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)

Dhyani-buddha (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root dhyai to meditate, contemplate + buddha awakened one)

Buddhas of contemplation or meditation; the fifth in the descending series in the enumeration of the Hierarchy of Compassion. Two general hierarchies of spiritual beings brought forth our cosmos: the dhyani-buddhas or architects who in their aggregate form the higher and more spiritual side, and actually compose the line of the luminous arc; and the dhyani-chohans or the builders or constructors who form the lower and relatively more material side, the line (from this viewpoint only) of the shadowy arc. Often the term dhyani-chohans is used for both these lines of beings.

There are seven dhyani-buddhas, so that for each round of a septenary planetary chain there is a presiding dhyani-buddha or causal buddha. Our present fourth round is under the care and supervision of the dhyani-buddha belonging to the fourth degree of this celestial hierarchy. The dhyani-bodhisattvas who watch over the globes of the planetary chain in each round are rays from the dhyani-buddha of the round.

"It is this dhyani-buddha of our fourth round, our Father in Heaven, who is the Wondrous Being, the Great Initiator, the Sacrifice, . . . The Ray running through all our individual being, from which we draw our spiritual life and spiritual sustenance, comes direct to us from this hierarchical Wondrous Being in whom we all are rooted. He to us, psychologically and spiritually, holds exactly the same place that the human ego, the man-ego, holds to the innumerable multitudes of elemental entities which compose his body . . ." (Fund 237-8).

These dhyani-buddhas furnished humankind with divine kings and leaders, who taught humanity the arts and sciences, and who "revealed to the incarnated Monads that had just shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms -- and who had, therefore, lost every recollection of their divine origin -- the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds" (SD 1:267).

Further, each human monad has sprung from the essence of a dhyani-buddha.

"The 'triads' born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or 'twin-souls,' on this Earth.

"This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: 'I and my Father are one,' said Jesus (John x. 30). When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): 'I ascend to my Father and your Father,'. . . It was simply to show that the group of his disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, 'Star,' or 'Father,' again of the same planetary realm and division as He did" (SD 1:574).

(See also: Dhyani-buddha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Patala (Sanskrit) [possibly from the verbal root pat to sink, fly down or alight]

Nethermost, farthest underneath; the reference being not so much to locality or position in space, as to quality -- grossness, heaviness, or material substance. The seventh, lowest, and most material tala. It is used in Hindu literature to signify the hells, underworlds, or infernal regions, or the antipodes or Myalba. The corresponding loka or pole is bhurloka. "Meru -- the abode of the gods -- was placed . . . in the North Pole, while Patala, the nether region, was supposed to lie in the South. As each symbol in esoteric philosophy has seven keys, geographically, Meru and Patala have one significance and represent localities; while astronomically, they have another, and mean 'the two poles,' which meaning ended by their being often rendered in exoteric sectarianism -- the 'Mountain' and the 'Pit,' or Heaven or Hell" (SD 2:357).

Patala, from one aspect, corresponds to the lower hierarchies of the Gandha, elementals ruling the sense and organ of smell. This lowest tala is the sphere of irrational beings, including animals, having little or no sense or feeling save that of self-preservation and the gratification of the senses -- attributes of materiality which might include a vast number of the human species. Patala is also the sphere of intensely human as contrasted with human-spiritual beings, and is likewise the abode of the animal dugpas, elementals of animals, and multitudes of nature spirits, all belonging to the bipolar planes of bhurloka-patala.

In Atlantean times, America was the patala or antipodes of Jambu-dvipa, geographically. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna as Krishna's chela is said to have descended into Patala, the antipodes, and there married Ulupi, the daughter of the King of the Nagas or initiates.

The Hindu rishi Narada, representing one of the most recondite and still living spiritual influences on earth, is said to have descended in bygone times into the regions of Patala, and to have been delighted with what he found there. On his return to the celestial regions, he gave to the gods a glowing account of the beauties of the hells, stating that they abounded in everything ministering to luxury and sensuous delight. For precisely these reasons, Patala as the lowest of the talas, has been called the infernal regions or hell. To beings evolving in the spheres of matter, these spheres are extremely pleasant despite the pain and suffering that invariably accompany sojourn in all astral spheres, which the talas are. What the evolving entities lose in spiritual power, intellectual bliss, and higher faculty, is compensated for by the attachments and bonds of a sensuous character, tying them temporarily to these realms.

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

DEVACHAN

The Land where the Gods are reborn. Life's threshold, located between the manvataras and between earth-lives. The higher realm above the astral (Skt. and Tibetan deva, "light" + chan, "dwelling place"). Madame Blavatsky, in writing of the realm of Devachan and the "wheatfields of Aanroo", is careful to point out that Manas splits here, after death, between the higher and lower minds. Only the higher mind remains. The lower, self-directed mind goes with the kama-rupa to the "Abode of Shells", or the place of the Hebrew Qlipoth. Our "I" or "atman" (with small a) rejoins that spiritual part of itself that is not incarnated, and as "Atman (large A), it proceeds on through the aionic planets. According to HPB, in Devachan we relive the totality of our past lives and re-experience our "enduring selfhood". We relive the trans-personal "I" which our labors, filtered through numberless incarnations, have made of the monadic essence which we originally introduced into form. The visualized solar system is the materialistic waste of an as-above-so-below operation. Hence all archetypes and ideas ultimately surface to the material world. Here we blueprint all the evolutions and involutions ("Not the One in many, but the oneness of the Many"). Rulers of these archetype-beings along with their human evolution make up the Dhyan-Choans, gods or "contemplative lords".

There are rare beings who sacrifice their rest, Devachan or Nirvana to remain earthbound in continual rebirth out of compassion for mankind. Animals, though their astral bodies possess some temporary survival potential, have no ego-manas, hence no Devachan. The animal monad can reincarnate only as a higher species. By the same token, HPB states (Secret Doctrine), "Eastern philosophy rejects the Western theological dogma of a newly-created soul for every baby born, as being as unphilosophical as it is impossible in the economy of nature. There must be a limited number of monads growing..."

Prior to Zoroaster and the Forth, or present, race, there was no Devachan, but only rebirth, phoenix-like out of the ashes of the previous body. Xtianity teaches the doctrine of the Old Third Race in which there is no higher Manas and the human monad does not reincarnate until the Second Coming.

In orthodox Xtianity there is no rebirth - only literal resurrection on the Day of Judgment with Christ's return (this opening of graves does not accompany the return of Zoroaster, Kalki or the Maitreya Buddha). Also, unlike the Theosophical version of the hereafter, there is no comparable split of spirit from soul in orthodox Xtianity. Reincarnation is a Gnostic or Neoplatonic heresy (Plato called this the "Realm of Ideas").

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

Trailokya (Sanskrit) [from tri three + loka world, sphere]

Also Triloka. The three worlds -- heaven, earth, and the lower regions (esoterically the spiritual, psychic or astral, and terrestrial spheres); as ordinarily given in Brahmanical philosophy as Bhur (earth), Bhuvah (firmament, heaven), and Svar (skyey atmosphere). The Buddhist trailokya or division into three worlds is somewhat different, being from lowest to highest: kama-dhatu or -loka (desire world), rupa-dhatu (form world), and arupa-dhatu (formless world).

The trailokya are all, in each case, nonphysical spheres, and pertain to the postmortem states of entities. These three worlds are wholly exoteric groupings -- not meaning false, but not sufficiently explained in the exoteric literature to develop the real significances. In theosophy there are seven or ten groupings of the postmortem realms or states. These states cannot be grouped under the Brahmanical three worlds, but under the three Buddhist dhatus or lokas. Rupa-dhatu and arupa-dhatu may be called dhyanas (contemplation), thus designating the deeply contemplative character of the excarnate egos sunken in the profound deeps of consciousness.

See also TRIBHUVANA

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

Mantras

Handed down since ancient times by religious seers who had attained self-realization by chanting them, mantras are words or syllables in Sanskrit which when repeated in meditation helps you transcend into a higher state of consciousness.

As sound energies that have always existed the universe, they cannot be created or destroyed and command the power to heal you physically & spiritually. At the very basic level mantras help you to concentrate in meditation. And once you enter its auspicious circle, the mind instantly gets focussed and you discover a new realm of peace and tranquility.

The original of all mantras, Om, is the root of all sounds, thus letters and therefore of all language and thought. The "O" is generated deep within the body, from inside the navel, and slowly brought upward joining with the "m" which then resonates through the entire head. Chanting Om in a whisper correctly for twenty minutes relaxes every atom in of every cell of your body.

A mala (garland of Sandal or Rudraksha) is often used in accompaniment. It has one hundred and eight beads plus the larger `meru' beads. Holding it in the right hand, start at the meru and roll the beads along one by one between your thumb and third fingers while repeating your mantra. When you reach the meru, roll the mala in the opposite direction. Do not cross over the meru bead.

(See also: Mantras, Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Spiritualism Properly, the philosophy, religion, or pneumatological science held by those who believe in the universal spirit as the cosmic originant of all the hierarchies of evolving monads; its opposite is materialism. Spiritualism is "in philosophy, the state or condition of mind opposed to materialism or a material conception of things.

Theosophy, a doctrine which teaches that all which exists is animated or informed by the Universal Soul or Spirit, and that not an atom in our universe can be outside of this omnipresent principle -- is pure Spiritualism. As to the belief that goes under that name, namely, belief in the constant communication of the living with the dead, whether through the mediumistic powers of oneself or a so-called medium -- it is no better than the materialisation of spirit, and the degradation of the human and the divine souls. Believers in such communications are simply dishonouring the dead and performing constant sacrilege. It was well called 'Necromancy' in days of old" (TG 307).

The modern movement which began about the middle of the 19th century, mainly with the Fox sisters, embraces a large range of differing beliefs, so that any strictures directed against certain phases of it may justly be resented by those to whom such strictures do not apply. But the characteristic doctrine which identifies Spiritualism or astralism as such, is the belief that it is possible for the living to communicate with the departed spirits of the deceased. Theosophy, however, holds that at death the personality disintegrates, the individuality of the person passing into the devachanic state, while its lower components gradually fade out in the kama-loka. It is impossible to obtain communications with the ego in devachan, except when a purely impersonal love of one human being for another reaches into the devachanic condition and comes into spiritual rapport with the devachani. A far lower rapport may be established with the astral or kama-lokic remains which have been left behind to disintegrate in the lower regions of the astral light.

All the apparent proofs of identity of "spirit" can be accounted for otherwise than by supposing the actual presence of the departed individual in the seance room. Such communications as are received evince no knowledge beyond that which we already have, and show no signs of emanating from a high source -- and almost invariably such communications are trifling and paltry. Mediumship and seances are most harmful practice, as they open the door to the entry of pernicious obsessing influences from the lower astral realms. Moreover such practice may obstruct and retard the natural decomposition of the discarded lower elements of the deceased, and thus keep alive his kama-rupa beyond the term of its natural astral death. The appeal of astralism is very powerful to those who feel convinced that they have thereby obtained assurance of immortality and of the continued existence of their lost loved ones.

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

Devachan bDe-ba-can de-wa-chen (Tibetan) (from bde-ba happiness + can possessing)

The happy land; exoterically, a translation of the Sanskrit sukhavati, the happy Western Realm or Pure Land of the dhyani-buddha Amitabha of East Asian Buddhism. Certain Tibetan books contain glowing descriptions of devachan, such as the Mani Kambum (or Kumbum) and the Odpagmed kyi shing kod. The term was first employed in theosophical literature by the Mahatmas in their letters to A. P. Sinnett.

In theosophy, devachan is the interlude between earth-lives during which the strictly higher human part of the human composite constitution, the reincarnating ego or higher manas, rests in perfect bliss. Recurring time periods of manifestation and quiescence are fundamental in nature, and devachan is the subjective part of the cyclic rhythm of human evolution on this globe. It corresponds, post-mortem, to the sleeping state of the imbodied, but the devachanic "dreams" are far more vivid and real than ordinary dreams; as a matter of fact, earth life is more truly a dream -- to many oftentimes a nightmare.

Devachan commences after the "second death" has taken place, when the lower quaternary of human principles (sthula-sarira, linga-sarira, prana, and kama) has separated from the reincarnating ego, which has drawn into itself the noblest thoughts, emotions, and the unrealized hopes of the past incarnation. Atma-buddhi and the more spiritual part of manas -- the reincarnating higher human ego -- become the spiritual monad for the time being, so that the human ego takes its devachan within the monad. The devachanic state applies only to the middle human principles, the purified personality. It has many degrees, and the ego finds its proper place in harmony with its karmic evolutionary stage.

Devachan is a state of peace and happiness beyond ordinary mental cognizance, and no disturbing element can enter until the reincarnating ego has finished resting and recuperating its energy for a new sojourn on earth. Because the reincarnating ego builds its own paradise out of the materials it gathered in the last incarnation, there are great varieties in the devachanic state. It is the product of every individual's unfulfilled spiritual yearnings, longings, and aspirations: since these were not fulfilled or only partly so in earth life, during the interval between earth-lives the ego seeks to fulfill them, rehearsing its spiritual yearnings which, being mental visions or pictures, are thus real in a far truer sense that anything possible on earth, where the consciousness is so thickly enshrouded with the obscuring veils of lower attractions. It is the quality of these aspirations, however, which determines the length of the devachanic state: the more lofty and spiritual the aspirations, the longer the stay. Devachan is not a state of positive action and responsibility, and therefore not a field of retribution for wrong done in the past.

The purified ego is far beyond the reach of ordinary mediums whose contact is confined to far grosser entities and planes. Occasionally a sensitive can rise to the devachanic plane and enter into a spiritual communion with an ego with whom there is close sympathy, but even this is rare, and to retain it in the memory is perhaps rarer.

In considering devachan and nirvana, devachan appertains to the higher human ego, however sublimated it may be, of any particular incarnation; whereas nirvana is a far higher state in which the personality is completely transcended and dropped, or has become so thoroughly purified that it is identified with the higher self. The devachanic state is of an illusory nature (although real enough to the devachani, just as earth life is to us); but the nirvani has attained universal consciousness and experiences reality -- sachchidananda, as expressed by the Vedantists.

Devachan and nirvana are not localities, but the states of consciousness of the beings in those respective spiritual conditions. Nirvana is the highest spiritual or superspiritual state; devachan is the intermediate or high psychological states; and avichi, popularly called the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beings existing in the lokas or talas, the worlds of the cosmic egg; whereas paranirvana ("beyond nirvana," a super-nirvana) is that divine state which is virtually identification with cosmic reality.

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

Antahkarana (Sanskrit) (from antar interior, within + karana sense organ)

Interior organ or instrument; defined variously as the seat of thought and feeling, the thinking faculty, the heart, mind, soul, and conscience. In Vedanta philosophy, it is looked upon as a fourfold inner instrument or intermediary between spirit and body, with mind being the go-between or bridge.

One could say that there are several antahkaranas in the human septenary constitution: one for every path or bridge between any two monadic centers. Man is a unity in diversity, and the antahkaranas are the links of vibrating consciousness-substance uniting these various centers (cf OG 5).

Blavatsky describes it as "the path that lies between thy Spirit and thy self, the highway of sensations, the rude arousers of Akankara" (the sense of egoity); and that when the two have merged into the One and the personal sacrificed to self impersonal, then the antahkarana vanishes because no longer useful as a functioning bridge between the two. Further, the antankarana is "the lower Manas, the Path of communication or communion between the personality and the higher Manas or human Soul. At death it is destroyed as a Path or medium of communication, and its remains survive in a form as the Kamarupa -- the 'shell' " (VS 56, 88-9).

Antahkarana also has the general sense of an intermediary between something or someone that is low to one that is high. Every messenger of truth and light is an antahkarana between the Masters of Wisdom and mankind. Likewise every great and good man or woman is an antahkarana between humanity and the spiritual essence of his or her own inner god. A person living in the noblest and loftiest part of his being, becomes such a bridge between the spiritual realm he is in touch with and all other entities and things contacted by him which belong to human life.

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

Daemon or Demon (from Greek daimon, Latin daemon)

A god, angel, or celestial power or spirit, of varying degrees of ethereality, and ranging from the supreme deity of the hierarchy, through the greater gods, down to mere genii and lemures. Originally the term applied to deity in general, but later it usually was referred to beings intermediate between the gods and mankind, representing the powers and functions of gods.

The Greeks and Romans sometimes used the term for the human divine egos. Philsophers such as Plato divided the daemons into three classes, "the first two are invisible; their bodies are pure ether and fire (Planetary Spirits); the Daimons of the third class are clothed with vapoury bodies; they are usually invisible, but sometimes, making themselves concrete, become visible for a few seconds. These are the earthly spirits, or our astral souls" (BCW 6:187).

The daemon of Socrates stood for his higher and spiritual self, and parallels in this sense the Christian idea of the Guardian Angel. Hesiod designated them as spirits of the golden age appointed to watch over and guard mankind. We often find two daemones accompanying the individual, one prompting to good, the other to evil; while again it may be the same genius, whose influence is defined as at one time good, at another evil.

As with so many cosmic powers and their symbols, these other gods have been relegated in Judaism and Christianity to the position of evil powers hostile to mankind, to be fled from instead of revered, or ruled as obedient helpers when inferior to the human status. The whole idea of the Adversary or Devil is enshrined in the word daemones. But fallen angels, represented as rebels against God, were merely performing their natural duty in evolution by forming the lower worlds.

As personification of evil, the word can only be truthfully applied to those beings that man himself, by his evil thoughts and passions, has generated to hover in the lowest strata of the astral light or haunt kama-loka. However, the ancient Greeks and Romans themselves drew a sharp distinction between the daemones of more ethereal type, truly spiritual beings, and the lower earth-haunting daemones who were distinctly denizens of the lower astral and physical realms, and which the ancients dreaded -- with reason -- far more than modern Christians have ever done.

See also AGATHODAEMON; KAKODAEMON

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

Balder, Baldr (Icelandic) The best, foremost; the sun god in Norse mythology, the son of Odin and Frigga and a favorite with gods and men. His mansion is Breidablick (broadview) whence he can keep watch over all the worlds.

One of the lays of the Elder or Poetic Edda deals entirely with the death of the sun god, also mentioned in the principal poem Voluspa. Briefly stated: the gods were concerned when Balder was troubled with dreams of impending doom. Frigga therefore set out to exact a promise from all living things that none would harm Balder, and all readily complied. One thing only had been overlooked: the harmless-seeming mistletoe. Loki, the mischievous god (human mind), became aware of this, plucked the little plant, and from it fashioned a dart. He approached Hoder, the blind god (of darkness and ignorance) who was standing disconsolately by while the other gods were playfully hurling their weapons against the invulnerable sun god.

Offering to guide his aim, Loki placed on Hoder's bow the small but deadly "sorrow-dart." Thus mind darkened by ignorance accomplished what nothing else could: the death of the bright deity of light. Balder must then travel to the house of Hel, queen of the realm of the dead. Odin, as Hermod, goes to plead with Hel for Balder's return, and Hel agrees to release him on condition that all living things weep for him.

Frigga resumes her weary round and implores all beings to mourn the sun god's passing. All agree save one: Loki in the guise of an aged crone refuses to shed a tear. This single taint of perverseness in the human mind condemns Balder to remain in the realm of Hel until the following cycle is due to begin. Thus death is linked with the active human mind, Loki. As the bright sun god is placed on his pyre-ship, his loving wife Nanna (the moon goddess) dies of a broken heart and is placed beside him, but before the ship is set ablaze and cast adrift, Odin leaned over to whisper something in the dead sun god's ear. This secret message must endure unknown to all until Balder's return, when he and his dark twin Hoder will "build together on Ropt's (Odin's) sacred soil."

The allegory is subject to many interpretations. The sun god dies with every nightfall, to rise again the following morning; with every winter solstice, to return and bring a new year of light and life; and with every planetary cycle, as well as each solar lifetime. The tale also symbolizes the passing of the golden age of innocence which had to be superseded by more conscious and purposive evolution of the human race: Loki, who represents the fire of mind -- human, imperfect, clever, but unevolved, which in time must become perfected spiritual intelligence.

(See also: Balder, Baldr, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Atmosphere Any of various aery spheres enveloping a globe. On earth the lowest is familiar air, but there are others in the ethereal realms beyond, and the word is applied to mahat and manas, as mythologically represented by Indra, god of the firmament, the personified atmosphere (SD 2:614). However, mahat and its ray in the human being, manas, are far beyond in quality and ethereality anything that the human imagination understands by atmosphere -- unless it is endowed with the mystical sense that spiritus had among the philosophic ancients.

The elements of our present atmosphere are compounded from simpler elements which existed on earth at earlier stages of its evolution, and which exist now on some other globes. The atmosphere of our earth has become not only a chemical, but an alchemical crucible, in which "there is a perpetual exchange taking place in space of molecules, or atoms rather, correlating, and thus changing their combining equivalents on every planet" (SD 1:142).

Neither sun nor stars are said to have our terrestrial elements, except in the sun's outer robes, for it is only in its outer robes that the integration of atomic substances become sufficiently physical to permit the appearance of our terrestrial elements; also our globe is said to have its own special laboratory on the far outskirts of the atmosphere, and when the atoms and molecules cross this, they change and differentiate from their primordial nature. The spectroscope may show certain similarities between the elements on sun and stars and those on earth but we have no logical right to infer identity in other respects; and actually the physical and chemical properties of atoms differ on different globes, as do also most of the effects of temperature (SD 1:142).

Our atmosphere teems with invisible lives, of which germs are merely the physically imbodied or integrated samples, minute and very weak in power. Our atmosphere contains likewise hosts of invisible beings of tremendous energy. Medieval philosophers combined these denizens of the atmosphere under the curious name of sylphs. As compared with the populations of the other elements of mystical philosophers, the sylphs are perhaps the most dangerous, psychologically and otherwise, at least so far as mankind is concerned. Further, theosophy teaches that both the atmosphere and the solid earth are interpenetrated by other spatial realms, invisible and intangible to us, but as objective to their own denizens as our world is to us.

The early races of mankind on earth did not require an atmosphere as we now know it. There are organisms on earth at present which do not need oxygen for their vital activities, and the beings at every stage of time or on every globe are invariably adapted to the external conditions which surround them.

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

Manas (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root man to think]

The seat of mentation and egoic consciousness; the third principle in the descending scale of the sevenfold human constitution. Manas is the human person, the reincarnating ego, immortal in essence, enduring in its higher aspects through the entire manvantara. When imbodied, manas is dual, gravitating toward buddhi in its higher aspects and in its lower aspects toward kama. The first is intuitive mind, the second the animal, ratiocinative consciousness, the lower mentality and passions of the personality. " 'Manas is dual -- lunar in the lower, solar in its upper portion' . . . and herein is contained the mystery of an adept's as of a profane man's life, as also that of the post-mortem separation of the divine from the animal man" (SD 2:495-6).

At present manas is not fully developed in mankind, and kama or desire is still ascendant. In the fifth round, however, manas "will be fully active and developed in the entire race. Hence the people of the earth have not yet come to the point of making a conscious choice as to the path they will take; but when in the cycle referred to, Manas is active, all will then be compelled to consciously make the choice to right or left, the one leading to complete and conscious union with Atma, the other to the annihilation of those beings who prefer that path" (Ocean 59). Those human beings who cannot rise to the higher manasic and buddhic aspects of themselves in the fifth round will fall into their nirvanic rest for the remainder of this embodiment of the earth-chain, to re-emerge at the beginning of the next embodiment of the earth to pick up their evolutionary journey.

The annihilation of those who choose the left-hand or matter path occurs because they use their manasic faculty to its prostitution for selfish and evil purposes, which leads to a final rupture of the manasic links. When this rupture is complete, the entity being no longer attached to the higher triad sinks rapidly into the whirlpool of absolute matter and is finally disintegrated into its component life-atoms. The higher triad or monad thus freed from its downward-tending personality, after a period of rest in spiritual realms evolves a new lower garment in which to manifest in a later manvantara.

If the union between the lower or personal manas, and the individual reincarnating ego or higher manas, has not been effected during the course of past lives, then the former is left to share the fate of the lower animal, gradually to dissolve into its component life-atoms and to have its personality annihilated. But even then the spiritual ego remains of necessity a distinct being.

"The higher and the lower Manas are one . . . and yet they are not -- and that is the great mystery. The Higher Manas or Ego is essentially divine, and therefore pure; no stain can pollute it, as no punishment can reach it, per se, the more so since it is innocent of, and takes no part in, the deliberate transactions of its Lower Ego. Yet by the very fact that, though dual and during life the Higher is distinct from the Lower, 'the Father and Son' are one, and because that in reuniting with the parent Ego, the Lower Soul fastens upon and impresses upon it all its bad as well as good actions -- both have to suffer, the Higher Ego, though innocent and without blemish, has to bear the punishment of the misdeeds committed by the lower Self together with it in their future incarnation. The whole doctrine of atonement is built upon this old esoteric tenet; for the Higher Ego is the antitype of that which is on this earth the type, namely, the personality" (TBL 55-6).

Should the human personality be of a heavily gross and materialistic type so that very few spiritual impulses are gathered in after death by the higher triad, then this higher triad is reincarnated almost immediately because there was nothing in the life just lived to call for the devachan experience of the personality. There can be no devachan for the manasic personality unless this personality has had in the life just lived at least a modicum of spiritual thought, yearning, and impulse. It is the higher manas which experiences devachan because of the spiritual qualities inherent in this higher manas and to which it has given imperfect expression in the life just lived. It is in devachan that this higher manas has its field of spiritual-mental activity, where it receives its due compensation, its mead of reward, for all the spiritual disappointments, sufferings, and imperfect expressions which it had to bear during earth-life.

Mahat or universal mind is the source of manas: what manas is in the human constitution, mahat is in the cosmic constitution. Manas is thus a direct ray from the cosmic mahat. Manas is sometimes loosely called the kshetrajna or real incarnating and permanent spiritual ego, the individuality; but the kshetrajna strictly speaking is the buddhi-manas or higher manas.

(See also: Manas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Agnidagdha (Sanskrit) (from agni fire + dagdha burnt from the verbal root dah to burn)

Consumed by fire; a class of pitris (fathers, ancestors) who maintained the household fires and offered oblations with fire. Those who refrained form doing so were called anagnidagdhas (not consumed by fire).

The agnidagdhas, corresponding to the lunar pitris of The Secret Doctrine, are as mysterious as the higher or arupa classes of kumaras or agnishvattas. The agnidagdhas are the vehicles of the arupa classes and, because of their grosser or more materialized essences, are able to coalesce with the forces and substances of nature on more material planes of the solar system. Known also as barhishads, they "kept up the household flame," and thus were conversant with and living with flames of the material or quasimaterial realms. Such "material" flames are the fiery or magneto-electric forces and substances of the lower worlds, which include the flame of desire and passion as well as the electric fire of the physical universe. They not only equipped man with the lower parts of his constitution, but likewise projected their chhayas (shadows or astral vehicles), thus furnishing the astral-physical vehicle of early humanity.

The anagnidagdhas are the more spiritual and intellectual classes of pitris who provided nascent humanity with its spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic principles. Blavatsky writes: "The first or primordial Pitris, the 'Seven Sons of Fire' or of the Flame, are distinguished or divided into seven classes . . . (VP 3:14; Manu 3:199)

three of which classes are Arupa, formless, 'composed of intellectual not elementary substance,' and four are corporeal. The first are pure Agni (fire) or Sapta-jiva ('seven lives,' now become Sapta-jihva, seven-tongued, as Agni is represented with seven tongues and seven winds as the wheels of his car). As a formless, purely spiritual essence, in the first degree of evolution, they could not create that, the prototypical form of which was not in their minds, as this is the first requisite. They could only give birth to 'mind-born' beings, their 'Sons,' the second class of Pitris (or Prajapati, or Rishis, etc.), one degree more material; these, to the third -- the last of the Arupa class. It is only this last class that was enabled with the help of the Fourth principle of the Universal Soul (Aditi, Akasha) to produce beings that became objective and having a form. But when these came to existence, they were found to possess such a small proportion of the divine immortal Soul or Fire in them, that they were considered failures. . . . The three orders of Beings, the Pitri-Rishis, the Sons of Flame, had to merge and blend together their three higher principles with the Fourth (the Circle), and the Fifth (the microcosmic) principle before the necessary union could be obtained and result therefrom achieved" (BCW 6:191-3).

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

Epidemics (from Greek epi upon + demos the people)

The causes usually assigned to epidemic diseases are: individual susceptibility; earth conditions of heat, moisture, soil, water, hygiene, and sanitation; and mass movements of people, as in wars, pilgrimages, etc. While all these factors provide physical and psychological conditions favorable for the spread of certain epidemic diseases and emotional disorders, there remain potent invisible causes to be reckoned with.

Blavatsky discusses unusual and serious effects of certain causes which in some cases are cosmic rather than bacterial (BCW 13: 109). She explains that all such mysterious epidemics as influenza are due to an exuberance of ozone in the air, where an excess of oxygen has become ozone under the powerful stimulus of electricity.

The pranic life-atoms of the human body make an electrical field which, permeating our astral-vital-physical constitution, puts us in contact with the natural flow of ethereal currents of electric and magnetic force. These forces emanate from great cosmic entities who are the intelligent agencies for the karmic action of the so-called laws of nature. They function in the noumenal realm of causes which are due to appear on earth as phenomena of all kinds. These entities, leaving aside solar forces, are the regents of the seven sacred planets, who help to build the body and oversee the destiny of both humanity and the earth. They act automatically and impersonally in harmony with the combined causes and effects of ethereal and terrestrial conditions.

The sun, moon, planets, earth, and human brain are all magnets in contact with a common network of "live" wires of consciousness. The atoms in the solar system not only probably change their combining equivalents on every planet, but they undergo a certain change in their rapid passage through our atmosphere: concerning "the Spirit, the noumenon of that which becomes in its grossest form oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen on Earth. . . . Before these gases and fluids become what they are in our atmosphere, they are interstellar Ether; still earlier and on a deeper plane -- something else, and so on in infinitum" (SD 1:626). These fluids and gases, then, have been stepped down, plane after plane, bringing to us the karmic influences of the hierarchies of entities which compose the solar organism. They are the tangible carriers of the cosmic electrical fire of divine, spiritual, mental, psychic, astral, and material forces which infill the universe. Here, in brief, are the astrological causative influences in typical epidemics, which are variously operating in other karmic diseases and mental and emotional disorders such as popular uprisings, fanatical movements, and waves of crime and vice. Happily, the same impersonal agents of the karmic law, under the influences of far higher spiritual agents, are equally active and helpful during human cycles of ethical and spiritual aspiration and progress.

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

Mithraism The worship of Mithras, a remarkable and highly mystical religion which existed long before Zoroaster as the Society of the Magi (the Great Brotherhood of Man) giving its secret teachings to qualified candidates, the future initiates. Although supposedly a worship of the sun, originating in Persia, Mithraism was "really a religious philosophy based upon the Divine, Inner, and Invisible Sun, a vortex so to say of the Divine Spiritual Fire of the Universe, of the Heart of Things" (ET 1087n).

Mithraism spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, especially during the 2nd and 3rd centuries and for a time threatened to supersede Christianity. A number of the liturgical rites and ceremonies of Christianity are probably of Mithraic origin. For example, rites associated with Deo Soli Invicto Mithrae (to the Unconquered God-sun, Mithras), were held at the time of the winter solstice, especially the Night of Light -- now Christmas -- known as the birthday of Mithras, represented as having been born in a cave or grotto, hence often called the rock-born god. Exceedingly popular in the Roman armies as well as with the rulers of the Roman Empire, Mithraism was regularly established by Trajan about 100 AD in the Empire, and the Emperor Commodus was himself initiated into its mysteries. Sacred caves or grottoes were the principal places of worship, where the Mysteries for which Mithraism was famed were enacted.

The candidate for initiation into the Mithraic Mysteries had to undergo twelve "tortures" or labors, but the enumeration of the twelve or seven degrees is varied. One consisting of twelve grades is as follows: the candidate first underwent a long probation, with scourging, fasting, and ordeal of water, whereupon he became a soldier of Mithras. Before the soul of the initiant could leave the terrestrial region, it had to pass through the zodiacal grades of the Bull and the Lion, each involving further probation. Then it ascended through the region of the aether by means of the grades of the Vulture, the Ostrich, and the Crow. The soul then strove to pass into the realm of pure fire, through the stages of the Gryphon, the Perses, and the Sun. Finally the soul attained complete union with the divine nature through the grades of Father Eagle, Father Falcon, and Father of Fathers.

One of the principal tenets of Mithraism was that a struggle between good and evil is continually going on in the world, and that this dualistic interworking and intermingling of cosmic and terrestrial forces is also occurring within every man and woman; each one has the power to aid in this conflict so that the good shall ultimately triumph. This is achieved by means of self-sacrifice and probation, and Mithras is ever ready to make the mystic sacrifice whereby the good may triumph. "The Persian Mithra, he who drove out of heaven Ahriman, is a kind of Messiah who is expected to return as the judge of men, and is a sin-bearing god who atones for the iniquities of mankind. As such, however, he is directly connected with the highest Occultism, the tenets of which were expounded during the Mithraic Mysteries which thus bore his name" (TG 216). Origen refers to the Mithraic teaching of the seven heavens, each of which was ascended by means of a ladder -- representing the different stages or planes of the heavens -- over which ruled the highest or most spiritual realm of nature. Celsus mentions their teaching concerning the seven sacred planets.

Especially associated with Mithraism is a representation of Mithra as a handsome youth in Oriental garments, kneeling on a bull which is thrown to the ground, the youth being about to cut the throat of the bull with his dagger. The bull is at the same time attacked by a dog, a serpent, and a scorpion, followed by two birds. Here the bull is an emblem of strength and of creative or generative power; Mithra is the spiritual man or sun killing or subduing his animal passions. This ritualistic representation later became so anthropomorphic that it aroused Zoroaster to bring about certain reforms and replace Mithra with Ahura-Mazda, an abstract concept.

(See also: Mithraism, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Protoplasm [from Greek protos first + plasma form]

The semi-fluid granular substance found in all forms of organic life; the primal type of physical matter which appears as merely homogeneous, amorphous, gelatinous substance, yet with the potentiality of differentiating into every known organized form and function.

The biological basis of manifesting life on the physical plane, it is semi-astral matter operating at the level where "the two realms, the lower astral and the ethereal-physical, here melt or merge into each other" (ET 310n). As a physicalization of vital astral substance, it interlinks the tangible world of forms to the invisible world of living forces and the root-types in the evolutionary ground plan. "Astral matter, it must be noted, is fourth state matter, having, like our gross matter, its own 'protyle.'

There are several 'protyles' in Nature, corresponding to the various planes of matter" (SD 2:737). This ethereal gradation of substances affords a medium or stairway for the transmission of the living impulses and forces of lofty intelligences which are the vitalizing and directing cause of every protoplasmic seed or center differentiating and evolving, each after its own kind and in its own degree of unfolding.

In the lower kingdoms where all forms of plant and animal life begin in this seemingly indifferent substance, their essential nature and instincts operate under the vitalizing influence of a hierarchy of dhyani-chohanic entities who, in the aggregate, represent and are the so-called laws of nature. In addition to this creative supervision, in self-conscious man his own spiritual essence is allied with the operation of the karmic agents in working out his fleshly imbodiments.

The fertilized germ-cell of the human embryo is a microscopic copy of the protoplasmic second human root-race, "huge and highly ethereal astral Cells . . . infilled with the astral essence of the lowest of the Dhyani-Chohanic fluids" (ET 311).

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

Hermaphrodite (from Greek Hermes + Aphrodite)

The form and typical nature of both the god and goddess in one individual. Androgyne also relates to a dual-sexed human being. Thus, the hermaphrodite imbodies nature's universal polarity on its lower planes, which polarity is an emanation from the non-dual or non-bipolar mental and spiritual realms. In an abstract sense, this is a personification of the universal polarity in nature on its lower planes, wherein the so-called masculine and feminine principles are the opposing but coordinating agencies, often called positive and negative, in their creative and generative aspects.

"The ancients taught the, so to speak, auto-generation of the Gods: the one divine essence, unmanifested, perpetually begetting a second-self, manifested, which second-self, androgynous in its nature, gives birth in an immaculate way to everything macro- and micro-cosmical in this universe" (SD 1:398).

Attention is drawn to the philosophic need of making a sharp distinction between what Blavatsky has called primary creation and secondary creation, the former referring to the one divine unity in which all later manifesting hierarchies primordially inhere as One; whereas the secondary creation or stage in cosmic evolution begins with the fourth stage or fourth cosmic plane beneath the former, where polarity, duality, and the consequent emanational elaboration of the universe into its hierarchical structures begins. Thus through emanational cosmic evolution the One breaks through its two aspects of parabrahman and mulaprakriti into the cosmically androgyne and phenomenal finite manifested universe.

The asexual procreative methods of the early root-races had evolved to the hermaphroditic status in the early and middle third root-race. The present conditions of sex will also pass away in due course of time after ages of experience as man and woman shall have brought forth the innate masculine and feminine aspects of the human ego. The human race in the course of millions of years will become dual-sexed and finally sexless.

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

Paramita (Sanskrit) [from param beyond + ita gone from the verbal root i to go]

Gone or crossed to the other shore; derivatively, virtue or perfection. The paramitas vary in number according to the Buddhist school: some quoting six, others seven or ten; but they are the glorious or transcendental virtues -- the keys to the portals of jnana (wisdom).

Blavatsky gives these seven keys as (VS 47-8):

1)    dana "the key of charity and love immortal";

2)    sila (good character), "the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action"; 3) kshanti, "patience sweet, that nought can ruffle";

3)    viraga, "indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived";

4)    virya (strength, power), "the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial";

5)    dhyana (profound spiritual-intellectual contemplation, with utter detachment from all objects of sense and of a lower mental character), human consciousness in the higher reaches of this state becomes purely buddhic, with the summit of the manas acting as vehicle for the retention of what the percipient consciousness experiences; once the golden gate of dhyana is opened, the pathway stretching thence leads towards the realm of "Sat eternal"; and

6)    prajna (understanding, wisdom), that part of the mind that functions when active as the vehicle of the higher self; "the key to which makes of man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis."

The six, seven, or ten paramitas have reference to the three fundamental grades of training in discipleship: six for the beginner, seven for the one who is more advanced, and ten which are practiced by the adept. A faithful following of these virtues is incumbent upon every disciple, and fidelity and perseverance in performance mark progress along the mystic way.

The other three paramitas, making ten, are adhishthana (inflexible courage) that goes forward to meet danger or difficulty; upeksha (discrimination) which seeks and finds the right way of applying the paramitas; and prabodha (awakened inner consciousness) or sambuddhi (complete or perfect illumination).

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

Ambrosia (Greek) (from ambrotos immortal from a not + mortos or brotos mortal; cf Sanskrit amrita from a not + the verbal root mri to die; Latin immortalus from in not + mors death)

In Classical myths variously the food, drink, or unguent of the gods or divine wisdom, connected with nectar; anything that confers or promotes immortality. Equivalent to the Sanskrit amrita and soma and the northern European mead. In a Chinese allegory, the flying Dragon drinks of ambrosia and falls to earth with his host.

The laws of evolution entail a so-called curse or fall upon virtually all the hosts of monads frequently called angels, whereby they are cast down to the nether pole and undergo peregrinations in the realms of matter; in the case of many such "fallen angels," this involves imbodiment or incarnation on earth. Man himself at a stage of his evolution experiences a similar "descent" and speeding-up, due to the impulses of the immortal urge within his breast to grow, progress, evolve, and become cognizant of larger reaches of truth. This is evident in the highly mystical Hebrew story of the forbidden Tree and in the various legends pertaining to soma in Hindu literature.

Yet on the upward arc of an evolutionary cycle, partaking of this sacred ambrosial food signifies initiation, the partaking by the initiant in the Mysteries of the "drink" of spiritual immortality. This drink is symbolized by the cup and its contained liquid, but actually is the receiving into the consciousness from the inner nature of the life-giving streams, the draught of everlasting life, or the elixir of life.

After partaking of this ambrosial elixir, brought about by lives of selflessness and by final initiation, the adept learns to live in the minor and intermediate spheres of the solar system as a fully self-conscious co-laborer with the gods in their cosmic work. Such are the higher nirmanakayas, true buddhas, etc.

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

Actio in Distans (Latin) Action at a distance. Can force be transmitted across an empty space? On the automechanical theory of the universe, such action is inexplicable and yet inevitable, for if the universe consists entirely of matter made of atoms separated from each other by empty spaces, the transmission of force from one atom to another cannot be explained except by supposing some medium to intervene. If this medium is atomic, the old difficulty reappears; if it is continuous, there is no reason for supposing it, since matter might in the first place have been supposed to be continuous.

Thus if we choose to represent reality as a system of points in space, we must assume actio in distans as an axiom. The difficulty that a body cannot act where it is not, may be gotten over by stating that wherever it can act, there it is. Scientific theories, carried to a logical conclusion, support the idea that all things in the universe are connected with each other, so that whatever affects one part affects every other part. Notions of physical space do not enter to the realm of mind, thought, and feeling.

To meet this difficulty of action at a distance, early European scientists invented various kinds of ethers to bridge the supposed gap of nothingness between atom and atom or body and body. These finally were abandoned, with the exception of the luminiferous or light-carrying ether, which remained until the Michelson-Morley experiment, after which it was abandoned.

Nevertheless, theosophy postulates the existence of atomic and subatomic ethers of various degrees of tenuity, ranging from physical to spiritual. Collectively these ethers are the different planes or ranges of akasa, the fundamental substratum of the universe and the garment in which the kosmic divinity clothes itself -- the various prakritis as outlined especially in the Sankhya philosophy. Any scientific ether is not the akasa or aether, but solely the lowest plane of the akasic plenum, some of the ranges of the astral light, which in one sense is the highest principle of the earth's atmosphere -- a subtle ethereal energy-stuff permeant through and interpenetrating physical matter of all kinds.

See also Aether; Ether

(See also: Actio in Distans, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Cosmogenesis (from Greek kosmos world + genesis birth)

The genesis of worlds, as distinguished from anthropogensis or the genesis of mankind; as defined by Blavatsky: "At the commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahm manifests as Mulaprakriti and then as the Logos. This Logos is equivalent to the 'Unconscious Universal Mind,' etc., of Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the subject-side of manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual consciousness. Mulaprakriti or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation of the object-side of things -- the basis of all objective evolution and Cosmogenesis" (SD 2:24). The word is not restricted to earth, but includes innumerable globes; nor is it confined to those worlds which happen to be visible to our eye, but includes worlds on all the various planes of manifested substance.

It does not mean that the worlds were created ex nihilo by divine fiat, nor that they were merely the productions from dead, unconscious, albeit eternal and uncreate matter. Again, cosmogenesis is not a process which has occurred only once and for all, but a process which is repeated indefinitely during manvantaras and after great pralayas. Thus worlds are evolved from the state of latency or pralaya into which they passed at the close of the preceding manvantara, and both primordial matter and primordial spirit come from the same source -- parabrahman -- and are resolved again into it.

The process is one of evolution or progressive manifestation on various planes of objectivity of the potentialities latent in the spiritual germ. World must be understood, not with regard to any standards of size, but as including a universe of stars on the one hand and an atomic speck on the other.

The births and rebirths of worlds are not the haphazard productions of a consciousness eternal in its working on matter, eternal in itself and different from consciousness; but are the offspring or productions of consciousness-life-substance periodically manifesting its inherent life and powers by the appearances of different world systems -- be these galaxies, solar systems, individual suns, or planetary bodies; or again, in the infinitesimal realms, atoms and their component electronic monads. The entire process of the appearances and disappearances of world systems is dependent on inherent karmic causality manifesting on all planes and taking its rise in the characteristics and action of consciousness and consciousnesses.

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