Bythos (Ancient Greek). A Gnostic term meaning "Depth" or the "great Deep", Chaos. It is equivalent to space, before anything had formed itself in it from the primordial atoms that exist eternally in its spatial depths, according to the teachings of Occultism.

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

Vallabacharya (Sanskrit). The name of a mystic who was the chela (disciple) of Vishnu Swami, and the founder of a sect of Vaishnavas. His descendants are called Goswami Maharaj, and have much landed property and numerous mandirs (temples) in Bombay. They have degenerated into a shamefully licentious sect.

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

Chaldean Book of Numbers. A work which contains all that is found in the Zohar of Simeon Ben-Jochai, and much more. It must be the older by many centuries, and in one sense its original, as it contains all the fundamental principles taught in the Jewish Kabbalistic works, but none of their blinds. It is very rare indeed, there being perhaps only two or three copies extant, and these in private hands.

(See also: Chaldean Book of Numbers , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Suki (Sanskrit). A daughter of Rishi Kashyapa, wife of Garuda, the king of the birds, the vehicle of Vishnu; the mother of parrots, owls and crows.

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

Amara-Kosha (Sanskrit). The "immortal vocabulary". The oldest dictionary known in the world and the most perfect vocabulary of classical Sanskrit ; by Amara Sinha, a sage of the second century.

(See also: Amara-Kosha , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Sakshi (Sanskrit). The name of the hare, who in the legend of the" moon and the hare" threw himself into the fire to save some starving pilgrims who would not kill him. For this sacrifice Indra is said to have transferred him to the centre of the moon.

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

Tathagata (Sanskrit). "One who is like the coming"; he who is, like his predecessors (the Buddhas) and successors, the coming future Buddha or World-Saviour. One of the titles of Gautama Buddha, and the highest epithet, since the first and the last Buddhas were the direct immediate avatars of the One Deity.

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

Hyksos (Egypt, Egyptian). The mysterious nomads, the Shepherds, who invaded Egypt at a period unknown and far anteceding the days of Moses. They are called the "Shepherd Kings".

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Panchen Rimboche (Tibet, Tibetan). Lit., "the great Ocean, or Teacher of Wisdom". The title of the Teshu Lama at Tchigadze; an incarnation of Amitabha the celestial "father" of Chenresi, which means to say that he is an Avatar of Tson-kha-pa (See "Sonkhapa").

 De jure the Teshu Lama is second after the Dala? Lama; de facto, he is higher, since it is Dharma Richen, the successor of Tson-kha-pa at the golden monastery founded by the latter Reformer and established by the Gelukpa sect (yellow caps) who created the Dala? Lamas at Llhassa, and was the first of the dynasty of the " Panchen Rimboche". While the former (Dala? Lama are addressed as " Jewel of Majesty", the latter enjoy a far higher title, namely "Jewel of Wisdom", as they are high Initiates.

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

Kamadhatu (Sanskrit). Called also Kamavatchara, a region including Kamaloka.

In exoteric ideas it is the first of the Trailakya - or three regions (applied also to celestial beings) or seven planes or degrees, each broadly represented by one of the three chief characteristics; namely, Kama, Rupa and Arupa, or those of desire, form and formlessness. The first of the Trailokyas, Kamadhatu, is thus composed of the earth and the six inferior Devalokas, the earth being followed by Kamaloka (q.v.).

These taken together constitute the seven degrees of the material world of form and sensuous gratification. The second of the Trailokya (or Trilokya) is called Rupadhatu or "material form" and is also composed of seven Lokas (or localities). The third is Arupadhatu or "immaterial lokas". "Locality", however, is an incorrect word to use in translating the term dhatu, which does not mean in some of its special applications a "place" at all. For instance, Arupadhatu is a purely subjective world, a "state" rather than a place. But as the European tongues have no adequate metaphysical terms to express certain ideas, we can only point out the difficulty.

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

Isis. In Egyptian Issa, the goddess Virgin-Mother; personified nature. In Egyptian or Koptic Uasari, the female reflection of Uasar or Osiris. She is the "woman clothed with the sun" of the land of Chemi. Isis Latona is the Roman Isis.

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Gullweig (Scandianvian Norse) The personification of the "golden" ore. It is said in the Edda that during the Golden Age, when lust for gold and wealth was yet unknown to man, "when the gods played with golden disks, and no passion disturbed the rapture of mere existence", the whole earth was happy. But, no sooner does "Gullweig (Gold ore) the bewitching enchantress come, who, thrice cast into the fire, arises each time more beautiful than before, and fills the souls of gods and men with unappeasable longing ", than all became changed. It is then that the Norns, the Past, Present and Future, entered into being, the blessed peace of childhood’s dreams passed away and Sin came into existence with all its evil consequences. (Asgard and the Gods.)

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

Muluk-Taoos (Arab.). From Maluk, "Ruler", a later form of Moloch, Melek, Malayak and Malachim, "messengers", angels. It is the Deity worshipped by the Yezidis, a sect in Persia, kindly called by Christian theology "devil worshippers", under the form of a peacock. The Lord "Peacock" is not Satan, nor is it the devil; for it is simply the symbol of the hundred eyed Wisdom ; the bird of Saraswati, goddess of Wisdom; of Karttikeya the Kumara, the Virgin celibate of the Mysteries of Juno, and all the gods and goddesses connected with the secret learning.

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Chandalas, or Chhandalas (Sanskrit). Outcasts, or people without caste, a name now given to all the lower classes of the Hindus; but in antiquity it was applied to a certain class of men, who, having forfeited their right to any of the four castes- - Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras - were expelled from cities and sought refuge in the forests. Then they became "bricklayers ", until finally expelled they left the country, some 4,000 years before our era. Some see in them the ancestors of the earlier Jews, whose tribes began with A-brahm or " No Brahm ". To this day it is the class most despised by the Brahmins in India.

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

Viwan (Sanskrit). Some kind "of air-vehicle", like a balloon, mentioned but not described in the old Sanskrit works, which the Atlanteans and the ancient Aryas seem to have known and used.

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Agathodemon (Ancient Greek). The beneficent, good Spirit as contrasted with the bad one, Kakodemon. The

"Brazen Serpent" of the Bible is the former; the flying serpents of fire are an aspect of Kakodemon. The Ophites called Agathodemon the Logos and Divine Wisdom, which in the Bacchanalian Mysteries was represented by a serpent erect on a pole.

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Skandha or Skhanda (Sanskrit). Lit., "bundles", or groups of attributes; everything finite, inapplicable

to the eternal and the absolute. There are five - esoterically, seven - attributes in every human living being, which are known as the Pancha Shandhas. These are

(1) form, rupa;

(2) perception, vidana;

(3) consciousness, sanjna;

(4) action, sanskara;

(5) knowledge, vidyana. These unite at the birth of man and constitute his personality. After the maturity of these Skandhas, they begin to separate and weaken,

and this is followed by jaramarana, or decrepitude and death.

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

Ether (Ancient Greek). With the ancients the divine luminiferous substance which pervades the whole universe, the "garment" of the Supreme Deity, Zeus, or Jupiter. With the moderns, Ether, for the meaning of which in physics and chemistry see Webster’s Dictionary or any other. In esotericism Ether is the third principle of the Kosmic Septenary; the Earth being the lowest, then the Astral light, Ether and Akasa (phonetically Akasha) the highest.

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Vyahritis (Slav.). Lit., " fiery ", words lit by and born of fire. The three mystical, creative words, said by Manu to have been milked by the Prajapati from the Vedas: bhur, from the Rig -Veda; bhuvah, from the Vajur-Veda; and Swar, from the Sama-Veda (Manu II., 76). All three are said to possess creative powers. The Satapatha Brahmana explains that they are "the three luminous essences" extracted from the Vedas by Prajapati ("lords of creation ", progenitors), through heat. "He (Brahma) uttered the word bhur and it became the earth; bhuvah, and it became the firmament; and swar, which became heaven". Mahar is the fourth "luminous essence ", and was taken from the Atharva-Veda. But, as this word is purely mantric and magical, it is one, so to say, kept apart.

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Kalahansa or Hamsa (Sanskrit). A mystic title given to Brahma (or Parabrahman); means "the swan in and out of time". Brahma (male) is called Hansa-Vahan, the vehicle of the "Swan".

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

Berosus (Chald.). A priest of the Temple of Belus who wrote for Alexander the Great the history of the Cosmogony, as taught in the Temples, from the astronomical and chronological records preserved in that temple. The fragments we have in the soi-disant translations of Eusebius are certainly as untrustworthy as the biographer of the Emperor Constantine - of whom he made a saint (!!) - could make them.

The only guide to this Cosmogony may now be found in the fragments of the Assyrian tablets, evidently copied almost bodily from the earlier Babylonian records; which, say what the Orientalists may, are undeniably the originals of the Mosaic Genesis, of the Flood, the tower of Babel, of baby Moses set afloat on the waters, and of other events. For, if the fragments from the Cosmogony of Berosus, so carefully re-edited and probably mutilated and added to by Eusebius, are no great proof of the antiquity of these records in Babylonia - seeing that this priest of Belus lived three hundred years after the Jews were carried captive to Babylon, and they may have been borrowed by the Assyrians from them - later discoveries have made such a consoling hypothesis impossible.

 It is now fully ascertained by Oriental scholars that not only "Assyria borrowed its civilization and written characters from Babylonia," but the Assyrians copied their literature from Babylonian sources. Moreover, in his first Hibbert lecture, Professor Sayce shows the culture both of Babylonia itself and of the city of Eridu to have been of foreign importation; and, according to this scholar, the city of Eridu stood already "6,000 years ago on the shores of the Persian gulf," i.e., about the very time when Genesis shows the Elohim creating the world, sun, and stars out of nothing.

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

Attavada (Pali) (from attan self (Sanskrit atman) + vada theory, disputation from the verbal root vad to speak)

Atmavada (Sanskrit) The theory of a persistent soul. A study of Buddhist sutras or suttas shows that Gautama Buddha intended the term to convey the meaning of the heresy of separateness, the belief that one's self or soul is different and apart from the one universal self, Brahman.

Its importance in philosophy and mystical thought, and its genuine Buddhist significance, lies in the fact that Buddhism does not deny the existence of a soul, but strongly emphasizes the fact that no such soul is either a special creation or in its essence different from and other than the cosmic self.

Hence the meaning of the heresy of separateness, because those who hold this view are under the constant false impression that in themselves they are different from, and other than, the universe in which they live, move, and have all their being.

In The Mahatma Letters attavada is termed "the doctrine of Self," and with sakkayaditthi leads "to the maya of heresy and belief in the efficacy of vain rites and ceremonies; in prayers and intercession" (ML 111).

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