Spirals of Time

Spirals of Time: Encyclopedia II - Baroque - Baroque sculpture

In Baroque sculpture, groups of figures assumed new importance, and there was a dynamic movement and energy of human forms— they spiralled around an empty central vortex, or reached outwards into the surrounding space. For the first time, Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles. The characteristic Baroque sculpture added extra-sculptural elements, for example, concealed lighting, or water fountains. The architecture, sculpture and fountains of Bernini (1598–1680) give highly-charged characteristics of Baroque sty ...

Spirals of Time: Encyclopedia II - List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - E

List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - Earth. (18:19) "Ouroboros Is Broken" in Extra-Capsular Extraction (1991) by Earth (30:21) "Like Gold And Faceted" in Earth 2 (1993) by Earth (15:35) "Seven Angels" in Earth 2 (1993) by Earth (27:04) "Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine" in Earth 2 (1993) by Earth List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - echolyn. See also:

Spirals of Time: Encyclopedia II - List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - M

List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - M83. (17:41) "Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts" (2001) from the Bonus Disc of the US release of the album of the same name. List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - Magma. (21:47) "Rïah Sahïltaahk" in 1001 Centigrades (1971) by Magma (17:39) "De Futura" in Udu Wudu (1976) by Magma List of songs over fifteen minutes in length - Mägo de Oz. See also:

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Serpent

Serpent One of the most fundamental and prolific symbols of the mystery-language. Its most basic meaning is of the eternal, alternating, cyclic motion during cosmic manifestation.

For motion, which to the physicist and the philosopher alike seems an abstraction, is for the ancient wisdom a primordial principle or axiom, of the same order as space and time, existing per se. Never does motion cease utterly even during kosmic pralaya. And motion is essentially circular: where physics would derive circular motion from a composition of rectilinear motions, the opposite procedure would be that of the ancient wisdom. This circular motion, compounding itself into spirals, helixes, and vortices, is the builder of worlds, bringing together the scattered elements of chaos; motion per se is essential cosmic intelligence. This circular motion, returning upon itself like a serpent swallowing its tail, represents the cycles of time.

This conscious energy in spirals whirls through all the planes of cosmos as fohat and his innumerable sons -- the cosmic energies and forces, fundamentally intelligent, operating in every scale or grade of matter. The caduceus of Hermes, twin serpents wound about a staff, represents cosmically the mighty drama of evolution, in its twin aspects, the staff or tree standing for the structural aspect, the serpent for the fohatic forces that animate the structure.

The serpent is characteristically a dual symbol. In the beginnings of creation two poles were emanated, spirit and matter; and forthwith began interaction between the downward forces of the one and the upward forces of the other. Hermes, Mercury, intelligence, may represent a sage or a thief; the serpentine wisdom may work in every plane of materiality. The perverse will of man may turn natural forces to evil purposes, and thus we speak of the good serpent and the bad, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon, of Ophis and Ophiomorphos. A serpent can be a sage or a sorcerer.

The dragon is the eternally vigilant one, guardian of the sacred treasures; but he is the ruthless destroyer of him who attempts to gain by force the riches to which he has not won a title. To gain knowledge, we must know how to tame the serpent which rules the nether worlds, as the Christ refuses to make obeisance to Satan.

The seven sacred planets, or again the seven human principles, form a serpent, often collocated with the sun and moon as making a triad. One form of this spiraling conscious energy, when manifesting in man, is kundalini-sakti, the serpentine power, which in the ordinary person today lies relatively sleeping and performing merely automatic vital functions; but when aroused can ether waft to sublime heights of vision and power or blast like a lightning-stroke.

The power which a serpent has of casting its old skin is analogous to what the earth does at the commencement of each round, and to the clothing of the human jiva with a new body when it enters the womb. Again, the astral light is called a serpent; its lowest strata are dangerous and deceptive, while it extends through all planes up to the highest akasa, the vehicle of divine wisdom.

In early Christianity there arose more than one Gnostic sect using the snake as a symbol, such as the Ophites, which in the vision of certain ecclesiastic Fathers was designated devil worship, or by other uncomplimentary names.

See also NAGA; WORLD-SERPENT

(See also: Serpent, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Time

Time Theosophy speaks of absolute undivided time or duration, and of manifested or divided time: the former as causal or noumenal, the latter as effectual or phenomenal, and therefore mayavi or illusional. "Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but 'lies asleep' " (SD 1:37). Duration is `olam (occult or hid) in the Qabbalah, signifying duration in eternity or endless perpetuity. Among the Greeks it was called Chronos and even Kronos, and sometimes referred to as Saturn among the Latins; yet its occult or eternally secret activities during periods of manifestation were at times referred to in Hindu philosophic thought as Rudra-Siva, or occasionally as Vishnu.

Theosophy divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and universal time, and a conditioned or periodic or "broken" one (SD 1:62). One is the abstraction or noumenon of infinite endless time (Kala); the other its phenomenon, appearing periodically. The symbol of causal or relatively boundless time, so far as the universe is concerned, is often given as a circle, which mathematically is a beginningless and endless line. A spiral line represents time returning upon itself in cycles, and yet transcending itself at each cyclic sweep, devouring its children, as Kronos among the Greeks is said to do; and the serpent with its tail in its mouth often stands for the same ideas. Time, meaning divided or phenomenal time, or manvantaric cycles, is often mentioned as an offspring of space, the latter considered as a container of manifestation. Mystically, theosophy looks upon present and past as well as future as being illusional effects of that beginningless and endless Now, eternal duration.

Spirals of Time: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on EVOLUTION

EVOLUTION

For the past hundred years or more a war has been going on in academic circles between the theory of evolution and the belief in Creation. Darwinian evolution, however, must not be applied to history. Nor must we think of Creation as anything less than ongoing at all times, including the present moment.

Every plant, every animal, even matter itself is conscious, not merely sentient. Consciousness, however, assumes many modalities, each having the same goal, which is self-transcendance. The difference between an elephant and a fly is not that the one is more conscious or transcending than the other, but that the fly's attention is focused and fixed, whereas the elephant's is generalized and reprogrammable for adapting to new circumstances. Everything is creatively evolving upward in an infinite spiral. All Being necessarily undergoes many transitions and existence must encompass all experience.

Ultra-Darwinist theories no longer see biological evolution as "survival of the fittest" nor as random happenstance. Alien cells tend, if given time, to merge cooperatively with their host. Variations of species are not preceded by steps, but by quantum "leaps" (punctuations) that suggest recognition of environmental exigencies and co-evolutionary trends. There is also macro-evolution. The entire world is approaching its own evolutionary acme (Moksha). When the Bodhi-culmination transpires, Nirvana will become available to all.

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

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Manvantara

Manvantara (Sanskrit) [from manu + antara between]

Between two manus; a period of activity or manifestation. Manu is the entities collectively aggregated into a unity which appear first at the beginning of manifestation and from which, like a cosmic tree, everything is derived or born. A manvantara, therefore, is the period of activity between any two manus, on any plane, since in any such period there is a root-manu at the beginning of evolution and a seed-manu at its close, preceding a pralaya.

One has to gather from context what the meaning of the manvantara referred to is, remembering that what is applicable to a lesser period applied also to a greater, and conversely. When speaking of a manvantara of our planet, a period of one round of the planetary chain is usually meant. There is also the manvantara of any globe of the planetary chain. Seven rounds of the planetary chain make a mahamanvantara of a planet, a Day of Brahma. A solar manvantara is a period of seven Days of Brahma. The Life of Brahma is a mahamanvantara or mahakalpa of the solar system. A minor or globe manvantara is the duration of the seven root-races on any particular globe of the planetary chain. Even a root-race is sometimes called a manvantara because there is a root-manu and seed-manu to each race. The period of a human life is sometimes called a paurusha manvantara; the period of a planet's life, a bhaumika manvantara; the life period of the solar system, a saurya manvantara, the life period of the universe, a prakritika manvantara, which last can become synonymous with the saurya manvantara.

When the time arrives for the re-opening of a planetary manvantara, the planet

"descends again into manifestation through the inner divine planetary thirst for active life and is directed to the same solar system, and to the same spot, relatively speaking, that its predecessor (its former self) had, attracted thither by magnetic and other forces on the lower planes. It forms, in the beginning of its course or journey downwards, a planetary nebula; after many aeons it becomes a comet, following ultimately an elliptical orbit around the sun of our solar system, thus being 'captured,' as our scientists wrongly say, by the sun; and finally condenses into a planet in its earliest physical condition. The comets of short periodic time are on their way to rebecoming planets in our solar system, provided they successfully elude the many dangers that beset such ethereal bodies before condensation and hardening of their matter shield them from destruction" (Fund 63).

In a similar manner at the re-opening of a solar manvantara, a cosmic nebula is gradually formed of the principles of the former cosmos with its sun and planets, etc. Then

"this cosmic nebula drifts from the place where it first was evolved, the guiding impulse of karma directing here and directing there, this luminous nebulosity moving circularly, and contracting, passing through other phases of nebular evolution, such as the spiral stage and the annular, until it becomes spherical, or rather a nebular series of concentric spheres. The nebula in space, as just said, takes often a spiral form, and from the core, the center, there stream forth branches, spiral branches, and they look like whirling wheels within wheels, and they whirl during many ages. When the time has come -- when the whirling has developed pari passu with the indwelling lives and intelligences within the cosmic nebula -- then the annular form appears, a form like a ring or concentric rings, with a heart in the center, and after long aeons, the central heart becomes the sun or central body of the new solar system, and the rings the planets. These rings condense into other bodies, and these other bodies are the planets circulating around their elder brother, the sun; elder, because he was the first to condense into a sphere" (Fund 61-2).

In the first half of a manvantara (planetary as well as human) there is the descent of spirit into matter, and in the second half an ascent of spirit at the expense of matter. A manvantara or period of material manifestation is a temporary spiritual death, whereas the dawn of the succeeding pralaya is spiritual birth.

(See also: Manvantara, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Motion

Motion The essential characteristic of abstract motion, whether in space, time, or consciousness, commonly manifesting as change. Absolute abstract motion is one of two aspects under which is symbolized Be-ness, the other being abstract space, yet these are and must be one in essence; it is also called the Great Breath.

On the planes of manifestation, motion prevails as the positive pole, equivalent to jivatman, spirit, etc., according to which plane is meant. Consciousness and thought are manifestations of motion in the guise of active intelligence, and are necessarily connected with their appropriate forms of prakriti or mulaprakriti.

The beginning of differentiation is spoken of as the beginning of change. Life manifests as motion, and its passing from plane to plane produces what is called birth and death. Absolute motion and what humans call absolute rest -- really but another form of incessant motion -- converge into one. The tendency of cosmic motion is ever toward the spiral; in kinematics, simple harmonic motion generates ellipses, of which the straight line and the circle are limiting cases.

Nineteenth-century science postulated matter and motion as two bases on which to build, but the attempt to define the nature or cause of motion within the limits of the science thus set up was futile. Motion was defined as an effect of force, force being itself expressed in terms of motion. To reach the cause of physical motion we must go outside of physics and refer it to spirit or some ultraphysical agency.

(See also: Motion, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Crown

Crown In the Qabbalah, the first or highest Sephirah, Kether (Crown). In the Stanzas of Dzyan, "Fohat traces spiral lines to unite the sixth to the seventh -- the Crown" (SD 1:31), which means that fohat, in this case working as Eros or divine love, strives to blend atman with buddhi, and the same on the corresponding cosmic planes.

Crown also signifies the summit of attainment in initiation, spiritual sovereignty, or dignity or splendor, and is much used in those senses in both the Old and New Testaments, and was typically so employed in pagan initiatory rites.

The kings and pontiffs of modern times are the feeble imitators of former king-initiates, whose insignia comprised the crown, representative of the glory or buddhic splendor, which actually encircled the head of the initiate as a nimbus, as it does in the case of the yogi in samadhi and of the buddha. The ceremony of coronation was performed in the Mysteries as the outward symbol of the completion of this attainment; and that ceremony is still perpetuated. The later Roman emperors adopted the Eastern royal fillet, which they called by the Greek name diadema; the Papal tiara goes back through it to the Persian royal headdress of that name. The American Indian wears feathers imitating the rays of light from the head.

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Wheel

Wheel Perpetual gyratory motion; a vortex, a center of revolving force. Matter is not only motion itself in low ranges of the cosmos, but has likewise many modes of motion, although not in the sense in which this phrase was used in the 19th century.

Lord Kelvin's vortex-atoms illustrate the point, for he showed that many of the properties attributed to atoms could be represented by regarding atoms as vortices in a frictionless, incompressible fluid. More recent analysis of the atom has failed to resolve it into anything more than electric particles whose properties are functions of their motions. "Atoms are called 'Vibrations' in Occultism . . . " (SD 2:633). Fohat traces spiral lines and forms wheels or centers of force around which primordial cosmic matter expands and contracts and passes through stages of consolidation ending in globes, and later through stages of etherealization. Vortical motion is a universal law, as seen in the stellar universe and in the electronic constitution of the physical atom, giving a fuller meaning to the word cycle.

Wheel, cycle, globes, and revolutions all pertain to the same fundamental conception of whirling, revolving, or gyratory motion of beings and substances; and as no motion can take place except in matter, space, and time, the whirlings and revolutions of beings and things include likewise the time periods or cyclic returns of beings and events throughout duration. Wherever there is a whirling or turning, whether of matter or of an event in time, it is because it is a being or thing which is active in reproducing itself in cyclic events (cf Ezekiel 1:15-21). This is one of the archaic ways of understanding what is now called the principle of Relativity. Indeed, so intimate and entangled are the actor and the act -- the being and its movements in time -- that it is not always easy to distinguish the actor inherent and moving from the effects in space and time of such movement; so that when we speak of a cycle of time we are perforce obliged to conceive of a moving entity producing the cycle, albeit the moving entity may not be visible to us and indeed may be incomprehensible. Hence, the frequent and often perplexing usage of wheel or wheelings found in ancient occult writings.

See also WINGED WHEEL; GLOBE, WINGED

Spirals of Time: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Ushnisha,

Ushnisha usnisa (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ush to be warm, flaming; mystically warmth through inner light, intuition, vision]

A turban, diadem, or crown; also a kind of "excrescence" on the head of a buddha. Like the long ears so often seen in figures of the buddhas, the meaning of the ushnisha is entirely occult, and was in no sense whatsoever intended to signify a tuft of hair, nor any fleshly excrescence on the skull, but was a way of suggesting the radiating power of the eye of Siva or organ of vision and of intuition, working at relatively full power within the skull of a great adept.

The eye of Siva is the pineal gland; originally an external and active eye in the head of primitive mankind during this fourth round on earth, it gradually retreated within the skull, which grew to cover its place with bones, skin, and hair. As this presently so-called third eye retreated within the skull, its place was progressively taken by the two present organs of vision. At this period of our racial development it is buddhas, avataras, and other initiates of relatively high status who alone use the organ of spiritual vision, for in them the pineal gland has become active and is to some extent physiologically enlarged; although in everyone else it is more or less nonfunctional, yet to some degree functional.

Hence the ushnisha represents that radiant crown of buddhic fire that surrounds the head of initiates when they are in deep samadhi or meditation. The initiate's head becomes surrounded with rays from the vital inner fire of the third eye, the spiritual organ of the brain, which likewise is the source from which radiates the spiritual, intellectual, and psychovital nimbus or aura surrounding the head -- known to the iconographies of every religion. These rays thus form a glory around the head and sometimes even around the entire body. "They stream upwards from the back of the head, often symbolically represented in the buddha-iconography as one single, lambent flame soaring upwards from and over the top of the skull. In this case you may perhaps find that the ushnisha is missing, its place being taken by this flame issuing from the top of the head, a symbolic representation of the fire of the spirit and of the aroused and active buddhic faculty in which the man is at the time" (Fund 493).

Many statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas possess certain peculiar headgear called crowns or ushnishas. Hence ushnisha is also used in the sense of turban, because this particular headgear, given to these statues, somewhat resembles a turban of spiral conical form, somewhat like the spiral shell of some snails.

Spirals of Time: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on GNOMES

GNOMES

As of this writing I have not yet begun preparation for the other initiations, so I know only the earth intelligences: the gnomes, those peculiar dwarfs, known to Paracelsus, who dwell in the earth and are the guardians of its treasures. They have rather a "Gypsy" nature and gather festively at times in lovely hidden valleys covered with wildflowers and secret, sunlit meadows midway between the dreaming planes and the Malkuthian sphere, which is the Enigma of "The World." Children often dream of the "good people" or seem to remember them from the dim, nostalgic past of their infancy. Their friendship guarantess you will never want and with the gnomes in attendance, physical objects no longer break down when you use them or get in the way when you no longer need them. If you want the gnomes to protect you, they will provide a very strong physical defense system -- good locks and keys, thick walls, secrecy, etc. Confrontation and violence, however, are not their fortes.

Forunately, the gnomes are easily accessible, as they spring up continually from the earth around us. They are as eager to "use" us as we are to "use" them. The reason is that somehow the gnomes complement us and we help one another reciprocally by earthing and releasing opposing 'volutions (our e-volution, their in-volution) -- or rather, our entropy is grounded in the elementals while negentropy from them is anodically charged in spirit for us. The result in us is matter released in the form of creation, accumulation of wealth, whereas from us they learn how to collect energy into stasis or density.

In simpler terms, they are engaged in a downward spiral of involution toward ultimate crystallization. We, on the other hand, are engaged in the upward, evolutionary struggle towards total liberation of the spirit from its prison of flesh. Both we and the earth elementals occupy contrasting realms of reality normally inaccessible to one another. So the gnomes seek to unload on us the burden of their physical powers and material riches, as we seek to transcend the appetites of the flesh. In the mysterious exchange between our different levels of being the gnomes acquire from us the concretizations they need in order to shed abstraction and draw more deeply inward to their infinitely dense centers. We, on the other hand, discover a new respect within ourselves for the physical universe and a subtler understanding of how it operates. This enables us to work creatively with forms until we can free ourselves and break out of matter altogether. By learning how to stand on the earth firmly, trusting and depending upon its support, we can make successful launchings into "outer space".

The simplest rituals will attract earth elementals. They appreciate kindness and will meet generosity with redoubled generosity of their own. But you must avoid coarseness, grouchiness or impatience of any kind. Gnomes dislike these traits intensely. And any hint of laziness or greed acts as a repellant and the complementing is aborted.

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

Spirals of Time: Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Falling

Falling

This is a common dream which usually represents underlying fears and feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. Interpret your dream by considering your primary fears, current difficulties, and situations in your life that seem to be on a downward spiral, especially those situations that seem outside of your control (financial, romantic,etc.). Some people believe that if you keep falling in your dream and don't wake up that you will die at the point of impact. This is absolutely not true. In a falling dream you wake up out of fear and not because of danger of dying. Superstition based dream interpretations say that if you fall a long distance in your dream and get hurt, be prepared for really hard times ahead; but if you fall and are not injured your upsets will be minor and temporary.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

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