Void Dictionary

void: An empty space. Philosophically, emptiness itself.

The absence of time, form and space. God Siva in His

perfection as Parasiva, as a sacred void, but not "like the

emptiness inside of an empty box....[It] is the fullness of

everything."

See: Parasiva.

(See also: Void , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

EXISTENCE

That which calls itself into being out of the Void. Most metaphysical systems are agreed that matter is "dirt", or at least less perfect than the Void. Just as the manifest world is infinite in its variety of potential forms of matter, so the void is infinite in its parade of anti-potential forms of non-being. From a strictly logistical point of view, the imbalance within the spotless Void arises as one potentiality differentiates itself from another in its degree of anti-substantiation and non-manifestation. Therefore, some of these "nothingnesses" have more "substance" than others, which thereby creates an unevenness from which a negentropic "singularity" has to develop. Thus existence breaks forth, or "falls", in a further effort to maintain the balance, and consequently to know itself. Thereafter, new knowledge necessarily continues to create itself and to expand consciousness to the limits, as it were, of The Infinite.

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

void of course: The Moon is "void of course" when it has completed all its major aspects while in a specific sign. The Moon could be in any phase and also be in the last degrees of a sign. Void of course means without a course, or path, to aspect another planet. Generally the major aspects are thought to include conjunction, sextile, square, trine, and opposition.

(See also: void of course , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

formless: Philosophically, atattva, beyond the realm of form or substance.

Used in attempting to describe the wondersome, indescribable Absolute, which is "timeless, formless and spaceless." God Siva has form and is formless. He is the immanent Pure Consciousness or pure form. He is the Personal Lord manifesting as innumerable forms; and He is the impersonal, transcendent Absolute beyond all form. Thus we know Siva in three perfections, two of form and one formless. This use of the term formless does not mean amorphous, which implies a form that is vague or changing. Rather, it is the absence of substance, sometimes thought of as a void, an emptiness beyond existence from which comes the fullness of everything. In describing the Self as formless, the words timeless and spaceless are given also to fully indicate this totally transcendent noncondition.

See: atattva, Parasiva, Satchidananda, void.

(See also: Formless , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

GOD

Anything from a psychic projection to a full macrocosmic individual. Einstein, shunning Judeo-Xtian pleadings, defined God as the ultimate natural order. Deus est homo. Man is God. Indeed all beings are Gods or immortal entities. The Gods, as such, however, inhabit various levels of substantiality and, as superior entities, exist independently in their own right. And this is not just because strong personalities (as well as human society in general) create and batten projections and archetypes, but because semi-being actually wills itself to be born into that state between Matter and the Void. the Gods are being itself, rather than any particular substance. That is, they are pure substance or the conscious potentiality behind substance. Every mortal, Theosophy has pointed out, has his divine counterpart, his celestial doppelganger or heavenly prototype. It is this personal archetype that we call The Father (or Guardian Angel). Theophany is the rare union (in adepts) of the heavenly counterpart with its earth shadow-self. The divine archetypes are not confined to ordinary human beings, moreover, but ascend to ever more infinite celestial monads themselves. When we speak of The Gods or the God beyond the Gods, such as Allfather Odin or Zeus, Father of the Gods we refer to just these higher monads.

It is difficult to remember that all seemingly separate things -- all individuals -- created themselves out of the Original Void and go on forever creating themselves. Thus, spirit manifests itself through matter; we never cease to embody and demonstrate divinity -- sometimes wisely, more often not. It is the gravest error to reproduce and propagate life indiscriminately. Such attempts to reincarnate oneself on the merely material plane, to maintain the same identity perptually through the generation of progeny -- this form of lust vitiates the Spirit and greedily confines matter disproportionately to a single, inferior and separationist aim. That in turn results in premature entropy and the abortion of Cosmic Purpose.

We should distinguish between various divine synonyms. Daimon, for instance, did not, amongst the Greeks, have our sense of demon, but was rather a spirit or higher self. Socrates spoke often of his daimon who conversed with him. The Sanskrit deva, although translated god, amongst the Hindus means any God, but in the Zend Avesta it is always a malevolent spirit. In Buddhism deva refers to almost anything from a legendary hero to a hobgoblin, but pure Buddhism attaches no importance to Gods of any kind. It considers them to be illusions, like everything else.

Whether reflective of reality or not, it is easy enough to plot an origin for God in the singular, but whence the proliferation of multi-deities? In Egypt they were seen simply as the natures of things (neteru). Iamblichus asks of the Egyptians, however, what the cause of the distinction between them is and whether it is from their energies, or their passive motions, or from things that are consequent, or from their different arrangement with respect to bodies. By the latter, he goes on to say that he means, for example, that Gods inhabit the ethereal, that demons inhabit the air and that souls inhabit terrestrial bodies.

Of course, it is differentiation that being comes to be in the first place. Before differentiation there is nothing but tohu-bohu -- indeed between the Void and confusion (or chaos), there is little difference. With the utterance of the command Be! the zero is annihilated.

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

MIND

Mind very much resembles matter, both in its degrees of density and in its peculiarity of design. That's not surprising since the one derives from the other. We might also say that they are mirror images of one another. Just as matter varies in the size of its conglomerations, from the circumferences of giant stars and galaxies to the infinitely small subatomic world of its constituents, so mind ranges through the levels of experience infinitely above and below consciousness. There is no Not-Mind - not ever - except within the Ultimate Void itself.

Hypnosis sheds a faint light on certain levels of consciousness beneath the ordinary. By means of the intense concentration and focusing of attention that hypnosis evokes, we are able to accomplish feats of mind and body that otherwise only yogis know. Hypnosis works by forcing a thread of memory awareness deep into the mind labyrinth, which, however deeply it may penetrate the darkness, is always tied tightly to the ordinary consciousness at the top. Without that Ariadne's thread, the more deeply we were to concentrate on something, the more we would be lost to the world. The more attention we bring to bear on anything, the deeper into a simulacrum of sleep we proceed, as our surroundings and the outside world disappear into this darkness and outer sensations are walled off - presumably to prevent distraction. Since this state of concentration so much resembles sleep, in fact, the slightest lapse of the will sends us drifting towards unconsciousness. Ordinary sleep is a mirror-like repetition of the fragmentation of superconsciousness that we shall see results in abandonment of the self. However, as concentration proceeds ever more inward, the more the inner landscape is illuminated and narrowed. This "inner light" of laser-like consciousness is shared by the vegetable kingdom. (Its character can be recognized in psychedelic intoxication of various kinds). Finally, as we proceed into the unconscious itself we enter a quantum universe of our own. Here we find ourselves in the very "consciousness" of matter itself, with its links to everything in the universe. Presumably, death is but a deeper descent still, a proceeding into the actual heart of Mind, leading into the Void, which is the womb of all manifestations. Ordinary consciousness is obviously the link between higher and lower planes. It is a delicate balance between retreat into self-absorption and abandonment of the self to the sensory experience. It is maintained with great difficulty, for we have a tendency to drift out of it into one or the other of the two diametrically opposed realms of experience that it separates. These realms, of course, are infinitely more attractive than boring, old, routine mind. Within this narrow water-hole of ordinary consciousness, however, lie all the accomplishments and discoveries of human history. Indeed, it is this narrow and unreliable bridge that human society has learned to exploit as "civilization". Unfortunately, it has been examined but superficially and little has been done to stretch its dimensions or protect it from disintegration. Consequently we know almost nothing either of its limitations or its potential powers.

Heightened awareness is the opposed of focused attention or concentration. Attention becomes more and more generalized and cognizant of every petal on every flower in the garden, then every vein in every leaf. . . But now, as attention fans out, mind loses its coherency and begins to fragment. Under the influence of psychedelic drugs the attention is so fragmented that it merges altogether with the outer world and the inner self is abandoned to the chaos of the interface. The loss of the inner self, however, is usually accompanied by extreme panic as it attempts to jump from scintilla to scintilla.

For a time, the fragmentation of expanding mind can be kept under control by the use of amphetamines or cocaine in ever-increasing dosages. By means of these substances, alertness and intelligence are increased because attention is spread infinitely thin across a wider and wider spectrum of sensory experience coming in from the outer world. The "outer world" includes, of course, the consciousness of one's own body, as well as reflexive self-observation. At the same time, the inner self is being supplied with increased energy and speed too, so that it can maintain consciousness of itself and stave off chaos by racing back and forth around the ever-enlarging periphery of experience. As we are all very well aware, however, this path quickly comes to an end.

Fortunately, the heightening of externalized consciousness can be achieved without drugs, through mysticism. The sensory awareness can either be bypassed or used as the vehicle of its own transcendence. If the inner self is voluntarily released to heightened consciousness, which we sometimes refer to as leaving the ego behind in order to enter Nirvana, peace descends at once and chaos is transformed into the so-called "mystical experience." This process, once begun, can continue into such total absorption that the individual consciousness ceases to exist at any point and we could refer to that as a more or less permanent trance.

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

ANKH (Crux Ansata)

The hieroglyph of a sandalstrap or knot, indicating "life". When the knot is fully undone, life is done. Ankh is the "knot" linking the Uas (a forked stick) and the Djed (Osiris's spinal column). The uas is the first manifestation of life (fire), as it arises naturally out of the void. The Egyptians made a practice of elaborately ornamenting and gilding this stick to show the inevitable corruption of life. Thus it is transformed from a natural branch into a "wand" or sceptre. To emphasize even more completely the fall of spirit the top was carved to resemble an ass's head. The ankh follows the uas and represents the continuity of life - the sandal used in walking. Finally, at death, comes the dismemberment of the God. Being divine, however, even the dismembered bones of Osiris are immortal. Hence the djed is the support , or pillar of eternity. When these three are contained within the Nebet or "basket", the four all together become the four elements. The nebet is "earth," which contains and gives form to the elemental potentialities of uas, ankh and djed. When held by Ptah, the four together become the tools with which he creates the world.

(See also: ANKH, Crux Ansata , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

sunya:

sunya (shuunya). Emptiness; void.

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

Vacuum Emptiness, the necessary correlative of plenum or fullness: the two being one of those pairs of opposites which the mind is bound to postulate as a basis of reasoning. It stands for the spiritual condition of a cosmic hierarchy before it emanates its streams of manifestation -- "the symbol of the absolute Deity or Boundless Space, esoterically" (TG 357).

Democritus taught that the first principles are atoms and a vacuum, which is equivalent to the manifest and the unmanifest, deity latent and deity patent, but the atoms of Democritus, being spiritual indivisibles, are not the atoms of science but what in theosophy are called monads, and likewise the vacuum of void of Democritus is the equivalent of the archaic Buddhist sunyata or the ancient Buddhist or Brahmanic arupa (formless) spheres.

The atomo-mechanical theory of physics starts with atoms and a vacuum and then tries to fill the vacuum; here the notion of emptiness has become confused with spatial extension, giving rise to the idea that there can be an extended and measurable void, and raising the difficulty of the transmission of influence across it.

The word is used relatively to signify the absence of something, as the absence of physical matter in an evacuated bulb. But another form of matter is still present, for we can transmit light as well as many other forms of radiation. Thus proceeding by successive steps we come to the logical limit in the conception of the cosmic void -- which nevertheless from the spiritual viewpoint is a pleroma or utter fullness. The physical vacuum of the laboratory has become confused with the scientific and mystical void of the archaic philosophy.

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

SCORE ABOVE THE BREATH: The belief carried over from medieval times that causing a Wytch to bleed above the mouth and nose (by intentionally scratching, slashing or poking) would cause any workings that had been done or magical acts performed to become null and void.

(See also: SCORE ABOVE THE BREATH , Witch, Witchcraft, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Definition and meaning of VOID :

VOID: A policy contract that for some reason specified in the policy becomes free of all legal effect. One example under which a policy could be voided is when information a policyholder provided is proven untrue.

(Source: Insurance Information Institute )

Also see these pages: VOID , Insurance, Insurance Sitemap, Insurance Dictionary - V

AIN

The Hebrew version of "the Void". Nothingness (i.e. "The Other Universe" whence this one derives).

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

Sunya, Sunyata (Sanskrit) A void, vacuum, emptiness; the Boundless or Void. In mystical philosophy, especially Mahayana Buddhism, illusory being or existence, the emptiness of cosmic manifestation when compared with the nonmanifest reality. This recognizes that all manifested existence, high or low, on whatever plane, as compared with essential reality is after all illusory deception and therefore relatively false by comparison. Being false and unreal it is therefore empty of essential significance, although possessing a very positive relative reality, so to speak.

In a still more profoundly mystical sense, the word by inversion has come to signify the utter fullness of cosmic reality, which is a seeming emptiness to our imperfect human vision, and yet is the only Real.

The objective idealism which the theosophic philosophy teaches when considering the noumena and phenomena of existence shows a fundamental reality behind these, above and beyond all manifestations whatsoever, as the root and basis of all entities and things, which although relatively unreal in themselves because products merely, or because based on the various prakritis, nevertheless because so based have a relative reality derivative from this basic root.

See also FULLNESS; PLEROMA

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

Tohu Bohu, Tohu-vah-bohu (Hebrew) [from tohu wasteness + bohu emptiness, void]

Used in Genesis (tohu wabhu) for the state preceding the appearance of the manifested universe -- primeval chaos. "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2). These two words are closely similar in meaning, tohu signifying that which lies waste, without inhabitants or other manifested activity; and bohu signifying that which is empty or void; so that the combination can be translated as the uninhabited void, which corresponds exactly to the Greek Chaos, the nonmanifest condition of our solar system or even galaxy, before manvantara began -- the condition during pralaya.

(See also: Tohu Bohu, Tohu-vah-bohu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Infinite (from Latin in not + finitus ended)

That which is endless or not finite; ancient peoples expressed the frontierless, beginningless, and endless hierarchical immensities, whether of space, time, spirit, or matter in many ways, as in the 'eyn soph (without bounds or frontiers) of the Qabbalah, the Hindu parabrahman (beyond Brahman), the Void, the Sunyata of Buddhism, the Ginnungagap (gaping void) of the Scandinavians, the Deep of the Bible, or the waters of space, etc.

Many philosophers of antiquity considered it futile to speculate upon that which is ex hypothesi beyond the understanding of the human mind, confessedly finite in function and range. For whatever the human mind can shape or figurate to itself as a concept must be de facto finite in itself, however great or grand. Infinite was never used as a synonym for deity or any divine being, for however immense in its incomprehensible vastness in both time and space, it could be nevertheless only finite, for the human mind itself had given birth to the human thought, and the human mind is finite.

Similarly, the Absolute is not the infinite, for absolute means "freed" or "liberated," such as the cosmic hierarch of a universe; and this could not be infinite or boundless, but must have been of finite origin, grown into stature of divine grandeur. The ancients taught that the universe was filled with gods, and that the universes were as numerous in beginningless space and time, as number in itself is beginningless and endless and therefore incommensurable.

"The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded and the conditioned";

"the immutably Infinite and the absolutely Boundless can neither will, think, nor act. To do this it has to become finite, and it does so, by its ray penetrating into the mundane egg -- infinite space -- and emanating from it as a finite god" (SD 1:56, 354).

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

Svayambhu-sunyata (Sanskrit) [from svayambhu self-becoming + sunyata void]

The self-becoming void of infinitude; in Hindu and Buddhist metaphysics, sunyata means that which is empty or void to human eye or understanding because of feebleness of penetrating vision, but otherwise the absolute fullness of spirit. "Spontaneous self-evolution; self-existence of the real in the unreal, i.e., of the Eternal Sat in the periodical Asat" (TG 315).

(See also: Svayambhu-sunyata , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Ginnungagap (Icelandic) (from ginn vast, wide + unga bring to birth, hatch (as an egg) + gap chasm, maw)

The gaping void of Norse mythology; space as an unimaginable abstraction, without form and void. The formless void that preceded creation, and the abode of the gods during the long night of nonbeing. The prefix "ginn" is found only in conjunction with such words a ginnheilog (the supreme divine essence), ginnregin (the highest gods, superior to the aesir and even the vanir). Ginnungave represents the "most holy sanctuaries" -- the universe. Odin in his loftiest aspect is referred to as ginnarr, connoting the aether or Sanskrit akasa. The verb ginna also means to delude or play a trick on.

According to the Edda's poetic description, before the existence of worlds, there was naught but Ginnungagap. All matter was frozen in a state of nonbeing, for in the absence of the energizing impulsion (the gods) nothing moved, no atoms existed, hence no matter. This state of non-existence was portrayed as the frost giant Ymir, which resulted when heat from the fiery world, Muspellsheim (home of flame), met the vapors from the world of mists, Niflheim (home of nebulae), creating fertile vapor in the void.

The cow Audhumla licked salt from the blocks of ice and uncovered the head of Buri (King Bore of Swedish tradition), personification of frozen, unmoving nonbeing. From Buri emanated Bur and from this second stage (or second divine Logos) descended the creative trinity of gods: Odin, Vile, and Vi, which powers together "slew" Ymir and with his body (matter) formed the worlds.

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

A Dream Dictionary including dreams about:

Cannon, Cannon-Ball, Canoe, Canopy , Cap, Captain, Captive, Cardinal, Cards, Carnival, Carpenter, Carpet, Carriage, Carrot, Cars, Cart , Cartridge, Carving, Cash, Cash Box, Cashier, Cask, Castle, Castor Oil, Castor-a, Catechism, Caterpillar

For more dream interpretation, see: Dream Dictionary

For more about dreams, see: Dreams.

SUNYATA

The Void, Emptiness, the Abyss, Chaos. The essentially void nature of phenomena. Realized only when non-being is seen as the origin of being.

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

Shunyavada: Buddhist philosophy that everything is void

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