Golden Calf In the Old Testament, an object (Hebrew agel, egel, calf or globe) made in the wilderness by Aaron at the request of the Israelites when Moses had not returned from Mt. Sinai (BCW 3:130). Upon his return, Moses destroyed the idol by burning it, grinding it to powder, strewing it on water, and making the Israelites drink it (Ex 32:20) -- which Blavatsky holds has an alchemical significance (BCW 11:44). In one sense the golden calf stands for the secret knowledge the Jews took from the Egyptians. In another sense it is "the sacred heifer, the symbol of the 'Great Mother,' first the planet Venus, and then the moon . . . as says G. Massey . . .:

'This (the Golden Calf) being of either sex, it supplied a twin type for Venus, as Hathor or Ishtar (Astoreth), the double Star, that was male at rising and female at sunset, and therefore the Twin-Stars of the "First Day" ' " (BCW 8:308-9).

The calf is synonymous symbolically with the cherub and the globe, all meaning strength and creative or generative power. ()

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Golden Chain (of Hermes or Homer). See HERMETIC CHAIN

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Golden Cow. See COW; DVIJA; HOLY OF HOLIES

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Golden Egg. See HIRANYAGARBHA; FOURFOLD CLASSIFICATION; WORLD EGG; DUCK

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Golden Fleece In Greek mythology, the fleece of a ram sent by the gods to save Phrixus and Helle, son and daughter of Athamas and Nephele, from their stepmother Ino. Flying through the air, it bore them towards Asia Minor. Helle drowned in the sea (at the Hellespont), but Phrixus arrived at Colchis.

There he sacrificed the ram to Zeus and presented the fleece to king Aeetes, who hung it in a grove of Ares. Later, a generation before the Trojan War, Jason and the Argonauts brought the fleece back to Greece with the aid of Aeetes' daughter Medea.

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Golden Rule In the West, applied to the moral teaching as voiced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and stated by him to be all the law and the prophets:

• "All things whatsoever ye would that man should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matt 7:12):
• "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" (Luke 6:31).

This teaching is in all the religions of the world, expressing the law of our higher nature, which is love and harmony, as contrasted with the law of our lower nature, which makes for personal separateness and sets the individual at variance with his neighbor. Its realization in thought and conduct is an indispensable requisite to attainment on the path of wisdom and liberation.

The following are selected from many similar teachings:

Hillel, Jewish Rabbi (b. 50 B.C.):

"Do not to others what you would not like others to do to you."

Aristotle, Greek (385B.C.):

"We should conduct ourselves towards others as we would have them act towards us."

Pittacus, Greek (650 B.C.):

"Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him."

Zoroaster, Persian:

"Hold it not meet to do unto others what thou wouldst not desire done unto thyself; do that unto the people, which when done to thyself, is not disagreeable unto these."

Confucius, China:

"Do unto another what you would have him do unto you, and do not unto another what you would not have him do unto you."

The Mahabharata, India:

"This is the sum of all true righteousness -- treat others as thou wouldst thyself be treated. Do nothing to thy neighbor which hereafter thou wouldst not have thy neighbor do to thee."

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Golden Thread, Golden Cord. See SUTRATMAN

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Golgotha (from Greek of Hebrew gulgoleth, Chald gulgalta skull; in Greek cranion; Latin calvaria, whence Calvary.)

The site of Jesus' alleged physical crucifixion; often used metaphorically to signify crucifixion or trial.

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Goliath (SD). See GIANT

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Goloka "The region of rays" (BCW 13:159).

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God-parents Christian law, strong in the Greek Orthodox Church, weaker in the Roman Catholic, and forgotten in the Protestant, based in the fact that once a spiritual teacher begins to teach the disciple, he takes on the student's karma in connection with the occult sciences until the student becomes in turn a master.

 The god-parents "tacitly take upon themselves all the sins of the newly baptised child -- (anointed, as at the initiation, a mystery truly!) -- until the day when the child becomes a responsible unit, knowing good and evil" (BCW 9:156, cf 9:285-6).

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God-sparks When evolution starts on the downward arc, the spiritual essence appears as a vast host of individual monads or spiritual, conscious atoms which, because of their lack of the self-conscious human condition, are often termed unself-conscious god-sparks -- although this does not mean that they lack self-consciousness on their own plane, for these monads never leave their own planes.

To speak of a monad incarnating means that a ray projected from the monad "descends" from its plane in a minor avataric sense to inflame the nascent manasic element or power in lower beings, precisely as took place in the cases of the manasaputras.

These god-sparks, being the spiritual monads of living entities, gradually emanate from themselves the successive vestures through which they manifest, the process taking place serially and ladder-fashion on the downward arc; with the eventual result that, at the end of the ascending arc, the unself-conscious god-sparks become self-conscious gods, which means that the self-conscious humanity of them becomes linked self-consciously to the self-consciousness of the monads on their own plane.

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God-wisdom. See THEOSOPHY

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Goetia (Greek) (from goes enchanter, sorcerer)

Also goety. One who uses incantations by song or speech, one who holds others under the spell of sound, chants, or incantations. Porphyry condemns it as black magic, distinguishing it from theurgy or divine magic; and it has in general been so contrasted.

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Gogard. See GOKARD

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Gokard (Pahlavi) Also Geokar, Gaekarena. In the Bundahish the white haoma or Tree of Life which guards the tree of all seeds (Harawispa tohma).

This tree of all germs was given forth and grew up in the Farakhkard (unbounded) ocean from which the germs of species of plants ever increased. And near it, the Gokard tree was produced for keeping away deformed decrepitude, and the full perfection of the world arose from this (Bundahis 9:5-6). It is described as a luxuriant tree in whose branches a serpent dwells.

"But while the Macrocosmic tree is the Serpent of Eternity and of absolute Wisdom itself, those who dwell in the Microcosmic tree are the Serpents of the manifested Wisdom. One is the One and All; the others are its reflected parts. The 'tree' is man himself, of course, and the Serpents dwelling in each, the conscious Manas, the connecting link between Spirit and Matter, heaven and earth" (SD 2:98).

See also HAOMA

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Gold The king of metal, symbol of perfection, durability, and purity; of the real sun, the great masculine principle, the Father, the positive side of the solar cosmic life. Alchemists considered gold as being a deposit of solar light, regarding light as the emanative fire from the sun.

The gold of human nature, which has to be purified by fire from its dross, is manas, the self-conscious element, when purified from contamination with the dross of the lower principles and united with buddhi.

While divine alchemy seeks to purify the gold of human nature, physical alchemy seeks to derive gold by transmutation from baser metals. In contrast with gold, brass is mentioned as signifying the baser elements or the world of passional matter; and by another contrast, silver is the analog of the watery or feminine principle, whose planetary counterpart is the moon.

The first and purest of the four Hesiodic races in Greece was golden and gave the name to their age. In Hindu writings the world is evolved from a golden egg or germ (hiranyagarbha).

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Golden Age The first of the four Hesiodic Ages -- Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron -- signifying the beginning of a new root-race and, on a smaller scale, the beginning of any subordinate racial period. This four-fold division applies not only to root-races but to all their subdivisions.

The Golden Age was under the rule of Kronos (Saturnus) who, according to Plato, not believing that men could rule themselves, caused them to be ruled by gods. It was a time of innocence and happiness: truth and justice prevailed, the earth brought forth without toil all that was necessary for mankind, perpetual spring reigned, and the heroes passed away peacefully into spiritual existence. Equivalent to the Hindu satya yuga.

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Golden Apples. See APPLE; HESPERIDES; TREE

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Golden Ass. See APULEIUS; ASS; SATURN

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Graha-raja (Sanskrit) King of the constellations; a term used for the successful candidate in the ancient Hindu initiatory rites (BCW 14:260).

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Holy Grail In Christian legend, the cup or chalice which Jesus used at the Last Supper, later used to catch his blood. It was made from the stone which fell from Lucifer's crown as he plunged to earth.

As Lucifer brought the mental principle to mankind, the stone can be seen as egoic consciousness. In medieval times, the grail associated with unusual powers, especially the regeneration of life and Christian purity.

See also CERIDWEN, CAULDRON OF; CUP ()

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