Heterogeneity and Homogeneity Heterogeneity applies in theosophy to the immensely differentiated and variegated emanations of the cosmic spirit, itself considered the homogeneous or nondifferentiated source and root of all.

During manvantara the one uniform and noncompounded spirit becomes differentiated into the incomprehensibly vast varieties of manifested nature; whereas during pralaya differentiation vanishes and all returns into the noncompounded homogeneity of the cosmic spirit. Neither term is used in too absolute a sense; each refers to cosmic hierarchies or universes, surrounded by the limitless spaces of infinite space.

See also DIFFERENTIATION; ELEMENT; LAYA-CENTER; PRIMEVAL MATTER; UNITY

(See also: Heterogeneity and Homogeneity, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism 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)

Philosophy The Greek philosophia meant love of wisdom, but with equal power of significance, although perhaps not etymologically as correct, the meaning was wisdom of love; also, the systematic investigation and instruction of facts and theories regarded as important in the study of truth.

In common usage it denotes the mental and moral sciences, in some respects being nearly equivalent to metaphysics, and including a number of divisions.

Theosophists speak of a triad of philosophy, religion, and science as being merged by theosophy into a unity; but science was itself at one time called natural philosophy, so that the chief distinction is that between faith and reason.

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

Kosmos (from Greek kosmos order, universe)

The universe, equivalent to the Latin mundus. Theosophy contemplates an infinite series of successive wholes or universes, each sufficiently complete to entitle it to be called a kosmos or universe, and yet each included within a larger whole. As there are no absolutes or final limits, this being contrary to nature, no sense of finality should be given to the word kosmos, which includes the invisible planes as well as the visible universe. Some theosophical writers use kosmos to refer to our home universe or galactic system, and cosmos for the solar system.

The triple deity Chaos-Theos-Cosmos is the containment of the space, both subjective and objective, of any hierarchy, however great or small, these in each case making a tetraktys.

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

Levitation (from Latin levis light in weight)

The act of rising in the air at will or unconsciously, in opposition to gravitation. However, theosophy does not view gravitation in the Newtonian sense, but sees in it magnetic attraction and repulsion.

 Levitation is due to a change in the polarity of a body becoming identical with the polarity of the earth on which the body rests, which then repels the body or ceases to attract it. The height attained being dependent upon the strength or potentiality of the electric polar energy resident in the rising body. It is possible, and indeed easy, for the adept to change the polarity of his body at will.

In ancient Greece levitation was called aithrobates (from which aethrobacy), meaning the art of walking in the ether or air.

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

Keherpas; Karpas (Persian), Kalpadh (Pahlavi) A cloth made of cotton; In Persian literature, used in the sense of a white cotton gown. It might symbolically allude to the aerial form, as a Parsi FTS wrote in Five Years of Theosophy, designating it as the third of seven human principles:

"The word translated 'aerial form' (keherpas)

has come down to us without undergoing any change in the meaning. It is the modern Persian word kaleb, which means a mould, a shape into which a thing is cast, to take a certain form and features" (p. 148).

(See also: Keherpas; Karpas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jnana (Jnanam) (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root jna to know, have knowledge, understand)

Intelligence, understanding, knowledge; the old philosophers said that parabrahman is not jnata (known), not jnana (knowledge), and not jneya (that which may be known), nevertheless parabrahman is the one source of which these three modes of understanding are manifestations.

Jnana and vidya are closely similar, with perhaps the suggestion of intuitive intellectual cognizance expressed in jnana, and a more active and individualized activity expressed by vidya. Either word can stand for knowledge or wisdom; in theosophy jnana is often translated as innate or intuitive knowledge, and vidya as reflective or stored-up cognizance of intellectual and other values, or wisdom, though these distinctions are somewhat arbitrary.

See also JHANA

(See also: Jnana, Jnanam, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Existence (from Latin exsisto standing forth, emerging)

Although often used interchangeably with being, in theosophy being refers to abstract continuity in spirit, while existence means the phenomenal manifestation of an entity in the phenomenal worlds. Therefore being is the noumenon and existence is the phenomenon. Hence one can speak of the causes of existence (nidanas), or of all existences being dissolved. The Absolute, a cosmic hierarch, is defined with equal appropriateness as absolute existence and as non-existence.

Non-existence is described as absolute being, existence, and consciousness (SD 1:39). Fichte makes a proper distinction between being (Seyn) and existence (Daseyn), the former being the noumenal One, and the latter the phenomenal manifold through which the One is known.

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

Epithumia (Greek) In Greek metaphysics, equivalent in the human constitution to kama or the desire principle. Psyche or soul was a union of bios (physical vitality, prana), epithumia, and phren or mens (mind, manas). (BCW 1:292, 365) "Pythagoras and Plato both divided soul into two representative parts, independent of each other -- the one, the rational soul, or ((logos)), the other irrational, ((alogos))-- the latter being again subdivided into two parts or aspects the ((thymichon)) and the ((epithymichon)), which, with the divine soul and its spirit and the body, make the seven principles of Theosophy" (BCW 7:229).

See also PRINCIPLES

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

Essenes (probably from Hebrew asa to heal)

Described by Josephus as one of three principal sects among Jews from about the middle of the 2nd century BC; the title Healer, often equivalent to savior or teacher (cf therapeutae). They were a sect of Jewish theosophy, rather exclusive, adhering to Jewish tradition in some respects though regarded as heretical in others.

Their cardinal principles were active benevolence and self-discipline. They had an esoteric school guarded by secrecy, accessible through novitiate and degrees. Josephus, describing the rule of a community, presents the picture of a tranquil life, divided between practical avocations, assemblies, and ritual observances.

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

Heterogeneity and Homogeneity Heterogeneity applies in theosophy to the immensely differentiated and variegated emanations of the cosmic spirit, itself considered the homogeneous or nondifferentiated source and root of all.

During manvantara the one uniform and noncompounded spirit becomes differentiated into the incomprehensibly vast varieties of manifested nature; whereas during pralaya differentiation vanishes and all returns into the noncompounded homogeneity of the cosmic spirit. Neither term is used in too absolute a sense; each refers to cosmic hierarchies or universes, surrounded by the limitless spaces of infinite space.

See also DIFFERENTIATION; ELEMENT; LAYA-CENTER; PRIMEVAL MATTER; UNITY

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

Duodenary (or Dodecad) The number 12, or a group of 12. A most important number in cosmic symbology, as in the 12 signs of the zodiac, the 12 apostles, the 12 great gods of Olympus and other theogonies, the 12 sons of Jacob, and 12 months of the year.

The Olympian gods are six male and six female, showing dual aspects of each of the six rays of the logos (not including the synthesizing seventh); and the signs of the zodiac in astrology are similarly divided into masculine and feminine. In Buddhist cosmogony are the 12 nidanas -- the chief causes of manifested existence, effects generated by a concatenation of causes, ending on this our physical plane. In theosophy the 12 globes, principles, etc., are distributed on seven planes, five on the three arupa planes, and seven on the four rupa planes.

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

Duration As used in theosophy, clearly distinguished from time. Duration is; it has neither beginning nor end, nor is it broken up into cyclic periods as time is. Time may be called its representation in the manifested universe, and therefore time is finite. Duration is outside of both manifested time and space; it is here that the distinction between time and space, both being manifestations, may be said to disappear, and we may say that abstract space and duration are one. Thus boundless duration divides into what may be called eternal, universal, unconditioned time and a conditioned time -- the former the noumenon and the latter phenomenon.

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

Duration As used in theosophy, clearly distinguished from time. Duration is; it has neither beginning nor end, nor is it broken up into cyclic periods as time is. Time may be called its representation in the manifested universe, and therefore time is finite. Duration is outside of both manifested time and space; it is here that the distinction between time and space, both being manifestations, may be said to disappear, and we may say that abstract space and duration are one. Thus boundless duration divides into what may be called eternal, universal, unconditioned time and a conditioned time -- the former the noumenon and the latter phenomenon.

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

Kingdom(s) In natural history, a large group, department, or domain, marked off from others by characteristic qualities, three being generally recognized: animal, vegetable, and mineral, with mankind at the summit of the animal kingdom. Ancient thought as a whole, however, took account of vast spheres of cosmic inner space and inner consciousness inhabited by numerous hierarchies of all-various evolving, intelligent, and semi-intelligent beings.

Hence it is that mankind was a separate kingdom; and, if we consider human nature as a whole, humanity is more sharply distinguished from the lower kingdoms than they are from each other. To these four in theosophy are added three kingdoms below the mineral called elemental kingdoms, thus making a septenate. Above the human may be enumerated three dhyani-chohanic or god kingdoms, but the word "man" has often been used so as to include these kingdoms. These divisions correspond to the other septenary and denary divisions in the cosmos.

The more highly each kingdom is specialized along its peculiar lines, the more sharply is it differentiated from the other kingdoms; but the distinction tends to disappear and merge into a continuity when the entities in the different kingdoms are in an elementary or germinal stage. The entities in any kingdom higher than the lowest must pass in brief recapitulation through all the stages represented by the preceding kingdoms, before they can develop the features characteristic of their own kingdom.

In another sense, kingdom is sometimes used in theosophy to signify the life-waves circling around a planetary chain, or the various individualized hierarchies in universal nature, each one comprising the kingdom or domain of its own characteristic species, topped by its hierarch.

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

Conservation of Energy A scientific theory that the total energy of any material system is a quantity which cannot be increased or decreased by any action among the parts, and that when energy seems to disappear it is merely transformed into an equivalent quantity of another mode of energy.

The theory, interpreted in its widest sense, means no more than an affirmation that something cannot be created out of nothing or resolved into nothing, and so would seem a perfectly harmless generalization. However, theosophy teaches that there is a constant inflow of force into any such physical or material system, which in the scientific view is from sources exterior to a "closed material system."

Theosophy does not regard such forces as exterior but looks upon closed material systems as merely phenomena on the physical plane of inner and powerful forces which produce such physical systems as an appearance -- real enough for the entities within it while it lasts, but vanishing once the inner, controlling forces are withdrawn. Then the atoms simply vanish because the cohering energies which make them are likewise withdrawn.

From these considerations it is readily seen why the Masters or mahatmas in Blavatsky's time stated that the scientific theory of the conservation of energy was wrong in concept and therefore untrue in fact, although workable enough as a mere hypothesis for laboratory studies and the then closely restricted scientific theorizing of the day.

Correlation of forces, used by Sir William Grove (1842), is equivalent to the conservation of energy. It states that physical energies, such as light, heat, and mechanical energy, are convertible one into another, in equivalent quantities.

(See also: Conservation of Energy, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Force Used in two senses: an effect produced in matter, and the unknown cause of that effect. In the former sense it is a definite measurable quantity, usable in calculating the quantitative relation between phenomena, and of practical service in mechanics. But in the latter sense, force remains for science a mystery. If it is an inherent property of matter, then matter becomes a self-moving entity, a divine thing in its essence; if it acts on matter from outside, then where does it inhere? Is it an independent existence? The whole question is thus left hanging in the air.

According to theosophy the forces of science are effects produced on the physical plane by elementals or nature forces, which are themselves secondary causes and the effects of primary causes, ultimately of divine origin, behind the veil of terrestrial phenomena. Descending through the planes of cosmos there is a chain of effects. Theosophy sees no fundamental difference between force and motion: eternal motion gives rise on every plane to the dual manifestation of force and matter, twin aspects of the same substance.

In the universe force may be generalized as a unity, just as substance or consciousness may; but nevertheless just as there are consciousnesses and substances, so likewise cosmic force is to be understood as a generalizing phrase for cosmic forces essentially intelligent, and therefore that these cosmic forces are essentially divinities -- these divinities existing on different planes of the invisible worlds of the universe in hierarchical structure or degrees.

We have therefore the picture of inner and invisible conscious and likewise self-conscious forces, which are really divinities of many kinds, which by their interconnections and interwoven activities, produce the differentiated and marvelously varied manifested world in which we live.

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

Fundamental Propositions In theosophy, the three fundamental religio-philosophic principles or propositions which Blavatsky states in the Proem to The Secret Doctrine are the foundation on which theosophy presents its modern philosophical teachings:

1)    "An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception";

2)    "The Eternity of the Universe in toto as a boundless plane; periodically 'the playground of numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing'"; and

3)    "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul -- a spark of the former -- through the Cycle of Incarnation (or 'Necessity') in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term" (SD 1:14-17). There are also three fundamental propositions in volume 2:

As regards the evolution of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new propositions, which stand in direct antagonism to modern science as well as to current religious dogmas: it teaches

(a)   the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe;

(b)  the birth of the astral, before the physical body: the former being a model for the latter; and

(c)   that man, in this Round, preceded every mammalian -- the anthropoids included -- in the animal kingdom. -- 2:1

(See also: Fundamental Propositions, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ananta-sesha ananta-sesa (Sanskrit) (from an not + anta end + the verbal root sish to leave remainders)

Endless sishtas or remainders; name of the serpent of eternity described in the Puranas as the seat or carrier of the divine Vishnu during the periodical pralayas of the universe. It is thus infinite time itself, figurated as the great seven-headed serpent on which rests Vishnu, the manvantaric Logos when the Logos sinks into pralayic inactivity. This compound signifies the ever-continuing sishtas (spiritual cosmic seeds or residues) carried over from manvantara to manvantara through the intervening pralaya, and thus through eternity. It is on this endless aggregate of cosmic sishtas that Vishnu the cosmic Logos reclines, the thread of logoic consciousness being thus passed from manvantara to manvantara through the pralaya. Just as Vishnu in theosophy is a generalizing term for all the innumerable interblending hierarchies of beings and things which are unfolded during manvantara, so during pralaya Vishnu stands for the same aggregate of hierarchies conceived of as resting on the karmic remainders or "sleeping" webs of substance left over from the previous manvantara.

See also ADI-SESHA; SESHA

(See also: Ananta-sesha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ancestor Worship A cult widely observed among peoples and usually defined as the cult of the spirits of parents and forefathers. It implies belief in the continued existence of the deceased and in certain cases in their power of being interested in and affected by the fortunes of their living descendants; the sense of a perpetual spiritual unity and moral reciprocity in obligations and services; and a dependence of the fortunes of the living on the fulfillment of these obligations.

This can be seen from the ancient Roman ideas portrayed in the Aeneid, where the household gods (lares and penates) are so carefully preserved through all vicissitudes. This belief and practice point to times when death was regarded as merely an event in a continuous life. With the ancient cults, the sense of personal separateness seems merged in the more vivid sense of family unity, from whose privileges and obligations death is no discharge. In fact, theosophy suggests that the reimbodying ego of an ancestor actually takes a body born of its own descendants as a result of the transmigration of life-atoms. Thus what might be called an ancestral blood stream, or a tree with collateral branches, subsists.

The basic idea behind ancestor worship seems to be that its holders envisaged unity in a continuous and never-ending stream of lives, perpetuating itself in succession through the ages, and out of which and back into which individuals arise and sink, an idea in direct contrast to the modern view that the individual is the most important factor in life.

(See also: Ancestor Worship, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Abhimanin, Abhimani (Sanskrit) (from abhi towards + the verbal root man to think, reflect upon)

Longing for, thinking upon; name of an Agni, eldest son of Brahma. By Svaha, Abhimanin had three sons of surpassing brilliancy: Pavaka, Pavamana, and Suchi, the personifications of the three fires that produced our earth and humanity (VP 1:10). Abhimanin, his three sons, and their 45 sons constitute the mystic 49 fires of the Puranas and theosophy. As the eldest son of Brahma, Abhimanin represents the cosmic Logos, the first force produced in the universe at its evolution, the fire of cosmic creative desire. His three sons, according to the Vayu-Purana, stand for three different aspects of Agni (fire): Pavaka is the electric fire, Pavamana the fire produced by friction, and Suchi the solar fire. Interpreted on the cosmic and human planes, these three fires are "Spirit, Soul, and Body, the three great Root groups, with their four additional divisions" (SD 2:247). They are said to have been cursed by the sage Vasishtha to be born again and again (cf BP 4:24,4; SD 2:247-8).

"Every fire has a distinct function and meaning in the worlds of the physical and the spiritual. It has, moreover, in its essential nature a corresponding relation to one of the human psychic faculties, besides its well determined chemical and physical potencies when coming in contact with the terrestrially differentiated matter" (SD 1:521).

(See also: Abhimanin, Abhimani, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Aanroo, Aanre (Egyptian) More fully, Sekhet-Aanre (the fields of the reeds); more often called Aarru or Sekhet-Aarru; also Aanru, Aaru. The first region of the Afterworlds (Amenti) reached by the deceased in the afterdeath state, which he enters as a khu. "The second division of Amenti. The celestial field of Aanroo is encircled by an iron wall. The field is covered with wheat, and the 'Defunct' are represented gleaning it, for the 'Master of Eternity'; some stalks being three, others five, and the highest seven cubits high. Those who reached the last two numbers entered the state of bliss (which is called in Theosophy Devachan); the disembodied spirits whose harvest was but three cubits high went into lower regions (Kamaloka). Wheat was with the Egyptians the symbol of the Law of Retribution or Karma. The cubits had reference to the seven, five and three human 'principles' " (TG 1).

Beyond Aanroo, in Amenti, are seven halls with guardians, associated with kama-loka by Blavatsky: "Those only of the dead, who know the names of the janitors of the 'seven halls,' will be admitted into Amenti for ever; i.e., those who have passed through the seven races of each round -- otherwise they will rest in the lower fields; and it represents also the seven successive Devachans, or lokas" (SD 1:674n).

See also AMENTI; TUAT

(See also: Aanroo, Aanre, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)