Spiritual Beings Dictionary

A Theosophical definition of Agnishvatta (Agnishvattas) :

Agnishvatta (Agnishvattas)

(Sanskrit) A compound of two words: agni, "fire"; shvatta, "tasted" or "sweetened," from svad, verb-root meaning "to taste" or "to sweeten." Therefore, literally one who has been delighted or sweetened by fire. A class of pitris: our solar ancestors as contrasted with the barhishads, our lunar ancestors.

The kumaras, agnishvattas, and manasaputras are three groups or aspects of the same beings: the kumaras represent the aspect of original spiritual purity untouched by gross elements of matter. The agnishvattas represent the aspect of their connection with the sun or solar spiritual fire. Having tasted or been "sweetened" by the spiritual fire  - the fire of intellectuality and spirituality  - they have been purified thereby. The manasaputras represent the aspect of intellectuality  - the functions of higher intellect.

The agnishvattas and manasaputras are two names for the same class or host of beings, and set forth or signify or represent two different aspects or activities of this one class of beings. Thus, for instance, a man may be said to be a kumara in his spiritual parts, an agnishvatta in his buddhic-manasic parts, and a manasaputra in his purely manasic aspect. Other beings could be called kumaras in their highest aspects, as for instance the beasts, but they are not imbodied agnishvattas or manasaputras.

The agnishvattas are the solar spiritual-intellectual parts of us, and therefore are our inner teachers. In preceding manvantaras, they had completed their evolution in the realms of physical matter, and when the evolution of lower beings had brought these latter to the proper state, the agnishvattas came to the rescue of these who had only the physical "creative fire," thus inspiring and enlightening these lower lunar pitris with spiritual and intellectual energies or "fires."

When this earth's planetary chain shall have reached the end of its seventh round, we, as then having completed the evolutionary course for this planetary chain, will leave this planetary chain as dhyan-chohans, agnishvattas; but the others now trailing along behind us  - the present beasts  - will be the lunar pitris of the next planetary chain to come.

While it is correct to say that these three names appertain to the same class of beings, nevertheless each name has its own significance in the occult teaching, which is why the three names are used with three distinct meanings. Imagine an unconscious god-spark beginning its evolution in any one solar or maha-manvantara. We may call it a kumara, a being of original spiritual purity, but with a destiny through karmic evolution connected with the realms of matter.

At the other end of the line, at the consummation of the evolution in this maha-manvantara, when the evolving entity has become a fully self-conscious god or divinity, its proper appellation then is agnishvatta, for it has been "sweetened" or purified by means of the working through it of the spiritual fires inherent in itself.

Now then, when such an agnishvatta assumes the role of a bringer of mind or of intellectual light to a lunar pitri which it overshadows and in which a ray from it incarnates, it then, although in its own realm an agnishvatta, functions as a manasaputra or child of mind or mahat. A brief analysis of the compound elements of these three names may be useful.

Kumara is from ku meaning "with difficulty" and mara meaning "mortal." The significance of the word therefore can be paraphrased as "mortal with difficulty," and the meaning usually given to it by Sanskrit scholars as "easily dying" is wholly exoteric and amusing, and doubtless arose from the fact that kumara is a word frequently used for child or boy, everybody knowing that young children "die easily." The idea therefore is that purely spiritual beings, although ultimately destined by evolution to pass through the realms of matter, become mortal, i.e., material, only with difficulty.

Agnishvatta has the meaning stated above, "delighted" or "pleased" or "sweetened," i.e., "purified" by fire  - which we may render in two ways: either as the fire of suffering and pain in material existence producing great fiber and strength of character, i.e., spirituality; or, perhaps still better from the standpoint of occultism, as signifying an entity or entities who have become one in essence through evolution with the aethery fire of spirit.

Manasaputra is a compound of two words: manasa, "mental" or "intellectual," from the word manas, "mind," and putra, "son" or "child," therefore a child of the cosmic mind  - a "mind-born son" as H. P. Blavatsky phrases it. (See also Pitris, Lunar Pitris)

See also: Agnishvatta (Agnishvattas) , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Light Light ranges from the arcana of cosmic being to the physical light that turns the vanes of some scientific mill.

As the opposite of darkness, evil, ignorance, sleep, and death, it signifies wisdom, goodness, and life. In one sense it is a permutation of mulaprakriti, and as such is that root-substance which can never become objective to mortals in this race or round. It is objective only in relation to that Darkness which is absolute Light. Otherwise it includes both spirit and matter.

Three kinds are enumerated: the abstract and absolute, which is darkness; the light of the unmanifest-manifest or Second Logos; and the latter reflected in the dhyani-chohans, minor logoi, and thence shed upon the lower and more objective planes. In a high aspect, it is daiviprakriti or the light of the Logos, the synthesis of the seven cosmic forces; descending through the planes of manifestation, it condenses into forms; physical matter itself is a condensation of light. Through light everything is thus brought into being. Being a root of mental self, it also therefore is the root of physical self (SD 1:430).

Light does not necessarily imply heat, as heat is one of the effects produced by the action of light on matter. The term cool radiance has its physical application in the light of phosphorescence. Light becomes relative on manifested planes, its correlative being darkness, which to other beings may be light, while our light may be their darkness. Again, what is light to beings on a higher plane of perception, may be darkness to us, because it does not impress our senses.

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

Self Theosophical literature distinguishes between self and ego: self is a purely spiritual unit, divine in essence, the same in every being, expressed as "I am"; egos are many, different in different beings, and expressed as "I am I."

Egos are indirect or reflected consciousnesses, seeing themselves as apart from other egos, each having its own individualized characteristics. But the self or atman is the purest and strongest intuition of being as a universal principle and as the summit of the hierarchy called man. It is pure consciousness, the essential principle which gives to every person knowledge of selfhood. As it has no egoic consciousness, it seems to our reason to be unconsciousness. To become self-conscious, a vehicle is needed, so that the self may see itself reflected as in a mirror.

In humans what is called the personal self is a compound, in which the true selfhood or atmic ray shines dimly through many screens. This causes our various mental states to be regarded as pertaining to our own individuality, though they are actually influences which flow into and out of the mind, and to which we attribute a false sense of ownership, as when we say, "I am angry," instead of "I am experiencing anger." The path of liberation frees us progressively from these false selves; we abandon the heresy of separateness, and at last

See the true self within us as being identical with that self in all beings.

(See also: Self , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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)

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.

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

Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy The hierarchy of spiritual beings extending from the highest solar or galactic monad, to the least element forming its vehicles or being.

"It is built of divinities, demigods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and great and noble men, who serve as a living channel for the spiritual currents coming to this and every other planet of our system from the heart of the solar divinity, and who themselves shed glory and light and peace upon that pathway from the compassionate deeps of their own being. . . .

"On our earth there is a minor hierarchy of light. Working in this sphere there are lofty intelligences, human souls, having their respective places in the hierarchical degrees. These masters or mahatmas are living forces in the spiritual life of the world; and awakened minds and intuitive hearts sense their presence, at least at times" (FSO 467-8). The head of the terrestrial spiritual-psychological hierarchy is a being sometimes called the Silent Watcher, who acts as a channel for all the spiritual forces flowing to and from the earth, and who is connected inwardly with all the beings on earth.

In theosophical literature, the Hierarchy of Compassion of our solar system is sometimes given as:

1)    adi-buddhi (primal wisdom), the mystic universally diffused essence;

2)    mahabuddhi (universal buddhi), the Logos;

3)    daiviprakriti (universal divine light), universal life, the Second Logos;

4)    ) Sons of Light, the seven cosmic logoi, the logoi of cosmic life, the Third Logos;

5)    dhyani-buddhas (buddhas of contemplation);

6)    dhyani-bodhisattvas (bodhisattvas of contemplation);

7)    manushya-buddhas (human buddhas), racial buddhas;

8)    bodhisattvas; and

9)    men.

Here, the Sons of Light or the seven cosmic logoi emanating from the sun and working in its kingdom are the parents of the rectors or planetary spirits of the seven sacred planets. The seven dhyani-buddhas, also called the celestial buddhas or causal buddhas, through their emanated representatives each govern one round of the septenary cycles of evolution on a planetary chain. The seven dhyani-bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, similarly through their emanated representatives each govern one of the seven globes comprising a planetary chain.

The manushya-buddhas are the buddhas which watch over the root-races in a round, two appearing in every race, one near the commencement and one near the midpoint of each root-race. Gautama Buddha was the second racial buddha of the fifth root-race.

The bodhisattvas of earth are those spiritual and intellectually advanced human beings who leave the nirvana of buddhahood in order to remain on earth for their sublime work of aiding, stimulating, and guiding those hosts of entities, including humanity, trailing behind them.

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

Breath In the astral-vital organisms of living beings the breath is called prana, which also means "life." This is not limited to the respiratory functions, but includes what physiologists might call nerve currents operating in all parts of the body, of which the pulmonary diastole and systole is only a particular manifestation. Hatha yoga deals with the study and use of these functions, but before such aspects of the lower knowledge can be profitably or even safely used, the learner must have acquired self-mastery, stability, and disinterestedness of motive.

The ceaseless alternate outflowing and inflowing of cosmic life or hierarchies of lives of the one manifest reality is called the Great Breath from its analogy to physiological breathing, which implies incessant alternating motion, expansion and contraction, of life, air, wind, or spirit. The sevenfold word symbolizing the logos is said to be the evolution of the breath. Though the alternation of manvantara and pralaya conjoined are the Great Breath, the alternating motion does not cease even during the long pralayic ages.

Breath is often used in the same sense as ray, wind, spirit, pneuma, to denote an active emanation which is at once active and passive, positive and negative, donative and receptive, the principle of polarity later in cosmic evolution becoming pronounced. An instance is when the divine breath incubates the waters of space, and worlds are produced. Absolute perpetual motion is the breath of life of the one element, and is applied to fohat. In Sanskrit it is expressed among other words by asu, the true root of asura (a living or spiritual being). In Hebrew several words express it, varying according to the spiritual or grosser meaning: neshamah, ruah, or nephesh. In Greek philosophy perhaps the main word used in this sense in pneuma, equally well translated as spirit.

The plural "breaths" is used to denote spirits or forces, such as the Ah-hi, dhyani-chohans, asuras, the holy circumgyrating breaths, and the seven breaths or divisions of the Logos. There may also be right- and left-hand breaths, or breaths (winds) from the four, six, or eight directions, each having its own specific quality and functions. In general, breath stands for the air element.

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

Existence (from Latin exsisto standing forth, emerging)

Although often used interchangeably with being, in theosophy being refers to abstract continuity in spirit, while existence means the phenomenal manifestation of an entity in the phenomenal worlds. Therefore being is the noumenon and existence is the phenomenon. Hence one can speak of the causes of existence (nidanas), or of all existences being dissolved. The Absolute, a cosmic hierarch, is defined with equal appropriateness as absolute existence and as non-existence.

Non-existence is described as absolute being, existence, and consciousness (SD 1:39). Fichte makes a proper distinction between being (Seyn) and existence (Daseyn), the former being the noumenal One, and the latter the phenomenal manifold through which the One is known.

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

A Dictionary of Spiritual Terms. From Acupuncture to Zoroaster.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Ah-hi (Senzar) A group or class of celestial or spiritual beings known in different countries under various names: dhyani-chohans, angels or angelic hosts, 'elohim, the Greek minor logoi, etc. Vehicles for the manifestation of cosmic mind and will, they are "the collective hosts of spiritual beings" through which the universal mind comes into action.

"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 power of Nature, as erroneously thought" (SD 1:38). During pralaya "Universal Mind was not, for there were no Ah-hi to contain it," no celestial beings to manifest mind (Stanzas of Dzyan 1:3).

Commenting on this, Blavatsky describes the Ah-hi as entities who "being on the highest plane, reflect the universal mind collectively at the first flutter of Manvantara. After which they begin the work of evolution of all the lower forces throughout the seven planes, down to the lowest -- our own. The Ah-hi are the primordial seven rays, or Logoi, emanated from the first Logos, triple, yet one in its essence. . . .

"Like all other Hierarchies, on the highest plane they are arupa, i.e., formless, bodiless, without any substance, mere breaths. On the second plane, they first approach to Rupa, or form. On the third, they become Manasa-putras, those who became incarnated in men. With every plane they reach they are called by different names . . ." (TBL 17, 20-21).

(See also: Ah-hi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Trapped : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Being lost or trapped

Being lost or trapped

In these highly common dreams, you're lost and feeling desperate. You may be buried alive or locked in a cage. Or you dream of not being able to move; you're powerless to scream or breathe.

These dreams may occur when you feel confusion or conflict about how to act in waking life.

The images are influenced by biological roots and experience. Feeling trapped or paralyzed also mirrors what occurs to the large muscles of the body during normal REM sleep, when they're paralyzed to prevent the body from acting out the dreams.

Such dreams could reflect frustrations in waking life, such as feeling trapped in a relationship or a dead-end job.

You may open a door in your home to find a new room or find something new in the neighborhood. These dreams occur usually when you feel an aspect of your life if opening up.

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Trapped , Dream Dictionary Trapped )

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.

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

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

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

Brahma (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root brih to expand, grow, fructify)

The first god of the Hindu Trimurti or triad, consisting of Brahma, the emanator, evolver, and creator; Vishnu, the sustainer or preserver; and Siva, the regenerator or destroyer. Brahma is the vivifying expansive force of nature in its eternally periodic manvantaras. He stands for the spiritual evolving or developing energy-consciousness of a solar system which is also called the Egg of Brahma (brahmanda). Brahma is called the creator or Logos, but in the theosophic philosophy creator is simply an abstract term or idea, like army. In Burnouf's words:

"Having evolved himself from the soul of the world, once separated from the first cause, he evaporates with, and emanates all nature out of himself. He does not stand above it, but is mixed up with it; Brahma and the universe form one Being, each particle of which is in its essence Brahma himself, who proceeded out of himself" (q SD 1:380n). The Vishnu-Purana explains that created beings "although they are destroyed (in their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the good or evil acts of former existences, are never exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma produces the world anew, they are the progeny of his will . . ." (q SD 1:456n).

Brahman is both masculine and neuter, and therefore has two meanings. In the masculine (Brahma) it is the evolving energy of the cosmic egg, as distinguished from the neuter (Brahman). Brahma is the vehicle or sheath of Brahman. The Vishnu-Purana says that Brahma in its totality has essentially the aspect of prakriti, both evolved and unevolved (mulaprakriti), and also the aspects of spirit and of time. "Brahma, as 'the germ of unknown Darkness,' is the material from which all evolves and develops 'as the web from the spider, as foam from the water,' etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahma the 'Creator' is, as a term, derived from the root brih, to increase or expand. Brahma 'expands' and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance" (SD 1:83). Again,

"Here we find, as in all genuine philosophical systems, even the 'Egg' or the Circle (or Zero), boundless Infinity, referred to as It, and Brahma, the first unit only, referred to as the male god, i.e., the fructifying Principle. It is  or 10 (ten) the Decade. On the plane of the Septenary or our World only, it is called Brahma. On that of the Unified Decade in the realm of Reality, this male Brahma is an illusion" (SD 1:333).

According to the Aitareya-Brahmana, Brahma as Prajapati (lord of beings) manifests himself first of all as twelve bodies or attributes, which are represented by the twelve gods, symbolizing 1) fire; 2) the sun; 3) soma, which gives omniscience; 4) all living beings; 5) vayu, or ether; 6) death, or breath of destruction -- Siva; 7) earth; 8) heaven; 9) Agni, the immaterial fire; 10) Aditya, the immaterial and invisible sun; 11) mind; and 12) the great infinite cycle, "which is not to be stopped." Brahma in one of his phases therefore is the visible universe, every atom of which is essentially himself.

Brahma "symbolizes personally the collective creators of the World and Men -- the universe with all its numberless productions of things movable and (seemingly) immovable. He is collectively the Prajapatis, the Lords of Being; and the four bodies typify the four classes of creative powers or Dhyan Chohans . . ." (SD 2:60), these four bodies being ratri (night) associated with the creation of the asuras; ahan (day) associated with the gods; sandhya (evening twilight) associated with the pitris; and jyotsna (dawn or light) associated with the creation of men.

In the beginning Brahma was Purusha (spirit) and also prakriti (matter). It is later that he separated himself into two halves -- Brahma-Vach (female) and Brahma-Viraj (male). The term Brahma is not found in the Vedas. Blavatsky correlates Adam-Qadmon, Brahma, and Mars as symbols for primitive or initial generative and creative powers typifying water and earth; also all three are associated with the color red (cf SD 2:43, 124-5).

See also BRAHMA'S DAY

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

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.

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

Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy The hierarchy of spiritual beings extending from the highest solar or galactic monad, to the least element forming its vehicles or being.

"It is built of divinities, demigods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and great and noble men, who serve as a living channel for the spiritual currents coming to this and every other planet of our system from the heart of the solar divinity, and who themselves shed glory and light and peace upon that pathway from the compassionate deeps of their own being. . . .

"On our earth there is a minor hierarchy of light. Working in this sphere there are lofty intelligences, human souls, having their respective places in the hierarchical degrees. These masters or mahatmas are living forces in the spiritual life of the world; and awakened minds and intuitive hearts sense their presence, at least at times" (FSO 467-8). The head of the terrestrial spiritual-psychological hierarchy is a being sometimes called the Silent Watcher, who acts as a channel for all the spiritual forces flowing to and from the earth, and who is connected inwardly with all the beings on earth.

In theosophical literature, the Hierarchy of Compassion of our solar system is sometimes given as:

1)    adi-buddhi (primal wisdom), the mystic universally diffused essence;

2)    mahabuddhi (universal buddhi), the Logos;

3)    daiviprakriti (universal divine light), universal life, the Second Logos;

4)    ) Sons of Light, the seven cosmic logoi, the logoi of cosmic life, the Third Logos;

5)    dhyani-buddhas (buddhas of contemplation);

6)    dhyani-bodhisattvas (bodhisattvas of contemplation);

7)    manushya-buddhas (human buddhas), racial buddhas;

8)    bodhisattvas; and

9)    men.

Here, the Sons of Light or the seven cosmic logoi emanating from the sun and working in its kingdom are the parents of the rectors or planetary spirits of the seven sacred planets. The seven dhyani-buddhas, also called the celestial buddhas or causal buddhas, through their emanated representatives each govern one round of the septenary cycles of evolution on a planetary chain. The seven dhyani-bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, similarly through their emanated representatives each govern one of the seven globes comprising a planetary chain.

The manushya-buddhas are the buddhas which watch over the root-races in a round, two appearing in every race, one near the commencement and one near the midpoint of each root-race. Gautama Buddha was the second racial buddha of the fifth root-race.

The bodhisattvas of earth are those spiritual and intellectually advanced human beings who leave the nirvana of buddhahood in order to remain on earth for their sublime work of aiding, stimulating, and guiding those hosts of entities, including humanity, trailing behind them.

(See also: Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Spirit Cosmically, the homogeneous emanation from the universal cosmic monad; in man, the direct emanation of his spiritual monad, the immortal element in us which never was born and which retains through the mahamanvantara its own quality, essence, and characteristics. It sends its ray through the laya-centers of all the various sheaths of consciousness-substance, and is itself a ray of the all-spirit is used specifically for the union of the higher part of manas with atma-buddhi.

"The lack of any mutual agreement between writers in the use of this word has resulted in dire confusion. It is commonly made synonymous with soul; and the lexicographers countenance the usage. In Theosophical teachings the term 'Spirit' is applied solely to that which belongs directly to Universal Consciousness, and which is its homogeneous and unadulterated emanation. Thus, the higher Mind in Man or his Ego (Manas) is when linked indissolubly with Buddhi, a spirit; while the term 'Soul,' human or even animal (the lower Manas acting in animals as instinct), is applied only to Kama-Manas, and qualified as the living soul. This is nephesh, is Hebrew, the 'breath of life.' Spirit is formless and immaterial, being, when individualised, of the highest spiritual substance -- Suddasatwa [Suddha-sattva], the divine essence, of which the body of the manifesting highest Dhyanis are formed. Therefore, the Theosophists reject the appellation 'Spirits' for those phantoms which appear in the phenomenal manifestation of the Spiritualists, and call them 'shells,' and various other names. (See 'Suksham Sarira [sukshma-sarira].) Spirit, in short, is no entity in the sense of having form; for, as Buddhist philosophy has it, where there is a form, there is a cause for pain and suffering. But each individual spirit -- this individuality lasting only throughout the manvantaric life-cycle -- may be described as a centre of consciousness, a self-sentient and self-conscious centre; a state, not a conditioned individual. This is why there is such a wealth of words in Sanskrit to express the different States of Being, Beings and Entities, each appellation showing the philosophical difference, the plane to which such unit belongs, and the degree of its spirituality or materiality. Unfortunately these terms are almost untranslatable into our Western tongues" (TG 306-7).

When paired with matter, it denotes the active, positive, or energic side of dual manifestation; and saying that spirit and matter are one means they are one essentially, being different only as aspects of one fundamental unity. In many languages the same word means both spirit and breath or wind; spirit is related to air among the subtle cosmic elements (maha-tattvas or mahabhutas).

Spirit, considered as the cosmic Ens (being) or Brahman is not the cosmic primordial root, but its first manifestation, corresponding to the Greek First Logos -- either parabrahman-mulaprakriti, when applied to the galaxy; or Brahman-pradhana when applied to our solar system.

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

Bhutasarga (Sanskrit) (from bhuta has beens + sarga creation, production)

Elemental creation; the second of the seven creations or emanations, popularly given in the Hindu Puranas as mahat-tattva, bhutasarga, indriya or aindriyaka, mukhya, tairyagyonya or tiryaksrota, urdhvasrotas, and arvakstrotas. Bhutasarga cosmically is the first differentiation of universal indiscrete substance, or primordial akasa, the first stage of the differentiation of the pre-cosmic elements; the word bhutasarga itself suggests that this differentiation is according to seeds or germs (bhutas) reappearing anew from the preceding cosmic manvantara. "In astronomical and Cosmogonical language this Creation relates to the first stage of cosmic-life, the Fire-Mist Period after its Chaotic stage, when atoms issue from Laya" (SD 1:453).

The second hierarchy of the manus, the dhyani-chohans or fully self-conscious devas, who are the original producers of form (rupas), appear at this stage of cosmic emanational evolution. In the Vishnu-Purana these beings are called chitrasikandinas (bright-crested), the seven rishis who are the informing souls of the seven principal stars of the Great Bear. These seven rishis represent hierarchies of spiritual beings who preside over and guide the septenary stages of the evolution of the cosmos.

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

God (Gods) and Goddess (Goddesses) A generalizing term signifying all self-conscious entities superior to humankind, most often restricted to the three dhyani-chohanic kingdoms. The gods have differing places in nature's hierarchical scheme, running through innumerable grades of cosmic intelligences. Theosophy teaches that human beings who successfully reach the seventh round on this earth chain will pass, at the conclusion of this last round, into the kingdom superior to the human, that of the lowest dhyani-chohans.

One function of dhyani-chohans (gods or demigods of a lower type) is the watching over of all hierarchies below them, some being guardians of the human host, others guarding and protecting the less evolved kingdoms. The higher hierarchical ranges of gods or divinities in our universe "are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as Gods, and collectively -- God. . . . To the highest, we are taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth; which progeny is indissoluble linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us" (SD 1:133).

These beings belong to two general divisions, the arupa (formless) and the rupa (form) divinities. Those having forms should not be imagined as necessarily having human forms as in the ancient pantheons, yet rupa gods do have highly ethereal forms, some perhaps resembling the present human shape and others of quite different construction. But the arupa divinities are to our power of imagination "beings of pure intelligence and of understanding, pure essences, pure spirits, formless as we conceive form" (Fund 347).

Tradition has it that in the immemorial past, certain lower gods associated intimately with their children, humanity, on this globe; but as time went by and mankind became more immersed in material pursuits, people grew to become increasingly forgetful of their divine origin and of the presence of the shining divinities instructing and guiding their forebears, so that the gods and demigods were remembered only in mythologies and religious metaphors of the various races.

What did the ancients mean by their gods and goddesses? They were intended to represent the guiding intelligences present within or in back of all invisible secrets, as well as astral and physical manifestations of nature. During the third root-race there were beings who were

"endowed with the sacred fire from the spark of higher and then independent Beings, who were the psychic and spiritual parents of Man, as the lower Pitar Devata (the Pitris) were the progenitors of his physical body. That Third and holy Race consisted of men who, at their zenith, were described as, 'towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the depositaries of all the mysteries of Heaven and Earth.'. . .

". . . the chief gods and heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races, as of later antiquity, are the deified images of these men of the Third. The days of their physiological purity, and those of their so-called Fall, have equally survived in the hearts and memories of their descendants. Hence, the dual nature shown in those gods, both virtue and sin being exalted to their highest degree, in the biographies composed by posterity" (SD 2:171-2).

The primeval human deity worship degenerated during the fourth root-race (the Atlantean), the ideal at first becoming confused with the form, and the latter finally almost superseding the spirit -- thus in the relatively complete materialization of idea into form, the later Atlanteans in time began to worship themselves, what was to them the powers of nature appearing through themselves as human beings; the degeneration of the ideal proceeding so far that ultimately the worst kind of idol worship became relatively universal, except for the seed of the newer and somewhat higher mankind of the fifth root-race then beginning.

"The moderns are satisfied with worshipping the male heroes of the Fourth race, who created gods after their own sexual image, whereas the gods of primeval mankind were 'male and female,' " i.e., hermaphrodite (SD 2:135).

See also DEITY

(See also: God, Goddess , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Abhava (Abhâva) (Sanskrit) (from a not + bhava being from the verbal root bhu to be, become)

Nonexistence, nonentity, negation; applied to the material universe, noumenal substance, or subjectivity. In Kananda's system of negation of individual beings or objects, abhava is classed as seventh in his categories. In Vedanta philosophy, first of the six pramanas (means of obtaining knowledge), and as such corresponds to the fifth pramana, abhava-pratyaksha, nonperception when applied to the physical, but more accurately apprehension of subjective or spiritual being.

Ordinary usage has attached the meaning of death or annihilation to abhava, but only because to the materialistic mind that which cannot be cognized by the sense organs has no existence. Like other philosophical terms, it has a dual meaning: nonbeing or nonexistence, when taken objectively; mystically, the only true being, that of spirit which is nonbeing to those who do not accept spiritual realms and their life.

According to Sankaracharya: "Those who say that there is such a thing as Abhava on earth, are neither Srotis (those who understand the Srutis), knowers of Sastras, knowers of Truth, nor Sadhus. Listen! both Bhava and Abhava (existence and nonexistence) are also Brahma" (Maha-avakyadarpanam, vv. 129-30). Thus Brahman is essentially the source or foundation of all that is: both becoming or being, and nonbecoming or nonbeing; and because bhava and abhava exist in the universe, both are Brahman.

A more subtle, deeply philosophical concept is the application of abhava to the unmanifest -- that state of the cosmic essence before "becoming" began its work of differentiation into hierarchical orders, thus bringing about bhava.

See also ASAT; BHAVA; SAT

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