A Wisdom Archive on Three Paths

Zodiac [from Greek zodiakos kyklos circle of animals]
 
The zone extending on both sides of the ecliptic, with a total width of about 16 degrees, so as to include the apparent paths of the planets and moon. It is divided into twelve equal parts or signs, which are counted from the position of the vernal equinoctial point. The position of this point recedes westward along the ecliptic at the rate of about 50" of arc per year. The Hindus call this the fixed zodiac, giving the name of movable zodiac to the zodiacal constellations. The ancient figure for the length of a precessional cycle is 25,920 years, also the length of an important racial unit in human evolution.
 
"A simple calculation will show that at this rate the constellation Taurus (Heb. Alph) was in the first sign of the zodiac at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and consequently the Equinoctial point fell therein. At this time, also, Leo was in the summer solstice, Scorpio in the autumnal Equinox, and Aquarius in the winter solstice; and these facts form the astronomical key to half the religious mysteries of the world -- the Christian scheme included" (TG 387).
 
The zodiac is found everywhere among the civilized nations, such as the Chaldeans, Hindus, Egyptians, Chinese, and in Job (said to be the oldest book in the Bible); but its antiquity is lost in the night of time. The zodiac may briefly be described as a book on evolution in twelve chapters, and as such its applications and correspondences are innumerable. Time is marked by the passage of the planets through its signs, by their conjunctions in various positions, and by the movement of the nodes and apsides of planets; so that the whole course of cycles large and small can be calculated and the past and future read by those who understand. The twelve divisions of the ecliptic or fixed zodiac have the same names and significance as the zodiacal constellations. They may be applied to cycles in history, such as the Messianic cycle, to races of mankind, and to the human constitution, mental and physical. When applied to the globes of the earth planetary chain -- using the esoteric computation of a twelvefold system -- the rectors of the houses of the zodiac have each predominance over one globe of the earth-chain.
 
"Each of these constellations, together forming the twelve houses of the zodiac, is a cluster of stars karmically united by past bonds of destiny, each having its own . . . spiritual electricity or fohatic magnetism, . . . each one producing its own type of influences in the outflow of its emanations around its, and extending through space" (FSO 125).
 
There was once a division of the zodiac into ten signs because two were kept secret, and the twelve were made up by the Greeks by dividing Virgo-Scorpio into two and introducing between them the balancing sign Libra. An Egyptian mural painting shows a somewhat different arrangement of the ten and the twelve, there being twelve gods on ten seats, numbers 7 and 8, and 11 and 12 being paired. The Hindu astrologers have other divisions, subdividing the twelve houses; and also having 27 or 28 lunar mansions. Speaking of the knowledge of the ancient sages, Blavatsky remarks that "if such men as Kepler and even Sir Isaac Newton believed that stars and constellations influenced the destiny of our globe and its humanities, it requires no great stretch of faith to believe that men who were initiated into all the mysteries of nature, as well as into astronomy and astrology, knew precisely in what way nations and mankind, whole races as well as individuals, would be affected by the so-called ''signs of the Zodiac'' " (TG 387-8).
 
The Chinese zodiacal system was quite complicated. Besides being divided into 28 and 24 parts, it included two distinct duodenary series. The Chinese method of dividing "the yellow road of the sun" was by means of twelve cyclic animals named the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, sheep, monkey, hen, dog, and pig. The opening sign corresponds to Aquarius, and it is interesting to observe that in the East, the rat is often used as an ideograph for water. But the Chinese series proceeds in a retrograde direction, against the course of the sun; thus the second sign (the ox) takes the position of Capricorn, etc.
 
The Aztecs had a month of 20 days, and seven of the names of the days of the month had animal appellations -- four the same as the Chinese (the hare, monkey, dog, and serpent), while three were strictly American animals, the ocelot, lizard, and eagle.

 
(See also: Zodiac, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Pratyeka Buddha (S.k). The same as "Pasi-Buddha". The Pratyeka Buddha is a degree which belongs exclusively to the Yogacharya school, yet it is only one of high intellectual development with no true spirituality.
 
It is the dead-letter of the Yoga laws, in which intellect and comprehension play the greatest part, added to the strict carrying out of the rules of the inner development. It is one of the three paths to Nirvana, and the lowest, in which a Yogi - "without teacher and without saving others" - by the mere force of will and technical observances, attains to a kind of nominal Buddhaship individually; doing no good to anyone, but working selfishly for his own salvation and himself alone.
 
The Pratyekas are respected outwardly but are despised inwardly by those of keen or spiritual appreciation.
 
A Pratyeka is generally compared to a "Khadga" or solitary rhinoceros and called Ekashringa Rishi, a selfish solitary Rishi (or saint). "As crossing Sansara (‘the ocean of birth and death’ or the series of incarnations), suppressing errors, and yet not attaining to absolute perfection, the Pratyeka Buddha is compared with a horse which crosses a river swimming, without touching the ground." (Sanskrit-Chinese Dict.) He is far below a true "Buddha of Compassion". He strives only for the reaching of Nirvana.

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

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Sambhogakaya (Sanskrit). One of the three "Vestures" of glory, or bodies, obtained by ascetics on the "Path". Some sects hold it as the second, while others as the third of the Buddhahshetras; or forms of Buddha. Lit., the "Body of Compensation" (See Voice of the Silence, Glossary iii). Of such Buddhakshetras there are seven, those of Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakáya and Dharmakaya, belonging to the Trikaya, or three-fold quality.

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

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Tri-dasha (Sanskrit). Three times ten or "thirty". This is in round numbers the sum of the Indian Pantheon - the thirty-three crores of deities - the twelve Adityas, the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras and the two Ashvins, or thirty-three kotis, or 330 millions of gods.

 
(See also: Tri-dasha, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Pavaka (Sanskrit). One of the three personified fires eldest sons of Abhimanim or Agni, who had forty-five sons ; these with the original son of Brahma, their father Agni, and his three descendants, constitute the mystic 49 fires. Pavaka is the electric fire.

 
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Three Fires (Occult). The name given to Atma-Buddhi-Manas, which when united become one.

 
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Triad, or the Three. The ten Sephiroth are contemplated as a group of three triads: Kether, Chochmah and Binah form the supernal triad; Chesed, Geburah and Tiphereth, the second; and Netzach, Hod and Yesod, the inferior triad. The tenth Sephira, Malkuth, is beyond the three triads.
 
The above is orthodox Western Kabalah. Eastern Occultists recognise but one triad -  - the upper one (corresponding to Atma-Buddhi and the " Envelope" which reflects their light, the three in one) - and count seven lower Sephiroth, everyone of which stands for a " principle", beginning with the Higher Manas and ending with the Physical Body -  of which Malkuth is the representative in the Microcosm and the Earth in the Macrocosm.

 
(See also: Triad, the Three, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Three Degrees (of Initiation). Every nation had its exoteric and esoteric religion, the one for the masses, the other for the learned and elect. For example, the Hindus had three degrees with several sub- degrees.
 
The Egyptians had also three preliminary degrees, personified under the "three guardians of the fire " in the Mysteries.
 
The Chinese had their most ancient Triad Society: and the Tibetans have to this day their "triple step " ; which was symbolized in the Vedas by the three strides of Vishnu. Everywhere antiquity shows an unbounded reverence for the Triad and Triangle - the first geometrical figure.
 
The old Babylonians had their three stages of initiation into the priesthood (which was then esoteric knowledge); the Jews, the Kabbalists and mystics borrowed them from the Chaldees, and the Christian Church from the Jews. " There are Two", says Rabbi Simon ben Jochai, "in conjunction with One; hence they are Three, and if they are Three, then they are One."

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

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Zagreus, Zagreus-Dionysos (Greek) Dionysos was an earlier name for Bacchus. The mythos concerning Zagreus belongs to the cycle of teachings of the Orphic Mysteries rather than to mythology, so no references occur in the writings for the people, such as Homer and Hesiod. The references that have come down to our day occur principally in the manuscripts of the ancient Greek dramatists, poets, and in other ancient fragments.
 
As cosmic evolution was taught in the Orphic Mysteries by allegory, so was the evolution of the individual soul or microcosm, centering in the mythos of Zagreus, later Zagreus-Dionysos, the Greek savior, which the Greek Dionysian Mysteries sought to unfold in dramatic and veiled or symbolic literary form. "Dionysos is one with Osiris, with Krishna, and with Buddha (the heavenly wise), and with the coming (tenth) Avatar, the glorified Spiritual Christos . . ." (SD 2:420).
 
Zagreus has three distinct meanings: 1) the mighty hunter (the pilgrim-soul, hunting for the truth, its aeonic pilgrimage back to divinity); 2) he that takes many captives (the Lord of the Dead); and 3) the restorer or regenerator (King of the Reborn or initiates). Zagreus (later Bacchus or Iacchos) is the divine Son, the third of the Orphic Trinity, the other two being Zeus the Demiurge or divine All-father, and Demeter-Kore, the earth goddess in her twofold aspect as the divine Mother and the mortal maid.
 
The mythos relates that Zagreus, a favored son of Zeus, aroused the wrath of Hera, who plotted his destruction. First she released the dethroned titans from Tartaros to slay the newborn babe. They induced the child to give up the scepter and apple for the false toys which they held before him: a thyrsos or Bacchic wand (symbol of matter and rebirth into material life), a giddy spinning top, and a mirror (maya or illusion). As the child was gazing at himself in the mirror, they seized him, tore his body into seven or fourteen pieces (as in the Egyptian Mystery tale of Osiris); boiled and roasted and then devoured them. Discovered in this enormity by Zeus, the titans were blasted with his thunderbolt and from their ashes sprang the human race.
 
The titans with their false gifts symbolize the pursuing energies of the personal, material life, which enchain and delude the soul. They are earth powers which lead the soul from the path by the lure of things of sense. The dismembered body is first boiled in water -- symbol of the astral world; then roasted, "as gold is tried by fire," symbol of suffering and purification and the reascent of the victorious soul to bliss.
 
Apollo or the Muses, at the command of Zeus, gathered the scattered fragments and interred them near the Omphalos (navel of the earth) at Delphi. The coffin was inscribed: "Here lies dead, the body of Dionysos, son of Semele," as the Zagreus myth was known only to those initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and the Semele myth was popularly known. The exoteric myth represents the divine Son as the son of Zeus by the mortal maid Semele, Demeter-Kore in the guise of a mortal woman, to whom the still beating heart of Zagreus was entrusted when he was slain, that she might become its mother-guardian.
 
Hera, however, poisoned the mind of Semele with suspicion when the new-forming body of Zagreus within her reached the seventh month of gestation, and Semele impelled Zeus to reveal himself to her in his true form, whereupon the mortal body of Semele was destroyed by the divine fire. The holy babe was saved from death by Zeus, who sewed the child up in his own thigh until "the life that formerly was Zagreus, was reborn as Dionysos," the risen Savior, at Easter (the spring equinox), while as Zagreus he had been born at Semele''s death at the winter solstice. Here we
 
See the myth''s solar significance.
 
The nymphs of Mount Nysa reared him safely in a cave, and when he reached manhood, Hera forced him to wander over the earth. He overcame all opposition and was successful in establishing Mystery schools wherever he went. After his triumph in the world of men, Dionysos descended into the underworld and led forth his mother, now rechristened as Semele-Thyone (Semele the Inspired), to take her place among the Olympian divinities as the divine mother and radiant queen, and later, with Dionysos, to ascend to heaven.
 
Zagreus as Dionysos is known as the god of many names, most of which refer to his twofold character as the suffering mortal Zagreus, and the immortal or reborn god-man. Many titles also refer to him as the mystic savior. He is the All-potent, the Permanent, the Life-blood of the World, the majesty in the forest, in fruit, in the hum of the bee, in the flowing of the stream, etc., the earth in its changes -- the list runs on indefinitely, and is strikingly similar to the passage in which Krishna, the Hindu avatara, instructs Arjuna how he shall know him completely: "I am the taste in water, the light in the sun and moon," etc. (BG ch 7).
 
The philosophers, dramatists, and historians who held the Dionysian mythos to be purely allegorical and symbolic take in the great names of antiquity, including Plato, Pythagoras, all the Neoplatonists, the greatest historians, and a few of the early Christian Fathers, notably Clement of Alexandria; Eusebius, Tertullian, Justin, and Augustine, also write of it.
 
The exoteric literature of Orphism is scanty, while the esoteric teachings were never committed to writing. Outside of the Orphic Tablets and Orphic Hymns, no original material has been discovered to date. Scholars judging from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, have held that the Eleusinian Mystery-drama was based solely on the story of Persephone; but later researches indicate that, under the influence of Epimenides and Onomakritos, both deep students of Orphism, the Orphic Mystery tale of Zagreus-Dionysos was incorporated in the Eleusian ritual, the divine son Iacchos becoming thus identified with the Orphic god-man, Zagreus-Dionysos.
 
Cosmically this highly esoteric story refers to the cosmic Logos building the universe and becoming thereby not only its inspiriting and invigorating soul, but likewise the divinity guiding manifestation from Chaos to complete fullness of evolutionary grandeur; and in the case of mankind, the legend refers to the origin, peregrinations, and destiny of the human monad, itself a spiritual consciousness-center, from unself-consciousness as a god-spark, through the wanderings of destiny until becoming a fully self-conscious god. The key to the symbolism of Zagreus-Dionysos is given by Plato in the Cratylus: "The Spirit within us is the true image of Dionysos. He therefore who acts erroneously in regard to It . . . sins against Dionysos Himself," i.e., the inner god, the divinity in man. The legend thus contains not only past cosmic as well as human history, but contains as a prophecy what will come to pass in the distant future.

 
(See also: Zagreus, Zagreus-Dionysos, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Three Faces. The Trimurti of the Indian Pantheon; the three persons of the one godhead. Says the Book of Precepts: "There are two Faces, one in Tushita (Devachan) and one in Myalba (earth); and the Highest Holy unites them and finally absorbs both."

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

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Pillars, The Three. When the ten Sephiroth are arranged in the Tree of Life, two vertical lines
separate them into 3 Pillars, namely the Pillar of Severity, the Pillar of Mercy, and the central
Pillar of Mildness. Binah, Geburah, and Hod form the first, that of Severity; Kether, Tiphereth,
Jesod and Malkuth the central pillar; Chokmah, Chesed and Netzach the Pillar of Mercy.

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

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