Cosmogenesis (from Greek kosmos world + genesis birth)

The genesis of worlds, as distinguished from anthropogensis or the genesis of mankind; as defined by Blavatsky: "At the commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahm manifests as Mulaprakriti and then as the Logos. This Logos is equivalent to the 'Unconscious Universal Mind,' etc., of Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the subject-side of manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual consciousness. Mulaprakriti or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation of the object-side of things -- the basis of all objective evolution and Cosmogenesis" (SD 2:24). The word is not restricted to earth, but includes innumerable globes; nor is it confined to those worlds which happen to be visible to our eye, but includes worlds on all the various planes of manifested substance.

It does not mean that the worlds were created ex nihilo by divine fiat, nor that they were merely the productions from dead, unconscious, albeit eternal and uncreate matter. Again, cosmogenesis is not a process which has occurred only once and for all, but a process which is repeated indefinitely during manvantaras and after great pralayas. Thus worlds are evolved from the state of latency or pralaya into which they passed at the close of the preceding manvantara, and both primordial matter and primordial spirit come from the same source -- parabrahman -- and are resolved again into it.

The process is one of evolution or progressive manifestation on various planes of objectivity of the potentialities latent in the spiritual germ. World must be understood, not with regard to any standards of size, but as including a universe of stars on the one hand and an atomic speck on the other.

The births and rebirths of worlds are not the haphazard productions of a consciousness eternal in its working on matter, eternal in itself and different from consciousness; but are the offspring or productions of consciousness-life-substance periodically manifesting its inherent life and powers by the appearances of different world systems -- be these galaxies, solar systems, individual suns, or planetary bodies; or again, in the infinitesimal realms, atoms and their component electronic monads. The entire process of the appearances and disappearances of world systems is dependent on inherent karmic causality manifesting on all planes and taking its rise in the characteristics and action of consciousness and consciousnesses.

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

ENLIGHTENMENT (bodhi, Sanskrit) -

1. universal consciousness;; traditionally compared to a mind full of light like the moon in a cloudless sky or a mirror without any dust on it.

2. awareness that you are a manifestation of one Infinity, always moving according to yin and yang and the Order of the Universe. (Michi Kushi)

3. seeing not an alienated world to be gotten out of but a realized world in which we know that all plays a part. (Gary Snyder)

4. enlightenment experiences are described as; aha experience, awareness, born-again, conversion, cosmic-consciousness, convictional event, deep knowing, divine intervention. Eureka, felt shift, flash point, gestalt formation, getting it, gift of the guru, gnosis, grace, greater reality, illumination, inner feeling, inner voice, insight, awareness, left-right brain shift, miracle, moment of clarity, moment of truth, mystical experience, peak experience, quantum leap, religious experience, satari, spiritual awakening, sudden decision, surrender, transformation, turning point

(See also: ENLIGHTENMENT, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Cosmic Ideation Another name for divine thought, out of which springs the activity of universal mind -- the collective aggregate of all individualized dhyani-chohanic consciousnesses everywhere.

Theosophy postulates the appearance and disappearance of worlds, whether visible or invisible, as a continuous process, each world being a link in an endless chain of interlocking cosmic hierarchies. As one of these comes into manifested existence it is likened to an outbreathing of the divine breath, each such outbreathing being a thought of the cosmic ideation, this thought becoming a world.

This divine breath, then, may be assumed to be cosmic ideation entering into the activity of manvantara; and cosmic ideation is the root again of all individual consciousness everywhere. Just as precosmic ideation is regarded as the root of consciousness, so precosmic substance is the spiritual substratum of matter. Thus manvantara is produced by means of the interlocking and interacting motion of cosmic ideation with primordial cosmic substance. Further, fohat is the intelligent energy behind this interlocking activity, which during manvantara joins these two together.

Cosmic ideation and cosmic substance are one in their primordial character, yet as the reawakening of the universal mind into manvantara needs the appropriate cosmic fields of action, cosmic substance may be said to be the manvantaric vehicle of cosmic ideation. Conversely, during cosmic pralaya, all the varied differentiations of cosmic substance are resolved back or indrawn once again into cosmic unity, a subjective condition, and hence during the cosmic pralaya cosmic ideation can no longer be called active, but passive.

(See also: Cosmic Ideation, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Turiya (Sanskrit) The fourth; the state of consciousness which the Buddhas and Christs, and occasionally great but less evolved people, reach in their times of spiritual ecstasy -- high samadhi. It is the fourth state of the famous Taraka-Raja-Yoga system in India, equivalent to a raising and temporary coalescence of the human consciousness with the atman, otherwise called nirvana. In this turiya state the divine self is perceived by the individual entitative self as its parent; and the atman thus is realized to be in its essence free of any mayavi distinction from its universal divine source. Turiya, the highest of all the states into which the consciousness may cast itself or be cast, "which is a practical annihilation of the ordinary human consciousness, is an attainment of union with atma-buddhi overshadowing or working through the higher manas. Actually, therefore, it is becoming at one with the monadic essence" (OG 72).

Turiya is a state or condition of consciousness which to the eye of an observer seems to be that of the deepest abstraction from things of the material world -- that state which to most people would seem to be a complete or perfect trance, physically speaking. The higher consciousness of the human being, often unconsciously to the brain-mind consciousness, enters into turiya and brings about for the physical person a condition of perfectly dreamless sleep; however, it is a state of the highest or most exalted spiritual and intellectual activity.

"In Pralaya, or the intermediate period between two manvantaras, it [the monad] loses its name, as it loses it when the real ONE self of man merges into Brahm in cases of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) or final Nirvana; 'when the disciple' in the words of Sankara, 'having attained that primeval consciousness, absolute bliss, of which the nature is truth, which is without form and action, abandons this illusive body that has been assumed by the atma just as an actor (abandons) the dress (put on)' " (SD 1:570).

See also JAGRAT; SUSHUPTI; SVAPNA

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

Ve (Scandinavian), Vei, Vi (Icelandic) [cognate with vigan to carry high, venerate]

Sacred, holy; in Norse mythology, the brother of Odin (spirit) and Vile (will), the creative deities who bring a universe into existence. They are born of the primeval pair Bore and Bestla, karmic residue from the previous life cycle, and correspond to the Greek Logos, the Word or intelligence from which emanate the divine forces which organize kosmos out of chaos. Odin and his two brothers "slay" the frostgiant Ymer -- the latent matter of worlds -- transforming him into an orderly universe, into which they infuse consciousness and life from their own essence.

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

Ideation The faculty, power, or process of forming ideas. Cosmic ideation denotes an abstraction, being one aspect of cosmic egoity, and also the more concrete reality represented by mahat. Cosmic ideation, focused in a basis or upadhi, results as the abstract consciousness of space working through the monad or vehicle; and the manifestations vary according to the degree of the different upadhis.

Cosmic ideation is sometimes called mahabuddhi or mahat, the universal world-soul, the cosmic or spiritual noumenon of matter. As mahat is the primordial essence or principle of cosmic consciousness and intelligence, it is the fountain of the seven prakritis -- the seven planes or elements of the universe -- and the guiding intelligence of manifested nature on all planes. Going deeper, we have precosmic ideation, which is an aspect of that metaphysical triad which is the root from which proceeds all manifestation.

Idea, as Plato pointed out, means primarily a prototype existing in the cosmic mind and manifested in forms by the action of cosmic energy, guided by ideation, working in matter. Therefore it must be regarded as innate, and our thoughts are mental manifestations of ideas.

With Plato and Aristotle (when not using the word to denote species), ideas were the fundamental roots of manifested things, as viewed under the aspect of consciousness rather than under that of matter. Hence the faculty of ideation, considered cosmically, is originative and creative of what lies latent in ideation itself, and can be so in the human being, since each individual is a microcosm. This is quite different from the faculty of making mental images of sensory experiences, these images being really what the Greeks called phantasmata. Yet even this is a degree of the original process and may be called, perhaps, astral ideation.

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

Samadhi (Sanskrit) [from sam with, together + a towards + the verbal root dha to place, bring]

To direct towards; to combine the mental faculties towards an object. Self-consciousness union with the spiritual monad by intense and profound spiritual contemplation or meditation.

It implies "the complete abstraction of the percipient consciousness from all worldly, or exterior, or even mental concerns or attributes, and its . . . becoming the pure unadulterate, undilute super-consciousness of the god within. . . . Samadhi is the eighth or final stage of genuine occult Yoga, and can be attained at any time by the initiate without conscious recourse to the other phases or practices of Yoga enumerated in Oriental works, and which other and inferior practices are often misleading, in some cases distinctly injurious, and at the best mere props or aids in the attaining of complete mental abstraction from worldly concerns" (OG 150-1). The seeker on attaining samadhi becomes practically omniscient for his solar universe because his consciousness is functioning in the cosmic spiritual and causal worlds.

Bodhi (enlightenment) is a particular state of samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge. Samadhi is the highest state on earth that can be reached while in the body; its highest stage or degree is called turiya. To attain beyond this, the initiate must have become a nirmanakaya.

(See also: Samadhi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Aham Eva Parabrahma (Sanskrit) (from aham I + eva indeed, verily + para beyond + brahma creative deity from the verbal root brih to expand)

Also aham asmi parabrahma. I am verily parabrahma, the Boundless; imbodies the teaching that above and within every entity whatsoever is everything that is in universal space or boundless infinitude, so that each person is fundamentally one with all that is because the same divine consciousness flows through every point in space, in that all worlds, gods, human beings, and atoms are each one derived from the same original source.

(See also: Aham Eva Parabrahma, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism 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)

Pleroma (Greek) Fullness, completion, entirety; used by the Gnostics, as for instance by Valentinus in the Pistis Sophia, to denote the fullness of the manifested universe as a whole; hence, space and its contents. In a more spiritual and accurate sense, it is absolute space with its seven, ten, or twelve planes or degrees of consciousness-substance.

Evolution starts from a primal point and is fulfilled in the pleroma or manifested sum total of a manifested universe, with especial emphasis on its inner and invisible ranges and planes. Therefore, it is the kosmic abode of the invisible gods or divinities in all their many ranges and ranks, together with the planes, worlds, and spheres composing the fullness; the whole elaborately divided and subdivided into planes and hierarchies of emanations, one manner of treatment being geometrically symbolized by squares, circles, points, etc.

For convenience' sake, pleroma is usually divided into three degrees, the highest, the intermediate, and the lowest. It was converted by the Christian Church into an abode for Fallen Angels, Principalities, and Powers.

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

Merkabah (Hebrew) A chariot, vehicle; used in two senses: first, as a chariot, the Qabbalists saying that the Supreme forms and then uses the ten Sephiroth as a chariot for descending through the various worlds enumerated in the Qabbalah.

These worlds are the ten Sephiroth themselves, and 'Adam Qadmon (the Heavenly Man) is the same as the ten Sephiroth considered as a hierarchic entity permeated by and inspirited by the divine hierarch or Supreme. Here it is generally equivalent to the Sanskrit vahana.

Second, it is secret wisdom or knowledge: "without the final initiation into the Mercaba the study of the Kabala will be ever incomplete, and the Mercaba can be taught only in 'darkness, in a deserted place, and after many and terrific trials.' Since the death of Simeon Ben-Iochai this hidden doctrine has remained an inviolate secret for the outside world. Delivered only as a mystery, it was communicated to the candidate orally, "face to face and mouth to ear'" (IU 2:349).

The secret wisdom or knowledge is envisaged as a vehicle or chariot because what men call esoteric wisdom is the vehicle for the communication to human consciousness of the mysteries of the universe, and consequently of man.

(See also: Merkabah, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Religion [from Latin religare to bind back, implying obligation; or from relegere to select, distinguish among various elements for the choosing of the best; ponder]

In theosophy individual religion of conduct means faith in his own essential divinity as a source of wisdom and an unerring and infallible guide in conduct; an ever-growing realization of that truth, an ever-growing consciousness of one's spiritual identity with the divine in nature; and constant devotion to the ideals thus inspired. Religion means a self-sacrificing devotion to truth, a resolve to live in harmony with all other lives, a sacrificing of the personal self to the greater self.

In theosophy there is no divorce between the devotional and speculative functions of the mind; science and philosophy do not conflict with the innate sense of rectitude. Ethics are not based on expediency, a social compact, or a special revelation, but are inherent in the laws of the universe.

The ancient wisdom is the quintessence of all religions, the universal parent-source of all faiths; and in proportion as each great world religion rises to the height of its own possibilities, so will the external divergences among the different faiths of mankind blend into the original fundamental unity.

(See also: Religion, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

AnimaMundi (Latin). The"Soul of the World", the same as the Alaya of the Northern Buddhists; the divine essence which permeates, animates and informs all, from the smallest atom of matter to man and god.

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 from 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.

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

ANIMAL MAGIC

Jacob von Uexküll has shown that animals live in quite separate numinous worlds defined by the nature of their species. The elephant lives in an elephant universe, the butterfly in a butterfly world. They inhabit separate spheres of consciousness. Says Uexküll, "when a dog runs, it moves its legs. When a sea urchin runs, it is moved by its legs." Uexküll even distinguishes between acts of individual superstition (or "ritual") - bird pecking at empty pavement, dog licking newly washed dinner bowl - and genuine "species environment" magic that involves entire herds or flocks, performing purely symbolic acts.

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

Boundless, The The infinitude of living space and unconditioned time, termed parabrahman, parabrahman-mulaprakriti, tat, or Aditi in Sanskrit; in the Chaldean Qabbalah, 'eyn soph; and with the Greeks, to apeyron.

The non-existent, because nonmanifested, and therefore the concealed unity; sometimes called darkness in a mystic sense, no-number because not subject to computation, also the rootless root. Having no relation to the bounded and conditioned which are contained within it, it is the unknown and unknowable cosmic motion, absolute consciousness, and absolute motion, and therefore to our limited minds unconsciousness and immobility. Its symbol is the circle or zero, denoting the absence of everything that can be predicated as imbodying limitation.

All worlds and universes spring forth from it, run their various manvantaric periods, and sink back into it for their rest; so that what we call space is but one of its manifestations or appearances, and what we call unending duration is its aspect when we consider it under the light of eternity. It is everything because everything is included within it, and it is nothing because it is no-thing -- thing implying limitation or condition.

See also PARABRAHMAN, THAT

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

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, )

Yuga:

Yuga: Ages in the life of a universe, occurring in a repeated cycle of four. Era or age. There is a cycle of four yugas: Satya (Kritha), Treta, Dvapara and Kali. Together, the four yugas comprise 4.320.000 years. The present age is the Kali-yuga. (BV-30) "Period, age." One of four ages which chart the duration of the world according to Hindu thought. They are: Satya (or Kritha), Treta, Dvapara and Kali. In the first period, dharma reigns supreme, but as the ages revolve, virtue diminishes and ignorance and injustice increases. At the end of the Kali Yuga, which we are in now, the cycle begins again with a new Satya Yuga. It is said in the Mahabharata that during the Satya Yuga all are brahmins, and the color of this yuga is white. In the Treta Yuga, righteousness decreases by one-fourth and men seek reward for their rites and gifts; the color is red and the consciousness of the kshatriya, sovereignty, prevails. In the Dvapara Yuga, the four varnas come fully into existence. The color is yellow. In the Kali Yuga, the color is black. Righteousness is one-tenth that of the Satya Yuga. True worship and sacrifice cease, and base, or shudra, consciousness is prominent. Calamities, disease, fatigue and faults such as anger and fear prevail. People decline and their motives grow weak.

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

Idealism Philosophical systems based fundamentally on consciousness, as contrasted with systems based on sensation or materialism. It affirms that the universe is an imbodiment of mind or, as stated by theosophy, the aggregated imbodiments of hierarchies of minds proceeding from a unitary divine root or universal hierarch.

It states that reality is essentially divine, spiritual, or noumenal and, on a lower plane, that the psychic is noumenal to the physical, which is its phenomenon. As a theory of knowledge, idealism identifies reality, so far as humankind is concerned, with inner conscious experience, or asserts that the mental life alone is truly knowable.

Subjective idealism denies the existence of objective reality altogether, except perhaps as illusory, as for instance in the views of Berkeley. Objective idealism, such as the system of Schelling, recognizes the existence of objective worlds while regarding the ideal world as the primary production and paramount: the external world has a relative and temporary or mayavi reality. This latter view is the only strictly logical one; for if we annihilate the object, we must thereby annihilate the subject also, these two terms having no meaning except relatively to each other.

In any theory of knowledge, there must be knower and thing known; and the latter is objective to the former. Absolute idealism logically is as unthinkable as is absolute materialism.

See also MAYA

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

Invisible Worlds Theosophy teaches that the universe is a living organism, composed of an infinite number of minor organisms of all-various degrees of expression in both spirit and matter. These groups of minor organisms or worlds are separated from each other in consciousness, not in space, by planes. All the beings of any one plane have senses relating to that plane and are therefore usually unconscious of other planes by first perception. Further, these planes are of such different ranges of matter and therefore of vibration, that the entities within them intermingle without mutual interference.

The suns and planets, therefore, of any one plane interpenetrate our physical sphere, and permeate it, so that in our own daily affairs we actually pass through the worlds, through the very beings, it may be, of the entities dwelling in these realms invisible to us. These invisible realms are made of matter just as is our physical world, but it is of matter more ethereal or gross than ours. We do not cognize them with our physical senses because of the different rates of vibration of the different planes.

Although our senses tell us nothing of these innumerable other planes, yet the inner and invisible higher spheres are inexpressibly important because they are the causal realms of which our physical universe is but the phenomenal production. But while these higher planes are the fountainhead, ultimately, of all the energies and matters of the whole physical world, yet to an entity inhabiting these inner and invisible worlds, these latter are as substantial and real to that entity as our physical world is to us. Just as we know in our physical world various grades or conditions of energy and matter, from the grossest to the most ethereal, so do the inhabitants of these other worlds know and cognize their own grossest and also most ethereal substances and energies.

The theosophical teaching about invisible worlds has no connection or parallel with the Summerland of the Spiritualists.

(See also: Invisible Worlds, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

VOODOO

(Or VOUDON; from Tovodun, the Dahomean gods.) The West African religion together with its transplanted form in Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean and Gulf. It derives from Dahomey or Yoruban vodun, "god" or "spirit" and the chief spirits are Legba, Ogoun, Ghede and, in the new world, Baron Samedi, Piquant and Cimitère. Rites are said to involve serpent worship, sexual magic, cannibalism and corpses (see ZOMBIE). Another name for spirits, those that actually possess the worshippers, are the loa.

According to Michael Bertiaux, latterday priest or Hungan, Voodoo is not an evil religion and is much misunderstood. He heads La Couleuvre Noire, or modern "Black Serpent" Voodoo Cult working with the so-called "Ophidian Current" and "the leapers of the paths" on the other side of the Tree of Life. The latter practice is associated with Juju, another "modern" African religion.

Esoteric Voodoo is actually a highly practical procedure for leading us into making contact with our deepest levels of being and most ancient modes of consciousness, through the dark spirits of the universe that operate on the same frequencies.

Michael Bertiaux's Voudon Gnostic Workbook is probably the most comprehensive and illuminating contemporary work on the subject, both from the practical and from the philosophical, mystical points of view. It ranges in mind from the basic desires of the most ignorant levels of society to the esoteric abstractions of the heights of untrammeled consciousness.

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