Psychic

A general term describing a person with one or more paranormal abilities such as extrasensory perception, clairvoyance or telepathy.

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

Mysticism

A word originally derived from the Greek and having a wide range of meaning in modern religion and philosophy. A mystic may be said to be someone who has intuitions or intimations of the existence of inner and superior worlds, and who attempts to achieve conscious communion with them and the beings inhabiting these inner and invisible worlds.

From the theosophical or occult point of view, a mystic is one who has inner convictions often based on inner vision and knowledge of the existence of spiritual and ethereal worlds of which our outer physical world is but a manifestation; and who has some inner knowledge that these worlds or planes or spheres, with their hosts of inhabitants, are intimately connected with the origin, destiny, and even present nature of the world which surrounds us.

The average mystic, however, is one who lacks the direct guidance derived from personal teaching received from a master or spiritual superior.

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

Spiritual Gifts

According to Christian doctrine, special abilities given by God to worthy believers. Every Christian has at least one

Following is a list of the gifts arranged in two groups.

• The first are gifts that require supernatural intervention and are possessed only by true Christians.
• The second are gifts that do not require supernatural intervention. Even non-Christians can have the second group of gifts.

A further issue is whether or not the gifts are still in use today. Some believe they ceased with the apostles and the completion of the writings of the Bible) and they are no longer needed for the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. 4: 12). Others believe the gifts are still in use but not in the pure apostolic sense. In other words, they are still in use but not in the same way possessed by the apostles. Instead, they are available to the believer if and when God decides it is beneficial to use them.

The first group of spiritual gifts are: Salvation, Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Distinguishing of Spirits, Tongues, and Interpretation of Tongues.

The second group of spiritual gifts are: Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leading, and Showing mercy.

(see Psychic Gifts)

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

Age

Astrology divides time into units called ages which correspond to the signs of the zodiac, each age lasting from 2000 to 2400 years. This progression outlines the evolution of the universe and mankind. We are now moving from the age of Pisces into the one associated with Aquarius.

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

Chi

(Chinese, "ether," "matter-energy," "vital energy," "material force")

An important and multifaceted term in Chinese religion, philosophy, and science, the root meaning of which is "moist vapor" or "breath. "

• Early Chinese teachers spoke of chi as a vital spirit or energy that animated living beings. As such, it had to be properly nourished.
• For Confucians, that required moral cultivation so that one's chi, undistracted by external things, would conform to the dictates of will.
• For Taoists, it required mastery of the self through meditation, breath control, diet, yoga, and other techniques so as to harmonize one's chi with the material force of the universe ordered by the Tao (undifferentiated unity).

Traditional Chinese medicine attributed illnesses primarily to imbalances in the chi that pulsed through the body. Acupuncture, moxibustion (placing burning cones made of the dried leaves of the Artemisia moxa plant on the patient's skin), and other techniques helped to restore its balanced circulation.

Chi was also an important concept in the correlative philosophy that blossomed in the early Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 8) systematizing the correspondences between like things that explained their mutual interactions.

In the Neo-Confucian metaphysics of the Northern and Southern Sung dynasties (960-1279), all phenomena were said to be manifest through the intrinsic relation of principle (li) and material force (chi). Li constituted the essential, unchanging, perfect nature of all things, while chi represented their corporeal, transitory, and potentially flawed aspect. Individuals were instructed to perfect their humanity, to purify and harmonize their chi with their true Heavenendowed nature through the external investigation of things and mental introspection. Also Ki.

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

Islam

A world religion based on the teachings and life of Muhammad (570-632 AD) in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia (then Persia). Islam is the second largest world religion, and has recently become the third largest religious body in America.

Islam is composed of two major divisions - the mainstream Sunni (the largest) and the more radical Shi'ites.

The mystical tradition of Sufism includes many Sunnis and some Shi'ites.

The Arabic word Islam means Òsubmission to the will of GodÓ and a person who submits is called a Muslim.

The Quran (or, Koran), the Torah, the Psalms of the Old Testament, and the Gospel of the New Testament are regarded as holy books. However, only the Quran is considered uncorrupted.

While many Muslims exhibit tolerance towards other faiths, even today Islamic fundamentalism promotes jihad (holy war), against those of other religious and political views.

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

Calvinism

A system of Christian interpretation initiated by John Calvin. It emphasizes predestination and salvation. The five points of Calvinism were developed in response to the Arminian position (See Arminianism).

Calvinism teaches:

1)    Total depravity: that man is touched by sin in all parts of his being: body, soul, mind, and emotions,

2)    Unconditional Election: that GodÕs favor to Man is completely by GodÕs free choice and has nothing to do with Man. It is completely undeserved by Man and is not based on anything God sees in man,

3)    Limited atonement: that Christ did not bear the sins of every individual who ever lived, but instead only bore the sins of those who were elected into salvation,

4)    Irresistible grace: that God's call to someone for salvation cannot be resisted,

5)    Perseverance of the saints: that it is not possible to lose one's salvation.

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

Christianity

Major world religion whose development was begun by Plato 300 BC in the School of Philosphers in Athens. It was more fully developed in the fourth century AD when the Emperor Constantine established a universal (Catholic) church. At this time, the belief that Jesus the Nazarite was the promised Messiah or Christ of Israel was accepted, along with a set of books, known as the New Testament. (See Christianity)

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

Church of All Worlds

An eclectic Neo-Pagan organization begun in 1967 by Tim Zell (also known as Otter G'Zell) and inspired by the science-fictional church in Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Celebrating nature and worshiping the Earth Mother and her consort, the Horned God, members seek advancement of personal spiritual awareness through ritual practice, individualistic philosophy, and intense study. Their are centers or "nests" throughout the U. S. Headquartered today in Berkely, Cal, the idea for. it all began on April 7, 1962. Publish a popular New Age/Pagan magazine, Green Egg.

(See also: Church of All Worlds , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Aboriginal Dreaming

An English expression adopted by Australian Aborigines to convey ideas that, though related in their thought, are not usually denoted by a single word in any of their languages.

One sense is that of a primordial epoch, the Dreaming or Dreamtime, when beings with remarkable powers arose from the ground, descended from the sky, or appeared from over the horizon. They gave the earth its shape by creating physical features (often from parts of their own bodies), fixed life in species form, established human culture, and gave everything its name.

These creative beings, who in their totality are the ultimate explanation of all things, are themselves called Dreamings (roughly equivalent to the anthropological term totems).

Their significance to the Aborigines is not merely historical but personal and social, for each individual and group gains a distinctive identity through its association with one or more Dreamings. In many regions it is held that such beings reincarnate themselves as humans, or that they left relics behind that, to this day, are sufficiently potent to impregnate women.

This sense of oneness, in which past and present, spirit being and human being, are somehow fused, is also seen in ceremonies in which the actors wear designs and make movements symbolic or mimetic of what the Dreamings did in the Dreamtime. By extension, from these two senses of Dreaming, the Aborigines form other expressions, such as Dreaming-place (a site at which a Dreaming was active and left something of itself) and Dreaming-track (an imagined path along which a Dreaming traveled from place to place in the primordial epoch).

Contrary to what is sometimes suggested, the term has no necessary connection with the verb to dream, even though present-day revelations to humans by Dreamings normally occur while the recipient is in a dream or trance state.

See Astral World.

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

Anubis

An Egyptian deity with the head of a jackal or dog and the body of a human. He leads the souls of the dead to the underworld and helps Osiris at his final judgment. Anubis' particular concern is with the funeral cult and the care of the dead, and, Anubis is often considered the inventor of embalming. Considered benevolent and good, Anubis was present in the underworld (Duat) at the weighing of the dead person's soul, and was also at home in the heavenly sky realms of Ra. Anubis was worshipped at Abydos and was also worshiped at Lycopolis, Abt and other cities. Although the god's name is translated in texts as Anubis, this is actually the Greek form of the Egyptian name Anpu.

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

Queztalcoatl

(Aztec - "feathered-serpent")

 An Aztec god of the air or a sun-god and a benefactor of their race who instructed them in the use of agriculture, metals and the like.

According to one account, Quetzalcoatl was driven from the country by a superior god and on reaching the shores of the Mexican Gulf promised his followers that he would return. He then embarked on his magic skiff for the land of Tlapallan.

The Great Bird-Serpent is the most powerful figure in Mexican mythology, and it was known and accepted as a god in ancient Mexico and Central America. Accordingly, he dominated the great early American civilizations, from the land of the Incas in South America, to the Pueblo Indians of the our southwestern desert; from Teotihuacan (Mexico City) on the high plateau to Chichen Itza in Yucatan, he is a prevailing motif on ancient monuments.

Sometimes with his jaws open, bifid tongue, and articulated spinal column, he is easily recognizable. At others, he seems to have been coded in an almost infinite variety of formalized patterns derived from his famous scales, or feathers.

To the ancients, Quetzalcoatl became the force for understanding the universe, as it was known before the introduction of modern religion by the Conquistadors of Spain. The god Quetzalcoatl represented, to the ancient peoples of Central and South America, the very essence of life.

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

Neo-Paganism

The modern revival of paganism, emphasizing witchcraft (see Wicca), goddess worship, and nature worship.

(See also: Neo-Paganism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Akhenaton

(Egyptian, "he who acts effectively for the invisible solar disk")

Pharaoh of Egypt ca. 1350 to 1334 BC, often called (erroneously) the first monotheist of recorded history.

He first came to the throne as Amenhotep IV and worshiped traditional gods. However, after his fourth year, he elevated a minor deity, the Aton, i. e. , the "disk of the sun" (a form of the sun god, Re), to the position of state god of Egypt and changed his name to Akhenaton to reflect his devotion to that deity.

His pantheon consisted of a trinity that included the Aton, Akhenaton, and Nefertiti (also the name of his wife), which was the focus of popular worship. While Akhenaton was worshiped as the unique son of the Aton, Nefertiti was celebrated for her fertility. Common people were excluded from worshiping the Aton itself. Egyptians could worship only the royal couple; the couple in turn worshiped the sun disk. The new religion was maintained by Akhenaton's popular appeal as king, but it quickly passed away after his death.

Akhenaton's motives in promulgating his beliefs were political and religious, since he elevated himself to the status of a god higher than customary for an Egyptian king. Akhenaton's religion recognized both Egyptians and foreigners as equal beneficiaries of the same god, and it overturned established conventions in Egyptian language and art.

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

Bhakti Yoga

Type of yoga or spiritual exercise involving devotion to a god or a guru.

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

The ten Sepheroth

(emanations)

• Kether. Crown - Top of Head
• Hochma. . wisdom -Right Brain
• Binah. . Understanding - Left of Brain
• Hesed. . March - Right Arm
• Pechad. . Strength- Left Arm
• Tefereth. . Beauty-Heart
• Nezah. . Victory-Right of Pelvis
• Hod. . Glory-Left of Pelvis
• Yesod. . Foundation-Genitals
•  

The sephiroth form the central image of Kabbalistic meditation, the Sephirothic Tree of Life, which describes the path of descent from the divine to the material realm, and the path of ascent to the highest level of spirituality.

Each sephirath is a level of attainment in knowledge, corresponding to energy centers in the body, and is also divided into four interlocking sections or 'Worlds', which constitute the cosmos:

• emanation (Atziluth),
• creation (Briah),
• formation (Yetzirah), and
• action or making (Assiyah).

Through contemplation and meditation, similar to Eastern yogic disciplines, the Kabbalist ascends the tree of life.

The sephirot also comprise the sacred, unknowable, and unspeakable personal name of God: YHVH (Yahweh), the Tetragrammaton. So sacred is the Tetragrammaton that other names, such as Elohim and Jehovah, are substituted in its place in scripture.

A more systematic presentation of the basic doctrine is contained in Moses Cordovero's Pardes rimmonim (Garden of Pomegranates, 1548). Kabbalah was a major influence in the development of Hasidism and still has adherents among Hasidic Jews.

The Kabbalah, with its amulets, incantations, demonology, seals, and letter and number mysticism, had a profound influence on Western magical tradition. The Tetragrammaton especially was held in great awe for its power over all things in the universe, including demons.

(See also: The ten Sepheroth , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Paganism

Historically, paganism has been used as a generic term to describe non-Christian religions and superstitions - primarily, but not limited to, the old religions of Europe and Indo-Europe and ancient mythologies (Celt, Norse, Egyptian, Greek and Roman). Any religion other than Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. The term literally means "country dweller" and was originally used by Romans todescribe religions and philosophies not of Rome.

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

Craftsman God

The God who fashioned the world; the divine smith who governs metallurgy and the sacred sciences.

• Sumerian - Enki and Ea
• Egyptian - Ptah and Khnun
• Greek - Demiurge and Hephasius
• Roman - Vulcan
• English - Wayland the Smith

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