Theosophical Society,
H
P Blavatsky
The
Key to Theosophy Glossary
By
H
P Blavatsky
N - Z
N.
Nazarene Codex. The Scriptures of the Nazarenes and of the Nabotheans also.
According to sundry Church Fathers, Jerome and Epiphanius
especially, they were heretical teachings, but are in fact one of the numerous
Gnostic readings of cosmogony and theogony, which
produced a distinct sect.
Necromancy.
The raising of the images of the dead, considered in antiquity and by modern
occultists as a practice of Black Magic. Iamblichus,
Porphyry and other theurgists deprecated the practice no less than Moses, who
condemned the “witches” of his day to death, the said witches being often only
mediums, e.g., the case of the Witch of Endor and
Samuel.
Neoplatonists. A school of philosophy
which arose between the second and third century of our era, and was founded by
Ammonius Saccas, of
Nirmanakaya (Sans.) Something entirely
different in esoteric philosophy from the popular meaning attached to it, and
from the fancies of the Orientalists. Some
call the Nirmanakaya body “Nirvana with remains” (Schlagintweit), on the supposition, probably, that it is a
kind of Nirvanic condition during which consciousness
and form are retained. Others say that it is one of the Trikaya
(three bodies) with “the power of assuming any form of appearance in order to
propagate Buddhism” (Eitel’s idea); again, that “it
is the incarnate avatara of a deity”
(ibid.)Occultism, on the other hand, says (“Voice of the Silence”) that Nirmanakaya, although meaning literally a transformed
“body,” is a state. The form is that of the Adept or Yogi who enters, or
chooses, that post-mortem condition in preference to the Dharmakaya
or absolute Nirvanic state. He does this because the
latter Kaya separates him for ever from the world of
form, conferring upon him a state of selfish bliss, in which no other living
being can participate, the adept being thus precluded from the possibility of
helping humanity, or even devas. As a Nirmanakaya, however, the adept leaves behind him only his
physical body, and retains every other “principle” save the Kamic,
for he has crushed this out for ever from his nature during life, and it can
never resurrect in his post-mortem state. Thus, instead of going into selfish
bliss, he chooses a life of self-sacrifice, an existence which ends only with
the life-cycle, in order to be enabled to help mankind in an invisible, yet
most effective, manner. (See “Voice of the Silence,” third Treatise, “The Seven
Portals.”) Thus a Nirmanakaya is not, as popularly
believed, the body “in which a Buddha or a Bodhisattva appears on earth,” but
verily one who, whether a Chutuktu or a Khubilkhan, an adept or a Yogi during life, has since
become a member of that invisible Host which ever protects and watches over humanity
within Karmic limits. Mistaken often for a “Spirit,” a Deva,
God himself, &c., a Nirmanakaya is ever a
protecting, compassionate, verily a guardian, angel to him who is worthy of his
help. Whatever objection may be brought forward against this doctrine, however
much it is denied, because, forsooth, it has never hitherto been made public in
Europe, and therefore, since it is unknown to Orientalists,
it must needs be a “myth of modern invention”—no one will be bold enough to say
that this idea of helping suffering mankind at the price of one’s own almost
interminable self-sacrifice, is not one of the grandest and noblest that was
ever evolved from the human brain. Nirvana (Sans.) According to the Orientalists, the entire “blowing-out,” like the flame of a
candle, the utter extinction of existence. But in the exoteric
explanations it is the state of absolute existence and absolute consciousness,
into which the Ego of a man who had reached the highest degree of perfection
and holiness during life, goes after the body dies, and occasionally, as is the
case of Gautama Buddha and others, during life.
Nirvanee (Sans.) One who has attained
Nirvana—an emancipated Soul. That Nirvana means something quite
different from the puerile assertions of Orientalists,
every scholar who has visited
“the spiritual body is immortal.” (Vide “Sans.-Chin. Dict.”)
As Mr. Eitel, the scholarly Sinologist, explains it:
“The popular exoteric systems agree in defining Nirvana negatively as a state
of absolute exemption from the circle of transmigration; as a state of entire
freedom from all forms of existence, to begin with, freedom from all passion
and exertion; a state of indifference to all sensibility”—and he might have
added “death of all compassion for the world of suffering.” And this is why the
Bodhisattvas who prefer the Nirmanakaya to the Dharmakaya vesture stand higher in the popular estimation
than the Nirvanees. But the same scholar adds that
“Positively (and esoterically) they define Nirvana as the highest state of
spiritual bliss, as absolute immortality through absorption of the Soul (Spirit
rather) into itself, but preserving individuality, so that, e. g., Buddhas,
after entering Nirvana, may re-appear on earth—i. e.,
in the future Manvantara.”
Noumena
(Gr.) The true essential nature of Being as
distinguished from the illusive objects of sense.
Nous (Gr.) A Platonic term for the Higher Mind
or Soul. It means
Spirit as distinct from animal-Soul, Psyche; divine consciousness or mind in
man. The name was adopted by the Gnostics for their first conscious AEon, which, with the Occultists, is the third logos,
cosmically, and the third “principle” (from above) or Manas, in man. (Vide
infra, “Nout.”) Nout (Eg.) In the Egyptian Pantheon it
meant the “One-only-One,” because it does not proceed in the popular or
exoteric religion higher than the third manifestation which radiates from the
Unknowable and the Unknown in the esoteric philosophy of every nation. The Nous of Anaxagoras was the Mahat
of the Hindus -- Brahma, the first manifested deity—“the Mind or spirit
Self-potent.” This creative principle is the primum
mobile of everything to be found in the Universe—its Soul or Ideation. (Vide
“Seven Principles” in man.)
O.
Occultism.
See OCCULT SCIENCES.
Occult Sciences. The science of the secrets of nature—physical and psychic, mental
and spiritual; called Hermetic and Esoteric Sciences. In the west, the Kabbala
may be named; in the east, mysticism, magic, and Yoga philosophy. The latter is
often referred to by the Chelas in
Occult World. The name of the first book which treated of
Theosophy, its history, and certain of its tenets. Written
by A. P. Sinnett, then editor of the leading Indian
paper, the Pioneer, of
Origen. A
Christian Churchman, born at the end of the second century, probably in Africa,
of whom little, if anything, is known, since his biographical fragments have
passed to posterity on the authority of Eusebius, the most unmitigated
falsifier that has ever existed in any age. The latter is credited with having
collected upwards of one hundred letters of Origen
(or Origenes Adamantius),
which are now said to have been lost. To Theosophists, the most interesting of
all the works of Origen is his “Doctrine of the
Pre-existence of Souls.” He was a pupil of Ammonius Saccas, and for a long time attended the lectures of this
great teacher of philosophy.
P.
Panaenus. A Platonic philosopher
in the Alexandrian school of the Philalethians.
Pandora. In
Greek Mythology, the first woman on earth, created by Vulcan out of clay to
punish Prometheus and counteract his gift to mortals. Each God having made her
a present of some virtue, she was made to carry them in a box to Prometheus,
who, however, being endowed with foresight, sent her
away, changing the gifts into evils. Thus, when his brother Epimetheus
saw and married her, when he opened the box, all the evils now afflicting
humanity issued from it, and have remained since then in the world.
Pantheist.
One who identifies God with nature and vice versa. If
we have to regard Deity as an infinite and omnipresent Principle, this can
hardly be otherwise; nature being thus simply the physical aspect of Deity, or
its body. Parabrahm (Sans.) A Vedantin term meaning “beyond Brahma.”
The Supreme and the absolute Principle, impersonal and
nameless. In the Veda it is referred to as “THAT.”
Paranirvana. In the Vedantic
philosophy the highest form of nirvana—beyond the latter.
Parsees (or Parsis). The present Persian followers of Zoroaster, now settled in
Personality.
The teachings of Occultism divide man into three aspects—the divine, the
thinking or rational, and the irrational or animal man. For metaphysical
purposes also he is considered under a septenary
division, or, as it is agreed to express it in theosophy, he is composed of
seven “principles,” three of which constitute the Higher Triad,
and the remaining four the lower Quaternary. It is in the latter that dwells
the Personality which embraces all the characteristics, including memory and
consciousness, of each physical life in turn. The Individuality is the Higher
Ego (Manas) of the Triad considered as a Unity. In other words the
Individuality is our imperishable Ego which reincarnates and clothes itself in
a new Personality at every new birth. Phallic Worship, or Sex Worship; reverence and adoration shown to
those gods and goddesses which, like Siva and Durga
in
Philadelphians. Lit., “those who love their brother-man.”
A sect in the seventeenth century, founded by one Jane Leadly. They objected to all rites, forms, or
ceremonies of the Church, and even to the Church itself, but professed to be
guided in soul and spirit by an internal Deity, their own Ego or God within
them.
Philalethians. (Vide “Neoplatonists.”)
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. A term in Alchemy; called also the Powder of Projection, a mysterious
“principle” having the power of transmuting the base metals into pure gold. In
Theosophy it symbolises the transmutation of the
lower animal nature of man into the highest divine.
Phren. A Pythagorean term
denoting what we call the Kama-manas, still
overshadowed by Buddhi-Manas.
Plane. From the Latin Planus (level, flat), an
extension of space, whether in the physical or metaphysical sense. In
Occultism, the range or extent of some state of consciousness, or the state of
matter corresponding to the perceptive powers of a particular set of senses or
the action of a particular force. Planetary Spirits. Rulers and governors of
the Planets. Planetary Gods. Plastic. Used in Occultism in reference to the nature and essence of the
astral body, or the “Protean Soul.” (Vide “Plastic Soul” in the
Theosophical Glossary.)
Pleroma. “Fulness”;
a gnostic term used also by
Porphyry (Porphyrius). His real name was Malek,
which led to his being regarded as a Jew. He came from
Pot Amun. A Coptic term meaning “one consecrated to
the god Amun,” the Wisdom-god. The
name of an Egyptian priest and occultist under the Ptolemies. Pragna, or Prajna (Sans.) A term used to
designate the “Universal Mind.” A synonym of Mahat.
Pralaya (Sans.) Dissolution, the
opposite of Manvantara, one being the period of rest
and the other of full activity (death and life) of a planet, or of the whole
universe.
Prana (Sans.) Life Principle, the breath of life, Nephesh. Protean Soul. A name for Mayavi rupa or thought-body, the higher astral form which assumes
all forms and every form at the will of an adept’s thought. (Vide “Plastic
Soul” in the Theos. Gloss.)
Psychism. The word is used now to denote every kind
of mental phenomena, e.g., mediumship as well as the
higher form of sensitiveness. A newly-coined word. Puranas (Sans.) Lit., “the ancient,” referring to Hindu writings or
Scriptures, of which there is a considerable number.
Pythagoras. The
most famous mystic philosopher, born at Samos about
586 B. C., who taught the heliocentric system and reincarnation, the highest
mathematics and the highest metaphysics, and who had a school famous throughout
the world. (See for fuller particulars, Theos. Gloss.)
Q.
Quaternary.
The four lower “principles in man,” those which constitute his personality
(i.e., Body, Astral Double, Prana or life, organs of desire and lower Manas, or
brain-mind), as distinguished from the Higher Ternary or Triad, composed of the
higher Spiritual Soul, Mind and Atman (Higher Self).
R.
Recollection, Remembrance, Reminiscence. Occultists make a difference between these
three functions. As, however, a glossary cannot contain the full explanation of
every term in all its metaphysical and subtle differences, we can only state
here that these terms vary in their applications, according to whether they
relate to the past or the present birth, and whether one or the other of these
phases of memory emanates from the spiritual or the material brain; or, again,
from the “Individuality” or the “Personality.” Reincarnation,
or Re-birth; the once universal doctrine, which taught that the Ego is born on
this earth an innumerable number of times. Now-a-days it is denied by
Christians, who seem to misunderstand the teachings of their own gospels.
Nevertheless, the putting on of flesh periodically and throughout long cycles
by the higher human Soul (Buddhi-Manas) or Ego is taught in the Bible as it is
in all other ancient scriptures, and “resurrection” means only the rebirth of
the Ego in another form. (Vide Theos. Gloss.) Reuchlin, John. A great German
philosopher and philologist, Kabbalist and scholar.
He was born at Pfortzheim in
S.
Sacred Science. The epithet given to the occult sciences in
general, and by the Rosicrucians to the Kabbala, and
especially to the Hermetic philosophy.
Samadhi. The name in
“Tendencies of mind.”
Samma Sambuddha. The sudden remembrance of all one’s past incarnations,
a phenomenon of memory obtained through Yoga. A Buddhist
mystic term.
Sanna. One of the five Skandhas, or attributes, meaning
“abstract ideas.”
Seance. A term now used to denote a sitting with a medium for sundry
phenomena.
Used chiefly among
the spiritualists.
Self. There are two Selves in men—the Higher and
the Lower, the Impersonal and the Personal Self. One is divine, the other
semi-animal. A great distinction should be made between the two.
Sephiroth. A Hebrew Kabalistic
word, for the ten divine emanations from Ain-Soph,
the impersonal, universal Principle, or DEITY. (Vide Theos.
Gloss.) Skandhas. The attributes of every personality,
which after death form the basis, so to say, for a new Karmic reincarnation.
They are five in the popular or exoteric system of the Buddhists: i.e., Rupa, form or body, which leaves behind it its magnetic
atoms and occult affinities; Vedana, sensations,
which do likewise; Sanna, or abstract ideas, which
are the creative powers at work from one incarnation to another; Samkhara, tendencies of mind; and Vinnana,
mental powers.
Somnambulism. “Sleep walking.” A psycho-physiological state,
too well known to need explanation.
Spiritism. The same as the above,
with the difference that the Spiritualists reject almost unanimously the
doctrine of Reincarnation, while the Spiritists make
of it the fundamental principle in their belief. There is, however, a
vast difference between the views of the latter and the philosophical teachings
of Eastern Occultists. Spiritists belong to the
Spiritualism. The modern belief that the spirits of the dead return on earth to
commune with the living. (See “Spiritism.”)
St. Germain (Count). A mysterious personage,
who appeared in the last century and early in the present one in
*Sthulopadhi. The physical body in its
waking, conscious state (Jagrat). *Sukshmopadhi. The physical body in the dreaming state (Svapna),
and Karanopadhi, “the causal body.”
*These terms
belong to the teachings of the
Swedenborg
(Emanuel). A famous scholar and clairvoyant of the past century, a man of great
learning, who has vastly contributed to Science, but whose mysticism and
transcendental philosophy placed him in the ranks of
hallucinated visionaries. He is now universally known as the Founder of the Swedenborgian sect, or the New Jerusalem Church. He was
born at
T.
Taijas (Sans.) From tejas
“fire”; meaning the “radiant,” the “luminous,” and referring to the manasa rupa, “the body of Manas,”
also to the stars, and the star-like shining envelopes. A term in Vedanta philosophy, having other meanings besides the
Occult signification just given.
Taraka Raj
Yoga (Sans.) One of the
Brahmanical Yoga systems, the most philosophical, and
in fact the most secret of all, as its real tenets are
never given out publicly. It is a purely intellectual and spiritual school of
training.
Tetragrammaton (Gr.) The deity-name in four letters, which are in their English form
IHVH. It is a kabalistical term and corresponds on a
more material plane to the sacred Pythagorean Tetraktys.
(See Theos. Gloss.) Theodidaktos (Gr.) The “God
taught,” a title applied to Ammonius Saccas.
Theogony. From the Greek theogonia, lit., the “Genesis of the Gods.” Theosophia (Gr.) Lit., “divine wisdom or the wisdom of the
gods.” [For a fuller explanation of such words as “Theosophy,” “Theosophists,”
“Theosophical Society,” etc., vide the Theos. Gloss.]
Therapeutae,
or Therapeuts (Gr.)A school of
Jewish mystic healers, or esotericists, wrongly
referred to, by some, as a sect. They resided in and near
Thread Soul. The same as Sutratma, which see.
Thumos
(Gr.) A Pythagorean and Platonic term; applied to an aspect of the human soul,
to denote its passionate Kamarupic condition: --
almost equivalent to the Sanskrit word tamas: “the
quality of darkness,” and probably derived from the latter.
Timaeus (of Locris). A Pythagorean
philosopher, born at Locris. He differed
somewhat from his teacher in the doctrine of metempsychosis. He wrote a
treatise on the Soul of the World and its nature and essence, which is in the
Doric dialect and still extant.
Triad or Trinity. In every religion and philosophy—the three in
One.
U.
Universal Brotherhood. The sub-title of the Theosophical Society, and
the first of the three objects professed by it.
Upadhi (Sans.) Basis of something, substructure; as in
Occultism—substance is the upadhi of Spirit.
Upanishad (Sans.) Lit., “Esoteric Doctrine.” The third Division of the Vedas, and classed with revelations (Sruti or “revealed word”). Some 150 of the
Upanishads still remain extant, though no more than about twenty can be fully
relied upon as free from falsification. These are all earlier than the sixth
century B. C. Like the Kabala, which interprets the esoteric
sense of the Bible, so the Upanishads explain the mystic sense of the Vedas.
Professor Cowell has two statements regarding the
Upanishads as interesting as they are correct. Thus he says: (1) These works have “one remarkable peculiarity, the total
absence of any Brahmanical exclusiveness in their
doctrine. . . . They breathe an entirely different spirit, a freedom of thought
unknown in any earlier work except the Rig Veda hymns themselves; and (2) the
great teachers of the higher knowledge (Gupta Vidya),
and Brahmans, are continually represented as going to Kshatriya Kings to become
their pupils” (chelas). This shows conclusively that (a) the Upanishads were
written before the enforcement of caste and Brahmanical
power, and are thus only second in antiquity to the Vedas; and (b) that the occult
sciences or the “higher knowledge,” as Cowell puts
it, is far older than the Brahmans in India, or even of them as a caste. The
Upanishads are, however, far later than Gupta Vidya,
or the “Secret Science” which is as old as human philosophical thought itself.
V.
Vahan (Sans.) “Vehicle,” a synonym of Upadhi.
Vallabacharyas Sect (Sans.), or the “Sect of the
Maharajas;” a licentious phallic-worshipping community, whose main branch is at
Vidya (Sans.) Knowledge, or
rather “Wisdom Knowledge.” Vinnana (Sans.) One of five Skandhas; meaning
literally, “mental powers.” (See “Skandhas.”)
W.
Wisdom-Religion. The same as Theosophy. The
name given to the secret doctrine which underlies every exoteric scripture and
religion.
Y.
Yoga (Sans.)
A school of philosophy founded by Patanjali,
but which existed as a distinct teaching and system of life long before that
sage. It is Yajnawalkya, a famous and very
ancient sage, to whom the White Yajur Veda, the Satapatha Brahmana and the Brihak Aranyaka are attributed
and who lived in pre-Maha-bharatean times, who is credited with inculcating the necessity and positive
duty of religious meditation and retirement into the forests, and who,
therefore, is believed to have originated the Yoga doctrine. Professor Max
Muller states that it is Yajnawalkya who prepared the
world for the preaching of Buddha. Patanjali’s Yoga,
however, is more definite and precise as a philosophy, and embodies more of the
occult sciences than any of the works attributed to Yajnawalkya.
Yogi or Yogin (Sans.) A devotee, one who practises the Yoga system. There are various grades
and kinds of Yogis, and the term has now become in
Z.
Zenobia. The Queen of Palmyra, defeated by the
Emperor Aurelianus. She had for her instructor Longinus, the famous critic and logician in the third
century A. D. (See “Longinus.”)
Zivo, Kabar (or Yukabar). The name of one of the creative deities in the
Nazarene Codex. (See
Zohar
(Heb.) The “Book of Splendour,”
a Kabalistic work attributed to Simeon Ben Iochai, in
the first century of our era. (See for fuller explanation Theos. Gloss.)
Zoroastrian.
One who follows the religion of the Parsis, sun, or
fire-worshippers.
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