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

THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY

H. P. BLAVATSKY

First Published 1892

Q, R.

Q._The seventeenth letter of the English Alphabet. It is the obsolete Æolian Qoppa and the Hebrew Koph. As a numeral it is 100, and its symbol is the back of the head from the ears to the neck. With the Æolian Occultists it stood for the symbol of differentiation.

Qabbalah (Heb.). The ancient Chaldean Secret Doctrine, abbreviated into Kabala. An occult system handed clown by oral transmission; but which, though accepting tradition, is not in itself composed of merely traditional teachings, as it was once a fundamental science, now disfigured by the additions of centuries, and by interpolation by the Western Occultists, especially by Christian Mystics. It treats of hitherto esoteric interpretations of the Jewish Scriptures, and teaches several methods of interpreting Biblical allegories. Originally the doctrines were transmitted “from mouth to ear” only, says Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, “in an oral manner from teacher to pupil who received them; hence the name Kabbalah, Qabalah, or Cabbala from the Hebrew root QBL, to receive. Besides this Theoretic Kabbalah, there was created a Practical branch, which is concerned with the Hebrew letters, as types a like of Sounds, Numbers, and Ideas.” (See “Gematria”, “Notaricon”, “ Temura”.) For the original book of the Qabbalah—the Zohar—see further on. But the Zohar we have now is not the Zohar left by Simeon Ben Jochai to his son and secretary as an heirloom. The author of the present approximation was one Moses de Leon, a Jew of the XIIIth century. (See “Kabalah” and “Zohar”.)

Qadmon, Adam, or Adam Kadmon (Heb.). The Heavenly or Celestial Man, the Microcosm (q.v.), He is the manifested Logos; the third Logos according to Occultism, or the Paradigm of Humanity.

Qai-yin (Heb.). The same as Cain.

Qaniratha (Mazd.). Our earth, in the Zoroastrian Scriptures, which is placed, as taught in the Secret Doctrine, in the midst of the other six Karshwars, or globes of the terrestrial chain.
(See Secret Doctrine, II. p. 759.)

Q’lippoth (Heb.), or Klippoth. The world of Demons or Shells; the same as the Aseeyatic World, called also Olam Klippoth. It is the residence of Samâel, the Prince of Darkness in the Kabbalistic allegories. But note what we read in the Zohar (ii.43a) “For the service of the Angelic World, the Holy. . . . made Samâel and his legions, i.e., the world of action, who are as it were the clouds to be used (by the higher or upper Spirits, our Egos) to ride upon in their descent to the earth, and serve, as it were, for their horses”. This, in conjunction with the fact that Q’lippoth contains the matter of which stars, planets, and even men are made, shows that Samâel with his legions is simply chaotic, turbulent matter, which is used in its finer state by spirits to robe themselves in. For speaking of the “vesture” or form (rupa) of the incarnating Egos, it is said in the Occult Catechism that they, the Mânasaputras or Sons of Wisdom, use for the consolidation of their forms, in order to descend into lower spheres, the dregs of Swabhavat, or that plastic matter which is throughout Space, in other words, primordial ilus. And these dregs are what the Egyptians have called Typhon and modern Europeans Satan, Samâel, etc., etc. Deus est Demon inversus—the Demon is the lining of God.

Quadrivium (Lat.). A term used by the Scholastics during the Middle Ages to designate the last four paths of learning—of which there were originally seven. Thus grammar, rhetoric and logic were called the trivium, and arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy (the Pythagorean obligatory sciences) went under the name of quadrivium.

Quetzo-Cohuatl (Mex.). The serpent-god in the Mexican Scriptures and legends. His wand and other “land-marks” show him to be some great Initiate of antiquity, who received the name of “Serpent” on account of his wisdom, long life and powers. To this day the aboriginal tribes of Mexico call themselves by the names of various reptiles, animals and birds.

Quiche Cosmogony. Called Popol Vuh; discovered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg.
(See “Popol Vuh”.)

Quietists. A religious sect founded by a Spanish monk named Molinos. Their chief doctrine was that contemplation (an internal state of complete rest and passivity) was the only religious practice possible, and constituted the whole of religious observances. They were the Western Hatha Yogis and passed their time in trying to separate their minds from the objects of sense. The practice became a fashion in France and also in Russia during the early portion of this century.

Quinanes. A very ancient race of giants, of whom there are many traditions, not only in the folk-lore but in the history of Central America. Occult science teaches that the race which preceded our own human race was one of giants, which gradually decreased, after the Atlantean deluge had almost swept them off the face of the earth, to the present size of man.

Quindecemvir (Lat.). The Roman priest who had charge of the Sibylline books.

Qû-tamy (Chald.). The name of the mystic who receives the revelations of the moon-goddess in the ancient Chaldean work, translated into Arabic, and retranslated by Chwolsohn into German, under the name of Nabathean Agriculture.

R .—The eighteenth letter of the alphabet; “the canine”, as its sound reminds one of a snarl. In the Hebrew alphabet it is the twentieth, and its numeral is 200. It is equivalent as Resh to the divine name Rahim (clemency); and its symbols are, a sphere, a head, or a circle.

Ra (Eg.). The divine Universal Soul in its manifested aspect—the ever-burning light; also the personified Sun.

Rabbis (Heb.). Originally teachers of the Secret Mysteries, the Qabbalah; later, every Levite of the priestly caste became a teacher and a Rabbin. (See the series of Kabbalistic Rabbis by w.w.w.)

1 Rabbi Abulafia of Saragossa born in 1240, formed a school of Kabbalah named after him; his chief works were The Seven Paths of the Law and The Epistle to Rabbi Solomon.

2 Rabbi Akiba. Author of a famous Kabbalistic work, the “Alphabet of R.A.”, which treats every letter as a symbol of an idea and an emblem of some sentiment; the Book of Enoch was originally a portion of this work, which appeared at the close of the eighth century. It was not purely a Kabbalistic treatise.

3 Rabbi Azariel ben Menachem (A.D. 1160). The author of the Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth, which is the oldest purely Kabbalistic work extant, setting aside the Sepher Yetzirah, which although older, is not concerned with the Kabbalistic Sephiroth. He was the pupil of Isaac the Blind, who is the reputed father of the European Kabbalah, and he was the teacher of the equally famous R. Moses Nachmanides.

4 Rabbi Moses Botarel (1480). Author of a famous commentary on the Sepher Yetzirah; he taught that by ascetic life and the use of invocations, a man’s dreams might be made prophetic.

5 Rabbi Chajim Vital (1600) ( The great exponent of the Kabbalah as taught R. Isaac Loria : author of one of the most famous works, Otz Chiim, or Tree of Life; from this Knorr von Rosenroth has taken the Book on the Rashith ha Gilgalim, revolutions of souls, or scheme of reincarnations.

6 Rabbi Ibn Gebirol. A famous Hebrew Rabbi, author of the hymn Kether Malchuth, or Royal Diadem, which appeared about 1050; it is a beautiful poem, embodying the cosmic doctrines of Aristotle, and it even now forms part of the Jewish special service for the evening preceding the great annual Day of Atonement (See Ginsburg and Sachs on the Religious Poetry of the Spanish Jews). This author is also known as Avicebron.

7 Rabbi Gikatilla. A distinguished Kabbalist who flourished about 1300 : he wrote the famous books, The Garden of Nuts, The Gate to the Vowel Points, The mystery of the shining Metal, and The Gates of Righteousness. He laid especial stress on the use of Gematria, Notaricon and Temura.

8 Rabbi Isaac the Blind of Posquiero. The first who publicly taught in Europe, about A.D. 1200, the Theosophic doctrines of the Kabbalah.

9 Rabbi Loria (also written Luria, and also named Ari from his initials). Founded a school of the Kabbalah circa 1560. He did not write any works, but his disciples treasured up his teachings, and R. Chajim Vital published them.

10 Rabbi Moses Cordovero (A.D.1550). The author of several Kabbalistic works of a wide reputation, viz., A Sweet Light, The Book of Retirement, and The Garden of Pomegranates; this latter can be read in Latin in Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbalah Denudata, entitled Tractatus de Animo, ex libro Pardes Rimmonim. Cordovero is notable for an adherence to the strictly metaphysical part, ignoring the wonder-working branch which Rabbi Sabbatai Zevi practised, and almost perished in the pursuit of.

11 Rabbi Moses de Leon (circa 1290 A,D.). The editor and first publisher of the Zohar, or “Splendour”, the most famous of all the Kabbalistic volumes, and almost the only one of which any large part has been translated into English. This Zohar is asserted to be in the main the production of the still more famous Rabbi Simon ben Jochai, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Titus.

12 Rabbi Moses Maimonides (died 1304). A famous Hebrew Rabbi and author, who condemned the use of charms and amulets, and objected to the Kabbalistic use of the divine names.

13 Rabbi Sabbatai Zevi (born 1641). A very famous Kabbalist, who passing beyond the dogma became of great reputation as a thaumaturgist, working wonders by the divine names. Later in life he claimed Messiahship and fell into the hands of the Sultan Mohammed IV. of Turkey, and would have been murdered, but saved his life by adopting the Mohammedan religion. (See Jost on Judaism and its Sects.)

14 Rabbi Simon ben Jochai (circa A.D. 70-80). It is round this name that cluster the mystery and poetry of the origin of the Kabbalah as a gift of the deity to mankind. Tradition has it that the Kabbalah was a divine Theosophy first taught by God to a company of angels, and that some glimpses of its perfection were conferred upon Adam; that the wisdom passed from him unto Noah; thence to Abraham, from whom the Egyptians of his era learned a portion of the doctrine. Moses derived a partial initiation from the land of his birth, and this was perfected by direct communications with the deity. From Moses it passed to the seventy elders of the Jewish nation, and from them the theosophic scheme was handed from generation to generation; David and Solomon especially became masters of this concealed doctrine. No attempt, the legends tell us, was made to commit the sacred knowledge to writing until the time of the destruction of the second Temple by Titus, when Rabbi Simon ben Jochai, escaping from the besieged Jerusalem, concealed himself in a cave, where he remained for twelve years. Here he, a Kabbalist already, was further instructed by the prophet Elias. Here Simon taught his disciples, and his chief pupils, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Abba, committed to writing those teachings which in later ages became known as the Zohar, and were certainly published afresh in Spain by Rabbi Moses de Leon, about 1280. A fierce contest has raged for centuries between the learned Rabbis of Europe around the origin of the legend, and it seems quite hopeless to expect ever to arrive at an accurate decision as to what portion of the Zohar, if any, is as old as Simon ben Jochai. (See “Zohar”.) [w.w.w.]

Râdhâ (Sk.). The shepherdess among the Gopis (shepherdesses) of Krishna, who was the wife of the god.

Râga (Sk). One of the five Kleshas (afflictions) in Patânjali’s Yoga philosophy. In Sânkhya Kârikâ, it is the “obstruction” called love and desire in the physical or terrestrial sense. The five Kleshas are: Avidyâ, or ignorance; Asmitâ, selfishness, or “I-am-ness” ; Râga, love; Dwesha, hatred; and Abhinivesa, dread of suffering.

Ragnarök (Scand.). A kind of metaphysical entity called the “Destroyer” and the “Twilight of the Gods”, the two-thirds of whom are destroyed at the “Last Battle” in the Edda. Ragnarök lies in chains on the ledge of a rock so long as there are some good men in the world; but when all laws are broken and all virtue and good vanish from it, then Ragnarok will he unbound and allowed to bring every imaginable evil and disaster on the doomed world.

Ragon, J. M. A French Mason, a distinguished writer and great symbologist, who tried to bring Masonry back to its pristine purity. He was born at Bruges in 1789, was received when quite a boy into the Lodge and Chapter of the “Vrais Amis”, and upon removing to Paris founded the Society of the Trinosophes. it is rumoured that he was the possessor of a number of papers given to him by the famous Count de St. Germain, from which he had all his remarkable knowledge upon early Masonry. He died at Paris in 1866, leaving a quantity of books written by himself and masses of MSS., which were bequeathed by him to the “Grand Orient”. Of the mass of his published works very few are obtainable, while others have entirely disappeared. This is due to mysterious persons (Jesuits, it is believed) who hastened to buy up every edition they could find after his death. In short, his works are now extremely rare.

Rahasya (Sk.). A name of the Upanishads. Lit., secret essence of knowledge.

Rahat. The same as “Arhat”; the adept who becomes entirely free from any desires on this plane, by acquiring divine knowledge and powers.

Ra’hmin Seth (Heb.). According to the Kabala (or Qabbalah), the “soul-sparks”, contained in Adam (Kadmon), went into three sources, the heads of which were his three sons. Thus, while the “soul spark” (or Ego) called Chesed went into Habel, and Geboor-ah into Qai-yin (Cain)—Ra’hmin went into Seth, and these three sons were divided into seventy human species, called “the principal roots of the human race”.

Râhu (Sk.). A Daitya (demon) whose lower parts were like a dragon’s tail. He made himself immortal by robbing the gods of some Amrita— the elixir of divine life—for which they were churning the ocean of milk. Unable to deprive him of his immortality, Vishnu exiled him from the earth and made of him the constellation Draco, his head being called Râhu and his tail Ketu—astronomically, the ascending and descending nodes. With the latter appendage he has ever since waged a destructive war on the denouncers of his robbery, the sun and the moon, and (during the eclipses) is said to swallow them. Of course the fable has a mystic and occult meaning.

Rahula (Sk.). The name of Gautama Buddha’s son.

Raibhyas (Sk.). A class of gods in the 5th Manvantara.

Raivata Manvantara (Sk.). The life-cycle presided over by Raivata Manu. As he is the fifth of the fourteen Manus (in Esotercism, Dhyan Chohans), there being seven root-Manus and seven seed-Manus for the seven Rounds of our terrestrial chain of globes (See Esot. Buddhism by A. P. Sinnett, and the
Secret Doctrine, Vol.1., “Brahminical Chronology”), Raivata presided over the third Round and was its root-Manu.

Râjâ (Sk.). A Prince or King in India.

Râjagriha (Sk.). A city in Magadha famous for its conversion to Buddhism in the days of the Buddhist kings. It was their residence from Bimbisara to Asoka, and was the seat of the first Synod, or Buddhist Council, held 510 B.C..

Râjârshis (Sk.). The King-Rishis or King-Adepts, one of the three classes of Rishis in India; the same as the King-Hierophants of ancient Egypt.

Râjas (Sk.). The “quality of foulness” (i.e., differentiation), and activity in the Purânas. One of the three Gunas or divisions in the correlations of matter and nature, representing form and change.

Rajasâs (Sk.). The elder Agnishwattas — the Fire-Pitris, “fire” standing as a symbol of enlightenment and intellect.

Râja-Yoga (Sk.). The true system of developing psychic and spiritual powers and union with one’s Higher Self—or the Supreme Spirit, as the profane express it. The exercise, regulation and concentration of thought. Râja-Yoga is opposed to Hatha-Yoga, the physical or psycho physiological training in asceticism.

Râkâ (Sk.). The day of the full moon: a day for occult practices.

Râkshâ (Sk.). An amulet prepared during the full or new moon.

Râkshasas (Sk.). Lit., “raw eaters”, and in the popular superstition evil spirits, demons. Esoterically, however, they are the Gibborim (giants) of the Bible, the Fourth Race or the Atlanteans.
(See Secret Doctrine, II., 165.)

Râkshasi-Bhâshâ (Sk.). Lit., the language of the Râkshasas. In reality, the speech of the Atlanteans, our gigantic forefathers of the fourth Root-race.

Ram Mohum Roy (Sk.). The well-known Indian reformer who came to England in 1833 and died there.

Râma (Sk.). The seventh avatar or incarnation of Vishnu; the eldest son of King Dasaratha, of the Solar Race. His full name is Râma-Chandra, and he is the hero of the Râmâyana. He married Sîta, who was the female avatar of Lakshmi, Vishnu’s wife, and was carried away by Râvana the Demon-King of Lanka, which act led to the famous war.

Râmâyana (Sk.). The famous epic poem collated with the Mahâbhârata. It looks as if this poem was either the original of the Iliad or vice versa, except that in Râmâyana the allies of Râma are monkeys, led by Hanuman, and monster birds and other animals, all of whom fight against the Râkshasas, or demons and giants of Lankâ.

Râsa (Sk.). The mystery-dance performed by Krishna and his Gopis, the shepherdesses, represented in a yearly festival to this day, especially in Râjastan. Astronomically it is Krishna—the Sun—around whom circle the planets and the signs of the Zodiac symbolised by the Gopis. The same as the “circle-dance” of the Amazons around the priapic image, and the dance of the daughters of Shiloh (Judges xxi.), and that of

King David around the ark. (See Isis Unveiled, II., pp. 45, 331 and 332.)

Râshi (Sk.). An astrological division, the sixth, relating to Kanya (Virgo) the sixth sign in the Zodiac.

Rashi-Chakra (Sk.), The Zodiac.

Rasit (Heb.). Wisdom.

Rasollâsâ (Sk.). The first of the eight physical perfections, or Siddhis (phenomena), of the Hatha Yogis. Rasollâsâ is the prompt evolution at will of the juices of the body independently of any nutriment from without.

Rasshoo (Eg.). The solar fires formed in and out of the primordial “waters”, or substance, of Space.

Ratnâvabhâsa Kalpa (Sk.). The age in which all sexual difference will have ceased to exist, and birth will take place in the Anupâdaka mode, as in the second and third Root-races. Esoteric philosophy teaches that it will take place at the end of the sixth and during the seventh and last Root-race in this Round.

Râtri (Sk.). Night; the body Brahmâ assumed for purposes of creating the Râkshasas or alleged giant-demons.

Raumasa (Sk.). A class of devas (gods) said to have originated from the pores of Verabhadra’s skin. An allusion to the pre-Adamic race called the “sweat-born”. (Secret Doctrine, Vol. II.)

Ravail. The true name of the Founder of modern Spiritism in France, who is better known under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec.

Râvana (Sk.). The King-Demon (the Râkshasas), the Sovereign of Lankâ (Ceylon), who carried away Sîta, Râma’s wife, which led to the great war described in the Râmâyana.

Ravi (Sk.). A name of the Sun.

Rechaka (Sk.). A practice in Hatha Yoga, during the performance of Prânâyâma or the regulation of breath : namely, that of opening one nostril and emitting breath therefrom, and keeping the other closed; one of the three operations respectively called Pûraka, Kumbhaka and Rechaka—operations very pernicious to health.

Red Colour. This has always been associated with male characteristics, especially by the Etruscans and Hindoos. In Hebrew it is Adam, the same as the word for “earth” and “the first man”. It seems that nearly all myths represent the first perfect man as white. The same word without the initial A is Dam or Dem, which means Blood, also of red colour. [w.w.w.]

The colour of the fourth Principle in man—Kâma, the seat of desires is represented red.

Reincarnation. The doctrine of rebirth, believed in by Jesus and the Apostles, as by all men in those days, but denied now by the Christians. All the Egyptian converts to Christianity, Church Fathers and others, believed in this doctrine, as shown by the writings of several. In the still existing symbols, the human-headed bird flying towards a mummy, a body, or “the soul uniting itself with its sahou (glorified body of the Ego, and also the kâmalokic shell) proves this belief. “The song of the Resurrection” chanted by Isis to recall her dead husband to life, might be translated “Song of Rebirth”, as Osiris is collective Humanity. “Oh! Osiris [here follows the name of the Osirified mummy, or the departed], rise again in holy earth (matter), august mummy in the coffin, under thy corporeal substances”, was the funeral prayer of the priest over the deceased. “Resurrection” with the Egyptians never meant the resurrection of the mutilated mummy, but of the Soul that informed it, the Ego in a new body. The putting on of flesh periodically by the Soul or the Ego, was a universal belief; nor can anything be more consonant with justice and Karmic law. (See “Pre-existence”.)

Rekh-get-Amen (Eg.). The name of the priests, hierophants, and teachers of Magic, who, according to Lenormant, Maspero, the Champollions, etc., etc., “could levitate, walk the air, live under water, sustain great pressure, harmlessly suffer mutilation, read the past, foretell the future, make themselves invisible, and cure diseases” (Bonwick, Religion of Magic). And the same author adds: “Admission to the mysteries did not confer magical powers. These depended upon two things: the possession of innate capacities, and the knowledge of certain formulæ employed under suitable circumstances”. Just the same as it is now.

Rephaim (Heb.). Spectres, phantoms. (Secret Doctrine, II., 279.)

Resha-havurah (Heb., Kab.). Lit., the “White Head”, from which flows the fiery fluid of life and intelligence in three hundred and seventy streams, in all the directions of the Universe. The “White Head” is the first Sephira, the Crown, or first active light.

Reuchlin, John. Nicknamed the “Father of the Reformation”; the friend of Pico di Mirandola, the teacher and instructor of Erasmus, of Luther and Melancthon. He was a great Kabbalist and Occultist.

Rig Veda (Sk.). The first and most important of the four Vedas. Fabled to have been “created” from the Eastern mouth of Brahmâ; recorded in Occultism as having been delivered by great sages on Lake Man(a)saravara beyond the Himalayas, dozens of thousands of years ago.

Rik (Sk.). A verse of Rig-Veda.

Riksha (Sk.). Each of the twenty-seven constellations forming the Zodiac. Any fixed star, or constellation of stars.

Rimmon (Heb.). A Pomegranate, the type of abundant fertility; occurs in the Old Testament; it figures in Syrian temples and was deified there, as an emblem of the celestial prolific mother of all; also a type of the full womb. [w.w.w.]

Rings, Magic. These existed as talismans in every folk-lore. In Scandinavia such rings are always connected with the elves and dwarfs who were alleged to be the possessors of talismans and who gave them occasionally to human beings whom they wished to protect. In the words of the chronicler: “These magic rings brought good luck to the owner so long as they were carefully preserved ; but their loss was attended with terrible misfortunes and unspeakable misery”.

Rings and Rounds. Terms employed by Theosophists in explanation of Eastern cosmogony. They are used to denote the various evolutionary cycles in the Elemental, Mineral, &c., Kingdoms, through which the Monad passes on any one globe, the term Round being used only to denote the cyclic passage of the Monad round the complete chain of seven globes. Generally speaking, Theosophists use the term ring as a synonym of cycles, whether cosmic, geological, metaphysical or any other.

Riphæus (Gr.). In mythology a mountain chain upon which slept the frozen-hearted god of snows and hurricanes. In Esoteric philosophy a real prehistoric continent which from a tropical ever sunlit land has now become a desolate region beyond the Arctic Circle.

Rishabha (Sk.). A sage supposed to have been the first teacher of the Jain doctrines in India.

Rishabham (Sk). The Zodiacal sign Taurus.

Rishi-Prajâpati (Sk.). Lit., “revealers”, holy sages in the religious history of Âryavarta. Esoterically the highest of them are the Hierarchies of “Builders” and Architects of the Universe and of living things on earth; they are generally called Dhyan Chohans, Devas and gods.

Rishis (Sk.). Adepts; the inspired ones. In Vedic literature the term is employed to denote those persons through whom the various Mantras were revealed.

Ri-thlen. Lit., “snake-keeping”. It is a terrible kind of sorcery practised at Cherrapoonjee in the Khasi-Hills. The former is the ancient capital of the latter. As the legend tells us : ages ago a thlen (serpent-dragon) which inhabited a cavern and devoured men and cattle was put to death by a local St. George, and cut to pieces, every piece being sent out to a different district to be burnt. But the piece received by the Khasis was preserved by them and became a kind of household god, and their descendants developed into Ri-thlens or “snake keepers”, for the piece they preserved grew into a dragon (thlen) and ever since has obsessed certain Brahmin families of that district. To acquire the good grace of their thlen and save their own lives, these “keepers” have often to commit murders of women and children, from whose bodies they cut out the toe and finger nails, which they bring to their thlen, and thus indulge in a number of black magic practices connected with sorcery and necromancy.

Roger Bacon. A very famous Franciscan monk who lived in England in the thirteenth century. He was an Alchemist who firmly believed in the existence of the Philosopher’s Stone, and was a great mechanician, chemist, physicist and astrologer. In his treatise on the Admirable Force of Art and Nature, he gives hints about gunpowder and predicts the use of steam as a propelling power, describing besides the hydraulic press, the diving-bell and the kaleidoscope. He also made a famous brazen head fitted with an acoustic apparatus which gave out oracles.

Ro and Ru (Eg.). The gate or outlet, the spot in the heavens whence proceeded or was born primeval light; synonymous with “cosmic womb”.

Rohinilâ (Sk.). The ancient name of a monastery visited by Buddha Sâkyamuni, now called Roynallah, near Balgada, in Eastern Behar.

Rohit (Sk.). A female deer, a hind; the form assumed by Vâch (the female Logos and female aspect of Brahmâ who created her out of one half of his body) to escape the amorous pursuits of her “father”, who transformed himself for that purpose into a buck or red deer (the colour of Brahmâ being red).

Rohitaka Stupa (Sk.). The “red stupa”, or dagoba, built by King Asoka, and on which Maitribala-râjâ fed starving Yakshas with his blood. The Yakshas are inoffensive demons (Elementaries) called pynya-janas or “good people”.

Rosicrucians (Mys.). The name was first given to the disciples of a learned Adept named Christian Rosenkreuz, who flourished in Germany, circa 1460. He founded an Order of mystical students whose early history is to be found in the German work, Fama Fraternitatis (1614), which has been published in several languages. The members of the Order maintained their secrecy, but traces of them have been found in various places every half century since these dates. The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia is a Masonic Order, which has adopted membership in the “outer”; the Chabrath Zereh Aur Bokher, or Order of the G. D., which has a very complete scheme of initiation into the Kabbalah and the Higher Magic of the Western or Hermetic type, and admits both sexes, is a direct descendant from mediæval sodalities of Rosicrucians, themselves descended from the Egyptian Mysteries.

Rostan. Book of the Mysteries of Rostan; an occult work in manuscript.

Rowhanee (Eg.) or Er-Roohanee. is the Magic of modern Egypt, supposed to proceed from Angels and Spirits, that is Genii, and by the use of the mystery names of Allah; they distinguish two forms—Ilwee, that is the Higher or White Magic; and Suflee and Sheytanee, the Lower or Black Demoniac Magic. There is also Es-Seemuja, which is deception or conjuring. Opinions differ as to the importance of a branch of Magic called Darb el Mendel, or as Barker calls it in English, the Mendal: by this is meant a form of artificial clairvoyance, exhibited by a young boy before puberty, or a virgin, who, as the result of self-fascination by gazing on a pool of ink in the hand, with coincident use of incense and incantation, sees certain scenes of real life passing over its surface. Many Eastern travellers have narrated instances, as E. W. Lane in his Modern Egyptians and his Thousand and One Nights, and E. B. Barker; the incidents have been introduced also into many works of fiction, such as Marryat’s Phantom Ship, and a similar idea is interwoven with the story of Rose Mary and the Beryl stone, a poem by Rossetti. For a superficial attempt at explanation, see the Quarterly Review, No.117.

Ruach (Heb.). Air, also Spirit; the Spirit, one of the “human principles” (Buddhi-Manas).

Ruach Elohim (Heb.). The Spirit of the gods; corresponds to the Holy Ghost of the Christians. Also the wind, breath and rushing water.

Rudra (Sk.). A title of Siva, the Destroyer.

Rudras (Sk.). The mighty ones; the lords of the three upper worlds. One of the classes of the “fallen” or incarnating spirits; they are all born of Brahmâ.

Runes (Scand.). The Runic language and characters are the mystery or sacerdotal tongue and alphabet of the ancient Scandinavians. Runes are derived from the word rûna (secret). Therefore both language and character could neither be understood nor interpreted without having the key to it. Hence while the written runes consisting of sixteen letters are known, the ancient ones composed of marks and signs are indecipherable. They are called the magic characters. “It is clear”, says E. W. Anson, an authority on the folk-lore of the Norsemen, “that the runes were from various causes regarded even in Germany proper as full of mystery and endowed with supernatural power”. They are said to have been invented by Odin.

Rûpa (Sk.). Body; any form, applied even to the forms of the gods, which are subjective to us.

Ruta (Sk.). The name of one of the last islands of Atlantis, which perished ages before Poseidonis, the “Atlantis” of Plato.

Rutas (Sk.). An ancient people that inhabited the above island or continent in the Pacific Ocean.

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