Introduction and links to related topics Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Sons Of Light - Sons of Light Rays of the manifest or Third Logos, the noumena or spiritual originants of all phenomena more directly connected with the light side of nature, the almost innumerable hierarchies of light.
Issuing forth, they manifest themselves in respective hierarchies and in serial order on all the planes of cosmic matter, and are thus said allegorically to clothe themselves in the fabric of darkness. Darkness may signify the original Absolute Light which to all human cognizance seems darkness, or the various fields of cosmic substance or matter in which the luminous spiritual entities function and act, which by contrast with the light of the spiritual beings seems to be dark or obscure.
Astronomically sons of light may refer to the luminous celestial bodies -- nebulae, comets, suns, and even to the regents of planets -- the spiritual beings in and originally producing the various bodies in the universe.
Messenger - Messenger An intermediary between beings of a higher and a lower order, as between gods and men, or between the Great Lodge of Masters of Wisdom and ordinary mankind.
There are buddhas, in whom the whole nature is perfect; avataras, in whom the intermediate nature, or part of it, is removed and replaced by that of another being superior to ordinary humanity who loans it temporarily for the purpose; lesser messengers, in whom the intermediate nature is partially -- or even wholly -- removed for a greater or less time, in order that they may become vehicles for the transmission of light undisturbed by the individual color of their own minds.
The word angel, from the Greek, means a messenger, and in the Occident referred to the various orders of spiritual beings above man. Early Christianity, as is evidenced in the works of Dionysius the pseudo-Areopagite, distinguished very clearly between the different hierarchies of angelic or spiritual beings; but Christianity for centuries has virtually forgotten or ignored these fundamental distinctions derivative from neo-Pythagorean and Neoplatonic teachings.
Planetary Spirits - Planetary Spirits Every celestial body is under the directing influence of a hierarchy of beings, spiritual, quasi-spiritual, and astral, the higher of which may be called celestial spirits; the term planetary spirits is usually restricted to the highest class of these beings pertaining to planets, although the phrase is also used in other senses.
These planetary spirits have evolved through past cosmic cycles of evolution from a state equivalent to the human; and the general hierarchy pertaining to each planet is closely linked with the destinies of the present various life-waves of that planet. We ourselves are destined in the future to become planetary spirits of a planetary chain that will be a later imbodiment of our present earth-chain. This earth, being only in its fourth round, has not yet produced high planetary spirits; but it will have begun to do so at the end of the seventh round. At the summit of the hierarchy of planetary spirits is a supreme hierarch.
Planetary spirits parallel the Buddhist dhyani-chohans or dhyanis; with the exception that the Buddhist phrase has far larger application as it includes not merely planetary spirits but likewise spiritual beings of various grades in a solar system. The higher planetaries are those presiding over an entire chain of globes, and their influence extends over all the seven, ten, or twelve globes of a chain.
There are also planetaries belonging to the same general planetary hierarchy who preside over a single globe of a chain, and again lower planetaries such as those in more or less immediate touch with mankind. There are planetaries of high spiritual status, and planetaries of far lower status who at times even may be spoken of as dark planetaries. Thus it is that the work of the higher planetaries is beautiful, compassionate, and indeed sublime; whereas the lowest or dark planetaries are frequently the agents of matter as contrasted with spirit.
What the Christians, following the Greeks, call angels, are planetary spirits of high type, while the Christian archangels correspond roughly with the highest subclasses of the planetaries. In Hindu thought the manus are planetary spirits of various hierarchical grades in a planetary chain; the prajapatis also in certain cases are identical with the manus, the latter having a special connection with the human life-wave.
Sephar - Sephar, Sepher, Sepharim (Hebrew) Writing, something that is written, a book. In the plural (sepharim), books or writings, the Jewish holy scriptures. In the Sepher Yetsirah, an early Qabbalistic treatise and one of the most important in the Qabbalah, the first verse states that the Lord and King of the universe formed "the universe in thirty-two secret paths of wisdom by means of three Sepharim:
[1] Sephar ;
[2) Sippur ;
[3] Sepher, i.e. through
[1] Numbering;
[2] Numberer; and
[3] Number.
" The verbal root from which this word is taken originally meant to make marks -- not only to write but also to number or count. Hence the play upon the three words, described as the three Sepharim, has reference to the activities of the Sephiroth in unfolding both intrinsic mathematical and numerical quantities and attributes by means of the spiritual beings forming the Sephiroth and eventuating in the "number" carpentry or structure of the cosmos.
Odacon - Odacon (Babylonian) The fifth Annedotus (Dagon or Oannes), a man-fish who appeared from the deeps of the ocean to teach humanity. In the Babylonian description of the instructors and teachers of early humankind, their fishlike form is connected with their origin in the waters of space -- spiritual beings taking human form and appearing out of the deeps of cosmic ether.
Qui Circumambulat Terram - Qui Circumambulat Terram (Latin) Who walks around the earth -- said of the Devil by medieval theologians; but there is no reason for restricting it to the maleficent works of Satan.
The Fall of ethereal and spiritual beings has been distorted by Christian theology to signify the evil works of the Devil on earth, but theosophically the phrase could refer to the monads who fell from their spiritual estate in order to gain experiences in lower cosmic planes, and who thus pursue their peregrinations not only around the earth, but circle through the globes of our planetary chain and from planet to planet of the seven sacred planets of the solar system.
Qelippoth - Qelippoth (Hebrew) Shells, rinds, the outer covering or body of any entity. Because beings in the lowest world of the Qabbalah are considered shells infilled with a certain proportion of degenerate spiritual powers and functions, these beings are often called demons.
In the Qabbalah, the lowest of the four worlds, olam asiyyah, is therefore likewise called olam qelippoth, in that all the beings pertaining to this sphere need the use of a vehicle, termed a rind or shell, which though subject to formation, birth, change, and dissolution as a form, is not so as to its essential life-atoms -- except as these life-atoms themselves undergo rebirth and change, but not dissolution as do the shells.
Just as in the superior olams there are the analogic divisions into the ten Sephiroth, likewise in this lowest sphere there are ten degrees, each growing denser and darker in its descent farther from the Sephirothic ray. The first two degrees of this descending scale are considered as absence of visible form -- termed in Genesis Tohu Bohu. The third degree is termed the abode of darkness (the darkness which covered the face of the earth of Genesis). Then follow, in descent, the seven infernal halls Sheba Heichaloth, or hells in which are distributed the various princes of darkness and entities undergoing purgation -- the prince of the whole region being Sama''el (the angel of "venom" or death).
"note what we read in the Zohar (ii. 43a): ''For the service of the Angelic World, the Holy . . . made Samael and his legions, i.e., the world of action, who are as it were the clouds to be used (by the higher or upper Spirits, our Egos) to ride upon in their descent to the earth, and serve, as it were, for their horses.'' This, in conjunction with the fact that Q''lippoth contains the matter of which stars, planets, and even men are made, shows that Samael with his legions is simply chaotic, turbulent matter, which is used in its finer state by spirits to robe themselves in. For speaking of the ''vesture'' or form (rupa) of the incarnating Egos, it is said in the Occult Catechism that they, the Manasaputras or Sons of Wisdom, use for the consolidation of their forms, in order to descend into lower spheres, the dregs of Swabhavat, or that plastic matter which is throughout Space, in other words, primordial ilus. And these dregs are what the Egyptians have called Typhon and modern Europeans Satan, Samael, etc., etc. Deus est Demon inversus -- the Demon is the lining of God" (TG 269).
Thus Qelippoth has a dual meaning: first and less customary, the unorganized matter of space out of which spiritual beings build their bodies in order to manifest on this physical plane; second and more customary, is the physical bodies themselves as thus built, containing the vital and other characteristics of living beings. The word corresponds to the rupa-worlds -- the imbodied beings of this world or sphere.
Dakini - (Sanskrit) A female spiritual being in Buddhist Tantrism. Two major types are mentioned, worldly dakini, representing non-Buddhist values, and supermundane dakini, who protect and convey the wisdom of enlightenment.
Levels of supermundane dakinis include feminine embodiments of Buddhahood itself; their retinue of active manifestations; and their messengers, who may appear to people at any time. Dakinis are both purely spiritual beings revealed in visions and human women. They are frequently depicted as dancing in Tibetan iconography
Dhyani-buddha - Dhyani-buddha (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root dhyai to meditate, contemplate + buddha awakened one)
Buddhas of contemplation or meditation; the fifth in the descending series in the enumeration of the Hierarchy of Compassion. Two general hierarchies of spiritual beings brought forth our cosmos: the dhyani-buddhas or architects who in their aggregate form the higher and more spiritual side, and actually compose the line of the luminous arc; and the dhyani-chohans or the builders or constructors who form the lower and relatively more material side, the line (from this viewpoint only) of the shadowy arc. Often the term dhyani-chohans is used for both these lines of beings.
There are seven dhyani-buddhas, so that for each round of a septenary planetary chain there is a presiding dhyani-buddha or causal buddha. Our present fourth round is under the care and supervision of the dhyani-buddha belonging to the fourth degree of this celestial hierarchy. The dhyani-bodhisattvas who watch over the globes of the planetary chain in each round are rays from the dhyani-buddha of the round.
"It is this dhyani-buddha of our fourth round, our Father in Heaven, who is the Wondrous Being, the Great Initiator, the Sacrifice, . . . The Ray running through all our individual being, from which we draw our spiritual life and spiritual sustenance, comes direct to us from this hierarchical Wondrous Being in whom we all are rooted. He to us, psychologically and spiritually, holds exactly the same place that the human ego, the man-ego, holds to the innumerable multitudes of elemental entities which compose his body . . ." (Fund 237-8).
These dhyani-buddhas furnished humankind with divine kings and leaders, who taught humanity the arts and sciences, and who "revealed to the incarnated Monads that had just shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms -- and who had, therefore, lost every recollection of their divine origin -- the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds" (SD 1:267).
Further, each human monad has sprung from the essence of a dhyani-buddha.
"The ''triads'' born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or ''twin-souls,'' on this Earth.
"This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: ''I and my Father are one,'' said Jesus (John x. 30). When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): ''I ascend to my Father and your Father,''. . . It was simply to show that the group of his disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, ''Star,'' or ''Father,'' again of the same planetary realm and division as He did" (SD 1:574).
Asdt - Asdt ''eshdath (Hebrew) (from ''ash, ''esh fire, lightning + dath law, mandate, legal decree)
Translated fiery law (Deut 23:2); in the Septuagint, translated as angels. It signifies the fiery spiritual beings or self-conscious spirits of cosmic character, emanating from the cosmic Logos.
Polygenesis - Polygenesis Used in biology and anthropology, meaning arising from many germs or roots; opposed to monogenesis, arising from a single germ or root, although the two theories can be complementary.
The human race is distinctly polygenetic inasmuch as it was born from seven different psychomaterial foci on seven different centers of the earth; and mankind did not spring from an actual single couple.
Yet it is equally true that mankind is one in origin, all its creators being spiritual beings, working on us and upon lower beings of a psychomaterial nature (SD 2:249, 610). Regarding the evolution of races, differentiation has existed for long ages; yet go far enough towards the origin, and polygenesis merges into a fundamental spiritual unity.
Kratudvish - Kratudvish kratudvis (Sanskrit) In Hindu mythology, an enemy of all ritualistic and ceremonial worship and exoteric sham; the spiritual beings which represented, in their human aspect, the adepts of esoteric wisdom in opposition to the multitude who followed exoteric and popular religious forms, mummeries, and sacrifices.
The kratusvishas were often called the asuras, daityas, danavas, kinnaras, etc., who fought against Brihaspati, the prototype of exoteric and ritualistic worship in the Tarakamaya (war in heaven). All the kratudvishas are represented as being yogis and ascetics of great spiritual and intellectual power.
Pitri-devatas - Pitri-devatas pitr-devatas (Sanskrit) [from pitri father + devatas spiritual beings]
The paternal spiritual beings; a class of divine beings who were the progenitors of mankind -- generalized under the term pitris. More particularly, the lunar ancestors of mankind, in all their various classes.
Patala - Patala (Sanskrit) [possibly from the verbal root pat to sink, fly down or alight]
Nethermost, farthest underneath; the reference being not so much to locality or position in space, as to quality -- grossness, heaviness, or material substance. The seventh, lowest, and most material tala. It is used in Hindu literature to signify the hells, underworlds, or infernal regions, or the antipodes or Myalba. The corresponding loka or pole is bhurloka. "Meru -- the abode of the gods -- was placed . . . in the North Pole, while Patala, the nether region, was supposed to lie in the South. As each symbol in esoteric philosophy has seven keys, geographically, Meru and Patala have one significance and represent localities; while astronomically, they have another, and mean ''the two poles,'' which meaning ended by their being often rendered in exoteric sectarianism -- the ''Mountain'' and the ''Pit,'' or Heaven or Hell" (SD 2:357).
Patala, from one aspect, corresponds to the lower hierarchies of the Gandha, elementals ruling the sense and organ of smell. This lowest tala is the sphere of irrational beings, including animals, having little or no sense or feeling save that of self-preservation and the gratification of the senses -- attributes of materiality which might include a vast number of the human species. Patala is also the sphere of intensely human as contrasted with human-spiritual beings, and is likewise the abode of the animal dugpas, elementals of animals, and multitudes of nature spirits, all belonging to the bipolar planes of bhurloka-patala.
In Atlantean times, America was the patala or antipodes of Jambu-dvipa, geographically. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna as Krishna''s chela is said to have descended into Patala, the antipodes, and there married Ulupi, the daughter of the King of the Nagas or initiates.
The Hindu rishi Narada, representing one of the most recondite and still living spiritual influences on earth, is said to have descended in bygone times into the regions of Patala, and to have been delighted with what he found there. On his return to the celestial regions, he gave to the gods a glowing account of the beauties of the hells, stating that they abounded in everything ministering to luxury and sensuous delight. For precisely these reasons, Patala as the lowest of the talas, has been called the infernal regions or hell. To beings evolving in the spheres of matter, these spheres are extremely pleasant despite the pain and suffering that invariably accompany sojourn in all astral spheres, which the talas are. What the evolving entities lose in spiritual power, intellectual bliss, and higher faculty, is compensated for by the attachments and bonds of a sensuous character, tying them temporarily to these realms.
Mediator - Mediator An agent who stands or goes between, specifically one who acts as the conscious agent or intermediary of special spiritual power and knowledge.
Most often applied to highly-evolved characters who mediate, not only between superhuman spiritual entities and ordinary men, but who also themselves consciously unite their own spiritual nature with their merely human souls. Such people attain to this lofty state by the great sanctity and wisdom of their lives, aided by frequent interior ecstatic contemplation. They radiate a pure and beneficent atmosphere which invites, and is congenial to, exalted spiritual beings of the solar system.
Evil entities of the astral realms cannot endure their clean and highly magnetic aura, nor are they able to continue obsessing other unfortunate persons if the mediator be present and will their departure, or even approaches the sufferer.
This powerful spiritual self-consciousness of the individual who is a mediator reaching upwards to superior spiritual realms, is in sharpest possible contrast with the passive, unconscious, weak-willed medium who, through ignorance or folly, becomes the agent for the use of any astral entity that may be attracted to the entranced body. Apollonius, Iamblichus, Plotinus, and Porphyry are examples of mediators: "but if the temple is defiled by the admission of an evil passion, thought or desire, the mediator falls into the sphere of sorcery. The door is opened; the pure spirits retire and the evil ones rush in. This is still mediatorship, evil as it is; the sorcerer, like the pure magician, forms his own aura and subjects to his will congenial inferior spirits" (IU 1:487).
Will - Will The ensouling creative essence of abstract, eternal motion throughout the kosmos. As an eternal principle it is neither spirit nor substance but everlasting ideation. In its abstract sense, it is a hierarchy of intelligent forces emanating from the aggregate of the hosts of beings, visible and invisible, which are nature itself.
The so-called laws of nature are the action and interaction of the combined consciousnesses and wills which pervade the kosmos. The will pours forth in floods of light and life from the primal Logos. These floods, following the pathways of universal circulation, come to us from the central heart of the solar system -- insofar as our solar universe is concerned. They thus descend, plane by plane and cycle by cycle, into the depths of matter, from which finally they arise again towards their primal source.
In this progressive descent and ascent, will is made to manifest in keeping with each plane or state of consciousness which it enters. There is, therefore, the one fundamental kosmic will-ideation, breaking into innumerable streams of willing entities during periods of manifestation, and thus it operates in myriad ways, in every round of the endless ladder of life.
Divine or universal thought and will come into manifestation through the collective hosts of spiritual beings, the dhyani-chohans, who are the vehicles through which the unmanifested appears. "They are the Intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her ''laws,'' while themselves acting according to laws imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers; but they are not ''the personifications'' of the powers of Nature, as erroneously thought" (SD 1:38). The natural law which preserves the balanced motion of planetary rotation was explained by Herschel''s saying "that there is a will needed to impart a circular motion and another will to restrain it" (SD 1:503).
In the composite human being -- the microcosm -- there are the divine, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, animal, astral, and even physical wills. The old maxim "behind will stands desire" accounts for the paradoxical influence of this colorless force which is used to energize both good and evil motives. Thus, as it operates through the intermediate human nature, the individual consciously and unconsciously gives it a right or wrong direction, according to his use of free will in choosing his course of conduct. The divine will is expressed in the sublime, impersonal desires of lofty celestial deities; while at the opposite pole, selfish, sensual, animal desires too often direct the action of the human will. The origin of good and evil lies respectively in the harmony and the conflict of wills in the kosmos.
The special physical organ of the human will is the pituitary gland. The brain and body show the different action of the conscious, positive, volitional will and of the negative, automatic, vegetative will. The latter energizes the mysteries of organic functions carried on by various conscious or semiconscious elemental entities who themselves act instinctively under the intelligent, harmonious laws of nature for the body''s welfare.
Will power is a mighty, colorless force or energy which can be set in motion by one who has the power and knowledge to do so. In India, in combination with abstract desire, it is mentioned as one of six primary powers (ichchhasakti) by which the adept accomplishes many of his wonders. "The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally, if one''s attention (and Will) is deeply concentrated upon it; similarly, an intense volition will be followed by the desired result . . . For creation is but the result of will acting on phenomenal matter, the calling forth out of the primordial divine Light and eternal Life "(SD 2:173). The occult power of will explains many scientific problems of animate and inanimate matter. In human beings, it may consciously and unconsciously act upon other human wills and upon that of beasts; likewise, it may act upon physical and astral substance to produce various phenomena such as levitation, fire-walking, birthmarks, etc. "Paracelsus teaches that ''determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain'' " (TG 370).
Chhaya - Chhaya chaya (Sanskrit) A shade, shadow, copy; esoterically, the astral image or body of a person. Besides referring to the human astral form, the term is usually applied to the shadows or copies -- the astral body-projections -- of the spiritual beings or pitris who played an important part in the early evolutionary development of humankind.
In the first root-race, "the pure, celestial Being (Dhyan Chohan) and the great Pitris of various classes were commissioned -- the one to evolve their images (Chhaya), and make of them physical man, the others to inform and thus endow him with divine intelligence and the comprehension of the Mysteries of Creation" (SD 2:233n). This idea also appears in the Zohar: "''In the Tzalam (shadow image) of Elohim (the Pitris), was made Adam (man)'' " (SD 2:137).
See also SANJNA
Cherub - Cherub, Cherubim kerub, kerubim (Hebrew) A celestial, sacred, occult being in Hebrew mythology; in the Old Testament various descriptions are given of the Cherubim, the prevailing one being that of winged entities with four faces, those respectively of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. In Genesis, they are the guardians of Paradise; in Exodus (25:18-22) their images are to be placed in the mercy-seat and also in Solomon''s temple (1 Kings 6:23-35), but their most frequent association is with the throne or chariot of Yahweh (Jehovah).
In Ezekiel and the Qabbalah the Cherubim are represented as the four holy living creatures. "These four animals are, in reality, the symbols of the four elements, and of the four lower principles in man. Nevertheless, they correspond physically and materially to the four constellations that form, so to speak, the suite or cortege of the Solar God, and occupy during the winter solstice the four cardinal points of the zodiacal circle" (SD 1:363).
In the ancient Syrian system of enumerating the hierarchies, the Cherubim were equivalent to the sphere of the Stars. In the Jewish Qabbalah a close association is made with them and the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH; and further with the world of Asiyyah. In the system of hierarchies propounded by Dionysius the pseudo-Areopagite, the Cherubim rank second in the first trinity: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. But the Cherubim have a still more mystical connection: "the four celestial beings are . . . the protectors of mankind and also the Agents of Karma on Earth" (SD 1:126).
In the Hebrew Qabbalah the Kerubim are the class of angels or quasi-spiritual beings corresponding with the lower Shechinah or Malchuth, the lowest or tenth of the Sephiroth. Again, "the word cherub also meant serpent, in one sense, though its direct meaning is different; because the Cherubim and the Persian winged (gryphes)
''griffins'' -- the guardians of the golden mountain -- are the same, and their compound name shows their character, as it is formed of (kr) circle, and ''aub,'' or ob -- serpent -- therefore, a ''serpent in a circle'' " (SD 1:364). The color blue is associated with the Cherubim, as the color red is with the Seraphim.
Urdhvasrotas - Urdhvasrotas (Sanskrit) [from urdhva upwards, straight + srotas current, channel, canal]
Those whose digestive organs or life-currents are upright. In the Puranas, the sixth of the seven creations of Brahma, or emanations of living beings, being the emanation or spiritual beings or dhyanis. "These (divinities) are simply the prototypes of the First Race, the fathers of their ''mind-born'' progeny with the soft bones. It is these who became the Evolvers of the ''Sweat-born'' . . ." (SD 1:456). These creations or stages in evolutionary development refer especially to globe D, but have a cosmic significance likewise when the reference is to cosmic time periods.
Demigods - Demigods One of the orders of semi-divine instructors, spiritual beings in human form. Herodotus, among other Greek writers, speaks of humanity being ruled successively by gods, demigods, heroes, and men. The Lemuro-Atlanteans were among the first who had a dynasty of spirit-kings, highly evolved living devas or demigods.
There are the Chinese demigods, Chin-nanga and Chan-gy, the Peruvian Manco-Capac, the Hindu rishis, and the demigods popularized among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. In the Golden Age of Saturnus all people were said to have been demigods, and many of the figures in mythology who seem at one moment historical characters and at another gods or symbols, were actually demigods who once dwelt among mankind, founding new cultures, instructing and guiding humanity, and revealing all the arts and sciences.
As examples of demigods who actually descended and taught the human race in historic and prehistoric times, one may cite Osiris, the first Zoroaster, Krishna, and Moses.
Uriel - Uriel ''uri''el (Hebrew) Flame or light of divinity; one of the four, seven, or ten angels stationed about the throne of divinity, according to the ancient Hebrews. Specifically, the angel or divinity of light -- not merely of physical light, but of its ultraspiritual origin, implying intellectual illumination.
"The different worlds which successively emanated from the En Soph and from each other, and which sustain the relationship to the Deity of first, second, third, and fourth generations, are, with the exception of the first (i.e., the World of Emanations), inhabited by spiritual beings of various grades. . . . the first world, or the Archetypal Man, in whose image everything is formed, is occupied by no one else.
The angel Metatron, occupies the second or the Briatic World ([olam beri''ah]), which is the first habitable world; he alone constitutes the world of pure spirits. He is the garment of [Shaddai], i.e., the visible manifestation of the Deity; his name is numerically equivalent to that of the Lord. (Sohar, iii, 321 a.) He governs the visible world, preserves the unity, harmony, and the revolutions of all the spheres, planets and heavenly bodies, and is the Captain of the myriads of the angelic hosts who people the second habitable or the Jetziratic World ([olam yetsirah]), and who are divided into ten ranks, answering to the ten Sephiroth. Each of these angels is set over a different part of the universe.
One has the control of one sphere, another of another heavenly body; one angel has charge of the sun, another of the moon, another of the earth, another of the sea, another of the fire, another of the wind, another of the light, another of the seasons, &c., &c.; and these angels derive their names from the heavenly bodies they respectively guard. Hence one is called Venus ([Nogah]), one Mars ([Ma''adim]), one the substance of Heaven ([etsem hash-shamayim]), one the angel of light ([''Uri''el]), and another the angel of fire ([Nuri''el]). (Comp. Sohar, i, 42, &c.)" (Ginsberg, Kabbalah pp. 108-1?)
Erataoth - Erataoth (Hebrew-Syrian) The dog; one of several somewhat arbitrary but highly mystical titles given to spiritual beings among early Syrian, Hebrew, and other Near Eastern mystics, having especial reference perhaps to the seven sacred planets.
Death - Death Death is not a thing in itself, but one of the phases or temporary events in the unending dramas of life, so that the opposite of death is birth rather than life. In other words, the opposite of manifested life is unmanifest life, pralaya and its aeonic rest.
Manvantara and pralaya are phases in the endless flow of the alternating current of cosmic motion, which is the immediate result of the life-breath of the spiritual essence at the heart of everything in manifestation. The same eternal motion which brings everything into objective existence has thereby caused the death of the same entity on the previous subjective plane of life. Then, when the lifetime of this manifestation ends, the reverse of this rhythmic motion causes the death of the entity from objective existence, and carries it back to be reborn into its subjective life.
This law applies universally to solar systems, planets, human beings, atoms, etc. The reincarnating ego is born and dies on each of the successive planes of existence through which it descends from spiritual realms to be reborn again on earth. The same rhythmic motion reversed spells death here, with the same repeated births and deaths on its ascending journey to its spiritual home.
Death occurs not from a lack of life, but because the ceaseless motion of the vital essence is wearing out the body. The senility of old age means that certain elements are already drifting in the reverse current that is setting towards the other side of the veil. With the last heartbeat, the dying person is vitally aware of a detailed panorama of his passing life as the field of experience which he is to harvest in the inner world he is about to be born into. The atoms of his body, freed from his spiritual cohering force, separate actively, each to find its appropriate field of action in nature''s kingdoms. The adept, while still living in the world, has so far conquered death by self-conquest that he can use his developed spiritual will to enter into and consciously function in the realms of spiritual beings. Paul''s mystical saying "I die daily," is true of the initiate who steadily transmutes some degree of his selfish personality to vitalize his higher nature.
There is a close connection between death, sleep, and initiation, sleep being an incomplete death and initiation being a conscious experience of the afterdeath states.
See also DEVACHAN; KAMA-LOKA; PRALAYA; REIMBODIMENT; SECOND DEATH
Brahmadevas - Brahmadevas (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit + deva god, spiritual being)
Spiritual beings who act as guardians of the human race, entities directly emanating from Brahman as spiritual-intellectual energies.
See also DHYANI-CHOHAN
Supernatural - Supernatural Beyond or above nature; but, as nature in its esse is space, the Boundless both inner and outer, the term is meaningless. Supernormal fits better the common usage for phenomena beyond the customary range of our experiences or not explainable by what we know of the laws of nature. In theology supernatural implies a separation between divine beings, spiritual beings, or human saints on the one hand, and nature on the other hand, in virtue of which the normal procedure of nature supposedly can be interfered with -- a conception which is an absurdity from the standpoint of theosophy. Physical nature surrounding us is actually the least part of universal nature, as it is the invisible inner universes and spheres of being which are causal, and our physical universe merely the garment or effect of the invisible superior parts of universal nature.
Land Of The Eternal Sun - Land of the Eternal Sun From immemorial time mystics and occult philosophers have consistently taught of the existence of a land where the sunshine is perpetual, the abode of the gods whose particular function it is to oversee the destinies, not only of mankind, but of other hierarchical groups occupying the earth. Any attempt to fix a geographical locality as this land of the eternal sun has never been successful, for it is no geographical locality, but a region mystically said to be at the top of Mount Meru or the north pole of the earth.
There is a legend known in Tibet which places the mystical Sambhala not only on earth, but likewise upon Mount Meru, and again in the sun -- implying a hierarchy of divine or spiritual beings existing in a threefold order, each order having its own stage or place in this scheme.
Invocation - Summoning benevolent spiritual beings.
|
