Esoteric
Glossary
O – P
Occultist The
true occultist is a scientist and a devotee; where these two are not merged we
have the mystic, as well as the individual in danger of black magic, being
governed by the intellect and not by selflessness; the occultist is only the
mystic functioning on a higher plane - that of the mind.
Path (The)
The "linking light" or "bridging radiance" created between
the higher and the lower; communion or interplay between the personality and the
Soul, and later between the personality and Spirit; "Before the person can
tread the path, they must become that path themself";
The antahkarana is the Path symbolically. This is one
of the paradoxes of the esoteric science. Step by step and stage by stage, we
construct that Path just as the spider spins its thread. It is that "way
back" which we evolve out of ourselves; it is that Way which we also find
and tread.
Permanent
atom Small force centres on each of the planes which hold the memory of all incarnations,
and which the reincarnating soul draws upon when building new bodies of
manifestation.
Personality
The sumtotal of the threefold lower self: physical,
astral, mental: a blend of mental energy, of emotional energy and of vital
force, and these three are masked, hidden or revealed (note this terminology)
by an outer shell or form of dense physical matter. This outer crust is in
itself a form of negative energy. The result of this union of three energies in
an objective form is self-consciousness and their fusion produces that sense of
individuality which justifies the use of the wword
"I," and which relates all occurrences to a self; where this central
conscious entity exists, utilising the mind, reacting
sensuously through the emotional body, and energising
the dense physical (via the vital body), then one has a personality; awareness
of identity in relation to other identities - true of God or man; sense or
identity persists only during the creative process; a state of awareness which
has its conditioning factor in the mind stuff and this can be transcended when
the mind stuff no longer controls.
Plan The
expression of Purpose in time and space; all we really know is the fact of the
Plan and that it is very good; that we are enfolded within it and subject to
it; the objective of the Plan is to reproduce upon the plane of the earth the
inner kingdom of the soul.
Plane (of
Perception) A level of existence. There are seven
planes of perception on this, the "cosmic physical" plane - physical,
astral, mental, buddhic, atmic,
monadic and Adi. These planes are subdivided into
seven subplanes each, making 49 subplanes
in all. An essential part of "septenaries"
in occultism that can be applied, with the 7 rays, to broaden understanding.
Planetary
Logos This term is generally applied to the seven highest spirits corresponding
to the seven archangels of the Christian. They have all passed through the
human stage and are now manifesting through a planet and its evolutions, in the
same way that man manifests through his physical body. The highest planetary
spirit working through any particular globe is, in reality, the personal God of
the planet. The Being Who is the life of our planet; the One in Whom we live
and move and have our being; the sumtotal of all organized
life; the informing, ensouling life of this planet
earth; the life which integrates the planet as a whole, and pours through all
forms - great or small - which, in their aggregate, constitute the Planetary
form; our planetary Logos has been given the name of the "experimenting
divine physicist." A planetary logos is the informing entity of any
planetary scheme, which is made up of many other globes and chains - the
physical planet just being one expression of the great life incarnate in a
scheme. The Kumara for our planet, Sanat Kumara, is
simply the personality expression of this great being.
Prakriti That which caused the
universe to manifest itself.
Prana The Life principle, the breath of life.
Pranayama The science of rhytmic
breathing as applied in meditation.
Prayer The
dim, faint and inadequate expression of the Science of Invocation and
Evocation; affirmation of divinity in order to attain material well-being.
Precipitation
An aggregation of energies arranged in a certain form, in order to express the
idea of some creative Thinker, and qualified or characterised
by the nature of his thought and held in that peculiar form as long as thought
remains dynamic.
Principle The
embodiment of some aspect of truth on which this
system of ours is based; that which governs always the action of the ego on its
own plane. The basic differentiations, essential qualities or types of energy
upon which all things are built; they give the distinctive nature of all forms.
Principles are eternal, personalities temporal. Principles are to be viewed in
the light of eternity, personalities from the standpoint of time. The trouble
is that, in many situations, two principles are involved, one of which is
secondary. The difficulty lies in the fact that (both being principles) both
are right. It is a rule for safe guidance always to remember that usually basic
principles (for their wise comprehension and fruitful working out) call for
play of intuition whilst secondary principles are more purely mental. The
methods hence necessariy differ. While holding to the
basic principles, the wisest methods are silence and a joyful confidence that
the Law works.
Principle of
Expansion That which brings about the development of
consciousness so that the latent germ of sentiency or of sensitive response to
environment may be fostered in the living unit.
Principle of
Liberation Closely linked with that of the problem of
limitation; death is governed by the Principle of Liberaton,
and not by that of Limitation. Death is only recognised
as a factor to be dealt with by self-conscious lives and is only misunderstood
by human beings, who are the most glamoured and
deluded of all incarnated lives. (See Death)
Principle of Limitation
The outcome of the purposeful will and formulated desire of some thinking
Being, and governs consequently the form-taking process of all incarnated
lives; controls the scope of an incarnation, sets its measure and rhythm,
determines the radius of its influence, and brings about that illusory
appearance of reality which we call manifestation. (see
Principle of Liberation)
Principle of
Periodic Manifestation The Law of Cycles; a beneficent
operation of the love-wisdom of innate divinity; produces that sequence of the
states of consciousness which we term Time; produces in the world field of
awareness a gradual and slow growth towards self-expression, self-appreciation,
and self-realisation.
Purpose The
motivating Life behind all that emanates from Shamballa;
impulses all the activities of the Hierarchy; the task of the Hierarchy is to
formulate the Plan for all forms of life in the three worlds and the four
kingdoms in nature; the Purpose of God is that which implements the Plan; God
reveals His purpose through the activity of the mind - which in turn impresses
the brain, attuned to receptivity. Later again, the mind becomes responsive to
an illumination, emanating from the Spirit aspect. Purpose is an energy, released within the confines of the Council
Chamber (Shamballa) and there it takes shape. Behind
it looms that which has brought it into being. (see
Plan)
Purusha The spiritual self. The embodied self. The word literally means "The
dweller in the city" - that is, in the body. It is derived from the
Sanskrit "pura" which means city or body,
and "usha" a derivative of the verb
"vas," to dwell.
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