COLLATION OF THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARIES
List of Title Abbreviations (in alphabetical order)
SD INDEX Hia Dynasty. See Hsia Dynasty
TG Hiarchas (Gr.). The King of the "Wise Men" in the Journey of Apollonius of Tyana to India.
SD INDEX Hibbert Lectures. See Sayce, A. H.
SD INDEX Hicetas [Hiketas] (Gk) [a Pythagorean], taught Earth's rotation I 117 &n
HIERARCHY
For a fuller description of this topic by articles, excerpts, and possibly further links, hyperlink to the Teachers, Disciples, and the Hierarchy of Compassion section of this site.
OG Hierarchy -- The word hierarchy merely means that a scheme or system or state of delegated directive power and authority exists in a self-contained body, directed, guided, and taught by one having supreme authority, called the hierarch. The name is used by theosophists, by extension of meaning, as signifying the innumerable degrees, grades, and steps of evolving entities in the kosmos, and as applying to all parts of the universe; and rightly so, because every different part of the universe -- and their number is simply countless -- is under the vital governance of a divine being, of a god, of a spiritual essence; and all material manifestations are simply the appearances on our plane of the workings and actions of these spiritual beings behind it.
The series of hierarchies extends infinitely in both directions. If he so choose for purposes of thought, man may consider himself at the middle point, from which extends above him an unending series of steps upon steps of higher beings of all grades -- growing constantly less material and more spiritual, and greater in all senses -- towards an ineffable point. And there the imagination stops, not because the series itself stops, but because our thought can reach no farther out nor in. And similar to this series, an infinitely great series of beings and states of beings descends downwards (to use human terms) -- downwards and downwards, until there again the imagination stops, merely because our thought can go no farther.
The summit, the acme, the flower, the highest point (or the hyparxis) of any series of animate and "inanimate" beings, whether we enumerate the stages or degrees of the series as seven or ten or twelve (according to whichever system we follow), is the divine unity for that series or hierarchy, and this hyparxis or highest being is again in its turn the lowest being of the hierarchy above it, and so extending onwards forever -- each hierarchy manifesting one facet of the divine kosmic life, each hierarchy showing forth one thought, as it were, of the divine thinkers.
Various names were given to these hierarchies considered as series of beings. The generalized Greek hierarchy as shown by writers in periods preceding the rise of Christianity may be collected and enumerated as follows: (1) Divine; (2) Gods, or the divine-spiritual; (3) Demigods, sometimes called divine heroes, involving a very mystical doctrine; (4) Heroes proper; (5) Men; (6) Beasts or animals; (7) Vegetable world; (8) Mineral world; (9) Elemental world, or what was called the realm of Hades. The Divinity (or aggregate divine lives) itself is the hyparxis of this series of hierarchies, because each of these nine stages is itself a subordinate hierarchy. This (or any other) hierarchy of nine, hangs like a pendant jewel from the lowest hierarchy above it, which makes the tenth counting upwards, which tenth we can call the superdivine, the hyperheavenly, this tenth being the lowest stage (or the ninth, counting downwards) of still another hierarchy extending upwards; and so on, indefinitely.
One of the noblest of the theosophical teachings, and one of the most far-reaching in its import, is that of the hierarchical constitution of universal nature. This hierarchical structure of nature is so fundamental, so basic, that it may be truly called the structural framework of being. (See also Planes)
WW Hierarchies [[This]] is an exceedingly difficult subject because so much is involved in it. Let us go backwards instead of forwards. A great many people, preeminently the Christians themselves (because no people know less about their religion than do the Christians) do not know that Christian mythology, or, as I do not wish to be offensive, Christian theology, in those branches which pertain to the more recondite aspects of their creeds -- few Christians know, I repeat, that they had, and their Teacher taught, a hierarchical succession in Nature. As embodied in the early Christian writings this hierarchical system was divided into nine classes; these nine classes being further subdivided into three triads. I will write it on the blackboard very shortly, so as to make it clear. Their angelical orders, like everything of value in Christianity, came direct from the pagans, the pagans in this instance, being the Syrians, Chaldeans, and Arabians, and the Neo-platonists. A similar series of divine beings, proceeding from the divinity down to the lowest, has been believed in by all peoples of all times. From the Scandinavian fjords to the plains of Arabia, from China to Peru, in all countries, we will find the same belief in a hierarchical system by which the universe is governed, a hierarchical system of divine beings, if you please.
The word hierarchy comes from the Greek hieros (hieros), holy, and archein (archein), i.e., to be at the beginning, at the head; hence to lead, to rule. Now these words joined, we have the word hierarchy -- a government by deputation from a divine source. The Deity, to put it in plain words, governs through deputies, lesser gods in heaven, and priests on earth; hence the word remaining alive in its original significance. In the church of Rome exists the Roman hierarchy, the head of which is the Pope, and the head of him is the Lord Jesus, since the Pope is the vicegerent of God on earth. Under the Pope, the cardinals; although according to one theory in the Roman Church itself, there seems to be a tendency to believe that the cardinals as a united body, in conclave, are possibly equal in authority to the Pope himself. In certain of the Protestant churches, also, there is a hierarchy, as in the Angelican Church, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury is the hierarchial head. Under him are the bishops; under these are the priests; under the priests are the lesser priests, called the curates; and there are other orders of greater or less dignity, deans, deacons, and heaven knows what else. There is a somewhat similar system in the American Episcopal Church which is fundamentally the same as the Angelican church. This system embodies the principle of derivation of spiritual authority from another always a step higher. This hierarchical system is the cause, the basis, of the power of Rome. Its coherence, the instant communication of orders from center to circumference, the sense of unity, the recognition of authority, the feeling of brotherhood, makes the common bond, which is so strong that all the onslaughts and attacks of science, logic, reason, history, have been unable at the present day to do more than shatter the outward fortifications of the Church of Rome. The Church of Rome, as the great English Rationalist Hobbes once said, is the ghost of the Roman empire; and it is still a marvelously powerful ghost. The seeds of its disintegration must be sown within its own body. The Modernism of today is becoming a powerful force for progress in it.
Hierarchies is one of the keys to the natural religion of mankind, which is Theosophy. The religions of the ancient world without exception not even excepting the Jewish, and the religions of ancient America, as far as we can know them from the writings of the prejudiced priests who wrote the books from which we derive our information -- all these show that the world was governed on the hierarchical system, the orders or classes of being proceeding from the Deity 'downwards' ever growing more material. The whole system of the government of the universe was conceived of as a deputation of authority. Man was one of the steps; below man were the animals; below the animals, the plants; below the plants, the minerals; below the minerals, the elementals -- until another world begins, which is a very abstruse subject that I cannot touch upon here. Above man were the Gods, the spiritual beings; above the Gods, others called Super-Archangels, if you like; above them were the Thrones, and the Dominations and Powers, all names conveying the idea of a procession of authority, which we are attempting to describe.
The 'angelic' hierarchy, as the Christians have it, dates from the 6th century, and it is first found in a writer who calls himself, or rather who is known as, Dionysius the Areopagite, from the Areopagus, the Hill of Athens. He was associated with some legend connected with the Areopagus. As my memory serves me, according to the Christian legend he was one of St. Paul's first converts, an Athenian named Dionysius, and he was converted on the Areopagus, or belonged to the Council of Mar's Hill, and he took the name Areopagite or Areopagites, as a surname -- Dionysius the Areopagite. There is no foundation for this legend of his Athenian derivation, beyond the passage in Acts xvii, 4.
He divided, as I have previously hinted, the hierarchical series into nine orders, subdivided into three triads. They are as follows as he gives them:
First Triad
1. First and highest, Seraphim or the Seraphs, a word derived from the Hebrew [[heb char]] (ShRPh) referring to the fire, fiery essence.
2. Cherubim, also from the Hebrew, the word [[heb char]] (ChRVB) being of very First doubtful origin; but, as learned and pious Triad Christian commentators put it, there is no question of their being of angelical nature, because it is not true that the Lord God once "rode upon a Cherub and Fly?" ["rode upon a Cherub and Fly?" See II Sam. xxii, 11. "Fly" is not a noun here, but a verb -- "flew".-- J. D.] (Samuel), xxii, 11, Psalms xviii. 10.)
3. The Thrones; this makes the first triad.
Second Triad
4. Dominations
5. Virtues
6. Powers
Third Triad
7. Principalities
8. Archangels
9. Angels
WW Hierarchies [[W]]e will … remark on the following nine orders: Gods, angelic orders, daimons, heroes, men, animals, plants, minerals, and elementals. Before we begin it might be well to say something about elementals. They form properly the ninth in the hierarchy which I have just mentioned because they are at the bottom of the scale; and those entities which are at the bottom of any scale consisting of nine units are elemental in their nature. You will remember … we said that the angels were the ninth in order of the hierarchy or ladder of beings, as given by Dionysius called the Areopagite. He was called the Areopagite because he was supposed to be that individual whom Paul met, converted, and turned to Christianity when he visited Athens. There is a Dionysius mentioned in the Gospel of the Christians, in Acts xvii, 34, as being one of the individuals whom Paul converted; and medieval scholastics supposed that this Dionysius was later 'Bishop' of the church of Athens, and was still later transferred to Paris to become bishop of a certain district in northern France; and it pleased Gallic pride to suppose that their St. Denis and the writer calling himself Dionysius the Areopagite were one and the same person. The probability is, however -- a probability which is almost certainly the fact -- that whoever the writer may have been who threw his thoughts into the form of the work which has come down to us ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, drew his inspiration and a source of his knowledge from the Neoplatonic School. We find the same system of hierarchical governance of the world set forth; we find the same attributes, to a large extent, ascribed to the Deity; we find the same general Neoplatonic way of looking at the world and man, at the beings between man and the Deity and the beings under man.
Now, coming to our hierarchy:
1st Triad
1. Gods (Any other name would be, probably, as apt; I merely chose the words angelical order, because angelical comes from the Greek word meaning messenger, and all things are from the gods.)
2. Angelical order
3. Daimones
2nd Triad
4. Heroes
5. Men
6. Animals
3rd Triad
7. Plants
8. The mineral world
9. Elementals, and a new world begins, a new hierarchy.
You will remember that when we spoke of gods in our last study we described them as 'spiritual beings'. The objection to this is that it is not sufficiently definite, because 'spiritual beings' may be applied to any entity in the universe possessing, as all entities do, an intelligent spiritual center. Therefore, searching for a word, this -- Gods -- seemed best. Any other word would be as good, provided it conveyed the idea of the summit, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, of any hierarchy under discussion.
The angelical order would be the second in the series, a step downward from the Gods. It would be, of course, perfectly proper to call them 'gods one degree lower'; the daimones 'gods two degrees lower', the heroes three, men four, etc., and thus down to the end of the scale. But as that is confusing, and as it fixes an entity in the mind by giving it a name, let us call the next, the third in order, daimones, from the Greek word daimones which has many meanings and is used in Greek literature with many significations.
Hesiod in his Works and Days (121), speaks of the daimones as being the entities of the first, golden, or Saturnian race of men [See also The Secret Doctrine, II, 765.-- PLP EDS.] (which would fit in very well with what we understand by our Third Race in this Round), who exercise a protecting and beneficent care over men.
The order of Heroes is lower, a word taken from Greek mythology, philosophy, and literature. Hesiod speaks of the Heroes as the representatives of his third race of men, "formidable, mighty ... hearts of adamant, unapproachable", which would also fit in admirably with our Third and early Fourth Races. Hesiod omits mention of our First Race; and his other races are made to overlap. The Heroes were greater men, supermen, as they might be called today. They were men such as Theseus was, and Hercules too. The Heroes in Greek mythology were conceived as of having a god for one parent and a human for the other parent.
Men are such as we are, a strange mingling of god and beast, standing midway betwixt the gods and the elementals, and composing the middle point of the hierarchy.
The Animals are lesser men, or super-plants, beings with everything latent in them which we have, beings which are following us as the world progresses, feeding on what we cast off. Our dead bodies nourish the plants. Our astral elements after our death, nourish the animals. The higher parts of the animals are nourished by those parts of the lower quaternary, the second part of man (conceived of as a heptad), which he casts off in the postmortem state.
The plants are lesser animals. Sometimes the difference between plant and animal is small. There are creatures on earth today, principally marine, in which it is difficult to distinguish whether they are animal or plant.
The Mineral world composes the hard and rocky substance from which plants, animals, and men, ultimately draw their subsistence And the Elementals form both the lowest order of this hierarchical scale -- which you will remember is merely taken as an example of any hierarchical scale -- and the commencement of another hierarchical scale below, another series of nine. They are the super-gods, so to say, of the lower scale, as the elementals of the hierarchy above the gods would be the super-gods of our hierarchy, superior to this as this is superior to the one below it. So much for the principles of the hierarchical governance of the universe.
Now it was a part of the Neoplatonic technique, and it is also the technique of Theosophy, more particularly as set forth by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine, that every part of nature has its head. Nature is divided into spheres of activity, planes of action, ruled by deputies, who are the hierarchical heads thereof. This is also the teaching of Dionysius the Areopagite. Be it remembered, that his ideas are unsatisfactory from their vagueness, from the attempt to twist them to suit dogmatical Christian theology, and from the effort made to stretch them or to compress them into the proper size to fit that theology. But the principle is there, of dominance, of governance of the cosmos, of the universe, by deputies, receiving their power, their authority, their intelligence from the hierarchical head. In the Scandinavian Edda there are also the gods in their hierarchies. The eighth state or order in this scale is called Hel, that is to say the eighth of the hierarchy, lower or higher, as we view it than the one corresponding to this I have just written on the blackboard which we may call the human hierarchy, giving it the name of that which composes its center. [This statement is somewhat unclear, evidently referencing some scheme or diagram on the blackboard not incorporated in the original shorthand transcript. -- PLP EDS.] The ninth state of this Scandinavian hierarchy was called Nifelhel [Niflheim].
Now we come to an exceedingly difficult part of this subject, and that is, tracing the golden thread of consciousness and individuality running from the summit down. You will remember that Homer (Iliad viii, 19-24) speaks of the golden chain, by which if necessary he could drag all the gods and goddesses up from below, or let them down from Olympus if he so pleased; and this passage in the divine Homer has exercised the minds of more Greek and Latin philosophers than any other. Its proper elucidation is found in the writings of the Neoplatonists. These Neo-Platonists were a wonderful body of men. The name Neo of course means 'new', and Platonists is a word indicating the source of their philosophy in Plato. And they said that as Plato hid his knowledge in metaphor and symbol, as all ancient teachers did, so their duty was (considering that the world had arrived at what was called among themselves a "period of intellectual and spiritual barrenness" when false ideas were abroad and spreading in the world) -- their duty was to set forth as much as they dared of the real meaning of what Plato thought, more or less of the actual teachings taught in the Mysteries of Greece. And they did so, and they said that the 'golden chain' signified that procession of conscious being from the highest we can conceive of, down to the lowest. Every god had a procession or chain of entities proceeding from him to the lowest things. Along that magnetic chain, that golden chain, that series of links between the lowest and the highest, the particular characteristic or qualities of that particular god were always manifest. There was the Athentic, or Minervic which is the Latin term for the same thing, and this is the procession of intellectual entities. Their chain, down to the lowest, had an intellectual characteristic or nature. Those gods in which the passion of harmony, or love, (divine love, please understand) was the characteristic dominant, as in the celestial Venus, formed the chain connecting the celestial beings with the lowest of beings in which attraction below and love above predominated. You will remember that there were two Venuses, the celestial Venus, the divine Venus, called by the Greeks Aphrodite Ourania (from the Greek word meaning the heavens), and the Aphrodite Pandemos, of all people, as we might say, 'everybody's' Venus. (Cf. Plato, Symposium, 81C). This Aphrodite Pandemos, was the Venus of animal desire, of animal love, animal attraction; and the Aphrodite Ourania, the celestial Aphrodite, was that power in the universe which is best represented by our human word harmony, or love, pure celestial, impersonal love.
Therefore, consider if you please, that this hierarchy is removed seven degrees, seven stages above ours, leaving the relative positions of these nine orders as they now are. We may take fourteen stages or fifteen, or any number we may choose, but we will say seven above, counting upwards from the gods. From the gods of that seventh degree higher the influence proceeds mystically and wonderfully through all these others down to the ends of things. The second order of that degree sends forth in the same way, and the third and all the other. We are now men. What makes us men? It is the working in us of the intellectual faculties, the Manas, that which links us with the above and which enables us to understand the below. When we come to study Soul, Spirit, Matter, and Maya we shall be able to go into that subject more fully. Now it will be better to leave it, merely alluding to the fact that we are men because we receive as the source of our faculties, of our inspiration, the influence, the life, the magnetic stream so to speak, which descends from this particular hierarchy to which we belong. This composite stream was spoken of in ancient India under a dual form, as the solar and the lunar strains or inheritance, because man, mystically speaking, is part sun and part moon. These are difficult questions. We will go into them later when they come up. I am now trying to show you how hierarchies work in Nature, and you really see that the subject is so complex that I can give no more than the idea as thought by the ancients. That is my duty; it is the duty of those who wish to study, to investigate for themselves. H. P. Blavatsky taught us, all our Teachers have taught us, to take our literature, The Secret Doctrine pre-eminently, and by searching and reading such works as will enable us to advance step by step, to realize the grandeur of conceptions such as these: that the universe is conceived of as an organism, as being a unit; that there is no creation in the ordinary sense (we will come to that subject later also). There is evolution, emanation. Strictly speaking, we Theosophists are evolutionary emanationists. We are not evolutionists and we are not emanationists, in the popular sense, when we describe the tremendous activities which we class under the two names Cosmogony and Theogony.
Therefore, each unit or order of any hierarchical system, giving its individuality, its life, its principles to all below it, and all below it aspiring towards it; each hierarchy in turn sending its principles, its life, its energy, its light, to those lower, and those lower aspiring to those higher -- we can see what a majestic system it was which the ancients had, and how, despite themselves, these Christians with their arrogance and egotism find themselves drawn back to the old system, not knowing it. They cannot avoid it. It is in them. It is in the blood of men because they are men. Instinctively, they are drawn, as the magnet attracts them. All men are thinking beings, as a Greek philosopher said, and all heroes are aspiring beings, and all daimones are intellectual entities, and all angelical orders are orders of love. And the gods form the apex, those who are perfected. Little by little the elementals raise themselves into the minerals, the minerals through ages and ages of time become plants, the plants raise themselves in turn to the animals, the animals aspire to the heroes, the heroes are drawn to the animals and man is born! Heaven above, earth below, man in the middle; below earth the elemental world. It is a wonderful system, wonderful in the suggestiveness of every thought. Thoughts come into our minds as we discuss these things that we cannot follow, as we have not time, but you will see that in whatever way we look at these truths there is a new conception. Vaster horizons are opened to our view; new worlds seem to burst upon our astonished gaze. And how do we enter them? What is the key? It is Unity Divine, Universal Brotherhood, the identity of all things that are spiritual, where there is neither a beginning nor an end, because the end is a beginning and the beginning is an end. When the great Christian Teacher said: "I am the Alpha and the Omega", by Alpha and Omega he meant that which is the beginning and the end -- "I am a hierarchy". And see how it has been twisted and turned as implying the personal, irascible, thundering God, the adopted God, the misunderstood Jewish Lord, the "creator of heaven and earth", and no more. "I and my Father are one". What is the Father of man? God, which is myself, yourself -- and yet seven principles in each of us all, and seven principles to each order of any hierarchy, each principle with each principle interlinked, and forming an interminable chain from the lowest up to the very Godhead. And what is the Godhead? It is the elemental order of that which is higher. And we talk about 'infinity' and 'eternity' and quibble quite loosely, scarcely understanding what the words mean!
I could say much more on this subject, but time passes. I would like to point out one thing. In the Christian New Testament, Paul, writing to the Romans supposedly, (XI, 36) says (and the English of it does not carry the force of the Greek): "For of me and through me and to me are all things." (of, derivation; through, procession; from, a source; to, aspiration). The Old Testament of the Jews has a remarkable passage. It says "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." You will see the force of that in a few moments. The Hebrew of it is this: [[heb char]] N'AShH ADM BTsLMNV ChDMVThNV (Gen. I, 26) The word for man here is Adam. It is used for man in the sense that the Germans use Der Mensch, not Der Mann; as the Latins used the word Homo, not Vir; as the Greeks said anthropos, not aner. It means humanity, mankind, not a human pair, Adam and Eve. The poetic term for man in Hebrew was [[heb char]] (ANVSh) = Enoch. [G. de P. has Hebrew ANVSh, but English Enoch, which derives from Hebrew ChNVCh, Haunch. H. P. Blavatsky shows these terms to be equivalent. See Gen. iv, 17; v. 6, 19. ChNVCh had a life span of 365 years; ANVSh, by gematria, is 365 x 1 according to Skinner's Source of Measures methodology. -- J.D.] But in speaking of a man particularly, as one of the race, an individual man, the word [[heb char]] Ish, was used. For instance, "a man said to a man": [[heb char]] AMR AISH LAISH.
Man considered as a genus, as a class is [[heb char]] ADM Adam, commonly called Adam. Now, we find: --
"Let us make humanity in our image -- so God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis I, 26-28.) The point is this: God, 'Elohim, created man in the image of God, 'Elohim; man is a child of God, 'Elohim; he is the image of his hierarchy, the image of his summit, the apex of the hierarchy. So careful were the writers of that verse that they repeated "In the image of God 'Elohim created he him; male and female created he them." Are we to understand that the Lord God of the Jews is shaped as a physical man is? In chapter V of Genesis there is this: -- "Male and female created he them and blessed them, and called their name Adam." Now I ask your attention to these things: they are not unimportant. We are told that the first man, according to the usual interpretation, was called Adam, and that the first woman was taken from a rib of his body. We are told in the fifth chapter that their name was Adam. We have just seen that Adam was the name of humanity, and that the name for man as an individual was [[heb char]] (pronounced Ish). What then is the inference? That humanity is spoken of, not a human pair; that as their name was Adam (called he), and as his 'wife' is distinguished from that word by the word Eve, therefore that the nature of the mankind spoken of here was mystically dual -- a humanity which became ages and ages later on actually a double-sex race -- bisexual. Bisexual humanity on earth is symbolic of an equivalent participation of energies in the hierarchical order from which that bisexual race traced its source. (The Adam of the first chapter of Genesis, it should be remembered, is not a physical being -- rather an 'angel', a semi-spiritual being of bi-polar nature. We shall come again to this in due time.) We see, then that in the Hebrew records early humanity (not the physical, fleshly being we know as man; there is no authority for that) was in the image of Elohim. Now Elohim is a very curious word. It is a plural; it comes from [[heb char]] (ALVH) Eloah, a 'divine being' or 'god', used sometimes as a word for the Deity. It would mean -- reading it as a word and taking our minds away from theological misconceptions -- the Gods. "And the Gods said: Let us make humanity in our image, according to our pattern." The orthodox answer to that (and it is proper that we should have the other side before us) is that Elohim is used in the masculine plural as a plural of majesty, or dignity, much as an earthly monarch might say: "We, by the grace of God, Edward, King of Great Britain and Ireland; we the king...."Furthermore the argument is strengthened against what I have just said by the usage in this locus of the singular verb (in part only) and by the singular pronoun (in part, the plural also being used, 'our', 'us', 'we'). But it is according to the genius of the ancient Hebrew that under certain conditions a plural noun may take a singular verb, very much as in Greek the neuter plural regularly takes a singular verb, as for instance [[greek char]] (ta panta esti agatha), literally, all things is good. A similar rule prevails in the Hebrew, that plurals sometimes take singular verbs, sometimes not. So the argument of the monotheists that Elohim is here only a plural of dignity, and besides that it takes a singular verb to designate the Deity, disappears. Furthermore, the sense in our image, our pattern, is very strong in Hebrew. It has more force than it has in the English. Both words, both expressions have a plural sense, and as we know that if we accept the orthodox interpretation, whether of the Jews or of the Christians, we must believe that man was made in the image of the formless Deity, that the Deity is the model of man, we are led into what seems to a theosophical mind utter blasphemy. But taking it in the sense of the plural as it stands, not necessarily as gods with the usual idea of a heterogeneous collection of squabbling divinities, but as a closely-knit order of hierarchy -- "In our likeness, in our copy" -- we see that being patterned after his archetype, man is a hierarchy; the gods are a hierarchy; the Elohim are any undefined hierarchy which you may choose to name. The Hebrew books speak of it, and Genesis starts off with the words as commonly rendered: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
SD INDEX Hierarchy (ies). See also Cosmogony, Hosts
all, emanate fr Sephirah I 215-16 &n
of angels I 129, 218-19, 331; II 60, 273
of archangels I 42
Christian, of Powers, Kabbalist & Hindu I 92
of creative forces I 213-18; II 33-4
of dhyani-chohans & humans I 90, 93, 189n, 293, 586n
divine, has spirit united w soul I 19
each, has a mission to perform I 274-6
elect of men will be celestial I 220-1
fifth, makes man rational being I 233
of Flames I 86
individuality resides in I 275
invisible Logos w seven II 23
kosmos animated by endless I 274-6
Lha & heavenly II 22
of lunar ancestors I 160
mystery of universe built on I 89
perceptive & apperceptive beings in I 629
present celestial, replaced I 221
of purely divine spirits I 133
septenary, of divine powers I 22
seven great rupa II 318n
seven, of monads I 171-6
seven, of pitris I 189n
seven planetary, (Gnostic) I 73, 171
seven powers of nature & II 273
seventh, or elementals I 233
six lower, of spirits I 133
sixth, gave man shadow-body I 233
sixth, of dhyani-chohans I 293
symbols orig fr, of wise men II 630-1n
third race, never died II 281
twelve, of Tien-Huang II 26-7
Universal Mind comes into action thru I 38
in various cosmogonies I 424, 436, 449-56
Wondrous Being root-base of our I 207
SEE ALSO; ELEMENTALS, BIBLICAL TRANSLATION
SD INDEX Hieratic
Mayan & Egyptian, alphabets I 267n
records of Egypt I 310; II 130
sciences & symbols I 307
SD INDEX Hieroglyph(s, ic) II 130, 464, 633
cake unites cross, circle II 546
Christian cross Egyptian, Tat II 557
early, named Senzar II 439
Egyptian, for five races II 458
Fohat & I 674
method in ancient texts II 335
on pillars of Seth (Josephus) II 530
prehistoric Egyptians used II 432
SD INDEX Hierogram, within circle I 426, 613-14
TG Hierogrammatists. The title given to those Egyptian priests, who were entrusted with the writing and reading of the sacred and secret records. The "scribes of the secret records" literally. They were the instructors of the neophytes preparing for initiation.
KT Hierogrammatists (Gr.) The title given to those Egyptian priests who were entrusted with the writing and reading of the sacred and secret records. The "scribes of the secret records" literally. They were the instructors of the neophytes preparing for initiation.
TG Hierophant. From the Greek "Hierophantes"; literally, "One who explains sacred things". The discloser of sacred learning, and the Chief of the Initiates. A title belonging to the highest Adepts in the temples of antiquity, who were the teachers and expounders of the Mysteries and the Initiators into the final great Mysteries. The Hierophant represented the Demiurge, and explained to the postulants for Initiation the various phenomena of Creation that were produced for their tuition. "He was the sole expounder of the esoteric secrets and doctrines. It was forbidden even to pronounce his name before an uninitiated person. He sat in the East, and wore as a symbol of authority a golden globe suspended from the neck. He was also called Mystagogus" (Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, ix., F.T.S., in The Royal Cyclopaedia). In Hebrew and Chaldaic the term was Peter, the opener, discloser; hence the Pope as the successor of the hierophant of the ancient Mysteries, sits in the Pagan chair of St. Peter.
IU Hierophant. -- Discloser of sacred learning. The Old Man, the Chief of the Adepts at the initiations, who explained the arcane knowledge to the neophytes, bore this title. In Hebrew and Chaldaic the term was Peter, or opener, discloser; hence, the Pope, as the successor of the hierophant of the ancient Mysteries, sits in the Pagan chair of "St. Peter." The vindictiveness of the Catholic Church toward the alchemists, and to arcane and astronomical science, is explained by the fact that such knowledge was the ancient prerogative of the hierophant, or representative of Peter, who kept the mysteries of life and death. Men like Bruno, Galileo, and Kepler, therefore, and even Cagliostro, trespassed on the preserves of the Church, and were accordingly murdered.
Every nation had its Mysteries and hierophants. Even the Jews had their Peter -- Tanaim or Rabbin, like Hillel, Akiba, [Akiba was a friend of Aher, said to have been the Apostle Paul of Christian story. Both are depicted as having visited Paradise. Aher took branches from the Tree of Knowledge, and so fell from the true (Jewish) religion. Akiba came away in peace. See 2d Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter xii.] and other famous kabalists, who alone could impart the awful knowledge contained in the Merkaba. In India, there was in ancient times one, and now there are several hierophants scattered about the country, attached to the principal pagodas, who are known as the Brahma-atmas. In Thibet the chief hierophant is the Dalay or Taley-Lama of Lha-ssa. [Taley means ocean or sea.]·Among Christian nations, the Catholics alone have preserved this "heathen" custom, in the person of their Pope, albeit they have sadly disfigured its majesty and the dignity of the sacred office.
KT Hierophant. From the Greek Hierophantes, literally "he who explains sacred things"; a title belonging to the highest adepts in the temples of antiquity, who were the teachers and expounders of the Mysteries, and the Initiators into the final great Mysteries. The Hierophant stood for the Demiurge, and explained to the postulants for Initiation the various phenomena of creation that were produced for their tuition. "He was the sole expounder of the exoteric secrets and doctrines. It was forbidden even to pronounce his name before an uninitiated person. He sat in the East, and wore as symbol of authority, a golden globe, suspended from the neck. He was also called Mystagogus." (Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, IX., F. T. S., in The Royal Masonic Cyclopoedia.)
FY Hierophants, the High Priests.
WG Hierophant (Eng.), an instructor in the Mysteries, an initiator. (Greek hieros, sacred; phantes, one who shows.)
SD INDEX Hierophant(s)
Atlantean, Babylonian, & Egyptian name of II 530
in Book of the Dead II 213
called serpents II 379
Chaldean, taught Hebrews I 352
early, "Sons of God" II 470
Egyptian, headdress & tau II 557
guard temple libraries II 529-32
had keys to symbols, dogmas I 363
Indian (Levi) I 255
-initiators during ceremony II 559
Java-Aleim were chief II 202, 532
language of I 310-11
Mercury as II 28, 558
sons of the dragon II 379
sudden death of I 312
twelve, at Abyss of Learning II 502
two categories of II 221 &n
Visvakarma was, -initiate II 559
SD INDEX Higgins, Godfrey, [Anacalypsis], on hydrogen II 105-6
WGa Higher Ego, Buddhi-Manas. The spiritual part of the human ego. The god within us, or our "Father in Heaven."
TG Higher Self. The Supreme Divine Spirit overshadowing man. The crown of the upper spiritual Triad in man -- Atman.
WGa Higher Self, Atma. The spiritual essence in man. The supreme Soul, the divine Monad, overshadowing the human Ego.
SD INDEX Higher Self, Ego. See also Atma, Self
absolute consciousness of I 266
alone is divine I 445
buddhi & self-consciousness II 231n
divorcing, fr senses I 329-30
Farvarshi or II 480 &n
higher creators (pitris) II 95
informing principle or monad II 102-3
karana-sarira & II 79
must gravitate towards monad II 110
non-separateness of, fr the One I 276
Plato on ego as II 88
reigns after 3-1/2 races II 110
speech & mind consult, (Anugita) I 94-6
spiritual ego II 230
spiritual fire is man's II 109
OG Higher Triad -- The imperishable spiritual ego considered as a unity. It is the reincarnating part of man's constitution which clothes itself in each earth-life in a new personality or lower quaternary. The higher triad, speaking in the simplest fashion, is the unity of atman, buddhi, and the higher manas; and the lower quaternary consists of the lower manas or kama-manas, the prana or vitality, the linga-sarira or astral model-body, and the physical vehicle.
Another manner of considering the human constitution in its spiritual aspects is that viewed from the standpoint of consciousness, and in this latter manner the higher triad consists of the divine monad, the spiritual monad, and the higher human monad. The higher triad is often spoken of in a collective sense, and ignoring details of division, as simply the reincarnating monad, or more commonly the reincarnating ego, because this latter is rooted in the higher triad.
Many theosophists experience quite unnecessary difficulty in understanding why the human constitution should be at one time divided in one way and at another time divided in another way. The difficulty lies in considering these divisions as being absolute instead of relative, in other words, as representing watertight compartments instead of merely indefinite and convenient divisions. The simplest psychological division is probably that which divides the septenary constitution of man in three parts: an uppermost duad which is immortal, an intermediate duad which is conditionally immortal, and a lower triad which is unconditionally mortal. (See Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, 1st ed., pp. 167, 525; 2nd rev. ed., pp. 199, 601).
SD INDEX Hilaire, G. St., crown of thorns II 651
SD INDEX Hilasira [Hilaeira] (Gk) & Phoebe, twilight & dawn II 122
SD INDEX Hilkiah (Heb)
found the "Book of God" II 473
high priest I 649
TG Hillel. A great Babylonian Rabbi of the century preceding the Christian era. He was the founder of the sect of the Pharisees, a learned and a sainted man.
KT Hillel. A great Babylonian Rabbi of the century preceding the Christian Era. He was the founder of the sect of the Pharisees, a learned and a saintly man.
SD INDEX Hillus [Hyllos] (Gk), giant son of Hercules II 278
SD INDEX Hillwell. See Halliwell, J. O.
TG Himachala Himadri (Sk.). The Himalayan Mountains.
GH Himalaya The lofty range of mountains in central Asia. Also known as Himachala and Himadri and personified as Himavat, mythologically considered to be the husband of Mena and the father of Ganga (the Ganges river). (Bhagavad-Gita, W. Q. Judge, p. 74)
SD INDEX Himalaya(n, s) (Skt) I 271; II 145
Brahmans fled to II 608
cavern in, w giant bones II 293n
"Garden of Wisdom" in II 204
Hamsa a range of the I 79
ocean once washed base of II 571-2
part of belt around globe II 401 &n
peaks of, holy II 494
"Preservers" beyond the II 165n
result of upheaval II 787n
seat of esoteric schools beyond I xxiii, 122
separated Lemuria fr Gobi Sea II 323-4
Sivatherium in II 218
war of Titans in, heaven II 500
TG Himavat (Sk.). The personified Himalayas; the father of the river Ganga, or Ganges.
SD INDEX Himavan, Himavat (Skt). See also Himalaya
belt around globe II 401 &n
as a calf I 398n
Vaivasvata lands on II 146
TG Hinayana (Sk.). The "Smaller Vehicle"; a Scripture and a School of the Northern Buddhists, opposed to the Mahayana, "the Greater Vehicle", in Tibet. Both schools are mystical. (See "Mahayana".) Also in exoteric superstition the lowest form of transmigration.
KT Hinayana (Sans.) The "Smaller Vehicle"; a Scripture and a School of the Buddhists, contrasted with the Mahayana, "The Greater Vehicle." Both schools are mystical. (See Mahayana.) Also in exoteric superstition, the lowest form of transmigration.
FY Hina-yana, lowest form of transmigration of the Buddhist.
WG Hina-yana, the inferior or lesser vehicle, a system of Buddhistic teaching. (See Maha-yana.)
SD INDEX Hinayana Buddhism, Mahayana &, re nidanas, etc I 39-40
SEE ALSO; MAHAYANA
WG Hindu, a Hindoo; the name of the religion of the Hindus.
SD INDEX Hindu(s). See also Aryans
Adityas the eight & twelve gods of I 100
on age of humanity I 150n
apes descended fr humans I 185n
asexual reproduction known to II 658
astronomers were initiates II 500n
astronomy I 658, 666-7; II 253, 332, 551
astronomy, exactness of I 661; II 499n
astronomy not borrowed I 659, 667n
Atlantis & II 406-7, 425, 742-3
avataras of II 555
branch of Aryan race II 106
brought civilization to Babylon II 203
Buddha an Aryan II 339
calendar of II 620
Carlyle on II 470
chronological table of II 68-70
chronology labeled fiction II 73
chronology thirty-three sidereal years II 332
creations of I 427
cross understood & used by II 556
decade in, system I 321
destruction of world II 144, 311
devotion of I 212n
divine dynasties of II 316
division of world II 403
four-armed gods of II 294n
fourteen upper & nether worlds I 115-16
Great Bear or seven, Rishis I 227n
Greek seven fr II 408
have zodiac of Asura Maya II 436
hid true dates fr foreigners II 225
hymns & mantras of I 623
idol worship among modern II 723
initiated, & chronology II 395
kali-yuga II 435
knew of Plato's island II 407
knew of seven planets I 99-101 &n
lotus symbol of four quarters II 546
lunar tables of I 667 &n
man on cross II 542-3
mind most spiritual, (Muller) II 521
mysteries based on ten II 603
mythology of I 304 &n
myths & Sun, Moon worship I 388
myths based on facts II 236
Noah or, Vaivasvata II 35, 140, 222
Olcott taught by, initiate I xix
among oldest races I 326; II 470-1, 603
orientalists dwarf dates of II 76n, 225
origin of Gnostic wisdom II 570
pagodas & nautch girls of II 460
pantheon reshuffled II 61
philosophy older than Egyptian I 387; II 432
Phoenician &, astronomy II 551
Pleiades &, esoteric philosophy I 648n
record eight million years II 436
record sinking of Atlantis II 332
religion is unity in diversity II 310
sacred books symbolic II 326
sages did not anthropomorphize I 326
septenary system of I 114-15, 126n
Smartava Brahmans I 271-2
solar & lunar dynasties of I 388
on sound & senses I 534
succession of worlds II 756
thirty-three crores of, gods I 71n
worship rishis as regents II 361
yuga-kalpa II 307n
zodiac not fr Greeks I 647; II 50, 225, 332, 395
SEE ALSO; ARYA
SD INDEX Hindu Classical Dictionary. See Dowson, J.
SD INDEX Hinduism II 68n, 622n. See also Hindus
Brahma, Prajapati, & creation I 346
child of Lemuro-Atlantean wisdom I 668
egg symbology in I 365-6
gods of II 107n
Holy of Holies in II 472
one of most ancient religions I 285
pantheism of I 545
refers to cosmic & terrestrial events I 369
rejects inorganic atom I 454
SD INDEX Hindu-Kush, Central Asian mountain chain II 338
SD INDEX Hindu Pantheon. See Moor, E.
SD INDEX Hindustan II 222. See also India
Arab figures fr I 361
Aryan Brahmans descend into II 609
decad found in caves of I 321
FY Hiong-Thsang, the celebrated Chinese traveler whose writings contain the most interesting account of India of the period.
TG Hiouen Thsang. A great Chinese writer and philosopher who travelled in India in the sixth century, in order to learn more about Buddhism, to which he was devoted.
SD INDEX Hiouen Thsang. See Hiuen-Tsang
SD INDEX Hipparchus I 658, 660
& records of the Assyrians I 409, 650
SD INDEX Hipparion (early horse)
anchitherium &, evolution II 716, 735
found in America II 792
SD INDEX Hippocentaurs II 54
HIPPOCRATES
TG Hippocrates (Gr.). A famous physician of Cos, one of the Cyclades, who flourished at Athens during the invasion of Artaxerxes, and delivered that town from a dreadful pestilence. He was called "the father of Medicine". Having studied his art from the votive tablets offered by the cured patients at the temples of Aesculapius, he became an Initiate and the most proficient healer of his day, so much so that he was almost deified. His learning and knowledge were enormous. Galen says of his writing that they are truly the voice of an oracle. He died in his 100th year, 361 B.C.
SD INDEX Hippocrates II 132, 688
embryology of, (Weismann, etc) I 223n
embryonic stages known to II 259
occult virtues of number seven II 312n
SD INDEX Hippolytus
----- Philosophumena
Aeons & Radicals of Simon II 569n
Chozzar of Gnostics II 577, 578
Kabir Adamas II 3
Marcus on seven heavens II 563
Marcus on the Logos I 351-2
SD INDEX Hippolytus. See Euripides
TG Hippopotamus (Gr.). In Egyptian symbolism Typhon was called the hippopotamus who slew his father and violated his mother," Rhea (mother of the gods). His father was Chronos. As applied therefore to Time and Nature (Chronos and Rhea), the accusation becomes comprehensible. The type of Cosmic Disharmony, Typhon, who is also Python, the monster formed of the slime of the Deluge of Deucalion, "Violates" his mother, Primordial Harmony, whose beneficence was so great that she was called "The Mother of the Golden Age". It was Typhon, who put an end to the latter, i.e., produced the first war of the elements.
SD INDEX Hippopotamus (i) II 735
crocodile & II 397, 399
divine symbol in Mexico, Egypt II 399n
pigmy, pioneer of future II 219
TG Hiquet (Eg.). The frog-goddess; one of the symbols of immortality and of the "Water" principle. The early Christians had their church lamps made in the form of a frog, to denote that baptism in water led to immortality.
SD INDEX Hiquet. See Hekat
TG Hiram Abiff. A biblical personage; a skilful builder and a "Widow's Son", whom King Solomon procured from Tyre, for the purpose of superintending the works of the Temple, and who became later a masonic character, the hero on whom hangs all the drama, or rather play, of the Masonic Third Initiation. The Kabbala makes a great deal of Hiram Abiff.
SD INDEX Hiram Abif I 314
SD INDEX Hiram, King (of Tyre)
secret work of Chiram or II 113
temples to Hercules, Venus II 541
TG Hiranya (Sk.). Radiant, golden, used of the "Egg of Brahma".
SD INDEX Hiranya (Skt) [shining], Dayanand Sarasvati on I 360
TG Hiranya Garbha (Sk.). The radiant or golden egg or womb. Esoterically the luminous "fire mist" or ethereal stuff from which the Universe was formed.
WG Hiranya-Garbha, a name of Brahma, the creator, said to have been born from a golden egg which was formed out of the seed deposited by the self-existent Brahma in the waters; a symbol for universal abstract nature. (hiranya, golden; garbha, the conceiving womb, the fruit of the womb: "gold-scion," or "fruit of the golden [egg].")
SKs Hiranyagarbha Literally 'the Golden Egg' or 'the Egg of imperishable matter,' the 'Auric Egg' of a universe, a solar system, a planet, a god, or a human being. Hiranyagarbha is a compound of hiranya -- golden, and garbha -- womb. Legend, which is verily history of the hoary past, says that Brahman, the Universal Divinity, cast a seed into the Waters of Space. From this seed, which became Hiranyagarbha or a golden egg which shone like unto the sun, was born Brahma, the Solar Self. The Auric Egg of any being is that radiant sphere which is the source of the being on all planes. In an article on the Auric Egg to appear in the forthcoming Encyclopedic Glossary, Dr. de Purucker writes about the Auric Egg of a human being in the following words:
It ranges from the divine to the astral-physical, and is the seat of all the monadic, spiritual, intellectual, mental, passional, and vital energies and faculties of the human septiform constitution. In its essence it is eternal, and endures throughout the Pralayas as well as during the Manvantaras; but necessarily in greatly varying fashion in these two great periods of Kosmic Life.
In The Complete Works, H. P. Blavatsky writes that the word Hiranya
does not mean "gold" but the golden light of divine knowledge, the first principle in whose womb is contained the light of the eternal truth which illuminates the liberated soul when it has reached its highest abode. It is, in short, the "Philosopher's Stone" of the alchemist, and the Eternal Light of the Fire Philosopher. -- II, p. 76
SD INDEX Hiranyagarbha (Skt) radiant egg. See also Brahma (Egg of), Eggs, Golden Egg
Brahma is I 89
highest aspect of Brahman, Brahma I 406
luminous golden egg or I 66, 89, 333, 359-60, 406, 556
one of three hypostases I 18, 286
prajapati I 90
Rig-Veda begins w, & prajapati I 426
temple II 470
Vishnu is, Hari & Sankara I 286
TG Hiranyakasipu (Sk.). A King of the Daityas, whom Vishnu -- in his avatar of the "man-lion" -- puts to death.
SD INDEX Hiranyakasipu (Skt) king of daityas
Puranic Satan I 420n
reborn as Ravana II 225n
slain by avatar Nara Simha II 225n
TG Hiranyaksha (Sk.). "The golden-eyed." The king and ruler of the 5th region of Patala, the nether-world; a snake-god in the Hindu Pantheon. It has various other meanings.
SD INDEX Hiranyaksha (Skt) golden-eyed, son of Kasyapa
ruler of fifth region II 382n
770 million descendants II 571
TG Hiranyapura (Sk.). The Golden City.
SD INDEX Hiranyapura (Skt) golden city
Danavas live in II 381-2
is Greek Asteria II 383
SD INDEX Hirn, Dr G. A.
----- Theorie mecanique . . .
force in space betw atoms I 511
----- "Recherches experimentales . . ."
no agreement in, re atom I 482-3, 487
TG Hisi (Fin.). The "Principle of Evil" in the Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland.
SD INDEX Hisi (Finn), principle of evil II 26
SD INDEX Hissast'han. See Misrasthan
SD INDEX Histoire de la magie. See Levi, E.
SD INDEX Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne. See Bailly
SD INDEX Histoire de la terre. See Rougemont, F. de
SD INDEX Histoire des nations civilisees du Mexique.See Brasseur de Bourbourg
SD INDEX Histoire des Vierges . . . See Jacolliot, L.
SD INDEX Historia ante-Islamitica. See Abul Feda
SD INDEX Historia antigua de la Nueva Espana.See Duran
SD INDEX Historians, dwarf ancient dates II 437n
SD INDEX Historia Religionis . . . See Hyde, Thomas
SD INDEX Historia Religio Veterum. See Hyde, T.
SD INDEX Historical Facts, become theological dogmas II 776
SD INDEX Historical View of Hindu Astronomy. See Bentley, J.
SD INDEX History
adept will impart symbolic I 306
in allegories & myths I 304n; II 335
"annalists" will wreck, (Michelet) I 676
Constantine turning point in I xliv
covers but tiny field I 406
historians have dwarfed II 437n
our, is of fifth subrace only I 406; II 351, 444
primitive, human not divine I 229
profane, hardly begins 2000 BC II 796
reliability of II 437-46
religious, buried in symbols I 307
repeats itself in cycles I 676
tradition &, are proofs II 336
world, realization of spirit I 640-1
written & oral traditions II 424
zodiac contains, of world II 438
SD INDEX History of Ancient Sanskrit. Literature.See Muller, F. M.
SD INDEX History of Civilization . . . See Buckle, H. T.
SD INDEX History of Creation. See Haeckel, E.
SD INDEX History of English Literature. See Taine, H.
SD INDEX History of Herodotus. See Herodotus
SD INDEX History of Indian Literature. See Weber, A. F.
SD INDEX History of Japan. See Kaempfer, E.
SD INDEX History of Magic. See Christian, P.
SD INDEX History of Magic. See Levi, E.
SD INDEX History of Paganism in Caledonia. See Wise,T.
SD INDEX History of Persia. See Malcolm, Sir J.
SD INDEX History of Sanskrit [Indian] Literature.See Weber, A. F.
SD INDEX History of the Conflict between Religion & Science.See Draper
SD INDEX History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.See Draper
TG Hitopadesa (Sk.). "Good Advice." A work composed of a collection of ethical precepts, allegories and other tales from an old, Scripture, the Panchatantra.
SD INDEX Hiuen-Tsang (Chin)
on worship of disciples II 34n
----- Si-yu-ki
on Bamian statues II 338
TG Hivim or Chivim (Heb.). Whence the Hivites who, according to some Roman Catholic commentators, descend from Heth, son of Canaan, son of Ham, "the accursed". Brasseuir de Bourbourg, the missionary translator of the Scripture of the Guatemalians [[Guatemalans?]], the Popol Vuh, indulges in tile theory that the Hivim of the Qutetzo Cohuatl, the, Mexican Serpent Deity, and the "descendants of Serpents" as they call themselves, are identical with the descendants of Ham (!!) "whose ancestor is Cain". Such is the conclusion, at any rate, drawn from Bombourg's writings by Des Mousseaux, the demonologist. Bourbourg hints that the chiefs of the name of Votan, the Quetzo Cohuatl, are the descendants of Ham and Canaan. "I and Hivim", they say. "Being a Hivim, I am of the great Race of the Dragons. I am a snake, myself, for I am a Hivim" (Cortes 51). But Cain is allegorically shown as the ancestor of the Hivites, the Serpents, because Cain is held to have been the first initiate in the mysteries of procreation. The "race of the Dragons" or Serpents means the Wise Adepts. The names Hivi or Hivite, and Levi -- signify a "Serpent"; and the Hivites or Serpent-tribe of Palestine, were, like all Levites and Ophites of Israel, initiated Ministers to the temples, i.e., Occultists, as are the priests of Quetzo Cohuatl. The Gibeonites whom Joshua assigned to the service of the sanctuary were Hivites. (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. II. 481.)
SD INDEX Hivim, of the race of the dragon (Mexico) II 380
TG Hler (Scand.). The god of the sea. One of the three mighty sons of the Frost-giant, Ymir. These sons were Karl, god of the air and the storms; Hler of the Sea; and Logi of the fire. They are the Cosmic trinity of the Norsemen.