A Wisdom Archive on Worship

Cow-worship. The idea of any such "worship" is as erroneous as it is unjust.
 
No Egyptian worshipped the cow, nor does any Hindu worship this animal now, though it is true that the cow and bull were sacred then as they are to-day, but only as the natural physical symbol of a metaphysical ideal; even as a church made of bricks and mortar is sacred to the civilized Christian because of its associations and not by reason of its walls.
 
The cow was sacred to Isis, the Universal Mother, Nature, and to the Hathor, the female principle in Nature, the two goddesses being allied to both sun and moon, as the disk and the cow’s horns (crescent) prove. (See "Hathor ‘ and "isis".) In the Vedas, the Dawn of Creation is represented by a cow. This dawn is Hathor, and the day which follows, or Nature already formed, is Isis, for both are one except in the matter of time.
 
Hathor the elder is "the mistress of the seven mystical cows " and Isis, "the Divine Mother is the "cow-horned" the cow of plenty (or Nature, Earth), and, as the mother of Horus (the physical world) - the "mother of all that lives The outa was the symbolic eye of Horus, the right being the sun, and the left the moon.
 
The right "eye" of Horus was called "the cow of Hathor", and served as a powerful amulet, as the dove in a nest of rays or glory, with or without the cross, is a talisman with Christians, Latins and Greeks.
 
The Bull and the Lion which we often find in company with Luke and Mark in the frontispiece of their respective Gospels in the Greek and Latin texts, are explained as symbols - -which is indeed the fact. Why not admit the same in the case of the Egyptian sacred Bulls, Cows, Rams, and Birds?

 
(See also: Cow-worship, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Vitthala (Sanskrit) Also Vithala, Viththala, Vidhdhala. A god worshiped at Pandharpur in the Deccan and considered an incarnation of Krishna, commonly called Vithoba.

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

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Astrolatry (Ancient Greek). Worship of the Stars.

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

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Ancestor worship (拜祖), also ancestor veneration (敬祖), is a religious practice based on the belief that one's ancestors possess supernatural powers. All cultures attach ritual significance to the passing of loved ones, but this is not equivalent to ancestor worship. Rather, ancestor worship involves the same sort of religious practices one sees when people appease or supplicate other entities thought to exist and possess supernatural powers, such as gods, angels, saints, or demons. While far from universal, ancestor wors ...

Read more here: » Ancestor worship: Encyclopedia - Ancestor worship

Yajna (Sanskrit) In Vedic literature, worship, devotion, prayer, praise; in post-Vedic literature, an act of worship or devotion, an oblation, sacrifice, also sacrifice personified or fire.
 
''The Yajna,'' say the Brahmans, ''exists from eternity, for it proceeded from the Supreme, in whom it lay dormant from no beginning.'' It is the key to the Trai-Vidya, the thrice sacred science contained in the Rig-Veda verses, which teaches the Yajna or sacrificial mysteries. As Haug states in his Introduction to the Aitareya Brahmana -- the Yajna exists as an invisible presence at all times, extending from the Ahavaniya or sacrificial fire to the heavens, forming a bridge or ladder by means of which the sacrificer can communicate with the world of devas, ''and even ascend when alive to their abodes.'' It is one of the forms of Akasa, within which the mystic Word (or its underlying ''Sound'') calls it into existence. Pronounced by the Priest-Initiate or Yogi, this Word receives creative powers, and is communicated as an impulse on the terrestrial plane through a trained Will-power" (TG 375).

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

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Apis (Egypt, Egyptian), or Hapi-ankh. The "living deceased one" or Osiris incarnate in the sacred white Bull. Apis was the bull-god that, on reaching the age of twenty-eight, the age when Osiris was killed by Typhon - was put to death with great ceremony. It was not the Bull that was worshipped but the Osiridian symbol; just as Christians kneel now before the Lamb, the symbol of Jesus Christ, in their churches.

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

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Yajna-vidya (Sanskrit) [from yajna sacrifice + vidya knowledge]
 
The knowledge or science of sacrificial rites. These religious rites are performed by the Brahmins to produce certain results, although the esoteric significance of the true yajna has been lost sight of. The four vidyas are yajna-vidya, maha-vidya (the great magic knowledge, now degenerated into Tantric worship), guhya-vidya (the science of mantras, etc.), and atma-vidya (true spiritual and divine wisdom), the last of which contains the keys to the other three.

 
(See also: Yajna-vidya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

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Zoolatry [from Greek zoon animal + latreia worship]
 
Animal worship; animal symbols are found in all religions, as in the religions of ancient Egypt and in Christianity, as the dove and the lamb. The Maharajas of the four quarters of space are sometimes represented as elephants; most of the zodiacal signs are animals, as the name implies.
 
These symbols should not be regarded as arbitrarily chosen on account of a fancied resemblance: the animals are actually emblems, if not in all cases manifestations, of the powers in question. It is the same with plants and stones: they are not emblems only but actually enshrine certain occult qualities. If plants may have medicinal virtues, and stones possess magical powers, why may not animals have the same? The phrase animal worship implies that the veneration has often been transferred from the power to its symbol or emblem, as in the case of idolatry.
 
Yet no polished or cultivated nation of antiquity, no more so than the Christians today, worshiped these animal emblems as otherwise than figurations, or also at times as manifestations, of cosmic powers or beings -- end-products of divine cosmic originants. Man himself falls into the same category, not only as being an offspring of the gods, but as an end-product of a divine hierarchy manifesting in greater or less degree the spiritual-divine attributes, functions, faculties, and powers of his sublime ancestors or parents.

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

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Assyrian Holy Scriptures. Orientalists show seven such books: the Books of Mamit, of Worship, of Interpretations, of Going to Hades; two Prayer Books (Kanmagarri and Kanmikri: Talbot)
and the Kantolite, the lost Assyrian Psalter.

 
(See also: Assyrian Holy Scriptures, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,  )

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Vesta (Latin) Hestia (Greek) Daughter of Saturn (Kronos) and Rhea, sister of Jupiter, Juno, Ceres, Pluto, and Neptune (Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Hades, and Poseidon). The first-born, she became, as Terra or Gaia, the earth goddess. She is variously represented as the wife of Uranus, and again as a divine maid, both accounts probably being remnants of an earlier myth similar to those centering around Demeter, Isis, Neith, and other goddesses.
 
Traces of the worship of goddesses equivalent to Vesta are found in prehistoric times. The cult reached a place of sanctity and importance in ancient Ireland, the Hebrides, and among the Incas of Peru. None, however, is so fully documented as the Roman cult of Vesta worship, centering around the guardianship of the sacred fire, symbol of the loftiest ideals of the state, and hence of the home and domestic life.
 
In Rome the cult grew in importance until the position of the priestesses almost rivaled that of royalty. There is a tradition that Numa introduced the worship of Vesta into Rome and founded the Temple of Vesta.

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

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