The Three Ancient Grand Masters In Freemasonry, a title applied to King Solomon, Hiram King of Tyre, and Hiram Abif, who are regarded by Masons as having been the Three Grand Masters of the Craft at the time of the building of Solomon's Temple: Solomon as architect upon whom his father King David laid the charge to build "an house for the Lord," and to whom he had given the plans, "the pattern of all that he had by the spirit" (1 Chron 28:12); King Hiram, who supplied the materials, in addition to those which had been collected by David; and Hiram as builder and artificer.

The Temple representing as it does both the universe and man, as the microcosm, the Three Ancient Grand Masters can be viewed either cosmically or particularly with reference to man. Cosmogonically these Grand Masters represent the trinity of nature and are identical with the triads which are found in all the great world religions: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva in India; Osiris, Isis, and Horus in Egypt; the highest three Sephiroth in the Jewish Qabbalah -- Kether (the Crown), Hochmah (Wisdom), and Binah (Intelligence); and Father, Holy Ghost, and Son in Christianity.

Microcosmically the Three Ancient Grand Masters represent the highest triad of man's composite sevenfold nature: atman, the inner divinity; buddhi, spiritual soul, the principle of spiritual intelligence and understanding and of spiritual will; and manas, the mind which is the artificer or builder. More generally they represent threefold human nature: spirit, soul, and body, for the Temple of Man is built by each one from within himself by the unfolding of his inner faculties and powers. This trinity of man whether as highest triad or as spirit, soul, and body, being the key to the "lock of Magic," the trinity of nature.

Because nature is repetitive throughout, these Grand Masters are correspondentially related to the highest three of the four lower manifested planes of the seven planes of cosmic consciousness, in which exist the sevenfold manifested cosmos, the solar system, and the seven sacred planets. Specifically with reference to the seven globes of our earth-chain, Blavatsky gives these in the Chaldean Qabbalistic system as: 1) Archetypal World; 2) Intellectual or Creative World; and 3) Substantial or Formative World (SD 1:200). The lowest of the seven cosmic planes is the plane of our physical earth, which is the focus, result, and outermost expression of the energies and forces of the three higher planes. Thus our physical earth, as also physical man, are each the Temple, planned and built by the Three Grand Masters, according to the pattern which David has "by the spirit," the divine plan which is hidden in the heart of everything that is. In accordance with this divine plan all evolution proceeds by the progressive manifestation of the divine life and the cosmic and human spiritual energies, powers, and faculties, evolving and unfolding from within, until at last the building of the Temple shall be completed and adorned as a fit and worthy habitation of the inner god.

(See also: Three Ancient Grand Masters , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Dhyana :

Dhyana

(Sanskrit) A term signifying profound spiritualintellectual contemplation with utter detachment from all objects of a sensuous and lower mental character. In Buddhism it is one of the six paramitas of perfection.

One who is adept or expert in the practice of dhyana, which by the way is a wonderful spiritual exercise if the proper idea of it be grasped, is carried in thought entirely out of all relations with the material and merely psychological spheres of being and of consciousness, and into lofty spiritual planes. Instead of dhyana being a subtraction from the elements of consciousness, it is rather a throwing off or casting aside of the crippling sheaths of ethereal matter which surround the consciousness, thus allowing the dhyanin, or practicer of this form of true yoga, to enter into the highest parts of his own constitution and temporarily to become at one with and, therefore, to commune with the gods.

It is a temporary becoming at one with the upper triad of man considered as a septenary, in other words, with his monadic essence. Man's consciousness in this state or condition becomes purely buddhi, or rather buddhic, with the highest parts of the manas acting as upadhi or vehicle for the retention of what the consciousness therein experiences. From this term is drawn the phrase dhyani-chohans or dhyani-buddhas  - words so frequently used in theosophical literature and so frequently misconceived as to their real meaning. (See also Samadhi)

See also: Dhyana , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Immortality That which is not subject to death, deathlessness. Death is the dissolution of a compound entity, where the compound itself ceases to exist, though its elements do not perish. Nor does the ensouling entity perish because of the dissolution of its physical, astral, or other vehicle. Hence in a restricted sense certain elements can be said to be immortal, relative to the compound they form.

Theosophy teaches the constant rebirths of the identic spiritual-intellectual individuality throughout the manvantara; and that, even after union into paranirvana, the individuality, precisely because it is then on its own higher plane or sphere of life, is not lost and will reemerge at a new manvantara to pursue its own particular cycle. This eternal monad, the spiritual-intellectual individuality, is the real and truly immortal essence of the person; and within this supreme cycle of immortality are a series of less immortalities, each representing the life cycle of one of the imbodiments of the monad. Death therefore of necessity becomes a recurrent process, precisely like birth or rebirth, and of many degrees, and simply means the dissolution of some group of lower sheaths enclosing the individual in imbodiment.

Viewing the question from the consciousness aspect, death means the exchange of one mode of consciousness for others. We cannot say offhand that we are either mortal or immortal, since we contain various elements of both kinds. The essence of the individuality is unconditionally immortal, its sheaths or bodies are mortal in various and relative degrees.

Immortality is conditional for the human soul: if it aspires to its inner god and allies itself therewith, the human soul becomes immortal because it is at one with its spiritual parent, the upper triad or monad. But if the personal or human soul refuse to recognize its spiritual essence and allies itself with increasing fullness with the complex compound of the lower human nature, it loses its chance of immortality and becomes but a psychological mortal compound itself.

The Buddha's statement that "nothing composite endures and consequently that as man is a composite entity there is in him no immortal and unchanging 'soul,' is the key. The 'soul' of man is changing from instant to instant -- learning, growing, expanding, evolving -- so that at no two consecutive seconds of time or of experience is it the same. Therefore it is not immortal. For immortality means enduring continually as you are. If you evolve you change, and therefore you cannot be immortal in the part which evolves, because you are growing into something greater" (FSO 385). In this sense, portions of an entity may endure for long periods of time, and thus be called immortal; but they are not immortal in the sense of continuing to exist unchanged or in a state identical to what they are now.

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

Personality. In Occultism - which divides man into seven principles, considering him under the three aspects of the divine, the thinking or the rational, and the animal man - the lower quaternary or the purely astrophysical being; while by Individuality is meant the Higher Triad, considered as a Unity. Thus the Personality embraces all the characteristics and memories of one physical life, while the Individuality is the imperishable Ego which re-incarnates and clothes itself in one personality after another.

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

Hiwyai' Bisha' (Chaldean) (from Hebrew hayyah animal + bisha' evil, wrong)

The beast (of evil); from the union of Samael (Prince of Poison) and his wife 'Esheth Zenunim (woman of whoredoms) is produced the Beast: forming an infernal triad, the nether pole of the divine triad -- which becomes the devil and the tempter in the Zohar.

"Esoterically our lower animal passions" (TG 137).

See also LILITH.

(See also: Hiwyai' Bisha' , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jagannatha (Sanskrit) (from jagat world + natha protector, lord)

World protector, governor or lord of the world; title of Vishnu and Krishna, especially in his avataric manifestation from Vishnu; also of Rama, a previous avatara.

"This deity is worshipped equally by all the sects of India. . . . He is the god of the Mysteries, and his temples, which are most numerous in Bengal, are all of a pyramidal form" (IU 2:301). Applied specifically to the idol of Vishnu-Krishna at Puri in Orissa, Bengal, which is drawn through the street in a huge vehicle, under the wheels of which devotees were supposed to allow themselves to be crushed -- the modern English form is Juggernaut, meaning any law, custom, or belief that demands blind devotion and ruthless sacrifice.

In cosmology, Jagannatha is the cosmic hierarch of a particular cosmic unit out of which all flows in evolutionary procession, forming the periods of that universe's manifestation, and back into which in due course all again is gathered, to reissue forth again when the new cosmic manvantara opens. Thus in a sense Jagannatha parallels the productive member of the Hindu triad, Brahma.

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

Shiva

The Òdestroyer,Ó third member of the primary triad of gods in Hinduism, the others being Brahma and Vishnu.

(See also: Shiva , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Savikalpa Samadhi: Samadhi in which there is objective experience or experience of "qualities" and with the triad of knower, knowledge and known.

(See also: Savikalpa Samadhi , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Surya (Sanskrit) The sun, its regent or informing divinity; in the Vedas, the sun god, the most concrete of the solar gods, generally distinguished, at least in name, from Savitri and Aditya. He was regarded as one of the original Vedic triad: Indra or Vayu presiding over the atmosphere; Agni, over the earth; and Surya, over the space of the solar system.

In Vedic literature, Surya is also called Loka-chakshuh (eye of the world). He is considered the son of Dyaus, the cosmic spirit -- pictured as the spatial extent of cosmic mind -- and of Aditi (space). He is represented as moving through the celestial sphere in a chariot drawn by seven ruddy horses or by one horse with seven heads, referring to the seven principles or elements of the solar system, or to his own seven principles as a unit with their seven different logoi or heads; or the former refers to the seven logoi as manifested in the regents of the seven sacred planets, the latter to their common origin from the one cosmic element, often figuratively called fire (SD 1:101).

In later mythology Surya is particularly identified with Savitri as one of the twelve adityas of the sun in the twelve months of the year, and his seven-horsed chariot is described as driven by Aruna (dawn). Surya was represented also as the husband of Sanjna (spiritual consciousness, cosmic or human), and the offspring of Aditi (space), mother of all the gods. One legend represents Surya as crucified on a lathe by Visvakarman -- his father-in-law, the creator of gods and men, and their carpenter -- and having an eighth part of his rays cut off, which deprives his head of its effulgency, creating round it a dark aureole -- "a mystery of the last initiation, and an allegorical representation of it" (TG 313).

Sanjna is the sakti of Surya, just as a human spiritual consciousness or buddhi is the sakti of atman, at once its vehicle, its manifestation, and itself in action. This is the reason the sun is considered the patron, parent, and governor of all the manasaputras, and therefore in a generalized sense the source of mind -- sanjna, spiritual intellect or consciousness.

The names of the seven principal rays of the sun are: Sushumna, Harikesa, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavsu, and Svaraj. "These seven rays are the entire gamut of the seven occult forces (or gods) of nature, as their respective names well prove. . . . As each stands for one of the creative gods or Forces, it is easy to see how important were the functions of the sun in the eyes of antiquity, and why it was deified by the profane" (TG 315). These principal rays of Surya are from another standpoint the seven solar logoi, each one of the seven having its respective home in the seven sacred planets; equally, there may be said to be twelve rays of the sun, and twelve sacred planets, each one a home or mansion of one of the solar logoi.

Surya is only the appearance on this cosmic plane of the solar heart or central spiritual sun; although in a more mystical sense, Surya, our sun, is one of the reflections of a galactic center, which astronomically is the prototype, albeit far more advanced in cosmic evolution than is the sun itself. The visible reflection of the sun is composed of highly ethereal matter belonging to the fifth, sixth, and seventh substrates of the lowest cosmic plane or prithivi. Within and above all these rise in ever more sublime steps six other cosmic planes, on and in which are the other globes of the solar chain. The sun's primary essence belongs to the highest division of the seventh state of mother-substance (adi-tattva). This primary sun, of which our visible sun is the reflection, is concealed from the gaze of all but the very highest dhyani-chohans.

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

One By itself the One represents not pure unalloyed spirit, which is signified by the zero -- the all-containing womb of space and being -- but is the First Logos or Pythagorean Monas monadum (monad of monads). From this monad of monads flows forth through emanation the duad, then the triad, and then the entire manifested universe of interlocking hierarchies, emanated from the cosmic womb of being or the zero through the First Logos or the One of primordial manifested spirit.

"The sacredness of numbers begins with the great First -- the one, and ends only with the nought or zero -- symbol of the infinite and boundless circle which represents the universe. All the intervening figures, in whatever combination, or however multiplied, represent philosophical ideas, from vague outlines down to a definitely-established scientific axiom, relating either to a moral or a physical fact in nature. They are a key to the ancient views on cosmogony, in its broad sense, including man and beings, and the evolution of the human race, spiritually as well as physically" (IU 2:407).

The circle, zero, or nought is the symbol of the All, equivalent to Non-being, in contradistinction to being or the number One. With the Pythagoreans number One was equivalent to the cosmic monad, the Odd: odd numbers were considered by them to be perfect or celestial and the even numbers imperfect, manifested, or terrestrial. The cosmic One, the First Logos, alone was cosmic unity and therefore good and harmony, because no disharmony is to be found in the unitary One alone.

Yet "in all such numerical divisions the One universal Principle, -- although referred to as (the) one, because the Only One -- never enters into the calculations. It stands, in its character of the Absolute, the Infinite, and the universal abstraction, entirely by Itself and independent of every other Power whether noumenal or phenomenal" (SD 2:598). Here the cosmic One is intimately intertwined with the universal zero, the last being equivalent to the universal All. Analogies in different systems of thought are numerous; for instance, the cosmic zero corresponds to parabrahman-mulaprakriti, whereas the cosmic One or monad corresponds to Brahman.

See also UNITY

(See also: One , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Malkuth: And from the rays of this Triad there appear three colours in Malkuth together with a fourth which is their synthesis. Thus from the orange tawny of Hod and the green nature of Netzach, there goeth forth a certain greenish 'citrine' colour, yet pure and translucent withal. From the orange tawny of Hod mingled with the puce of Yesod there goeth forth a certain red russet brown, 'russet' yet gleaming with a hidden fire. And from the green of Netzach and the puce of Yesod there goeth forth a certain other darkening green 'olive' yet rich and glowing withal. And the synthesis of all these is a blackness which bordereth upon the Qlippoth.

In Malkuth, Adonai ha-Aretz is God, the Lord and King, ruling over the Kingdom and Empire which is the Visible Universe.

And Cholem Yesodoth the Breaker of Foundations, (or Olam Yesodoth--the World of the Elements) is the Name of the Sphere of Operation of Malkuth which is called the Sphere of the Elements from which all things are formed, and its Archangels are three:--Metatron, the Prince of Countenance reflected from Kether, and Sandalphon, the Prince of Prayer (feminine), and Nephesch ha Messiah, the Soul of the Reconciler for Earth. And the Order of Angels is Ashim or Flames of Fire, as it is written 'Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers as a flaming Fire,' and these are also called the Order of Blessed Souls, or of the Souls of the Just made Perfect.

(See also: Malkuth , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Word In religious and philosophical usage, a translation of the Greek logos or Latin verbum. Its meaning here is that of reason manifested, employed mainly in a cosmogonic sense. "The esoteric meaning of the word Logos (speech or word, Verbum) is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting divine mind, and the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the esse of that Universe. As the Logos reflects all in the Universe of Pleroma, so man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in his Universe, the Earth" (SD 2:25). This word was chosen because human thought, or immanent conscious intelligence or mind, manifests itself through words. It is familiar to Christians through the opening verse of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (1:1, 14). In the former quotation the meaning is entirely cosmogonic; in the latter, it has been diminished to signify the innate Word or divinity in man, which when in full control of the human adept can, by a stretch of metaphor, mean that the innate Christ, Buddha, or god in man so controls the human personality as to have become the latter, and thus to manifest among men.

Cosmogonically, theosophy considers the universe and all in it, from its first divine appearance to its last material modification, as being in toto as well as in all manifested details an emanation from the universal mind. This emanation takes place at the beginning of a manvantara in three separate stages or degrees: the First or unmanifest Logos; the Second or manifest-unmanifest Logos; and finally the Third or manifest Logos. Logos is applicable to these three stages because each is the manifesting of the wisdom in its divine predecessor, each stage carrying within itself, on the principle of the emanational scheme, the attributes or qualities of its predecessors. The Second Logos has invariably been considered feminine, and the Third Logos is regarded as the creative power.

Corresponding to the three Logoi in the Hindu scheme are Brahman, Brahma, and Isvara emanating originally from parabrahman-mulaprakriti. In the highly philosophical visioning of Mahayana Buddhism is adi-buddha, mahabuddhi, and the celestial buddha, occasionally indirectly called dharmakaya. On a scale of less magnitude, Hindu thought has developed the triad Brahma, the emanator or original emanation; Vishnu, the supporter or sustainer, a feminine characteristic nevertheless; and Siva at once the regenerator and producer in the sense of destroying but to regenerate. Still a third Hindu scheme is found in the series of paramatman, mahabuddhi or alaya, and mahat or cosmic creative mind.

A somewhat similar usage in the Qabbalah is Meimra, or 'imrah (word, particularly from divinity) [both from Hebrew verbal root amar to say, speak, use words]. One of the Stanzas of Dzyan refers to the Army of the Voice, which is explained to be "the prototype of the 'Host of the Logos,' or the 'word' of the Sepher Jezirah, called in the Secret Doctrine 'the One Number issued from No-Number' -- the One Eternal Principle" (SD 1:94).

See also LOGOS

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

Three-tongued Flame The immortal spiritual triad, atma-buddhi-manas; the four wicks are the four lower principles (SD 1:237). Also called the three fires, which when reunited in nirvana become one.

See also THREE FACES

(See also: Three-tongued Flame , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Triplicity: Sometimes called a Triad, trio, triune, or triple, this is a word used to indicate a devine threesome which is really one being with three faces. Triplicities are very common amoung the Celts and are often seen in many of their philosophies.

(See also: Triplicity , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Ad or Adad, Hadad (Semitic) (from 'adad to be powerful, strong)

Powerful, mighty; the primeval One, similar to the Sanskrit ad (first, primeval). In the Babylonian system, according to Blavatsky, Ad or Ad-ad is the great first cause "who is never named, but only acknowledged in thought as the Hindu Swayambhuva. From this he becomes manifest as Anu or Ana -- the one above all -- Monas" (IU 2:170). Ad or Adad is without attributes and therefore viewed as the source from which the Demiurge or world builder came into manifestation.

Adad is a national and guardian deity of the Syrian races and the Edomites, found as early as 3000 BC in Syrian cuneiform tablets. In the Babylo-Assyrian pantheon 'Adad is named in the second divine triad, that of the life-giving nature forces, with Shamash (the sun god) and Sin (the moon deity), and is always represented with a bull. In the Babylonian flood myth Adad is the god of storms, rains, and harvests, whose emblem is the thunderbolt, apparently the Semitic equivalent of the Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, and Norse Thor. His consort is Atargatis (Astarte, Asthoreth, Ishtar) who at times takes his place.

See also AD, SONS OF

(See also: Ad, Adad, Hadad , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Osiris-Isis-Horus.

See TRIAD; TRINITY

(See also: Osiris-Isis-Horus , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Arian Heresy Originated by Arius (d. 336), a presbyter in Alexandria who did not confuse the cosmic Logos with its ray on earth, the Christ entity, whose human expression was called Jesus.

Arius could not accept a consubstantial trinity with the human Son as the first or second remove from its Father aspect -- he made a sharp distinction between the three Logoi and any human expression of such logoic triad manifesting on earth as an inspired man.

Arius in consequence taught that God was alone, unknowable, and separate from every created being; that the Son, or creative Logos was created by God, who through this Logos brought forth the world and all that is in it.

He held, therefore, that Christ was not God in the fullest sense and should be worshiped as a secondary deity, and that at the incarnation the Logos assumed a body but not a human soul. Arianism was condemned as heretical at the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

(See also: Arian Heresy , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Principles A beginning, foundation, source, or essence from which things proceed; principles are thus the fundamental essences out of which and from which all things are and exist, usually enumerated as seven in theosophical writings. These kosmic principles, corresponding to the seven planes of the kosmos -- the seven basic types of consciousness-substance of which the universe is formed -- are manifested in the human being, so that we speak of the seven human principles, copies in the small of the seven principles of the universe.

The seven human principles are not a confederation of distinct entities, for man himself is essentially a unit, a monad, expressing his potentialities through a series of vehicles or vestures. The seven principles severally exist as aspects of human consciousness. Whether kosmic or human, they are usually divided into a higher triad and a lower quaternary, these being the numbers of the spiritual and material side of nature respectively.

The higher triad is atman, buddhi, and manas (or, more correctly expressed, atman, atma-buddhi, and atma-buddhi-manas); the quaternary was originally given as kama-rupa, prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira. In a later enumeration sthula-sarira was omitted from the list as not being a principle in itself but the vehicle of the other principles, and the quaternary was made up by adding the lower aspect of manas.

The septenate may also be regarded as a higher and lower triad united by manas, which can attach itself to either and in our present stage of evolution is oscillating between the two. Since these seven rudimentary principles are omnipresent, they give rise to subordinate septenates within the larger septenates, so that each principle is itself subdivided into seven, repeating nature's fundamental structure indefinitely. This becomes clearer when we bear in mind that the universe in all its parts is composed of monads, and that every monad in manifestation expresses itself as a septenate. Though principles and elements are essentially the same, it is convenient to make a distinction whereby the term principle is used for the force or spirit aspect, and element for the vehicular aspect; the principle being the inner, and the element the outer aspect, flowing forth from the principle as its vital vehicle or clothing.

Basically, these human principles are the original essences or elements in the constitution of any entity, macrocosmic or microcosmic, when these elements or essences are integrated into a unit by the power inherent in the essential self of such an entity. Thus there are principles of a cosmos or universe, of a sun, a globe, a man, beast, plant, mineral and of an elemental. All religions and philosophies in all times have taught, albeit after various manners, that man or world or any other being is much more than the physical body.

The physical bodies or vehicles are but the outer shells or carriers of inward invisible, ethereal, and spiritual potencies or essences. In attempting to define the various parts of which our being is composed, many methods of dividing the human constitution have been adopted by different schools following different ways. The theosophic system is a division into seven principles or ultimate elements or essences; and everything within the cosmos is built of the same fundamental spiritual essence or substance and after the same general pattern. Other systems of division are possible, for instance the Christian threefold division of spirit, soul, and body. But the septenary classification is the most ancient one, and it is the common inheritance of all the esoteric schools "left to the sages of the Fifth Root-Race by the great Siddhas [Nirmanakayas]

of the Fourth" (SD 2:636). The following table (cf SD 2:596, ET 952-4) shows the analogy between the seven human aspects and the cosmic aspects:

1. Atman Spirit, Essential Self ----- Unmanifested Logos, Essential Self ----- Paramatman Cosmic Monad, Self

2. Buddhi Spiritual Soul ----- Universal Ideation, Second Logos ----- Alaya, Adi-Buddhi,

3. Manas (Mind) Human Soul ----- Universal Intelligence, Third Logos ----- Mahat Cosmic Mind

4. Kama (Desire) Animal Soul ----- Cosmic Energy (Chaotic) ----- Cosmic Kama Womb of Fohat

5. Prana Life-essence Vitality----- Cosmic Life-Essence or Energy ------ Cosmic Jiva

6. Linga-sarira Model-body ----- Astral Ideation, reflecting terrestrial things ----- Cosmic Ether Astral Light

7. Sthula-sarira Physical body ----- Cosmos Physical universe ----- Sthura- or Sthula-sarira

In this classification atman is enumerated first of the human principles in order to convey the idea that all the other six principles emanate or unroll forth from it. Thus buddhi is emanated first and two portions of the scroll are unrolled, to adopt a Christian metaphor; then from buddhi is emanated manas (the other four principles being still infolded) and three portions of the scroll are unrolled; then from manas is emanated kama -- and so forth until all seven principles are unfolded.

The ancient Persians also had a sevenfold division of man's aspects (Theos 4:21):

1. Physical Body -----Tanwas (bones) ----- Sthula-sarira

2. Model-body ----- Keherpas (aerial form), Persian kaleb ----- Linga-sarira

3. Life-Essence ----- Ushtanas (vital heat) ----- Prana

4. Desire Principle ----- Tevishis (conscious will) ----- Kama-manas

5. Mind (Human Soul) ----- Baodhas (perception through senses) ----- Manas

6. Spiritual Soul ----- Urvanem (Soul), Persian rawan ----- Buddhi

7. Universal Spirit ----- Fravashem or Farohar (Spirit) ----- Atman

In the ancient Chinese I Ching a seven fold classification is also given; and Gerald Massey stated that the Egyptian text often mention "seven souls of the Pharaoh," which he enumerated as follows (with Blavatsky's correction in SD 2:632):

1. Physical Body ----- Kwei ----- Kha soul of blood

2. Model-body ----- Kwei shan vial soul ----- Khaba, the shade covering soul

3. Life Essence ----- Shan vital principle ----- Ba soul of breath

4. Desire Principle ----- Zhing or Zing Essence of Will ----- Akhu, intelligence soul of perception

5. Mind ----- Pho ------ Seb ancestral soul

6. Spiritual Soul ----- Khi ----- Putah, first intellectual father intellectual soul

7. Universal Spirit ----- Hwun pure spirit ----- Atmu divine or eternal soul

Lao-tzu in his Tao-Teh-Ching mentions five principles, pure spirit and the body being taken for granted therein (Key 117).

Adapting the classification of Egyptologist Franz Lambert who tabulated a Qabbalistic classification alongside a hieroglyphic division:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Guph ----- Chat elementary body

2. Linga-sarira ----- Nephesh ----- Ka astral body, Evestrum, Sidereal Man

3. Prana ----- Khoah hag-Guph ----- Anch vital force Archaeus, Mumia

4. Kama ----- Ruah ------ Hati animal soul // Ab heart, feeling

5. Manas ----- Neshamah ----- Bai intellectual soul, intelligence

6. Buddhi ----- Hayyah ------ Cheybi spiritual soul

7. Atman ----- Yehidah ----- Chu divine spirit

The classification usually met with in the Qabbalah is a fourfold division: 1) neshamah, the most spiritual principle, the breath of being; 2) ruah, the spiritual soul; 3) nephesh, the vital soul; and 4) guph, the physical vehicle.

A sevenfold classification is stated to have been taught by the Gnostics, presented in the Pistis Sophia. "The Inner Man is similarly made up of four constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious AEons of the Spheres, being the Power -- a particle of the Divine light ('Divinae particula aurae') yet left in themselves; the Soul (the fifth) 'formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their torments; . . . The Counterfeit of the Spirit (seemingly answering to our Conscience), (the sixth); and lastly the [Greek moira], Fate (Karmic Ego), whose business it is to lead the man to the end appointed for him . . .' -- the seventh!" (SD 2:604-5).

The Pymander of Hermes states that the self is clothed with

1)    the blissful garment of conscious selfhood;

2)    the garment of knowing or reason;

3)    the garment of fancy, etc., spoken of as the soul;

4)    the garment of life or breath; and

5)    the gross body.

The Vedantic classification commonly uses a sixfold division, while other systems employed by the Brahmins, especially the Taraka-Raja-Yogins, is fourfold:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Annamaya-kosa ----- Sthulopadhi

2. Linga-sarira ----- Pranamaya-kosa ------ "

3. Prana ----- " ------ "

4. Kama

5. Manas

. . . a) volitions, feelings ----- Manomaya-kosa ----- Sukshmopadhi

. . . b) vijnana ----- Vijnanamaya-kosa ----- "

6. Buddhi ----- Anandamaya-kosa ----- Karanopadhi

7. Atman ----- Atman ----- Atman

The ancient Greek writers had their own terms for the aspects of the universe or of man, besides the familiar nous and psyche:

1. Sthula-sarira ----- Soma ----- Corpus

2. Linga-sarira ----- Phantasma or Phasma ----- Simulacrum or Imago

3. Prana ----- Bios ----- Anima

4. Kama-manas ----- Thymos ----- Animus

5. Higher Manas ----- Phren ----- )

6. Buddhi-manas ----- Nous ----- Mens

7. Atman ----- Pneuma ----- Spiritus

In the human constitution the archaic Latins discovered almost as many different spiritual, psychic, and astral elements as the ancient Hindus did. Thus, for instance, there was in man the genius (called in women the juno), closely corresponding to the manasaputric element or higher manas; and when a man died the genius sought its own sphere.

The other parts of the human constitution consisted of a member of the manes and a member of the lares, which two were probably closely identic with the lower human ego and the higher human ego; furthermore after the death of the man there appeared the lemur corresponding to the kama-rupa, shade, or specter; and the larva, which seems to have been identical with the lemur but with even less of the nobler human element in it; so that the lemur may be considered the kama-rupa in its early stages, and the larva when more greatly disintegrated. The physical body of course was considered simply to fall to pieces and to render its elements to the earth which gave it.

In the Scandinavian Eddas, Ask and Embla were two ash trees, and by means of the gifts bestowed upon them human beings were produced.

Another system of classification used in theosophical thought is the considering of the human constitution as composed of monads. The following table gives the monads and their relation to the principles.

See also FOURFOLD CLASSIFICATION

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

Asherah 'asherah (Hebrew) A Syrian goddess of fortune having close similarities with the Roman divinity Venus, and connected by analogy of attributes with Ashtoreth or Astarte, another Syrian divinity.

Also a sacred wooden pole or image standing close to the massebah and altar in early Shemitic sanctuaries, part of the equipment of the temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem till the Deuteronomic reformation of Josiah (2 Kings 23:6). The plural, 'asherim, denotes statues, images, columns, or pillars; translated in the Bible by "groves." Maachah, the grandmother of Asa, King of Jerusalem, is accused of having made for herself such an idol, which was a lingham -- for centuries a religious rite in Judaea.

Sometimes called the Assyrian Tree of Life, "the original Asherah was a pillar with seven branches on each side surmounted by a globular flower with three projecting rays, and no phallic stone, as the Jews made of it, but a metaphysical symbol. 'Merciful One, who dead to life raises!' was the prayer uttered before the Asherah, on the banks of the Euphrates. The 'Merciful One,' was . . . the higher triad in man symbolized by the globular flower with its three rays" (TG 37).

See also ASTARTE.

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

Vishnu (Sanskrit). The second person of the Hindu Trimurti (trinity), composed of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. From the root vish, "to pervade". in the Rig -Veda, Vishnu is no high god, but simply a manifestation of the solar energy, described as "striding through the seven regions of the Universe in three steps and enveloping all things with the dust (of his beams ".) Whatever may be the six other occult significances of the statement, this is related to the same class of types as the seven and ten Sephiroth, as the seven and three orifices of the perfect Adam Kadmon, as the seven "principles" and the higher triad in man, etc., etc. Later on this mystic type becomes a great god, the preserver and the renovator, he "of a thousand names - Sahasranama ".

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

Antahkarana

(Sanskrit) The inner organ. That channel for energy and consciousness which the evolutionary monad builds through its own activity between its triad units and envelopes as a ladder to climb up to ever higher consciousness and ability.

The antahkarana has its lowest anchorage in the crown centre of the etheric envelope.

(See also: Antahkarana , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Agrammachamareg (Gnostic) In the Pistis Sophia, one of the Triad of Invisibles, which also included Barbelo and Bdelle, in the Region of the Left (Hyle) where is the thirteenth aeon. (BCW 13:24)

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