C. - The third letter of the English alphabet, which has no equivalent in Hebrew except Caph, which see under K.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chaos (Greek) (from chaino to gape, yawn open)

"The earth was without form and void," says Genesis in describing the first stages of cosmogony. In Greek mythology contains the same idea of the primordial emptiness and formlessness which precedes the rebirth of a universe after pralaya. It was the vacant and spiritual space which existed before the creation of the universe or of the world; from it proceeded Darkness and Night.

Chaos is "chaotic" only in the sense that its constituents are unformed and unorganized; it is the kosmic storehouse of all the latent or resting seeds from former manvantaras. It means space -- not the Boundless, parabrahman-mulaprakriti, but the space of any particular hierarchy descending into manifestation. In one sense it is the condition of a solar system or planetary chain during its pralaya, containing all the elements in an undifferentiated state. Aether and chaos are the two principles immediately posterior to the first principle.

Various terms more or less synonymous are akasa, the universal egg (from which Brahma issued as light), the virgin egg, the virgin mother, the immaculate root (fructified by the ray), the primeval deep, the abyss, the great mother. The divine ray and chaos are father-mother or cosmic fire and water. Chaos-Theos-Cosmos are the triple deity or all-in-all. Chaos was personified in Egypt by the goddess Neith, who is the Father-Mother of the Stanzas of Dzyan, the akasa of the Hindus, the svabhavat of the northern Buddhists, and the Icelandic ginnungagap.

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

Cabala, Cabbala. See QABBALAH

(See also: Cabala, Cabbala, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Cabar Zio. See IU-KABAR ZIVO

(See also: Cabar Zio, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Cakravartin. See CHAKRAVARTIN

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

Cakshu. See CHAKSHU

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

Calendar A formal table of time measures based on the motions of the heavenly bodies. Where esoteric knowledge is intact, these cyclic motions and the periods they mark are inseparably connected with all other parts of the esoteric system.

Nowadays, the original calendars having been lost and reconstructed for purely civil or ecclesiastical purposes, they have no other significance. But formerly they likewise indicated the courses of cosmic evolution and the succession of human races. The Surya-Siddhanta gives the number of revolutions of the planets in 4,320,000 years, among other such data; and the work itself claims to be the result of observation over an immensely long period, based on a knowledge of the mathematics underlying the cosmic and terrestrial cycles. This calendar or astronomical-astrological work claims to be the original production of the Atlantean astronomer and magician Asuramaya.

The Mayas of Yucatan had a calendar system, deciphered at least in part, that extended far back into the past. In this calendar we find not only the familiar cycles of the lunation and of the solar year, but others such as the synodical revolution of Venus, and exact periods of 250, 280, or 360 days. The Egyptians in their calendar time-measurements used three different years, one of which was a year of 365 days, adapted to the Julian year by a Sothic period of 1460 years.

The lunar year of 12 lunations is one of immense antiquity, and formerly of almost universal usage, frequently combined with the solar year; and the lunar year is still used, with various systems of intercalation to adapt it to the tropical year. As to such periods as 280 and 260 days, one may wonder whether these numbers were merely used as convenient for computation, or whether they rest on actual cycles not recognized by modern astronomy.

The 280 is evidently connected with the human gestation and prenatal period. The position of the equinoctal point in relation to the stellar zodiac is often referred to as an indication of the dates of ancient events; and cycles of successive conjunctions of all or most of the planets are frequently mentioned in the archaic literatures of different peoples.

It seems evident that the structure of the map of time must give keys to the understanding of the evolution of worlds and races; and one may well anticipate that a knowledge of all the cycles and their intersections and combinations would suffice to reduce what now seems chaos into a symmetrical and thoroughly scientific system.

See also ANNUS MAGNUS.

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

Calf Generally in ancient symbology the calf stood for the earth. The Puranic allegory "which shows 'the Rishis milking the earth, whose calf was Soma, the Moon,' has a deep cosmographical meaning; for it is neither our earth which is milked, nor was the moon, which we know, the calf. . . . in every Purana, the calf changes name.

In one it is Manu Swayambhuva, in another Indra, in a third the Himavat (Himalayas) itself, while Meru was the milker" (SD 1:398 & n).

See also COW

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

Caloric According to a formerly widely accepted scientific theory of heat, when a hot body communicates heat to a cold body, there passes from the former to the latter an "imponderable" fluid, called caloric or phlogiston; and the heat developed by friction is due to a squeezing of caloric out from the body.

This theory, misunderstood in later times, was abandoned when it was proved that the amount of heat which can thus be obtained from a body is unlimited, depending only on the amount of labor used in generating it. The error lay in considering that there was a definite, limited amount of caloric which, once extracted, left no further caloric to be extracted until the body had accumulated it anew, quite forgetting that the caloric or phlogiston theory held that caloric was a part of the substance of material things, just as modern electrical theory holds that material substances are themselves formed of electricity. One might as well hold that every material body possesses a certain amount of electricity, of which, when once extracted, the body can no longer furnish a further supply.

Scientists were doubtless quite right logically in abandoning the caloric theory from their viewpoint which arose out of a misunderstanding of the ancient teaching. While it is obvious that the temperature of contiguous bodies, by the natural process of heat-transference, finally becomes equalized; equally, someday science will discover that any body can be made under proper processes to be an unending source of heat, which is the very heart of the ancient caloric theory. Heat, just as any form of energy, is one of the forms of living matter, a manifestation of cosmic electricity or fohat.

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

Calvary. See GOLGOTHA

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Calypso Kalypso (Greek) A nymph, daughter of Atlas, who lived on Ogygia and kept Odysseus with her there for seven years. (SD 2:762, 769n)

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Cambrian Period. See GEOLOGICAL ERAS

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Camillus. See CADMUS; KADMILOS

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Canaan, Canaanites A Biblical term most often applied to the pre-Isrealite people of the land west of the Jordan, although not so ancient as the Amorites. Augustine mentions that the Phoenicians called their land Canaan. Seti I and Rameses III mention the Kan'na, probably referring to the lands of western Syria and Palestine.

In Genesis 10, Canaan (kena`an) is named among the four sons of Ham, and some scholars have suggested that the name here refers to tribes in Arabia which later settled in Palestine; further that the Phoenicians were members of the second great Semitic migration, carrying the name Canaan into the lands which they settled.

The chief deity of the Canaanites would seem to be Ashtart (Astarte) from the number of her images discovered, although images closely resembling Egyptian deities have likewise been exhumed. Nebo, the ancient Chaldean god of wisdom, was also reverenced by the Canaanites.

(See also: Canaan, Canaanites, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mount Carmel A mountain spur in Palestine, projecting into the sea south of Haifa, Israel; traditionally a sacred place and refuge, it is mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 28:19) as the spot where Elijah publicly challenged the priests of Ba`al. Mt. Carmel was noted for its oracle, which was consulted by the emperor Vespasian.

It became a refuge for early Christian anchorites, and a monastery dedicated to Elijah existed there by 570. About 1156 the order of Carmelites was founded, dedicated to continuing on Mt. Carmel the way of life of Elijah, pictured as a monk and the founder of monasticism, and a monastery was built. St. John of the Cross, among others, uses it in metaphors for the mystic and spiritual journey. Blavatsky connects it with the Essenes.

See also MOUNTAINS, MUNDANE (BCW 11:256-7)

(See also: Mount Carmel, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Carnac A village in Brittany celebrated for the enormous number of ancient stone monuments in its vicinity, to be classed with similar monuments found in many parts of the world and with the so-called Dracontia or serpent-mounds.

They are records in symbol of the world's history, designed to be enduring, and in more than one sense actually or mystically the work of giants. "The archaic records show the Initiates of the Second Sub-race of the Aryan family moving from one land to the other for the purpose of supervising the building of menhirs and dolmens, of colossal Zodiacs in stone, and places of sepulchre to serve as receptacles for the ashes of generations to come" (SD 2:750).

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

Cartesian System The system of Descartes, the great French philosopher (1596-1650), representing the first great attempt in Europe to develop philosophy on strict mathematical and scientific lines, as opposed to what seemed to him the futile subtilties of the Schoolmen.

Descartes is usually spoken of as a strong dualist. Defining substance as a thing which exists independently of any other thing, he says there can only be one real substance, God; but besides this one independent substance there exist realities dependent on God, which he calls created substances. These are of two kinds -- thinking and corporeal; the nature of the former being thought, and of the latter, extension. He made this dualism of the created world so absolute that only the continual interference of God could account for the harmony. Spirit differs radically from matter, a finite spirit is independent of its body, so that the physical universe is unhampered by spiritual law. The human body is a machine; and although human beings have souls, animals are entirely mechanical. This view of the universe laid the foundations of modern mechanistic science; and the independence of extended substance leads to the conclusion that every body is independent of every other.

This system contrasts with those of Spinoza and Leibnitz, Spinoza accentuating the monistic view and Leibnitz regarding Descartes's two substances as aspects of the One Substance (SD 1:628-9). It is stated, furthermore, that a combination of Spinoza with Leibnitz would give the essence of theosophical philosophy, according to which the universe, though essentially a unity, appears as a plurality of monads, manifesting under the dual -- yet essentially illusory -- aspects of spirit and matter. There is therefore no essential difference between spirit and matter, these being but mutually contrasted aspects of the one underlying and all-pervading substance.

In his theory of the physical universe Descartes recognizes one universally diffused matter which, by rotatory or vortical motion aggregates into planetary globes or into the physical elements, thus anticipating both the vortex theory of Thomson and the idea put forward by Crookes that the chemical elements are various modifications of an underlying protyle.

(See also: Cartesian System, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Carvaka. See CHARVAKA

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