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The Theosophical Glossary THE THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY Theosophy Trust Books ▪ Theosophical Astrology by Helen Valborg, WQ Judge, HP Blavatsky, Raghavan Iyer ▪ The Bhagavad-Gita and Notes on the Gita by WQ Judge, Robert Crosbie, Raghavan Iyer, HP Blavatsky ▪ Theosophy ~ The Wisdom Religion by the Editorial Board of Theosophy Trust ▪ Self-Actualization and Spiritual Self-Regeneration ▪ Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha's Path to Enlightenment ▪ The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali ▪ Meditation and Self-Study ▪ Wisdom in Action ▪ The Dawning of Wisdom by Raghavan Iyer ▪ The Theosophical Glossary ▪ The Secret Doctrine, Vols. I and II ▪ Isis Unveiled, Vols. I and II ▪ The Key to Theosophy ▪ The Voice of the Silence ▪ The Origins of Self-Consciousness in The Secret Doctrine ▪ Evolution and Intelligent Design in The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky ▪ The Ocean of Theosophy by William Q. Judge ▪ Teachers of the Eternal Doctrine by Elton Hall ▪ Symbols of the Eternal Doctrine by Helen Valborg THE THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY BY H. P. BLAVATSKY AUTHOR OF "ISIS UNVEILED", "THE SECRET DOCTRINE", "THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY" London: THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 7, DUKE STREET, ADELPHI, W.C. The Path Office: 132, NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, U.S.A. The Theosophist Office: ADYAR, MADRAS, INDIA. 1892 THEOSOPHY TRUST BOOKS NORFOLK, VA The Theosophical Glossary Copyright © August 25, 2018 by Theosophy Trust All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical - including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Theosophy Trust books may be ordered through Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com, and other retail outlets, or by visiting: http://www.theosophytrust.org/online_books.php ISBN-13: 978-0-9992382-4-0 ISBN-10: 0-9992382-4-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953926 Printed in the United States of America Dedicated to Theosophists everywhere Who strive to comprehend the Depths of the Wisdom Religion The central tenets of Theosophia are not derived from any ancient or modern sect but represent the accumulated wisdom of the ages, the unrecorded inheritance of humanity. Its vast scheme of cosmic and human evolution furnishes all true seekers with the symbolic alphabet necessary to interpret their recurrent visions as well as the universal framework and metaphysical vocabulary, drawn from many mystics and seers, which enable them to communicate their own intuitive perceptions. All authentic mystical writings are enriched by the alchemical flavour of Theosophical thought. Theosophy is an integrated system of fundamental verities taught by Initiates and Adepts across millennia. It is the Philosophia Perennis, the philosophy of human perfectibility, the science of spirituality and the religion of responsibility. It is the primeval fount of myriad religious systems as well as the hidden essence and esoteric wisdom of each. Man, an immortal monad, has been able to preserve this sacred heritage through the sacrificial efforts of enlightened and compassionate individuals, or Bodhisattvas, who constitute an ancient Brotherhood. They quietly assist in the ethical evolution and spiritual development of the whole of humanity. Theosophia is Divine Wisdom, transmitted and verified over aeons by the sages who belong to this secret Brotherhood. Spritual Evolution Hermes, August 1979 Raghavan Iyer PUBLISHER'S PREFACE The Theosophical Glossary was H. P. Blavatsky's last publication; in fact, it was not published in full until after her death in 1891. That is not to say she did not write nearly all of it, nor that she did not see any of it published before her death. Many of the entries in this Glossary were written by her in one or another of her many articles and books, most notably The Key to Theosophy, which contains the embryonic form of this Glossary at the end of the book. The online article "Authorship of the Theosophical Glossary" 1 from the Blavatsky Theosophy Group UK puts the matter succinctly: The reason it was "an almost entirely posthumous work" was because only a small portion of its contents had been published while HPB was still alive, such as in the sixty page Glossary she included at the end of the second edition of her book "The Key to Theosophy," at the conclusion of which she wrote, "Readers requiring fuller information about any particular term should consult THE THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY now in preparation. A careful and comprehensive study of the entire contents of the Theosophical Glossary will show that many of the entries are derived from the books and articles written and published by H.P.B. during her lifetime and are here collated topically and alphabetically for the easy reference of the student of Theosophy; others are reproduced from the Glossary included at the end of The Key to Theosophy, whilst numerous other entries can be found nowhere else in the Theosophical literature. These go into such profound depths on esoteric subjects – and in the customary style and language of H.P.B. – that their value and authorship cannot be legitimately questioned. As H.P.B. wrote in the Introduction to The Secret Doctrine, her work "is written for the instruction of students of Occultism, and not for the benefit of philologists." The reader may rest assured all of the entries in this work are those of H.P.B., except those clearly marked as [w.w.w.], which were contributed 1 See https://blavatskytheosophy.com/authorship-of-the-theosophical- glossary/ for the full text of the article. at the special request of H.P.B. by W. W. Westcott, who was then Secretary General of the Rosicrucian Society. Those entries deal almost exclusively with topics of the Kabbalah, or Rosicrucian or Hermetic doctrines. The original version of this Glossary also notes that "H.P.B. desired also to express her special indebtedness, as far as the tabulation of facts is concerned, to the Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary of Eitel, The Hindu Classical Dictionary of Dowson, The Vishnu Purâna of Wilson, and the Royal Masonic Cyclopædia of Kenneth Mackenzie." The Glossary provides meanings and context to the wealth of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Tibetan, Chaldean, Persian, Scandinavian, Hebrew, Kabalistic, Gnostic, and Occult terms found in the many works of Theosophical literature: the two volumes each of Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, The Key to Theosophy, The Ocean of Theosophy, the journals Theosophist, Lucifer and The Path, and other publications of the 19th Century Theosophical Society. Directly following each entry, the reader will find a key to the linguistic origins of the terms in the parentheses: (San.), (Heb.), (Grk.), etc. The abbreviation (S.D.) of course means The Secret Doctrine. Also note, the Tibetan transliterations into English are the 19th century conventions and do not always follow more recent conventions for transliterating Tibetan into English letters. In the original edition, Sanskrit words beginning with the letters Tch were misplaced under 'T', along with a note that they should appear under 'C'; this edition retains those words and note as in the original, and also places them under their rightful heading, 'C'. Finally, students of Theosophy will find great value in referring to the Glossary in their research work, as H.P.B. sometimes provides insight into the primary terms used throughout the literature that can be found nowhere else. For those intent upon uncovering as many threads connected to a given term or phrase as possible, an online and fully searchable version of this work can be found at the Theosophy Trust website at https://www.theosophytrust.org/Online_Books/Theosophical_Glossary_V 2.4.pdf Theosophy is the Sanatana Dharma, the eternal wisdom of theosophia, the knowledge and wisdom which underlie the universe, and which cannot be wholly expressed in discursive thought or words. What the Elder Brothers of Humanity have given to the world as Theosophy aims to help the intuitive student to enter the depths of that wisdom to the degree to which he or she is capable. So, even though there is no obvious theme running throughout the vast universe of terms in the Glossary, there is, indeed, an undercurrent of eternal wisdom that knits together all of the comments made, an undercurrent of precise, ordered thought that forms the structure of the Theosophical philosophy, which reaches back, as the term Sanatana Dharma implies, into the very origins of thinking Humanity upon this globe. This volume will surely assist all those who approach it from that lofty vantage point. Editor, Theosophy Trust https://www.theosophytrust.org/ THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY A A.—The first letter in all the world-alphabets save a few, such for instance as the Mongolian, the Japanese, the Tibetan, the Ethiopian, etc. It is a letter of great mystic power and "magic virtue" with those who have adopted it, and with whom its numerical value is one. It is the Aleph of the Hebrews, symbolized by the Ox or Bull; the Alpha of the Greeks, the one and the first the Az of the Slavonians, signifying the pronoun "I" (referring to the "I am that I am"). Even in Astrology, Taurus (the Ox or Bull or the Aleph) is the first of the Zodiacal signs, its colour being white and yellow. The sacred Aleph acquires a still more marked sanctity with the Christian Kabalists when they learn that this letter typifies the Trinity in Unity, as it is composed of two Yods, one upright, the other reversed with a slanting bar Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie states that "the St. Andrew .א—or nexus, thus cross is occultly connected therewith". The divine name, the first in the series corresponding with Aleph, is AêHêIêH or Ahih when vowelless, and this is a Sanskrit root. Aahla (Eg.).
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