bodies), the attribute developed by every "Buddha", i.e., every initiate who has crossed or reached the end of what is called the "fourth Path" (in esotericism the sixth "portal" prior to his entry on the seventh). The highest of the Trikaya, it is the fourth of the Buddhakchetra, or Buddhic planes of consciousness, represented figuratively in Buddhist asceticism as a robe or vesture of luminous Spirituality.

In popular Northern Buddhism these vestures or robes are:

(1) Nirmanakaya

(2) Sambhogakaya

(3) and Dharmakaya the last being the highest and most sublimated of all, as it places the ascetic on the threshold of Nirvana. (See, however, the Voice of the Silence, page 96, Glossary, for the true esoteric meaning.)

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

Thesmophoria (Greek) [from thesmophoros law-giving]

A Mystery festival celebrated at Athens, Abdera, and possibly also in Sparta, in honor of Demeter-Thesmophoros, as goddess of justice, law, and order. During its celebration, prisoners were released, the law courts of the city-state were closed, and the senate did not meet. Celebrated by women only, it took place on three days, beginning with the 11th of Pyanepsion -- October 24-26.

 The first day was called Anodos (the way up), but also Kathodos (the way down, the descent). It celebrated with a great processional the return of Demeter with her daughter Persephone from the underworld, and as Kathodos, her descent into it. The second day was Kalligeneia (mother of beauty); and third was Nesteia (the fast), passed by the women in silence and fasting, sitting on the ground to celebrate Demeter's sorrow. There is no information as to the rites of the second day, and nothing is actually known of the private ritual of any of the three days.

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

Definition and meaning of double stranded RNA:

dsRNA (double stranded RNA) - long double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs; typically >200 nt) can be used to silence the expression of target genes in a variety of organisms and cell types

(Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) )

Also see these pages: Oceanography, Oceanography Sitemap, Coral Reef, Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change,

Amenti (Egypt, Egyptian). Esoterically and literally, the dwelling of the God Amen, or Amoun, or the "hidden", secret god. Exoterically the kingdom of Osiris divided into fourteen parts, each of which was set aside for some purpose connected with the after state of the defunct.

Among other things, in one of these was the Hall of Judgment. It was the "Land of the West", the "Secret Dwelling", the dark land, and the "doorless house". But it was also Ker-noter, the "abode of the gods", and the "land of ghosts" like the " Hades" of the Greeks (q.v.). It was also the "Good Father’s House" (in which there are "many mansions").

The fourteen divisions comprised, among many others, Aanroo (q.v.), the hall of the Two Truths, the Land of Bliss, Neter-xev "the funeral (or burial) place" Otamer-xev, the "Silence-loving Fields", and also many other mystical halls and dwellings, one like the Sheol of the Hebrews, another like the Devachan of the Occultists, etc., etc. Out of the fifteen gates of the abode of Osiris, there were two chief ones, the "gate of entrance" or Rustu, and the "gate of exit" (reincarnation) Amh. But there was no room in Amenti to represent the orthodox Christian Hell.

The worst of all was the Hall of the eternal Sleep and Darkness. As Lepsius has it, the defunct "sleep (therein) in incorruptible forms, they wake not to see their brethren, they recognize no longer father and mother, their hearts feel nought toward their wife and children. This is the dwelling of the god All-Dead. . . . Each trembles to pray to him, for he hears not. Nobody can praise him, for he regards not those who adore him. Neither does he notice any offering brought to him." This god is Karmic Decree; the land of Silence - the abode of those who die absolute disbelievers, those dead from accident before their allotted time, and finally the dead on the threshold of Avitchi, which is never in Amenti or any other subjective state, save in one case, but on this land of forced re-birth. These tarried not very long even in their state of heavy sleep, of oblivion and darkness, but, were carried more or less speedily toward Amh the "exit gate".

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

Gei' Hinnom (Hebrew) Also Gai-hinnom. The valley of Hinnom, generally rendered as by the Greek Gehenna, situated south of Jerusalem, in which was Tophet where children were at one time sacrificed to Moloch (2 Kings 23:10).

 Later the place was used as a crematorium for the refuse of the city, perpetual fires being kept for that purpose. In the Bible it is translated as hell or hell of fire, but the Hebrew word bears no such interpretation. The Greek Gehenna "is identical with the Homeric Tartarus" (IU 2:507).

In the Zohar and Talmud, the place of purification. After death, Dumah (the Angel of Death, or the shadowy land of silence, the region of the astral dead -- She'ol, Hades, the underworld) leads the impure Neshamah to the dwelling of Gei' Hinnom, where it must be purified in order to proceed upon its journey (Zohar i 218b).

Just as cities need a crematorium for purifying purposes, so has the earth a gehenna, a planet like our own which is "termed by the occultists the eighth sphere . . . on which all the dross and scorification of the cosmic matter pertaining to our planet is in a continual state of remodelling" (IU 1:328).

(See also: Gei' Hinnom, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Voice The concrete expression of an abstract thought; a creative power that has quality besides energy, given as a septenate of logoi represented by seven mysterious vowels, uttered vocally, as in the Gnostic Pistis Sophia and the Christian Revelation. Abstract thought and concrete voice together make the Word (SD 1:99).

The Qabbalistic Sepher Yetsirah says that the Holy Spirit is Voice-Spirit-Word. The gandharvas in India are (physically) the noumenal causes of sound and the voices of nature (SD 1:523), i.e., the seven tones of Pythagoras and his music of the spheres. In Simon Magus' teachings the six radicals are given as mind, intelligence, voice, name, reason, thought -- all emanating from the seventh or highest, spiritual fire. Synonymous are Vach in India and Kwan-yin in China.

At a certain stage of initiation a voice speaks audibly to the candidate, as discussed in The Voice of the Silence. The Bath Qol (daughter of the voice) of the Qabbalah is a spiritual communication of somewhat the same kind; and Deity often communicates in a voice in the Old Testament. Voice is one way in which a divine presence manifests itself to a mind, as when, according to the Bible, the Lord manifested himself to Elijah in a still small voice.

The Army of the Voice of The Secret Doctrine is the prototype of the Host of the Logos, or the logoi, the sevenfold expression of divine thought.

See also LOGOS; VACH; VERBUM

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

Kneph (Egypt, Egyptian). Also Cneph and Nef, endowed with the same attributes as Khem. One of the gods of creative Force, for he is connected with the Mundane Egg. He is called by Porphyry "the creator of the world"; by Plutarch the "unmade and eternal deity"; by Eusebius he is identified with the Logos; and Jamblichus goes so far as almost to identify him with Brahma since he says of him that "this god is intellect itself, intellectually perceiving itself, and consecrating intellections to itself; and is to be worshipped in silence".

One form of him, adds Mr. Bonwick "was Av meaning flesh. He was criocephalus, with a solar disk on his head, and standing on the serpent Mehen. In his left hand was a viper, and a cross was in his right. He was actively engaged in the underworld upon a mission of creation." Deveria writes: "His journey to the lower hemisphere appears to symbolise the evolutions of substances which are born to die and to be reborn". Thousands of years before Kardec, Swedenborg, and Darwin appeared, the old Egyptians entertained their several philosophies. (Eg. Belief and Mod. Thought.)

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

GNOSIS

Knowing (with certainty, as opposed to Agnostic) or a specific teaching. Originally, Gnosticism was a pre-Xtian eclectic system with roots going back to Babylon, Egypy, Judaism, Zoroaster and the Greeks. It sprang up in Xtianity, probably through the Essenes. Their belief, essentially, is that the universe was created by an evil Demiurge (Yaldabaoth) and the real God dwells in a higher region of light completely out of touch with us. Since the world is evil, procreation is a great sin, because to bring children into the world is to perpetuate the evil condition. Arabic for Gnosis: Ma'arifat.

The chief difference between Xtians and Gnostic Xtians, however, was that the Gnostics insisted that Jesus was but a symbol of the cosmic consciousness already present in everyone. They insisted on the maxim, Know thyself and, for them, to be a Christian meant to become a Christ oneself. Orthodox Xtians insisted upon making Christ into an historical, flesh and blood personage called Jesus. Henceforth the argument of the priests would be that their God was genuine because he had historical reality, whereas all other gods were only myths. As our gods are assimilated by us, they inevitably become symbols while the common man worships his gods as idealized bodies of a philosophy he can never hope to understand.

The original and most fantastic Gnosis (out of which the Xtian version arose) derived from leakages from the Egyptian mysteries. The main body, however, died out with the priests who kept their silence.

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

Silent Watcher, In theosophy, highly advanced spiritual entities, each the summit of a spiritual-psychological hierarchy composed of beings working under their direct inspiration and guidance. Every hierarchy, high or low, has a Silent Watcher as its own supreme head.

"There are human 'Silent Watchers,' an there is a 'Silent Watcher' for every globe of our Planetary Chain. There is likewise a Silent Watcher of the solar system of vastly loftier state or stage . . ." He is "one who through evolution having practically gained omniscience or perfect knowledge of all that he can learn in any one sphere of the kosmos, instead of pursuing his evolutionary path forwards to still higher realms, remains in order to help the multitudes and hosts of less progressed entities trailing behind him. There he remains at his self-imposed task, waiting and watching and helping and inspiring, and so far as we humans are concerned, in the utter silences of spiritual compassion. . . . He can learn nothing more from the particular sphere of life through which he has now passed, and the secrets of which he knows by heart. For the time being and for ages he has renounced all individual evolution for himself out of pure pity and high compassion for those beneath him" (OG 156).

See also WATCHER

(See also: Silent Watcher, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Rakshasas raksasas (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root raksh to protect]

The preservers; in modern popular superstition in India, commonly associated with evil spirits and demons. Esoterically they are the gibborim (giants) of the Bible, the fourth root-race or Atlanteans:

"when Brahma created the demons, Yakshas (from Yaksh, to eat) and the Rakshasas, both of which kinds of demons, as soon as born, wished to devour their creator, those among them that called out 'Not so! oh, let him be saved (preserved)' were named Rakshasas (Vishnu Purana Book I, ch. v.). The Bhagavata Purana (III, 20, 19-21) renders the allegory differently. Brahma transformed himself into night (or ignorance) invested with a body, upon which the Yakshas and Rakashasas seized, exclaiming 'Do not spare it; devour it.' Brahma then cried out, 'Do not devour me, spare me.' This has an inner meaning of course. The 'Body of Night' is the darkness of ignorance, and it is the darkness of silence and secrecy. Now the Rakshasas are shown in almost every case to be Yogis, pious Saddhus and Initiates, a rather unusual occupation for demons. The meaning then is that while we have power to dispel the darkness of ignorance, 'devour it,' we have to preserve the sacred truth from profanation. 'Brahma is for the Brahmins alone,' says that proud caste. The moral of the fable is evident" (SD 2:165n).

The rakshasas or men-demons of Lanka, the opponents conquered by Rama in the Ramayana, are some of the latest representatives of the Atlanteans in their last days. These rakshasas correspond to the Greek titans, the Egyptian colossal heroes, the Chaldean izdubars, the Jewish 'eimim (terrifiers) of the land of Moab, and with the famous giants anakim (`anaqim) mentioned in Numbers 13:33.

(See also: Rakshasas, raksasas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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

An ascetic, monk, devotee, hermit (especially one who has taken a vow of silence); a person who has attained union with his inner divinity by means of aspiration, so that filled with inspiration as he is, and guided by the inner spiritual monitor, he is said to attain more or less fully the status of an incarnate divinity on earth. With the Sanskrit expression hridayeshu sthitah (abiding in the hearts), the phrase has direct reference to the Silent Watcher of our planetary chain, who is in a sense the spiritual and mystical parent of the higher part of the human constitution.

In the plural, the celestial seven munis, a collective title given to the seven stars of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Here is the reason the marharshis of this constellation play so important a part in archaic Hindu and theosophical esoteric teaching -- the genuinely evolved muni is one who is a true mahatma, one who has evoked into relatively full activity all the seven parts of his constitution.

Muni, however, is frequently used in Hindu writings in a merely complimentary or reverential sense, just as mahatma is, so that not every individual called muni or mahatma is such in the theosophical sense.

(See also: Muni, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mystes (Greek) [from muo to close the mouth]

Plural mystai. An initiate to the first degrees of the Mysteries; the next higher rank being that of the epoptes (seer); and the highest function being that of the hierophantes (teacher or communicator). With the Pythagoreans the neophyte or mystes guarded silence as to what he had learned, and was authorized and empowered to speak or teach only when his mouth had been opened because of attaining the rank of epoptes.

This custom has been borrowed by Roman Catholic Cardinals along with the term Mystes: "A word or two may be said of the singular practice of closing and subsequently opening the mouth of a newly created cardinal. Like almost everything else connected with the subject, this form had once a real significance, but has become a mere meaningless formality. Some reasonable time was originally allowed to elapse before the pontiff in one consistory formally pronounced the mouth to be opened which he had declared to be closed in a previous consistory. Now the form of opening is pronounced within a few minutes of the form of closing" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed., "Cardinal").

(See also: Mystes, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Quaternary A group of four; the number four, fourfold. Many quaternary groupings may be made.

The septenate is divisible into three and four, usually as the higher triad and the lower quaternary; here the quaternary is terrestrial as opposed to celestial, mortal as opposed to immortal, material as opposed to spiritual. It is seen in the four lower human principles, the four lower cosmic elements, the fourfold shapes in physical bodies, etc. It is the square of the number 2; the first of the regular polyhedra is the tetrahedron or triangular pyramid, having four sides and four corners.

The septenate may otherwise be regarded as two triangles and a central point, as in Solomon's seal; and this gives two quaternaries, a higher and a lower, by adding the point to either of the triangles. These two quaternaries are also called the higher and lower -- or celestial and terrestrial -- tetraktys. The higher group is given in Platonism as: to agathon, nous, psyche, and hyle; and the lower group is the four cosmic elements of fire, earth, air, and water. The lower tetraktys is said to be the root of illusion or mahamaya, and this is what the Tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name, becomes in materialized Judaism.

Deity is spoken of as fourfold, the four-faced Brahma, the creative Logos which is a three-in-one with its emanated light as a fourth; or in another system, the ineffable, silence, father, and truth; or again in still another system the three flames and four wicks. Of the seven groups of angels or higher dhyani-chohans, the rupa-dhyanis form a quaternary; often in exoteric writings only four of seven are mentioned, the higher three being esoteric.

The two principal meanings of the quaternary are summed up in the tetraktys; it has four planes, and the fourth plane is in itself a four. The higher triad with the material world added as a pendant unit makes a quaternary; and this material world unfolded makes a new quaternary. There is a celestial or spiritual quaternary, just as there is a material and physical quaternary; and the element-principles of the universe may be so divided that an intermediate quaternary springs into view.

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