F  - The sixth letter of the English alphabet, for which there is no equivalent in Hebrew. It is the double F F of the Eolians which became the Digamma for some mysterious reasons. It corresponds to the Greek phi. As a Latin numeral it denotes 40, with a dash over the letter (F) 400,000.

(See also: F - Letter F, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

F FACTOR

The "F" stands for futility. It is the common sense (which negative thinking perpetuates), that everything is bound to fail unless unflagging energy, perseverance and will are brought to bear. The strong derive their strength from this. The weak derive their weakness from it.

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

ANKH-F-N-KHONSU

"His life is in Khonsu" (that is, in the Moon God of Thebes), title of a high priest in Temple of Amen-Ra, the sun god, 26th dynasty. Crowley's former incarnation. His stele in the Cairo museum of 1904 was numbered "666".

(See also: ANKH-F-N-KHONSU, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Pushan (Sanskrit). A Vedic deity, the real meaning of which remains unknown to Orientalists. It is qualified as the "Nourisher", the feeder of all (helpless) beings. Esoteric philosophy explains the meaning. Speaking of it the Taittiriya Brahmana says that, "When Prajapati formed living beings, Pushan nourished them". This then is the same mysterious force that nourishes the fœtus and unborn babe, by Osmosis, and which is called the"atmospheric (or akasic) nurse", and the "father nourisher". When the lunar Pitris had evolved men, these remained senseless and helpless, and it is "Pushan who fed primeval man". Also a name of the Sun.

(See also: Pushan, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Tau (Hebrew, Jewish). That which has now become the square Hebrew letter tau, but was ages before the invention of the Jewish alphabet, the Egyptian handled cross, the crux ansata of the Latins, and identical with the Egyptian ankh.

This mark belonged exclusively, and still belongs, to the Adepts of every country. As Kenneth R. F. Mackenzie shows, "It was a symbol of salvation and consecration, and as such has been adopted as a Masonic symbol in the Royal Arch Degree ". It is also called the astronomical cross, and was used by the ancient Mexicans - as its presence on one of the palaces at Palenque shows - as well as by the Hindus, who placed the tau as a mark on the brows of their Chelas.

(See also: Tau, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Hierophant. From the Greek "Hierophantes"; literally, "One who explains sacred things ". The discloser of sacred learning and the Chief of the Initiates. A title belonging to the highest Adepts in the temples of antiquity, who were the teachers and expounders of the Mysteries and the Initiators into the final great Mysteries.

The Hierophant represented the Demiurge, and explained to the postulants for Initiation the various phenomena of Creation that were produced for their tuition. " He was the sole expounder of the esoteric secrets and doctrines. It was forbidden even to pronounce his name before an

uninitiated person.

He sat in the East, and wore as a symbol of authority a golden globe suspended from the neck. He was also called Mystagogus" (Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, ix., F.T.S., in The Royal Masonic cyclopedia). In Hebrew and Chaldaic the term was Peter, the opener, discloser; hence the Pope as the successor of the hierophant of the ancient Mysteries, sits in the Pagan chair of St. Peter.

(See also: Hierophant, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Yaho (Hebrew, Jewish). Fürst shows this to be the same as the Greek Iao. Yaho is an old Semitic and very mystic name of the supreme deity, while Yah (q.v.) is a later abbreviation which, from containing an abstract ideal, became finally applied to, and connected with, a phallic symbol - the lingham of creation.

Both Yah and Yaho were Hebrew "mystery names" derived from Iao, but the Chaldeans had a Yaho before the Jews adopted it, and with them, as explained by some Gnostics and Neo-Platonists, it was the highest conceivable deity enthroned above the seven heavens and representing Spiritual Light (Atman, the universal), whose ray was Nous, standing both for the intelligent Demiurge of the Universe of Matter and the Divine Manas in man, both being Spirit.

The true key of this, communicated to the Initiates only, was that the name of IAO was "triliteral and its nature secret ", as explained by the Hierophants. The Phœnicians too had a supreme deity whose name was triliteral, and its meanings secret, this was also IAO; and Y-ha-ho was a sacred word in the Egyptian mysteries, which signified "the one eternal and concealed deity" in nature and in man; i.e., the "universal Divine Ideation", and the human Manas, or the higher Ego.

(See also: Yaho, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Vendidad (Pahlavi). The first book (Nosk) in the collection of Zend fragments usually known as the Zend-Avesta. The Vendidad is a corruption of the compound-word "Vidaevo-datern", meaning "the anti- demoniac law ", and is full of teachings how to avoid sin and defilement by purification, moral and physical - each of which teachings is based on Occult laws. It is a pre-eminently occult treatise, full of symbolism and often of meaning quite the reverse of that which is expressed in its dead-letter text.

The Vendidad, as claimed by tradition, is the only one of the twenty-one Nosks (works) that has escaped the auto-da-fé at the hands of the drunken Iskander the Rumi, he whom posterity calls Alexander the Great -  though the epithet is justifiable only when applied to the brutality, vices and cruelty of this conqueror. It is through the vandalism of this Greek that literature and knowledge have lost much priceless lore in the Nosks burnt by him.

Even the Vendidad has reached us in only a fragmentary state. The first chapters are very mystical, and therefore called "mythical" in the renderings of European Orientalists. The two "creators" of "spirit-matter" or the world of differentiation - Ahura- Mazda and Angra-Mainyu (Ahriman) - are introduced in them, and also Yima (the first man, or mankind personified). The work is divided into Fargards or chapters, and a portion of these is devoted to the formation of our globe, or terrestrial evolution. (See Zend-Avesta.)

(See also: Vendidad, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Surplus of Life Used in theosophy to express the original processes building the globes of a planetary chain, as well as the living beings forming the hierarchies of the chain. Applying the Christian analogy of the unrolling of a scroll to the manifestation of the globes of a chain, when the first globe (globe A) has come into manifestation, only 1/7th of the scroll has been unrolled or opened out, leaving 6/7ths of the scroll intact or unopened. The surplus of life applies to the 6/7ths still not manifested -- which would be globes B, C, D, E, F, and G. After the appearance of globe A, the surplus of life moves down a plane in order to develop globe B, and thus the scroll is opened another seventh, leaving 5/7ths intact; and so the process continues until all the seven globes of the planetary chain have appeared.

The analogy may also be applied to the seven principles composing the human being. Atman is the first principle to be unrolled, the other six principles (buddhi, manas, kama, prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira) remaining infolded or involved. The surplus of life of the human constitution then unrolls another principle to manifest buddhi, the other five still being infolded, and so the process continues until all seven principles are unrolled or emanated.

(See also: Surplus of Life, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

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)

Globe In theosophy, a unit in the constitution of every planet or sun, each of which is composed of several globes, in their entirety referred to as a planetary or solar chain. Furthermore, moons, nebulae, and comets also have a seven or twelvefold constitution, even as has man, who is a copy in the small of the universe.

These globes are analogous to the monadic centers in the human constitution. The seven manifested globes on the four lower cosmic planes for purposes of convenience are enumerated as A, B, C, D, E, F, G; but reference is sometimes made more mystically to the globes from "A to Z," plainly hinting at all the globes of the chain. When considering seven cosmic planes, twelve globes are given. These globes are related to the seven (or twelve) sacred planets and to the twelve zodiacal constellations (diagram from FSO 323).

The life-waves, the various hosts or kingdoms such as elemental, mineral, animal, human, or devas, circle around these globes in seven great cycles called rounds. Each life-wave in turn first enters globe A, runs through its life cycle there, and then passes in time on to globe B, the succeeding life-wave meanwhile entering globe A, and so onwards and forwards through the whole series. In our own planetary chain, globe D is our earth. Three globes precede it on the downward arc, and three follow it on the ascending arc of evolution -- referring here to the manifested seven globes. The passing through seven root-races of any kingdom or life-wave on any globe is called a globe-round.

The seven globes can be related to the Qabbalistic worlds and sephiroth, as Blavatsky did (SD 1:200):

See also PLANETARY CHAIN

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

Bardesanes or Bardaisan. A Syrian Gnostic, erroneously regarded as a Christian theologian, born at Edessa (Edessene Chronicle) in 155 of our era (Assemani Bibl.. Orient. i. 389).

He was a great astrologer following the Eastern Occult System. According to Porphyry (who calls him the Babylonian, probably on account of his Chaldeeism or astrology), "Bardesanes . . . . held intercourse with the Indians that had been sent to the Cesar with Damadamis at their head" (De Abst. iv. 17), and had his information from the Indian gymnosophists.

The fact is that most of his teachings, however much they may have been altered by his numerous Gnostic followers, can be traced to Indian philosophy, and still more to the Occult teachings of the Secret System. Thus in his Hymns he speaks of the creative Deity as "Father-Mother", and elsewhere of "Astral Destiny" (Karma) of "Minds of Fire" (the Agni-Devas) &c. He connected the Soul (the personal Manas) with the Seven Stars, deriving its origin from the Higher Beings (the divine Ego); and therefore "admitted spiritual resurrection but denied the resurrection of the body", as charged with by the Church Fathers. Ephraim shows him preaching the signs of the Zodiac, the importance of the birth-hours and "proclaiming the seven".

Calling the Sun the "Father of Life" and the Moon the "Mother of Life", he shows the latter "laying aside her garment of light (principles) for the renewal of the Earth". Photius cannot understand how, while accepting "the Soul free from the power of genesis (destiny of birth)" and possessing free will, he still placed the body under the rule of birth (genesis). For "they (the Bardesanists) say, that wealth and poverty and sickness and health and death and all things not within our control are works of destiny" (Bibl. Cod. 223, p.221 - f). This is Karma, most evidently, which does not preclude at all free-will. Hippolytus makes him a representative of the Eastern School.

Speaking of Baptism, Bardesanes is made to say (loc. cit. pp. 985-ff "It is not however the Bath alone which makes us free, but the Knowledge of who we are, what we are become, where we were before, whither we are hastening, whence we are redeemed; what is generation (birth), what is re-generation (re.birth)". This points plainly to the doctrine of re-incarnation.

His conversation (Dialogue) with Awida and Barjamina on Destiny and Free Will shows it. "What is called Destiny, is an order of outflow given to the Rulers (Gods) and the Elements, according to which order the Intelligences (Spirit-Egos) are changed by their descent into the Soul, and the Soul by its descent into the body". (See Treatise, found in its Syriac original, and published with English translation in 1855 by Dr. Cureton, Spicileg. Syriac. in British Museum.)

(See also: Bardesanes, Bardaisan, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Thoth (Egypt, Egyptian). The most mysterious and the least understood of gods, whose personal character is entirely distinct from all other ancient deities.

While the permutations of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and the rest, are so numberless that their individuality is all but lost, Thoth remains changeless from the first to the last Dynasty. He is the god of wisdom and of authority over all other gods. He is the recorder and the judge. His ibis-head, the pen and tablet of the celestial scribe, who records the thoughts, words and deeds of men and weighs them in the balance, liken him to the type of the esoteric Lipikas.

His name is one of the first that appears on the oldest monuments. He is the lunar god of the first dynasties, the master of Cynocephalus - the dog-headed ape who stood in Egypt as a living symbol and remembrance of the Third Root-Race. (Secret Doctrine, II. pp. 184 and 185). He is the "Lord of Hermopolis" - Janus, Hermes and Mercury combined. He is crowned with an atef and the lunar disk, and bears the "Eye of Horus ", the third eye, in his hand. He is the Greek Hermes, the god of learning, and Hermes Trismegistus, the " Thrice-great Hermes ", the patron of physical sciences and the patron and very soul of the occult esoteric knowledge. As Mr. J. Bonwick, F.R.G.S., beautifully expresses it: " Thoth has a powerful effect on the imagination . . . in this intricate yet beautiful phantasmagoria of thought and moral sentiment of that shadowy past. It is in vain we ask ourselves however man, in the infancy of this world of humanity, in the rudeness of supposed incipient civilization, could have dreamed of such a heavenly being as Thoth. The lines are so delicately drawn, so intimately and tastefully interwoven, that we seem to regard a picture designed by the genius of a Milton, and executed with the skill of a Raphael." Verily, there was some truth in that old saying, " The wisdom of the Egyptians ".When it is shown that the wife of Cephren, builder of the second Pyramid, was a priestess of Thoth, one sees that the ideas comprehended in him were fixed 6,000 years ago ". According to Plato, "Thoth-Hermes was the discoverer and inventor of numbers, geometry, astronomy and letters". Proclus, the disciple of Plotinus, speaking of this mysterious deity, says: "He presides over every species of condition, leading us to an intelligible essence from this mortal abode, governing the different herds of souls".

In other words Thoth, as the Registrar and Recorder of Osiris in Amenti, the Judgment Hall of the Dead was a psychopompic deity; while Iamblichus hints that " the cross with a handle (the thau or tau) which Tot holds in his hand, was none other than the monogram of his name". Besides the Tau, as the prototype of Mercury, Thoth carries the serpent-rod, emblem of Wisdom, the rod that became the Caduceus. Says Mr. Bonwick, " Hermes was the serpent itself in a mystical sense. He glides like that creature, noiselessly, without apparent exertion, along the course of ages. He is . . . a representative of the spangled heavens. But he is the foe of the bad serpent, for the ibis devoured the snakes of Egypt."

(See also: Thoth, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

This is a sitemap for Theosophy - F . Click on a link and you will find multiple definitions and articles related to the word.

F - Letter F, Faces, Fafnir, Fahian, Fa-hsiang-Tsung, Fa-Hwa-King, Fairies, Faith Healing, Faizi, Fakir, Falk, Fall, Fallen Angels, Familiar Spirit, Family Race, Farbauti, Fargard, Farses, Farsis, Farvarshi, Fascination, Fatalism, Fate, Fates, Father in Heaven, Father in Secret, Father-Aether, Father-Mother, Father-Mother-Son, Fathers, Fauni, Fauns, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of the Dead, Female Principle, Feng Shui, Fenrir, Fenris, Ferho, Feridan Feridun, Ferouer, Fersendajian, Feruer, Ferver, Fetahil, Fetishism, Fetus, Fiat Lux, Fiery Lives, Fifth Principle, Fifth Root-race, Fifth Round, Fifth Rounders, Fifty Gates of Wisdom, Filia Vocis, Filioque Dogma, Fimbulvetr, Fire Worship, Fireless Progenitors, Fire-Mist, Fire-Philosophers, Fire-philosophers, Fire-self, Fire-walking, Firmament, First Cause, First Logos, First Point, First Root-race, First Round, Fish, Fission, Five, Five-pointed Star, Flagae, Flage, Flame, Flames, Flamma, Flavius, Flood, Fludd, Fluidic Double, Fluvii Transitus, Fo mai-yu, Fo-ch'ou, Fo-chu, Foeticide, Foetus, Fohat, Fohatic Magnetism, Fo-hi, Foh-maeyu, Foh-tchou, Fons Vitae, Fons Yite, Forgiveness, Form, Formation, Formative World, Formless, Forty-nine, Fo-tchou, Four, Four Ages, Four Animals, Four Maharajas, Four Noble Truths, Fourfold Classification, Fourteen, Fourth Continent, Fourth Dimension, Fourth Globe, Fourth Principle, Fourth Race, Fourth Root-race, Fourth Round, Fradadhafshu, Fravasham, Fravashi, Free Will, Freemasonry, Frey, Freya, Freyja, Freyr, Friedrich Anton Mesmer, Frigg, Frigga, Fro, Frog, Froja, Frost Giants, Fulgur, Fundamental, Fundamental Propositions, Fung Shui, Future, Fylfot,

More sitemaps here:

Theosophy Dictionary

Theosophy Dictionary - A, Theosophy Dictionary - B, Theosophy Dictionary - C,
Theosophy Dictionary - D, Theosophy Dictionary - E , Theosophy Dictionary - F,
Theosophy Dictionary - G, Theosophy Dictionary - H, Theosophy Dictionary - I,
Theosophy Dictionary - J, Theosophy Dictionary - K, Theosophy Dictionary - L,
Theosophy Dictionary - M, Theosophy Dictionary - N, Theosophy Dictionary - O,
Theosophy Dictionary - P, Theosophy Dictionary - Q, Theosophy Dictionary - R,
Theosophy Dictionary - S, Theosophy Dictionary - T, Theosophy Dictionary - U,
Theosophy Dictionary - V, Theosophy Dictionary - W, Theosophy Dictionary - X,
Theosophy Dictionary - Y, Theosophy Dictionary - Z,

Also see these pages for material related to Theosophy:

Sanskrit Dictionary , Hinduism Dictionary , Buddhism Dictionary, Mysticism Dictionary , Spiritual Dictionary

Read more here: » Theosophy Sitemap I - F