Panchabhutas pancabhutas (Sanskrit) [from pancha five + bhuta element]

The five elements -- prithivi (earth), apas (water), vayu (air), tejas or taijasa (fire), akasa (aether) -- in the exoteric classification, there being seven elements or mahabhutas in the esoteric reckoning. In the above sense, more properly called the panchamahabhutas (the five great elements).

(See also: Panchabhutas, pancabhutas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Upeksha upeksa (Sanskrit) [from upeksh to consider carefully + the verbal root iksh to look at]

Indifference, disdain, disregarding, abandonment; also endurance, patience. Enumerated as one of the ten paramitas, similar in meaning to viraga (cf VS 48), although viraga is not commonly enumerated when the paramitas are counted as six.

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

Euhemerization The theory of Euhemeros, a Greek of about 316 BC, that the ancient Greek myths were imaginative or allegorical renderings of historical events, the gods once having been mortals or men, and their deeds the poetized actions of archaic human worthies. Hence to euhemerize is to interpret myths as having been once historical events. It is sometimes used in The Secret Doctrine as equivalent to anthropomorphism.

A great deal of archaic mythology, however, is the half-forgotten and often distorted racial tradition or memory of events in the lives of once semi-divine humans, who actually were in most cases the demigods, god-men, or initiates of the later third and early fourth root-races.

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

Aeschylus One of the three greatest Greek tragic poets, born at Eleusis (525-456 BC), the seat of the Mysteries of Demeter, into which he undoubtedly was initiated. Of his perhaps 90 plays, only seven survive. Plato accuses him of impiety and Cicero describes him as almost a Pythagorean. He profaned the Mysteries in the eyes of the Athenians (e.g. in the real meaning of the allegories present in Prometheus Bound and The Eumenides) and has been accused of introducing antagonism among the celestial powers, transferring the political radicalism and demagogy of Athens from the agora to Olympus. His works introduced a second actor, thus creating true dramatic dialogue; he also introduced masks and imposing headdresses and costumes for the actors.

His portrayal of Zeus in different dramas is inconsistent, since there were two Zeuses: the abstract deity of Grecian thought, and the Olympic Zeus. While the former represents the head of the hierarchy of divinities, the latter is, in man, the human soul or kama-manas. Prometheus, who steals fire from heaven and brings it to mankind in a fennel-stalk, is buddhi-manas, mankind's savior. Zeus is the serpent, the intellectual tempter of humanity, which nevertheless begets in due time the man-savior, the solar Dionysus (SD 2:419-20).

Harmony results from the equilibrium of contraries, and the drama of evolution as depicted in man shows the clash of descending and reascending cycles, the antimony of law and free will. These dramas have been immortalized for all generations by Aeschylus who, in his daring and self-sacrificing enthusiasm, may himself by styled a Prometheus offending the powers that be in order to bring light to mankind.

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

Dorje rdo rje (Tibetan) Equivalent to the Sanskrit vajra, meaning both thunderbolt and diamond. As a thunderbolt, it is represented in the hands of some of the Tibetan gods, especially the dragshed -- deities who protect human beings -- and is thus equivalent to the weapons of Indra and Zeus.

Dorje is the scepter of power, whether spiritual or temporal, and appears on the altars of the Gelukpas together with the bell and cymbals: "It is also a Mudra, a gesture and posture used in sitting for meditation. It is, in short, a symbol of power over invisible evil influences, whether as a posture or a talisman. The Bhons or Dugpas, however, having appropriated the symbol, misuse it for purposes of Black Magic. . . . With the Dugpas, it is like the double triangle reversed, the sign of sorcery" (VS 90).

One aspect of its use by the gods is the purification that ensues in those against whom the bolt is cast, as well as the gods meting out justice by its means. A more mystical reference to dorje, however, alludes to the higher triad of the human constitution which, if continually held in view, purifies the lower quaternary as the thunderstorm does the earth's atmosphere.

As diamond, dorje has a direct mystical reference to the supposedly indestructible nature of the diamond. It is the symbol of possession of siddhis or supernormal powers spiritual, intellectual, and astral. Those who wield this wand of power or diamond-thunderbolt are called vajra-panins.

(See also: Dorje rdo rje , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Agneya (Sanskrit) (from agni fire)

Belonging to or consecrated to fire or the god of fire, Agni. A name of the god of war (Skanda, Karttikeya, etc.); also, the son of Agni.

The Agni- or Agneya-Purana is so named because Agni imparted to the sage Vasishtha the twofold knowledge of Brahman: that acquired through study of the "word," the Vedas; and that higher apprehension attained through mystical contemplation (cf VP preface lviii; also 6:5).

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

Anubis (Greek) Anpu (Egyptian) The Egyptian jackal-headed deity, lord of the Silent Land of the West (the underworld). To him with Thoth was entrusted the psychopompic leading of the dead. In the judgment after death, Anubis tests the balance in the scene of the weighing of the heart. His offices were likewise those of the embalmer, mystically speaking.

Originally the god of the underworld, he was later replaced by Osiris. In Heliopolis during the later dynasties he was identified with Horus, for he was often regarded as the son of Osiris and Isis -- more often of Osiris and Nephthys (Neith). Plutarch writes: "By Anubis they understand the horizontal circle, which divides the invisible part of the world, which they call Nephthys, from the visible, to which they give the name of Isis; and as this circle equally touches upon the confines of both light and darkness, it may be looked upon as common to them both . . . Others again are of opinion that by Anubis is meant Time . . . " (On Isis and Osiris, sec 44).

The mysteries of Osiris and Isis were revived in Rome, and Apuleius (2nd century) in The Golden Ass tells of the Procession of Isis, in which the dual aspect of Anubis was portrayed: "that messenger between heaven and hell displaying alternately a face black as night, and golden as the day; in his left the caduceus, in his right waving aloft the green palm branch" (Gods of the Egyptians, Budge 2:264-5). In most of his attributes, Anubis is a lunar power, Plutarch connecting him with the Grecian Hecate, one of the names for the moon; and this is further emphasized by his being a guide of the dead. Also identified with Hermes as psychopomp.

See also Hermanubis

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

Anumati (Sanskrit) (from anu-man to approve, grant)

Assent, permission, approbation; personified frequently as a goddess. The fifteenth day of the moon's age "when one digit is deficient" (VP 2:8), a time said to be propitious for the offering of oblations to devas and pitris.

It is therefore the moon at full: "when from a god -- Soma -- she becomes a goddess" (TG 25). Mythologically the first fortnight of the moon or waxing period is often regarded as being masculine, and its second fortnight or waning period as feminine. The moon in some cultures is looked upon as masculine, in others as feminine. In Latin the moon was both lunus (masculine) and luna (feminine), but in most other languages the moon is almost consistently either masculine or feminine.

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

Sulfur, Sulphur In European medieval alchemy, a cosmic element of which the mineral sulfur was regarded as a manifestation or correspondence. In classical Latin, also used for lightning, and the Greek for sulfur is theion (divine); it was regarded as having a purifying, and protective power.

The alchemical division of nature and man into spirit, body, and soul shows sulfur as denoting spirit and the element fire. Sulfur and mercury are used as a means to physical longevity (IU 2:220-1). It is used as a purificatory agent in modern medicine, and popular usage has sanctioned its efficacy in the insoluble form of brimstone.

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

Anima Mundi (Latin) World-soul, world-mother; the divine-spiritual-astral-physical source of emanations, the cosmic generative and animating principle of all beings, the creative Third Logos in its female aspect. In its highest and intermediate portions, it corresponds to the alaya of Northern Buddhism and hence to akasa.

Identified variously with Isis, Sephira, Sophia, the Holy Ghost, mahat, mulaprakriti, etc., but used in a hazy and often materializing sense, so that it cannot be accurately regarded as a synonym for any one of these. "It is in a sense the 'seven-skinned mother' of the stanzas in the Secret Doctrine, the essence of seven planes of sentience, consciousness and differentiation, moral and physical. In its highest aspect it is Nirvana, in its lowest Astral Light. It was feminine with the Gnostics, the early Christians and the Nazarenes; bisexual with other sects, who considered it only in its four lower planes.

Of igneous, ethereal nature in the objective world of form (and then ether), and divine and spiritual in its three higher planes. When it is said that every human soul was born by detaching itself form the Anima Mundi, it means, esoterically, that our higher Egos are of an essence identical with It, which is a radiation of the ever unknown Universal Absolute" (TG 22-3).

Theosophically, anima mundi may be regarded as a synonym of different other words, rather than as indicative of any definite entity or principle apart from others. The higher human egos or manasaputras are essentially identical with the higher portions of anima mundi; and similarly the various life-atoms in the lower spheres may be considered as in essence identical with the lower portions of the anima mundi. It is in short the life-consciousness-essence of the universe from the divine to the physical.

(See also: Anima Mundi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Thraetaona (Avestan) Freton (Pahlavi) Feraydun (Persian) [from Avestan thrae trice + taona potent]

The Avestan fire god possibly connected in meaning with Traitana or (Trita in the Hindu Vedas), or the son of the waters, in India generally called Apam Napat and stated to be born from the cloud through the lightning. He slew the dreadful serpent Azhi Dahaka in the four-cornered Varena (the heavens) -- Feraydun (Thraetaona) with his three sons versus Azhi Dahaka with three heads. In the Vendidad (20) he is described as the first healer. Blavatsky calls Thraetaona the Persian Michael, and equates Apam Napat with fohat.

Another meaning of Feraydun is the sphere of the fixed stars (the light spheres).

See also AZHI DAHAKA; ZOHAK

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

Ida or Ila (Sanskrit) Refreshment, flow; the goddess of sacred speech, similar to Vach; in the Rig-Veda called the instructress of Manu, instituting the rules for the performing of sacrifices. The Satapatha-Brahmana represents Ida as arising from a sacrifice which Manu had performed for the purpose of obtaining offspring.

Although claimed by the gods Mitra and Varuna, she became the wife of Manu, giving birth to the race of manus. In the Puranas, she is daughter of Vaivasvata-Manu, wife of Budha (wisdom), and mother of Pururavas. In some accounts she is born a woman, becomes a man named Sudyumna, then rebecomes a woman before finally becoming a man again. This refers to the androgynous third root-race, as well as to the later part of the second root-race.

"In their most mystical meaning, the union of Swayambhuva Manu with Vach-Sata-Rupa, his own daughter (this being the first 'euhemerization' of the dual principle of which Vaivasvata Manu and Ila are a secondary and a third form), stands in Cosmic symbolism as the Root-life, the germ from which spring all the Solar Systems, the worlds, angels and the gods" (SD 2:148).

See also ILA

(See also: Ida, Ila , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Arundhati (Sanskrit) (probably from a not + the verbal root rudh to check, restrain, bind)

One who releases, frees, unbinds; a medicinal climber, with power to heal severe wounds; consort of the sage Vasishtha; consort of Dharma, meaning established law, procedure, truth, referring in this case to the cosmos; from Arundhati were born "the divisions of earth" (VP 1:15); personification of the morning star, Phosphoros or Lucifer-Venus of the ancient Greeks and Latins, one of the seven stars of Ursa Major; power invoked by the bridegroom for conjugal excellence; name of kundalini, the occult energy in humanity symbolized by a coiled serpent said to lie latent at the base of the spinal column until energized into activity by strenuous yoga exercises.

Arundhati is one of the most mystical terms in ancient Hindu mythology. The congruence of attributes suggests that Arundhati is the cosmic sakti or power stimulating, generating, and bringing to birth what would otherwise lie latent or relatively inactive in the abysses of cosmic force or energy. In her role of Lucifer-Venus, Arundahati may be mystically connected with the hierarchies of the manasaputras, the sons of mind, who quickened dormant mind in the early humanities.

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

Mystes (Greek) [from muo to close the mouth]

Plural mystai. An initiate to the first degrees of the Mysteries; the next higher rank being that of the epoptes (seer); and the highest function being that of the hierophantes (teacher or communicator). With the Pythagoreans the neophyte or mystes guarded silence as to what he had learned, and was authorized and empowered to speak or teach only when his mouth had been opened because of attaining the rank of epoptes.

This custom has been borrowed by Roman Catholic Cardinals along with the term Mystes: "A word or two may be said of the singular practice of closing and subsequently opening the mouth of a newly created cardinal. Like almost everything else connected with the subject, this form had once a real significance, but has become a mere meaningless formality. Some reasonable time was originally allowed to elapse before the pontiff in one consistory formally pronounced the mouth to be opened which he had declared to be closed in a previous consistory. Now the form of opening is pronounced within a few minutes of the form of closing" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed., "Cardinal").

(See also: Mystes , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Purvashadha purvasadha (Sanskrit) The 18th or 20th lunar asterism.

(See also: Purvashadha, purvasadha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Eclectic (from Greek eklektikos selective, picking out)

Applied to systems of philosophy or religion which cull the best from a variety of systems, with the view of thus arriving at essentials.

It was applied to the School of Ammonius Saccas and other Alexandrian philosophers, implying that they picked out what was best in all faiths in order to make a new system, doing so because they knew that all the major systems of human religion and philosophy fundamentally derive from a common wisdom-religion of remote antiquity, and therefore that each such system contains at least some elements of truth.

Hence they were teaching the wisdom-religion through synthesizing, and by illustrating it from various faiths. The word is also applied to other matters, e.g. schools of painting.

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