Cardiff Blavatsky Archive, Wales, UK:- Theosophy Study Resource

THEOSOPHY

H P BLAVATSKY

Cardiff Blavatsky Archive

Cardiff Theosophical Society, 206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 – 1DL.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

1831 - 1891

THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY

H. P. BLAVATSKY

First Published 1892

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E, F, G,

E.—The fifth letter of the English alphabet. The he (soft) of the Hebrew alphabet becomes in the Ehevi system of reading that language an E. Its numerical value is five, and its symbolism is a window; the womb, in the Kabbala. In the order of the divine names it stands for the fifth, which is Hadoor or the “majestic” and the “splendid.”

Ea (Chald.) also Hea. The second god of the original Babylonian trinity composed of Anu, Hea and Bel. Hea was the “Maker of Fate”, “Lord of the Deep”, “God of Wisdom and Knowledge”, and “Lord of the City of Eridu”.

Eagle. This symbol is one of the most ancient. With the Greeks and Persians it was sacred to the Sun; with the Egyptians, under the name of Ah, to Horus, and the Kopts worshipped the eagle under the name of Ahom. It was regarded as the sacred emblem of Zeus by the Greeks, and as that of the highest god by the Druids. The symbol has passed down to our day, when following the example of the pagan Marius, who, in the second century B.C. used the double-headed eagle as the ensign of Rome, the Christian crowned heads of Europe made the double-headed sovereign of the air sacred to themselves and their scions. Jupiter was satisfied with a one-headed eagle and so was the Sun. The imperial houses of Russia, Poland, Austria, Germany, and the late Empire of the Napoleons, have adopted a two-headed eagle as their device.

Easter. The word evidently comes from Ostara, the Scandinavian goddess of spring. She was the symbol of the resurrection of all nature and was worshipped in early spring. It was a custom with the pagan Norsemen at that time to exchange coloured eggs called the eggs of Ostara. These have now become Easter-Eggs. As expressed in Asgard and the Gods: “Christianity put another meaning on the old custom, by connecting it with the feast of the Resurrection of the Saviour, who, like the hidden life in the egg, slept in the grave for three days before he awakened to new life”. This was the more natural since Christ was identified with that same Spring Sun which awakens in all his glory, after the dreary and long death of winter. (See “Eggs”.)

Ebionites (Heb.). Lit., “the poor”; the earliest sect of Jewish Christians, the other being the Nazarenes. They existed when the term “Christian” was not yet heard of. Many of the relations of Iassou (Jesus), the adept ascetic around whom the legend of Christ was formed, were among the Ebionites. As the existence of these mendicant ascetics can be traced at least a century earlier than chronological Christianity, it is an additional proof that lassou or Jeshu lived during the reign of Alexander Jannæus at Lyd (or Lud), where he was put to death as stated in the Sepher Toldos Jeshu.

Ecbatana. A famous city in Media worthy of a place among the seven wonders of the world. It is thus described by Draper in his Conflict between Religion and Science, chap. i, . . “ The cool summer retreat of the Persian Kings, was defended by seven encircling walls of hewn and polished blocks, the interior ones in succession of increasing height, and of different colours, in astrological accordance with the seven planets. The palace was roofed with silver tiles; its beams were plated with gold. At midnight in its halls, the sun was rivalled by many a row of naphta cressets. A paradise, that luxury of the monarchs of the East, was planted in the midst of the city. The Persian Empire was truly the garden of the world.”

Echath (Heb.). The same as the following—the “One”, but feminine.

Echod (Heb or Echad. “One”, masculine, applied to Jehovah.

Eclectic Philosophy. One of the names given to the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria.

Ecstasis (Gr.). A psycho-spiritual state; a physical trance which induces clairvoyance and a beatific state bringing on visions.

Edda (Iceland.). Lit., “great-grandmother”of the Scandinavian Lays. It was Bishop Brynjϋld Sveinsson, who collected them and brought them to light in 1643. There are two collections of Sagas, translated by the Northern Skalds, and there are two Eddas. The earliest is of unknown authorship and date and its antiquity is very great. These Sagas were collected in the XIth century by an Icelandic priest; the second is a collection of the history (or myths) of the gods spoken of in the first, which became the Germanic deities, giants, dwarfs and heroes.

Eden (Heb.). “Delight”, pleasure. In Genesis the “Garden of Delight” built by God ; in the Kabbala the
“Garden of Delight”, a place of Initiation into the mysteries. Orientalists identify it with a place which was situated in Babylonia in the district of Karduniyas, called also Gan-dunu, which is almost like the Gan-eden of the Jews. (See the works of Sir H. Rawlinson, and G. Smith.) That district has four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Surappi, Ukni. The two first have been adopted without any change by the Jews; the other two they have probably transformed into “ Gihon and Pison”, so as to have something original. The following are some of the reasons for the identification of Eden, given by Assyriologists. The cities of Babylon, Larancha and Sippara, were founded before the flood, according to the chronology of the Jews. “Surippak was the city of the ark, the mountain east of the Tigris was the resting place of the ark, Babylon was the site of the tower, and Ur of the Chaldees the birthplace of Abraham.” And, as Abraham,
“the first leader of the Hebrew race, migrated from Ur to Harran in Syria and from thence to Palestine”, the best Assyriologists think that it is “so much evidence in favour of the hypothesis that Chaldea was the original home of these stories (in the Bible) and that the Jews received them originally from the Babylonians”.

Edom (Heb.). Edomite Kings. A deeply concealed mystery is to he found in the allegory of the seven Kings of Edorn, who “reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any King over the children of Israel”. (Gen. xxxvi. 31.) The Kabbala teaches that this Kingdom was one of “unbalanced forces’ and necessarily of unstable character. The world of Israel is a type of the condition of the worlds which came into existence subsequently to the later period when the equilibrium had become established. [ w.w. w.]

On the other hand the Eastern Esoteric philosophy teaches that the seven Kings of Edom are not the type of perished worlds or unbalanced forces, but the symbol of the seven human Root-races, four of which have passed away, the fifth is passing, and two are still to come. Though in the language of esoteric blinds, the hint in St. John’s Revelation is clear enough when it states in chapter xvii , 10: “And there are seven Kings; five are fallen, and one (the fifth, still) is, and the other (the sixth Root- race) is not yet come Had all the seven Kings of Edom perished as worlds of “unbalanced forces”, how could the fifth still be, and the other or others “not yet come” ? In The Kabbalah Unveiled, we read on page 48, “ The seven Kings had died and their possessions had been broken up”, and a footnote emphasizes the statement by saying, “these seven Kings are the Edomite Kings”.

Edris (Arab.), or Idris. Meaning “the learned One”, an epithet applied by the Arabs to Enoch.

Eggs (Easter). Eggs were symbolical from an early time. There was the “Mundane Egg”, in which Brahmâ gestated, with the Hindus the Hiranya-Gharba, and the Mundane Egg of the Egyptians, which proceeds from the mouth of the “unmade and eternal deity”, Kneph, and which is the emblem of generative power. Then the Egg of Babylon, which hatched Ishtar, and was said to have fallen from heaven into the Euphrates. Therefore coloured eggs were used yearly during spring in almost every country, and in Egypt were exchanged as sacred symbols in the spring-time, which was, is, and ever will be, the emblem of birth or rebirth, cosmic and human, celestial and terrestrial. They were hung up in Egyptian temples and are so suspended to this day in Mahometan mosques.

Egkosmioi (Gk). “The intercosmic gods, each of which presides over a great number of daemons to whom they impart their power and change it from one to another at will”, says Proclus, and he adds, that which is taught in the esoteric doctrine. In his system he shows the uppermost regions from the zenith of the Universe to the moon belonging to the gods, or planetary Spirits, according to their hierarchies and classes. The highest among them were the twelve Huper-ouranioi, the super-celestial gods. Next to the latter, in rank and power, came the Egkosmioi.

Ego (Lat.). “ Self” ; the consciousness in man “I am I”—or the feeling of “I-am-ship”. Esoteric philosophy teaches the existence of two Egos in man, the mortal or personal, and the Higher, the Divine and the Impersonal, calling the former “personality” and the latter “Individuality Egoity. From the word “Ego”. Egoity means “individuality”, never “personality”, and is the opposite of egoism or “selfishness”, the characteristic par excellence of the latter.

Egregores. Eliphas Lévi calls them “the chiefs of the souls who are the spirits of energy and action” ; whatever that may or may not mean. The Oriental Occultists describe the Egregores as Beings whose bodies and essence is a tissue of the so-called astral light. They are the shadows of the higher Planetary Spirits whose bodies are of the essence of the higher divine light.

Eheyeh (Heb.). “I am”, according to Ibn Gebirol, but not in the sense of “I am that I am”.

Eidolon (Gr.). The same as that which we term the human phantom, the astral form.

Eka (Sk.). “One”; also a synonym of Mahat, the Universal Mind, as the principle of Intelligence.

Ekana-rupa (Sk.). The One (and the Many) bodies or forms; a term applied by the Purânas to Deity.

Ekasloka Shastra (Sk.). A work on the Shastras (Scriptures) by Nagarjuna; a mystic work translated into Chinese.

El-Elion (Heb.). A name of the Deity borrowed by the Jews from the Phœnician Elon, a name of the Sun.

Elementals. Spirits of the Elements. The creatures evolved in the four Kingdoms or Elements—earth, air, fire, and water. They are called by the Kabbalists, Gnomes (of the earth), Sylphs (of the air), Salamanders (of the fire), and Undines (of the water). Except a few of the higher kinds, and their rulers, they are rather forces of nature than ethereal men and women. These forces, as the servile agents of the Occultists, may produce various effects; but if employed by” Elementaries” (q.v.)_in which case they enslave the mediums—they will deceive the credulous. All the lower invisible beings generated on the 5th 6th, and 7th planes of our terrestrial atmosphere, are called Elementals Peris, Devs, Djins, Sylvans, Satyrs, Fauns, Elves, Dwarfs, Trolls, Kobolds, Brownies, Nixies, Goblins, Pinkies, Banshees, Moss People, White Ladies, Spooks, Fairies, etc., etc., etc.

Elementaries. Properly, the disembodied souls of the depraved; these souls having at some time prior to death separated from themselves their divine spirits, and so lost their chance for immortality; but at the present stage of learning it has been thought best to apply the term to the spooks or phantoms of disembodied persons, in general, to those whose temporary habitation is the Kâma Loka. Eliphas Lévi and some other Kabbalists make little distinction between elementary spirits who have been men, and those beings which people the elements, and are the blind forces of nature. Once divorced from their higher triads and their bodies, these souls remain in their Kâma-rupic envelopes, and are irresistibly drawn to the earth amid elements congenial to their gross natures. Their stay in the Kâma Loka varies as to its duration; but ends invariably in disintegration, dissolving like a column of mist, atom by atom, in the surrounding elements.

Elephanta. An island near Bombay, India, on which are the well- preserved ruins of the cave-temple, of that name. It is one of the most ancient in the country and is certainly a Cyclopeian work, though the late J. Fergusson has refused it a great antiquity.

Eleusinia (Gr.). The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most famous and the most ancient of all the Greek Mysteries (save the Samothracian), and were celebrated near the hamlet of Eleusis, not far from Athens. Epiphanius traces them to the days of Inachos (1800 B.c.), founded, as another version has it, by Eumolpus, a King of Thrace and a Hierophant. They were celebrated in honour of Demeter, the Greek Ceres and the Egyptian Isis; and the last act of the performance referred to a sacrificial victim of atonement and a resurrection, when the Initiate was admitted to the highest degree of “Epopt” (q.v.). The festival of the Mysteries began in the month of Boëdromion (September), the time of grape-gathering, and lasted from the 15th to the 22nd, seven days. The Hebrew feast of Tabernacles, the feast of Ingatherings, in the month of Ethanim (the seventh), also began on the 15th and ended on the 22nd of that month,

The name of the month (Ethanim) is derived, according to some, from Adonim, Adonia, Attenim, Ethanim, and was in honour of Adonai or Adonis (Thammuz), whose death was lamented by the Hebrews in the groves of Bethlehem. The sacrifice of both “ Bread and Wine” was performed before the Mysteries of initiation, and during the ceremony the mysteries were divulged to the candidates from the petroma, a kind of book made of two stone tablets (petrai), joined at one side and made to open like a volume.
(See Isis Unveiled II., pp. 44 and 91, et seq., for further explanations.)

Elivagar (Scand.). The waters of Chaos, called in the cosmogony of the Norsemen “the stream of Elivagar”.

Elohîm (Heb.). Also Alhim, the word being variously spelled. Godfrey Higgins, who has written much upon its meaning, always spells it Aleim. The Hebrew letters are aleph, lamed, hé,yod, mem, and are numerically 1, 30, 5, 10, 40 = 86. It seems to be the plural of the feminine noun Eloah, ALH, formed by adding the common plural form IM, a masculine ending; and hence the whole seems to imply the emitted active and passive essences. As a title it is referred to “Binah” the Supernal Mother, as is also the fuller title IHVH ALHIM, Jehovah Elohim. As Binah leads on to seven succeedent Emanations, so “ Elohim” has been said to represent a sevenfold power of godhead.

Eloї (Gn.). The genius or ruler of Jupiter; its Planetary Spirit. (See Origen, Contra Celsum.)

Elu (Sing.). An ancient dialect used in Ceylon.

Emanation the Doctrine of. In its metaphysical meaning, it is opposed to Evolution, yet one with it. Science teaches that evolution is physiologically a mode of generation in which the germ that develops the foetus pre-exists already in the parent, the development and final form and characteristics of that germ being accomplished in nature; and that in cosmology the process takes place blindly through the correlation of the elements, and their various compounds. Occultism answers that this is only the apparent mode, the real process being Emanation, guided by intelligent Forces under an immutable LAW. Therefore, while the Occultists and Theosophists believe thoroughly in the doctrine of Evolution as given out by Kapila and Manu, they are Emanationists rather than Evolutionists. The doctrine of Emanation was at one time universal. It was taught by the Alexandrian as well as by the Indian philosophers, by the Egyptian, the Chaldean and Hellenic Hierophants, and also by the Hebrews (in their Kabbala, and even in Genesis). For it is only owing to deliberate mistranslation that the Hebrew word asdt has been translated “angels” from the Septuagint, when it means Emanations, Æons, precisely as with the Gnostics. Indeed, in Deuteronomy (xxxiii., 2) the word asdt or ashdt is translated as” fiery law”, whilst the correct rendering of the passage should be “from his right hand went [ not a fiery law, but a fire according to law “; viz., that the fire of one flame is imparted to, and caught up by another like as in a trail of inflammable substance. This is precisely emanation. As shown in Isis Unveiled : “In Evolution, as it is now beginning to he understood, there is supposed to be in all matter an impulse to take on a higher form—a supposition clearly expressed by Manu and other Hindu philosophers of the highest antiquity. The philosopher’s tree illustrates it in the case of the zinc solution. The controversy between the followers of this school and the Emanationists may he briefly stated thus The Evolutionist stops all inquiry at the borders of ‘ the Unknowable “; the Emanationist believes that nothing can be evolved—or, as the word means, unwombed or born—except it has first been involved, thus indicating that life is from a spiritual potency above the whole.”

Empusa (Gr.). A ghoul, a vampire, an evil demon taking various forms.

En (or Ain) Soph (Heb.). The endless, limitless and boundless. The absolute deific Principle, impersonal and unknowable. It means literally “no-thing” i.e., nothing that could be classed with anything else. The word and ideas are equivalent to the Vedantic conceptions of Parabrahmn. [ w.w.w.]

Some Western Kabbalists, however, contrive to make of IT, a personal “He”, a male deity instead of an impersonal deity.

En (Chald.). A negative particle, like a in Greek and Sanskrit. The first syllable of “En-Soph” (q.v.), or nothing that begins or ends, the “Endless”.

Enoichion (Gr.). Lit., the inner Eye” ; the “Seer”, a reference to the third inner, or Spiritual Eye, the true name for Enoch disfigured from Chanoch.

Ens (Gr.). The same as the Greek To On “Being”, or the real Presence in Nature.

Ephesus (Gr.). Famous for its great metaphysical College where Occultism (Gnosis) and Platonic philosophy were taught in the days of the Apostle Paul. A city regarded as the focus of secret sciences, and that Gnôsis. or Wisdom, which is the antagonist of the perversion of Christo-Esotericism to this day. It was at Ephesus where was the great College of the Essenes and all the lore the Tanaim had brought from the Chaldees,

Epimetheus (Gr.). Lit., “He who takes counsel after” the event. A brother of Prometheus in Greek Mythology.

Epinoia (Gr.). Thought, invention, design. A name adopted by the Gnostics for the first passive Æon.

Episcopal Crook. One of the insignia of Bishops, derived from the sacerdotal sceptre of the Etruscan Augurs. it is also found in the hand of several gods.

Epoptes (Gr.). An Initiate. One who has passed his last degree of initiation.

Eridanus (Lat.). Ardan, the Greek name for the river Jordan.

Eros (Gr.). Hesiod makes of the god Eros the third personage of the Hellenic primordial Trinity composed of Ouranos, Gæa and Eros. It is the personified procreative Force in nature in its abstract sense, the propeller to “creation” and procreation. Exoterically, mythology makes of Eros the god of lustful, animal desire, whence the term erotic esoterically, it is different. (See “ Kâma”.)

Eshmim (Heb.). The Heavens, the Firmament in which are the Sun, Planets and Stars; from the root Sm, meaning to place, dispose ; hence, the planets, as disposers. [ w. w.w.]

Esoteric (Gr.). Hidden, secret. From the Greek esotericos, “inner” concealed.

Esoteric Bodhism. Secret wisdom or intelligence from the Greek esotericos “inner”, and the Sanskrit Bodhi, “knowledge”, intelligence— in contradistinction to Buddhi, “the faculty of knowledge or intelligence” and Buddhism, the philosophy or Law of Buddha (the Enlightened). Also written “ Budhism”, from Budha (Intelligence and Wisdom) the Son of Soma.

Essasua. The African and Asiatic sorcerers and serpent charmers.

Essenes. A hellenized word, from the Hebrew Asa, a “healer”. A mysterious sect of Jews said by Pliny to have lived near the Dead Sea per millia sæculorum—for thousands of ages. “ Some have supposed them to be extreme Pharisees, and others—which may be the true theory—the descendants of the
Benim-nabim of the Bible, and think that they were ‘Kenites and Nazarites. They had many Buddhistic ideas and practices; and it is noteworthy that the priests of the Great Mother at Ephesus, Diana-Bhavani with many breasts, were also so denominated. Eusebius, and after him De Quincey, declared them to be the same as the early Christians, which is more than probable. The title ‘ brother’, used in the early Church, was Essenean ; they were a fraternity, or a koinobion or community like the early converts.”
(Isis Unveiled.)

Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akâsa and with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akâsa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akâsa and real Ether, because it is something quite on another plane. The seventh principle of the earth’s atmosphere, as said, the Astral Light, is only the second on the Cosmic scale. The scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and Planes, of Emanations—on the metaphysical—and Evolutions—on the physical plane—is the Cosmic Serpent biting its own tail, the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and reflected in its turn by the lower Serpent. The Caduceus explains the mystery, and the four-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the universe is said by Plato to have been built by the manifested Logos—synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born—yields geometrically the key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic reflection—our Earth.

Eurasians. An abbreviation of “European-Asians”. The mixed coloured races: the children of the white fathers and the dark mothers of India, or vice versa.

Evapto. Initiation; the same as Epopteia.

Evolution. The development of higher orders of animals from lower. As said in Isis Unveiled: “Modern Science holds but to a one-sided physical evolution, prudently avoiding and ignoring the higher or spiritual evolution, which would force our contemporaries to confess the superiority of the ancient philosophers and psychologists over themselves. The ancient sages, ascending to the UNKNOWABLE, made their starting- point from the first manifestation of the unseen, the unavoidable, and, from a strictly logical reasoning, the absolutely necessary creative Being, the Demiurgos of the universe. Evolution began with them from pure spirit, which descending lower and lower down, assumed at last a visible and comprehensible form, and became matter. Arrived at this point, they speculated in the Darwinian method, but on a far more large and comprehensive basis.” (See “Emanation”.)

Exoteric. Outward, public; the opposite of esoteric or hidden.

Extra-Cosmic. Outside of Kosmos or Nature; a nonsensical word invented to assert the existence of a personal god, independent of, or out side, Nature per se, in opposition to the Pantheistic idea that the whole Kosmos is animated or informed with the Spirit of Deity, Nature being but the garment, and matter the illusive shadow, of the real unseen Presence.

Eye of Horus. A very sacred symbol in ancient Egypt. It was called the outa the right eye represented the sun, the left, the moon. Says Macrobius : “ The outo (or uta) is it not the emblem of the sun, king of the world, who from his elevated throne sees all the Universe below him”?

Eyes (divine). The “eyes” the Lord Buddha developed in him at the twentieth hour of his vigil when sitting under the BO-tree, when he was attaining Buddhaship. They are the eyes of the glorified Spirit, to which matter is no longer a physical impediment, and which have the power of seeing all things within the space of the limitless Universe. 0n the following morning of that night, at the close of the third watch, the “ Merciful One” attained the Supreme Knowledge.

Ezra (Heb.). The Jewish priest and scribe, who, circa 450 B.c., compiled the Pentateuch if indeed he was not the author of it) and the rest of the Old Testament, except Nehemiah and Malachi. [w.w.w.]

Ezra (Heb.). The same as Azareel and Azriel, a great Hebrew Kabbalist. His full name is Rabbi Azariel ben Manahem. He flourished at Valladolid, Spain, in the twelfth century, and was famous as a philosopher and Kabbalist. He is the author of a work on the Ten Sephiroth.

F —The sixth letter of the English alphabet, for which there is no equivalent in Hebrew. It is the double F F of the Æolians which became the Digamma for some mysterious reasons. It corresponds to the Greek phi. As a Latin numeral it denotes 40, with a dash over the letter (F) 400,000.

Faces (Kabbalistic), or, as in Hebrew, Partzupheem. The word usually refers to Areekh Anpeen or Long Face, and Zeir-Anpeen, or Short Face, and Resha Hivrah the “White Head” or Face. The Kabbala states that from the moment of their appearance (the hour of differentiation of matter) all the material for future forms was contained in the three Heads which are one, and called Atteekah Kadosha
(Holy Ancients and the Faces). It is when the Faces look toward each other, that the Holy Ancients” in three Heads, or Atteekah Kadosha, are called Areek Appayem, i.e., “Long Faces”. (See Zohar iii., 292a.) This refers to the three Higher Principles, cosmic and human.

Fafnir (Scand.). The Dragon of Wisdom.

Fahian (Chin.). A Chinese traveller and writer in the early centuries of Christianity, who wrote on Buddhism.

Fa-Hwa-King (Chin.). A Chinese work on Cosmogony.

Faizi (Arab.). Literally the “heart”. A writer on occult and mystic subjects.

Fakir (Arab.). A Mussulman ascetic in India, a Mahometan “Yogi”. The name is often applied, though erroneously. to Hindu ascetics; for strictly speaking only Mussulman ascetics are entitled to it. This loose way of calling things by general names was adopted in Isis Unveiled but is now altered.

Falk, Caїn Chenul. A Kabbalistic Jew, reputed to have worked “miracles”. Kenneth Mackenzie quotes in regard to him from the German annalist Archenoiz’ work on England (1788) :—“ There exists in London an extraordinary man who for thirty years has been celebrated in Kabbalistic records. He is named Caїn Chenul Falk. A certain Count de Rautzow, lately dead in the service of France, with the rank of Field-Marshal, certifies that he has seen this Falk in Brunswick, and that evocations of spirits took place in the presence of credible witnesses.” These “spirits” were Elementals, whom Falk brought into view by the conjurations used by every Kabbalist. His son, Johann Friedrich Falk, likewise a Jew, was also a Kabbalist of repute, and was once the head of a Kabbalistic college in London. His occupation was that of a jeweller and appraiser of diamonds, and he was a wealthy man. To this day the mystic writings and rare Kabbalistic works bequeathed by him to a trustee may be perused in a certain half-public library in London, by every genuine student of Occultism. Falk’s own writings are all still in MS., and some in cypher.

Farbauti (Scand.). A giant in the Edda; lit., “the oarsman”; the father of Loki, whose mother was the giantess Laufey (leafy isle); a genealogy which makes W. S. W. Anson remark in Asgard and the Gods that probably the oarsman or Farbauti “was the giant who saved himself from the flood in a boat, and the latter (Laufey) the island to which he rowed”—which is an additional variation of the Deluge.

Fargard (Zend.). A section or chapter of verses in the Vendidad of the Parsis.

Farvarshi (Mazd.). The same as Ferouer, or the opposite (as contrasted) double. The spiritual counterpart of the still more spiritual original. Thus, Ahriman is the Ferouer or the Farvarshi of Ormuzd— “demon est deus inversus”—Satan of God. Michael the Archangel, “he like god”, is a Ferouer of that god. A Farvarshi is the shadowy or dark side of a Deity—or its darker lining.

Ferho (Gnost.). The highest and greatest creative power with the Nazarene Gnostics.
(Codex Nazaræus.)

Fetahil (Gr.). The lower creator, in the same Codex.

First Point. Metaphysically the first point of manifestation, the germ of primeval differentiation, or the point in the infinite Circle “whose centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere“.
The Point is the Logos.

Fire (Living). A figure of speech to denote deity, the “One” life. A theurgic term, used later by the Rosicrucians. The symbol of the living fire is the sun, certain of whose rays develope the fire of life in a diseased body, impart the knowledge of the future to the sluggish mind, and stimulate to active function a certain psychic and generally dormant faculty in man. The meaning is very occult.

Fire-Philosophers. The name given to the Hermetists and Alchemists of the Middle Ages, and also to the Rosicrucians. The latter, the successors of the Theurgists, regarded fire as the symbol of Deity. It was the source, not only of material atoms, but the container of the spiritual and psychic Forces energizing them. Broadly analyzed, fire is a triple principle; esoterically, a septenary, as are all the rest of the Elements. As man is composed of Spirit, Soul and Body, plus a four fold aspect: so is Fire. As in the works of Robert Fludd (de Fluctibus) one of the famous Rosicrucians, Fire contains (1) a visible flame (Body); (2) an invisible, astral fire (Soul); and (3) Spirit. The four aspects are heat (life), light (mind), electricity (Kâmic, or molecular powers) and the Synthetic Essence, beyond Spirit, or the radical cause of its existence and manifestation. For the Hermetist or Rosicrucian, when a flame is extinct on the objective plane it has only passed from the seen world unto the unseen, from the knowable into the unknowable.

Fifty Gates of Wisdom (Kab.). The number is a blind, and there are really 49 gates, for Moses, than whom the Jewish world has no higher adept, reached, according to the Kabbalas, and passed only the 49th. These “gates” typify the different planes of Being or Ens. They are thus the “gates” of Life and the “gates” of understanding or degrees of occult knowledge. These 49 (or 50) gates correspond to the seven gates in the seven caves of Initiation into the Mysteries of Mithra (see Celsus and Kircher). ‘I’he division of the 50 gates into five chief gates, each including ten—is again a blind. It is in the fourth gate of these five, from which begins, ending at the tenth, the world of Planets, thus making seven, corresponding to the seven lower Sephiroth—that the key to their meaning lies hidden. They are also called the “gates of Binah” or understanding.

Flagæ(Herm.). A name given by Paracelsus to a particular kind of guardian angels or genii.

Flame (Holy). The “ Holy Flame” is the name given by the Eastern Asiatic Kabbalists (Semites) to the Anima Mundi the “world- soul” The Initiates were called the “Sons of the Holy Flame.

Fludd (Robert), generally known as Robertus de Fluctibus, the chief of the “Philosophers by Fire”. A celebrated English Hermetist of the sixteenth century, and a voluminous writer. He wrote on the essence of gold and other mystic and occult subjects.

Fluvii Transitus (Lat.). Or crossing of the River (Chebar). Cornelius Agrippa gives this alphabet. In the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. III., part 2, 1890, which work is the Report of the proceedings of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Freemasons, No. 2076, will be found copies of this alphabet, and also the curious old letters called Melachim, and the Celestial alphabet, supplied by W. Wynn Westcott, P.M. This Lodge seems to be the only one in England which really does study “the hidden mysteries of Nature and Science” in earnest.

Fohat (Tib.). A term used to represent the active (male) potency of the Sakti (female reproductive power) in nature. The essence of cosmic electricity. An occult Tibetan term for Daiviprakriti primordial light: and in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless destructive and formative power. Esoterically, it is the same, Fohat being the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant.

Foh-tchou (Chin.). Lit., “Buddha’s Lord”, meaning, however, simply the teacher of the doctrines of Buddha. Foh means a Guru who lives generally in a temple of Sakyamuni Buddha—the Foh-Maeyu.

Fons Yitæ (Lat.). A work of Ibn Gehirol, the Arabian Jewish philosopher of the Xlth century, who called it Me-gôr Hayyûn or the “Fountain of Life” (De Materia Universali and Fons Vitæ). The Western Kabbalists have proclaimed it a really Kabbalistic work. Several MSS.,Latin and Hebrew, of this wonderful production have been discovered by scholars in public libraries; among others one by Munk, in 1802. The Latin name of Ibn Gebirol was Avicebron, a name well-known to all Oriental scholars.

FourAnimals. The symbolical animals of the vision of Ezekiel (the Mercabah). “ With the first Christians the celebration of the Mysteries of the Faith was accompanied by the burning of seven lights, with incense, the Trishagion, and the reading of the book of the gospels, upon which was wrought, both on covers and pages, the winged man, lion, bull, and eagle” (Qabbalah, by Isaac Myer, LL.B.). To this day these animals are represented along with the four Evangelists and prefixing their respective gospels in the editions of the Greek Church. Each represents one of the four lower classes of worlds or planes, into the similitude of which each personality is cast. Thus the Eagle (associated with St. John) represents cosmic Spirit or Ether, the all-piercing Eye of the Seer; the Bull of St. Luke, the waters of Life, the all-generating element and cosmic strength ; the Lion of St. Mark, fierce energy, undaunted courage and cosmic fire; while the human Head or the Angel, which stands near St. Matthew is the synthesis of all three combined in the higher Intellect of man, and in cosmic Spirituality. All these symbols are Egyptian, Chaldean, and Indian. The Eagle, Bull and Lion-headed gods are plentiful, and all represented the same idea, whether in the Egyptian, Chaldean, Indian or Jewish religions, but beginning with the Astral body they went no higher than the cosmic Spirit or the Higher Manas—Atma-Buddhi, or Absolute Spirit and Spiritual Soul its vehicle, being incapable of being symbolised by concrete images.

Fravasham (Zend). Absolute spirit.

Freya or Frigga (Scand.). In the Edda, Frigga is the mother of the gods like Aditi in the Vedas. She is identical with the Northern Frea of the Germans, and in her lowest aspect was worshipped as the all- nourishing Mother Earth. She was seated on her golden throne, formed of webs of golden light, with three divine virgins as her handmaidens and messengers, and was occupied with spinning golden threads with which to reward good men. She is Isis and Diana at the same time, for she is also Holda, the mighty huntress, and she is Ceres-Demeter, who protects agriculture—the moon and nature.

Frost Giants or Hrimthurses (Scand.). They are the great builders, the Cyclopes and Titans of the Norsemen, and play a prominent part in the Edda. It is they who build the strong wall round Asgard (the Scandinavian Olympus) to protect it from the Jotuns, the wicked giants.

Fylfot (Scand.). A weapon of Thor, like the Swastika, or the Jaina, the four-footed cross ; generally called “Thor’s Hammer”.

G •—The seventh letter in the English alphabet. “In Greek, Chaldean, Syriac, Hebrew, Assyrian, Samaritan, Etrurian, Coptic, in the modern Romaic and Gothic, it occupies the third place in the alphabet, while in Cyrillic, Glagolitic, Croat, Russian, Servian and Wallachian, it stands fourth.” As the name of “god” begins with this letter (in Syriac, gad; Swedish, gud: German, gott; English, god; Persian, gada, etc., etc.), there is an occult reason for this which only the students of esoteric philosophy and of the Secret Doctrine, explained esoterically, will understand thoroughly; it refers to the three logoi—the last,the Elohim, and the emanation of the latter, the androgynous Adam Kadmon. All these peoples have derived the name of “god” from their respective traditions, the more or less clear echoes of the esoteric tradition. Spoken and “Silent Speech” (writing) are a “gift of the gods”, say all the national traditions, from the old Aryan Sanskrit-speaking people who claim that their alphabet, the Devanâgari (lit., the language of the devas or gods) was given to them from heaven, down to the Jews, who speak of an alphabet, the parent of the one which has survived, as having been a celestial and mystical symbolism given by the angels to the patriarchs. Hence, every letter had its manifold meaning. A symbol itself of a celestial being and objects, it was in its turn represented on earth by like corresponding objects whose form symbolised the shape of the letter. The present letter, called in Hebrew gimel and symbolised by a long camel’s neck, or rather a serpent erect, is associated with the third sacred divine name, Ghadol or Magnus (great). Its numeral is four, the Tetragrammaton and the sacred Tetraktys; hence its sacredness. With other people it stood for 400 and with a dash over it, for 400,000.

Gabriel. According to the Gnostics, the “Spirit” or Christos, the “messenger of life”, and Gabriel are one. The former “is called some-times the Angel Gabriel Hebrew ‘the mighty one of God’,” and took with the Gnostics the place of the Logos, while the Holy Spirit was considered one with the Æon Life,
(see Irenæus I., xii.). Therefore we find Theodoret saying (in Hævet. Fab., II vii.) : “ The heretics agree with us (Christians) respecting the beginning of all things. But they say there is not one Christ (God), but one above and the other below. And this last formerly dwelt in many; but the Jesus, they at one time say is from God, at another they call him a Spirit;” The key to this is given in the esoteric philosophy. The “spirit” with the Gnostics was a female potency exoterically, it was the ray proceeding from the Higher Manas, the Ego, and that which the Esotericists refer to as the Kâma Manas or the lower personal Ego, which is radiated in every human entity by the Higher Ego or Christos, the god within us. Therefore, they were right in saying: “there is not one Christ, but one above and the other below”. Every student of Occultism will understand this, and also that Gabriel—or “the mighty one of God”—is one with the Higher Ego. (See Isis Unveiled.)

Gæa (Gr.). Primordial Matter, in the Cosmogony of Hesiod; Earth, as some think; the wife of Ouranos, the sky or heavens. The female personage of the primeval Trinity, composed of Ouranos, Gæa and Eros.

Gaffarillus. An Alchemist and philosopher who lived in the middle of the seventeenth century. He is the first philosopher known to maintain that every natural object (e.g., plants, living creatures, etc.), when burned, retained its form in its ashes and that it could be raised again from them. This claim was justified by the eminent chemist Du Chesne, and after him Kircher, Digby and Vallemont have assured themselves of the fact, by demonstrating that the astral forms of burned plants could be raised from their ashes. A receipt for raising such astral phantoms of flowers is given in a work of Oetinger, Thoughts on the Birth and Generation of Things.

Gaganeswara (Sk.). “Lord of the Sky”, a name of Garuda.

Gal-hinnom (Heb.) The name of Hell in the Talmud.

Gambatrin (Scand.). The name of Hermodur’s “magic staff” in the Edda.

Ganadevas (Sk.)A certain class of celestial Beings who are said to inhabit Maharloka. They are the rulers of our Kalpa (Cycle) and therefore termed Kalpâdhikârins, or Lord of the Kalpas. They last only “One Day” of Brahmâ.

Gandapada (Sk.) A celebrated Brahman teacher, the author of the Commentaries on the Sankhya Karika, Mandukya Upanishad, and other works.

Gândhâra (Sk.) A musical note of great occult power in the Hindu gamut—the third of the diatonic scale.

Gandharva (Sk.) The celestial choristers and musicians of India. in the Vedas these deities reveal the secrets of heaven and earth and esoteric science to mortals. They had charge of the sacred Soma plant and its juice, the ambrosia drunk in the temple which gives “omniscience".

Gan-Eden (Heb.) Also Ganduniyas. (See “Eden”.)

Ganesa (Sk.) The elephant-headed God of Wisdom, the son of Siva. He is the same as the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes, and Anubis or Hermanubis (q.v.). The legend shows him as having lost his human head, which was replaced by that of an elephant.

Gangâ (Sk.) The Ganges, the principal sacred river in India. There are two versions of its myth: one relates that Gangâ (the goddess) having transformed herself into a river, flows from the big toe of Vishnu; the other, that the Gangâ drop from the ear of Siva into the Anavatapta lake, thence passes out, through the mouth of the silver cow (gômukhi), crosses all Eastern India and falls into the Southern Ocean. “An ‘heretical superstition ”, remarks Mr. Eitel in his Sanskrit, Chinese Dictionary “ascribes to the waters of the Ganges sin-cleansing power” No more a “superstition” one would say, than the belief that the waters of Baptism and the Jordan have “sin-cleansing power”.

Gangâdwâra (Sk.) “The gate or door of the Ganges”, literally; the name of a town now called Hardwar, at the foot of the Himalayas.

Gangi (Sk.) A renowned Sorcerer in the time of Kâsyapa Buddha (a predecessor of Gautama). Gangi was regarded as an incarnation of Apalâla, the Nâga (Serpent), the guardian Spirit of the Sources of Subhavastu, a river in Udyâna. Apalâla is said to have been converted by Gautama Buddha, to the good Law, and become an Arhat. The allegory of the name is comprehensible : all the Adepts and Initiates were called nâgas, “ Serpents of Wisdom”.

Ganinnânse. A Singhalese priest who has not yet been ordained—from gana, an assemblage or brotherhood. The higher ordained priests “are called terunnânse from the Pali théro, an elder”(Hardy).

Garm (Scand.). The Cerberus of the Edda. This monstrous dog lived in the Gnypa cavern in front of the dwelling of Hel, the goddess of the nether-world.

Garuda (Sk.) A gigantic bird in the Ramâyana, the steed of Vishnu. Esoterically—the symbol of the great Cycle.

Gâthâ (Sk.) Metrical chants or hymns, consisting of moral aphorisms. A gâthâ of thirty-two words is called Âryâgiti.

Gâti (Sk.) The six (esoterically seven) conditions of sentient existence. These are divided into two groups: the three higher and the three lower paths. To the former belong the devas, the asuras and (immortal) men; to the latter (in exoteric teachings) creatures in hell, prêtas or hungry demons, and animals. Explained esoterically, however, the last three are the personalities in Kâmaloka, elementals and animals. The seventh mode of existence is that of the Nirmanakâya (q.v.).

Gâtra (Sk.) Lit., the limbs (of Brahmâ) from which the “mind-born” sons, the seven Kumâras, were born.

Gautama (Sk.) The Prince of Kapilavastu, son of Sudhôdana, the Sâkya king of a small realm on the borders of Nepaul, born in the seventh century B.c., now called the “Saviour of the World”. Gautama or Gôtama was the sacerdotal name of the Sâkya family, and Sidhârtha was Buddha’s name before he became a Buddha. Sâkya Muni, means the Saint of the Sâkya family. Born a simple mortal he rose to Buddhaship through his own personal and unaided merit. A man—verily greater than any god!

Gayâ (Sk.) Ancient city of Magadha, a little north-west of the modern Gayah. It is at the former that Sakyamuni reached his Buddha- ship, under the famous Bodhi-tree, Bodhidruma.

Gayâtri (Sk.) also Sâvitri. A most sacred verse, addressed to the Sun, in the Rig -Veda, which the Brahmans have to repeat mentally every morn and eve during their devotions.

Geber (Heb.) or Gibborim. “Mighty men”; the same as the Kabirim. In heaven, they are regarded as powerful angels, on earth as the giants mentioned in chapter vi. of Genesis.

Gebirol, Solomon Ben Jehudah. Called in literature Avicebron. An Israelite by birth, a philosopher, poet and Kabbalist, a voluminous writer and a mystic. He was born in the eleventh Century at Malaga (1021), educated at Saragossa, and died at Valencia in 1070, murdered by a Mahommedan. His fellow-religionists called him Salomon the Sephardi, or the Spaniard, and the Arabs, Abu Ayyub Suleiman ben ya’hya Ibn Dgebirol; whilst the scholastics named him Avicebron. (See Myer’s Qabbalah.) Ibn Gebirol was certainly one of the greatest philosophers and scholars of his age. He wrote much in Arabic and most of his MSS. have been preserved. His greatest work appears to be the Megôr Hayyîm, i.e., the Fountain of Life, “one of the earliest exposures of the secrets of the Speculative Kabbalah”, as his biographer informs us. (See “Fons Vitæ”.)

Geburah (Heb.) A Kabbalistic term ; the fifth Sephira, a female and passive potency, meaning severity and power; from it is named the Pillar of Severity. [ w. w w.]

Gedulah (Heb.) Another name for the Sephira Chesed.

Gehenna, in Hebrew Hinnom. No hell at all, but a valley near Jerusalem, where Israelites immolated their children to Moloch. In that valley a place named Tophet was situated, where a fire was perpetually preserved for sanitary purposes. The prophet Jeremiah informs us that his countrymen, the Jews, used to sacrifice their children on that spot.

Gehs (Zend) Parsi prayers.

Gelukpa (Tib.) “Yellow Caps” literally ; the highest and most orthodox Buddhist sect in Tibet, the antithesis of the Dugpa (“Red Caps”), the old “devil worshippers”.

Gemara (Heb.) The latter portion of the Jewish Talmud, begun by Rabbi Ashi and completed by Rabbi Mar and Meremar, about 300 A.D. [w.w.w.] Lit., to finish. It is a commentary on the Mishna.

Gematria (Heb.) A division of the practical Kabbalah. It shows the numerical value of Hebrew words by summing up the values of the letters composing them and further, it shows by this means, analogies between words and phrases. [w.w.w.]

One of the methods (arithmetical) for extracting the hidden meaning from letters, words and sentences.

Gems, Three precious. In Southern Buddhism these are the sacred books, the Buddhas and the priesthood. In Northern Buddhism and its secret schools, the Buddha, his sacred teachings, and the Narjols (Buddhas of Compassion).

Genesis. The whole of the Book of Genesis down to the death of Joseph, is found to he a hardly altered version of the Cosmogony of the Chaldeans, as is now repeatedly proven from the Assyrian tiles. The first three chapters are transcribed from the allegorical narratives of the beginnings common to all nations. Chapters four and five are a new allegorical adaptation of the same narration in the secret Book of Numbers; chapter six is an astronomical narrative of the Solar year and the seven cosmocratores from the Egyptian original of the Pymander and the symbolical visions of a series of Enoichioi (Seers)—from whom came also the Book of Enoch. The beginning of Exodus, and the story of Moses is that of the Babylonian Sargon, who having flourished (as even that unwilling authority Dr. Sayce tells us) 3750 B.C. preceded the Jewish lawgiver by almost 2300 years. (See Secret Doctrine, vol. II., pp. 691 et seq.) Nevertheless, Genesis is an undeniably esoteric work. It has not borrowed, nor has it disfigured the universal symbols and teachings on the lines of which it was written, but simply adapted the eternal truths to its own national spirit and clothed them in cunning allegories comprehensible only to its Kabbalists and Initiates. The Gnostics have done the same, each sect in its own way, as thousands of years before, India, Egypt, Chaldea and Greece, had also dressed the same incommunicable truths each in its own national garb. The key and solution to all such narratives can be found only in the esoteric teachings.

Genii (Lat.) A name for Æons, or angels, with the Gnostics. The names of their hierarchies and classes are simply legion.

Geonic Period. The era of the Geonim may be found mentioned in works treating of the Kabbalah ; the ninth century AD. is implied.

Gharma (Sk.) A title of Karttikeya, the Indian god of war and the Kumâra born of Siva’s drop of sweat that fell into the Ganges.

Ghôcha (Sk.) Lit., “the miraculous Voice”. The name of a great Arhat, the author of Abhidharmamrita Shastra, who restored sight to a blind man by anointing his eyes with the tears of the audience moved by his (Ghôcha’s) supernatural eloquence.

Gilgoolem (Heb.) The cycle of rebirths with the Hebrew Kabbalists; with the orthodox Kabbalists, the “whirling of the soul” after death, which finds-no rest until it reaches Palestine, the “promised land”, and its body is buried there.

Gimil (Scand.). “The Cave of Gimil” or Wingolf. A kind of Heaven or Paradise, or perhaps a New Jerusalem, built by the “Strong and Mighty God” who remains nameless in the Edda, above the Field of Ida, and after the new earth rose out of the waters.

Ginnungagap (Scand.). The “cup of illusion” literally ; the abyss of the great deep, or the shoreless, beginningless, and endless, yawning gulf; which in esoteric parlance we call the “World’s Matrix”, the primordial living space. The cup that contains the universe, hence the “cup of illusion”.

Giöl (Scand.) The, Styx, the river Giöl which had to be crossed before the nether-world was reached, or the cold Kingdom of Hel. It was spanned by a gold-covered bridge, which led to the gigantic iron fence that encircles the palace of the Goddess of the Under-World or Hel.

Gna (Scand.) One of the three handmaidens of the goddess Freya. She is a female Mercury who bears her mistress’ messages into all parts of the world.

Gnâna (Sk.) Knowledge as applied to the esoteric sciences.

Gnân Devas (Sk.) Lit., “the gods of knowledge”. The higher classes of gods or devas; the “mind-born” sons of Brahmâ, and others including the Manasa-putras (the Sons of Intellect). Esoterically, our reincarnating Egos.

Gnânasakti (Sk.) The power of true knowledge, one of the seven great forces in Nature (six, exoterically).

Gnatha (Sk.) The Kosmic Ego; the conscious, intelligent Soul of Kosmos.

Gnomes (Alch.) The Rosicrucian name for the mineral and earth elementals,

Gnôsis (Gr.) Lit., “knowledge”. The technical term used by the schools of religious philosophy, both before and during the first centuries of so-called Christianity, to denote the object of their enquiry. This Spiritual and Sacred Knowledge, the Gupta Vidya of the Hindus, could only be obtained by Initiation into Spiritual Mysteries of which the ceremonial “Mysteries” were a type.

Gnostics (Gr.) The philosophers who formulated and taught the Gnôsis or Knowledge (q.v.). They flourished in the first three centuries of the Christian era: the following were eminent, Valentinus, Basilides, Marcion, Simon Magus, etc. [ w.w. w.]

Gnypa (Scand.) The cavern watched by the dog Garm (q.v.).

Gogard (Zend.) The Tree of Life in the Avesta.

Golden Age. The ancients divided the life cycle into the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron Ages. The Golden was an age of primeval purity, simplicity and general happiness.

Gonpa (Tib.) A temple or monastery; a Lamasery.

Gonpîs (Sk.). Shepherdesses — the playmates and companions of Krishna, among whom was his wife Raddha.

Gossain (Sk.). The name of a certain class of ascetics in India.

Great Age. There were several “great ages” mentioned by the ancients. In India it embraced the whole Maha-manvantara, the “age of Brahmâ”, each “Day” of which represents the life cycle of a chain—i.e. it embraces a period of seven Rounds. (See Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett.) Thus while a “Day” and a “Night” represent, as Manvantara and Pralaya, 8,640,000,000 years, an “age” lasts through a period of 311,040,000,000,000 years; after which the Pralaya, or dissolution of the universe, becomes universal. With the Egyptians and Greeks the “great age” referred only to the tropical or sidereal year, the duration of which is 25,868 solar years. Of the complete age—that of the gods— they say nothing, as it was a matter to he discussed and divulged only in the Mysteries, during the initiating ceremonies. The “great age” of the Chaldees was the same in figures as that of the Hindus.

Grihastha (Sk.) Lit., “a householder”, “one who lives in a house with his family”. A Brahman “ family priest” in popular rendering, and the sarcerdotal hierarchy of the Hindus.

Guardian Wall. A suggestive name given to the host of translated adepts (Narjols) or the Saints collectively, who are supposed to watch over, help and protect Humanity. This is the so-called “Nirmanâkâya” doctrine in Northern mystic Buddhism. (See Voice of the Silence, Part III.)

Guff (Heb.) Body; physical form; also written Gof.

Guhya (Sk.) Concealed, secret.

Guhya Vidyâ(Sk.) The secret knowledge of mystic Mantras.

Gullweig (Scand.) The personification of the “golden” ore. It is said in the Edda that during the Golden Age, when lust for gold and wealth was yet unknown to man, “when the gods played with golden disks, and no passion disturbed the rapture of mere existence”, the whole earth was happy. But, no sooner does “Gullweig (Gold ore) the bewitching enchantress come, who, thrice cast into the fire, arises each time more beautiful than before, and fills the souls of gods and men with unappeasable longing ”, than all became changed. It is then that the Norns, the Past, Present and Future, entered into being, the blessed peace of childhood’s dreams passed away and Sin came into existence with all its evil consequences. (Asgard and the Gods.)

Gunas (Sk) Qualities, attributes (See“ Triguna”) ; a thread, also a cord.

Gunavat (Sk.) That which is endowed with qualities.

Gupta Vidyâ (Sk.) The same as Guhya Vidyâ; Esoteric or Secret Science; knowledge.

Guru (Sk.) Spiritual Teacher; a master in metaphysical and ethical doctrines; used also for a teacher of any science.

Guru Deva (Sk.) Lit., “divine Master”.

Gyan-Ben-Giân (Pers.) The King of the Peris, the Sylphs, in the old mythology of Iran.

Gyges (Gr.) “The ring of Gyges” has become a familiar metaphor in European literature. Gyges was a Lydian who, after murdering the King Candaules, married his widow. Plato tells us that Gyges descended once into a chasm of the earth and discovered a brazen horse, within whose open side was the skeleton of a man who had a brazen ring on his finger. This ring when placed on his own finger made him invisible.

Gymnosophists (Gr.) The name given by Hellenic writers to a class of naked or “air-clad” mendicants; ascetics in India, extremely learned and endowed with great mystic powers. It is easy to recognise in these gymnosophists the Hindu Aranyaka of old, the learned yogis and ascetic- philosophers who retired to the jungle and forest, there to reach, through great austerities, superhuman knowledge and experience.

Gyn (Tib.) Knowledge acquired under the tuition of an adept teacher or guru.

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