Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky
1831
- 1891
THEOSOPHICAL
GLOSSARY
BY
H.
P. BLAVATSKY
First
Published 1892
O,
P.
0.—The fifteenth letter and fourth vowel in the English
alphabet. It has no equivalent in Hebrew, whose alphabet with one exception is
vowelless. As a numeral, it signified with the ancients 11; and with a dash on
it 11,000. With other ancient people also, it was a very sacred letter. In the
Dęvanâgari, or the characters of the gods, its significance is varied, but
there is no space to give instances.
Oak, sacred. With the Druids the oak was a most
holy tree, and so also with the ancient Greeks, if we can believe Pherecydes
and his cosmogony, who tells us of the sacred oak “in whose luxuriant branches
a serpent (i.e., wisdom) dwelleth, and cannot be dislodged”. Every nation had
its own sacred trees, pre-eminently the Hindus.
Oannes. (Gr.). Musarus Oannes, the Annedotus, known in
the Chaldean “legends”, transmitted through Berosus and other ancient writers,
as Dag or Dagon, the “man-fish”. Oannes came to the early Babylonians as a
reformer and an instructor. Appearing from the
Obeah. Sorcerers and sorceresses of
Occult
Sciences. The science of the secrets
of nature—physical and psychic, mental and spiritual; called Hermetic and
Esoteric Sciences. In the West, the Kabbalah may be named; in the East,
mysticism, magic, and Yoga philosophy, which latter is often referred to by the
Chelas in
Occultist. One who studies the various branches of occult
science. The term is used by the French Kabbalists (See Eliphas Lévi’s works).
Occultism embraces the whole range of psychological, physiological, cosmical,
physical, and spiritual phenomena. From the word occultus hidden or secret. It
therefore applies to the study of the Kabbalah, astrology, alchemy, and
all arcane sciences.
Od
(Gr.). From odos,
“passage”, or passing of that force which is developed by various minor forces
or agencies such as magnets, chemical or vital action, heat, light, &c. It
is also called “odic” and “odylic force”, and was regarded by Reichenbach and
his followers as an independent entitative force—which it certainly is—stored
in man as it is in Nature.
Odacon. The fifth Annedotus, or Dagon (See “Oannes”)
who appeared during the reign of Euedoreschus from Pentebiblon, also “from the
Erythrćan Sea like the former, having the same complicated form between a
fish and a man” (Apollodorus, Cory p. 30).
Odem or Adm (Heb.). A stone (the cornelian)
on the breast-plate of the Jewish High Priest. It is of red colour and
possesses a great medicinal power.
Odin
(Scand.). The god of battles,
the old German Sabbaoth, the same as the Scandinavian Wodan. He
is the great hero in the Edda and one of the creators of man. Roman
antiquity regarded him as one with Hermes or Mercury (Budha), and modern
Orientalism (Sir W. Jones) accordingly confused him with Buddha. In the
Pantheon of the Norse men, he is the “father of the gods” and divine wisdom,
and as such he is of course Hermes or the creative wisdom. Odin or Wodan in
creating the first man from trees—the Ask (ash) and Embla (the alder)_ endowed
them with life and soul, Honir with intellect, and Lodur with form and colour.
Odur
(Scand.). The human husband of
the goddess Freya, a scion of divine ancestry in the Northern mythology.
Oeaihu, or Oeaihwu. The manner of pronunciation
depends on the accent. This is an esoteric term for the six in one or the
mystic seven. The occult name for the “seven vowelled” ever-present manifestation
of the Universal Principle.
Ogdoad
(Gr.). The tetrad or
“quaternary” reflecting itself produced the ogdoad, the “eight”, according to
the Marcosian Gnostics. The eight great gods were called the “sacred Ogdoad”.
Ogham
(Celtic). A mystery language
belonging to the early Celtic races, and used by the Druids. One form of this
language consisted in the association of the leaves of certain trees with the
letters, this was called Beth-luis-nion Ogham, and to form words and
sentences the leaves were strung on a cord in the proper order. Godfrey Higgins
suggests that to complete the mystification certain other leaves which meant
nothing were interspersed.
Ogir or Hler (Scand). A chief of the giants
in the Edda and the ally of the gods. The highest of the Water-gods, and
the same as the Greek Okeanos.
Ogmius. The god of wisdom and eloquence of the Druids, hence
Hermes in a sense.
Ogygia (Gr.). An ancient submerged island known as the
isle of Calypso, and identified by some with Atlantis. This is in a certain
sense correct. But then what portion of Atlantis, since the latterwas a
continent rather than an “enormous” island!
Oitzoe
(Pers.). The invisible goddess
whose voice spoke through the rocks, and whom, according to Pliny, the Magi
had to consult for the election of their kings.
Okhal (Arab.). The “High”priest of the Druzes, an
Initiator into their mysteries.
Okhema
(Gr.). A Platonic term meaning
“vehicle” or body.
Okuthor
(Scand.). The same as Thor,
the “thunder god”.
Omito-Fo (Chin.). The name of Amita-Buddha, in China.
Omkâra (Sk.). The same as Aum or Om. It is also the name of
one of the twelve lingams, that was represented by a secret and most
sacred shrine at Ujjain—no longer existing, since the time of Buddhism.
Omoroka (Chald.). The “sea” and the woman who
personifies it according to Berosus, or rather of Apollodorus. As the divine
water, however, Omoroka is the reflection of Wisdom from on high.
Onech (Heb.). The Phśnix so named after Enoch or
Phenoch. For Enoch (also Khenoch) means literally the initiator and instructor,
hence the Hierophant who reveals the last mystery. The bird Phśnix is
always associated with a tree, the mystical Ababel of the Koran, the Tree
of Initiation or of knowledge.
Onnofre or Oun-nofre (Eg.). The King of the land
of the Dead, the Underworld, and in this capacity the same as Osiris, “who
resides in Amenti at Oun-nefer, king of eternity, great god manifested in the
celestial abyss”. (A hymn of the XIXth dynasty.) (See also “Osiris”.)
Ophanim
(Heb.). More correctly written
Auphanim. The “wheels” seen by Ezekiel and by John in the
Revelation—world.spheres (Secret Doctrine I., 92.) The symbol of the
Cherubs or Karoubs (the Assyrian Sphinxes). As these beings are represented in
the Zodiac by Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, or the Bull, the Lion, the
Eagle and Man, the occult meaning of these creatures being placed in company of
the four Evangelists becomes evident. In the Kabbalah they are a group
of beings allotted to the Sephira Chokmah, Wisdom.
Ophis
(Gr.). The same as Chnuphis or
Kneph, the Logos; the good serpent or Agathodćmon.
Ophiomorphos
(Gr.). The same, but in its
material aspect, as the Ophis-Christos. With the Gnostics the Serpent
represented “Wisdom in Eternity”.
Ophis-Christos (Gr.). The serpent Christ of the Gnostics.
Ophiozenes
(Gr.). The name of the
Cypriote charmers of venomous serpents and other reptiles and animals.
Ophites
(Gr.). A Gnostic Fraternity in
Egypt, and one of the earliest sects of Gnosticism, or Gnosis (Wisdom,
Knowledge), known as the “Brotherhood of the Serpent”. It flourished early in
the second century, and while holding some of the principles of Valentinus had
its own occult rites and symbology. A living serpent, representing the
Christos-principle (i.e., the divine reincarnating Monad, not Jesus the man),
was displayed in their mysteries and reverenced as a symbol of wisdom, Sophia,
the type of the all-good and all-wise. The Gnostics were not a Christian sect,
in the common acceptation of this term, as the Christos of pre-Christian
thought and the Gnosis was not the “god-man” Christ, but the divine EGO,
made one with Buddhi. Their Christos was the “Eternal Initiate”, the Pilgrim,
typified by hundreds of Ophidian symbols for several thousands of years before
the “ Christian” era, so- called. One can see it on the “Belzoni tomb” from
Egypt, as a winged serpent with three heads (Atma-Buddhi-Manas), and four
human legs, typifying its androgynous character; on the walls of the descent to
the sepulchral chambers of Rameses V., it is found as a snake with vulture’s
wings—the vulture and hawk being solar symbols. “The heavens are scribbled over
with interminable snakes ‘ writes Herschel of the Egyptian chart of stars. “The
Meissi (Messiah?) meaning the Sacred Word, was a good serpent”,
writes Bonwick in his Egyptian Belief. “This serpent of goodness, with
its head crowned, was mounted upon a cross and formed a sacred standard of
Egypt.” The Jews borrowed it in their “brazen serpent of Moses”. It is
to this “Healer” and “Saviour”, therefore, that the Ophites referred, and not
to Jesus or his words, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so it
behoves the Son of Man to be lifted up”—when explaining the meaning of their ophis.
Tertullian, whether wittingly or unwittingly, mixed up the two. The four-winged
serpent is the god Chnuphis. The good serpent bore the cross of life around its
neck, or suspended from its mouth. The winged serpents become the Seraphim
(Seraph, Saraph) of the Jews. In the 87th chapter of the Ritual
(the Book of the Dead) the human soul transformed into Bata, the
omniscient serpents says :—“ I am the serpent Ba-ta, of long years, Soul
of the Soul, laid out and born daily; I am the Soul that descends on the
earth”, i.e., the Ego.
Orai (Gr.). The name of the angel-ruler of Venus,
according to the Egyptian Gnostics.
Orcus
(Gr.). The bottomless pit in
the Codex of the Nazarenes.
Örgelmir (Scand.). Lit., “seething clay”. The same as
Ymir, the giant, the unruly, turbulent, erratic being, the type of primordial
matter, out of whose body, after killing him, the sons of Bör created a new
earth. He is also the cause of the Deluge in the Scandinavian Lays, for he
flung his body into Ginnungagap, the yawning abyss; the latter being filled
with it, the blood flowed over and produced a great flood in which all the
Hrimthurses, the frost giants, were drowned; one of them only the cunning
Bergelmir saves himself and wife in a boat and became the father of a new race
of giants. “ And there were giants on the earth in those days.”
Orion (Gr.). The same as Atlas, who supports the
world on his shoulders.
Orlog
(Scand.). Fate, destiny, whose
agents were the three Norns, the Norse Parcć.
Ormazd or Ahura Mazda (Zend). The god of the
Zoroastrians or the modern Parsis. He is symbolized by the sun, as being the
Light of Lights. Esoterically, he is the synthesis of his six Amshaspends or
Elohim, and the creative Logos. In the Mazdean exoteric system, Ahura Mazda is
the supreme god, and one with the supreme god of the Vedic age—Varuna, if we
read the Vedas literally.
Orpheus (Gr.). Lit., the “tawny one”. Mythology makes
him the son of Ćager and the muse Calliope. Esoteric tradition identifies him with
Arjuna, the son of Indra and the disciple of Krishna. He went round the world
teaching the nations wisdom and sciences, and establishing mysteries. The very
story of his losing his Eurydice and finding her in the underworld or Hades, is
another point of resemblance with the story of Arjuna, who goes to Pâtŕla (Hades
or hell, but in reality the Antipodes or America) and finds there and
marries Ulupi, the daughter of the Nâga king. This is as suggestive as the fact
that he was considered dark in complexion even by the Greeks, who were
never very fair-skinned themselves.
Orphic
Mysteries or Orphica (Gr.).
These followed, but differed greatly from, the mysteries of Bacchus. The system
of Orpheus is one of the purest morality and of severe asceticism. The theology
taught by him is again purely Indian. With him the divine Essence is
inseparable from whatever is in the infinite universe, all forms being
concealed from all eternity in It. At determined periods these forms are
manifested from the divine Essence or manifest themselves. Thus through this
law of emanation (or evolution) all things participate in this Essence, and are
parts and members instinct with divine nature, which is omnipresent. All things
having proceeded from, must necessarily return into it; and therefore,
innumerable transmigrations or reincarnations and purifications are needed
before this final consummation can take place. This is pure Vedânta philosophy.
Again, the Orphic Brotherhood ate no animal food and wore white linen garments,
and had many ceremonies like those of the Brahmans.
Oshadi
Prastha (Sk.). Lit., “the
place of medicinal herbs”. A mysterious city in the Himalayas mentioned even
from the Vedic period. Tradition shows it as once inhabited by sages, great
adepts in the healing art, who used only herbs and plants, as did the ancient
Chaldees. The city is mentioned in the Kumâra Sambhava of Kalidasa.
Osiris. (Eg.). The greatest God of Egypt, the Son of
Seb (Saturn), celestial fire, and of Neith, primordial matter and infinite
space. This shows him as the self-existent and self-created god, the first
manifesting deity (our third Logos), identical with Ahura Mazda and other “
First Causes”. For as Ahura Mazda is
one with, or the synthesis of, the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit,
when differentiated and personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and
Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. He was born at Mount
Sinai, the Nyssa of the 0. T. (See- Exodus xvii. 15), and buried at
Abydos, after being killed by Typhon at the early age of twenty-eight,
according to the allegory. According to Euripides he is the same as Zeus and
Dionysos or Dio-Nysos “the god of Nysa”, for Osiris is said by him to
have been brought up in Nysa, in Arabia “the Happy”. Query: how much did the
latter tradition influence, or have anything in common with, the statement in
the Bible, that “Moses built an altar and called the name Jehovah Nissi”, or
Kabbalistically—“Dio-Iao-Nyssi”? (See Isis Unveiled Vol. II. p. 165.)
The four chief aspects of Osiris were—Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual
aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect;
Osiris-Lunus, the “ Lunar” or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon,
Daїmonic, or physical, material, therefore passional turbulent aspect. In
these four aspects he symbolizes the dual Ego— the divine and the human, the
cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial.
Of
the many supreme gods, this Egyptian conception is the most suggestive and the
grandest, as it embraces the whole range of physical and metaphysical thought.
As a solar deity he had twelve minor gods under him—the twelve signs of the
Zodiac. Though his name is the “Ineffable”, his forty-two attributes bore each
one of his names, and his seven dual aspects completed the forty-nine, or 7 X
7; the former symbolized by the fourteen members of his body, or twice seven.
Thus the god is blended in man, and the man is deified into a god. He was
addressed as Osiris-Eloh. Mr. Dunbar T. Heath speaks of a Phśnician inscription
which, when read, yielded the following tumular inscription in honour of the
mummy: “Blessed be Ta-Bai, daughter of Ta-Hapi, priest of Osiris-Eloh. She did
nothing against anyone in anger. She spoke no falsehood against any one.
Justified before Osiris, blessed be thou from before Osiris! Peace be to thee.”
And then he adds the following remarks: “The author of this inscription ought,
I suppose, to be called a heathen, as justification before Osiris is the object
of his religious aspirations. We find, however, that he gives to Osiris the
appellation Eloh. Eloh is the name used by the Ten Tribes of Israel for
the Elohim of Two Tribes. Jehovah-Eloh (Gen. iii. 21.) in the version used by
Ephraim corresponds to Jehovah Elohim in that used by Judah and ourselves. This
being so, the question is sure to be asked, and ought to be humbly
answered—What was the meaning meant to be conveyed by the two phrases
respectively, Osiris-Eloh and Jehovah-Eloh? For my part I can
imagine but one answer, viz., that Osiris was the national God of Egypt,
Jehovah that of Israel, and that Eloh is equivalent to Deus, Gott or Dieu”.
As to his human development, he is, as the author of the Egyptian Belief has
it . . . “One of the Saviours or Deliverers of Humanity . . . . As such he is
born in the world. He came as a benefactor, to relieve man of trouble . . . .
In his efforts to do good he encounters evil . . . and he is temporarily
overcome. He is killed . . Osiris is buried. His tomb was the object of
pilgrimage for thousands of years. But he did not rest in his grave. At the end
of three days, or forty, he rose again and ascended to Heaven. This is the
story of his Humanity” (Egypt. Belief). And Mariette Bey, speaking of
the Sixth Dynasty, tells us that “the name of Osiris . . commences to be more
used. The formula of Justified is met with”: and adds that “it proves
that this name (of the Justified or Makheru was not given to the
dead only”. But it also proves that the legend of Christ was found ready in
almost all its details thousands of years before the Christian era, and that
the Church fathers had no greater difficulty than to simply apply it to a new
personage.
Ossa. (Gr.) A mount, the tomb of the giants
(allegorical).
Otz-Chiim. (Heb.). The Tree of Life, or rather of Lives, a
name given to the Ten Sephiroth when arranged in a diagram of three columns.
[w.w.w.]
Oulam, or Oulom (Heb.). This word does not
mean “eternity” or infinite duration, as translated in the texts, but
simply an extended time, neither the beginning nor the end of which can be
known.
Ouranos (Gr.). The whole expanse of Heaven called the
“Waters of Space”, the Celestial Ocean, etc. The name very likely comes from
the Vedic Varuna, personified as the water god and regarded as the chief Aditya
among the seven planetary deities. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Ouranos (or Uranus) is
the same
as Cślus (Heaven) the oldest of all the gods and the father of the divine
Titans.
P.—The 16th letter in both the Greek and the English
alphabets, and the 17th in the Hebrew, where it is called pé or pay,
and is symbolized by the mouth, corresponding also, as in the Greek alphabet,
to number 80. The Pythagoreans also made it equivalent to 100, and with a dash
thus ( P) it stood for 400,000. The Kabbalists associated with it the sacred
name of Phodeh (Redeemer), though no valid reason is given for it.
P
and Cross, called generally the
Labarum of Constantine. It was, however, one of the oldest emblems in Etruria
before the Roman Empire. It was also the sign of Osiris. Both the long Latin
and the Greek pectoral crosses are Egyptian, the former being very often seen
in the hand of Horus. “The cross and Calvary so common in Europe, occurs on the
breasts of mummies” (Bonwick).
Pachacamac (Peruv.). The name given by the Peruvians to
the Creator of the Universe, represented as a host of creators. On his
altar only the first-fruits and flowers were laid by the pious.
Pacis
Bull. The divine Bull of Hermonthes,
sacred to Amoun-Horus, the Bull Netos of Heliopolis being sacred to Amoun-Ra.
Padârthas (Sk.). Predicates of existing things;
so-called in the Vaiseshika or “atomic” system of philosophy founded by
Kanâda. This school is one of the six Darshanas.
Padmâ
(Sk.). The Lotus; a name of Lakshmi,
the Hindu Venus, who is the wife or the female aspect, of Vishnu.
Padma
Âsana (Sk.). A posture
prescribed to and practised by some Yogis for developing concentration.
Padma
Kalpa (Sk.). The name of the
last Kalpa or the preceding Manvantara, which was a year of Brahmâ.
Padma
Yoni (Sk). A title of Brahmâ (also
called Abjayoni), or the “lotus-born”.
Pćan
(Gr.). A hymn of rejoicing and
praise in honour of the sun-god Apollo or Helios.
Pagan
(Lat.). Meaning at first no worse than a dweller in the
country or the woods; one far removed from the city-temples, and therefore
unacquainted with the state religion and ceremonies. The word “heathen” has a
similar significance, meaning one who lives on the heaths and in the country.
Now, however, both come to mean idolaters.
Pagan
Gods. The term is erroneously
understood to mean idols. The philosophical idea attached to them was never
that of something objective or anthropomorphic, but in each case an abstract
potency, a virtue, or quality in nature. There are gods who are divine
planetary spirits (Dhyan Chohans) or Devas, among which are also our Egos. With
this exception, and especially whenever represented by an idol or in
anthropomorphic form, the gods represent symbolically in the Hindu, Egyptian,
or Chaldean Pantheons—formless spiritual Potencies of the “Unseen Kosmos”.
Pahans
(Prakrit) Village priests.
Paksham
(Sk.). An astronomical
calculation; one half of the lunar month or 14 days; two paksham (or paccham)
making a month of mortals, but only a day of the Pitar devata or the
“father-gods”.
Palćolithic A newly-coined term meaning in geology “ancient
stone” age, as a contrast to the term neolithic, the “newer” or later
stone age.
Palâsa
Tree (Sk.) Called also Kanaka (butea frondosa)
a tree with red flowers of very occult properties.
Pâli. The ancient language of Magadha, one that preceded
the more refined Sanskrit. The Buddhist Scriptures are all written in this
language.
Palingenesis (Gr.). Transformation; or new birth.
Pan
(Gr.). The nature-god, whence
Pantheism; the god of shepherds, huntsmen, peasants, and dwellers on the land.
Homer makes him the son of Hermes and Dryope. His name means ALL. He was the
inventor of the Pandćan pipes; and no nymph who heard their sound could resist
the fascination of the great Pan, his grotesque figure not withstanding. Pan is
related to the Mendesian goat, only so far as the latter represents, as a
talisman of great occult potency, nature’s creative force. The whole of the
Hermetic philosophy is based on nature’s hidden secrets, and as Baphomet was
undeniably a Kabbalistic talisman, so was the name of Pan of great magic
efficiency in what Eliphas Lévi would call the “ Conjuration of the
Elementals”. There is a well-known pious legend which has been current in the
Christian world ever since the day of Tiberias, to the effect that the “great
Pan is dead”. But people are greatly mistaken in this; neither nature nor any
of her Forces can ever die. A few of these may be left unused, and being
forgotten lie dormant for long centuries. But no sooner are the proper
conditions furnished than they awake, to act again with tenfold power.
Panćnus(Gr.). A Platonic philosopher in the
Alexandrian school of Philaletheans.
Pancha
Kosha (Sk.). The five
“sheaths”. According to Vedantin philosophy, Vijnânamaya Kosha, the fourth
sheath, is composed of Buddhi, or is Buddhi. The five sheaths are said to
belong to the two higher principles—Jivâtma and Sâkshi, which
represent the Upathita and An-upahita, divine spirit
respectively. The division in the esoteric teaching differs from this, as it
divides man’s physical-metaphysical aspect into seven principles.
Pancha
Krishtaya (Sk.). The five
races.
Panchakâma
(Sk.). Five methods of
sensuousness and sensuality.
Panchakritam (Sk.). An element combined with small portions
of the other four elements.
Panchama
(Sk.). One of the five
qualities of musical sound, the fifth, Nishâda and Daivata completing the seven;
G of the diatonic scale.
Panchânana (Sk.). “Five-faced”, a title of Siva; an
allusion to the five races (since the beginning of the first) which he
represents, as the ever reincarnating Kumâra throughout the Manvantara. In the
sixth root-race he will be called the “six-faced”.
Panchâsikha (Sk.). One of the seven Kumâras who went to
pay worship to Vishnu on the island of Swetadwipa in the allegory.
Panchen
Rimboche (Tib.). Lit., “the
great Ocean, or Teacher of Wisdom”. The title of the Teshu Lama at Tchigadze;
an incarnation of Amitabha the celestial “father” of Chenresi, which means to
say that he is an Avatar of Tson-kha-pa (See “Sonkhapa”). De jure
the Teshu Lama is second after the Dalaї Lama; de facto, he is
higher, since it is Dharma Richen, the successor of Tson-kha-pa at the golden
monastery founded by the latter Reformer and established by the Gelukpa sect
(yellow caps) who created the Dalaї Lamas at Llhassa, and was the first
of the dynasty of the “ Panchen Rimboche”. While the former (Dalaї Lama
are addressed as “ Jewel of Majesty”, the latter enjoy a far higher title,
namely “Jewel of Wisdom”, as they are high Initiates.
Pândavâranî
(Sk.). Lit., the “Pandava Queen”;
Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas. (All these are highly important personified
symbols in esoteric philosophy.)
Pandavas
(Sk.). The descendants of
Pandu.
Pandora (Gr.). A beautiful woman created by the gods
under the orders of Zeus to be sent to Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus; she
had charge of a casket in which all the evils, passions and plagues which
torment humanity were locked up. This casket Pandora, led by curiosity, opened,
and
thus set free all the ills which prey on mankind.
Pandu (Sk.). “The Pale”, literally; the father of
the Pandavas Princes, the foes of the Kurava in the Mahâbhârata.
Pânini (Sk.). A celebrated grammarian, author of the
famous work called Pâninîyama; a Rishi, supposed to have received his work from
the god Siva. Ignorant of the epoch at which he lived, the Orientalists place
his date between 600 B.C. and 300 A.D.
Pantacle
(Gr.). The same as Pentalpha;
the triple triangle of Pythagoras or the five-pointed star. It was given the
name because it reproduces the letter A (alpha) on the five sides of it
or in five different positions—its number, moreover, being composed of the
first odd ( and the first even (2) numbers. It is very occult. In Occultism and
the Kabala it stands for man or the Microcosm, the “Heavenly Man”, and as such
it was a powerful talisman for keeping at bay evil spirits or the Elementals.
In Christian theology it refers to the five wounds of Christ; its interpreters
failing, however, to add that these “five wounds” were themselves symbolical of
the Microcosm, or the “Little Universe”, or again, Humanity, this symbol pointing
out the fall of pure Spirit (Christos) into matter (Iassous, “life”, or man).
In esoteric philosophy the Pentalpha, or five-pointed star, is the symbol of
the EGO or the Higher Manas. Masons use it, referring to it as the five-pointed
star, and connecting it with their own fanciful interpretation.
(See the word “Pentacle” for its difference in meaning from “Pantacle”.)
Pantheist. One who identifies God with Nature and vice versa.
Pantheism is often objected to by people and regarded as reprehensible. But how
can a philosopher regard Deity as infinite, omnipresent and eternal unless
Nature is an aspect of IT, and IT informs every atom in Nature?
Panther (Heb.). According to the Sepher Toldosh
Jeshu, one of the so-called Apocryphal Jewish Gospels, Jesus was the son of
Joseph Panther and Mary, hence Ben Panther. Tradition makes of Panther a Roman
soldier.
Pâpa-purusha (Sk.). Lit., “Man of Sin”: the personification
in a human form of every wickedness and sin. Esoterically, one who is reborn,
or reincarnated from the state of Avitchi—hence, “Soulless”.
Para
(Sk.). “Infinite” and
“supreme” in philosophy—the final limit. Param is the end and goal of
existence; Parâpara is the boundary of boundaries.
Parabrahm
(Sk.). “Beyond Brahmâ”, literally.
The Supreme Infinite Brahma, “Absolute”—the attributeless, the secondless
reality. The impersonal and nameless universal Principle.
Paracelsus. The symbolical name adopted by the greatest Occultist
of the middle ages—Philip Bombastes Aureolus Theophrastus von Hohenheim—born in
the canton of Zurich in 1493. He was the cleverest physician of his age, and
the most renowned for curing almost any illness by the power of talismans
prepared by himself. He never had a friend, but was surrounded by enemies, the
most bitter of whom were the Churchmen and their party. That he was accused of
being in league with the devil stands to reason, nor is it to be wondered at
that finally he was murdered by some unknown foe, at the early age of
forty-eight. He died at Salzburg, leaving a number of works behind him, which
are to this day greatly valued by the Kabbalists and Occultists. Many of his
utterances have proved prophetic. He was a clairvoyant of great powers, one of
the most learned and erudite philosophers and mystics, and a distinguished
Alchemist. Physics is indebted to him for the discovery of nitrogen gas, or Azote.
Paradha
(Sk.). The period of one-half
the Age of Brahmâ.
Parama
(Sk.). The “one Supreme”.
Paramapadâtmava
(Sk.). Beyond the condition of
Spirit, “supremer” than Spirit, bordering on the Absolute.
Paramapadha (Sk.). The place where—according to
Visishtadwaita Vedantins—bliss is enjoyed by those who reach Moksha
(Bliss). This “place” is not material but made, says the Catechism of that
sect,
“of Suddhasatwa, the essence of which the body of Iswara”, the lord, “is
made”.
Paramapaha (Sk) A state which is already a conditioned
existence.
Paramartha
(Sk) Absolute existence.
Pâramârthika (Sk.). The one true state of existence
according to Vedânta.
Paramarshis
(Sk.). Composed of two words: parama,
“supreme”, and Rishis,
or supreme Rishis—Saints.
Paramâtman (Sk.). The Supreme Soul of the Universe.
Paranellatons. In ancient Astronomy the name was applied to certain
stars and constellations which are extra Zodiacal, lying above and below the
constellations of the Zodiac; they were 36 in number: allotted to the Decans,
or one-third parts of each sign. The paranellatons ascend or descend with the
Decans alternately, thus when Scorpio rises, Orion in its paranellaton sets,
also Auriga; this gave rise to the fable that the horses of Phaeton, the Sun,
were frightened by a Scorpion, and the Charioteer fell into the River Po; that
is the constellation of the River Eridanus which lies below Auriga the star.
Paranirvâna
(Sk.). Absolute Non-Being,
which is equivalent to absolute Being or “Be-ness”, the state reached by
the human Monad at the end of the great cycle (See Secret Doctrine I,
135). The same as Paraniskpanna.
Parasakti
(Sk.). “The great Force”—one
of the six Forces of Nature; that of light and heat.
Parâsara (Sk.). A Vedic Rishi, the narrator of Vishnu
Purâna.
Paratantra (Sk.). That which has no existence of, or by itself,
but only through a dependent or causal connection.
Paroksha
(Sk.). Intellectual
apprehension of a truth.
Parsees. Written also Parsis. The followers of Zoroaster.
This is the name given to the remnant of the once-powerful Iranian nation,
which remained true to the religion ‘of its forefathers—the fire-worship. This
remnant now dwells in India, some 50,000 strong, mostly in Bombay and Guzerat.
Pâsa
(Sk.). The crucifixion noose
of Siva, the noose held in his right hand in some of his representations.
Paschalis, Martinez. A very learned man, a mystic and
occultist. Born about 1700, in Portugal. He travelled extensively, acquiring
knowledge wherever he could in the East, in Turkey, Palestine, Arabia, and
Central Asia. He was a great Kabbalist. He was the teacher of the Initiator of
the Marquis de St. Martin, who founded the mystical Martinistic School and
Lodges. Paschalis is reported to have died in St. Domingo about 1779, leaving
several excellent works behind him.
Pasht
(Eg.). The cat-headed goddess,
the Moon, called also Sekhet. Her statues and representations are seen in great
numbers at the British Museum. She is the wife or female aspect of Ptah (the
son of Kneph), the creative principle, or the Egyptian Demiurgus. She is also
called Beset or Bubastis, being then both the re-uniting and the
separating principle. Her motto is: “punish the guilty and remove defilement”,
and one of her emblems is the cat. According to Viscount Rouge, her worship is
extremely ancient (B.c. 3000), and she is the mother of the Asiatic race, the
race that settled in Northern Egypt. As such she is called Ouato.
Pashut
(Heb.). “Literal
interpretation.” One of the four modes of interpreting the Bible used by the
Jews.
Pashyantî
(Sk.). The second of the four degrees
(Parâ, Pashyantî, Madhyamâ and Vaikharî), in which sound is divided according
to its differentiation.
Pass
not, The Ring. The circle
within which are confined all those who still labour under the delusion of
separateness.
Passing
of the River (Kab.). This
phrase may be met with in works referring to medićval magic: it is the name
given to a cypher alphabet used by Kabbalistic Rabbis at an early date ; the
river alluded to is the Chebar—the name will also be found in Latin authors as
Literć Transitus.
Pastophori
(Gr.). A certain class of
candidates for initiation, those who bore in public processions (and also in
the temples) the sacred coffin or funeral couch of the Sun-gods—killed and
resurrected, of Osiris, Tammuz (or Adonis), of Atys and others. The Christians
adopted their coffin from the pagans of antiquity.
Pâtâla
(Sk). The nether world, the
antipodes; hence in popular superstition the infernal regions, and
philosophically the two Americas, which are antipodal to India. Also, the South
Pole as standing opposite to Meru, the North Pole.
Pâtaliputra
(Sk.). The ancient capital of
Magadha, a kingdom of Eastern India, now identified with Patna.
Pâtanjala (Sk.). The Yoga philosophy; one of the six Darshanas
or Schools of India.
Patanjali
(Sk.). The founder of the Yoga
philosophy. The date assigned to him by the Orientalists is 200 B.C.; and by
the Occultists nearer to 700 than 600 B.C. At any rate he was a contemporary of
Pânini.
Pâvaka
(Sk.). One of the three
personified fires eldest sons of Abhimânim or Agni, who had forty-five
sons ; these with the original son of Brahmâ, their father Agni, and his three
descendants, constitute the mystic 49 fires. Pâvaka is the electric fire.
Pavamâna (Sk.). Another of the three fires (vide
supra)—the fire produced by friction.
Pavana
(Sk) God of the wind; the
alleged father of the monkey-god Hanuman (See “Râmâyana”).
Peling
(Tib.). The name given to all
foreigners in Tibet, to Europeans especially.
Pentacle
(Gr.). Any geometrical figure,
especially that known as the double equilateral triangle, the six-pointed star
(like the theosophical pentacle) ; called also Solomon’s seal, and still
earlier “the sign of Vishnu” ; used by all the mystics, astrologers, etc.
Pentagon
(Gr.), from pente “five”,
and gonia “angle” ; in geometry a plane figure with five angles.
Per-M-Rhu
(Eg.). This name is the
recognised pronunciation of the ancient title of the collection of mystical
lectures, called in English The Book of the Dead. Several almost
complete papyri have been found, and there are numberless extant copies of
portions of the work.
Personality. In Occultism—which divides man into seven principles,
considering him under the three aspects of the divine, the thinking
or the rational, and the animal man—the lower quaternary
or the purely astrophysical being; while by Individuality is meant the
Higher Triad, considered as a Unity. Thus the Personality embraces all
the characteristics and memories of one physical life, while the Individuality
is the imperishable Ego which re-incarnates and clothes itself in one
personality after another.
Pesh-Hun
(Tib.). From the Sanskrit pesuna
“spy”; an epithet given to Nârada, the meddlesome and troublesome Rishi.
Phala
(Sk.). Retribution; the fruit or result
of causes.
Phâlguna (Sk.). A name of Arjuna; also of a month.
Phallic (Gr.). Anything belonging to sexual worship;
or of a sexual character externally, such as the Hindu lingham and yoni—the
emblems of the male and female generative power—which have none of the unclean
significance attributed to it by the Western mind.
Phanes (Gr.). One of the Orphic triad—Phanes, Chaos
and Chronos. It was also the trinity of the Western people in the
pre-Christian period.
Phenomenon
(Gr.). In reality “an appearance”,
something previously unseen, and puzzling when the cause of it is unknown.
Leaving aside various kinds of phenomena, such as cosmic, electrical, chemical,
etc., and holding merely to the phenomena of spiritism, let it be remembered
that theosophically and esoterically every “miracle”—from the biblical to the
theumaturgic—is simply a phenomenon, but that no phenomenon is ever a miracle, i.e.,
something supernatural or outside of the laws of nature, as all such are
impossibilities in nature.
Philaletheans
(Gr.). Lit., “the lovers of
truth”; the name is given to the Alexandrian Neo-Platonists, also called
Analogeticists and Theosophists. (See Key to
Theosophy, p. 1, et seq.) The school was founded by
Ammonius Saccas early in the third century, and lasted until the fifth. The
greatest philosophers and sages of the day belonged to it.
Philalethes, Eugenius.
The Rosicrucian name assumed by one Thomas Vaughan, a medićval English
Occultist and Fire Philosopher. He was a great Alchemist. [w.w.w.]
Philć
(Gr.). An island in Upper
Egypt where a famous temple of that name was situated, the ruins of which may
be seen to this day by travellers.
Philo
Judćus. A Hellenized Jew of Alexandria,
and a very famous historian and writer; born about 30 B.C, died about 45 A.D.
He ought thus to have been well acquainted with the greatest event of the 1st
century of our era, and the facts about Jesus, his life, and the drama of the
Crucifixion. And yet he is absolutely silent upon the subject, both in his
careful enumeration of the then existing Sects and Brotherhoods in Palestine
and in his accounts of the Jerusalem of his day. He was a great mystic and his
works abound with metaphysics and noble ideas, while in esoteric knowledge he
had no rival for several ages among the best writers.
[ under “Philo Judćus” in the Glossary of the Key to
Theosophy.]
Philo-Judaeus.
A Hellenized Jew of Alexandria, a
famous historian and philosopher of the first century, born about the year 30
B. C., and died between the years 45 and 50 A. D. Philo's symbolism of the
Bible is very remarkable. The animals, birds, reptiles, trees, and places
mentioned in it are all, it is said, "allegories of conditions of the
soul, of faculties, dispositions, or passions; the useful plants were
allegories of virtues, the noxious of the affections of the unwise and so on
through the mineral kingdom; through heaven, earth and stars; through fountains
and rivers, fields and dwellings; through metals, substances, arms, clothes,
ornaments, furniture, the body and its parts, the sexes, and our outward
condition."
(Dict. Christ. Biog.) All of which would strongly corroborate the idea that
Philo was acquainted with the ancient Kabbala.
Philosopher’s
Stone. Called also the “Powder of
Projection”. It is the Magnum Opus of the Alchemists, an object to be
attained by them at all costs, a substance possessing the power of transmuting
the baser metals into pure gold. Mystically, however, the Philosopher’s Stone
symbolises the transmutation of the lower animal nature of man into the highest
and divine.
Philostratus (Gr.). A biographer of Apollonius of Tyana,
who described the life, travels and adventures of this sage and philosopher.
Phla (Gr.). A small island in the lake Tritonia, in
the days of Herodotus.
Phlegić
(Gr.). A submerged ancient
island in prehistoric days and identified by some writers with Atlantis; also a
people in Thessaly.
Pho
(Chin.). The animal Soul.
Phśbe (Gr.). A name given to Diana, or the moon.
Phśbus-Apollo (Gr.). Apollo as the Sun, “the light of life
and of the world”.
Phoreg
(Gr.). The name of the seventh Titan not mentioned in the
cosmogony of Hesiod.
The “mystery” Titan.
Phorminx
(Gr.). The seven-stringed lyre
of Orpheus.
Phoronede
(Gr.). A poem of which
Phoroneus is the hero; this work is no longer extant.
Phoroneus
(Gr.). A Titan; an ancestor and
generator of mankind. According to a legend of Argolis, like Prometheus he was
credited with bringing fire to this earth (Pausanias). The god of a river in
Peloponnesus.
Phren
(Gr.). A Pythagorean term
denoting what we call the Kâma-Manas still overshadowed by the Buddhi-Manas.
Phtah (Eg.). The God of death; similar to Siva, the
destroyer. In later Egyptian mythology a sun-god. It is the seat or locality of
the Sun and its occult Genius or Regent in esoteric philosophy.
Phta-Ra (Eg.). One of the 49 mystic (occult) Fires.
Picus, John, Count of Mirandola. A celebrated
Kabbalist and Alchemist, author of a treatise “on gold” and other Kabbalistic
works. He defied Rome and Europe in his attempt to prove divine Christian truth
in the Zohar. Born in 1463, died 1494.
Pillaloo
Codi (Tamil). A nickname in
popular astronomy given to the Pleiades, meaning “hen and chickens”. The French
also, curiously enough call this constellation, “Poussiničre”.
Pillars, The Two. Jachin and Boaz were placed at the
entrance to the Temple of Solomon, the first on the right, the second on the
left. Their symbolism is developed in the rituals of the Freemasons.
Pillars, The Three. When the ten Sephiroth are
arranged in the Tree of Life, two vertical lines
separate them into 3 Pillars, namely the Pillar of Severity, the Pillar of
Mercy, and the central
Pillar of Mildness. Binah, Geburah, and Hod form the first, that of Severity;
Kether, Tiphereth,
Jesod and Malkuth the central pillar; Chokmah, Chesed and Netzach the Pillar of
Mercy. [w.w.w.]
Pillars
of Hermes. Like the “pillars of Seth”
(with which they are identified) they served for commemorating occult events,
and various esoteric secrets symbolically engraved on them. It was a universal
practice. Enoch is also said to have constructed pillars.
Pingala (Sk.). The great Vedic authority on the
Prosody and chhandas of the Vedas. Lived several centuries B.C.
Pippala (Sk.). The tree of knowledge : the mystic
fruit of that tree “upon which came Spirits who love Science”. This is
allegorical and occult.
Pippalâda (Sk.). A magic school wherein Atharva Veda
is explained founded by an Adept of that name.
Pisâchas (Sk.). In the Purânas, goblins or
demons created by Brahmâ. In the southern Indian folk-lore, ghosts, demons, larvć
and vampires—generally female—who haunt men. Fading remnants of human beings in
Kâmaloka, as shells and Elementaries.
Pistis
Sophia (Sk.).
“Knowledge-Wisdom.” A sacred book of the early Gnostics or the primitive
Christians.
Pitar
Devata (Sk.). The
“Father-Gods”, the lunar ancestors of mankind.
Pitaras
(Sk.). Fathers, Ancestors. The
fathers of the human races.
Pitris
(Sk.). The ancestors, or
creators of mankind. They are of seven classes, three of which are incorporeal,
arupa, and four corporeal. In popular theology they are said to be
created from Brahmâ’s side. They are variously genealogized, but in esoteric
philosophy they are as given in the Secret Doctrine. In Isis Unveiled
it is said of them “It is generally believed that the Hindu term means the
spirits of our ancestors, of disembodied people, hence the argument of some
Spiritualists that fakirs (and yogis) and other Eastern wonder-workers, are mediums.
This is in more than one sense erroneous. The Pitris are not the ancestors of
the present living men, but those of the human kind, or Adamic races; the
spirits of human races, which on the great scale of descending evolution
preceded our races of men, and they were physically, as well as
spiritually, far superior to our modern pigmies. In Mânava Dharma
Shâstra they are called the Lunar Ancestors.” The Secret Doctrine
has now explained that which was cautiously put forward in the earlier
Theosophical volumes.
Pîyadasi (Pali). “The beautiful”, a title of King
Chandragupta (the “Sandracottus” of the Greeks) and of Asoka the Buddhist king,
his grandson. They both reigned in Central India between the fourth and third
centuries B.C., called also Devânâmpiya, “the beloved of the gods”.
Plaksha
(Sk.). One of the seven Dwipas
(continents or islands) in the Indian Pantheon and the Purânas.
Plane. From the Latin planus (level, flat) an
extension of space or of something in it, whether physical or metaphysical, e.g.,
a “plane of consciousness”. As used in Occultism, the term denotes the range or
extent of some state of consciousness, or of the perceptive power of a
particular set of senses, or the action of a particular force, or the state of
matter corresponding to any of the above.
Planetary
Spirits. Primarily the rulers or
governors of the planets. As our earth has its hierarchy of terrestrial
planetary spirits, from the highest to the lowest plane, so has every other
heavenly body. In Occultism, however, the term “Planetary Spirit” is generally
applied only to the seven highest hierarchies corresponding to the Christian
archangels. These have all passed through a stage of evolution corresponding to
the humanity of earth on other worlds, in long past cycles. Our earth, being as
yet only in its fourth round, is far too young to have produced high planetary
spirits. The highest planetary spirit ruling over any globe is in reality the
“Personal God” of that planet and far more truly its “over-ruling providence”
than the self-contradictory Infinite Personal Deity of modern Churchianity.
Plastic
Soul. Used in Occultism in reference
to the linga sharira or the astral body of the lower Quaternary. It is
called “plastic” and also “Protean” Soul from its power of assuming any shape
or form and moulding or modelling itself into or upon any image impressed in
the astral light around it, or in the minds of the medium or of those present
at séances for materialization. The linga sharira must not be confused
with the mayavi rupa or “thought body”—the image created by the thought
and will of an adept or sorcerer ; for while the “astral form” or linga
sharira is a real entity, the “thought body” is a temporary illusion
created by the mind.
Plato. An Initiate into the Mysteries and the greatest
Greek philosopher, whose writings are known the world over. He was the pupil of
Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. He flourished over 400 years before our
era.
Platonic
School, or the “Old Akadéme”, in
contrast with the later or Neo-Platonic School of Alexandria (See
“Philalethean”).
Pleroma (Gr.). “Fulness”, a Gnostic term adopted to
signify the divine world or Universal Soul. Space, developed and divided into a
series of ćons. The abode of the invisible gods. It has three degrees.
Plotinus. The noblest, highest and grandest of all the
Neo-Platonists after the founder of the school, Ammonius Saccas. He was the
most enthusiastic of the Philaletheans or “lovers of truth”, whose aim
was to found a religion on a system of intellectual abstraction, which is true Theosophy, or the whole
substance of Neo-Platonism. If we are to believe Porphyry, Plotinus has never
disclosed either his birth-place or connexions, his native land or his race.
Till the age of twenty-eight he had never found teacher or teaching which would
suit him or answer his aspirations. Then he happened to hear Ammonius Saccas,
from which day he continued to attend his school. At thirty-nine he accompanied
the Emperor Gordian to Persia and India with the object of learning their
philosophy. He died at the age of sixty-six after writing fifty-four books on
philosophy. So modest was he that it is said he “blushed to think he had a
body”. He reached Samâdhi (highest ecstasy or “re-union with God” the
divine Ego) several times during his life. As said by a biographer, “so
far did his contempt for his bodily organs go, that he refused to use a remedy,
regarding it as unworthy of a man to use means of this kind”. Again we read,
“as he died, a dragon (or serpent) that had been under his bed, glided through
a hole in the wall and disappeared”—a fact suggestive for the student of
symbolism. He taught a doctrine identical with that of the Vedantins, namely,
that the Spirit-Soul emanating from the One deific principle was, after its
pilgrimage, re-united to It.
Point
within a Circle. In its esoteric
meaning the first unmanifested logos appearing on the infinite and
shoreless expanse of Space, represented by the Circle. It is the plane of Infinity
and Absoluteness. This is only one of the numberless and hidden meanings of
this symbol, which is the most important of all the geometrical figures used in
metaphysical emblematology. As to the Masons, they have made of the point “an
individual brother” whose duty to God and man is bounded by the circle, and
have added John the Baptist and John the Evangelist to keep company with the
“brother”, representing them under two perpendicular parallel lines.
Popes-Magicians. There are several such in history; e.g., Pope
Sylvester II., the artist who made an “oracular head”, like the one fabricated
by Albertus Magnus, the learned Bishop of Ratisbon. Pope Sylvester was
considered a great “enchanter and sorcerer” by Cardinal Benno, and the “head”
was smashed to pieces by Thomas Aquinas, because it talked too much. Then there
were Popes Benedict IX., John XX., and the VIth and VIIth Gregory, all regarded
by their contemporaries as magicians. The latter Gregory was the famous Hildebrand.
As to Bishops and lesser Priests who studied Occultism and became expert in
magic arts, they are numberless.
Popol
Vuh. The Sacred Books of the
Guatemalians. Quiché MSS., discovered by Brasseur de Bourbourg.
Porphyry, or Porphyrius. A Neo-Platonist and a most
distinguished writer, only second to Plotinus as a teacher and philosopher. He
was born before the middle of the third century A.D., at Tyre, since he called
himself a Tyrian and is supposed to have belonged to a Jewish family. Though
himself thoroughly Hellenized and a Pagan, his name Melek (a king) does
seem to indicate that he had Semitic blood in his veins. Modern critics very
justly consider him the most practically philosophical, and the soberest, of
all the Neo-Platonists. A distinguished writer, he was specially famous for his
controversy with Iamblichus regarding the evils attendant upon the practice of
Theurgy. He was, however, finally converted to the views of his opponent. A
natural-born mystic, he followed, as did his master Plotinus, the pure Indian
Râj-Yoga training, which leads to the union of the Soul with the Over-Soul or
Higher Self (Buddhi-Manas). He complains, however, that, all his efforts
notwithstanding, he did not reach this state of ecstacy before he was sixty,
while Plotinus was a proficient in it. This was so, probably because while his
teacher held physical life and body in the greatest contempt, limiting
philosophical research to those regions where life and thought become eternal
and divine, Porphyry devoted his whole time to considerations of the hearing of
philosophy on practical life. “The end of philosophy is with him morality”,
says a biographer, “we might almost say, holiness—the healing of man’s
infirmities, the imparting to him a purer and more vigorous life. Mere
knowledge, however true, is not of itself sufficient ; knowledge has for its
object life in accordance with Nous”—“reason”, translates the
biographer. As we interpret Nous, however, not as Reason, but mind
(Manas) or the divine eternal Ego in man, we would translate the idea
esoterically, and make it read “the occult or secret knowledge has for
its object terrestrial life in accordance with Nous, or our
everlasting reincarnating Ego”, which would be more consonant with
Porphyry’s idea, as it is with esoteric philosophy. (See Porphyry’s De
Abstinentia ., 29.) Of all the Neo-Platonists, Porphyry approached the
nearest to real Theosophy as now taught
by the Eastern secret school. This is shown by all our modern critics and
writers on the Alexandrian school, for “he held that the Soul should be as far
as possible freed from the bonds of matter, . . . be ready . . . to cut off the
whole body”. (Ad Marcellam, 34.) He recommends the practice of
abstinence, saying that “we should be like the gods if we could abstain from
vegetable as well as animal food”. He accepts with reluctance theurgy and
mystic incantation as those are “powerless to purify the noëtic
(manasic) principle of the soul”: theurgy can “but cleanse the lower or psychic
portion, and make it capable of perceiving lower beings, such as spirits,
angels and gods” (Aug. De Civ. Dei. X., 9), just as Theosophy
teaches. “Do not defile the divinity”, he adds, with the vain imaginings of men
you will not injure that which is for ever blessed (Buddhi-Manas) but you will
blind yourself to the perception of the greatest and most vital truths”. (Ad
Marcellam,18.) “If we would he free from the assaults of evil spirits, we
must keep ourselves clear of those things over which evil spirits have power,
for they attack not the pure soul which has no affinity with them”. (De
Abstin. ii., 43.) This is again our teaching. The Church Fathers held
Porphyry as the bitterest enemy, the most irreconcilable to Christianity.
Finally, and once more as in modern Theosophy, Porphyry—as
all the Neo-Platonists, according to
(See A Dict. of Christian Biography, Vol. IV., “Porphyry”.)
Poseidonis (Gr.). The last remnant of the great Atlantean
Continent. Plato’s island Atlantis is referred to as an equivalent term in
Esoteric Philosophy.
Postel, Guillaume. A French adept, born in Normandy
in 1510. His learning brought him to the notice of Francis I., who sent him to
the Levant in search of occult MSS., where he was received into and initiated
by an Eastern Fraternity. On his return to France he became famous. He was
persecuted by the clergy and finally imprisoned by the Inquisition, but was
released by his Eastern brothers from his dungeon. His Clavis Absconditorum,
a key to things hidden and forgotten, is very celebrated.
Pot-Amun. Said to be a Coptic term. The name of an Egyptian
priest and hierophant who lived under the earlier Ptolemies. Diogenes Laertius
tells us that it signifies one consecrated to the “Amun”, the god of wisdom and
secret learning, such as were Hermes, Thoth, and Nebo of the Chaldees. This
must be so, since in Chaldea the priests consecrated to Nebo also bore his
name, being called the Neboїm, or in some old Hebrew Kabbalistic works,
“Abba Nebu”. The priests generally took the names of their gods. Pot-Amun is
credited with having been the first to teach Theosophy, or
the outlines of the Secret Wisdom-Religion, to the uninitiated.
Prabhavâpyaya
(Sk.). That whence all
originates and into which all things resolve at the end of the life-cycle.
Prachetâs (Sk.). A name of Varuna, the god of water, or esoterically—its
principle.
Prâchetasas (Sk.). See Secret Doctrine, II., 176 et
seq. Daksha is the son of the Prâchetasas, the ten sons of Prachinavahis.
Men endowed with magic powers in the Purânas who, while practising
religious austerities, remained immersed at the bottom of the sea for 10,000
years.
The name also of Daksha, called Prâchetasa.
Pradhâna
(Sk.). Undifferentiated
substance, called elsewhere and in other schools—Akâsa; and Mulaprakriti or
Root of Matter by the Vedantins. In short, Primeval Matter.
Pragna (Sk.) or Prajna. A synonym of Mahat
the Universal Mind. The capacity for perception.
(S. D., I. 139) Consciousness.
Prahlâda (Sk.). The son of Hiranyakashipu, the King of
the Asuras. As Prahlâda was devoted to Vishnu, of whom his father was the
greatest enemy, he became subjected in consequence to a variety of tortures and
punishments. In order to save his devotee from these, Vishnu assumed the form
of Nri-Sinha (man-lion, his fourth avatar) and killed the father.
Prajâpatis
(Sk.). Progenitors; the givers
of life to all on this Earth. They are seven and then ten—corresponding to the
seven and ten Kabbalistic Sephiroth; to the Mazdean Amesha-Spentas, &c.
Brahmâ the creator, is called Prajâpati as the synthesis of the Lords of Being.
Prâkrita (Sk.). One of the provincial dialects of
Sanskrit—“the language of the gods”, and therefore, its materialisation.
Prâkritika
Pralaya (Sk.). The Pralaya
succeeding to the Age of Brahmâ, when everything that exists is resolved into its
primordial essence (or Prakriti).
Prakriti
(Sk.). Nature in general,
nature as opposed to Purusha— spiritual nature and Spirit, which together are
the “two primeval aspects of the One Unknown Deity”. (Secret Doctrine,
I. 51.)
Pralaya
(Sk.). A period of obscuration
or repose—planetary, cosmic or universal—the opposite of Manvantara (S. D.,
I. 370.).
Pramantha (Sk.). An accessory to producing the sacred
fire by friction. The sticks used by Brahmins to kindle fire by friction.
Prameyas (Sk.). Things to be proved; objects of Pramâna
or proof.
Pram-Gimas
(Lithuanian). Lit., “Master of
all”, a deity-title.
Pramlochâ (Sk.). A female Apsaras—a water-nymph
who beguiled Kandu. (See “Kandu”.)
Prâna (Sk.). Life-Principle ; the breath of Life.
Prânamâya
Kosha (Sk.). The vehicle of Prâna,
life, or the Linga Sarîra a Vedantic term.
Pranâtman (Sk.). The same as Sutrâtmâ, the
eternal germ-thread on which are strung, like beads, the personal lives of the
EGO.
Pranava (Sk.). A sacred word, equivalent to Aum.
Prânâyâma
(Sk.). The suppression and
regulation of the breath in Yoga practice.
Pranidhâna
(Sk.). The fifth observance of
the Yogis; ceaseless devotion. (See Yoga Shâstras, ii. 32.)
Prâpti
(Sk.). From Prâp, to
reach. One of the eight Siddhis (powers) of Râj-Yoga. The power of
transporting oneself from one place to another, instantaneously, by the mere
force of will ; the faculty of divination, of healing and of prophesying, also
a Yoga power.
Prasanga
Madhyamika (Sk.). A Buddhist school
of philosophy in Tibet. it follows, like the Yogâchârya system, the Mahâyâna
or “Great Vehicle” of precepts; but, having been founded far later than the
Yogâchârya, it is not half so rigid and severe. It is a semi-exoteric and very
popular system among the literati and laymen.
Prashraya, or Vinaya (Sk.). “The progenetrix of
affection.” A title bestowed upon the Vedic Aditi, the
“Mother of the Gods”.
Pratibhâsika (Sk.). The apparent or illusory life.
Pratisamvid (Sk.). The four “unlimited forms of wisdom”
attained by an Arhat; the last of which is the absolute knowledge of and power
over the twelve Nidânas.
(See “Nidâna”.)
Pratyâbhâva
(Sk.). The state of the Ego under the necessity of
repeated births.
Pratyagâtmâ (Sk.). The same as Jivâtmâ, or the one living
Universal Soul—Alaya.
Pratyâhâra
(Sk.). The same as
“Mahâpralaya”.
Pratyâharana (Sk.). The preliminary training in practical
Râj -Yoga.
Pratyaksha (Sk). Spiritual perception by means of senses.
Pratyasarga (Sk.). In Sankhya philosophy the “intellectual
evolution of the Universe” ; in the Purânas the 8th creation.
Pratyęka
Buddha (S.k). The same as “Pasi-Buddha”.
The Pratyęka Buddha is a degree which belongs exclusively to the Yogâchârya school,
yet it is only one of high intellectual development with no true spirituality.
It is the dead-letter of the Yoga laws, in which intellect and
comprehension play the greatest part, added to the strict carrying out of the
rules of the inner development. It is one of the three paths to Nirvâna, and
the lowest, in which a Yogi—“without teacher and without saving others”—by the
mere force of will and technical observances, attains to a kind of nominal
Buddhaship individually; doing no good to anyone, but working selfishly for his
own salvation and himself alone. The Pratyękas are respected outwardly but are
despised inwardly by those of keen or spiritual appreciation. A Pratyęka is
generally compared to a “Khadga” or solitary rhinoceros and called Ekashringa
Rishi, a selfish solitary Rishi (or saint). “As crossing Sansâra (‘the
ocean of birth and death’ or the series of incarnations), suppressing errors,
and yet not attaining to absolute perfection, the Pratyęka Buddha is compared
with a horse which crosses a river swimming, without touching the ground.” (Sanskrit-Chinese
Dict.) He is far below a true “Buddha of Compassion”. He strives only for
the reaching of Nirvâna.
Pre-existence. The term used to denote that we have lived before.
The same as reincarnation in the past. The idea is derided by some, rejected by
others, called absurd and inconsistent by the third yet it is the oldest and
the most universally accepted belief from an immemorial antiquity. And if this
belief was universally accepted by the most subtle philosophical minds of the
pre-Christian world, surely it is not amiss that some of our modern
intellectual men should also believe in it, or at least give the doctrine the
benefit of the doubt. Even the Bible hints at it more than once, St. John the
Baptist being regarded as the reincarnation of Elijah, and the Disciples asking
whether the blind man was born blind because of his sins, which
is equal to saying that he had lived and sinned before being born
blind. As Mr. Bonwick well says: it was “the work of spiritual progression
and soul discipline. The pampered sensualist returned a beggar; the proud
oppressor, a slave ; the selfish woman of fashion, a seamstress. A turn of the
wheel gave a chance for the development of neglected or abused intelligence and
feeling, hence the popularity of reincarnation in all climes and times. . . .
thus the expurgation of evil was . . . gradually but certainly accomplished.”
Verily “an evil act follows a man, passing through one hundred thousand
transmigrations” (Panchatantra). “All souls have a subtle vehicle, image
of the body, which carries the passive soul from one material dwelling to
another” says Kapila; while Basnage explains of the Jews: “By this second death
is not considered hell, but that which happens when a soul has a second time
animated a body”. Herodotus tells his readers, that the Egyptians “are the
earliest who have spoken of this doctrine, according to which the soul of man
is immortal, and after the destruction of the body, enters into a newly born
being. When, say they, it has passed through all the animals of the earth
and sea, and all the birds, it will re-enter the body of a new born man.” This
is Pre-existence. Deveria showed that the funeral books of the Egyptians
say plainly “that resurrection was, in reality, but a renovation,
leading to a new infancy, and a new youth. (See “Reincarnation”.)
Prętas
(Sk.). “Hungry demons in
popular folk-lore. “ Shells”, of the avaricious and selfish man after death; “
Elementaries” reborn as Prętas, in Kâma-loka, according to the esoteric
teachings;
Priestesses. Every ancient religion had its priestesses in the
temples. In Egypt they were called the Sâ and served the altar of Isis
and in the temples of other goddesses. Canephorś was the name given by
the Greeks to those consecrated priestesses who bore the baskets of the gods
during the public festivals of the Eleusinian Mysteries. There were female
prophets in Israel as in Egypt, diviners of dreams and oracles; and Herodotus
mentions the Hierodules, the virgins or nuns dedicated to the Theban
Jove, who were generally the Pharaohs’ daughters and other Princesses of the
Royal House. Orientalists speak of the wife of Cephrenes, the builder of the
so-called second Pyramid, who was a priestess of Thoth.
(See “Nuns”.)
Primordial
Light. In Occultism, the light which
is born in, and through the preternatural darkness of chaos, which contains
“the all in all”, the seven rays that become later the seven Principles in
Nature.
Principles. The Elements or original essences, the basic
differentiations upon and of which all things are built up. We use the term to
denote the seven individual and fundamental aspects of the One Universal
Reality in Kosmos and in man. Hence also the seven aspects in the manifestation
in the human being—divine, spiritual, psychic, astral, physiological and simply
physical.
Priyavrata (Sk.). The name of the son of Swâyambhűva Manu
in exoteric Hinduism. The occult designation of one of the primeval races in
Occultism.
Proclus (Gr.). A Greek writer and mystic philosopher,
known as a Commentator of Plato, and surnamed the Diadochus. He lived in the
fifth century, and died, aged 75, at Athens A.D. 485. His last ardent disciple
and follower and the translator of his works was Thomas Taylor of Norwich, who,
says Brother Kenneth Mackenzie, “was a modern mystic who adopted the pagan
faith as being the only veritable faith, and actually sacrificed doves to
Venus, a goat to Bacchus and designed to immolate a bull to Jupiter” but was
prevented by his landlady.
Prometheus
(Gr.). The Greek logos;
he, who by bringing on earth divine fire (intelligence and consciousness)
endowed men with reason and mind. Prometheus is the Hellenic type of our
Kumâras or Egos, those who, by incarnating in men, made of them latent
gods instead of animals. The gods (or Elohim) were averse to men becoming “as
one of us (Genesis iii., 22), and knowing “good and evil”. Hence we see
these gods in every religious legend punishing man for his desire to know. As
the Greek myth has it, for stealing the fire he brought to men from Heaven,
Prometheus was chained by the order of Zeus to a crag of the Caucasian
Mountains.
Propator
(Gr) Gnostic term. The “Depth”
of Bythos, or En-Aiôr, the unfathomable light. The latter is alone the
Self-Existent and the Eternal—Propator is only periodical.
Protogonos (Gr.). The “first-born”; used of all the
manifested gods and of the Sun in our system.
Proto-îlos (Gr.). The first primordial matter.
Protologoi
(Gr.). The primordial seven
creative Forces when anthropomorphized into Archangels or Logoi.
Protyle
(Gr.). A newly-coined word in
chemistry to designate the first homogeneous, primordial substance.
Pschent
(Eg.). A symbol in the form of
a double crown, meaning the presence of Deity in death as in life, on earth as
in heaven. This Pschent is only worn by certain gods.
Psyche
(Gr.). The animal, terrestrial
Soul; the lower Manas.
Psychism, from the Greek psyche. A term now used to denote
very loosely every kind of mental phenomena, e.g., mediumship, and the higher
sensitiveness, hypnotic receptivity, and inspired prophecy, simple clairvoyance
in the astral light, and real divine seership; in short, the word covers every
phase and manifestation of the powers and potencies of the human and the
divine Souls.
Psychography. A word first used by theosophists; it means writing
under the dictation or the influence of one’s “soul-power”, though
Spiritualists have now adopted the term to denote writing produced by their
mediums under the guidance of returning “Spirits”.
Psychology. The Science of Soul, in days of old: a Science which
served as the unavoidable basis for physiology. Whereas in our modern day, it
is psychology that is being based (by our great scientists) upon
physiology.
Psychometry.
Lit., “Soul-measuring”; reading or
seeing, not with the physical eyes, but with the soul or inner Sight.
Psychophobia. Lit., “Soul-fear,” applied to materialists and certain
atheists, who become struck with madness at the very mention of Soul or Spirit.
Psylli
(Gr.). Serpent-charmers of Africa and
Egypt.
Ptah, or Pthah (Eg.). The son of Kneph in the
Egyptian Pantheon. He is the Principle of Light and Life through which
“creation” or rather evolution took place. The Egyptian logos and creator, the
Demiurgos. A very old deity, as, according to Herodotus, he had a temple
erected to him by Menes, the first king of Egypt. He is “giver of life” and the
self-born, and the father of Apis, the sacred bull, conceived through a ray
from the Sun. Ptah is thus the prototype of Osiris, a later deity. Herodotus
makes him the father of the Kabiri, the mystery-gods; and the Targum of
Jerusalem says: “Egyptians called the wisdom of the First Intellect Ptah”;
hence he is Mahat the “divine wisdom”; though from another aspect he is Swabhâvat,
the self-created substance, as a prayer addressed to him in the Ritual of
the Dead says, after calling Ptah “father of fathers and of all gods, generator
of all men produced from his substance”: “Thou art without father, being.
engendered by thy own will; thou art without mother, being born by the renewal
of thine own substance from whom proceeds substance”.
Pâjâ
(Sk.). An offering; worship
and divine honours offered to an idol or something sacred.
Pulastya (Sk.). One of the seven “mind-born sons” of
Brahmâ; the reputed father of the Nâgas (serpents, also Initiates)
and other symbolical creatures.
Pums
(Sk.). Spirit, supreme Purusha, Man.
Punarjanma
(Sk.). The power of evolving
objective manifestations; motion of forms ; also, re-birth.
Pundarîk-aksha
(Sk.). Lit., “lotus-eyed”, a
title of Vishnu. “Supreme and imperishable glory”, as translated by some
Orientalists.
Pűraka (Sk.). Inbreathing process; a way of breathing
as regulated according to the prescribed rules of Hatha ‘yoga.
Purânas
(Sk.). Lit., “ancient”. A
collection of symbolical and allegorical writings—eighteen in number
now—supposed to have been composed by Vyâsa, the author of Mahâbhârata.
Purohitas
(Sk.). Family priests;
Brahmans.
Pururavas (Sk.). The son of Budha the son of Soma (the
moon), and of Ila famous for being the first to produce fire by the friction of
two pieces of wood, and make it (the fire) triple. An occult character.
Purusha (Sk.). “Man”, heavenly man. Spirit, the
same as Nârâyana in another aspect.
“The Spiritual Self.”
Purusha
Nârâyana (Sk.). Primordial
male—Brahmâ.
Purushottama
(Sk.). Lit., “best of men”; metaphysically,
however, it is spirit, the Supreme Soul of the universe; a title of Vishnu.
Pűrvaja (Sk.). “ Pregenetic”, the same as the Orphic Protologos;
a title of Vishnu.
Purvashadha
(Sk.). An asterism.
Pűshan (Sk.). A Vedic deity, the real meaning of
which remains unknown to Orientalists. It is qualified as the “Nourisher”, the
feeder of all (helpless) beings. Esoteric philosophy explains the meaning.
Speaking of it the Taittirîya Brâhmana says that, “When Prajâpati formed
living beings, Pűshan nourished them”. This then is the same mysterious force
that nourishes the fśtus and unborn babe, by Osmosis, and which is
called the“atmospheric (or akâsic) nurse”, and the “father nourisher”.
When the lunar Pitris had evolved men, these remained senseless and helpless,
and it is “Pűshan who fed primeval man”. Also a name of the Sun.
Pushkala
(Sk) or Puskola. A palm
leaf prepared for writing on, used in Ceylon. All the native books are written
on such palm leaves, and last for centuries.
Pushkara (Sk.). A blue lotus; the seventh Dwîpa or zone
of Bhâratavarsha (India). A famous lake near Ajmere; also the proper name of
several persons.
Pűto
(Sk.). An island in China
where Kwan-Shai-Yin and Kwan-Yin have a number of temples and monasteries.
Putra (Sk.). A son.
Pu-tsi
K’iun-ling (Chin.). Lit., “the
Universal Saviour of all beings”. A title of Avalokiteswara, and also of
Buddha.
Pygmalion
(Gr.). A celebrated sculptor
and statuary in the island of Cyprus, who became enamoured of a statue he had
made. So the Goddess of beauty, taking pity on him, changed it into a living
woman (Ovid, Met.). The above is an allegory of the soul.
Pymander (Gr.). The “Thought divine”. The Egyptian Prometheus
and the personified Nous or divine light, which appears to and instructs Hermes
Trismegistus, in a hermetic work called “Pymander”.
Pyrrha
(Gr.). A daughter of
Epimatheos and Pandora, who was married to Deucalion. After a deluge when
mankind was almost annihilated, Pyrrha and Deucalion made men and women out of
stones which they threw behind them.
Pyrrhonism (Gr). The doctrine of Scepticism as first
taught by Pyrrho, though his system was far more philosophical than the blank
denial of our modern Pyrrhonists.
Pythagoras
(Gr.). The most famous of mystic
philosophers, born at Samos, about 586 B.C. He seems to have travelled all over
the world, and to have culled his philosophy from the various systems to which
he had access. Thus, he studied the esoteric sciences with the Brachmanes
of India, and astronomy and astrology in Chaldea and Egypt. He is known to this
day in the former country under the name of Yavanâchârya (“Ionian teacher”).
After returning he settled in Crotona, in Magna Grecia, where he established a
college to which very soon resorted all the best intellects of the civilised
centres. His father was one Mnesarchus of Samos, and was a man of noble birth
and learning. It was Pythagoras. who was the first to teach the heliocentric
system, and who was the greatest proficient in geometry of his century. It was
he also who created the word “philosopher”, composed of two words meaning a
“lover of wisdom”—philo-sophos. As the greatest mathematician, geometer
and astronomer of historical antiquity, and also the highest of the
metaphysicians and scholars, Pythagoras has won imperishable fame. He taught
reincarnation as it is professed in India and much else of the Secret Wisdom.
Pythagorean
Pentacle (Gr.). A Kabbalistic
six-pointed star with an eagle at the apex and a bull and a lion under the face
of a man; a mystic symbol adopted by the Eastern and Roman Christians, who
place these animals beside the four Evangelists.
Pythia
or Pythoness (Gr.).
Modern dictionaries inform us that the term means one who delivered the oracles
at the temple of Delphi, and “any female supposed to have the spirit of
divination in her—a witch” (Webster). This is neither true, just nor
correct. On the authority of Iamblichus, Plutarch and others, a Pythia was a
priestess chosen among the sensitives of the poorer classes, and placed
in a temple where oracular powers were exercised. There she had a room secluded
from all but the chief Hierophant and Seer, and once admitted, was, like a nun,
lost to the world. Sitting on a tripod of brass placed over a fissure in the
ground, through which arose intoxicating vapours, these subterranean
exhalations, penetrating her whole system, produced the prophetic mania,
in which abnormal state she delivered oracles. Aristophanes in Vćstas “ I.,
reg. 28, calls the Pythia ventriloqua vates or the “ventriloquial
prophetess”, on account of her stomach-voice. The ancients placed the
soul of man (the lower Manas) or his personal self-consciousness, in the
pit of his stomach. We find in the fourth verse of the second Nâbhânedishta hymn
of the Brahmans: “Hear, 0 sons of the gods, one who speaks through his name (nâbhâ),
for he hails you in your dwellings!” This is a modern somnambulic phenomenon.
The navel was regarded in antiquity as “the circle of the sun”, the seat of divine
internal light. Therefore was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the city
of Delphus, the womb or abdomen—while the seat of the temple was called
the omphalos, navel. As well-known, a number of mesmerized subjects can
read letters, hear, smell and see through that part of their body. In India
there exists to this day a belief (also among the Parsis) that adepts have
flames in their navels, which enlighten for them all darkness and unveil the
spiritual world. It is called with the Zoroastrians the lamp of Deshtur
or the “High Priest”; and the light or radiance of the Dikshita (the
initiate) with the Hindus.
Pytho (Gr.). The same as
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