Hiranyagarbha. (sometimes as two words Hiranya Garbha). The radiant or golden egg or womb. Esoterically the luminous "fire-mist" or ethereal stuff from which the Universe was formed.

I

Incubi. The plural of Incubus. Something more real and dangerous than the ordinary meaning given to the word, viz., that of nightmare ... The spooks of mediaeval demonology called forth from the invisible regions by human passions and lusts.

Individuality One of the names given in Theosophy and Occultism to the Human Higher Ego.  The immortal and divine Ego as distinct from the mortal human ego which perishes.  The latter, or "personality" (personal ego) survives the dead body only for a time in the Kama Loka; the Individuality prevails for ever.

Initiates. The designation of anyone who was received into, and had revealed to him, the mysteries and secrets of either Masonry or Occultism. In our modern days those who have been initiated by the Adepts of Mystic Lore into the mysterious knowledge, which, notwithstanding the lapse of ages, has yet a few real votaries on earth.

J

Jettatore. One possessing the "evil eye".

Jhana. Knowledge; occult wisdom.

Jiva (Jĭva) The general cosmic Life Principle.

Jiva Life, as the Absolute; the Monad also or "Atma-Buddhi".

Jivatma(n) (Jivātma(n)) The highest spiritual (Life) Principle especially when regarded as individualized, as in man.

Jivanmukta. An Adept or Yogi who has reached the ultimate state of holiness, and separated himself from matter; a Mahatma, or Nirvanee, a dweller in bliss and emancipation. Virtually one who has reached Nirvana during life.

Jivatma The ONE universal life, generally; but also the divine Spirit in Man. 

K

Ka. A name of Brahma in his phallic character as generator or Prajapati.

Kabala A cosmological and psychological system deriving from the Ancient Wisdom of the East, but committed to writing in its present form by a learned Rabbi in the Middle Ages.

Kabalah. The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew Rabbis of the middle ages derived from the older secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony.

Kalapani. Punishment for the worst violators of laws (civil).

Kalpa A period of time; a 'day' and 'night' of Brahma - many millions of earth years.

Kalpa. The time period of a planet, generally a cycle of time, but usually representing a "day" and "night" of Brahma, a period of 4,320 million years.

Kama (Kāma) The 4th principle in Cosmos and man. It is fohatic force regarded as expressing itself as desire, emotion, and passions, particularly in man.

Kama Desire, the passional nature of man; the fourth principle in his constitution, associated with his emotions and desires; the cleaving to existence; volition; evil desire, lust.

Kama. The first conscious, all-embracing desire for universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, the first feeling of infinite tender compassion and mercy that arose in the consciousness of the ONE FORCE as soon as it came into life and being as a ray from the ABSOLUTE. More commonly thought of as evil desire, lust, volition; cleaving to existence. Kama is generally identified with Mara, the tempter.

Kamaloka (Kāmaloka) That region of, or place in, the Astral Light where the kamic remains of defunct human beings exist for a while (maybe up to some years) and then dissipate.

Kama-loka The semi material plane, to us subjective and invisible, where the disembodied "personalities," the astral forms, called Kama-rupa (fourth and part of man's fifth principle) remain until they fade out from it by the complete exhaustion of the effects of the mental impulses that created these eidolons of human and animal passions and desires.

Kama-loca. Alternative spelling of Kama-loka (see above).

Kama-prana. A compound of Kama and Prana; which see.

Kama-rupa (Kāma-rūpa) The kamic form of the defunct which takes form only after death and in which the deceased under some circumstances may retain some consciousness. It is this form which may manifest at seances.

Kama-rupa The subjective form created by all sentient beings through the mental and physical desires and thoughts in connection with things of matter; a form which survives the death of their bodies. This is the eidolon, in man, of the ex-personality, the pale copy of the man that was; it vegetates in Kama-Ioka for a period of time, dependent on the degree of materiality of the defunct. Bereft of higher mind, spirit and physical senses, if left alone to its own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out and disintegrate. But, if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere whether by the passionate desires and the appeals of the surviving friends or by regular necromantic practices-one of the most pernicious of which is mediumship-the "spook" may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the span of the natural life of its body. Once the Kama-rupa has learned the way back to living human bodies, it becomes a vampire, feeding on the vitality of those who are so anxious for its company. In India these eidolons are much dreaded. They are Elementaries, q .v.

Kama-rupa. Metaphysically, and in our esoteric philosophy, it is the subjective form created through the mental and physical desires and thought in connection with things of matter, by all sentient beings, a form which survives the death of their bodies; this form plays an important part in the after death states and processes. These have a definite term in relation to it and when they are over the form disintegrates.

Kamawachar(a). Belonging to Kama-loca; one devoted to sensuous pleasure or personal desires.

Karana (Kārańa) Lit. cause. Metaphysically, primal cause.

Karma Lit. action. In one sense the total of the dynamic effects of all cosmic. processes. it has many aspects both cosmic and particular. It maintains, by its equilibrium (harmony) aspect, the universe as an orderly whole. For a fine definition see The Key to Theosophy Chap. XI, where it says that it is "the Ultimate Law of the Universe, the source, origin, and fount of all other laws which exist throughout Nature." ^{Key to Theosophy, 201}

Karma Action; metaphysically the Law of Retribution, the Law of Cause and Effect or Ethical Causation; it is the power that controls all things, the resultant of moral action, the moral effect of an act committed for the attainment of something which gratifies a personal desire. There is the Karma of merit and of demerit. Karma neither punishes nor rewards; it is simply the one Universal Law which guides unerringly and, so to say, blindly, all other laws productive of certain effects along the grooves of their respective causations. When Buddhism teaches that "Karma is that moral kernel (of any being) which alone survives death and continues in transmigration" or reincarnation, it simply means that there remains naught after each Personality but the causes produced by it; causes which are undying, i.e., which cannot be eliminated from the Universe until replaced by their legitimate effects, and wiped out by them, so to speak, and such causes - unless compensated during the life of the person who produced them with adequate effects - will follow the reincarnated Ego, and reach it in its subsequent reincarnation until a harmony between effects and causes is fully re-established. No "personality" - a mere bundle of material atoms and of instinctual and mental characteristics - can of course continue, as such, in the world of pure Spirit. Only that which is immortal in its very nature and divine in its essence, namely the Ego, can exist forever. And as it is that Ego which chooses the personality it will inform, after each Devachan, and which receives through these personalities the effects of the karmic causes produced, it is therefore the Ego, that self which is the "moral kernel" referred to and embodied Karma, "which alone survives death."

Karya-rupa. In the form of action; to supplement or translate into action.

Kha. The same as "Akasa".

Khaba. The square building in Mecca, object of pilgrimage.

Kingdoms The kingdoms of nature, but taken in Occultism to include three elemental ones below the mineral and three above the human, making ten in all.

Kosha. Lit. a sheath, as in Anandamaya-kosha, "the illusive sheath of bliss", identical with our Atma- Buddhi or the Spiritual Soul. A mayavic or illusory form. One of the five Koshas or "principles" in man.

Kriyashakti (Kriyāśakti) The mysterious thought - (or will - ] directed power that enables a potent user of it to produce phenomenal effects.

Kriyasakti The power of thought; one of the seven forces of Nature. Creative potency of the Siddhis (powers) of the full Yogis.

Kumara. Lit. a virgin boy or young celibate, a holy youth. The name was given to a class of high spiritual entities associated with the very early development of humanity. Two other classes mentioned were the Agnishvattas and the Manasaputras.

Kumaras (Kumāras), adj Kumaric (Kumārlc) One class of Solar Pitris, closely concerned with humanity. In the formation of earth men they were said, because of their purity, to "refuse to create." They are sometimes referred to as "the mind-born Sons" and Agnishvattas, sometimes equated to Egos.

L

Lama. In Tibet this title, if correctly applied, belongs only to the priests of superior grades, those who can hold office as gurus in the monasteries, but the title has become somewhat debased.

Law, The A synonym for Karma in its broadest sense. It is the whole Cosmic operation. In The Secret Doctrine it says, "Deity is Law and vice versa." ^{The Secret Doctrine (I 152, I 176, I 207)} Because everything from the highest to the lowest in Cosmos is living and therefore sentient, it behaves in its characteristic way fulfilling its role in the grand scheme of things. This is how they are ordered. The Universe is self-regulating; there is no outside Lawgiver or Regulator.

Laya A condition of dissolution, of rest, of non-activity. A laya center is a state of inactive neutrality, where substance ceases to be differentiated; sometimes likened to Nirvana.

Lha. Spirit of the highest spheres, whence the name of Lhasa, residence of the Dalai Lama. Title often given to saints and yogis in Tibet who have attained great occult powers.

Licanthropy. (Lycanthropy) The power of changing oneself into an animal (properly a wolf).

Linga-sharira (Lińga-śarīra] The model body, the Sanskrit name for the Astral Body, man's second principle, the vehicle of prana.

Linga Sarira The "astral body" of man or animal. The eidolon, the vital and prototypal body; the reflection of the man of flesh. It is born before, and dies or fades out with the disappearance of the last atom of the body.

Lipika Lit. The 'Recorders'. They are said to enter in the book of the unfading cosmic memory every detail of all that has happened during a Manvantara. The highest in the Hierarchy of Celestial Beings; they create a division between the arupa (spiritual) and the rupa (lower, form) levels of existence.

Logos Lit. word or sound. The Collective Being of a system, i.e., Solar or Planetary. Usually represented as being threefold; unmanifest (first), manifest (second), intelligent (mind, Mahat, in action) (third).

Logos. The manifested deity with every nation and people; the outward expression, or the effect of the cause which is ever concealed. Thus, speech is the logos of thought; hence it is aptly translated by the "Verbum" and "Word" in its metaphysical sense.

Loka (Loca) A region or circumscribed place.  In metaphysics, a world or sphere or plane.  The Puranas in India speak incessantly of seven and fourteen Lokas, above, and below our earth; of heavens and hells.

Lunar Pitris The beings who had reached the human stage in the Lunar (Moon) Chain who formed the chhayas (shadows} of the Astral bodies of the humanity to be on our planet.

M

Magic In occultism, the great "Science" considered as "a sacred science inseparable from religion," by the oldest and most civilized and learned nations. Magic is the science of communicating with and directing supernal, supramundane Potencies, as well as of commanding those of the lower spheres; a practical knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature known only to the few, because they are so difficult to acquire, without falling into sins against nature. "The realistic desires of modern times have contributed to bring magic into disrepute and ridicule. Faith (in one's own self) is an essential element in magic, and existed long before other ideas which presume its pre-existence. It is said that it takes a wise man to make a fool; and a man's ideas must be exalted almost to madness, i.e., his brain susceptibilities must be increased far beyond the low, miserable status of modern civilization, before he can become a true magician.
White magic is divine magic, devoid of selfishness, love of power, of ambition, or lucre, and bent only doing good to the world in general and to one's neighbour in particular. The smallest attempt to use one's abnormal powers for the gratification of self makes of these powers sorcery or black magic.

Maha (Mahā) Great, e.g., Mahatma, Great Soul.

Maha-but. Lit. Maha great and but (bhut) a ghost or phantom; sometimes the term is applied to one of the seven great Element Principles.

Mahamaya (Mahāmāyā) Lit. the great illusion. Cosmic Manifestation.

Mahat Cosmic Ideation, Divine Mind, Universal Mind principle, which reflected into and individualized in man, is his Manasic principle (5th). Regarded in The Secret Doctrine as an Entity, the highest in our scheme, a collectivity of divine beings.

Mahat. Lit. the "great one". The first principle of Universal Intelligence and Consciousness. The producer of Manas, the thinking principle and of Ahankara, egotism or the feeling of "I am I" in the lower manas.

Mahatma. Lit. great soul. Adepts of the highest order, exalted beings who, having attained the mastery over their lower principles, are thus living unimpeded by the "man of flesh", and are in possession of knowledge and power commensurate with the stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution; Arhats.

Mahatmas (Mahātmas) Lit. great souls. Title given: to high Adepts or Initiates.

Maksha. Hypocrisy; concealing one's views.

Manas, adj Manasic (Mānasic) Lit. mind.

Manas The mind, the mental faculty which makes of man an intelligent and moral being and distinguishes him from the mere animal. Esoterically it means, when unqualified, the Higher Ego, or the sentient reincarnating Principle in man. When qualified it is Buddhi-manas or the Spiritual Soul in contradistinction to its human reflection, Kama-manas.

Manasa. Lit. the efflux of the Divine Mind, signifying the Manasa or Divine Sons, arupa and incorporeal, of Mahat ... (They) are identical with Kumara, the Manasa-Putra (mind sons) and are finally identified with the human "Egos".

Manasa-Putra. Lit. sons of Mind, see above. Also termed the Solar Pitris, the great benefactors of the human race acting in the capacity of awakening the dormant mind principle during the Third Root Race of humanity.

Manasaputras (Mānasaputras) Lit. the Sons of Mind. Solar Pitris who bestowed the spark of Mind upon the up-until-then otherwise 'mindless' man of the Third Root Race.

Manas Taijasa. Lit. the radiant Manas. A state of the Higher Ego, which only high metaphysicians are able to realize and comprehend.

Manu. A great Regent or Watcher of a planetary system. There are 14 Manus (7 primeval ones) who are each the patron or guardian of a cycle in a Manvantara. In India a great legislator, hence the Laws of Manu.

Manus The great Regents of a planetary system; the collective beings who act as the progenitors of the successive Races of men on the planet.

Manvantara The period of influence of the Manu; otherwise a period of activity always alternating with a period of rest-Pralaya.

Manvantara A period of manifestation, as opposed to Pralaya (dissolution, or rest), applied to various cycles, especially to a Day of Brahma, 4,320,000,000 Solar years - and to the reign of one Manu - 308,448,000.

Mara. The Destroyer, the Evil One; the god of Temptation, hence the "death" of the soul, the seducer who tried to turn Buddha away from his path.

Maya (Māyā) Lit. subject to change. Illusion.

Maya Illusion; the cosmic power which renders phenomenal existence and perception thereof possible. All that which is subject to change through decay and differentiation and which therefore has a beginning and end, is, in Hindu philosophy, regarded as maya; as against Reality which alone is changeless and eternal.

Mayavi-rupa (Māyāvi-rūpa) An illusory, thought-projected form. The vehicle of so called 'astral' travel of any but a short distance from the physical body. Short distance travel may be in the Astral Body proper. The Mayavi-rupa is also sometimes projected when someone dying thinks of another to whom it then appears.

Mayavi-rupa Illusive form; the body of "astral" projection, formed from the thought, as distinct from the emotional, elements of the kama-manasic mortal soul (fourth and lower fifth principles) of man; it is to be distinguished also from the astral body, the Linga-Sarira, man's second principle, which cannot be separated far from his physical body. From the Mayavi-rupa can be formed a semi material apparitional likeness of a man even while he lives, similar to a materialized "spook" at a séance.

Metanoia. Change; spiritual conversion; repentance; transformation.

Minor Cycle The completion of Seven Rounds q.v. (See also ML 195:198)

Modus Operandi Latin, literally the way or manner of operating or working.

Monad Lit. a unit. An ultimate unit of being; in Occultism the Unit Spirit in or overshadowing everything. In man the combination of Atma and Buddhi. A unit of life when in association with an entity. Regarded cosmically as the indivisible One, the Unit Life of the System in existence, whence all 'lives.'

Monad The Unity, the One; in Occultism often applied to the higher duad, Atma-Buddhi; in conjunction with the higher mind principle, Manas, in man it becomes the Ego, the reincarnating entity. Without an association with Manas, Monad is unconscious in any sense in which we understand that word.

Monad. The Unity, the One; in Occultism it often means the unified triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the duad, Atma-Buddhi, that immortal part of man which reincarnates in the lower kingdoms, and gradually progresses through them to Man and then to the final goal - Nirvana.

Moon Chain See Chain. The Moon or Lunar Chain is said to be the one that next preceded ours, the Earth Chain; regarded as its re-incarnation inheriting its principles, life energies, etc.

Mulaprakriti (Mūlapŕaktiti) Root-matter, undifferentiated, the abstract Substance-principle unman- ifest; corresponds to Akasha as undifferentiated Substance in manifestation.

Mulaprakriti. The abstract deific feminine principle -undifferentiated substance. Akasa. Lit. the "root of nature" (Prakriti) or Matter.

Myalba. In esoteric philosophy of Northern Buddhism the name of our Earth, called Hell for those who reincarnate in it for punishment.

N

Necromancy The raising of the images of the dead, considered in antiquity and by modern Occultists as a practice of black magic. Many witches were necromancers and were condemned as such.

Nephesh. Breath of life. In theosophical teachings the synonym of the Prana-Kamic principle or the vital animal Soul in man.

Nidana. One of the twelve causes of existence; as links in the chain of causation of the whole range of existence. The Nidanas are listed under their Sanskrit names in the Theosophical Glossary.

Nirvana (Nirvāńa) A state of Egoic consciousness free of the limitations and conditioning of ordinary existence; the highest spiritual attainment. Not extinction but absolute existence and consciousness.

Nipang. Crippled; worthless.

Nirmanakaya. Lit. a transformed "body"; a state; a man who, while leaving behind his physical body, retains every other principle save the kamic. Instead of entering Nirvana he remains to help mankind in an invisible yet effective manner.

Nirvana According to the Orientalists, the entire "blowing out", like the flame of a candle, the utter extinction of existence.  But in the esoteric explanations it is the state of absolute existence and absolute consciousness, into which the Ego of a man who has reached the highest degree of perfection and holiness during life goes, after the body dies, and occasionally, as in the case of Gautama Buddha and others, during life.

Nirvana. The state of absolute existence and absolute consciousness, that of an Ego who has reached the highest degree of perfection and holiness during life, after the body dies.

Niyama Restraint of the mind achieved by controlling one's thoughts.

Noumena. The true essential nature of being as distinguished from the illusive objects of sense.

Noumenon The inner, invisible, essential nature behind all visible, objective phenomena or anything that can be an object of sense. Occult Ordinarily, simply 'hidden' from Latin 'to hide.' The doctrine or study of things hidden or mysterious-theosophy, etc. Occult Sciences, the Hermetic or Esoteric Sciences which explore the secrets of Nature.

Nous. The Higher Mind or Soul; Spirit as distinct from animal soul - psyche; divine consciousness or mind in man.

O

Occult. Lit. hidden. The secrets of Nature at all levels of being. An Occultist is one who studies them.

Occultism. Covers all arcane sciences.

Odyle. Matter, tenuous. A force supposed to manifest in light, magnetism, chemical action, hypnotism, etc. (Reichenbach).

P

Para Literally beyond, hence paramatma is beyond or above Atma. Parabrahm is beyond Brahman, and so on.

Paramatma(n). The Supreme Soul of the Universe.

Parabraham Lit. beyond Brahman. The indescribable, unknowable, unvarying 'absolute' postulated as preceding and sustaining the manifest Universe.

Parabrahm. Lit. beyond Brahma. The Supreme Infinite Brahma, "Absolute" -, the attributeless, secondless reality. The impersonal and nameless universal Principle.

Para-Brahm Lit. beyond Brahman.  The Boundless All; Absoluteness; Eternal, Boundless, Immutable Principle.

Paramanu-rupa. The form of an atom or infinitesimally small particle.

Para-Nirvana 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.

Pari Passu Latin, literally with equal pace; together.

Personality In Occultism - which divides man into seven principles, considering him under the three aspects: 1) the divine, 2) the thinking or rational, and 3) the animal man, the lower four principles, the Quaternary or the purely astrophysical being.  Individuality is 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 reincarnates and clothes itself in one personality after another.

Pisachas In the Puranas, goblins or demons created by Brahma.  In the southern Indian folk-lore, ghosts, demons, larvae, and vampires - generally female - who haunt men.  Fading remnants of human beings in Kama Loca, as shells and Elementaries.

Pitris (Pitŕis) Lit. fathers. Ancestors.

Plane As used in Occultism, 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 (physical or otherwise) corresponding to any of the above. There are seven main planes (see text, Chapter 6, the Constitution of Man), each of which has seven subplanes, each, itself of a nature corresponding to a main plane. Our terrestrial main planes together constitute the lowest one of seven corresponding Cosmic planes. We are given no information beyond this.

Prajapati(s) (Prajāpati(s)) Progenitors, the givers of life to all on this Earth.

Prakriti (Prakŕiti) The manifest substance aspect, as opposed to the spiritual (Purusha) aspect of the One, the material of the universe.

Prakriti The "substantial" aspect of the ONE; Nature in general, as opposed to Purusha, spiritual nature or just Spirit. The two together are the "two primeval aspects of the One Unknown Deity."

Pralaya The period of rest or inactivity after a Manvantara, or period of activity. Literally meaning dissolution but often applying to a state of suspended being. Can apply variously to a universe, a solar system or a planet.

Pralaya A period of obscuration or repose - planetary, cosmic or universal - the opposite of Manvantara.

Prana The life principle, the third in man's constitution; the breath of life; vitality, the vital fluid.  When it is absent from a body or organism that body is "dead", and the coordinating and controlling functions of other principles cannot then operate.

Prana (Prāńa) The Life Principle (Jivatman) when associated with an individual, e.g., man. No body or even inner personal principle can live without it. The breath of life.

Prana The life principle, third; the breath of life; vitality, the vital fluid. When it is absent from a body or organism that body is "dead," and the co-ordinating and controlling functions of other principles cannot then operate.

Principle(s). The Elements or original essences, the basic differentiations upon and of which all things are built up; the seven individual and fundamental aspects of the one universal reality in Kosmos and in man.

Prithivi (Pŕithivī) Lit. the Earth. Sometimes the Element Earth, when regarded as a Tattva.

Protean. Of many shapes or aspects; from Proteus.

Psyche. Lit. soul: in Theosophy the mortal soul, the inner (fourth and lower fifth) principles of Personality.

Puranas (Purāńas), adj Puranic [Purānic] Indian scriptural writings ascribed to Vyasa.

Purusha Spirit in contradistinction to Matter; the Spiritual Self. The animating principle in man; man.

Q

Quaternary The fourfold constitution of'man in the rupa or form planes as distinct from the three arupa or spiritual planes. The quaternary is the Personality whereas the upper spiritual triad is the Individuality or Ego.

R

Race In Occultism, humanity is represented as passing through seven main development stages during one Round (q.v.); each such stage is a Root Race, which is divided in seven Sub races and each of these is further sub-divided.

Races, Root In Esotericism humanity is said to progress in its physical, psychical, and spiritual development by stages.  There are seven main stages represented by Seven Root Races and each Root Race has seven Sub-Races which are themselves further divided.  The physical characteristics (not the psychical nor spiritual) of the Root Races are roughly represented by colour, black (3rd), brown (4th) and white (5th); the earlier Races were not fully physical until the middle of the 3rd Root Race.

Rapport. Relation: sympathy, emotional bond: spiritualistic touch.

Regent A name given to the great (collective) Beings who initiate the cosmic 'creative' process after a Pralaya. They have other names, Maharajas, etc.

Reliquiae. Lit. remains. In Theosophy the remains of the psyche after death, in Kama-loca.

Rigveda (Ŕigveda) Lit. The Hymn Veda. The first and most important of the four Vedas; the most ancient sacred book of the Hindus; said to be "dozens of thousands" of years old.

Ring-Pass-Not As a man's skin demarks him, as an entity, from his surroundings at physical level, so he is said in Occultism to be so 'entified' in the inner world by a ring-pass-not. Occultism also teaches that every manifest thing and creature has such a Ring.

Rosicrucians. Originally disciples of Christian Rosenkreuz (1460); mystical students of the Kabbala and western magic.

Round In Occultism this word is used in a special way to denote the passage of the "Life Wave" round all the seven globes of a Chain once.

Round In Esotericism a Round is the name given to the passage of the Life Wave round all the seven Globes of a Chain. On Earth it represents the time taken for all seven Root Races to develop.

Rupa (Rūpa) Lit. a form. This applies not only to the objective physical world but to inner worlds, normally invisible, but visible to clairvoyant sight. There even such normally subjective phenomena as feelings and thoughts become perceptible.

Rupa Form. Sometimes associated with the sense of sight. Sakti. Power; the active female energy of the gods; the consort or wife of a male god; Universal Energy; force and the six forces of nature synthesized.

Rupa. Body: form, the forms of the gods which are subjective to us.

Rupawachara. One belonging to the domain of form; one devoted to visual objects or fine material.

S

Sakkayaditthi. False belief that the personality (Sakkaya) is permanent and unchanging.

Sakti Power; the active female energy of a deity; universal energy.

Sakwala This is a bana or "word" uttered by Gautama Buddha in his oral instructions.  Sakwala is a mundane, or rather a solar system, of which there is an infinite number in the universe, and which denotes that space to which the light of every sun extends.  Each Sakwala contains earth, hells and heavens (meaning good and bad spheres, our earth being considered as hell, in Occultism); attains its prime, then falls into decay and is finally destroyed at regularly recurring periods, in virtue of one immutable law. 

Samadhi A state of ecstatic and complete trance.  The term comes from the words Sam-adha, "self-possession".  He who possesses this power is able to exercise an absolute control over all his faculties, physical or mental; it is the highest state of Yoga.

Samma-Sambuddha. The recollection of all one's past incarnations: a yoga phenomenon. A title of Buddha, perfect illumination.

Sanna. A Skandha, abstract ideas.

Sephiroth (Sephirōth) singular (Sephira)
Kabalistic term meaning the ten emanations of Deity shown on the Tree of Life.

Shishta(s) (śishta(s)) Lit. remnant. Divine mortals providing the seed for a new humanity.

Shiva (śiva) Lit. destroyer. Third person of the Hindu trinity.

Skandhas The "dispositions and tendencies" which persist through the after death states and condition the new personality of a re-incarnating Ego. Exoterically there are five but esoterically seven.

Skandhas Bundles, or groups of attributes; everything finite, inapplicable to the eternal and absolute. In Occultism there are seven "predispositions and tendencies" in every human living being. Five of these are, as usually translated, form, perception, consciousness, action, and knowledge. These unite at the birth of a man and constitute his personality. After the maturity, they begin to separate and weaken, and this is followed by decrepitude and death of the physical body.

Sistrum An ancient Egyptian musical instrument of the rattle type.

Somnambul(ism). Lit. sleepwalking. Performing every function of waking consciousness in one's sleep with utter oblivion of the fact on waking.

Srotapanna. (Srotāpatti [Skt]) One who has "entered the stream"; attained the first grade of sanctification; a converted man.

Sthula-sharira [Sthūla-śarĭra) Sanskrit for the physical body; the first principle in man's occult constitution. The body which gives expression in the physical world to all man's facilities.

Sthula-sarira. The gross physical body, the lowest of man's seven principles.

Succubi. Female devils supposed to consort with men during sleep.

Sukhaviti. A paradise of physical delights enjoyed between lives, a mistaken notion of Devachan.

Sushupti. The state of deep sleep: the third of the 4 states of consciousness.

Svabhavat The mystic Essence, equivalent to Mulaprakriti, Father-Mother, the primordial Spirit-Substance Principle from which all manifest existence, Nature, proceeds, and into which all returns at the end of the Mahamanvantara.

Swabavat The spirit and essence of substance, that which is behind the world substance and stuff. From it all nature proceeds and into it all returns at the end of the life-cycles. It is the plastic essence of matter; in esotericism the "Father-Mother".

Sui Generis Of its own kind, the only one of its kind.

Sukhavati The Western Paradise of the uneducated.  The popular notion is that there is a Western Paradise of Amitabha, wherein good men and saints revel in physical delights until they are carried once more by Karma into the circle of rebirth.  This is an exaggerated and mistaken notion of Devachan.

T

Taijasa From Tejas, fire; radiant, flaming. As a Tattva, the Element Fire.

Tanha (Tańhā) The thirst for life, that which brings us back into incarnation according to the Buddhists.

Tanha The thirst for life. Desire to live and the clinging to life on this earth, causing rebirth or reincarnation.

Tanmatra(s). A characteristic property; noumena of the element-principles of earth, water, air, fire and ether.

Taraka Raja Yoga. A system of brahminical Yoga culminating in liberation.

Tathagata "One who is like the coming"; he who is, like his predecessors (the Buddhas) and successors, the coming future Buddha or World-Saviour.  One of the titles of Gautama Buddha, and the highest epithet, since the first and the last Buddhas were the direct immediate avatars of the One Deity.

Tattva From Tat, That, the original homogeneous Element of Life, in which the several basic qualities of things in Nature arise as the Elements or Tattvas.

Tejas Fire

Terra incognita. Lit. unknown territory.

Tetraktis. The sacred Pythagorean Four; same as Tetragrammaton, symbolized by a triangle of four dots a side with one in the middle making ten dots, the number of perfection.

Theosophy From theos, god, and sophia, wisdom or knowledge. If God is regarded( as universal Deity with everything as a manifestation of the One, Theosophy can be taken to mean an inclusive knowledge of the whole Cosmic process. HPB has said, "It is the last word of possible human knowledge."

Theosophist. A student of Theosophy, the Ancient Wisdom, the Wisdom Religion, Esoteric Science, Occultism, etc. One who tries to live in accordance with the eternal verities of existence.

Tiaou. A kind of devachanic post-mortem state.

Triad A threefold unity; a trinity taken as one. In Occultism the higher triad is the Atma-Buddhi-Manas combination. Its symbol is the upward facing triangle.

Triad Atma-Buddhi and the "Envelope" which reflects their light, the three in one. Also applied to Atma, Buddhi, and Manas, and in the Kabala to the three supernal Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, Kether, Chokmah, and Binah, the One and its two aspects, male and female.

Tribuvana The three worlds - Swarga, Bhumi, Patala - or Heaven, Earth and Hell in popular beliefs; esoterically, these are the Spiritual and Psychic (or Astral) regions, and the Terrestrial sphere. 

Trinity The three aspects of Deity: Father, Mother (male, female, positive, negative), and their progeny, Son, the resultant, active animated life. The Son is sometimes equated to Man. In the Christian Trinity, Mother was made (by Athanasius) the Holy Ghost, which therefore must be regarded as Female.

Trishna See Tanha.

Trisharana. Lit. three conditions of Bodhi (wisdom) essential, reflected, and practical; attributes of a Nirmanakaya, one who has attained to but renounces the state of Nirvana in order to serve humanity.

Tushita Devaloka. The dwelling place of a class of gods of great purity (Hindu).

U

Udambara flower. Lit. lotus of great size: a supernatural omen blossoming once every three thousand years. One such blossoming heralded the birth of Gautama Buddha.

Upadana Lit. acquiring. Material cause; specifically - clinging to earth life.

Upadhana. Lit. acquiring an adhana. Clinging to earth life: a material cause.

Upadhi (Upādhi) Lit. substitute or disguise. Usually base or vehicle, through whicb/ something higher than itself is given expression. The physical body (vehicle) of man gives expression to his 'soul' principles.

Upadhi Basis; the vehicle, carrier or bearer of something less material than itself; as the human body is the upadhi of its spirit, ether the upadhi of light; a mould, a defining or limiting substance. Literally, a substitute, a disguise, hence a "veil of spirit" e.g., Buddhi is the upadhi of Atma.

Upanishad(s). (Hindu) that which destroys ignorance, produces liberation of spirit: writings dealing with metaphysical subjects, viz. the origin of the universe, the nature and essence of unmanifest deity, gods, etc.; writings of great antiquity.

V

Vahan(a). Lit. a vehicle. The carrier of something immaterial and formless.

Vayu (Vāyu) Air, as such, and as a Tattva or Element.

Vedana. The second Skandha, perceptions, senses: the sixth Nidana.

Vidya (Vidyā), Avidya (Avidyā) Vidya, Knowledge. Avidya, not knowing, ignorance.

Vihara. Place inhabited by Buddhist priest or ascetic, temple, cave or monastery.

Vijnana Consciousness, intelligence; one of the Nidanas.

Vikara. Alteration; deterioration; perversion; change of mind.

Vinnana. Lit. mental powers: consciousness, intelligence. A Skandha and Nidana.

Y

Yama Lit. God of the Dead. Unrestrained activities of the mind.