Urim and Thummim were placed in the breastplate of the high priest (Ex. 28: 30) and were used as a means of communication with God. They mean "light" and "perfection". Unfortunately, they are not described anywhere in the Bible. Some theories maintain that they were twelve stones that made up part of the High Priest's garments. The process of the communication with God is not given either.

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

Urine Therapy

The use of urine as a healing or therapeutic agent. See (Urine Therapy)

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

Urimancy

Divination by the observation of urine, either by its color, by its taste, by its flow patterns, or by the patterns formed when it hits the ground or in a swirling bowl.

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

Ushtrasana

(Sanskrit) The camel posture in yoga

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

Utkatasana

(Sanskrit) The hunkering posture in yoga

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

Vagina Dentata

( Latin, "vaginal teeth") Motif in stories throughout North and South America, Siberia, Northern Russia, and Greenland. Certain women are depicted as having the teeth of a rattlesnake or some other serpent set in their vaginas.

They kill men who would have intercourse with them. As a result, these women may collect the deceased men's hunting equipment, but often these women are able to hunt with their toothed vaginas. A culture hero, sometimes acting the role of a young husband, is often involved in breaking and wearing down the vaginal teeth with a wedge or stone penis, so that intercourse does not end in death.

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

Vairagya

(Sanskrit) Dispassion; the power of renunciation by which a yogi is able to pursue the true rather than the false, the eternal rather than the ephemeral.

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

Vaisheshika

One of the schools (systems) of Indian philosophy

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

Vaishnavism

The system of Hindu beliefs and practices that honor Vishnu/Krishna as Supreme God; probably the most widely followed kind of Hinduism. Bhakti yoga is the primary practice of this religion, the final reward of which is eternal communion with God.

The most famous of this god's many names are Vishnu, Narayana, Hari, Bhagavan, Krishna, and Rama; hence the usage Vishnu/Krishna. Vaishnavism's ancient name, Bhagavata ("followers of the Blessed Lord, i. e. , Bhagavan"), may clarify its beginnings, for it makes a connection with the movement's two most important literary works: the Bhagavad Gita (first put in print ca. 150 BC) and the Bhagavata Purana (Shrimad Bhagavatam, ca. 850-900).

Though the tradition began earlier, two things became clear by about 200 BC: the Bhagavatas related to their god, Krishna, by devotion and accepted the Vedas and Upanishads, the scriptures of Brahmanic Hindu religion. In this process the Brahmanic deities Vishnu and Narayana became identified with Bhagavan Krishna. Thereafter, Krishna has been viewed as an incarnation (avatara) of the Supreme God Vishnu (by South Indian Vaishnavas), and Vishnu has been viewed as a subordinate form of the Supreme God Krishna (by North Indian Vaishnavas).

The Bhagavad Gita is the earliest full statement of the Bhagavata synthesis. Krishna teaches a path of salvation: desire-free performance of one's born duty should be combined with the meditative wisdom of the Upanishads, suffused by and culminating in loving devotion to Krishna.

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

Vaishnava

(Sanskrit) A follower of the Hindu god Vishnu

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

Vajra

(Sanskrit) One of the channels in the astral spine

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

Vedanta

The end or culmination of the Veda, eternally revealed sacred knowledge; one of six orthodox viewpoints (darshanas) of classical Indian thought. Vedanta is the most influential traditional Hindu school of thought to the present day, especially in its nondualistic form.

The term Vedanta is applied both to the Upanishads (unsystematic sacred texts investigating the ultimate nature of self and cosmos), and a later set of related systems of thought arising from Upanishadic exegesis. Vedanta is sometimes called Uttara (later) Mimamsa (exegesis) to differentiate it from Purva (earlier) Mimamsa, explanation of the ritual-oriented portions of the Veda. The three bases of Vedanta are the Upanishads (especially the oldest ones, such as the Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, and Taittiriya), the Brahmasutras summarizing Upanishadic teachings), and the Bhagavad Gita .

Vedantan thinkers share certain assumptions, including the authority of the Veda, brahman as cause and substance of phenomenal appearance, the transmigration of the self due to the necessity of experiencing the fruits of one's actions (karma), and the possibility of release from the cycle of rebirth. Several schools developed within Vedanta, holding to quite different views about the nature of ultimate reality (brahman) and its relation with the individual (jiva) and real self (atman), as well as the nature of liberation from bondage to rebirth.

These views, seen most clearly in their respective commentaries on the Brahmasutras, include the nondualism of Shankara (ca. eighth century), the qualified (theistic) nondualism of Ramanuja (1017-1137), and the radical dualism of Madhva (1238-1317).

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

Vegetarianism

Abstaining from eating flesh (meat, fish), and by some, eggs and dairy products. Religious traditions prescribing vegetarianism include Jains, Pythagoreans, Orphics, and Manichaeans; the medieval Cathari and Bogomils; and sects of Buddhists, post-Vedic Hindus, and Taoists.

Historically it is associated with beliefs in reincarnation, the unity of life, bodily purity, sexual abstinence, rejection of sacrificial cults.

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

Venus

1)    The second planet from the Sun, sometimes called the 'Morning Star'. or Lucifer.

2)    The Roman goddess of beauty and sensual love, identified with the Greek Aphrodite (which was less directly sexual), in some accounts said to have sprung from the foam of the sea, in others to have been the daughter of Jupiter and the nymph Dione; for the Greeks, Zeus and a Titan. Some scholars view her as a manifestation of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. Venus was married to Vulcan (Hephaestus), but had affairs with Mars (Ares) and many other gods and demigods. Cupid (Eros) was the product of one of these affairs, this time with Mercury (Hermes).

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

Vestal

A virgin religious dedicated to Vesta (the Roman hearth goddess). They were responsible for maintaining Vesta's sacred fire in a sanctuary symbolic of the corporate hearth of the Roman people.

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

Via Dolorosa

(Latin, "sorrowful road")

The route in Jerusalem traditionally believed to have been taken by Jesus from Pilate's judgment hall to the place of crucifixion.

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

Vicar: (Latin, "substitute")

1)    A salaried Catholic priest who administers to a parish but does not receive parish income.

2)    In the Anglican Church, a common title for a parish priest.

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

Vinshopaka

In Hindu astrology, a method of calculating planetary strength using the Vargas

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

Vinshotari

The most popular Dasha method in use today

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

Viraga

(Sanskrit) Nonattachment/ desirelessness

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

Virgin Birth

A cluster of Christian beliefs about Mary's virginity before, during, and after Jesus' birth. She conceived him by the power of the Spirit without sexual intercourse (virginal conception); she delivered him while remaining physically intact (virgin birth); she remained a virgin forever after (perpetual virginity).

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

Vakrasana

(Sanskrit) The curved posture

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