Souls Dictionary

Naraka: (Sanskrit) Abode of darkness. Literally, "pertaining to man."

The lower worlds. Equivalent to the Western term hell, a gross region of the Antarloka. Naraka is a congested, distressful area where demonic beings and young souls may sojourn until they resolve the darksome karmas they have created. Here beings suffer the consequences of their own misdeeds in previous lives. Naraka is understood as having seven regions, called tala, corresponding to the states of consciousness of the seven lower chakras as follows:

1)    Put, "childless" - atala chakra, "wheel of the bottomless region." Fear and lust (located in the hips).

2)    Avichi, "joyless" - vitala chakra: "wheel of negative region." Center of anger (thighs).

3)    Samhata, "abandoned" - sutala chakra: "Great depth." Region of jealousy (knees).

4)    Tamisra, "darkness" - talatala chakra: "wheel of the lower region." Realm of confused thinking (calves).

5)    Rijisha, "expelled" - rasatala chakra: "wheel of subterranean region." Selfishness (ankles).

6)    Kudmala, "leprous" - mahatala chakra: "wheel of the great lower region." Region of consciencelessness (feet). The intensity of "hell" begins at this deep level.

7)    Kakola, "black poison" - patala chakra, "wheel of the fallen or sinful level." Region of malice (soles of the feet).

The seven-fold hellish region in its entirety is also called patala, "fallen region." Scriptures offer other lists of hells, numbering 7 or 21. They are described as places of torment, pain, darkness, confusion and disease, but none are places where souls reside forever. Hinduism has no eternal hell.

See: hell, loka, purgatory (also, individual tala entries).

(See also: Naraka , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

GOD

Anything from a psychic projection to a full macrocosmic individual. Einstein, shunning Judeo-Xtian pleadings, defined God as the ultimate natural order. Deus est homo. Man is God. Indeed all beings are Gods or immortal entities. The Gods, as such, however, inhabit various levels of substantiality and, as superior entities, exist independently in their own right. And this is not just because strong personalities (as well as human society in general) create and batten projections and archetypes, but because semi-being actually wills itself to be born into that state between Matter and the Void. the Gods are being itself, rather than any particular substance. That is, they are pure substance or the conscious potentiality behind substance. Every mortal, Theosophy has pointed out, has his divine counterpart, his celestial doppelganger or heavenly prototype. It is this personal archetype that we call The Father (or Guardian Angel). Theophany is the rare union (in adepts) of the heavenly counterpart with its earth shadow-self. The divine archetypes are not confined to ordinary human beings, moreover, but ascend to ever more infinite celestial monads themselves. When we speak of The Gods or the God beyond the Gods, such as Allfather Odin or Zeus, Father of the Gods we refer to just these higher monads.

It is difficult to remember that all seemingly separate things -- all individuals -- created themselves out of the Original Void and go on forever creating themselves. Thus, spirit manifests itself through matter; we never cease to embody and demonstrate divinity -- sometimes wisely, more often not. It is the gravest error to reproduce and propagate life indiscriminately. Such attempts to reincarnate oneself on the merely material plane, to maintain the same identity perptually through the generation of progeny -- this form of lust vitiates the Spirit and greedily confines matter disproportionately to a single, inferior and separationist aim. That in turn results in premature entropy and the abortion of Cosmic Purpose.

We should distinguish between various divine synonyms. Daimon, for instance, did not, amongst the Greeks, have our sense of demon, but was rather a spirit or higher self. Socrates spoke often of his daimon who conversed with him. The Sanskrit deva, although translated god, amongst the Hindus means any God, but in the Zend Avesta it is always a malevolent spirit. In Buddhism deva refers to almost anything from a legendary hero to a hobgoblin, but pure Buddhism attaches no importance to Gods of any kind. It considers them to be illusions, like everything else.

Whether reflective of reality or not, it is easy enough to plot an origin for God in the singular, but whence the proliferation of multi-deities? In Egypt they were seen simply as the natures of things (neteru). Iamblichus asks of the Egyptians, however, what the cause of the distinction between them is and whether it is from their energies, or their passive motions, or from things that are consequent, or from their different arrangement with respect to bodies. By the latter, he goes on to say that he means, for example, that Gods inhabit the ethereal, that demons inhabit the air and that souls inhabit terrestrial bodies.

Of course, it is differentiation that being comes to be in the first place. Before differentiation there is nothing but tohu-bohu -- indeed between the Void and confusion (or chaos), there is little difference. With the utterance of the command Be! the zero is annihilated.

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

Zohar, or Sohar. A compendium of Kabbalistic Theosophy, which shares with the Sepher Yetzirah the reputation of being the oldest extant treatise on the Hebrew esoteric religious doctrines.

 Tradition assigns its authorship to Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, AD. 80, but modern criticism is inclined to believe that a very large portion of the volume is no older than 1280, when it was certainly edited and published by Rabbi Moses de Leon, of Guadalaxara in Spain. The reader should consult the references to these two names. In Lucifer (Vol. I., p. 141) will be found also notes on this subject: further discussion will be attainable in the works of Zunz, Graetz, Jost, Steinschneider, Frankel and Ginsburg. The work of Franck (in French) upon the Kabalah may be referred to with advantage.

The truth seems to lie in a middle path, viz., that while Moses de Leon was the first to produce the volume as a whole, yet a large part of some of its constituent tracts consists of traditional dogmas and illustrations, which have come down from the time of Simeon ben Jochai and the Second Temple. There are portions of the doctrines of the Zohar which bear the impress of Chaldee thought and civilization, to which the Jewish race had been exposed in the Babylonish captivity.

Yet on the other hand, to condemn the theory that it is ancient in its entirety, it is noticed that the Crusades are mentioned; that a quotation is made from a hymn by Ibn Gebirol, A,D. 1050; that the asserted author, Simeon ben Jochai, is spoken of as more eminent than Moses; that it mentions the vowel-points, which did not come into use until Rabbi Mocha (AD. 570) introduced them to fix the pronunciation of words as a help to his pupils, and lastly, that it mentions -a comet which can be proved by the evidence of the context to have appeared in 1264.

There is no English translation of the Zohar as a whole, nor even a Latin one. The Hebrew editions obtainable are those of Mantua, 1558; Cremona, 1560; and Lublin, 1623. The work of Knorr von Rosenroth called Kabbala Denudata includes several of the treatises of the Zohar, but not all of them, both in Hebrew and Latin. MacGregor Mathers has published an English translation of three of these treatises, the Book of Concealed Mystery, the Greater and the Lesser Holy Assembly, and his work includes an original introduction to the subject.

The principal tracts included in the Zohar are: - " The Hidden Midrash", "The Mysteries of the Pentateuch", "The Mansions and Abodes of Paradise and Gaihinnom", "The Faithful Shepherd", "The Secret of Secrets", "Discourse of the Aged in Mishpatim" (punishment of souls), "The Januka or Discourse of the Young Man", and "The Tosephta and Mathanithan", which are additional essays on Emanation and the Sephiroth, in addition to the three important treatises mentioned above. In this storehouse may be found the origin of all the later developments of Kabbalistic teaching.

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

brahmin (brahmana): (Sanskrit) "Mature or evolved soul." The class of pious souls of exceptional learning. From Brahman, "growth, expansion, evolution, development, swelling of the spirit or soul." The mature soul is the exemplar of wisdom, tolerance, forbearance and humility. See: varna dharma.

(See also: Brahmin , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

CERBERUS

Twin of Orthrus, who is symbol of Set. The tri-cephalic dog with the dragon's-tail guarding the gate of Hades, who permits entry but prevents exit, is probably derived from pre-Hellenic Ker + bero (pherontes), meaning simply "head-bearing", for originally he had a hundred heads and not merely three. His three heads stand in parallel to and midway between the three rivers leading to Hades (Phlegeston, Styx and Lethe, which divide the dead from the living) and the three judges within Tartarus Rhadamanthus, Minos and Aeacus who judge men's souls. He is the Greek equivalent of the jackal-headed Egyptian God Anubis (or the wolf-headed deity of Abydos, Wepwawet, "Opener of the Ways"). Proof of this can be seen in the fact that whereas Cerberus is the offspring of Typhaon (the terrible stormcloud or cyclone, and the last of the titans) and the serpent-woman, Echidna, Anubis is the son of Osiris and Nephthys (sister of Isis), who assisted in the putting back together of the parts of Osiris and his resurrection. As Gods descend from one people to another, they usually degenerate into monsters. We see this readily in the transformation of pagan deities into Xtian demons. Anubis is god of the three processes of death, resurrection and reintegration, who leads the soul to the underworld under his protection, but Cerberus is merely a monster who guards the pathway. Mention should also be made of the three ultraexistential "beyond" Gods: Ain Soph, Tao and Abraxas.

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

 - varna: The four varnas are as follows. - brahmin

(brahmana): "Mature, evolved soul." Scholarly,

pious souls of exceptional learning. Hindu scriptures

traditionally invest the brahmin class with the

responsibility of religious leadership, including

teaching and priestly duties. - kshatriya:

"Governing; endowed with sovereignty." Lawmakers

and law enforcers and military, also known as

rajanya. - vaishya: "Landowner, merchant."

Businessmen, financiers, industrialists; employers.

Those engaged in business, commerce and

agriculture. - shudra: (Sanskrit) "Worker, servant."

Skilled artisans and laborers. It is in keeping with

varna dharma that sons are expected to follow the

occupation of their father, as that is the occupation

that was chosen prior to birth.

 - jati: "Birth; position assigned by birth; rank, caste,

family, race, lineage." Jati, more than varna, is the

specific determinant of one's social community.

Traditionally, because of rules of purity each jati is

excluded from social interaction with the others,

especially from interdining and intermarriage. In

modern times there is also a large group (oneseventh

of India's population in 1981) outside the

four varnas. These are called scheduled classes,

untouchables, jatihita ("outcaste"), chandalas (specifically those who handle corpses) and harijan, a

name given by Mahatma Gandhi, meaning "children

of God." "Untouchable" jatis included the nishada

(hunter), kaivarta (fisherman) and karavara (leather

worker).

The varna dharma system - despite its widespread

discrimination against harijans, and the abuse of

social status by higher castes - ensures a high

standard of craftsmanship, a sense of community

belonging, family integrity and religio-cultural

continuity. Caste is not unique to Hinduism and

India. By other names it is found in every society.

The four varnas, or classes, and myriad jatis,

occupational castes, or guilds, form the basic

elements of human interaction.

See: dharma, Dharma

Shastras, jati.

(See also: Varna , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Trees,:

Trees, (Krishna about) [vriksha]: (SB 10:22)

'O Stoka Krishna and Ams'u; o S'ridama, Subala and Arjuna; o Vis'ala, Vrishabha and Ojasvi; o Devaprastha and Varuthapa, just see these ones so fortunate whose life is only there for the higher purpose of keeping off the rain, the wind, the heat and the snow they bear for us.

(33) Oh how superior the birth of these trees that, like great souls do, give support to all living entities; for certain will no person in need ever go away disappointed by them

(34) By their leaves, flowers and fruits; shade and roots, bark and wood; by their fragrance, sap ashes, pulp and shoots they award all things desirable.

(35) It is to each living being to live up to this perfection of birth in this world: to be with ones life, wealth, intelligence and words towards the embodied always of the highest good in ones dutiful activities [see also the vaishnava pranama].'

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

Beelzebub, Beelzebul ba`al zebub (Hebrew) (from ba`al lord + zebub fly)

Lord of the flies; a god of the Philistines, popularly worshiped as the destroyer of flies, to whom was erected a temple at Ekron. The mythical zoology of the ancients points directly to an inner and mystical significance: "flies" is used not in the sense of the insect, but for a certain class of elementals whose "flying" around and through the earth is governed directly by lunar influences. Thus Beelzebub is in this connection a lunar divinity.

Ba`al-zebul, a form in the Old and New Testaments, is translated as Lord of the High House or Lord of the Habitation, the reference here being to the moon as the habitation or receptacle of these elemental souls at a certain time of their existence.

In Christian demonology, Beelzebub is one of the gubernatores of the infernal kingdom under Lucifer: thus in Milton's Paradise Lost he is second to Satan. In Matthew 12:24, Beelzebub is referred to as the prince of the devils.

(See also: Beelzebub, Beelzebul, ba`al zebub , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jainism: (Jaina) (Sanskrit) An ancient non-Vedic religion of India made prominent by the teachings of Mahavira ("Great Hero"), ca 500 bce. The Jain Agamas teach reverence for all life, vegetarianism and strict renunciation for ascetics.

Jains focus great emphasis on the fact that all souls may attain liberation, each by his own effort. Their great historic saints, called Tirthankaras ("Ford-Crossers"), are objects of worship, of whom Mahavira was the 24th and last. Jains number about six million today, living mostly in India.

See: Mahavira.

(See also: Jainism , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Hel (Icelandic) (from helju hell, death)

The mythical regent of the Norse realm of the dead, depicted as half black or blue and half flesh-colored. In myths the representative of death is usually said to be a child of mind: in the Edda she is the daughter of Loki (fire of mind) and of the giantess Angerboda (boder of regret). She rules the nine worlds of death which correspond to the nine worlds of life, and apportions to each arrival a domicile appropriate to that soul's merit or demerit. Some may frolic in sunlit meadows, others suffer agony beneath the lower gates leading to Niflhel (from nifl cloud + hel death)

where matter is ground to extinction. The realm of Hel with its varied accommodations resembles the Greek Hades more than the hell of popular belief where evil souls are sent for punishment. Rather, the kingdom of death is a restful interlude where souls spend a fitting time in their rightful environment. The Eddas relate that elves (human souls) sleep among the gods when they are feasting on the mead of a past period of life (experience); thus the resting souls are present in the divine spheres even through unconscious of their surroundings.

In the Edda's Vagtamskvadet, the tale is told of the sun god's death and departure for the house of Hel, where a sumptuous apartment is furnished for him and mead is being freshly brewed for his arrival.

(See also: Hekat, Heket , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

PARABLES OF THE AYATOLLAH HAKIMA

The following are presented without comment:

A certain Bedouin went into the desert without water. When thirst overcame him he prayed for the miracle of rain and it did not come. Finally, remembering that water always moves downward, he fell to digging feverishly until at last he reached a well. As he bent over gratefully to drink, a few drops of rain began to fall upon his head.

The angel Gabriel, hearing the prayers of a mortal, sought to manifest and award his supplicant the joy of beholding seraphic splendor in the flesh. But no matter what he did, the mortal still saw the angel only in his mind's eye. Finally, Gabriel puckered up his lips and, in imitation of the evening breeze, riffled the pages of a bible that lay on the mortal's table and the holy book fell open at a lovely picture of the angel. This proves that everything in the universe is material.

Once there were two philosophers. The pessimist preached that all human life is miserable and on his door hung the word, "Repent!" The optimist taught that human life should be devoted to pleasure. On his wall he hung the word "Rejoice!" The pessimist inherited a good deal of money and lived to a ripe old age. The optimist died at an early age from a painful disease.

Two souls appeared at St. Peter's Gate. One was the innocent soul of a 3 year old child who had died in an accident. The other was the soul of a 99 year old man who died of tertiary syphilis. Why did St. Peter let in the old man first?

An old native came to the missionary doctor with a baffling fever. The doctor was unable to diagnose the case and none of his medicines worked. Finally, the old man went to the tribal witch doctor for advice. The witch doctor looked at him for a long time and asked, "Is there anything that you can eat?" And the old man shook his head and said, "I can keep nothing down."

"Can you keep pawa berries down?" the witch doctor asked. "Perhaps I could keep pawa berries down," the old man admitted.

"Then eat nothing but pawa berries for the next two weeks," suggested the witch doctor.

At the end of two weeks, the old man was still sick. So he got up, turned around thirteen times, made the sign of the cross at the sun, spat on the ground and then sat back down again. In that instant, the fever broke and the old man was well.

(See also: PARABLES OF THE AYATOLLAH HAKIMA , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

five states of the mind: A view of the mind in five parts: conscious mind, subconscious mind, subsubconscious mind, superconscious mind and subsuperconscious mind.

Also about the three phases of mind: A perspective of mind as instinctive, intellectual and superconscious: individual mind, universal mind and instinctive mind.

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

loka: (Sanskrit) "World, habitat, realm, or plane of existence."

From loc, "to shine, be bright, visible." A dimension of manifest existence; cosmic region. Each loka reflects or involves a particular range of consciousness. The three primary lokas are Bhuloka, Antarloka and Sivaloka.

(See also: Loka , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Saiva Siddhanta: (Sanskrit) "Final conclusions of Saivism."

The most widespread and influential Saivite school today, predominant especially among the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and South India. It is the formalized theology of the divine revelations contained in the twentyeight Saiva Agamas. The first known guru of the Shuddha ("pure") Saiva Siddhanta tradition was Maharishi Nandinatha of Kashmir (ca bce 250), recorded in Panini's book of grammar as the teacher of rishis Patanjali, Vyaghrapada and Vasishtha. Other sacred scriptures include the Tirumantiram and the voluminous collection of devotional hymns, the Tirumurai, and the masterpiece on ethics and statecraft, the Tirukural.

For Saiva Siddhantins, Siva is the totality of all, understood in three perfections: Parameshvara (the Personal Creator Lord), Parashakti (the substratum of form) and Parasiva (Absolute Reality which transcends all). Souls and world are identical in essence with Siva, yet also differ in that they are evolving. A pluralistic stream arose in the middle ages from the teachings of Aghorasiva and Meykandar. For Aghorasiva's school (ca 1150) Siva is not the material cause of the universe, and the soul attains perfect "sameness" with Siva upon liberation. Meykandar's (ca 1250) pluralistic school denies that souls ever attain perfect sameness or unity with Siva.

See: Saivism.

(See also: Saiva Siddhanta , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Huitzilopochtli Aztec war god, most important of the gods of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and in all Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. He accompanied the Aztecs in their wanderings.

"He was believed to be the sun, the young warrior who was born each day, who won a victory over the stars of nights, and who was then carried to the zenith by the souls of dead warriors where he was taken over by the souls of all women who had died in childbirth, to be taken to the west where he fell and died, again to be reborn in the morning" (Funk & Wag Dictionary of Folklore 510). To feed this god, the Aztecs instituted human sacrifice.

(See also: Huien-Tsang , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Airyema-ishyo (Avestan) The much-desired brotherhood, or Yasna 54: "May brotherhood of man, for which we yearn, come down amongst us and rejoice the hearts of men and maidens of Zarathustra's faith. Bringing fulfillment unto Vohu Man; when souls of men receive their precious mead, I pray too Asha in His Grace to grant these blessings for which human souls do long, which Mazda hath meant for all." "This verse, though actually not included in the Gathas, follows immediately after the Fifth Gatha. Both the language and the metre are exactly the same, as those of the Fifth Gatha. . . . This verse is recited during the Zoroastrian marriage service as part of 'the blessing" ' (Taraporewala, The Religion of Zarathushtra 148).

(See also: Airyema-ishyo , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Transmigration The belief that human souls after death pass into other bodies either human or animal, and mistakenly given as a synonym for reincarnation, metempsychosis, etc. Transmigration in general means the passing of an entity from one imbodiment to another, without regard to the status of the entity or the form of the imbodiments, so that it includes various specific meanings denoted by other terms.

Actually the word refers to the transmigration of life-atoms, especially those of the human vehicles after dissolution. According to their own affinities and degree of development, these life-atoms which have composed the lower human principles transmigrate to other physical psychomental bodies, there to pursue each its own further specific evolution, unretarded by the temporary association with its former body. Eventually, when the proper cyclic time arrives, they are all again attracted back to the reincarnating human entity to which they formerly belonged. The teaching as to the transmigration of the life-atoms is very important in elucidation of the unity of all life, the interaction of all nature, and the working of karma.

The meanings of transmigration, metempsychosis, metensomatosis, the Hebrew gilgulim, etc., are not synonymous. Each one of these words has its own particular significance, although many of these different words overlap to a certain extent. Thus a being who reincarnates on earth -- takes up a body of flesh -- likewise transmigrates in the sense of passing over from one condition of life to another, followed by a third and yet others; and that during this process there is a certain change of the condition of the soul or migrating entity which is the particular meaning of metempsychosis; and furthermore, the assumption of a new physical body which is part of the meaning of reincarnation appears in the specific term metensomatosis, and yet again the phase of rebirth is likewise involved. Each one of these different terms, and others, sets forth one particular aspect of the destiny and adventures of the peregrinating entity.

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

A Theosophical definition of Metempsychosis :

Metempsychosis

(Greek) A compound vocable which may be rendered briefly by "insouling after insouling," or "changing soul after soul." Metempsychosis contains the specific meaning that the soul of an entity, human or other, moves not merely from condition to condition, migrates not merely from state to state or from body to body; but also that it is an indivisible entity in its inmost essence, which is pursuing a course along its own particular evolutionary path as an individual monad, taking upon itself soul after soul; and it is the adventures which befall the soul, in assuming soul after soul, which in their aggregate are grouped together under this word metempsychosis.

In ordinary language metempsychosis is supposed to be a synonym for transmigration, reincarnation, preexistence, and palingenesis, etc., but all these words in the esoteric philosophy have specific meanings of their own, and should not be confused. It is of course evident that these words have strict relations with each other, as, for instance, every soul in its metempsychosis also transmigrates in its own particular sense; and inversely every transmigrating entity also has its metempsychosis or soul-changings in its own particular sense. But these connections or interminglings of meanings must not be confused with the specific significance attached to each one of these words.

The essential meaning of metempsychosis can perhaps be briefly described by saying that a monad during the course of its evolutionary peregrinations throws forth from itself periodically a new soul-garment or soul-sheath, and this changing of souls or soul-sheaths as the ages pass is called metempsychosis. (See also Transmigration, Reincarnation, Preexistence, Palingenesis)

See also: Metempsychosis , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Thoth (Egypt, Egyptian). The most mysterious and the least understood of gods, whose personal character is entirely distinct from all other ancient deities.

While the permutations of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and the rest, are so numberless that their individuality is all but lost, Thoth remains changeless from the first to the last Dynasty. He is the god of wisdom and of authority over all other gods. He is the recorder and the judge. His ibis-head, the pen and tablet of the celestial scribe, who records the thoughts, words and deeds of men and weighs them in the balance, liken him to the type of the esoteric Lipikas.

His name is one of the first that appears on the oldest monuments. He is the lunar god of the first dynasties, the master of Cynocephalus - the dog-headed ape who stood in Egypt as a living symbol and remembrance of the Third Root-Race. (Secret Doctrine, II. pp. 184 and 185). He is the "Lord of Hermopolis" - Janus, Hermes and Mercury combined. He is crowned with an atef and the lunar disk, and bears the "Eye of Horus ", the third eye, in his hand. He is the Greek Hermes, the god of learning, and Hermes Trismegistus, the " Thrice-great Hermes ", the patron of physical sciences and the patron and very soul of the occult esoteric knowledge. As Mr. J. Bonwick, F.R.G.S., beautifully expresses it: " Thoth has a powerful effect on the imagination . . . in this intricate yet beautiful phantasmagoria of thought and moral sentiment of that shadowy past. It is in vain we ask ourselves however man, in the infancy of this world of humanity, in the rudeness of supposed incipient civilization, could have dreamed of such a heavenly being as Thoth. The lines are so delicately drawn, so intimately and tastefully interwoven, that we seem to regard a picture designed by the genius of a Milton, and executed with the skill of a Raphael." Verily, there was some truth in that old saying, " The wisdom of the Egyptians ".When it is shown that the wife of Cephren, builder of the second Pyramid, was a priestess of Thoth, one sees that the ideas comprehended in him were fixed 6,000 years ago ". According to Plato, "Thoth-Hermes was the discoverer and inventor of numbers, geometry, astronomy and letters". Proclus, the disciple of Plotinus, speaking of this mysterious deity, says: "He presides over every species of condition, leading us to an intelligible essence from this mortal abode, governing the different herds of souls".

In other words Thoth, as the Registrar and Recorder of Osiris in Amenti, the Judgment Hall of the Dead was a psychopompic deity; while Iamblichus hints that " the cross with a handle (the thau or tau) which Tot holds in his hand, was none other than the monogram of his name". Besides the Tau, as the prototype of Mercury, Thoth carries the serpent-rod, emblem of Wisdom, the rod that became the Caduceus. Says Mr. Bonwick, " Hermes was the serpent itself in a mystical sense. He glides like that creature, noiselessly, without apparent exertion, along the course of ages. He is . . . a representative of the spangled heavens. But he is the foe of the bad serpent, for the ibis devoured the snakes of Egypt."

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

Monad, Monas [from Greek monas a unit, individual, atom]

A unit, a one; something nondivisible and which is therefore conceived of as real, in contradistinction to compound things which (as compounds) are not real.

In the Pythagorean system the Duad emanates from the higher and solitary Monas, which is thus the First Cause or First Logos, the Duad being the Second Cause or Logos; and from the second emanates the third stage of individuality, the Triad, Third Cause or Logos. In the human constitution the Monas signifies atman, the Duad buddhi, and the Triad signifies manas.

The term monad was adopted from Greek philosophy by Bruno, Leibniz, and others. According to Leibniz there can be but one ultimate cosmic reality or monad, the universe; but he recognizes an innumerable multiplicity of monads which pervade the universe, copies or reflections of the universal monad regarded as real except in their relation to the universal monad. He divides his derivative monads into three classes: rational souls; sentient but irrational monads; and material monads, or organic and inorganic bodies.

As regards the material monads, while recognizing that corporeal matter is compound, and the attributes by which we perceive it unreal, unlike Berkeley, he does not deny its existence but regards it essentially as monadic. Thus his universe is an aggregate of individuals. The relations of these individuals to each other and to the universal is a supreme harmony, implying both individuality and coordination, thus reconciling the antinomy of bonds of law and freedom. The interrelations of various groups of monads is as a series of hierarchies.

Theosophical usage is largely the same as that of Leibniz, as the focus or heart in any individual being, of all its divine, spiritual, and intellectual powers and attributes -- the immortal part of its being. In The Secret Doctrine we find a triadic union of gods-monads-atoms, related to each other as spirit-soul-body (or more accurately spirit, spirit-soul, and spirit-soul-body). Monads and atoms are related to each other as the energic and the material side of manifestation, the atoms being the reflections, veils, or projections of and from the monads themselves.

Monads are the ultimate elements of the universe, spiritual-substantial entities, self-motivated, self-impelled, self-conscious, in infinitely varying degrees. They engender other monads, which in turn engender others, and thus springs up the host of living entities forming the immense variety and unity of the manifested world. As any monad descends into matter, it secretes from itself various veils or vehicles adapted for its self-expression on the various cosmic planes. Thus in man there is the divine monad, the spiritual monad, the higher human or chain monad, the lower human or globe monad, the animal monad, and the astral-physical monad. The following diagram shows the relations between the cosmic principles; the monads, egos and souls in the human being; and the human principles

The monad, as its name implies, is ever-enduring as an individual, although at the end of each manvantara it rises into a still higher or divine stage of perfect union with the boundless divine, only to re-issue forth again in due course as the monad it was before, thus beginning a new, immensely long time period of active individualized life as a spiritual consciousness-center. Thus it is that even the monads evolve, each on its own plane, for the hierarchies of the monads are innumerable and exist in all-various degrees at stages of evolutionary progression on the endless ladder of cosmic life.

(See also: Monad, Monas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Choice of Partner

Ayurvedic wisdom suggests that like types make better mates because of similar mental processes, attitudes and sexual proclivities. Unfortunately, two people of similar dispositions are likely to have the same defects too. Choosing the right partner who will stimulate, inspire you to evolve into better individual thus becomes very important.

(See also: Choice of Partner , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Birds Birds are regarded as originating from certain families of reptiles: "They of the long necks in the water, became the progenitors of the fowls of the air. . . . This is a point on which the teachings and modern biological speculation are in perfect accord. The missing links representing this transition process between reptile and bird are apparent to the veriest bigot, .

"So far as our present Fourth Round terrestrial period is concerned, the mammalian fauna are alone to be regarded as traceable to prototypes shed by Man. The amphibia, birds, reptiles, fishes, etc., are the resultants of the Third Round, astral fossil forms stored up in the auric envelope of the Earth and projected into physical objectivity subsequent to the deposition of the first Laurentian rocks" (SD 2:183, 684).

Birds have always had a prominent place in symbology, associated, for instance, with the deities of the ancient pantheons, generally as celestial messengers; and with the human and spiritual souls (buddhi and manas). Sometimes the bird in symbolism represented the atman. The ancient Persians at times also symbolized the human mind-soul as a bird, Karshipta.

There are a number of reasons, mainly derivative from the life habits and characteristics of birds, which account for their selection as symbols of spiritual things, chief perhaps among these the fact that birds lay eggs, the source of new lives, whence sprang the idea of the cosmic egg appearing in and from the womb of cosmic spirit. For instance, in the Finnish Kalevala, a bird lays six golden eggs and one iron egg -- the last becoming our earth -- a clear reference to the seven globes of the planetary chain; and there was the cosmic egg of the Orphics in Greece and the hiranyagarbhas of Hindustan, etc.

Virtually all ancient religions comprised references to birds, sacred and otherwise -- for example, the phoenix, the simorgh of the ancient Persians, the ancient Egyptian ibis, golden hawk, and bennu, and Garuda and the kalahansa of ancient India. This last is the white swan of eternity, born in and from the Eternity or the Timeless: "The Nest of the eternal Bird, the flutter of whose wings produces life, is boundless space. . ." (SD 2:293).

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