Spectrum Dictionary

spectrum: A series of colored bands which blend one into the other so as to include the entire range of colors, as a rainbow. The entire range of variations of anything, as in the spectrum of all possible emotions.

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

Electromagnetic Spectrum:

The entire range of frequencies or wave-lengths of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves to the shortest gamma rays. Visible light is only a tiny part of this range.

(See also: Electromagnetic Spectrum , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

CONSCIOUSNESS –

1. The created changing image and vibrational exchange moving between the poles of one infinity and the infinitesimal one; received in the form of waves given to all cells of the body like a TV station and interpreted into images including intention, well desire, thought; the capacity of all things, galaxies, people, animals and plants to interpret according to their quality, capacity and structure; changing according to yin and yang and governed by our environment and way of living, especially way of eating.(Michi Kushi)
2. awareness, wakefulness.
3. totality of one’s perceptions, thought and feelings.
4. state of illumination.
5. spectrum of mindfulness ranging from unconsciousness to dream consciousness to waking consciousness to enlightened consciousness.
6. one of the skandhas in Buddhism.
7. divine attribute manifesting with truth and bliss in Hinduism.
8. one of 89 mental states in Buddhism including the trances of the realm of the infinity of space, the infinity of consciousness, state of awareness, described in the Upanishads. (Sanskrit): jagrat - waking state svapna - sleep, dream, after-death shushupti - dreamless sleep turiya - at one moment with God... (NAD)

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

astral plane: The subtle world, or Antarloka, spanning the spectrum of consciousness from the vishuddha chakra in the throat to the patala chakra in the soles of the feet. The astral plane includes:

1)    the higher astral plane, Maharloka, "plane of balance;"

2)    mid-astral plane, Svarloka, "celestial plane;"

3)    lower astral plane, Bhuvarloka, "plane of atmosphere," a counterpart or subtle duplicate of the physical plane (consisting of the Pitriloka and Pretaloka); and

4)    the sub-astral plane, Naraka, consisting of seven hellish realms corresponding to the seven chakras below the base of the spine.

In the astral plane, the soul is enshrouded in the astral body, called sukshma sharira. See also: astral body, loka, Naraka, three worlds.

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

AYURVEDIC MEDICINE: practiced in India for over 5,000 years. Ayurvedic tradition holds that illness is a state of imbalance among the bodyÕs systems and can be detected through such diagnostic procedures as reading the pulse and observing the tongue.

Nutritional counseling, massage, natural medications, meditation and other modalities are used to address a spectrum of ailments, from allergies to AIDS.

(See also: Ayurvedic medicine , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

LIGHT BOX: a set of bright, full-spectrum light bulbs inside a box with a reflective background and diffusing screen; produces light thatÕs 10 to 20 times stronger than ordinary indoor light. Used to treat winter depression, or SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

Treatment typically involves spending 15 minutes to 3 hours in front of a light box every day in the fall, winter, and early spring. Research suggests that bright lights help regulate the bodyÕs internal clock, which controls hormone secretion and sleep patterns.

(See also: Light box , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Seven The fundamental number of manifestation, frequently found in the different cosmogonies as well as in many religious dogmas and observances of the different ancient peoples.

Although ten was called one of the perfect numbers by the Pythagoreans, seven was unique in their series of numbers because it has all the "perfection of the Unit -- the number of numbers. For as absolute unity is uncreated, and impartite (hence number-less) and no number can produce it, so is the seven: no digit contained within the decade can beget or produce it" (SD 2:582). Seven is the number of the manifested universe, while ten or twelve is the number of the unmanifested universe.

Pythagoras taught that seven was composed of the numbers three and four, explaining that "on the plane of the noumenal world, the triangle was, as the first conception of the manifested Deity, its image: 'Father-Mother-Son'; and the Quaternary, the perfect number, was the noumenal, ideal root of all numbers and things on the physical plane" (ibid.). Further, seven was called by the Pythogoreans the vehicle of life for it consisted of body and spirit: the body was held to consist of four principal elements, while the spirit was in manifestation triple, comprising the monad, intellect or essential reason, and mind.

There are innumerable instances of sevening -- the seven days of the week, the seven colors of the spectrum, the seven notes of the musical scale -- while special emphasis is placed upon the seven human and cosmic principles; the seven senses (five senses now in manifestation and two more to be attained in the future through evolutionary unfolding); the seven cosmic elements; the seven root-races and seven subraces; the seven kingdoms, human and below; the seven rounds; the seven lokas and talas; the seven manifested globes of the planetary chain; the seven sacred planets; the seven racial buddhas; the seven dhyani-bodhisattvas and -buddhas; the seven Logoi; etc.

Man as well as nature is called saptaparna (seven-leaved plant), symbolized by the triangle above the square {illust}. While the senary was applied to man in all ranges from the physical to the spiritual, when completed by the atman, thus making the septenary, the latter signified the entire range of the constitution, whether of man or nature, crowned by the immortal spirit.

In Hindu literature the number seven continually appears: the saptarshis (the seven sages), the seven superior and inferior worlds, the seven hosts of deities, the seven holy cities, the seven holy islands, seas, or mountains, the seven deserts, the seven sacred trees, etc. In Greece seven was often connected with the gods and goddesses: Mars had seven attendants, seven was sacred to Pallas Athene and to Phoebus Apollo -- the latter with his seven-stringed lyre playing hymns to septenary nature as well as to the seven-rayed sun; Niobe's seven sons and seven daughters, etc.

Apart from mythological considerations, in physical life manifestations of the number seven occur continuously: "if the mysterious Septenary Cycle is a law in nature, and it is one, as proven; if it is found controlling the evolution and involution (or death) in the realms of entomology, ichthyology and ornithology, as in the Kingdoms of the Animal, mammalia and man -- why cannot it be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural (though occult) divisions of time, races, and mental development?" (SD 2:623n).

Seven is indeed the sacred number of life, and with the circle and the cross it forms a triad of primordial symbols of the ancient wisdom.

(See also: Seven , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

actinodic: Spiritual-magnetic. Describes consciousness within shuddhashuddha maya, which is a mixture of odic and actinic force, the spectrum of the anahata chakra, and to a certain degree the vishuddha chakra. See: tattva.

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

MIND

Mind very much resembles matter, both in its degrees of density and in its peculiarity of design. That's not surprising since the one derives from the other. We might also say that they are mirror images of one another. Just as matter varies in the size of its conglomerations, from the circumferences of giant stars and galaxies to the infinitely small subatomic world of its constituents, so mind ranges through the levels of experience infinitely above and below consciousness. There is no Not-Mind - not ever - except within the Ultimate Void itself.

Hypnosis sheds a faint light on certain levels of consciousness beneath the ordinary. By means of the intense concentration and focusing of attention that hypnosis evokes, we are able to accomplish feats of mind and body that otherwise only yogis know. Hypnosis works by forcing a thread of memory awareness deep into the mind labyrinth, which, however deeply it may penetrate the darkness, is always tied tightly to the ordinary consciousness at the top. Without that Ariadne's thread, the more deeply we were to concentrate on something, the more we would be lost to the world. The more attention we bring to bear on anything, the deeper into a simulacrum of sleep we proceed, as our surroundings and the outside world disappear into this darkness and outer sensations are walled off - presumably to prevent distraction. Since this state of concentration so much resembles sleep, in fact, the slightest lapse of the will sends us drifting towards unconsciousness. Ordinary sleep is a mirror-like repetition of the fragmentation of superconsciousness that we shall see results in abandonment of the self. However, as concentration proceeds ever more inward, the more the inner landscape is illuminated and narrowed. This "inner light" of laser-like consciousness is shared by the vegetable kingdom. (Its character can be recognized in psychedelic intoxication of various kinds). Finally, as we proceed into the unconscious itself we enter a quantum universe of our own. Here we find ourselves in the very "consciousness" of matter itself, with its links to everything in the universe. Presumably, death is but a deeper descent still, a proceeding into the actual heart of Mind, leading into the Void, which is the womb of all manifestations. Ordinary consciousness is obviously the link between higher and lower planes. It is a delicate balance between retreat into self-absorption and abandonment of the self to the sensory experience. It is maintained with great difficulty, for we have a tendency to drift out of it into one or the other of the two diametrically opposed realms of experience that it separates. These realms, of course, are infinitely more attractive than boring, old, routine mind. Within this narrow water-hole of ordinary consciousness, however, lie all the accomplishments and discoveries of human history. Indeed, it is this narrow and unreliable bridge that human society has learned to exploit as "civilization". Unfortunately, it has been examined but superficially and little has been done to stretch its dimensions or protect it from disintegration. Consequently we know almost nothing either of its limitations or its potential powers.

Heightened awareness is the opposed of focused attention or concentration. Attention becomes more and more generalized and cognizant of every petal on every flower in the garden, then every vein in every leaf. . . But now, as attention fans out, mind loses its coherency and begins to fragment. Under the influence of psychedelic drugs the attention is so fragmented that it merges altogether with the outer world and the inner self is abandoned to the chaos of the interface. The loss of the inner self, however, is usually accompanied by extreme panic as it attempts to jump from scintilla to scintilla.

For a time, the fragmentation of expanding mind can be kept under control by the use of amphetamines or cocaine in ever-increasing dosages. By means of these substances, alertness and intelligence are increased because attention is spread infinitely thin across a wider and wider spectrum of sensory experience coming in from the outer world. The "outer world" includes, of course, the consciousness of one's own body, as well as reflexive self-observation. At the same time, the inner self is being supplied with increased energy and speed too, so that it can maintain consciousness of itself and stave off chaos by racing back and forth around the ever-enlarging periphery of experience. As we are all very well aware, however, this path quickly comes to an end.

Fortunately, the heightening of externalized consciousness can be achieved without drugs, through mysticism. The sensory awareness can either be bypassed or used as the vehicle of its own transcendence. If the inner self is voluntarily released to heightened consciousness, which we sometimes refer to as leaving the ego behind in order to enter Nirvana, peace descends at once and chaos is transformed into the so-called "mystical experience." This process, once begun, can continue into such total absorption that the individual consciousness ceases to exist at any point and we could refer to that as a more or less permanent trance.

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

Color From darkness comes white light; from white light comes color. These correspond to the unmanifest Logos, the manifest Logos, and the seven rays, and this cosmogonical scheme is repeated throughout the universe.

White light is in the physical world resolvable into a spectrum or band of colors, and color is defined as a quality of visual perception depending on the wavelength of light. But according to theosophy we could see no color at all unless we had it in our mind from the first, and thus recognized the color outside because of its identity with what is within us.

Still less could we resolve the continuous band into seven colors, as even infants can do. The physical stimuli merely evokes what is already in us, the latter recognizing what is objective outside us, causing a phenomenon of cognition to pass along the plane of the physical senses. This becomes more evident when we remember that color sense is relative, depending largely on contrast. Colors are light or sight in its septenary aspect; and color, sight, and light are used almost interchangeably in speaking of the evolution of the senses and their corresponding planes of prakriti.

Colors and sounds have great potency in practical magic, as cosmic powers can be evoked by an understanding use of the proper colors and sounds. The seven colors correspond with other septenates, such as the notes of the musical octave, the sacred planets, and the seven primary elements. It is the universal septenate viewed from a visual aspect as manifested light.

Colors are one of the manifold manifestations of cosmic vitality, a septenary unity -- or a denary or duodenary unity, according to the manner of enumeration -- these cosmic forces are interchangeable, their incomprehensible aggregate being cosmic life; therefore, any form of this cosmic life has not only its particular keynote of sound, but likewise its particular keynote of color, etc.

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

Hinduism (Hindu Dharma): (Sanskrit) India's indigenous religious and cultural system, followed today by nearly one billion adherents, mostly in India, but with large populations in many other countries. Also called Sanatana Dharma, "eternal religion" and Vaidika Dharma, "religion of the Vedas."

Hinduism is the world's most ancient religion and encompasses a broad spectrum of philosophies ranging from pluralistic theism to absolute monism.

It is a family of myriad faiths with four primary denominations:

• Saivism,
• Vaishnavism,
• Shaktism and
• Smartism.

These four hold such divergent beliefs that each is a complete and independent religion. Yet, they share a vast heritage of culture and belief:

• karma,
• dharma,
• reincarnation,
• all-pervasive Divinity,
• temple worship,
• sacraments,
• manifold Deities,
• the guru-shishya tradition and
• a reliance on the Vedas as scriptural authority.

From the rich soil of Hinduism long ago sprang various other traditions. Among these were Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, which rejected the Vedas and thus emerged as completely distinct religions, disassociated from Hinduism, while still sharing many philosophical insights and cultural values with their parent faith.

Though the genesis of the term is controversial, the consensus is that the term Hindu or Indu was used by the Persians to refer to the Indian peoples of the Indus Valley as early as 500 bce. Additionally, Indian scholars point to the appearance of the related term Sindhu in the ancient Rig Veda Samhita. Janaki Abhisheki writes (Religion as Knowledge: The Hindu Concept, p. 1): "Whereas today the word

Hindu connotes a particular faith and culture, in ancient times it was used to describe those belonging to a particular region. About 500 bce we find the Persians referring to 'Hapta Hindu.' This referred to the region of Northwest India and the Punjab (before partition).

The Rig Veda (the most ancient literature of the Hindus) uses the word Sapta Sindhu singly or in plural at least 200 times. Sindhu is the River Indus. Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian, also uses the word Sindhu to denote the country or region.

While the Persians substituted h for s, the Greeks removed the h also and pronounced the word as 'Indoi.' Indian is derived from the Greek Indoi."

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan similarly observed,

"The Hindu civilization is so called since its original founders or earliest followers occupied the territory drained by the Sindhu (the Indus) River system corresponding to the Northwest Frontier Province and the Punjab. This is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, which give their name to this period of Indian history. The people on the Indian side of the Sindhu were called Hindus by the Persians and the later Western invaders. That is the genesis of the word Hindu" (The Hindu View of Life, p. 12).

See: Hindu.

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

Ayurvedic medicine:

5,000-year-old system of holistic and preventive medicine from India that treats illness as an imbalance or stress in the awareness of the individual, along with an imbalance of the doshas. The ayurvedic tradition employs diagnostic procedures such as reading the pulse and observing the tongue. Nutrition counseling, yoga, massage, herbal medicine, meditation, and other modalities are used to treat a broad spectrum of ailments in reaching a balanced state of inner harmony, health, and natural well-being.

(See also: Ayurvedic medicine , Alternative Medicine, Body Mind and Soul)

Specter [from Latin spectrum an appearance, apparition, image]

Any apparition, although most commonly associated with the dead; rarely used in connection with living persons, as when the adept's mayavi-rupa is seen, or the linga-sarira (model-body). Apparitions appearing in the proximity of cemeteries, etc., are the decaying remnants of kama-rupas, which the ancients commonly called shades (Latin umbrae), in English called ghosts and spirits.

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

prakriti: (Sanskrit) "Primary matter; nature."

In the 25- tattva Sankhya system - which concerns itself only with the tangible spectrum of creation - prakriti, or pradhana, is one of two supreme beginningless realities: matter and spirit, prakriti and purusha, the female and male principles. Prakriti is the manifesting aspect, as contrasted with the quiescent unmanifest - purusha, which is pure consciousness.

In Shaktism, prakriti, the active principle, is personified as Devi, the Goddess, and is synonymous with Maya. Prakriti is thus often seen, and depicted so in the Puranas, as the Divine Mother, whose love and care embrace and comfort all beings. In Saivite cosmology, prakriti is the 24th of 36 tattvas, the potentiality of the physical cosmos, the gross energy from which all lower tattvas are formed. Its three qualities are sattva, rajas and tamas.

See: odic, purusha, tattva.

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

Energy: Pranic Healing

Prana (pronounced PRAH-nah) is a Sanskrit word meaning "life-force," the invisible bio-energy or vital energy that keeps the body alive and maintains a state of good health.

As an art and science, Pranic Healing was widely practiced in the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt and India. One of today’s methods of Pranic Healing was founded by Mr. Choa Kok Sui, a chemical engineer, philanthropist and businessman. He compiled more than twenty years of research and experimentation on the wise use of subtle healing into over five books on Pranic Healing, which are translated into 24 languages. 

Pranic Healing is based on the theory that every person is surrounded and interpenetrated by a luminous energy body, called the bioplasmic body. The word bioplasmic comes from “bio” (life) and “plasma” (ionized gas with positive and negative charged particles). This is called the “energy body” and has been rediscovered with Kirlian photography. It is through the energy body that prana, or life energy, is absorbed and redistributed throughout the body.

In Pranic Healing, the therapists use crystals or their hands (in a "no touch" method) with specified methods for specific ailments to remove negative or disease energy from the patient's energy body and then transfer fresh prana to the affected areas to accomplish healing. Pranic Healing is based on the principle that the body has the ability to heal itself. To make this happen, it utilizes the life force as fuel to initiate the necessary biochemical changes. Pranic Healing has been found to prevent and heal a whole spectrum of physical, emotional and mental ailments.

(See also: Pranic Healing , Alternative Health, Holistic Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Radio Waves:

Waves on the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared radiation (less than 1 cm from crest to crest) and those called “Very Low Frequency” (over 10,000 km); only a tiny portion of this wavespread is used for common radio and television broadcasting.

(See also: Radio Waves , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

HALLOWE'EN

 Contemporary America has recently begun to reverse its saccharine tendency to allow this holiday (see SAMUIN) to degenerate into a nursery excursion for the amusement of two-year-olds. But it still has far to go if it is to answer its deepest thanaterotic bloodcall. For this is the night when the King of Death causes evil souls to assume animal shapes and to offer horror as the antidote to fear. We would drink the cup of henbane, dine with vampyre and hop with horned toad. We would go to any length to avoid Middle America's vapid sop to carnivals past. We can sympathize with Poe's need to inform us of the hapless M. Valdemaar who was hypnotized into remaining alive, even though his body had already begun to rot. We can understand Burroughs's compulsion to have us shudder deliciously over his Cities of the Red Night and its corrupt fornications bred of death and disease. If these be but scarecrows, why does real blood spurt from their severed limbs? We see here (closed eyelids affording no obstruction of the inner eye's vision) the fulfillment of all necrotic fantasy as we arrive at the other extreme of this dark spectrum, in Sacheverell Sitwell's Journey to the Ends of Time the 3-faced babe, the thing with no body but arms and legs growing out of the head like a spider, the bewitching infans deformis bicorporeus monocephalus et janiceps and all the other hideous postnatalities. So much for children's holidays.

(See also: HALLOWE'EN , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

New Age Music

Music composed to facilitate altered states of consciousness and meditation. Stephen Halpern's Spectrum Suite, is the finest example of this genre. Also, a light jazz, instrumental music category.

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

astral plane: The subtle world, or Antarloka, spanning the spectrum of consciousness from the vishuddha chakra in the throat to the patala chakra in the soles of the feet. The astral plane includes:

1)    the higher astral plane, Maharloka, "plane of balance;"

2)    mid-astral plane, Svarloka, "celestial plane;"

3)    lower astral plane, Bhuvarloka, "plane of atmosphere," a counterpart or subtle duplicate of the physical plane (consisting of the Pitriloka and Pretaloka); and

4)    the sub-astral plane, Naraka, consisting of seven hellish realms corresponding to the seven chakras below the base of the spine.

In the astral plane, the soul is enshrouded in the astral body, called sukshma sharira. See also: astral body, loka, Naraka, three worlds.

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

dvaita-advaita: (Sanskrit) "Dual-nondual; twoness-not twoness."

Among the most important terms in the classification of Hindu philosophies. Dvaita and advaita define two ends of a vast spectrum.

• dvaita: The doctrine of dualism, according to which reality is ultimately composed of two irreducible principles, entities, truths, etc. God and soul, for example, are seen as eternally separate.
• dualistic: Of or relating to dualism, concepts, writings, theories which treat dualities (good-and-evil, high-and-low, them-and-us) as fixed, rather than transcendable.
• pluralism: A form of non-monism which emphasizes three or more eternally separate realities, e.g., God, soul and world.
• advaita: The doctrine of nondualism or monism, that reality is ultimately composed of one whole principle, substance or God, with no independent parts. In essence, all is God.
• monistic theism: A dipolar view which encompasses both monism and dualism.

See: anekavada, dipolar, monistic theism, pluralistic realism.

(See also: Dvaita-advaita , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)