Ka (Egyptian) plural kau. Equivalent to the astral double, model-body, or linga-sarira. The ancient Egyptians held that when a human being was born, the ka was born with him and remained with him throughout his life. Even after death it remained in the tomb with the corpse; it was popularly believed that the offerings placed on graves were made to perpetuate the ka. Furthermore, the gods possessed them, each deity being said to have many kau; thus in one text the god Ra is said to possess seven bau (souls) and 14 kau. Even cities were held to possess kau in the heaven world.

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

Anubis (Ancient Greek) The dog -headed god, identical, in a certain aspect, with Horus. He is pre-eminently the god who deals with the disembodied, or the resurrected in post mortem life. Anepou is his Egyptian name.

He is a psychopompic deity, "the Lord of the Silent Land of the West, the land of the Dead, the preparer of the way to the other world ", to whom the dead were entrusted, to be led by him to Osiris, the Judge. In short, he is the "embalmer" and the "guardian of the dead". One of the oldest deities in Egypt, Mariette Bey having found the image of this deity in tombs of the Third Dynasty.

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

Mastaba (Egypt, Egyptian). The upper portion of an Egyptian tomb, which, say the Egyptologists, consisted always of three parts: namely

(1) the Mastaba or memorial chapel above ground,

(2) a Pit from twenty to ninety feet in depth, which led by a passage, to

(3) the Burial Chamber, where stood the Sarcophagus, containing the mummy sleeping its sleep of long ages. Once the latter interred, the pit was filled up and the entrance to it concealed.

Thus say the Orientalists, who divide the last resting place of the mummy on almost the same principles as theologians do man - into body, soul, and spirit or mind. The fact is, that these tombs of the ancients were symbolical like the rest of their sacred edifices, and that this symbology points directly to the septenary division of man.

But in death the order is reversed; and while the Mastaba with its scenes of daily life painted on the walls, its table of offerings, to the Larva, the ghost, or "Linga Sarira", was a memorial raised to the two Principles and Life which had quitted that which was a lower trio on earth; the Pit, the Passage, the Burial Chambers and the mummy in the Sarcophagus, were the objective symbols raised to the two perishable "principles", the personal mind and Kama, and the three imperishable, the higher Triad, now merged into one. This "One" was the Spirit of the Blessed now resting in the Happy Circle of Aanroo.

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

Vampire While discussions of vampirism generally center on Slavonic and other countries of southeastern Europe, vampirism was known to the Hindus and Hebrews as well as many other peoples.

If was believed that a deceased person whose instincts were very degraded and sensual may leave behind a kama-rupic spook strong enough to be able to suck the blood of the living, especially if the deceased was a sorcerer. In cases of vampirism it was said that if the grave was opened, that the corpse of the vampire was always fresh and rosy.

Isis Unveiled explains that such evil persons may be buried before the astral has entirely separated from the body -- when they are in a state of catalepsy. In this case the part of the astral buried with the body draws back the rest of the astral into the body, and the being either perishes with the natural processes of suffocation or becomes a vampire, and is thus enabled to perpetuate its cataleptic life in the tomb.

The traditional remedy consisted in driving a stake through the heart of the vampire's corpse, or otherwise destroying it. The meaning of the word can be extended to include other forms of obsession of the living by the astral reliquiae of the dead.

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

Umbra (Latin). The shadow of an earth-bound spook. The ancient Latin races divided man (in esoteric teachings) into seven principles, as did every old system, and as Theosophists do now.

They believed that after death Anima, the pure divine soul, ascended to heaven, a place of bliss; Manes (the Kama Rupa) descended into Hades (Kama Loka); and Umbra (or astral double, the Linga Sharira) remained on earth hovering about its tomb, because the attraction of physical, objective matter and affinity to its earthly body kept it within the places which that body had impressed with its emanations.

Therefore, they said that nothing but the astral image of the defunct could be seen on earth, and even that faded out with the disintegration of the last particle of the body which had been so long its dwelling.

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

Kabah or Kaaba (Arab). The name of the famous Mahommedan temple at Mecca, a great place of pilgrimage.

The edifice is not large but very original; of a cubical form 23 X 24 cubits in length and breadth and 27 cubits high, with only one aperture on the East side to admit light. In the north-east corner is the "black stone" of Kaaba, said to have been lowered down direct from heaven and to have been as white as snow, but subsequently it became black, owing to the sins of mankind

The "white stone", the reputed tomb of Ismael, is in the north side and the place of Abraham is to the east. If, as the Mahommedans claim, this temple was, at the prayer of Adam after his exile, transferred by Allah or Jehovah direct from Eden down to earth, then the "heathen" may truly claim to have far exceeded the divine primordial architecture in the beauty of their edifices.

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

AMENTI

In Theosophy, the Realm of God. "Those only who know the names of the seven janitors will be admitted into Amenti forever", i.e. those who have passed through the seven races of each round - otherwise they will rest in the lower fields. In Amenti one becomes pure spirit, for eternity; while in Aanroo the soul of the spirit or the defunct is devoured each time by Uraeus - "the Serpent, Son of the Earth". Soon the astral body 'fades out' and the soul quits the fields of Aanroo and goes on earth in any shape one likes to assume." - HPB, The Secret Doctrine.

The Egyptian who entered Amenti was led by Anubis to Osiris's court of 42 judges, whence he either passed on to Aaru or was thrown to the hippocrocodile, Ammit. In Amenti the Egyptian soul was required to till the fields and for this reason kings had buried with them in their tombs figures called Ushabti who were translated into replicas of the king who could do the work for him.

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

Sais (Greek) Saut (Egyptian) An important ancient city of Lower Egypt, the capital of the fifth nome: the residence of kings of the 26th dynasty. Only ruins mark the famous temple of Neith wherein was kept the ever-veiled statue of Neith-Isis, Neith being the principal deity of Sais, regarded as Athena by the Greeks. Festivals in honor of Osiris were held regularly as well.

"At Sais, also, in the sacred precinct of Minerva, behind the chapel and joining the whole of the wall, is the tomb of one whose name I consider it impious to divulge on such an occasion; and in the inclosure stand large stone obelisks, and there is a lake near, ornamented with a stone margin, formed in a circle, and in size, as appeared to me, much the same as that in Delos, which is called the Circular. In this lake they perform by night the representation of that person's adventures, which they call mysteries. On these matters, however, . . . I must observe a discrete silence; and respecting the sacred rites of Ceres, which the Greeks call Thesmophoria although I am acquainted with them, I must observe silence, . . . " (Herodotus 2:170-1).

(See also: Sais, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mastaba (Arabic) Bench; a long, low oblong ancient Egyptian structure, with sloping sides and flat top, used as a mortuary chapel and place for depositing offerings; it generally covered a sepulchral pit which led to the burial chamber, where the mummy was placed.

"These tombs of the ancients were symbolical like the rest of their sacred edifices, and . . . this symbology points directly to the septenary division of man. But in death the order is revered; and while the Mastaba with its scenes of daily life painted on the walls, its table of offerings, to the Larva, the ghost, or 'Linga-Sarira,' was a memorial raised to the two Principles and Life which has quitted that which was a lower trio on earth; the Pit, the Passage, the Burial Chambers and the mummy in the Sarcophagus, were the objective symbols raised to the two perishable 'principles,' the personal mind and Kama, and the three imperishable, the higher Triad, now merged into one. This 'One' was the Spirit of the Blessed now resting in the Happy Circle of Aanroo" (TG 209).

During the reigns of Userkaf and Men-kau-Heru (5th dynasty) the mastaba was surmounted with a pyramidal structure, erected in honor of Ra.

(See also: Mastaba, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sarcophagus (Ancient Greek). A stone tomb, a receptacle for the dead; sarc = flesh, and phagein = to eat. Lapis assius, the stone of which the sarcophagi were made, is found in Lycia, and has the property of consuming the bodies in a very few weeks.

In Egypt sarcophagi were made of various other stones, of black basalt, red granite, alabaster and other materials, as they served only as outward receptacles for the wooden coffins containing the mummies.

The epitaphs on some of them are as remarkable as they are highly ethical, and no Christian could wish for anything better. One epitaph, dating thousands of years before the year one of our modern era, reads: - " I have given water to him who was thirsty, and clothing to him who was naked. I have done harm to no man." Another: "I have done actions desired by men and those which are commanded by the gods". The beauty of some of these tombs may be judged by the alabaster sarcophagus of Oimenephthah I., at Sir John Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn. "It was cut out of a single block of fine alabaster stone, and is 9 ft. 4 in.. long, by 22 to 24 in. in width, and 27 to 32 in. in height. . . . Engraved dots, etc., outside were once filled with blue copper to represent the heavens.

To attempt a description of the wonderful figures inside and out is beyond the scope of this work. Much of our knowledge of the mythology of the people is derived from this precious monument, with its hundreds of figures to illustrate the last judgment, and the life beyond the grave. Gods, men, serpents, symbolical animals and plants are there most beautifully carved." (Funeral Rites of the Egyptians.)

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

Egyptian Book of the Dead The name given to certain ancient papyri of the Egyptian, more correctly called Pert em hru (coming forth into day or light).

They have been discovered in many of the tombs, interred with the mummies. Although by no means the only text of importance coming down from the ancient Egyptians, it is a work of extreme antiquity, containing the system expounded by the priests, and is far older than the two other extant works known as the Book of the Pylons and the Book of the Tuat. The work depicts in symbolic form the afterdeath state, as presented by the priests to the populace of Egypt.

The soul is depicted in the guise of a pilgrim, journeying through various halls, at the portals of each of which he was obliged to give a correct answer -- an account of the life he had lived upon earth. The pilgrim eventually reached the judgment hall, within which he was tried by the company of gods and goddesses. Before Osiris his heart was placed in a balance to testify for or against him. If he passed the test satisfactorily, he was permitted by Osiris to enter his domain and become as one of the deities.

In a mystical sense, the Book of the Dead is a veiled rendition of the passage of the defunct through the various tests and trials of kama-loka before entering devachan; and of the trials of initiation which were but copies, at least in its lower degrees, of the postmortem pilgrimage of the dead.

(See also: Egyptian Book of the Dead, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Easter (from Eostre or Ostara goddess of spring)

In the northern hemisphere, the time of the renewal of life in nature, and therefore the appropriate season for celebrating the mystery of rebirth and regeneration. Easter day was close to the time of one of the four sacred seasons connected with the equinoxes and solstices, which were individually celebrated in the ancient Mysteries as representatives of the four main phases of the drama of initiation.

It was the second stage of initiation when the awakened person, in whom the Christ had already been born (as celebrated at a winter solstice), was preparing to become a conqueror of self and then a teacher. Easter today is the result of a confusion and compromise between this ancient spring festival (chiefly in its Northern European form) with ecclesiastical legends and the Jewish Feast of the Passover (pesah).

Good Friday, following the Christian version of this ancient theme, commemorates the descent of the Christ into the tomb, and the Sunday following, which is the third day counting inclusively, celebrates the resurrection. Due to a confusion in early Christian thought, there are certain aspects of the Easter celebration which properly pertain to the winter solstice, which the Christians, however, have rightly held as commemorating the birth of Christ.

The Jewish ecclesiastical calendar was lunar, and the attempt to reconcile the solar calendar with the date of the Passover as fixed by the lunar calendar resulted in protracted disputes, ending in the present compromise with its fluctuating date. The use of eggs at Easter is symbolic of rebirth and shows the influence of the ancient rites, especially of Northern Europe.

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

Definition and meaning of Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a legal holiday in the United States to honor members of the military killed in war. Its origins date back to the first Confederate Memorial Day on April 26, 1865, when ladies visited the military cemetery in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1868, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, John A. Logan, declared May 30 as a day to decorate the graves of both Union and Confederate veterans. New York was the first state to adopt "Decoration Day" (later called Memorial Day) as a legal holiday, doing so in 1873. Not all southern states recognized the holiday; many continued their own observations until after World War I. Today most states observe Memorial Day on the last Monday of May with parades and ceremonies at local cemeteries. Veterans present patriotic speeches and a lone bugler plays "Taps" in memory of those who gave their lives in support of the country. National services occur each year at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Definition and meaning of Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a legal holiday in the United States to honor members of the military killed in war. Its origins date back to the first Confederate Memorial Day on April 26, 1865, when ladies visited the military cemetery in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1868, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, John A. Logan, declared May 30 as a day to decorate the graves of both Union and Confederate veterans. New York was the first state to adopt "Decoration Day" (later called Memorial Day) as a legal holiday, doing so in 1873. Not all southern states recognized the holiday; many continued their own observations until after World War I. Today most states observe Memorial Day on the last Monday of May with parades and ceremonies at local cemeteries. Veterans present patriotic speeches and a lone bugler plays "Taps" in memory of those who gave their lives in support of the country. National services occur each year at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Resurrection A rising again, implying a previous descent; a rebirth after death. In its widest sense, the universal law of cyclic renewal manifested in cosmic, solar, terrestrial, and human phenomena, applying to manvantaras, and to reawakenings of the earth and of man -- whether humanity as a whole, races, or individuals.

In the last case it means regeneration, the second birth, initiation, symbolized by the resurrection of the mystic Christ enacted in the Mysteries, when the candidate rose from that cruciform couch which he had undergone the experiences of death. In Christianity this has become an actual physical or bodily resurrection of Jesus, supported by the stories of the empty tomb and the appearances to the disciples.

The dogma of the resurrection of the body, however, is pointedly related to the teaching of the migration of the life-atoms, whereby the reincarnating entity draws together the elements which it had previously discarded. There is an Arabic legend of the bone Luz, said to be one of the bones at the bottom of the spinal column, the os coccygis, as indestructible and forming the nucleus of the resurrection body.

In the adytum or Holy of Holies of ancient temples was found a sarcophagus symbolizing the universal process of resurrection, but in degenerate times it was occasionally turned by ignorance into a symbol of physical procreation. Other emblems of resurrection are the frog, phoenix, and egg.

(See also: Resurrection, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Christmas Christmas Day and its festival are a curious blend of Christian, Jewish, Roman, Western pagan, and perhaps other institutions. It arose as a Christian festival as part of the adaptation of the early Christian Church to the world in which it grew up.

The accounts given of the birth of Christ present obvious difficulties against regarding this date as that of his actual birth, and it was looked upon rather as a commemorative festival. Before the 5th century there cannot be said to have been any general consensus as to the date, the choice wavering between that of Epiphany on January 6th, the 25th of March, and the 25th of December. According to Chrysostom, the choice of the first of these dates was due to Western influence; and it is true that the Romans held their Saturnalia at the same time.

The celebration of the winter solstice, often identified with that of the new year, is virtually universal and denotes among Christians the mystic birth of the Christ; the significance has, however, with the Christian Church, been divided between Christmas and Easter. Besides its application to the death and rebirth of the year, and to death and regeneration both cosmic and human, the symbol has special reference to the esoteric rite and exoteric drama performed in the Mysteries at this epoch, where the candidate for initiation was placed in a tomb or coffin, or on a cruciform couch, where his body remained entranced during the experiences of his liberated self, until rebirth or resurrection on the third day.

Christmas customs likewise are derived from various sources: the exchange of gifts or sweets is a common accompaniment of new year celebrations; the tree is a universal symbol of manifested nature, and this appears again as the cross, which however is appropriated to the Friday before Easter. At the winter solstice, the sun enters Capricorn, a house of Saturn -- who appears in such figures as Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Old Father Christmas; and the spirit of license and good cheer are more appropriate to the genius of Saturn, especially in the form of Silenus or a satyr, than to the mystic birth of the neophyte.

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

Karnak (Egypt, Egyptian). The ruins of the ancient temples, and palaces which now stand on the emplacement of ancient Thebes. The most magnificent representatives of the art and skill of the earliest Egyptians. A few lines quoted from Champollion, Denon and an English traveller, show most eloquently what these ruins are.

Of Karnak Champollion writes: -  "The ground covered by the mass of remaining buildings is square; and each side measures 1,800 feet. One is astounded and overcome by the grandeur of the sublime remnants, the prodigality and magnificence of workmanship to be seen everywhere. No people of ancient or modern times has conceived the art of architecture upon a scale so sublime, so grandiose as it existed among the ancient Egyptians; and the imagination, which in Europe soars far above our porticos, arrests itself and falls powerless at the foot of the hundred and forty columns of the hypostyle of Karnak! In one of its halls, the Cathedral of Notre Dame might stand and not touch the ceiling, but be considered as a small ornament in the centre of the hall."

Another writer exclaims: "Courts, halls, gateways, pillars, obelisks, monolithic figures, sculptures, long rows of sphinxes, are found in such profusion at Karnak, that the sight is too much for modern comprehension." Says Denon, the French traveller: "It is hardly possible to believe, after seeing it, in the reality of the existence of so many buildings collected together on a single point, in their dimensions, in the resolute perseverance which their construction required, and in the incalculable expenses of so much magnificence! It is necessary that the reader should fancy what is before him to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves occasionally yields to the doubt whether he be perfectly awake. . . . There are lakes and mountains within the periphery of the sanctuary. These two edifices are selected as examples from a list next to inexhaustible. The whole valley and delta of the Nile, from the cataracts to the sea, was covered with temples, palaces, tombs, pyramids, obelisks, and pillars. The execution of the sculptures is beyond praise. The mechanical perfection with which artists wrought in granite, serpentine, breccia, and basalt, is wonderful, according to all the experts animals and plants look as good as natural, and artificial objects are beautifully sculptured; battles by sea and land, and scenes of domestic life are to be found in all their bas-reliefs."

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

Seb (Egyptian) One of the older Egyptian deities, the son of Shu and Tefnut, brother and husband of Nut, father of Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys. A goose (seb) was held sacred to the god. One popular legend states that Seb first appeared flying through the air in the form of a goose -- reminiscent of the Sanskrit kala-hansa (bird of eternity).

Seb was the vitalizing divinity of cosmic space, often called earth: the earth was described as being formed of Seb's cosmic body, and hence was in turn called the house of Seb. Being so closely associated with the earth, through popular misunderstanding he was regarded as the custodian of the dead in their tombs, and therefore held a prominent place in the scenes of the Underworld depicted in The Book of the Dead.

Heliopolis was the principal seat of his worship, it being held that at that spot, with his consort Nut, he produced the great Egg of Space, out of which emerged the sun god in the shape of a phoenix (bennu). Because of this he was styled the Great Cackler. Another of his titles was Erpat (chief of the gods), as he is more like the Hindu parabrahman than even Brahma, and hence the womb of cosmic being. A favorite representation of Seb is that of a prostrated man, one hand pointing to heaven, the other to earth -- the prostrated form representing the earth -- over whom bends a woman, Nut, her body being spangled with stars -- representing the sky.

In Gerald Massey's series of seven principles of the Egyptians, Seb is enumerated as the fifth (ancestral soul) (SD 2:632). In the individual person Seb stands for the reincarnating ego or monadic root with its accumulated wisdoms of each human imbodiment, and hence the source and urgent impulse for future imbodiments. "Manas corresponds precisely with Seb, the Egyptian fifth principle, for that portion of Manas, which follows the two higher principles, is the ancestral soul, indeed, the bright, immortal thread of the higher Ego, to which clings the Spiritual aroma of all the lives or births" (SD 2:632n).

(See also: Seb, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Demeter (Greek) (possibly from Doric da earth + meter mother)

The Earth-Mother; one of the great Olympian deities, in popular mythology specially associated with the earth and its products, patron of agriculture, goddess of law and order, and protector of marriage and the birth of offspring. As the grain goddess, counterpart of the Egyptian Isis, Roman Ceres, and corn mothers, corn maidens, and harvest goddesses of the various native cultures of the Americas today, and of the early Teutonic and Scandinavian races of central and northern Europe.

Popular legend describes Demeter as mother of Persephone, who while gathering flowers on the Nysian plain was seized by Hades and carried to the Underworld. Searching disconsolate for her lost child, Demeter came to the dwelling of Celeus at Eleusis, where she was hospitably received although her identity was unknown. On condition of being given the sole care of the king's son who was ill with fever, she remained and became the child's nurse. Each night she placed the child on a bed of living coals, but the mother, discovering this, snatched the child away in alarm.

Demeter then revealed herself as a goddess and, declaring that had she been left alone she would have made the child immortal, she relinquished her post in wrath. Before leaving Eleusis, however, she founded a mystical school or cult to keep alive certain otherwise secret teachings about human divinity and the life after death. The Eleusinian Mysteries, reputed to have sprung from this earlier effort, dealt particularly with the afterdeath states and the progress and experiences of the soul between earth lives.

The great Eleusinian divinities, as far as is known, were three: Demeter-Thesmophoros as goddess of law and order; Persephone-Kore the divine maid; and Iacchos the divine son (the divine man whom it was the object of the Mysteries to bring forth from the "tomb" of the human man). Probably because of her association with Persephone, Demeter was in one of her aspects a divinity of the underworld and was worshiped as such in Sparta and at Hermione at Argolis.

In the Orphic teachings Demeter is not only the earth goddess, but is also Demeter-Kore the divine maid. This aspect is twofold: as Persephone the Virgin-Queen of the Dead; and as the mortal maid Semele, mother of the mystic savior Dionysos, and later enthroned as Semele-Thyone (Semele the Inspiried). As both maid and mother she is the immortal wife of Zeus, and is also called the mother of Zeus, as an Orphic verse declares: "The goddess who was Rhea, when she bore Zeus became Demeter." In one of her aspects, Demeter is the one to whom, in the Orphic legend, is given the still beating heart of the murdered Zagreus-Dionysus.

Demeter belongs to the class of the kabiria (kabir, kabiri): "beneficent Entities who, symbolized in Prometheus, brought light to the world, and endowed humanity with intellect and reason" (SD 2:363), great beings to whom are credited the invention of the arts of peace -- letters and the alphabet, law, philosophy, science, art, architecture, music, spinning, weaving, and agriculture.

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

Ophites (Ancient Greek). A Gnostic Fraternity in Egypt, and one of the earliest sects of Gnosticism, or Gnosis (Wisdom, Knowledge), known as the "Brotherhood of the Serpent".

It flourished early in the second century, and while holding some of the principles of Valentinus had its own occult rites and symbology. A living serpent, representing the Christos-principle (i.e., the divine reincarnating Monad, not Jesus the man), was displayed in their mysteries and reverenced as a symbol of wisdom, Sophia, the type of the all-good and all-wise.

 The Gnostics were not a Christian sect, in the common acceptation of this term, as the Christos of pre-Christian thought and the Gnosis was not the "god-man" Christ, but the divine EGO, made one with Buddhi. Their Christos was the "Eternal Initiate", the Pilgrim, typified by hundreds of Ophidian symbols for several thousands of years before the " Christian" era, so- called.

One can see it on the "Belzoni tomb" from Egypt, as a winged serpent with three heads (Atma-Buddhi-Manas), and four human legs, typifying its androgynous character; on the walls of the descent to the sepulchral chambers of Rameses V., it is found as a snake with vulture’s wings - the vulture and hawk being solar symbols. "The heavens are scribbled over with interminable snakes ‘ writes Herschel of the Egyptian chart of stars. "The Meissi (Messiah?) meaning the Sacred Word, was a good serpent", writes Bonwick in his Egyptian Belief. "This serpent of goodness, with its head crowned, was mounted upon a cross and formed a sacred standard of Egypt." The Jews borrowed it in their "brazen serpent of Moses".

It is to this "Healer" and "Saviour", therefore, that the Ophites referred, and not to Jesus or his words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so it behoves the Son of Man to be lifted up" - when explaining the meaning of their ophis. Tertullian, whether wittingly or unwittingly, mixed up the two. The four-winged serpent is the god Chnuphis. The good serpent bore the cross of life around its neck, or suspended from its mouth. The winged serpents become the Seraphim (Seraph, Saraph) of the Jews. In the 87th chapter of the Ritual (the Book of the Dead) the human soul transformed into Bata, the omniscient serpents says: - " I am the serpent Ba-ta, of long years, Soul of the Soul, laid out and born daily; I am the Soul that descends on the earth", i.e., the Ego.

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

Osiris. (Egypt, Egyptian). The greatest God of Egypt, the Son of Seb (Saturn), celestial fire, and of Neith, primordial matter and infinite space.

This shows him as the self-existent and self-created god, the first manifesting deity (our third Logos), identical with Ahura Mazda and other " First Causes". For as Ahura Mazda is one with, or the synthesis of, the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit, when differentiated and  personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. He was born at Mount Sinai, the Nyssa of the 0. T. (See- Exodus xvii. 15), and buried at Abydos, after being killed by Typhon at the early age of twenty-eight, according to the allegory.

According to Euripides he is the same as Zeus and Dionysos or Dio-Nysos "the god of Nysa", for Osiris is said by him to have been brought up in Nysa, in Arabia "the Happy". Query: how much did the latter tradition influence, or have anything in common with, the statement in the Bible, that "Moses built an altar and called the name Jehovah Nissi", or Kabbalistically - "Dio-Iao-Nyssi"? (See Isis Unveiled Vol. II. p. 165.) The four chief aspects of Osiris were - Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the " Lunar" or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon, Da?monic, or physical, material, therefore passional turbulent aspect. In these four aspects he symbolizes the dual Ego -  the divine and the human, the cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial.

Of the many supreme gods, this Egyptian conception is the most suggestive and the grandest, as it embraces the whole range of physical and metaphysical thought. As a solar deity he had twelve minor gods under him - the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Though his name is the "Ineffable", his forty-two attributes bore each one of his names, and his seven dual aspects completed the forty-nine, or 7 X 7; the former symbolized by the fourteen members of his body, or twice seven. Thus the god is blended in man, and the man is deified into a god. He was addressed as Osiris-Eloh. Mr. Dunbar T. Heath speaks of a Phœnician inscription which, when read, yielded the following tumular inscription in honour of the mummy: "Blessed be Ta-Bai, daughter of Ta-Hapi, priest of Osiris-Eloh. She did nothing against anyone in anger. She spoke no falsehood against any one. Justified before Osiris, blessed be thou from before Osiris! Peace be to thee." And then he adds the following remarks:

"The author of this inscription ought, I suppose, to be called a heathen, as justification before Osiris is the object of his religious aspirations. We find, however, that he gives to Osiris the appellation Eloh. Eloh is the name used by the Ten Tribes of Israel for the Elohim of Two Tribes. Jehovah-Eloh (Gen. iii. 21.) in the version used by Ephraim corresponds to Jehovah Elohim in that used by Judah and ourselves. This being so, the question is sure to be asked, and ought to be humbly answered - What was the meaning meant to be conveyed by the two phrases respectively, Osiris-Eloh and Jehovah-Eloh? For my part I can imagine but one answer, viz., that Osiris was the national God of Egypt, Jehovah that of Israel, and that Eloh is equivalent to Deus, Gott or Dieu". As to his human development, he is, as the author of the Egyptian Belief has it . . . "One of the Saviours or Deliverers of Humanity . . . . As such he is born in the world. He came as a benefactor, to relieve man of trouble . . . . In his efforts to do good he encounters evil . . . and he is temporarily overcome. He is killed . . Osiris is buried. His tomb was the object of pilgrimage for thousands of years. But he did not rest in his grave. At the end of three days, or forty, he rose again and ascended to Heaven. This is the story of his Humanity" (Egypt. Belief). And Mariette Bey, speaking of the Sixth Dynasty, tells us that "the name of Osiris . . commences to be more used. The formula of Justified is met with": and adds that "it proves that this name (of the Justified or Makheru was not given to the dead only". But it also proves that the legend of Christ was found ready in almost all its details thousands of years before the Christian era, and that the Church fathers had no greater difficulty than to simply apply it to a new personage.

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