Magnes (Latin, Greek) Loadstone; used by Paracelsus, medieval theosophists, and alchemists for a mysterious and potent fluid, the spirit of light, whose description answers to the akasa, aether, or the most spiritual parts of the astral light. It thus corresponds to the anima mundi.

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

Magnetic Healing Introduced to the West by Mesmer; in it the pranas or general vital powers of the healer are able to help, in many cases, a sufferer to throw off an ailment or disease by arousing the sufferer's own powers of resistance to vital inharmony or disease.

The success of magnetic healing arises from the fact that human or animal magnetism is a fluid, and hence an emanation flowing from the healer to the sufferer. The existence of such human or animal magnetism has now been established by the researches of a multitude of investigators during the last century or more.

All human beings have this magnetic fluid, but some natural-born healers have the instinctive power of projecting or emitting their own magnetism, which flows from different parts of the body, but especially from the tips of the fingers, the eyes, or the hands.

To animal magnetism likewise are to be ascribed the cause of the so-called antagonisms or repulsions, or again affinities and attractions, between human beings.

(See also: Magnetic Healing, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Magnetic Masonry Also iatric masonry (from Greek iatrike the art of healing)

A brotherhood of healers, greatly used by the Brothers of Light.

"There appears to be a tradition in some secret Masonic works -- so says Ragon at any rate, the great Masonic authority -- to the effect that there was a Masonic degree called the Oracle of Cos, 'instituted in the eighteenth century BC, from the fact that Cos was the birthplace of Hippocrates.' The iatrike was a distinct characteristic of the priests who took charge of the patients in the ancient Asclepia, the temples where the god Asclepios (Aesculapius) was said to heal the sick and the lame" (TG 199).

(See also: Magnetic Masonry, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Magnetism (from Greek lithos magnetes Magnesian stone, magnetic oxide of iron, found in Magnesia in Thessaly)

Scientifically, magnetic force is due to the movement of electric charges. While physics is concerned only with mineral magnetism, older thought saw the analogy between the various planes of nature and used magnetism in a wiser sense. The term animal magnetism is not so fanciful: The Secret Doctrine speaks of biune creative magnetism as acting in the constitution of man and animals in the form of the attraction of contraries as in sexual polarization; of there being seven forms of kosmic magnetism; of electricity and magnetism being manifestations of kundalini-sakti; of the world-soul as represented by a sevenfold cross whose arms are light, heat, magnetism, etc.

Magnetism, like other forces, is a manifestation of the activities of living beings. These forces are at the same time the physical counterparts, reflections, or phases of the universal cosmic electromagnetism, life-energy, or fohat. Magnetism, which is the alter ego of electricity, is that aspect or functioning of cosmic electromagnetism, mainly known to us as causing attraction and repulsion, and distinguished by bipolarity.

Both physical and physiological analogies suggest that terrestrial magnetism is inherent in some of the ultra-physical constituents of our globe, and that it must be powerfully influenced by the magnetism of other globes of the earth-chain, as well as by cosmic sources belonging to the solar system and even beyond. The position of the magnetic poles of the earth varies, and with this variation go variations in the magnetic inclination, declination, intensity, and distribution; which variations have cycles that are under study by scientists. What is called the north pole of a magnet should be called its south pole, since it is attracted and not repelled by the north pole of the earth; thus some writers call the north pole of a magnet the north-seeking pole.

"We know of no phenomenon in nature entirely unconnected with either magnetism or electricity . . . All the phenomena of earth currents, terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric electricity, are due to the fact that the earth is an electrified conductor, whose potential is ever changing owing to its rotation and its annual orbital motion, the successive cooling and heating of the air, the formation of clouds and rain, storms and winds, etc. . . . Science would be unwilling to admit that all these changes are due to akasic magnetism incessantly generating electric currents which tend to restore the disturbed equilibrium" (ML 160).

All electromagnetism is rooted in or takes its rise from the akasa, and the bipolarity of magnetism and electricity is simply a reproduction in our sphere -- and even in human beings when they manifest themselves -- of the fundamental bipolarity in cosmic structure inherent in the akasa, out of the womb of which the worlds are born. Magnetism might be considered the more subtle part of electricity, and electricity the grosser aspect of the fundamental force which is both. Both are fluids, emanations, from the akasa, and are really two aspects of the underlying fohat.

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

Magnetization Influences which one person may exercise on another akin to mesmerism whether of a gross physical nature, to which the term animal magnetism is applied, or of a loftier nature, the action of mind upon mind.

Metallic magnetism is itself one manifestation of subtle natural forces, of which personal magnetism is another manifestation.

Magnetism, whether diffuse or localized or in the form of animal magnetism, is an emanation from the beings which produce it from their own inner vital power, and hence magnetism is a fluid. Those who are especially endowed with the faculty of arousing it in themselves and projecting it, mainly through the tips of the fingers or the eyes, can use it for either corrective, or for evil and destructive, purposes; while all other beings, even inanimate objects, possess it but do not emanate it willfully or consciously. It flows forth from them as an aura, usually unconsciously.

Thus magnetism has an auric efflux or fluid, which finds its foundation in the vitality or pranic sources of the beings or things from which it flows.

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

Magnum Opus (Latin) The great work; in medieval and modern times an alchemical term for the making of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life; an achievement which, as with alchemy generally, may be regarded as being accomplished either in the laboratory of human nature among the elements of man's constitution, or in a brick and mortar laboratory with chemicals.

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Magnus Aether (Latin) Great aether, also called Pater Omnipotens Aether (almighty father aether).

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Madhyamikas (Sanskrit) Belonging to the middle way; a sect mentioned in the Vishnu-Purana, probably at first a sect of Hindu atheists.

A school of the same name was founded later in Tibet and China, and as it adopted some of the esoteric principles taught by Nagarjuna, one of the great founders of the esoteric Mahayana system, it had certain elements of esoteric truth.

But because of its tendency by means of thesis and antithesis to reduce everything into contrary categories, and then to deny both, it may be called a school of Nihilists for whom everything is an illusion and an error in the world of thought, in the subjective as well as in the objective universe.

This school is a good example of the danger of wandering too far in mere intellectual disquisition from the fundamental bases of the esoteric philosophy, for such merely brain-mind activity will infallibly lead to a philosophy of barren negation.

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Madim ma'adim (Chaldean) Strength, force, vehemence; also a Qabbalistic name for the planet Mars.

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Madonna. See MARY

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Mag (Maga) (Sanskrit) A Magian or priest of the sun; in India priests of a certain class serving Surya (the sun) were called Magas. In the plural, magas, a country in Sakadvipa, supposed to have been inhabited chiefly by Brahmins.

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Magadha (Sanskrit) An ancient country in South Behar, India which after the establishment of Buddhism in India, was ruled by Buddhist kings.

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Mage. See MAGI

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Magha (Sanskrit) The 13th day in the dark half of the moon in the month of Bhadra (August-September).

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Maghada. See MAGADHA

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Maghayanti Meghayanti (Sanskrit) One of the seven Pleiades; one name of the planet Venus.

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Magi (plural of Old Persian magus a wise man from the verbal root meh great; cf Sanskrit maha; cf Avestan mogaha, Latin plural magus, Greek magos, Persian mogh, Pahlavi maga)

An hereditary priesthood or sacerdotal caste in Media and Persia. Zoroaster, himself a member of the Society of the Magi, divides the initiates into three degrees according to their level of enlightenment: the highest were referred to as Khvateush (those enlightened with their own inner light or self-enlightened); the second were called Varezenem (those who practice); and the third, Airyamna (friends or Aryans). The ancient Parsis may be divided into three degrees of Magi: the Herbods or novitiates; the Mobeds or masters; and the Destur Mobeds or perfect masters -- the "Dester Mobeds being identical with the Hierophants of the mysteries, as practised in Greece and Egypt" (TG 197).

Pliny mentions three schools of Magi: one founded at an unknown antiquity; a second established by Osthanes and Zoroaster; and a third by Moses and Jambres.

"And all the knowledge possessed by these different schools, whether Magian, Egyptian, or Jewish, was derived from India, or rather from both sides of the Himalayas" (IU 2:361). According to Shahrestani (12th-century Islamic scholar) the Magi are divided into three sects: Gaeomarethians (Kayumarthians), Zarvanian (Zurvanian), and Zoroastrians. They all share the common belief that in this manifested universe the dualism of light and darkness is at work and that the final victory of the light is the day of resurrection.

Porphyry refers to the Magi as the learned men among the Persians who are in the service of the deity (Abst 4:16), while Philo Judaeus describes them as the most wonderful inquirers into the hidden mysteries of nature: holy men who set themselves apart from everything else on this earth, "contemplated the divine virtues and understood the divine nature of the gods and spirits, the more clearly; and so, initiated others into the same mysteries, which consist in one holding an uninterrupted intercourse with these invisible beings during life" (IU 1:94-5). It is likely that the use of the name and the order survived in times when their true dignity was no longer apparent.

In the Bible Magi is translated "wise men." The term has also become familiar through the story of the three wise men who came to the infant Jesus bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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

Maat (Egyptian) The goddess personifying physical and moral law, order, and truth, regarded as the feminine counterpart of Thoth (Tehuti).

 She is represented as standing with Thoth in the boat of Ra when the sun god first rose above the waters of the primeval spatial abyss of Nu. She is called the daughter of Ra, the eye of Ra, lady of heaven, queen of the earth, and mistress of the Underworld, who guides the course of the sun.

The type and symbol of the goddess is the ostrich feather; the word maat is represented by the hieroglyph of the feather and means primarily that which is orderly and direct, hence in a moral sense, right, truth, justice, including a reference to the fact that these supreme attributes weigh light as a feather in the scales of judgment, and yet are as weighty in importance as the universe itself. Maat was regarded by the Egyptians, in connection with her moral power, as the greatest of goddesses, for she was the chief lady of the Judgment Hall, into which the deceased must enter (called the Hall of Maati, "double truth").

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

Mabbul (Hebrew) A flood, deluge, inundation.

"Esoterically, the periodical outpourings of astral impurities on to the earth; periods of psychic crimes and iniquities, or of regular moral cataclysms" (TG 211).

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Mabinogion (Welsh) A plural form invented by Lady Charlotte Guest and applied to the Mabinogi and other medieval or earlier romances which she translated from Welsh to English. The Mabinogi proper has four branches: the stories of Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed (Pwyll prince of Dyfed); Manawyddan fab Llyr (Manawyddan son of Llyr); Branwen ferch Llyr (Branwen daughter of Llyr); and Math fab Mathonwy.

The tales as they come down to us were written down in South Wales some time before the Conquest -- in the last two centuries of Welsh independence -- and are marked by great beauty of style and literary finish. Matthew Arnold compares them to 'peasants' huts built of the stones of Ephesus": the substance of them comes from a profound antiquity which, with its wisdom, the latest tellers of them did not fully understand. As to that antiquity: when Bran the Blessed invaded Ireland, we are told, there was no sea between Wales and Ireland, but only two small rivers. These being unbridged, the question arose, how should the hosts of the Island of the Mighty cross them? A question Bran solved by laying down his body from bank to bank, saying:

"He who is Chief, let him be the Bridge," a saying that contains a great part of the secret wisdom of the Druids.

Besides the Mabinogi, Lady Guest's Mabinogion contains such stories as "Culhwch and Olwen" (a repository of relics of the lost mythology) and "The Dream of Rhonabwy," both Arthurian, but Welsh and mythological. Other stories are "Peredur, the Lady of the Fountain," "Geraint ab Erbin," in which the Romance, Arthurianism, and Norman influence are beginning to appear. In "Peredur" we see the cauldron, symbol of initiation with the Druids, in process of becoming the Holy Grail: Peredur and Perceval are Pair-(g)edur and Pair-cyfaill -- the "servant" and the "friend" of the cauldron.

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

Machagistia The divine theologic magic of ancient Persia and Chaldea; Magianism in its purest and highest form. Ammianus Marcellinus (4th Century) remarks that "Plato, that most learned deliverer of wise opinions, teaches us that Magiae is by a mystic name Machagistia, that is to say, the purest worship of divine beings; of which knowledge in olden times the Bactrian Zoroaster derived much from the secret rites of the Chaldaeans; and after him Hystaspes, a very wise monarch, the father of Darius" (Roman History 23, 6, 32).

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

Macrocosm (from Greek makros wide, large + kosmos universe)

Kosmos considered in contradistinction from any one of its parts or microcosms.

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