Caduceus (Latin) A herald's staff; specially, the wand of Mercury or Hermes, god of wisdom, corresponding to Thoth. It consists of a rod or tree with two serpents wound in opposite directions round it, their tails meeting below, and their heads approaching each other above.

At the top of the rod in the Greek version is a knob, in the earlier Egyptian form a serpent's head, from which spring a pair of wings. From the central head between the wings grew the heads of the entwined serpents (spirit and matter), which descended along the tree of life, crossing the neutral laya-centers between the different planes of being, to manifest where the two tails joined on earth (SD 1:549-50).

The analogy is found in every known cosmogony, all of which begin with a circle, head, or egg surrounded by darkness. From this circle of infinity -- the unknown All -- comes forth the manifestations of spirit and matter. The emblem of the evolution of gods and atoms is shown by the two forces, positive and negative, ascending and descending and meeting. Its symbology is directly connected with the globes of the planetary chain and the circulations of the beings or life-waves on these globes, as well as with the human constitution and the afterdeath states.

Significantly, in ancient Greek mythology, Hermes is the psychopomp, psychagog, or conductor of souls after death to the various inner spheres of the universe, such as the Elysian Plains or the Meads of Asphodel. The Caduceus also signifies the dual aspect of wisdom by its twin serpents, Agathodaimon and Kakodaimon, good and evil in a relative sense.

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

Aswini:

Aswini (Ashvini). Twin deities who appear in the sky before dawn in a golden chariot drawn by horses; physicians of the heavens.

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

SOTHIS

The Star of the Tarot. Greek for Sirius, the Dog Star, the Egyptian Soped. Sothis, bearing a star in her crown, is the Nilotic goddess of inundation. Her Egyptian title was "Ruler of the Stars." At Elephantine she was known as Hathor and elsewhere as Satis, another aspect of Isis. Sothis is also called "The Star of Set and is represented by the Silver Star of the Great White Brotherhood.

Colin Wilson says that an "Egyptian treatise attributed to Hermes Trismegistus" asserts that Hermes landed on earth to teach mankind civilization and then returned to the stars. Sirius continues, however, Grant tells us, through the focus of the Andromeda connection, via Soror Andahadna and others, to "equilibrate" groups like the O.T.O. (transmitting through beings such as Lam, Aossic-Aiwass, etc.) and to bombard the "Interior Planes" with Maatian Age emanations.

In the Maatian system, according to Grant's theory, everything is conscious, with galaxies being super-evolved complexes of consciousness. Sirius (like all stars) not only has "Sirians" in bodies like ours, but also has star consciousness, just as Earth has a planetary consciousness. Each galaxy is responsible for assigned "solar" systems and there are many cosmic streams with termini scattered through the continuum of the space-time warp, from interstellar to interplanetary to intermolecular. The Sol-Sirius link is just one of these termini. Other binodal power lines are Isis (a not yet discovered planet) and the Andromeda galaxy, Uranus-Algol and Jupiter-Betelgeuse. Our own Milky Way connects star systems at more than Andromedan distances. The termini act as giant transformers or power-relay systems, focussing the galactic emanations like laser beams. One such ray is relayed to Sirius, "the Sun beyond the sun," which thereupon bibranches for a number of subsequent star-systems, including Sol, which decodes the "message" and serves as its own laser focus for the planets.

Man in reacting to all the cosmic influences unconsciously and unsystematically erupts with energy of his own. Human energy, like the energy of other races in the Comity of Stars (see COMITY OF STARS) being sent along their respective links, arrives at Andromeda through the Isidian connection. Andromeda is our primary broadcaster, Sothis is the amplifier and cpu, Sol the receiver and decoder. Through the Sothian circuit we receive back some of what we have emitted, as direction and information. Thus, K.G. tells us, we obtain the words to define the Age of Maat. R.A. Wilson mentions some of the Sirian manifestations in his book, The Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati. The only flaw is his demonstration of the active intervention of Sothis in the affairs of planet earth is the omission of the fact that Sothis (Sirius) is the Star of Set and that Shaitan-Aiwass (commonly known as Satan) is its inhabiting spirit. That Gurdjieff was also receiving inspiration from the Star of Set is not surprising in view of the nature of his work, which was, in many ways, similar to Crowley's. Also, Wilson fails to detect the presence of the invisible twin of this influence and its astral level manifestations. Said influence has resulted in the so-called "New Age" (or Maatian consciousness). In mythology, Andromeda was sacrificed to the Fish Goat (esoterically understood to refer to the Aeon of Maat).

An unfortunate few (such as Whitley Streiber has shown in his diary, Communion) now suffer pseudo-nightmares on a regular basis. These dream shapes, terrible though they be, collectively serve to concentrate and steady the door-frames enabling magicians at will to enter the Tunnels of Set and pass over into the unknown "Universe B." The portals leading into the Space Battlefield (Armageddon on the Astral Plane) are located between Shaitan's eleven-pyloned Towers. We can also understand the Sothian current as a variation on the Ophidian Current (Great Old Ones).

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

Shu (Egyptian) [from shu dry, parched]

The Egyptian god of light, popularly associated with heat and dryness, and the ethereal spaces existing between the earth and the vault of the sky; often depicted as holding up the sky with his two hands, one at the place of sunrise, the other of sunset.

The phonetic value of shu is the feather, which is the symbol of this deity, and appears above his headdress. Shu is manifest during the day in the beams of the sun, and at night in the beams of the moon; the solar disk is his home. He is likewise one of the chief deities of the underworld, the gate of the pillars of Shu (tchesert) marking the entrance to this region, the pillars representing the four cardinal points said to hold up the sky.

Although the twin brother of Tefnut -- often alluded to as the twin lion-deities -- Shu is more often represented with Seb and Nut (deities of cosmic space and of its garment of ethereal substance) in his position of holding up the sky, because in theosophical terminology cosmic light as well as cosmic intelligence (the Logos) is born from Brahman and pradhana, or parabrahman and mulaprakriti.

Shu on the smaller scale is solar energy (SD 1:360).

(See also: Shu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Kusa and Lava:

Kusa and Lava: Twin sons of Rama and Sita (RRV2-13b) (RRV2-14)

(See also: Kusa and Lava , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Lava:

Lava. Twin son of Rama and Sita.

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

Triangle An emblem of the triad or three-in-one, expressing more than the three dots alone: the points, lines, and the whole figure give a septenate composed of two triads and a monad.

The triangle also symbolizes twin rays proceeding from a central point, and when the other ends of these lines are joined, the base line signifies that which is produced by the interaction and interblending of the two formative rays. The apex, the side lines, and the base thus represent the three chief stages of cosmic evolution. The idea is further elaborated in the square pyramid.

The Pythagoreans recognized the triangle as the first regular rectilinear figure, as three is the first odd number -- the one being considered as the origin and unit, out of which all subsequent parts flow. The usual form of the triangle in symbology is equilateral, with the apex up or down. The circle, triangle, and square form another important triad representing stages in evolution. For interlaced triangles,

See also SIX-POINTED STAR

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

Nalakubara:

Nalakubara (Nalakuubara). Twin son of Kubera; turned into tree by the curse of sage Narada.

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

Narayana:

Narayana (Naaraayana). One of Dharma's twin sons Nara and Narayana, two incarnations of Vishnu.

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

Set or Seth (Egyptian) According to the Heliopolitan mythology, the son of Seb and Nut, is the brother of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys; and the father of Anubis by Nephthys. In later times he became associated with Typhon.

The attributes of the god underwent several changes: he is described as very closely connected with Aroeris (Heru-ur or Horus the Elder), his chief office being that of helper and friend to the deceased; in this association a twin-god is pictured, having the hawk head of Horus (light) and the Set animal (darkness) upon one human body. Furthermore, Horus was the god of the sky by day, while Set was god of the sky by night: in this sense were they opposite yet identic deities in earliest times, one the shadow of the other.

Later the mythological account describes warlike combats between the two. Horus popularly represented the bright, upward motion of the sun -- resulting in spring and summer; Set represented the downward motion, the mythologic account dwelling upon the fact that Set stole the light from the sun, resulting in autumn and winter. The combats engaged in by Set are rendered in four themes: against Horus, resulting in night coming upon day; against Ra, the sun god; against his brother, Osiris, resulting in the latter's death; and against Horus the Younger who was striving to avenge the death of his father, Osiris. In the fight between Osiris and Set (or Typhon), Typhon is in one sense the shadow, and hence the material aspect of Osiris, "Osiris is the ideal Universe, Siva the great Regenerative Force, and Typhon the material portion of it, the evil side of the god, or the Destroying Siva" (TG 90).

In late dynastic times, all forms of evil and darkness were attributed to Set as well as all the storms of nature. His kingdom was placed in the northern sky in the constellation of the Great Bear -- the north being designated as the realm of darkness, originally mystically meaning the darkness of recondite spirit. When Typhon or Set is allied with earth and matter, these refer not to physical matter but to the body of space itself, the garments or wraps of space, and hence the clothing of the inscrutable darkness of spirit which is boundless light.

See also CROCODILE

(See also: Set, Seth , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Force Used in two senses: an effect produced in matter, and the unknown cause of that effect. In the former sense it is a definite measurable quantity, usable in calculating the quantitative relation between phenomena, and of practical service in mechanics. But in the latter sense, force remains for science a mystery. If it is an inherent property of matter, then matter becomes a self-moving entity, a divine thing in its essence; if it acts on matter from outside, then where does it inhere? Is it an independent existence? The whole question is thus left hanging in the air.

According to theosophy the forces of science are effects produced on the physical plane by elementals or nature forces, which are themselves secondary causes and the effects of primary causes, ultimately of divine origin, behind the veil of terrestrial phenomena. Descending through the planes of cosmos there is a chain of effects. Theosophy sees no fundamental difference between force and motion: eternal motion gives rise on every plane to the dual manifestation of force and matter, twin aspects of the same substance.

In the universe force may be generalized as a unity, just as substance or consciousness may; but nevertheless just as there are consciousnesses and substances, so likewise cosmic force is to be understood as a generalizing phrase for cosmic forces essentially intelligent, and therefore that these cosmic forces are essentially divinities -- these divinities existing on different planes of the invisible worlds of the universe in hierarchical structure or degrees.

We have therefore the picture of inner and invisible conscious and likewise self-conscious forces, which are really divinities of many kinds, which by their interconnections and interwoven activities, produce the differentiated and marvelously varied manifested world in which we live.

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

Aswinidevas:

Aswinidevas: Twin Gods (RRV-7b) (They represent heaven and earth, sun and moon, also day and night; they are eternally young and beautiful and benefactors of mankind, (RRV-7b)).

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

hiri-ottappa (hiri-ottappa): "Conscience and concern"; "moral shame and moral dread". These twin emotions - the "guardians of the world" - are associated with all skillful actions.

Hiri is an inner conscience that restrains us from doing deeds that would jeopardize our own self-respect; ottappa is a healthy fear of committing unskillful deeds that might bring about harm to ourselves or others.

See kamma.

 (See also: Hiri-ottappa , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Satrughna:

Satrughna (Shathrughna). Sumitra's son, twin of Lakshmana and brother of Rama. The name means "slayer of enemies".

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

Sumitra:

Sumitra: Co-wife of Dasaratha who gave birth to twin sons Lakshmana and Satrughna. (RRV-4)

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

Materialism In the rigid philosophical sense, any theory which considers the facts of the universe to be sufficiently explained by the existence and nature of matter. A familiar form of this is what has been called the atomo-mechanical theory, which derives all phenomena from the movements of material atoms in space. The philosophical definition of materialism differs according to the meaning of the word matter; as for instance, when we limit matter by no physical attributes or implications alone, but

See in it the sevenfold prakritis or pradhanas of Hindu philosophers and mystics, matter is then seen to be but a name for the veil or shadow of spirit -- the other side of spirit as it were. This distinction makes materialism but a synonym for spiritualism -- i.e., the profound philosophic theory that the universe is built throughout, from and of the substances and attributes of spirit, which become matter in its innumerable and manifold forms and phases on the lower cosmic planes. What physicists have been calling matter is a percept derived from the interaction of the physical senses with the physical plane of prakriti or nature.

Matter is one of the twin aspects of universal life, coeternal with spirit and indeed spirit's veil or vehicle, and hence is present on every plane of manifestation, from the highest to the lowest. When the manifested One of a universe is considered as a unit or unity, it is called the First or Unmanifest Logos; when it is considered as a duality it is called the Manifest-Unmanifested or Second Logos, and is spirit-matter or life, spirit being its positive pole and matter its negative. Matter is everywhere the vehicle of spirit, and in matter inhere the attributes which spirit expresses in it. Hence materialism, in this sense, would define the whole theosophic philosophy.

The history of philosophy presents a rivalry of schools where materialism is contrasted with idealism, but all these rival schools originated outside of the Mysteries of the sanctuary, although many if not all contain substantial elements of occult verities. The attempt entirely to separate the notions of spirit and matter, of mind and body, of noumenon and phenomenon, results in futility and confusion; a purely ideal world is as unreal as a purely material one.

Materialism, however, stands commonly for an attitude of mind which exalts sense-life, together with its appropriate species of intellectualism, into a summum bonum; and which strives to devise a philosophy that will justify such an attitude. It is an attitude towards life consisting of mental and emotional attachment to externals, to the senses, and to reasoning based on sensory perceptions; and a corresponding neglect and denial of real values. This kind of materialism undermines morals by substituting self-interest or expediency for an innate moral sense, as the basis for conduct. It places illusory power in the hands of man, while at the same time depriving him of his real power of penetrating discrimination, and hence of his ability while under this illusion to use the powers of nature aright.

(See also: Materialism , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Draupadi

The daughter of Drupada and wife of all five Pandavas. Both she and her twin brother, Dhrishtadyumna, were born to help destroy the Kuru dynasty. An attempt to disrobe her in a royal assembly doomed the Kurus to annihilation.

(See also: Draupadi , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Tefnut (Egyptian) [from tef to be moist]

Egyptian goddess inseparably connected with her twin brother Shu, being brought forth by the sun god Tem (later known as Ra). Tefnut was the goddess of moisture, of the gentle rain and soft wind. She is represented as a woman wearing upon her head the solar disk, or more often with the head of a lioness. Thus, Tefnut is the clothing or garment of Shu as pradhana is to Brahman or mulaprakriti is to parabrahman.

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

Nara-Narayana

The incarnation of the Supreme Lord as the twin sons of Dharma and Murti. Nara is an empowered jiva, and Narayana is directly the Personality of Godhead. They live at Badarika, practicing severe austerities and meditation for the welfare and instruction of the world. Narada Muni is among their disciples.

(See also: Nara-Narayana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Jacob ya`aqob (Hebrew) The younger son of Isaac, founder of the nation of the Israelites, and twin brother of Esau; the Israelites are occasionally called Beith ya`aqob (house of Jacob). The twins symbolize the dual principle in nature, Jacob being the feminine and Esau the masculine principle.

Jacob's pillar is equivalent to the linga; the twelve sons of Jacob are parallel to the Hindu rishis and can correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac. The dream of Jacob, in which he sees angels ascending and descending a ladder from heaven to earth may be interpreted as the transferring of matter from plane to plane, or as the constant circulation of peregrinating monads or beings upwards and downwards, thus fulfilling destiny and feeding the structure of the universe.

(See also: Jacob, ya`aqob , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Dhrishtadyumna

The son of Drupada. Both he and his twin sister, Draupadi, were born to help destroy the Kuru dynasty. In the Battle of Kurukshetra he killed Drona, the military teacher of the Kuru princes.

(See also: Dhrishtadyumna , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)