The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, commonly known as Opus Dei (Latin for "Work of God") or Opus ("the Work"), is a prelature created by the Roman Catholic Church, composed of a prelate, secular priests, and lay people, whose mission is to spread the Catholic teaching that everyone is called to become a saint and an apostle. The Opus Dei Prelature "encourages Christians of all social classes to live consistently with their faith in the middle of ...

Including:

• Opus Dei - Mission in the Catholic Church
• Opus Dei - Spiritual teachings: an overview
• Opus Dei - Structure: Catholic personal prelature
• Opus Dei - Vocation membership and training
• Opus Dei - Vocation and membership
• Opus Dei - Instruction and training
• Opus Dei - Doctrine demands and consequences
• Opus Dei - Novelty of doctrine and controversies
• Opus Dei - Fidelity and truth vs. ultraconservatism
• Opus Dei - Demands: theological basis
• Opus Dei - Allegations of being a cult
• Opus Dei - Canonisation of Opus Dei's founder
• Opus Dei - Opus Dei in society
• Opus Dei - Mission and general strategy
• Opus Dei - Membership profile
• Opus Dei - Activities and work
• Opus Dei - Freedom and pluralism vs. far-right politics
• Opus Dei - Revolutionary or conservative?
• Opus Dei - History of Opus Dei: A timeline
• Opus Dei - Footnotes

Read more here: » Opus Dei: Encyclopedia - Opus Dei

Dark Spirituality is a broad term used to describe the Left Hand Path religions, however small groups of people are beginning to define themselves as dark spiritualist without identifying themselves as practicing any of the well known left hand paths. The religion believes all spiritualities divide into a dark spirituality/light spirituality dichotomy. Light spiritualist are believed to draw together into groups to seek out a higher being or beings to act as their Goddess/God or Goddesses/Gods. The dark approach is believed to be a solitary approach that leaves one responsible for their own spiritual growth with ...

Including:

• Dark Spirituality - Defining Dark Spirituality
• Dark Spirituality - Spiritual Goal
• Dark Spirituality - Morality
• Dark Spirituality - Occult Beliefs

Read more here: » Dark Spirituality: Encyclopedia - Dark Spirituality

Born again is a term used primarily in the Fundamentalist and Evangelical branches of Protestant Christianity, where it is associated with salvation, conversion and spiritual rebirth. Outside of these circles, the term is often applied by extension to other phenomena, including a transcending personal experience — or the experience of being spiritually reborn as a "new" human being. Born again - Christian concepts. To be born again in Christianity is synonymous with spiritual ...

Including:

• Born again - Christian concepts

Read more here: » Born again: Encyclopedia - Born again

Spiritual possession is a concept of many religions and tales, where it is believed that a demon, or disincarnate being, may take temporary control of a human body, resulting in noticeable changes in behaviour. The term demonic possession is used when the spirit is malignant (a demon), whereas incorporation or channelling may be used in the case of supposed benign spirits. Channelling is the claimed receipt of information or commands by a person functioning as a medium or channel for a spirit or other source. This often ...

Including:

• Spiritual possession - Religious views
• Spiritual possession - Scientific view
• Spiritual possession - Historical cases
• Spiritual possession - Books
• Spiritual possession - In fiction
• Spiritual possession - Reference

Read more here: » Spiritual possession: Encyclopedia - Spiritual possession

Non-being Used to express the condition of things in pralaya, preceding manifestation. It corresponds to the Sanskrit asat, while sat corresponds to Being. Yet both non-being and a-sat are frequently used for non-existence.

It is philosophically questionable to bracket non-being with the Absolute, or again to bracket Absolute with Being (though the latter is often justifiable) as the words absolute, being, and non-being do not correspond to infinity; for Absolute corresponds to the Sanskrit mukti or moksha, that which is freed from manifested existence; whereas infinitude comprehends both nonmanifestation and manifestation, being and non-being, sat and asat, the absolute and the bound. One of the best correspondences to infinity is the term coined by Blavatsky: Be-ness, or pure abstract attributeless esse.

Non-being signifies the condition of the universe during pralaya, and the spiritual principles of the universe may then be said to be in their absolute condition or state, or in paranirvana; equally being in its most abstract sense can correspond to absolute. Hence it is correct to use non-being as the state of high spirituality of a being or entity in paranirvana; thus the phrase "the bliss of non-being."

(See also: Non-being, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Soulless Beings Men and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritual essence within them, but not self-consciously so; they live very largely in the brain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness.

"We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote Blavatsky. This does not mean that those people have no soul, but that the spiritual part of these human beings is unable to manifest itself through the unawakened brain-mind and feelings.

They are animate humans with an animate working brain-mind, but otherwise soulless in the sense that the soul is insufficiently expressive. This is what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the living dead, or the spiritually useless portion of mankind. They live in the ordinary mind and in the body, thinking only of and in these small and restricted spheres of consciousness. Such "soulless" people are very numerous. Soulless beings are not to be confused with lost souls.

(See also: Soulless Beings, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Circle of Being

In Druidic philosophy, both the macrocosm and microcosm are divided into three circles of being. The inner circle is abred, the middle is gweynfd and the outer most on is ceugant. The innermost circle is often represented by the magick circle where in all magick and ritual is performed.

(See also: Circle of Being, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Wondrous Being Often equivalent to Silent Watcher, the supreme head of a hierarchy; and since hierarchies are innumerable, there are innumerable Wondrous Beings. Thus there is a Wondrous Being or Silent Watcher of cosmic magnitude for the Brotherhood of Compassion; a Wondrous Being for our globe, who is identical on a smaller scale; and a Wondrous Being for our planetary chain. In the other direction, there are Wondrous Beings for all less hierarchies even down to that of the atom: it is the highest egoic form of the divine spark everywhere. In The Secret Doctrine the Wondrous Being is made equivalent to the root-base or ever-living-human-banyan.

"This 'Wondrous Being' descended from a 'high region,' they say, in the early part of the Third Age, before the separation of the sexes of the Third Race. . . .

"The 'Being' just referred to, which has to remain nameless, is the Tree from which, in subsequent ages, all the great historically known Sages and Hierophants, such as the Rishi Kapila, Hermes, Enoch, Orpheus, etc., etc., have branched off. As objective man, he is the mysterious (to the profane -- the ever invisible) yet ever present Personage about whom legends are rife in the East, especially among the Occultists and the students of the Sacred Science. It is he who changes form, yet remains ever the same. And it is he again who holds spiritual sway over the initiated Adepts throughout the whole world. He is, as said, the 'Nameless One' who has so many names, and yet whose names and whose very nature are unknown. He is the 'Initiator,' called the 'great sacrifice.' For, sitting at the threshold of light, he looks into it from within the circle of Darkness, which he will not cross; nor will he quit his post till the last day of this life-cycle" (SD 1:207-8).

The Wondrous Being of the human constitution is the higher monad called atma-buddhi-manas or the inner god, to which Jesus referred when he spoke of his Father.

See also WATCHER

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

Celestial Order of Beings Hierarchies of creative powers of various orders; in The Secret Doctrine (1:213) seven orders of celestial beings or creative powers are described: 1) Divine Flames, Fiery Lions, or Lions of Life (symbolized by the sign Leo), the nucleole of the superior divine world; formless Fiery Breaths, identical in one aspect with the upper Sephirothal triad which is placed in the archetypal world; 2) those of fire and aether, corresponding to atma-buddhi, formless but somewhat less spiritual and more ethereal; 3) those which correspond to atma-buddhi-manas, the triads; 4) ethereal entities, the highest rupa group, the nursery of human conscious spiritual souls, the imperishable jivas; 5) connected with the microcosmic pentagon, the crocodile, Capricorn contains the dual attributes of both spiritual and physical aspects of the universe, and dual human nature; 6) and 7) partake of the lower qualities of the quaternary, conscious ethereal entities, invisible, giving rise to numerous orders of nature spirits and spirits of atoms.

See also HIERARCHIES; HIERARCHY OF COMPASSION

(See also: Celestial Order of Beings, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Watcher or Silent Watcher, Wondrous Being Generically the dominant self or overlord of any hierarchy. Throughout a human being's complex nature dwells his own spiritual Wondrous Being, the fountain and fundamental law of his whole nature; there is the Silent Watcher of the Brotherhood of Compassion, who is identical with the Watcher for our globe; the Watcher for our planetary chain; for our solar system, its habitat being the solar chain; for the Milky Way; and for the home-universe. At the other extreme there is a Silent Watcher for every atom, as for every other entity, whether large or small. The Watcher for individual people is the monad, the divine prototype at the upper rung of the ladder of being; an individual dhyani-chohan, the spiritual individuality during the manvantara, and as best it can it works through its "shadows" or incarnations.

In the earlier third root-races, the Sons of Wisdom produced by kriyasakti a progeny called the Sons of Ad, Sons of the Fire-mist, or Sons of Will and Yoga. This was not a race, but "at first a wondrous Being, called the 'Initiator,' and after him a group of semi-divine and semi-human beings. 'Set apart' in Archaic genesis for certain purposes, they are those in whom are said to have incarnated the highest Dhyanis, 'Munis and Rishis from previous Manvantaras' -- to form the nursery for future human adepts, on this earth and during the present cycle" (SD 1:207). This Wondrous Being, who descended in the early part of the Third Age, is the tree from which have come the great historically known sages and hierophants, and it holds spiritual sway over the initiated adepts. "He is the 'Initiator,' called the 'great sacrifice.' For, sitting at the threshold of light, he looks into it from within the circle of Darkness, which he will not cross, nor will he quit his post till the last day of this life-cycle. Why does the solitary Watcher remain at his self-chosen post? Why does he sit by the fountain of primeval Wisdom, of which he drinks no longer, as he has naught to learn which he does not know . . .? Because the lonely, sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless desert of illusion and matter called Earth-Life. Because he would fain show the way to that region of freedom and light, from which he is a voluntary exile himself, to every prisoner who has succeeded in liberating himself from the bonds of flesh and illusion. Because, in short, he has sacrificed himself for the sake of mankind, though but a few Elect may profit by the great sacrifice" (SD 1:208).

The Watchers of the seven spheres are the rectors or governors of the seven planets, also called Watchers of the earth and man. The Watchers of the four quarters of the sky are the mystical four Maharajas. Watchers reign more or less directly over mankind during satya and subsequent yugas down to the beginning of the third root-race, after which come patriarchs, heroes, etc. Each people or nation has its direct Watcher, guardian, or Father-in-Heaven, as for instance Jehovah-Sabaoth-Saturn for the Hebrews.

(See also: Watcher, Silent Watcher, Wondrous Being, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Bes (Egypt, Egyptian). A phallic god, the god of concupiscence and pleasure. He is represented standing on a lotus ready to devour his own progeny (Abydos). A rather modern deity of foreign origin.

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

Christed Being:

One who has realized Christ Consciousness.

(See also: Christed Being, Body Mind and Soul)

Bes (Egyptian) (from besa, basu panther)

A deity of foreign origin, portrayed as a dwarf with large bearded head, flat nose, protruding tongue, shaggy hair with an African headdress, girded with a panther's skin and tail. He is represented as a god of dance and music, also as a god of war, and as a protector of children. In later periods he became merged with some of the aspects of Horus. Perhaps in most aspects, however, Bes is the Egyptian representation of the Latin Cupid.

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

Being and Nonbeing; Be-ness Equivalent to the Sanskrit sat, asat, and tat. Asat is "a philosophical term meaning 'non-being,' or rather non-be-ness. The 'incomprehensible nothingness.' Sat, the immutable, eternal, ever-present, and the one real 'Be-ness' (not Being) is spoken of as being born of Asat, and Asat begotten by 'Sat.'

The unreal, or Prakriti, objective nature regarded as an illusion. Nature, or the illusive shadow of its one true essence" (TG 33). So asat or nonbeing is used both to denote that which precedes Being, and out of which Being is born -- or vise versa; and to denote the illusory world in contrast with the essential or fundamental cosmic self.

Sat (or asat) corresponds very largely with the Absolute of ordinary European philosophy, whereas Be-ness or nonbeing corresponds with the extremely metaphysical Vedic and Vedantic tat and parabrahman.

(See also: Being and Nonbeing, Be-ness, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hermetic Chain or Great Chain of Being Greek expression found even in Homer, signifying the chain of beings from divinities reaching down to inferior gods, heroes, and sages, to ordinary human beings. Each link in this aggregate of hierarchies, of which each link is itself a hierarchy, transmitted its wisdom and power to the next below it; and it is thus that knowledge was originally communicated to early mankind. See GURUPARAMPARA

(See also: Hermetic Chain, Great Chain of Being, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hermod (Icelandic) (from her host, army + mod might, courage)

A son of Odin in Norse mythology, equivalent to Hermes or Mercury, messenger of the gods. Best known for his memorable journey to the kingdom of Hel on behalf of the gods, when he was sent to entreat the queen of death to give up the sun god Balder whose death at the hands of his blind brother Hoder had been brought about by Loki (in some versions Odin himself undertakes the errand).

(See also: Hermetic Chain, Great Chain of Being, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

LIGHT BEING - entity with a highly developed consciousness in one of the spiritual worlds. (NAD)

(See also: LIGHT BEING, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

An important distinction needs to be made between spirituality in religion and spirituality as opposed to religion. In recent years, spirituality in religion often carries connotations of the believer's faith being more personal, less dogmatic, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the faiths of established religions. It also can connote the nature of a believer's personal relationship with God, as opposed to the general relationship ...

See also:

Spirituality, Spirituality - The spiritual and the religious, Spirituality - Directed spirituality, Spirituality - Spirituality and personal well-being, Spirituality - The Spiritual and Science, Spirituality - Spiritual traditions and communities

Read more here: » Spirituality: Encyclopedia II - Spirituality - The spiritual and the religious

One aspect of 'Being spiritual' is goal-directed, with aims such as: simultaneously improve one's wisdom and willpower, achieve a closer connection to Deity/the universe, and remove illusions or false ideas at the sensory, feeling and thinking aspects of a person. The 'Plato's cave' analogy in book VII of The Republic is one of the most well known descriptions of the spiritual development process, and thus, an excellent aid in under ...

See also:

Spirituality, Spirituality - The spiritual and the religious, Spirituality - Directed spirituality, Spirituality - Spirituality and personal well-being, Spirituality - The Spiritual and Science, Spirituality - Spiritual traditions and communities

Read more here: » Spirituality: Encyclopedia II - Spirituality - Directed spirituality

A Theosophical definition of Soulless Beings :

Soulless Beings

"We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote H. P. Blavatsky. This is an actual fact. The statement does not mean that those whom we thus elbow have no soul. The significance is that the spiritual part of these human beings is sleeping, not awake. Soulless Beings are animate humans with an animate working brain-mind, an animal mind, but otherwise "soulless" in the sense that the soul is inactive, sleeping; and this is also just what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the "living dead."

Soulless Beings are everywhere, these people. We elbow them, just as H. P. Blavatsky says, at every turn. The eyes may be physically bright, and filled with the vital physical fire, but they lack soul; they lack tenderness, the fervid yet gentle warmth of the living flame of inspiration within. Sometimes impersonal love will awaken the soul in a man or in a woman; sometimes it will kill it if the love become selfish and gross. The streets are filled with such "soulless" people; but the phrase soulless people does not mean "lost souls." The latter is again something else.

The term soulless people therefore is a technical term. It means men and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritual essence within them, but who are not self-consciously so connected. They live very largely in the brain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness. They turn with pleasure to the frivolities of life. They have the ordinary feelings of honor, etc., because it is conventional and good breeding so to have them; but the deep inner fire of yearning, the living warmth that comes from being more or less at one with the god within, they know not. Hence, they are "soulless," because the soul is not working with fiery energy in and through them.

A lost soul, on the other hand, means an entity who through various rebirths, it may be a dozen, or more or less, has been slowly following the "easy descent to Avernus," and in whom the threads of communication with the spirit within have been snapped one after the other. Vice will do this, continuous vice. Hate snaps these spiritual threads more quickly than anything else perhaps. Selfishness, the parent of hate, is the root of all human evil; and therefore a lost soul is one who is not merely soulless in the ordinary theosophical usage of the word, but is one who has lost the last link, the last delicate thread of consciousness, connecting him with his inner god. He will continue "the easy descent," passing from human birth to an inferior human birth, and then to one still more inferior, until finally the degenerate astral monad  - all that remains of the human being that once was  - may even enter the body of some beast to which it feels attracted (and this is one side of the teaching of transmigration, which has been so badly misunderstood in the Occident); some finally go even to plants perhaps, at the last, and will ultimately vanish. The astral monad will then have faded out. Such lost souls are exceedingly rare, fortunately; but they are not what we call soulless people.

If the student will remember the fact that when a human being is filled with the living spiritual and intellectual fiery energies flowing into his brain-mind from his inner god, he is then an insouled being, he will readily understand that when these fiery energies can no longer reach the brain-mind and manifest in a man's life, there is thus produced what is called a soulless being. A good man, honorable, loyal, compassionate, aspiring, gentle, and true-hearted, and a student of wisdom, is an "insouled" man; a buddha is one who is fully, completely insouled; and there are all the intermediate grades between.

See also: Soulless Beings, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Theories of Spiritual Evolution are important in many Occult and Esoteric teachings, which emphasise the progression and development of the individual either after death (Spiritualism) or through successive reincarnations (Theosophy, Hermeticism). Spiritual evolution - Spiritualism. In the 19th century Anglo-American Spiritualist ideas emphasise the progression of the soul after death to higher states of existence, in contrast to the ...

See also:

Spiritual evolution, Spiritual evolution - Precursors to the Idea, Spiritual evolution - The Cyclic Cosmos, Spiritual evolution - Emanation, Spiritual evolution - Samkhya, Spiritual evolution - The Great Chain of Being, Spiritual evolution - German Idealism, Spiritual evolution - Occult Concepts of Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual evolution - Spiritualism, Spiritual evolution - Theosophical Conceptions, Spiritual evolution - Theurgy, Spiritual evolution - Evolution towards Godhead, Spiritual evolution - A Common Vision, Spiritual evolution - Teilhard de Chardin, Spiritual evolution - Sri Aurobindo, Spiritual evolution - Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, Spiritual evolution - Surat Shabda Yoga, Spiritual evolution - Dynamic Evolution through successive Kingdoms, Spiritual evolution - New Age ideas, Spiritual evolution - Integral Philosophy and Spiral Dynamics

Read more here: » Spiritual evolution: Encyclopedia II - Spiritual evolution - Occult Concepts of Spiritual Evolution