dual: Having or composed of two parts or kinds.

• duality: A state or condition of being dual.
• realm of duality: The phenomenal world, where each thing exists along with its opposite: joy and sorrow, etc.

(See also: Duality, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Mediator An agent who stands or goes between, specifically one who acts as the conscious agent or intermediary of special spiritual power and knowledge.

Most often applied to highly-evolved characters who mediate, not only between superhuman spiritual entities and ordinary men, but who also themselves consciously unite their own spiritual nature with their merely human souls. Such people attain to this lofty state by the great sanctity and wisdom of their lives, aided by frequent interior ecstatic contemplation. They radiate a pure and beneficent atmosphere which invites, and is congenial to, exalted spiritual beings of the solar system.

Evil entities of the astral realms cannot endure their clean and highly magnetic aura, nor are they able to continue obsessing other unfortunate persons if the mediator be present and will their departure, or even approaches the sufferer.

This powerful spiritual self-consciousness of the individual who is a mediator reaching upwards to superior spiritual realms, is in sharpest possible contrast with the passive, unconscious, weak-willed medium who, through ignorance or folly, becomes the agent for the use of any astral entity that may be attracted to the entranced body. Apollonius, Iamblichus, Plotinus, and Porphyry are examples of mediators: "but if the temple is defiled by the admission of an evil passion, thought or desire, the mediator falls into the sphere of sorcery. The door is opened; the pure spirits retire and the evil ones rush in. This is still mediatorship, evil as it is; the sorcerer, like the pure magician, forms his own aura and subjects to his will congenial inferior spirits" (IU 1:487).

(See also: Mediator, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Diamond, Diamond-heart The diamond is a symbol signifying the imperishable attributes of the cosmic quinta essentia -- the fifth essence of medieval mystics.

In Northern Buddhism, the unmanifest Logos, being too spiritual to manifest in material realms directly, sends into the world of manifestation its heart, the diamond heart (vajrasattva, dorjesempa) which is the manifest Logos, from which emanate the Third Logos which collectively is the seven cosmic dhyani-buddhas.

Manushya-buddhas, when their personality has become merged in atma-buddhi, are also called diamond-souled because of their spiritual approach to their cosmic prototype; otherwise they are mahatmas of the highest class.

(See also: Diamond, Diamond-heart, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mal'achim (Hebrew) Mal'achayya' (Chaldean) [plural of mal'ach messenger]

Also mal'akhim. A generalizing term for messengers, ministrants, ministers, or angels in the original sense of intermediaries or mediators between the spiritual and the more material realms; hence it is applicable to all the ten classes of angelic beings of the Qabbalistic hierarchy. Applied especially to the messengers of God in the Bible, generally rendered angels, also termed Benei-'Elohim (sons of the gods).

See also 'ISHIM

(See also: Mal'achim, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Emotional Energetic Healing (E.E.H., E.E.H. Healing methodology): Mode of holistic healing founded by Mari Angelique Raphael. It includes hands-on energy work and spiritual counseling. , E.E.H. utilizes the divine healing energy of the Angelic Realm, activates the client's Lightbody, and clears past, present, and future lifetimes.

(See also: Emotional Energetic Healing, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Ganga (Sanskrit) The Ganges, the sacred river of India. The Puranas and old tales of India represent the goddess Ganga transforming herself into a river and then flowing from the toe of Vishnu. She is said to have been brought from heaven by the prayers of Bhagiratha to purify the ashes of the 60,000 sons of King Sagara who had been consumed by the angry glance of the sage Kapila.

The Ganges, like many other ancient, highly revered streams, was an emblem of the flowing from spirit to matter, or from celestial realms to material, of occult forces including streams of wisdom and power flowing from heaven to earth or from gods to mankind, an idea which once understood kept perennially before people's minds the reality of the spiritual worlds and their intimate interconnection with the realms of physical space and time.

As the true interpretation of this old tale gradually was lost, there arose the religious belief that the actual waters of the Ganges were sin-cleansing, reminiscent of the supposed sin-cleansing power of the river Jordan in Christian and even in certain Jewish thought.

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

Gautama (Sanskrit) The Prince of Kapilavastu, son of Sudhodana, the Sakya king of a small realm on the borders of Nepaul, born in the seventh century B.c., now called the "Saviour of the World".

Gautama or Gotama was the sacerdotal name of the Sakya family, and Sidhartha was Buddha’s name before he became a Buddha. Sakya Muni, means the Saint of the Sakya family. Born a simple mortal he rose to Buddhaship through his own personal and unaided merit. A man - verily greater than any god!

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

Ishtar (Chald.). The Babylonian Venus, called "the eldest of heaven and earth", and daughter of Anu, the god of heaven. She is the goddess of love and beauty. The planet Venus, as the evening star, is identified with Ishtar, and as the morning star with Anunit, the goddess of the Akkads. There exists a most remarkable story of her descent into Hades, on the sixth and seventh Assyrian tiles or tablets deciphered by the late G. Smith. Any Occultist who reads of her love for Tammuz, his assassination by Izdubar, the despair of the goddess and her descent in search of her beloved through the seven gates of Hades, and finally her liberation from the dark realm, will recognise the beautiful allegory of the soul in search of the Spirit.

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

Perfection, Perfectibility Absolute perfection is applicable, not to infinity, but to the Absolute of a universe, and theosophy teaches that all existences are tending through ever-growing evolutionary stages towards the relative perfection which all reach at the close of a manvantara; a state called paranishpanna in Sanskrit and yong-grub in Tibetan.

Paranirvana is described as a state of perfect rest insofar as activity in the lower manifested realms of a universe is concerned, but not perfect spiritual inactivity -- entirely to the contrary. In a larger view comprehending a galaxy of universes, or a super-galaxy of galaxies, any notion that human intelligence can entertain of perfection is relative, for we cannot assign ends to evolutionary progress, growth, or expansion.

(See also: Perfection, Perfectibility, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pert Em Hru (Egyptian) [from pert to come + em forth in + hru day]

To come forth in day; the title of several chapters of the Theban Recension of the papyrus manuscripts found placed with the Egyptian dead, generally called the Book of the Dead. The phrase itself refers to the successful entrance of the deceased into the realms of Osiris, after passing through the Judgment Hall.

A more significant meaning of the coming forth in the day or coming forth into light, relates to the fact that these papyri give in veiled language the rites of initiation as it was practiced from earliest times by the Egyptians, the light meaning the spiritual and intellectual splendor which clothes one who has successfully passed from darkness into light.

(See also: Pert Em Hru, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Chakravartin cakravartin (Sanskrit) (from chakra wheel, cycle + vartin turning, one who governs)

Sovereign of the world, universal ruler; a title applied to several Hindu emperors, but referring particularly to Vishnu, who in the treta yuga in the form of a universal monarch protected the three worlds.

At the end of kali yuga, legend states that Vishnu will appear again under his form of the Kalki-avatara, or Maitreya as the Buddhists say, reforming or doing away with the wicked and inaugurating a realm of spirituality and righteousness. Equivalent to the Hebrew Enduring King (Enoch 36:3).

(See also: Chakravartin, cakravartin, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mahasunya or Mahasunyata (Sanskrit) [from maha great + sunyata emptiness]

The great void; when considered in its positive aspect, boundless space, including all the spaces of space, and therefore the universe and all that is in it considered from the spiritual and divine standpoints, which to intelligences living in lower realms seem to be the great Void.

When considered from its negative aspect, cosmic illusion (mahamaya) because the entire boundless objective universe with all its visible or invisible planes is, from the standpoint of the divine-spiritual, unreal and illusive, i.e., impermanent and transitory, although lasting spans which to human comprehension might seem almost an eternity.

Thus both the positive and negative significances are based upon the fundamental idea of the utter reality of the divine-spiritual, and the unreality, impermanence, and fleeting character of all that is objective.

(See also: Mahasunya, Mahasunyata, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Demon(s) (from Greek daimones, Latin daemons)

In many of the later religions, such as Christianity, either the gods of rival religions, nature spirits of paganism, or the exuviae or shells of the dead.

Actually demons are a relatively modern misapprehension of a large class of nature sprites which in ancient thought comprised a vast range of spiritual, semi-spiritual, and astral beings, existing in different degrees of evolutionary unfoldment, and therefore classified into groups from the fully self-conscious down to the only partly conscious elementals of the astral realms.

The teaching regarding daimones was extremely recondite; the later medieval Christian Demonologies, however, dealt almost exclusively with beings of low grade and of an astral character lacking moral sense and self-consciousness, which for ages have been called in European countries by names such as fairies, sprites, goblins, hobgoblins, pixies, nixies, and brownies.

See also DAEMON

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

Ullr (Icelandic) Ull (Swedish) Also Uller. In the Norse Edda, one of the twelve aesir (gods), the son of Sif and stepson of Thor, said to excel at archery and skiing. He is the patron of hunting and the shield, which is also called the ship of Ullr.

The shield or protection of Ullr has a special meaning as he is the god of a "cold" (unformed) world: one of the most highly spiritual of the globes in our sun's realm. The lay called Grimnismal promises that "the blessing of Ull and all the gods is his who first touches the fire" of this supernal sphere. The mansion of Ullr is named Ydalar -- the primal dells of rain and storms, and the root and sacred source of earth's existence.

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

ARCHON

On the mundane plane, a temporal ruler. Each magician has his own dimension over which he is its Archon. In Gnosticism, the Archons were planetary rulers - the planets representing as they did spiritual worlds which the soul, as in Ancient Egypt, passed after death. In order to pass from one sphere to the next, the soul has to bew able to recite the proper password, or give the "name" (i.e., the understanding) of the corresponding Archon. This is the "sacred knowledge" that Gnosis comprised. Archons, however, are rulers of the earth and universe, which are the evil, inferior realms composed of souls imprisoned in matter - that's why special or privileged knowledge is necessary to get past them.

(See also: ARCHON, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

actinic: Spiritual, creating light. Adjective derived from the Greek aktis, "ray." Of or pertaining to consciousness in its pure, unadulterated state. Describes the extremely rarified superconscious realm of pure bindu, of quantum strings, the substratum of consciousness, shuddha maya, from which light first originates. Actinic is the adjective form of actinism, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as:

1)   "the radiation of heat or light, or that branch of philosophy that treats of it;

2)    that property or force in the sun's rays by which chemical changes are produced, as in photography."

See: actinodic, kala, kosha, odic, tattva.

(See also: Actinic, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

actinic: Spiritual, creating light. Adjective derived from the Greek aktis, "ray." Of or pertaining to consciousness in its pure, unadulterated state. Describes the extremely rarified superconscious realm of pure bindu, of quantum strings, the substratum of consciousness, shuddha maya, from which light first originates. Actinic is the adjective form of actinism, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as:

1)   "the radiation of heat or light, or that branch of philosophy that treats of it;

2)    that property or force in the sun's rays by which chemical changes are produced, as in photography."

See: actinodic, kala, kosha, odic, tattva.

(See also: Actinic, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Tala (Sanskrit) Lower or inferior portions of a series, inferior world; also a chasm, abyss, floor. All these ideas suggest lower or inferior planes. Often used in conjunction with loka (place, world). The talas stand for the material aspects or substance-principles of the different worlds which are the cosmic universe, in contrast with the lokas which suggest the spiritual aspect of the universe.

The number of loka-talas is generally given as seven, though the number varies, all the seven lokas and seven talas interblending and interworking to form the universe and all its various hierarchies. The seven talas are generally given in theosophical writings as atala, vitala, sutala, rasatala, talatala, mahatala, and patala.

Because the lokas are more particularly the spheres of spiritual and intellectual character, and the talas the spheres of vehicular or more substantial character, it has been customary in Indian literature to speak of the lokas as heavens and the talas as hells -- neither heavens nor hells bearing the shades of meaning attached to them in Christian theology. Every substantial globe is considered a hell; our own earth, for instance, bhurloka-patala, is so considered. All these talas are in the last analysis rising or descending realms forming the astral light which is not one sole restricted realm or sphere.

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

Death Death is not a thing in itself, but one of the phases or temporary events in the unending dramas of life, so that the opposite of death is birth rather than life. In other words, the opposite of manifested life is unmanifest life, pralaya and its aeonic rest.

Manvantara and pralaya are phases in the endless flow of the alternating current of cosmic motion, which is the immediate result of the life-breath of the spiritual essence at the heart of everything in manifestation. The same eternal motion which brings everything into objective existence has thereby caused the death of the same entity on the previous subjective plane of life. Then, when the lifetime of this manifestation ends, the reverse of this rhythmic motion causes the death of the entity from objective existence, and carries it back to be reborn into its subjective life.

This law applies universally to solar systems, planets, human beings, atoms, etc. The reincarnating ego is born and dies on each of the successive planes of existence through which it descends from spiritual realms to be reborn again on earth. The same rhythmic motion reversed spells death here, with the same repeated births and deaths on its ascending journey to its spiritual home.

Death occurs not from a lack of life, but because the ceaseless motion of the vital essence is wearing out the body. The senility of old age means that certain elements are already drifting in the reverse current that is setting towards the other side of the veil. With the last heartbeat, the dying person is vitally aware of a detailed panorama of his passing life as the field of experience which he is to harvest in the inner world he is about to be born into. The atoms of his body, freed from his spiritual cohering force, separate actively, each to find its appropriate field of action in nature's kingdoms. The adept, while still living in the world, has so far conquered death by self-conquest that he can use his developed spiritual will to enter into and consciously function in the realms of spiritual beings. Paul's mystical saying "I die daily," is true of the initiate who steadily transmutes some degree of his selfish personality to vitalize his higher nature.

There is a close connection between death, sleep, and initiation, sleep being an incomplete death and initiation being a conscious experience of the afterdeath states.

See also DEVACHAN; KAMA-LOKA; PRALAYA; REIMBODIMENT; SECOND DEATH

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

Buddhakshetra buddhakshetra (Sanskrit) (from buddha awakened + kshetra field, sphere of action)

The sphere of action of an enlightened one. According to theosophy, there are four (or seven) buddhakshetras or fields in which the buddhas manifest and do their sublime work of benevolence which, counting from above, are: 1) the realms in which the dhyani-buddhas live and work; 2) the realms in which the dhyani-bodhisttvas live and work, called by Blavatsky "the domain of ideation"; 3) the realms of the manushya-buddhas, in which these work as nirmanakayas; and 4) the field of action in which the human buddhas work, the ordinary human world -- our physical globe.

Every incarnate buddha lives and works in the fourth or lowest buddhakshetra, as Gautama Buddha did; but at the same time, and more particularly when he has laid aside the physical body, he can live and work at will in the next higher buddhakshetra as a nirmanakaya; again as a dhyani-bodhisattva in his higher intermediate spiritual-psychological principle, he can at will function in the next higher buddhakshetra; while last, the dhyani-buddha within him lives and does its own sublime labor on the highest buddhakshetras as a dhyani-buddha. Here lies the true explanation of the many apparently conflicting statements made about the various kinds of buddhas and their various duties or functions, as found in the Buddhist scriptures, especially in the Mahayana writings of Central and Northern Asia.

Each one of the trikaya (three bodies or vehicles) -- the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya -- has its respective place and function on and in the three highest of the buddhakshetra: the dharmakaya is the luminous or spiritual body or vehicle in which the dhyani-buddha lives and works on the first and highest buddhakshetra; the dhyani-bodhisattva similarly lives and works in the spiritual-intellectual body or vehicle called the sambhogakaya, on the second of the buddhakshetras; while the manushya-buddha, when working in the third buddhakshetras, does so in his nirmanakaya vesture or robe, vehicle, or body. The lowest buddhakshetra is the one in which the human buddha is found clothed in his body of flesh as an incarnate being.

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

Happy Fields. The name given by the Assyrio-Chaldeans to their Elysian Fields, which were intermingled with their Hades. As Mr. Boscawen tells his readers -

"The Kingdom of the underworld was the realm of the god Hea, and the Hades of the Assyrian legends was placed in the underworld, and was ruled over by a goddess, Nin-Kigal, or ‘the Lady of the Great Land’.

She is also called Allat." A translated inscription states: - "After the gifts of these present days, in the feasts of the land of the silver sky, the resplendent courts, the abode of blessedness, and in the light of the Happy Fields, may he dwell in life eternal, holy, in the presence of the gods who inhabit Assyria".

This is worthy of a Christian tumulary inscription. Ishtar, the beautiful goddess, descended into Hades after her beloved Tammuz, and found that this dark place of the shades had seven spheres and seven gates, at each of which she had to leave something belonging to her.

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