Abraxas: A popular magical deity in the ancient world, Abraxas (also called Abrasax) was depicted on classical amulet gems as a humanlike figure with a rooster’s head and serpents for feet, wielding a charioteer’s whip. The letters of his name in Greek add up to 365, the number of days in a year, which marked him as a solar deity and a lord of time.

In modern times, Abraxas has achieved a new popularity by way of the writings of psychologist Carl Jung, who gave him a central place in his Gnostic work. The Seven Sermons to the Dead and elsewhere in his writings.

Also See: Abrasax

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

Bacchus (Greek) Used by both Greeks and Romans, also called Dionysos by the Greeks, Liber by the Romans, Zagreus in the Orphic mysteries, Sabazius in Phrygia and Thrace; the same as Iacchus (connected with Iao and Jehovah).

Generally represented as the son of Zeus and Semele, he is spoken of sometimes as a solar and sometimes as a lunar deity; for, like many other personifications of cosmic powers, he has both a solar and lunar (masculine or feminine) aspect. As a solar deity he has a serpent for his symbol and is a man-savior, parallel with Adonis, Osiris, Krishna, Buddha, and Christos. He is often called the god of wine, natural fertility, etc.

The original, pure Bacchic rites pertained to high initiation, in which the candidate becomes conscious of his oneness with divinity. Thus Bacchus, with his symbolic serpent and wine, stands for divine inspiration. But when the keys of the sacred science were lost and symbols were interpreted literally, the rites degenerated and often became profligate.

Bacchus-Dionysos also figures as the inspirer of dramatic and representative art, inspiring the individual with the divine afflatus or mystic frenzy. Originally this meant the inner communion of the candidate with his own inner god and the consequent inspiration; on a lower plane it signifies the fleeting inspiration of poet and artist, and finally it degenerated into hysteria and morbid psychic states.

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

Marduk (Babylonian) Also Merodach (Hebrew) Patron deity of ancient Babylon, the local Bel (lord) of later times. Originally a solar deity, as the son of space, and the titular god of that city, he was elevated to the supreme rank in the Babylonian pantheon under Khammurabi (c. 2250 BC) during the time that Babylon became the chief center of the states surrounding the Euphrates Valley.

The attributes of the older Chaldean deities Bel and Ea were applied to Marduk, especially as he was regarded as the son of Ea -- the son of himself -- and this prominence was maintained until the downfall of Babylon except during the five centuries of the Cassite control (1750-1200 BC). After 1200 Marduk's only rival was Assur in Assyria. As well as the attributes, many of the mythologic exploits of Bel were transferred by the priests to Marduk, and thus he became known as the slayer of the serpent Tiamat. Marduk was also regarded as the creator of the world and of mankind (which was formerly attributed to Bel), and the eleven-day festival celebrating this event was held yearly at the time of the spring equinox (the New Year among the Babylonians).

The ideaographic representation of the word Marduk is equivalent to "child of the sun," significantly stressing his solar characteristics, while that of his consort Zarpanitu (or Sarpanit) is equivalent to "the shining one." Marduk is also identified with the planet Jupiter.

(See also: Marduk , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sokaris (Egypt, Egyptian). A fire-god; a solar deity of many forms. He is Ptah Sokaris, when the symbol is purely cosmic, and "Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris" when it is phallic. This deity is hermaphrodite, the sacred bull Apis being its son, conceived in it by a solar ray.

According to Smith’s History of the East, Ptah is a "second Demiurgus, an emanation from the first creative Principle" (the first Logos). The upright Ptah, with cross and staff, is the "creator of the eggs of the sun and moon ". Pierret thinks that he represents the primordial Force that preceded the gods and "created the stars, and the eggs of the sun and moon ". Mariette Bey sees in him "Divine Wisdom scattering the stars in immensity ", and he is corroborated by the Targum of Jerusalem, which states that the "Egyptians called the Wisdom of the First Intellect Ptah".

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

Nebo, Nabu, Nabi' nebo (Hebrew) The proclaimer by prophecy; one of the chief deities of the Chaldean or Babylonian pantheon, the god of wisdom, recognized as fully by the ancient Hebrews as by the Chaldeans. The name and function of the divinity correspond to the Greek Hermes, the Egyptian Thoth, and the Hindu Budha, all of which are related to the regent of the planet Mercury.

Mercury throughout antiquity was always called the interpreter, often in the sense of a prophet or of one able to prophesy; Nebo from time immemorial has been the name for an initiate, an adept, particularly among certain Shemitic peoples, such as the Hebrews. Among other Shemites, such as the Assyrians and Chaldeans, this name forms a part of compound proper names, such as Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar, and Nabonassar.

Nebo was among the Chaldeans and other peoples a god of the secret wisdom, and that particular divinity in those lands guiding the inner development of his children or little ones -- names for initiated adepts.

The principal seat of his worship appears to have been at Borsippa (opposite the city of Babylon) where a temple-school flourished until the end of the neo-Babylonian empire -- even surviving the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus (538 BC). His original character cannot now be determined and he may have been a solar deity, although associated with water. His consort, Tashmit, is occasionally invoked with him. Nebo's worship flourished before that of Marduk (the Biblical Merodach, probably the planet Mars and its regent), and when the latter was elevated to the chief position of the Babylonian pantheon, Nebo was regarded as his son and the two thereafter are more or less inseparable.

Even in Assyria the worship of Nebo was made more prominent than the chief deity, Assur ('Ashshur) by some of the monarchs (e.g., Assurbanipal, 668-626 BC). His hieroglyph was the stylus, for he was regarded as the god of writing, prophecy, sacred chanting, and hence of song, having charge of the tablets of fate, on which he inscribed the names of men and forecast their destiny. His wisdom was likewise associated with the study of the heavenly bodies, hence the temple-school became famed for its astrologers. "Nebo is a creator, like Budha, of the Fourth and also of the Fifth Race. For the former starts a new race of Adepts, and the latter, the Solar-Lunar Dynasty, or the men of these Races and Round. Both are the Adams of their respective creatures" (SD 2:456).

In the Bible Nebo is the name of a mountain near Jericho whereon Moses dies; also an adjacent city (Deut 32-4). "The fact that Moses is made to die and disappear on the mount sacred to Nebo, shows him an initiate and a priest of that god under another name . . ." (ibid.).

(See also: Nebo, Nabu, Nabi' nebo , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Agni-Vishnu-Surya Agni-Visnu-Surya (Sanskrit) (from agni fire + vishnu from the verbal root vis or the verbal root vish to pervade + surya sun)

Fire-pervader-solar deity; this triad of gods is probably a permutation of the original Vedic triad Agni-Indra-Surya, having their influence and place respectively on earth, in the atmosphere, and in the sky. Agni-Vishnu-Surya has been called the "synthesis and head, or the focus whence emanated in physics as in metaphysics, from the Spiritual as from the physical Sun, the Seven Rays, the seven fiery tongues, the seven planets or gods" (SD 2:608).

(See also: Agni-Vishnu-Surya, Agni-Visnu-Surya , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Assur (Chaldean or Assyrian) (from a-shir leader)

Also Asur, Ashur. Originally the titular deity of an ancient Assyrian city of learning on the Tigris, but with the rise of the Assyrian Empire his prominence was extended so that he became one of the foremost gods of the Assyrian pantheon. The title Asir was also given to other important deities such as Marduk and Nebo.

Like Marduk, Assur was first recognized as a solar deity and represented in symbol with the adjunct of the winged disk; but later he became a god of war, so that the winged disk took a minor place under the figure of a man with a bow. Assur remained the chief deity even when the Assyrian capital was moved to Nineveh about the 8th century BC, although he was obliged to share this honor with Ishtar, then regarded as his consort, until the fall of the Assyrian Empire (606 BC).

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

Osiris. (Egypt, Egyptian). The greatest God of Egypt, the Son of Seb (Saturn), celestial fire, and of Neith, primordial matter and infinite space.

This shows him as the self-existent and self-created god, the first manifesting deity (our third Logos), identical with Ahura Mazda and other " First Causes". For as Ahura Mazda is one with, or the synthesis of, the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit, when differentiated and  personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. He was born at Mount Sinai, the Nyssa of the 0. T. (See- Exodus xvii. 15), and buried at Abydos, after being killed by Typhon at the early age of twenty-eight, according to the allegory.

According to Euripides he is the same as Zeus and Dionysos or Dio-Nysos "the god of Nysa", for Osiris is said by him to have been brought up in Nysa, in Arabia "the Happy". Query: how much did the latter tradition influence, or have anything in common with, the statement in the Bible, that "Moses built an altar and called the name Jehovah Nissi", or Kabbalistically - "Dio-Iao-Nyssi"? (See Isis Unveiled Vol. II. p. 165.) The four chief aspects of Osiris were - Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the " Lunar" or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon, Da?monic, or physical, material, therefore passional turbulent aspect. In these four aspects he symbolizes the dual Ego -  the divine and the human, the cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial.

Of the many supreme gods, this Egyptian conception is the most suggestive and the grandest, as it embraces the whole range of physical and metaphysical thought. As a solar deity he had twelve minor gods under him - the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Though his name is the "Ineffable", his forty-two attributes bore each one of his names, and his seven dual aspects completed the forty-nine, or 7 X 7; the former symbolized by the fourteen members of his body, or twice seven. Thus the god is blended in man, and the man is deified into a god. He was addressed as Osiris-Eloh. Mr. Dunbar T. Heath speaks of a Phœnician inscription which, when read, yielded the following tumular inscription in honour of the mummy: "Blessed be Ta-Bai, daughter of Ta-Hapi, priest of Osiris-Eloh. She did nothing against anyone in anger. She spoke no falsehood against any one. Justified before Osiris, blessed be thou from before Osiris! Peace be to thee." And then he adds the following remarks:

"The author of this inscription ought, I suppose, to be called a heathen, as justification before Osiris is the object of his religious aspirations. We find, however, that he gives to Osiris the appellation Eloh. Eloh is the name used by the Ten Tribes of Israel for the Elohim of Two Tribes. Jehovah-Eloh (Gen. iii. 21.) in the version used by Ephraim corresponds to Jehovah Elohim in that used by Judah and ourselves. This being so, the question is sure to be asked, and ought to be humbly answered - What was the meaning meant to be conveyed by the two phrases respectively, Osiris-Eloh and Jehovah-Eloh? For my part I can imagine but one answer, viz., that Osiris was the national God of Egypt, Jehovah that of Israel, and that Eloh is equivalent to Deus, Gott or Dieu". As to his human development, he is, as the author of the Egyptian Belief has it . . . "One of the Saviours or Deliverers of Humanity . . . . As such he is born in the world. He came as a benefactor, to relieve man of trouble . . . . In his efforts to do good he encounters evil . . . and he is temporarily overcome. He is killed . . Osiris is buried. His tomb was the object of pilgrimage for thousands of years. But he did not rest in his grave. At the end of three days, or forty, he rose again and ascended to Heaven. This is the story of his Humanity" (Egypt. Belief). And Mariette Bey, speaking of the Sixth Dynasty, tells us that "the name of Osiris . . commences to be more used. The formula of Justified is met with": and adds that "it proves that this name (of the Justified or Makheru was not given to the dead only". But it also proves that the legend of Christ was found ready in almost all its details thousands of years before the Christian era, and that the Church fathers had no greater difficulty than to simply apply it to a new personage.

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

A Dictionary of Spiritual Terms. From Acupuncture to Zoroaster.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Ammon-Ra (Greek) Amen-Ra (Egyptian) When the princes of Thebes had conquered all rival claimants to the sovereignty of Egypt and established themselves as rulers of the dual Empires, they followed in religious, mystical, and occult matters the thought of the powerful priesthood of Thebes. Thus after the 12th dynasty a new manner of visioning the ancient god Ammon came into prominence, under the name Ammon-Ra, although the latter's preeminence as chief god of Egypt did not occur until the 17th dynasty.

The attributes of the hidden deity Ammon were combined with the solar god Ra, and this deity was acclaimed by the priests as the chief of the gods of Egypt. Ammon-Ra seems to be devoid of most, at least, of the mystical symbols that are present in representations of the older deities, although the hymns to the god that were carefully prepared by the priests incorporated all the attributes and phraseology prevalent in the other scriptures.

(See also: Ammon-Ra , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Akhenaton

(Egyptian, "he who acts effectively for the invisible solar disk")

Pharaoh of Egypt ca. 1350 to 1334 BC, often called (erroneously) the first monotheist of recorded history.

He first came to the throne as Amenhotep IV and worshiped traditional gods. However, after his fourth year, he elevated a minor deity, the Aton, i. e. , the "disk of the sun" (a form of the sun god, Re), to the position of state god of Egypt and changed his name to Akhenaton to reflect his devotion to that deity.

His pantheon consisted of a trinity that included the Aton, Akhenaton, and Nefertiti (also the name of his wife), which was the focus of popular worship. While Akhenaton was worshiped as the unique son of the Aton, Nefertiti was celebrated for her fertility. Common people were excluded from worshiping the Aton itself. Egyptians could worship only the royal couple; the couple in turn worshiped the sun disk. The new religion was maintained by Akhenaton's popular appeal as king, but it quickly passed away after his death.

Akhenaton's motives in promulgating his beliefs were political and religious, since he elevated himself to the status of a god higher than customary for an Egyptian king. Akhenaton's religion recognized both Egyptians and foreigners as equal beneficiaries of the same god, and it overturned established conventions in Egyptian language and art.

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

Gayatri: the most sacred verse in the Vedas (Rg III, 62:10) that invokes the Solar Deity, Savitri, for wisdom in daily living. It has been used in daily worship and in initiation ceremonies throughout the ages in Bharat.

(See also: Gayatri , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Savitri: The divine Solar deity, or the vitalizing power behind the visible sun, immortalized in the Gayatri Mantra.

(See also: Savitri , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

savitr:

vedic solar deity

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

Shu (Egyptian) [from shu dry, parched]

The Egyptian god of light, popularly associated with heat and dryness, and the ethereal spaces existing between the earth and the vault of the sky; often depicted as holding up the sky with his two hands, one at the place of sunrise, the other of sunset.

The phonetic value of shu is the feather, which is the symbol of this deity, and appears above his headdress. Shu is manifest during the day in the beams of the sun, and at night in the beams of the moon; the solar disk is his home. He is likewise one of the chief deities of the underworld, the gate of the pillars of Shu (tchesert) marking the entrance to this region, the pillars representing the four cardinal points said to hold up the sky.

Although the twin brother of Tefnut -- often alluded to as the twin lion-deities -- Shu is more often represented with Seb and Nut (deities of cosmic space and of its garment of ethereal substance) in his position of holding up the sky, because in theosophical terminology cosmic light as well as cosmic intelligence (the Logos) is born from Brahman and pradhana, or parabrahman and mulaprakriti.

Shu on the smaller scale is solar energy (SD 1:360).

(See also: Shu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Ammon (Greek) Amen (Egyptian) Also Amun, Amon. In the Egyptian 5th dynasty, Amen and his consort Ament were among the primeval gods, mentioned immediately after the deities connected with primeval matter, Nau and Nen (gods of the cosmic watery abyss). He was envisaged as "All-nature," the universe itself, especially in its occult and secret aspects.

After the 12th dynasty, however, this god additionally became looked upon as having solar attributes, and therefore was called Amen-Ra -- the chief deity of the powerful priesthood of Thebes, whose sway encompassed the whole of Egypt. Ammon was identified particularly with the hidden aspect of the sun, for the hymns are addressed: "he who is hidden to gods and men," "he who is unknown," "thy name is hidden from thy children in thy name Amen."

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

Vishnu Visnu (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root vish to enter, pervade]

The sustainer or preserver; the second of the three gods of the Hindu Trimurti or Triad. Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu together are infinite space, of which the gods, rishis, manus, and all in the universe are simply the manifestations, qualities, and potencies. Vishnu is called the eternal deity, and in the Mahabharata and the Puranas he is declared to be the imbodiment of sattva-guna, the quality of mercy and goodness, which displays itself as the preserving power in the self-existent, all-pervading spirit. His symbol is the chakra (circle). He is identical with the Hindu Idaspati (master of the waters) and with the Greek Poseidon and Latin Neptune.

Blavatsky gives a passage about Vishnu from the Laws of Manu, with interpolated remarks (SD 1:333): " 'Removing the darkness, the Self-existent Lord' (Vishnu, Narayana, etc.) becoming manifest, and 'wishing to produce beings from his Essence, created, in the beginning, water alone. In that he cast seed . . . That became a Golden Egg.' (V.6, 7, 8, 9) Whence this Self-existent Lord? It is called this, and is spoken of as 'Darkness, imperceptible, without definite qualities, undiscoverable as if wholly in sleep.' (V.5) Having dwelt in that Egg for a whole divine year, he 'who is called in the world Brahma,' splits that Egg in two, and from the upper portion he forms the heaven, from the lower the earth, and from the middle the sky and 'the perpetual place of waters.' (12, 13.)"

In the Mahabharata (3:189:3) Vishnu says: " 'I called the name of water nara in ancient times, and am hence called Narayana, for that was always the abode I moved in' (Ayana). It is into the water (or chaos, the 'moist principle' of the Greeks and Hermes), that the first seed of the Universe is thrown. 'The "Spirit of God" moves on the dark waters of Space'; hence Thales makes of it the primordial element and prior to Fire, which was yet latent in that Spirit" (SD 2:591).

Vishnu has many names and is presented in many different forms in Hindu writings. Riding on Garuda, the allegorical monstrous half-man and half-bird, Vishnu is the symbol of Kala (duration), and Garuda the emblem of cyclic and periodical time. Vishnu as the sun represents the male principle, which vivifies and fructifies all things. The Puranas call Ananta- Sesha a form of Vishnu on which the universe sleeps during pralaya. In the allegorical Vaivasvata-Manu deluge, Vishnu in the shape of a fish towing the ark of salvation represents the divine spirit as a concrete cosmic principle and also as the preserver and generator, or giver of life. In the Rig-Veda Vishnu is a manifestation of the solar energy and strides through the seven regions of the universe in three steps. The Vedic Vishnu is not the prominent god of later times.

Vishnu as the giver of life is the source of one line of avataras. The ten mythical avataras of Vishnu are: Matsya, the Fish; Kurma, the Tortoise; Varaha, the Boar; Narasimha, the Man-lion (last animal stage); Vamana, the Dwarf (first step toward the human form); Parasu-rama, Rama with the axe (a hero); Rama-chandra, the hero of the Ramayana; Krishna, son of Devaki; Gautama Buddha; and finally, Kalki, the avatara who is to appear at the end of the Kali yuga "mounted on a white horse" and inaugurate a new reign of righteousness upon earth.

" 'In the Krita age, Vishnu, in the form of Kapila and other (inspired sages) . . . imparts to the world true wisdom as Enoch did. In the Treta age he restrains the wicked, in the form of a universal monarch (the Chakravartin or the 'Everlasting King' of Enoch) and protects the three worlds (or races). In the Dwapara age, in the person of Veda-Vyasa, he divides the one Veda into four, and distributes it into hundreds (Sata) of branches.' Truly so; the Veda of the earliest Aryans, before it was written, went forth into every nation of the Atlanto-Lemurians, and sowed the first seeds of all the now existing old religions. The off-shoots of the never dying tree of wisdom have scattered their dead leaves even on Judeo-Christianity. And at the end of the Kali, our present age, Vishnu, or the 'Everlasting King' will appear as Kalki, and re-establish righteousness upon earth. The minds of those who live at that time shall be awakened, and become as pellucid as crystal" (SD 2:483).

Again,

"If we only search for the true essence of the philosophy of both Manu and the Kabala, we will find that Vishnu is, as well as Adam Kadmon, the expression of the universe itself; and that his incarnations are but concrete and various embodiments of the manifestations of this 'Stupendous Whole.' 'I am the Soul, O, Arjuna. I am the Soul which exists in the heart of all beings; and I am the beginning and the middle, and also the end of existing things,' says Vishnu to his disciple, in the Bhagavad-Gita (ch. x)" (IU 2:277).

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

Abraxas or Abrasax (Gn.). Mystic words which have been traced as far back as Basilides, the Pythagorean, of Alexandria, AD. 90. He uses Abraxas as a title for Divinity, the supreme of Seven, and as having 365 virtues. In Greek numeration, a. 1, b. 2, r. 100, a. I, x 60, a. I, s. 200 = 365 days of the year, solar year, a cycle of divine action. C. W. King, author of The Gnostics, considers the word similar to the Hebrew Shemhamphorasch, a holy word, the extended name of God. An Abraxas Gem usually shows a man’s body with the head of a cock, one arm with a shield, the other with a whip.

Abraxas is the counterpart of the Hindu Abhimanim (q.v.) and Brahma combined. It is these compound and mystic qualities which caused Oliver, the great Masonic authority, to connect the name of Abraxas with that of Abraham. This was unwarrantable ; the virtues and attributes of Abraxas, which are 365 in number, ought to have shown him that the deity was connected with the Sun and solar division of the year -  - nay, that Abraxas is the antitype, and the Sun, the type.

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

Moon The earth's relatively little satellite is but a partial representative of the aggregate of occult influences or powers, of polar character, known among the ancients combinedly as Lunus-Luna, and its effect upon the earth includes much that is baneful as well as much that has been necessary in evolutionary development; but the moon is only a withered, decaying unit of a whole lunar planetary chain. The statement that sun and moon have existed through aeonic time periods, refers not to our decaying physical satellite which is but the dead body of now departed vital, spiritual, and intellectual essences, but to these essences themselves.

The moon that we see is the kama-rupa of one of the lunar chain's seven or twelve globes, each one having its own kama-rupa, since the entire chain of globes is dead. The material of our kama-rupic moon, however, is on the same prakritic plane as that on which our senses operate, so that it is visible and appears to be the original physical body of the moon. Besides transmitting to us certain influences from the sun, the moon also absorbs from and sends back influences to the earth. Hence its effects upon gestation, physiological and mental cycles, the growth of vegetation, the periodic habits of many animals, and various other natural phenomena.

In theogonies, the moon is associated with the manifestation of the so-called feminine principle in universal nature on our cosmic plane, with especial relation to our earth; hence the moon is a minor form of the Great Mother, known by many names in various theogonies, and when applied to the moon in Mediterranean thought often called by the names Diana, Juna, Isis, and the like. Moon is spoken of as a triple deity, Diana-Hecate-Luna -- Luna in occult corporeal influences as a dead planet, Diana in connection with its solar relations, and as Hecate manifesting occult lunar influences in the Underworld -- these again often named Diva triformis, tergemina, triceps. Some cultures, such as the Hindu and Scandinavian, portray the lunar deity as masculine. All lunar deities have a twofold aspect, supernal and infernal, spiritual and material; and the astronomical moon has its light and dark phases, while the lunar crescent has its horns, which may point up or down, making the symbols of the dragon's head and tail, which stand for the north and south nodes of the lunar orbit.

The moon is the giver of one form of life, as well as of lower forms of mind, to our earth and its inhabitants; while the sun is the giver of life in general to the planetary system, as well as of the higher forms or aspects of mind. Remembering the extremely occult character of both moon and sun, when they are spoken of as givers this in no sense implies that they give to those who have it not, but rather give in the sense of being transmitters, nurses of, and producers of what already exists in those to whom the gifts are thus given. Thus a father or mother may be said to be the giver of life to the children, although the children themselves are in and from themselves a vital fountain: giving here means transmitting, fostering, producing, but not creating and donating.

The sun, moon, and cross in some ancient mystical thought form a symbolic triad, closely connected with the other triads of spirit, soul, and body or of Father-Mother-Son. Lunar worship is often compared unfavorably with solar worship as referring to the material side of nature. Jehovah, for instance, is disparagingly spoken of as a lunar god. Terms such as lunar magic or the lunar path refer to other extremely important natural facts, connected with the moon in its lower occult aspect as the orb of night, of death as well as of lunar life, etc.; further, these terms are always mentioned in connection with psychic rather than spiritual powers.

See also LUNAR CHAIN

(See also: Moon , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sun Worship All ancient pantheons contain a deity associated with the sun, so that the reverence and worship paid to the sun was ritually universal even where lunar worship may have predominated. With the Zoroastrians, sun worship was the dominant religious theme although a pantheon of other deities was not excluded.

It was not the visible orb which was worshiped as the solar divinity, but the spiritual power or being within or above the physical sun, which was but its reflection. The lord of the solar system sends its septenary forces and substances to all parts of the solar kingdom, thus binding it into a single organic individual.

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