Astrology (Ancient Greek) The Science which defines the action of celestial bodies upon mundane affairs, and claims to foretell future events from the position of the stars. Its antiquity is such as to place it among the very earliest records of human learning.

It remained for long ages a secret science in the East, and its final expression remains so to this day, its exoteric application having been brought to any degree of perfection in the West only during the period of time since Varaha Muhira wrote his book on Astrology some 1400 years ago. Claudius Ptolemy, the famous geographer and mathematician, wrote his treatise Tetrabiblos about 135 A.D., which is still the basis of modern astrology.

The science of Horoscopy is studied now chiefly under four heads: viz.,

(1) Mundane, in its application to meteorology, seismology, husbandry, etc.

(2) State or civic, in regard to the fate of nations, kings and rulers.

(3) Horary, in reference to the solving of doubts arising in the mind upon any subject.

(4) Genethliacal, in its application to the fate of individuals from the moment of their birth to their death.

The Egyptians and the Chaldees were among the most ancient votaries of Astrology, though their modes of reading the stars and the modern practices differ considerably. The former claimed that Belus, the Bel or Elu of the Chaldees, a scion of the divine Dynasty, or the Dynasty of the king-gods, had belonged to the land of Chemi, and had left it, to found a colony from Egypt on the banks of the Euphrates, where a temple ministered by priests in the service of the "lords of the stars" was built, the said priests adopting the name of Chaldees.

Two things are known:

(a) that Thebes (in Egypt) claimed the honour of the invention of Astrology; and

(b) that it was the Chaldees who taught that science to the other nations.

Now Thebes antedated considerably not only "Ur of the Chaldees", but also Nipur, where Bel was first worshipped - Sin, his son (the moon), being the presiding deity of Ur, the land of the nativity of Terah, the Sabean and Astrolatrer, and of Abram, his son, the great Astrologer of biblical tradition. All tends, therefore, to corroborate the Egyptian claim.

If later on the name of Astrologer fell into disrepute in Rome and elsewhere, it was owing to the fraud of those who wanted to make money by means of that which was part and parcel of the sacred Science of the Mysteries, and, ignorant of the latter, evolved a system based entirely upon mathematics, instead of on transcendental metaphysics and having the physical celestial bodies as its upadhi or material basis. Yet, all persecutions notwithstanding, the number of the adherents of Astrology among the most intellectual and scientific minds was always very great.

If Cardan and Kepler were among its ardent supporters, then its later votaries have nothing to blush for, even in its now imperfect and distorted form. As said in Isis Unveiled (1. 259): "Astrology is to exact astronomy what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and psychology one has to step beyond the visible world of matter, and enter into the domain of transcendent spirit." (See " Astronomos.")

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

Globe In theosophy, a unit in the constitution of every planet or sun, each of which is composed of several globes, in their entirety referred to as a planetary or solar chain. Furthermore, moons, nebulae, and comets also have a seven or twelvefold constitution, even as has man, who is a copy in the small of the universe.

These globes are analogous to the monadic centers in the human constitution. The seven manifested globes on the four lower cosmic planes for purposes of convenience are enumerated as A, B, C, D, E, F, G; but reference is sometimes made more mystically to the globes from "A to Z," plainly hinting at all the globes of the chain. When considering seven cosmic planes, twelve globes are given. These globes are related to the seven (or twelve) sacred planets and to the twelve zodiacal constellations (diagram from FSO 323).

The life-waves, the various hosts or kingdoms such as elemental, mineral, animal, human, or devas, circle around these globes in seven great cycles called rounds. Each life-wave in turn first enters globe A, runs through its life cycle there, and then passes in time on to globe B, the succeeding life-wave meanwhile entering globe A, and so onwards and forwards through the whole series. In our own planetary chain, globe D is our earth. Three globes precede it on the downward arc, and three follow it on the ascending arc of evolution -- referring here to the manifested seven globes. The passing through seven root-races of any kingdom or life-wave on any globe is called a globe-round.

The seven globes can be related to the Qabbalistic worlds and sephiroth, as Blavatsky did (SD 1:200):

See also PLANETARY CHAIN

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

Spiritual practices:

Activities that purify and strengthen the mind and body for the spiritual path. Siddha Yoga practices include chanting, meditation, mantra repetition, hatha yoga, seva (selfless service), and contemplation.

(See also: Spiritual practices , Yoga, Yoga Dictionary, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Yoga Dictionary)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z

Tum, or To?m The "Brothers of the Tum", a very ancient school of Initiation in Northern India in the days of Buddhist persecution. The "Turn B’hai" have now become the "Aum B’hai", spelt, however, differently at present, both schools having merged into one. The first was composed of Kshatriyas, the second of Brahmans. The word "Tum" has a double meaning, that of darkness (absolute darkness), which as absolute is higher than the highest and purest of lights, and a sense resting on the mystical greeting among Initiates, " Thou art thou, thyself ", equivalent to saying "Thou art one with the Infinite and the All".

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

A Christian theological definition of Testament according to CARM - The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:

"

Testament

See also: Testament , Christianity, Body Mind and Soul

Round In connection with a planetary chain, when the life-wave of any planet passes through the seven root-races of one of its globes, this is called a globe-round. But the life-wave also passes in turn through the seven or twelve globes, beginning with globe A, and after an interglobal rest, passes to globe B, on the next lower subplane, then to globe C in similar manner, and following it, to globe D, which is on the lowest plane for that planetary chain. Rising then it in like manner passes through the three higher globes, E, F, and G. The circuit of these seven or twelve globes is called a planetary round, after which there is a planetary or chain-nirvana before the second round begins, which is made on a more advanced degree of evolution than was the first round.

Seven planetary rounds equal one kalpa, manvantara, or Day of Brahma. When seven planetary rounds (49 globe-rounds) have been thus accomplished, there ensues a still higher nirvana than that occurring between globes G and A after each planetary round. This higher nirvana is coincident with what is called a pralaya of that planetary chain, which lasts until a new planetary chain forms, containing the same hosts of living beings as on the preceding chain.

When seven such planetary chains with their various kalpas or manvantaras and pralayas have passed away, this sevenfold grand cycle is one solar manvantara, and then the solar system sinks into the solar or cosmic pralaya.

There are outer rounds and inner rounds. An inner round comprises the passage of the life-wave in any one planetary chain once from globe A to G, or from the first globe to the twelfth, and this takes place seven or twelve times in a planetary manvantara. The outer round comprises the passage of the entirety of a life-wave of a planetary chain along the circulations of the solar system, from one of the seven sacred planets to another, and in a specific serial order; and this seven or twelve times. Outer round can refer to two different events: the grand outer round, during which the spiritual monad makes a stay of varying length in each planetary chain; and the minor or small outer round, which is the post-mortem journey of the monad, after the death of an individual, to each of the planetary chains, but in this latter case its stay in each chain is relatively short.

See also INNER ROUND; OUTER ROUND

(See also: Round , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Re'shith (Hebrew) [from rosh head, chief, principal, first, beginning]

Beginning, headship, the most excellent or highest of a series; wisdom. The first word in the Bible (prefixed by the prepositional letter B, meaning in, through, or by means of). "The fathers . . . dreaded above all to have the esoteric and true meaning of the word Rasit [re'shith] unveiled to the multitudes; for if once the true sense of this sentence, as well as that of the Hebrew word asdt . . . were understood rightly, the mystery of the Christian trinity would have crumbled, carrying in its downfall the new religion into the same heap of ruins with the ancient Mysteries"; "Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, Chalcidius, Methodius, and Maimonides, on the authority of the Targum of Jerusalem, the orthodox and greatest authority of the Jews, held that the first two words in the book of Genesis -- b-rasit, mean Wisdom, or the Principle. And that the idea of these words meaning "in the beginning" was never shared but by the profane, who were not allowed to penetrate any deeper into the esoteric sense of the sentence" (IU 2:34, 35). The beginning of Genesis is quite correctly translated "by wisdom," or "by means of wisdom," (cf Fund 98-102).

See also BERE'SHITH

(See also: Re'shith , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

etheric touch: manual means of directing human and spiritual energies to initiate and boost self-healing. It is a form of chakra healing and channeling whose principle is that, through the hands, one can:

(a)           sense imbalances in the subtle energy fields of an individual; and

(b)           project healing vibrations (universal energy), which are augmentable with divine force. It does not require touch.

(See also: Etheric touch , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Occult Sciences. The science of the secrets of nature - physical and psychic, mental and spiritual; called Hermetic and Esoteric Sciences.

 In the West, the Kabbalah may be named; in the East, mysticism, magic, and Yoga philosophy, which latter is often referred to by the Chelas in India as the seventh "Darshana" (school of philosophy), there being only six Darshanas in India known to the world of the profane.

These sciences are, and have been for ages, hidden from the vulgar for the very good reason that they would never be appreciated by the selfish educated classes, nor understood by the uneducated; whilst the former might misuse them for their own profit, and thus turn the divine science into black magic. It is often brought forward as an accusation against the Esoteric philosophy and the Kabbalah that their literature is full of "a barbarous and meaningless jargon" unintelligible to the ordinary mind.

But do not exact Sciences - medicine, physiology, chemistry, and the rest - do the same? Do not official Scientists equally veil their facts and discoveries with a newly coined and most barbarous Greco-Latin terminology? As justly remarked by our late brother, Kenneth Mackenzie - "To juggle thus with words, when the facts are so simple, is the art of the Scientists of the present time, in striking contrast to those of the XVIIth century, who called spades spades, and not ‘agricultural implements ‘."

Moreover, whilst their facts would be as simple and as comprehensible if rendered in ordinary language, the facts of Occult Science are of so abstruse a nature, that in most cases no words exist in European languages to express them; in addition to which our "jargon" is a double necessity -

(a) for the purpose of describing clearly these facts to him who is versed in the Occult terminology; and

(b) to conceal them from the profane.

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

EnLighten Systems of stress management (EnLighten Systems, EnLighten): Variation of Bach flower therapy. EnLighten is a natural homeopathic system of liquid Traditional Flower Remedies that bypasses physical causes and targets emotions affected by stressful situations. It includes: (a) the EnLighten Habit Modification System; (b) the EnLighten System for Animals (also called the EnLighten for Animals healing system and the EnLighten for Animals system), which improves the disposition of pets; (c) the EnLighten System for Children with Learning Difficulties; (d) the EnLighten System for Teenagers; and (e) the EnLighten Weight Management System.

(See also: EnLighten Systems of stress management , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Expansion: user-friendly form of energy work designed (a) to effect a connection between one and one's spiritual 'source,' and (b) to align one with the energetic levels beyond. It encompasses channeling and psychic healing.

(See also: Expansion , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Enneagram system (Enneagram, Enneatype system): System of spiritual psychology based on an ancient Sufi typology of nine (ennea in Greek) personality types or primary roles:

(1)           the achiever (reformer) - orderly, rational, and self-righteous;

(2)           the helper - generous, manipulative, and possessive;

(3)           the succeeder (motivator, status-seeker) - ambitious, hostile, and pragmatic;

(4)           the individualist (artist) - intuitive, self-absorbed, and sensitive;

(5)           the observer (thinker) - analytic, original, and provocative;

(6)           the guardian (loyalist) - defensive, engaging, and responsible;

(7)           the dreamer (generalist) - accomplished and manic;

(8)           the confronter (leader) - combative, dominating, and self-confident; and

(9)           the preservationist (peacemaker) - easygoing and receptive.

Each type has a prime psychological addiction (fixation or blind spot), respectively: anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear, gluttony, lust for life and power, and laziness. These addictions include Christianity's seven deadly sins.

(a)           Recognition of one's type is tantamount to spiritual awakening. in the process of neutralizing the prime addiction:

(b)          achievers become pathfinders,

(c)           helpers become partners, succeeders become motivators,

(d)           individualists become builders,

(e)           observers become explorers,

(f)             guardians become stabilizers,

(g)           dreamers become illuminators,

(h)           confronters become philanthropists, and

(i)             preservationists become universalists.

(See also: Enneagram system , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chain Used in modern theosophy to designate the visible and invisible globes which form the interior and exterior structure of any celestial body. The kosmos as a whole is a living organism, subdivided into almost innumerable subordinate series of hierarchical units; hence the kosmos is an assemblage of beings of many kinds, each of which is a compound unit, and in order to signify that the elements composing each such unit are linked together as an individual, the word chain is applied to celestial bodies.

The teaching is that every celestial body whatever, visible or invisible, forms a unity with companion globes on invisible planes. When referring to the chains of globes forming a solar system, it is customary to call them planetary chains; thus we have the earth-chain, the lunar chain, the Mercury-chain, etc., each consisting of seven such globes on the manifested plane, to which the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are applied.

The globes of a chain are said to be in coadunation but not in consubstantiality, which means that, though of different grades of materiality, they form a catenary unit. Although each chain consists of seven or twelve globes, the only one visible to the human eye on earth is that which is on the same plane of materiality. Of the twelve globes to each chain, seven belong to the manifested worlds and five to the unmanifested. The seven manifested globes are distributed on four planes, and the twelve globes on seven planes, as shown in the diagram.

The left-hand side of the diagram represents the descending or shadowy arc of evolution, the right side the ascending or luminous arc. Our universe is also described as one of a cosmic chain of universes.

In other particular uses of the word, the Hermetic Chain is the succession of teachers of the esoteric wisdom who preserve and pass on the sacred knowledge from generation to generation.

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

Abraxas or Abrasax (Gn.). Mystic words which have been traced as far back as Basilides, the Pythagorean, of Alexandria, AD. 90. He uses Abraxas as a title for Divinity, the supreme of Seven, and as having 365 virtues. In Greek numeration, a. 1, b. 2, r. 100, a. I, x 60, a. I, s. 200 = 365 days of the year, solar year, a cycle of divine action. C. W. King, author of The Gnostics, considers the word similar to the Hebrew Shemhamphorasch, a holy word, the extended name of God. An Abraxas Gem usually shows a man’s body with the head of a cock, one arm with a shield, the other with a whip.

Abraxas is the counterpart of the Hindu Abhimanim (q.v.) and Brahma combined. It is these compound and mystic qualities which caused Oliver, the great Masonic authority, to connect the name of Abraxas with that of Abraham. This was unwarrantable ; the virtues and attributes of Abraxas, which are 365 in number, ought to have shown him that the deity was connected with the Sun and solar division of the year -  - nay, that Abraxas is the antitype, and the Sun, the type.

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

astrologic medicine (astral healing, astrological healing, astromedicine, medical astrology, medicinal astrology): System based on cosmobiology,a science whose principle is that specific mental and physical conditions correspond to the relative positions of celestial bodies. Astrologic medicine involves horoscopic astrology and the zodiacal man doctrine. The principle of horoscopic astrology--also called genethliacal astrology, horoscopy, natal astrology, popular astrology, and sun sign astrology--is that the relationship between the positions of planets and stars and the moment of one's birth determines lifelong personality. According to the zodiacal man doctrine, each of the twelve signs (houses) of the zodiac--constellations named Aries, Taurus, etc.--governs a different part of the human body. Proponents associate these zodiacal signs (sun signs) with bodily parts (e.g., organs) and systems and with predisposition to disease in different bodily parts. Certain planetary configurations can trigger disease in susceptible persons. Some proponents further posit a correlation of (a) sun signs and particular herbs, and (b) sun signs and the twelve cell salts of the Schuessler biochemic system of medicine. Astrologic medicine includes astrodiagnosis (see astrological diagnosis), prognosis, selection and timing of treatments (especially homeopathic remedies), and preventive medicine.

(See also: Astrologic medicine , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

auricular moxibustion: Component of Chinese auricular therapy whose forms include:

(a)    burnt match moxibustion, in which the practitioner taps one or two auricular acupoints rapidly with the head of a burnt match;

(b)   indirect moxibustion, a form of indirect moxabustion;

(c)    thread incense moxibustion, a variation of direct moxabustion; and

(d)    warm needle moxibustion, wherein the practitioner heats an inserted needle with a match or lighter.

(See also: Auricular moxibustion , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

(See also: Virgo B'thulah , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Control:

(a) In experimental parapsychology a procedure undertaken in order to ensure that the experiment is conducted in a standard fashion and so that results are not unduly influenced by extraneous factors.

See also Control Group , Artifact. (b) In spiritualism, a discarnate entity who communicates with a trance medium and who generally controls the trance state.

(See also: Control , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Vedas (Sanskrit). The "revelation". the scriptures of the Hindus, from the root vid, "to know ", or "divine knowledge". They are the most ancient as well as the most sacred of the Sanskrit works.

The Vedas on the date and antiquity of which no two Orientalists can agree, are claimed by the Hindus themselves, whose Brahmans and Pundits ought to know best about their own religious works, to have been first taught orally for thousands of years and then compiled on the shores of Lake Manasa-Sarovara (phonetically, Mansarovara) beyond the Himalayas, in Tibet. When was this done? While their religious teachers, such as Swami Dayanand Saraswati, claim for them an antiquity of many decades of ages, our modern Orientalists will grant them no greater antiquity in their present form than about between 1,000 and 2,000 B.C.

As compiled in their final form by Veda-Vyasa, however, the Brahmans themselves unanimously assign 3,100 years before the Christian era, the date when Vyasa flourished. Therefore the Vedas must be as old as this date. But their antiquity is sufficiently proven by the fact that they are written in such an ancient form, of Sanskrit, so different from the Sanskrit now used, that there is no other, work like them in the literature of this eldest sister of all the known languages, as Prof. Max Muller calls it. Only the most learned of the Brahman Pundits can read the Vedas in their original. It is urged that Colebrooke found the date 1400 B.c. corroborated absolutely by a passage which he discovered, and which is based on astronomical data.

But if, as shown unanimously by all the Orientalists and the Hindu Pundits also, that

(a) the Vedas are not a single work, nor yet any one of the separate Vedas; but that each Veda, and almost every hymn and division of the latter, is the production of various authors; and that

(b) these have been written (whether as sruti, "revelation ", or not) at various periods of the ethnological evolution of the Indo-Aryan race, then - what does Mr. Colebrooke’s discovery prove? Simply that the Vedas were finally arranged and compiled fourteen centuries before our era; but this interferes in no way with their antiquity.

Quite the reverse; for, as an offset to Mr. Colebrooke’s passage, there is a learned article, written on purely astronomical data by Krishna Shastri Godbole (of Bombay), which proves as absolutely and on the same evidence that the Vedas must have been taught at least 25,000 years ago. (See Theosophist, Vol. II., p. 238 et seq., Aug., 1881.) This statement is, if not supported, at any rate not contradicted by what Prof. Cowell says in Appendix VII., of Elphinstone’ History of India: "

There is a difference in age between the various hymns, which are now united in their present form as the Sanhita of the Rig Veda; but we have no data to determine their relative antiquity, and purely subjective criticism, apart from solid data, has so often failed in other instances, that we can trust but little to any of its inferences in such a recently opened field of research as Sanskrit literature. [ a fourth part of the Vaidik literature is as yet in print, and very little of it has been translated into English (1866).] The still unsettled controversies about the Homeric poems may well warn us of being too confident in our judgments regarding the yet earlier hymns of the Rig -Veda. . . . When we examine these hymns . . . they are deeply interesting for the history of the human mind, belonging as they do to a much older phase than the poems of Homer or Hesiod." The Vedic writings are all classified in two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric, the former being called Karma-Kanda, "division of actions or works ", and the Jnana Kanda, "division of (divine) knowledge", the Upanishads (q.v.) coming under this last classification. Both departments are regarded as Sruti or revelation.

To each hymn of the Rig -Veda, the name of the Seer or Rishi to whom it was revealed is prefixed. It, thus, becomes evident on the authority of these very names (such as Vasishta, Viswamitra, Narada, etc.), all of which belong to men born in various manvantaras and even ages, that centuries, and perhaps millenniums, must have elapsed between the dates of their composition.

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

Agent:

(a)         Psi term for a person who makes the attempt to communicate information to another (termed the "percipient") in a clinical ESP experiment

(b)         The subject in a controlled psychokinesis experiment.

(c)          The person who is the central focus of poltergeist activity.

(See also: Agent , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Chaturyoni (Sanskrit) Written also tchatur-yoni. The same as Karmaya or "the four modes of birth" - four ways of entering on the path of Birth as decided by Karma:

(a) birth from the womb, as men and mammalia

(b) birth from an egg, as birds and reptiles;

(c) from moisture and air-germs, as insects; and

(d) by sudden self-transformation, as Bodhisattvas and Gods (Anupadaka).

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

Principles A beginning, foundation, source, or essence from which things proceed; principles are thus the fundamental essences out of which and from which all things are and exist, usually enumerated as seven in theosophical writings. These kosmic principles, corresponding to the seven planes of the kosmos -- the seven basic types of consciousness-substance of which the universe is formed -- are manifested in the human being, so that we speak of the seven human principles, copies in the small of the seven principles of the universe.

The seven human principles are not a confederation of distinct entities, for man himself is essentially a unit, a monad, expressing his potentialities through a series of vehicles or vestures. The seven principles severally exist as aspects of human consciousness. Whether kosmic or human, they are usually divided into a higher triad and a lower quaternary, these being the numbers of the spiritual and material side of nature respectively.

The higher triad is atman, buddhi, and manas (or, more correctly expressed, atman, atma-buddhi, and atma-buddhi-manas); the quaternary was originally given as kama-rupa, prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira. In a later enumeration sthula-sarira was omitted from the list as not being a principle in itself but the vehicle of the other principles, and the quaternary was made up by adding the lower aspect of manas.

The septenate may also be regarded as a higher and lower triad united by manas, which can attach itself to either and in our present stage of evolution is oscillating between the two. Since these seven rudimentary principles are omnipresent, they give rise to subordinate septenates within the larger septenates, so that each principle is itself subdivided into seven, repeating nature's fundamental structure indefinitely. This becomes clearer when we bear in mind that the universe in all its parts is composed of monads, and that every monad in manifestation expresses itself as a septenate. Though principles and elements are essentially the same, it is convenient to make a distinction whereby the term principle is used for the force or spirit aspect, and element for the vehicular aspect; the principle being the inner, and the element the outer aspect, flowing forth from the principle as its vital vehicle or clothing.

Basically, these human principles are the original essences or elements in the constitution of any entity, macrocosmic or microcosmic, when these elements or essences are integrated into a unit by the power inherent in the essential self of such an entity. Thus there are principles of a cosmos or universe, of a sun, a globe, a man, beast, plant, mineral and of an elemental. All religions and philosophies in all times have taught, albeit after various manners, that man or world or any other being is much more than the physical body.

The physical bodies or vehicles are but the outer shells or carriers of inward invisible, ethereal, and spiritual potencies or essences. In attempting to define the various parts of which our being is composed, many methods of dividing the human constitution have been adopted by different schools following different ways. The theosophic system is a division into seven principles or ultimate elements or essences; and everything within the cosmos is built of the same fundamental spiritual essence or substance and after the same general pattern. Other systems of division are possible, for instance the Christian threefold division of spirit, soul, and body. But the septenary classification is the most ancient one, and it is the common inheritance of all the esoteric schools "left to the sages of the Fifth Root-Race by the great Siddhas [Nirmanakayas]

of the Fourth" (SD 2:636). The following table (cf SD 2:596, ET 952-4) shows the analogy between the seven human aspects and the cosmic aspects:

1. Atman Spirit, Essential Self ----- Unmanifested Logos, Essential Self ----- Paramatman Cosmic Monad, Self

2. Buddhi Spiritual Soul ----- Universal Ideation, Second Logos ----- Alaya, Adi-Buddhi,

3. Manas (Mind) Human Soul ----- Universal Intelligence, Third Logos ----- Mahat Cosmic Mind

4. Kama (Desire) Animal Soul ----- Cosmic Energy (Chaotic) ----- Cosmic Kama Womb of Fohat

5. Prana Life-essence Vitality----- Cosmic Life-Essence or Energy ------ Cosmic Jiva

6. Linga-sarira Model-body ----- Astral Ideation, reflecting terrestrial things ----- Cosmic Ether Astral Light

7. Sthula-sarira Physical body ----- Cosmos Physical universe ----- Sthura- or Sthula-sarira

In this classification atman is enumerated first of the human principles in order to convey the idea that all the other six principles emanate or unroll forth from it. Thus buddhi is emanated first and two portions of the scroll are unrolled, to adopt a Christian metaphor; then from buddhi is emanated manas (the other four principles being still infolded) and three portions of the scroll are unrolled; then from manas is emanated kama -- and so forth until all seven principles are unfolded.

The ancient Persians also had a sevenfold division of man's aspects (Theos 4:21):

1. Physical Body -----Tanwas (bones) ----- Sthula-sarira

2. Model-body ----- Keherpas (aerial form), Persian kaleb ----- Linga-sarira

3. Life-Essence ----- Ushtanas (vital heat) ----- Prana

4. Desire Principle ----- Tevishis (conscious will) ----- Kama-manas

5. Mind (Human Soul) ----- Baodhas (perception through senses) ----- Manas

6. Spiritual Soul ----- Urvanem (Soul), Persian rawan ----- Buddhi

7. Universal Spirit ----- Fravashem or Farohar (Spirit) ----- Atman

In the ancient Chinese I Ching a seven fold classification is also given; and Gerald Massey stated that the Egyptian text often mention "seven souls of the Pharaoh," which he enumerated as follows (with Blavatsky's correction in SD 2:632):

1. Physical Body ----- Kwei ----- Kha soul of blood

2. Model-body ----- Kwei shan vial soul ----- Khaba, the shade covering soul

3. Life Essence ----- Shan vital principle ----- Ba soul of breath

4. Desire Principle ----- Zhing or Zing Essence of Will ----- Akhu, intelligence soul of perception

5. Mind ----- Pho ------ Seb ancestral soul

6. Spiritual Soul ----- Khi ----- Putah, first intellectual father intellectual soul

7. Universal Spirit ----- Hwun pure spirit ----- Atmu divine or eternal soul

Lao-tzu in his Tao-Teh-Ching mentions five principles, pure spirit and the body being taken for granted therein (Key 117).

Adapting the classification of Egyptologist Franz Lambert who tabulated a Qabbalistic classification alongside a hieroglyphic division:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Guph ----- Chat elementary body

2. Linga-sarira ----- Nephesh ----- Ka astral body, Evestrum, Sidereal Man

3. Prana ----- Khoah hag-Guph ----- Anch vital force Archaeus, Mumia

4. Kama ----- Ruah ------ Hati animal soul // Ab heart, feeling

5. Manas ----- Neshamah ----- Bai intellectual soul, intelligence

6. Buddhi ----- Hayyah ------ Cheybi spiritual soul

7. Atman ----- Yehidah ----- Chu divine spirit

The classification usually met with in the Qabbalah is a fourfold division: 1) neshamah, the most spiritual principle, the breath of being; 2) ruah, the spiritual soul; 3) nephesh, the vital soul; and 4) guph, the physical vehicle.

A sevenfold classification is stated to have been taught by the Gnostics, presented in the Pistis Sophia. "The Inner Man is similarly made up of four constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious AEons of the Spheres, being the Power -- a particle of the Divine light ('Divinae particula aurae') yet left in themselves; the Soul (the fifth) 'formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their torments; . . . The Counterfeit of the Spirit (seemingly answering to our Conscience), (the sixth); and lastly the [Greek moira], Fate (Karmic Ego), whose business it is to lead the man to the end appointed for him . . .' -- the seventh!" (SD 2:604-5).

The Pymander of Hermes states that the self is clothed with

1)    the blissful garment of conscious selfhood;

2)    the garment of knowing or reason;

3)    the garment of fancy, etc., spoken of as the soul;

4)    the garment of life or breath; and

5)    the gross body.

The Vedantic classification commonly uses a sixfold division, while other systems employed by the Brahmins, especially the Taraka-Raja-Yogins, is fourfold:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Annamaya-kosa ----- Sthulopadhi

2. Linga-sarira ----- Pranamaya-kosa ------ "

3. Prana ----- " ------ "

4. Kama

5. Manas

. . . a) volitions, feelings ----- Manomaya-kosa ----- Sukshmopadhi

. . . b) vijnana ----- Vijnanamaya-kosa ----- "

6. Buddhi ----- Anandamaya-kosa ----- Karanopadhi

7. Atman ----- Atman ----- Atman

The ancient Greek writers had their own terms for the aspects of the universe or of man, besides the familiar nous and psyche:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Soma ----- Corpus

2. Linga-sarira ----- Phantasma or Phasma ----- Simulacrum or Imago

3. Prana ----- Bios ----- Anima

4. Kama-manas ----- Thymos ----- Animus

5. Higher Manas ----- Phren ----- )

6. Buddhi-manas ----- Nous ----- Mens

7. Atman ----- Pneuma ----- Spiritus

In the human constitution the archaic Latins discovered almost as many different spiritual, psychic, and astral elements as the ancient Hindus did. Thus, for instance, there was in man the genius (called in women the juno), closely corresponding to the manasaputric element or higher manas; and when a man died the genius sought its own sphere.

The other parts of the human constitution consisted of a member of the manes and a member of the lares, which two were probably closely identic with the lower human ego and the higher human ego; furthermore after the death of the man there appeared the lemur corresponding to the kama-rupa, shade, or specter; and the larva, which seems to have been identical with the lemur but with even less of the nobler human element in it; so that the lemur may be considered the kama-rupa in its early stages, and the larva when more greatly disintegrated. The physical body of course was considered simply to fall to pieces and to render its elements to the earth which gave it.

In the Scandinavian Eddas, Ask and Embla were two ash trees, and by means of the gifts bestowed upon them human beings were produced.

Another system of classification used in theosophical thought is the considering of the human constitution as composed of monads. The following table gives the monads and their relation to the principles.

See also FOURFOLD CLASSIFICATION

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