COLLATION OF THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARIES

Sc - Sj


A-Ad | Ae-Aj | Ak-Al | Am-An | Ao-Ar | As | At-Az | B-Bh | Bi-Bq | Br-Bt | Bu-Bz | C-Cg | Ch | Ci-Cz | D-Dd | De-Dg | Dh-Dm | Dn-Dz | E-El | Em-Ez | F | G-Gl | Gm-Gz | H-Hh | Hi-Hz | I-Im | In-Iz | J | K-Kaq | Kar-Kq | Kr-Kz | L-Ln | Lo-Lz | M-Mah | Mai-Man | Mao-Md | Me-Mn | Mo-Mz | N-Nh | Ni-Nz | O-Ol | Om-Oz | P-Paq | Par-Pd | Pe-Pq | Pr | Ps-Pz | Q | R-Rh | Ri-Rz | S-Sam | San-Sb | Sc-Sj | Sk-So | Sp-St | Su-Sz | T-Td | Te-Th | Ti-Ts | Tr-Tz | U-Un | Uo-Uz | V-Vd | Ve-Vz | W | X | Y-Yl | Ym-Yz | Z | Homepage

List of Abbreviations for Titles

TG Scarabaeus. In Egypt, the symbol of resurrection, and also of rebirth; of resurrection for the mummy or rather of the highest aspects of the personality which animated it, and of rebirth for the Ego, the "spiritual body" of the lower, human Soul. Egyptologists give us but half of the truth, when in speculating upon the meaning of certain inscriptions, they say, "the justified soul, once arrived at a certain period of its peregrinations (simply at the death of the physical body) should be united to its body (i.e., the Ego) never more to be separated from it". (Rouge.) What is this so-called body? Can it be the mummy? Certainly not, for the emptied mummified corpse can never resurrect. It can only be the eternal, spiritual vestment, the EGO that never dies but gives immortality to whatsoever becomes united with it. "The delivered Intelligence (which) retakes its luminous envelope and (re)becomes Daimon", as Prof. Maspero says, is the spiritual Ego; the personal Ego or Kama-Manas, its direct ray, or the lower soul, is that which aspires to become Osirified, i.e., to unite itself with its "god"; and that portion of it which will succeed in so doing, will never more be separated from it (the god), not even when the latter incarnates again and again, descending periodically on earth in its pilgrimage, in search of further experiences and following the decrees of Karma. Khem, "the sower of seed", is shown on a stele in a picture of Resurrection after physical death, as the creator and the sower of the grain of corn, which, after corruption, springs up afresh each time into a new ear, on which a scarabaeus beetle is seen poised; and Deveria shows very justly that "Ptah is the inert, material form of Osiris, who will become Sokari (the eternal Ego) to be reborn, and afterwards be Harmachus", or Horus in his transformation, the risen god. The prayer so often found in the tumular inscriptions, "the wish for the resurrection in one's living soul" or the Higher Ego, has ever a scarabaeus at the end, standing for the personal soul. The scarabaeus is the most honoured, as the most frequent and familiar, of all Egyptian symbols. No mummy is without several of them; the favourite ornament on engravings, household furniture and utensils is this sacred beetle, and Pierret pertinently shows in his Livre des Morts that the secret meaning of this hieroglyph is sufficiently explained in that the Egyptian name for the scarabaeus, Kheper, signifies to be, to become, to build again.
TG Scheo (Eg.). The god who, conjointly with Tefnant and Seb, inhabits Aanroo, the region called "the land of the rebirth of the gods".
TG Schesoo-Hor (Eg.). Lit., the servants of Horus; the early people who settled in Egypt and who were Aryans.

WW Scholastics You will remember that I said that the Christians had no philosophy. They had none such in the sense that the Hindu religions have a philosophy, which is a component part, the greater and nobler part, of their religion. But during all the Middle Ages the Christians had different schools of thinkers, hairsplitting dialectitians and logicians they were, quarreling about abstractions; the differences between them frequently so minute that it is a marvel to a man of modern times how thinking beings could indulge in such acrimonious and bitter controversies over subjects so uninspiring. Some of these latter however, are not unworthy of thought. Take an example which is often quoted by modern writers as typical of the uselessness of abstract discussion: How many angels or similar beings can find place on the point of a needle? This is often quoted as a singularly efficient argument against the scholastics, as the so-called philosophers and learned men of the Middle Ages were called. But if we consider that even from the standpoint of modern science and particularly from the discoveries of late years there is a world of infinitesimal electrons composing the atom of physics and chemistry -- the atom having been shown by the latest researches to be composed of a multitude of these smaller entities -- then perhaps we may see another way of looking at it. The atom may be conceived of as an atomic solar system. The electrons are conceived of as planets circling, as our planets do, around our sun, around some mysterious and wonderful center in the atom. Now this thought shows us that perhaps in these strange speculations of the schoolmen or the scholastics there may have been some instinctive notion of things as they exist in other spheres, on other planes, if you like, on the lowest etheric plane. When a man is asked to decide how many angels can perform or evolve on the point of a needle, if his mind is not thoughtful and inclined to reflection, he may take the inquirer to be a lunatic. But what are angels? They are not men; they are not creatures, according to the theory, below men. According to the theory they are creatures above man. The point of a needle as contrasted with an atom, is immense; it is an extensive universe; armies of spiritual beings on their groups of electronic spheres, might be conceived as executing their evolutions on the point of a needle. Take our own world, our own solar system, our own universe, which includes all that is visible to the eye; it is conceivable, and I believe true, that it all can be thought of as a point by some intelligence so infinitely superior to ours that it conceives of and knows things which are utterly beyond our ken. Sometimes the ideas of the scholastics (in fact usually, rather than sometimes) were puerile. Their arguments seemed to be principally to hair-split definitions. They indulged in vain and empty speculations on abstract subjects, and it is small wonder that the world since the decline and fall of scholasticism has looked upon the huge and monumental tomes of their writings as mental wilderness. Few men read, fewer still search them.

Scholasticism arose in Europe after a period of intellectual night called the Dark Ages, which we may place between the 6th and 9th centuries. Then, when Charlemagne had extended his conquests over most of Europe, he began to found schools, and to strengthen those which already existed, to enlarge their sphere of activities. He was a great man, a bigot perhaps, but he had a love for the arts, and a love of learning, and he knew his duty in the lofty position which he held. And from that time we may date the rise of scholasticism. The word scholastic itself meant, about the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, a teacher of rhetoric in the schools, and the scholastics were called so because they were schoolmen, from schole, school. They were the learned men of the times and naturally they were theologians. Some specialized in the branches of philosophy which in their barbarous and rude form had come down to them from the schools of the Roman Empire; had slowly through the centuries, filtered into the benighted intellects of the Europeans from the intellectual splendor of Alexandria, early Constantinople, and Antioch. But there was very little of it. They even knew little of Aristotle, who later became their favorite. He became to them the model of all a philosopher should be.

There were three of these scholastics who towered above their fellows -- Albertus Magnus, a German born in Lauingen, in Suabia; a Scot (or an Irishman, as some think) Duns Scotus; and a third, an Italian, Thomas Aquinas or Aquino. Duns Scotus is usually supposed to have been born in the town of Dunse in Scotland. From the name of this man, by the way, has originated our word dunce. He was one of the most learned men of his age, a Franciscan friar, and he was called the doctor subtilissimus, or the most subtle (religious) teacher, on account of the supposed intellectual subtlety of his writing. And consequently after his death whenever a man showed unusual learning or unusual ability in acquiring knowledge, he became "another Duns." Afterwards the name was applied derisively, and to say "You are a Duns" implied that the man addressed was of slow and bovine intellect or what we call a dunce.

Now this man Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican. The two great orders of the Roman Church, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, have each their chosen intellectual philosophy. The Franciscan's authority is Duns Scotus, naturally as he was a Franciscan friar; the Dominicans recognized Thomas of Aquino as their philosophical head. Thomas Aquinas was a close and earnest student of the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, so much so that later writers, most of them Roman Catholic writers, have said that if the works of Thomas Aquinas disappeared, they could reconstruct all he had ever written from the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite. The writings of Thomas Aquinas are of tremendous authority in the Roman Church. If I am not mistaken, it is within three or four years that the Pope issued an encyclical condemning the advance of modernism in that church, and reiterated the necessity of holding to the theology (the Apex or ne plus ultra of theology) of Thomas Aquinas. Now as this work is considered in the church of Rome to be one of the best guides of their priests, it practically represents the standard of their theology, the touchstone of their faith. As Thomas Aquinas' great work is derived to such a great extent from the writings of the Greek Christian Dionysius the Areopagite, whose works have been proved to have been derived from Neoplatonic sources, that is to say from pagan sources, we have the paradox that the Roman Church has chosen as its theological touchstone a work based on pagan philosophy. It is of a piece with what Protestant theologians have often pointed out, that Rome, Papal Rome, in its theology as well as in its hierarchy, its institutions, and its ritual, is a copy, more or less degraded, of pagan institutions, pagan thought, and pagan temple ceremonial. Roman Catholic theologians, to a certain extent, do not deny this. They ascribe it to the greatness of their faith, its ability to absorb other faiths, and to the fact that its own majesty never suffers diminution by absorption, but absorbs to transmute, and much more in similar vein.

The scholastics had a curious reputation among later men. It has been said of them that they discussed about everything in heaven and in earth, and about some things besides -- de omnibus rebus caelo terra, -- et de quibusdam aliis. Possibly that is one of the reasons why the Roman church boasts of itself as follows: quod semper, quod ab omnibus, quod ubique, -- i.e. that "it is always, that it is recognized by everybody, that it is everywhere" -- a proud boast indeed. The only thing, I think, that will fit the description conveyed in that Latin saying is the sublime science which we believe in, of which we may truly say that it is always, that it is accepted by everybody, that it is everywhere, because we can prove -- and it will be our effort to prove it in our studies -- that in one form or other, in all times, and under whatever names it may have been set forth, there has been one Truth, as there has been one effort to reach the truth by men, and that that Truth contains those principles of being, those principal heads of thought, which we call Theosophy. TG Schools of the Prophets. Schools established by Samuel for the training of the Nabiim (prophets). Their method was pursued on the same lines as that of a Chela or candidate for initiation into the occult sciences, i.e., the development of abnormal faculties or clairvoyance leading to Seership. Of such schools there were many in days of old in Palestine and Asia Minor. That the Hebrews worshipped Nebo, the Chaldean god of secret learning, is quite certain, since they adopted his name as an equivalent of Wisdom.

SCIENCE
For a fuller description of this topic by articles, excerpts, and possibly further links; hyperlink to the Science section of another site.

OG Science -- An operation of the human spirit-mind in its endeavor to understand the how of things -- not any particular science whatsoever, but the thing in itself, science per se -- ordered and classified knowledge. One phase of a triform method of understanding the nature of universal nature and its multiform and multifold workings; and this phase cannot be separated from the other two -- philosophy and religion -- if we wish to gain a true picture of things as they are in themselves.
Science is the aspect of human thinking in the activity of the mentality in the latter's inquisitive, researching, and classifying functions.
SEE PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION

TG Seance. A word which has come to mean with Theosophists and Spiritualists a sitting with a medium for phenomena, the materialisation of "spirits" and other manifestations.
KT Seance. A term now used to denote a sitting with a medium for sundry phenomena. Used chiefly among the spiritualists.

SEASONS
For a fuller description of this topic by articles, excerpts, and possibly further links; hyperlink to the Sacred Seasons section of another site.

TG Seb (Eg.). The Egyptian Saturn; the father of Osiris and Isis. Esoterically, the sole principle before creation, nearer in meaning to Parabrahm than Brahma. From as early as the second Dynasty, there were records of him, and statues of Seb are to be seen in the museums represented with the goose or black swan that laid the egg of the world on his head. Nout or Neith, the "Great Mother" and yet the "Immaculate Virgin", is Seb's wife; she is the oldest goddess on record, and is to be found on monuments of the first dynasty, to which Mariette Bey assigns the date of almost 7000 years B.C.
OG Second Death -- This is a phrase used by ancient and modern mystics to describe the dissolution of the principles of man remaining in kama-loka after the death of the physical body. For instance, Plutarch says: "Of the deaths we die, the one makes man two of three, and the other, one out of two." Thus, using the simple division of man into spirit, soul, and body: the first death is the dropping of the body, making two out of three; the second death is the withdrawal of the spiritual from the kama-rupic soul, making one out of two. The second death takes place when the lower or intermediate duad (manas-kama) in its turn separates from, or rather is cast off by, the upper duad; but preceding this event the upper duad gathers unto itself from this lower duad what is called the reincarnating ego, which is all the best of the entity that was, all its purest and most spiritual and noblest aspirations and hopes and dreams for betterment and for beauty and harmony. Inherent in the fabric, so to speak, of the reincarnating ego, there remain of course the seeds of the lower principles which at the succeeding rebirth or reincarnation of the ego will develop into the complex of the lower quaternary. (See also Kama-Rupa)
VS Open and the Secret (II 35) [[p. 41]] The "Open" and the "Secret Path" or the one taught to the layman, the exoteric and the generally accepted, and the other the Secret Path the nature of which is explained at initiation.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Hyperlink to The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky; also the Index to The Secret Doctrine
Hyperlink to The Secret Doctrine Commentary, and An Invitation to The Secret Doctrine
Hyperlink to books on The Secret Doctine by G. de Purucker: Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy, and Fountain-Source of Occultism

TG Secret Doctrine. The general name given to the esoteric teachings of antiquity.
SEE STANZAS OF DZYAN

TG Sedecla (Heb.). The Obeah woman of Endor.
TG Seer. One who is a clairvoyant; who can see things visible, and invisible -- for others -- at any distance and time with his spiritual or inner sight or perceptions.
TG Seir Anpin, or Zauir Anpin (Heb.). In the Kabbalah, "the Son of the concealed Father", he who unites in himself all the Sephiroth. Adam Kadmon, or the first manifested "Heavenly Man", the Logos.
MO Sejd [[Norse]] (sayd) Prophecy
TG Sekhem (Eg.). The same as Sekten.
TG Sekhet (Eg.). See "Pasht".
TG Sekten (Eg.). Devachan; the place of post mortem reward, a state of bliss, not a locality.

KT Self. There are two Selves in men -- the Higher and the Lower, the Impersonal and the Personal Self. One is divine, the other semi-animal. A great distinction should be made between the two.
VS Knower of All Self (I 9) [[p. 5]] The Tatwagyanee is the "knower" or discriminator of the principles in nature and in man; and Atmagyanee is the knower of ATMAN or the Universal, ONE SELF.
VS That way begins and ends outside of Self (II 28) [[p. 39]] Meaning the personal lower "Self."
VS unites thee to thy "silent Self" (II 12) [[p. 30]] The "Higher Self" the "seventh" principle.
OG Self -- Man is a sheaf or bundle of forces or energies and material elements combined; and the power controlling all and holding them together, making out of the composite aggregate a unity, is what theosophists call the Self -- not the mere ego, but the Self, a purely spiritual unit, in its essence divine, which is the same in every man and woman on earth, the same in every entity everywhere in all the boundless fields of limitless space, as we understand space. If one closely examine his own consciousness, he will very soon know that this is the pure consciousness expressed in the words, "I am" -- and this is the Self; whereas the ego is the cognition of the "I am I." Consider the hierarchy of the human being growing from the Self as its seed -- ten stages: three on the arupa or immaterial plane; and seven (or perhaps better, six) on the planes of matter or manifestation. On each one of these seven planes (or six planes), the Self or paramatman develops a sheath or garment, the upper ones spun of spirit, or light if you will, and the lower ones spun of shadow or matter; and each such sheath or garment is a soul; and between the Self and a soul -- any soul -- is an ego.

TG Sena (Sk.). The female aspect or Sakti of Karttikeya; also called Kaumara.
TG Senses. The ten organs of man. In the exoteric Pantheon and the allegories of the East, these are the emanations of ten minor gods, the terrestrial Prajapati or "progenitors". They are called in contradistinction to the five physical and the seven superphysical, the "elementary senses". In Occultism they are closely allied with various forces of nature, and with our inner organisms, called cells in physiology.

TG Senzar. The mystic name for the secret sacerdotal language or the "Mystery-speech" of the initiated Adepts, all over the world.
WGa Senzar, the Mystery-language of the ancient Initiated Adepts, known to all schools all over the world.
IN Senzar Mystic name for the secret sacerdotal language, the "Mystery-speech" of initiated adepts; original language of the Stanzas of Dzyan.
SEE DEVANAGARI, SANSKRIT

TG Sepher Sephiroth (Heb.). A Kabbalistic treatise concerning the gradual evolution of Deity from negative repose to active emanation and creation. [W.W.W.]
TG Sepher Yetzirah (Heb.). "The Book of Formation". A very ancient Kabbalistic work ascribed to the patriarch Abraham. It illustrates the creation of the universe by analogy with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, distributed into a triad, a heptad, and a dodecad, corresponding with the three mother letters, A, M, S, the seven planets, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It is written in the Neo-Hebraic of the Mishnah. [W.W.W.]
TG Sephira (Heb.) An emanation of Deity; the parent and synthesis of the ten Sephiroth when she stands at the head of the Sephirothal Tree; in the Kabbalah, Sephira, or the "Sacred Aged", is the divine Intelligence (the same as Sophia or Metis), the first emanation from the "Endless" or Ain-Suph.

TG Sephiroth (Heb.). The ten emanations of Deity; the highest is formed by the concentration of the Ain Soph Aur, or the Limitless Light, and each Sephira produces by emanation another Sephira. The names of the Ten Sephiroth are -- 1. Kether -- The Crown; 2. Chokmah -- Wisdom; 3. Binah -- Understanding; 4. Chesed -- Mercy; 5. Geburah -- Power; 6. Tiphereth -- Beauty; 7. Netzach -- Victory; 8. Hod -- Splendour; 9. Jesod -- Foundation; and 10. Malkuth -- The Kingdom.
The conception of Deity embodied in the Ten Sephiroth is a very sublime one, and each Sephira is a picture to the Kabbalist of a group of exalted ideas, titles and attributes, which the name but faintly represents. Each Sephira is called either active or passive, though this attribution may lead to error; passive does not mean a return to negative existence; and the two words only express the relation between individual Sephiroth, and not any absolute quality. [W.W.W.]
KT Sephiroth. A Hebrew Kabalistic word, for the ten divine emanations from Ain-Soph, the impersonal, universal Principle, or DEITY. (Vide Theos. Gloss.)
WGa Sephiroth, the ten emanations of Deity in the Hebrew Kabalah. They are, Kether, crown; Chokmah, wisdom; Binah, understanding; Chesed, mercy; Geburah, power; Tiphereth, beauty; Netzach, victory; Hod, splendor; Jesod, foundation; Malkuth, the kingdom.
IN Sephiroth (Heb) In the Kabbalah, the ten divine emanations from Ain Soph (the Boundless) which form the Tree of Life or tenfold universe.

WGa Septenary, the collection of six principles synthesized in the seventh or Atman, and constituting man. The first four are given under Quaternary, and the remaining three under Triad. The symbol of the septenary is a square and a triangle combined.
TG Septerium (Lat.). A great religious festival held in days of old every ninth year at Delphi, in honour of Helios, the Sun, or Apollo, to commemorate his triumph over darkness, or Python; Apollo-Python being the same as Osiris-Typhon in Egypt.

TG Seraphim (Heb.). Celestial beings described by Isaiah (vi., 2,) as of human form with the addition of three pair of wings. The Hebrew word is ShRPIM, and apart from the above instance, is translated serpents, and is related to the verbal root ShRP, to burn up. The word is used for serpents in Numbers and Deuteronomy. Moses is said to have raised in the wilderness a ShRP or Seraph of Brass as a type. This bright serpent is also used as an emblem of Light.
Compare the myth of AEsculapius, the healing deity, who is said to have been brought to Rome from Epidaurus as a serpent, and whose statues show him holding a wand on which a snake is twisted. (See Ovid, Metam., lib. xv.). The Seraphim of the Old Testament seem to be related to the Cherubim (q.v.). In the Kabbalah the Seraphim are a group of angelic powers allotted to the Sephira Geburah -- Severity. [W.W.W.]

SEE CHERUBIM, THRONES, DOMINATIONS, VIRTUES, POWERS, PRINCIPALITIES, ARCHANGELS, ANGELS, HIERARCHIES


TG Serapis (Eg.). A great solar god who replaced Osiris in the popular worship, and in whose honour the seven vowels were sung. He was often made to appear in his representations as a serpent, a "Dragon of Wisdom". The greatest god of Egypt during the first centuries of Christianity.

SERPENT -- SEE NAGA

TG Sesha (Sk.) Ananta, the great Serpent of Eternity, the couch of Vishnu; the symbol of infinite Time in Space. In the exoteric beliefs Sesha is represented as a thousand-headed and seven-headed cobra; the former the king of the nether world, called Patala, the latter the carrier or support of Vishnu on the Ocean of Space.
WG Sesha, name of the thousand-headed serpent -- also called Ananta -- sometimes represented as forming the couch and canopy of Vishnu while he sleeps during the night of Brahma. It is a symbol of eternal matter.

TG Set or Seth (Eg.). The same as the Son of Noah and Typhon -- who is the dark side of Osiris. The same as Thoth and Satan, the adversary, not the devil represented by Christians.

OG Seven Principles of Man -- Every one of the seven principles of man, as also every one of the seven elements in him, is itself a mirror of the universe. (See also Principles of Man)
SEE PRINCIPLES OF MAN

OG Seven Sacred Planets -- The ancients spoke of seven planets which they called the seven sacred planets, and they were named as follows: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon. Each one of these seven globes is a body like our own Earth in that each is a septenary chain, sevenfold in composition: six other superior globes of finer and more ethereal matter above the physical sphere or globe. Only those globes which are on the same cosmic plane of nature or being are physically visible to each other. For instance, we can see only the fourth-plane planetary globe of each of the other planetary or sidereal chains, because we ourselves are on the fourth cosmic plane, as they also are. There is a very important and wide range of mystical teaching connected with the seven sacred planets which it would be out of place to develop here.
TG Sevekh (Eg.). The god of time; Chronos; the same as Sefekh. Some Orientalists translate it as the "Seventh".
TG Shaberon (Tib.). The Mongolian Shaberon or Khubilgan (or Khubilkhans) are the reincarnations of Buddha, according to the Lamaists; great Saints and Avatars, so to say.
TG Shaddai, El (Heb.). A name of the Hebrew Deity, usually translated God Almighty, found in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Ruth and Job. Its Greek equivalent is Kurios Pantokrator; but by Hebrew derivation it means rather "the pourer forth", shad meaning a breast, and indeed shdi is also used for "a nursing mother". [W.W.W.]

VS O Victim of thy Shadows (II 13) [[p. 30]] Our physical bodies are called "Shadows" in the mystic schools.
VS Thy shadows live and vanish (II 18) [[p. 31]]"Personalities" or physical bodies called "shadows" are evanescent.
SEE BROTHERS OF THE SHADOW

VS Shakya-Thub-pa [[p. 37]] Buddha.

TG Shamans. An order of Tartar or Mongolian priest-magicians, or as some say, priest-sorcerers. They are not Buddhists, but a sect of the old Bhon religion of Tibet. They live mostly in Siberia and its borderlands. Both men and women may be Shamans. They are all magicians, or rather sensitives or mediums artificially developed. At present those who act as priests among the Tartars are generally very ignorant, and far below the fakirs in knowledge and education.
IU Shamans, or Samaneans. An order of Buddhists among the Tartars, especially those of Siberia. They are possibly akin to the philosophers anciently known as Brachmanes, mistaken sometimes for Brahmans. [From the accounts of Strabo and Megasthenes, who visited Palibothras, it would seem that the persons termed by him Samanean, or Brachmane priests, were simply Buddhists. "The singularly subtile replies of the Samanean or Brahmin philosophers, in their interview with this conqueror, will be found to contain the spirit of the Buddhist doctrine," remarks Upham. (See the "History and Doctrine of Buddhism;" and Hale's "Chronology," vol. iii., p. 238.)] They are all magicians, or rather sensitives or mediums artificially developed. At present those who act as priests among the Tartars are generally very ignorant, and far below the fakirs in knowledge and education. Both men and women may be Shamans.
FY Shamanism, spirit worship; the oldest religion of Mongolia.
WGa Shamans, Tartar Magicians and priests, male or female, of the ancient Bhon religion of Thibet. They are found chiefly in Siberia.

SHAMBHALA -- SEE SAMBHALA

TG Shanah (Heb). The Lunar Year.

TG Shangna (Sk.). A mysterious epithet given to a robe or "vesture" in a metaphorical sense. To put on the "Shangna robe" means the acquirement of Secret Wisdom, and Initiation. (See Voice of the Silence, pp. 84 and 85, Glossary.)
VS Shangna robe (II 22) [[p. 32]] The Shangna robe, from Shangnavesu of Rajagriha the third great Arhat or "Patriarch" as the Orientalists call the hierarchy of the 33 Arhats who spread Buddhism. "Shangna robe" means metaphorically, the acquirement of Wisdom with which the Nirvana of destruction (of personality) is entered. Literally, the "initiation robe" of the Neophytes. Edkins states that this "grass cloth" was brought to China from Tibet in the Tong Dynasty. "When an Arhan is born this plant is found growing in a clean spot" says the Chinese as also the Tibetan legend.

TG Shastra or S'astra (Sk.). A treatise or book; any work of divine or accepted authority, including law books. A Shastri means to this day, in India, a man learned in divine and human law.
WG Sastra, a religious or scientific treatise, any sacred book or standard authority.
SKo Sastra A scripture; a religious or scientific writing; derived from the verb-root sas -- to rule, to teach, to proclaim.
SP Sastra -- a Sanskrit scholastic text or treatise, meant to instruct students in a specialized area of knowledge.

WG Shat-kona, a symbol consisting of two interlaced triangles, one pointing up, the other down -- "Indra's thunderbolt" with the Hindus, "Solomon's seal" with the Jews. (shat, six; kona, angle, point.)
TG Shedim (Heb.). See "Siddim".
TG Shekinah (Heb.). A title applied to Malkuth, the tenth Sephira, by the Kabbalists; but by the Jews to the cloud of glory which rested on the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies. As taught, however, by all the Rabbins of Asia Minor, its nature is of a more exalted kind, Shekinah being the veil of Ain-Soph, the Endless and the Absolute; hence a kind of Kabbalistic Mulaprakriti. [W.W.W.]
TG Shells. A Kabbalistic name for the phantoms of the dead, the "spirits" of the Spiritualists, figuring in physical phenomena; so named on account of their being simply illusive forms, empty of their higher principles.
TG Shemal (Chald.). Samael, the spirit of the earth, its presiding ruler and genius.
TG Shemhamphorash (Heb.). The separated name. The mirific name derived from the substance of deity and showing its self-existent essence. Jesus was accused by the Jews of having stolen this name from the Temple by magic arts, and of using it in the production of his miracles.
TG Sheol (Heb.). The hell of the Hebrew Pantheon; a region of stillness and inactivity as distinguished from Gehenna, (q.v.).
TG Shien-Sien (Chin.). A state of bliss and soul-freedom, during which a man can travel in spirit where he likes.
TG Shiites (Pers.). A sect of Mussulmen who place the prophet Ali higher than Mohammed, rejecting Sunnah or tradition.
TG Shila (Pali). The second virtue of the ten Paramitas of perfection. Perfect harmony in words and acts.
TG Shinto (Jap.). The ancient religion of Japan before Buddhism, based upon the worship of spirits and ancestors.
TG Shoel-ob (Heb.). A consulter with familiar "spirits"; a necromancer, a raiser of the dead, or of their phantoms.
TG Shoo (Eg.). A personification of the god Ra; represented as the "great cat of the Basin of Persea in Anu".
VS to the other shore (III 7) [[p. 47]] "Arrival at the shore" is with the Northern Buddhists synonymous with reaching Nirvana through the exercise of the six and the ten Paramitas (virtues).
TG Shudala Madan (Tam.). The vampire, the ghoul, or graveyard spook.
TG Shule Madan (Tam.). The elemental which is said to help the "jugglers" to grow mango trees and do other wonders.
TG Shutukt (Tib.). A collegiate monastery in Tibet of great fame, containing over 30,000 monks and students.
TG Sibac (Quiche). The reed from the pith of which the third race of men was created, according to the scripture of the Guatemalians, called the Popol Vuh.
TG Sibika (Sk.). The weapon of Kuvera, god of wealth (a Vedic deity living in Hades, hence a kind of Pluto), made out of the parts of the divine splendour of Vishnu, residing in the Sun, and filed off by Visvarkarman, the god Initiate.
WG Siddha, one who has attained psychic powers by proficiency in occult sciences; perfect; one who has attained perfection; he who has acquired siddhis.
TG Siddhanta (Sk.). Any learned work on astronomy or mathematics, in India.

TG Siddhartha (Sk.). A name given to Gautama Buddha.
WG Siddhartha, a title of Gautama Buddha.
SP Siddhartha -- the personal name of Sakyamuni or Gautama Buddha.

TG Siddhas (Sk.). Saints and sages who have become almost divine also a hierarchy of Dhyan Chohans.
WG Siddhas, demi-gods, with superhuman powers.
GH Siddhas A class of semi-divine beings of great purity and perfection, represented as possessing the eight supernatural faculties (the Siddhis), and inhabiting Bhuvar-loka (the region between earth and heaven). In later mythology they are often confused with the Sadhyas (q.v.). "According to the Occult teachings, however, Siddhas are the Nirmanakayas or the 'spirits' (in the sense of an individual, or conscious spirit) of great sages from spheres on a' higher plane than our own, who voluntarily incarnate in mortal bodies in order to help the human race in its upward progress. Hence their innate knowledge, wisdom and powers." (Secret Doctrine, II, p. 636) (The following word is derived from the verbal root:) sidh, to attain; hence 'the perfected ones.' Bhagavad-Gita, W. Q. Judge, p. 81)

TG Siddhasana (Sk.). A posture in Hatha-yoga practices.
FY Siddhasana, one of the postures enjoined by the system of Hatha Yoga.
WG Siddhasana, a particular posture in religious meditation, described as putting the left heel under the body and the right heel in front of it.

TG Siddha-Sena (Sk.). Lit., "the leader of Siddhas"; a title of Karttikeya, the "mysterious youth" (kumara guha).

TG Siddhis (Sk.). Lit., "attributes of perfection"; phenomenal powers acquired through holiness by Yogis.
FY Siddhi, abnormal power obtained by spiritual development.
WG Siddhi, magic power; extraordinary power that may be acquired by man through spiritual development.
SKv Siddhi, Iddhi The Siddhis are psychic faculties; derived from the verb-root sidh -- to attain. H. P. Blavatsky warns in The Voice of the Silence:
There are two kinds of Siddhis. One group embraces the lower, coarse, psychic and mental energies; the other is one which exacts the highest training of Spiritual powers. -- Fragment I, note 1
Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita:
He who is engaged in the performance of Yoga, who has subdued his senses and who has concentrated his mind in me, such Yogins all the Siddhis stand ready to serve.
Iddhi is the Pali word for the Sanskrit Siddhi.
SEE IDDHI

TG Siddim (Heb.). The Canaanites, we are told, worshipped these evil powers as deities, the name meaning the "pourers forth"; a valley was named after them. There seems to be a connection between these, as types of Fertile Nature, and the many-bosomed Isis and Diana of Ephesus. In Psalm cvi., 37, the word is translated "devils", and we are told that the Canaanites shed the blood of their sons and daughters to them. Their title seems to come from the same root ShD, from which the god name El Shaddai is derived. [W.W.W.]
The Arabic Shedim means "Nature Spirits", Elementals; they are the afrits of modern Egypt and djins of Persia, India, etc.
TG Sidereal. Anything relating to the stars, but also, in Occultism, to various influences emanating from such regions, such as "sidereal force", as taught by Paracelsus, and sidereal (luminous), ethereal body, etc.
TG Si-dzang (Chin.). The Chinese name for Tibet; mentioned in the Imperial Library of the capital of Fo Kien, as the "great seat of Occult learning", 2,207 years B.C. (Secret Doctrine, I., p. 271.)
IN Sien-Tchan (Chin) The material universe, world of illusion.
PV Sierpe Spanish, "serpent." A sacred term for the Seven Ahpu, the serpent being their divine nahual. It is also the totem of the Mayas (chan). The sierpes are in eternal opposition to the culebras.
MO Sif [[Norse]] (seev) [sif affinity, the sanctity of marriage] An Asynja: Thor's wife. Her golden hair is the harvest
TG Sige (Gr.). "Silence"; a name adopted by the Gnostics to signify the root whence proceed the AEons of the second series.
TG Sighra or Sighraga (Sk.). The father of Moru, "who is still living through the power of Yoga, and will manifest himself in the beginning of the Krita age in order to re-establish the Kshattriyas in the nineteenth Yuga" say the Puranic prophecies. "Moru" stands here for "Morya", the dynasty of the Buddhist sovereigns of Pataliputra which began with the great King Chandragupta, the grandsire of King Asoka. It is the first Buddhist Dynasty. (Secret Doctrine, I., 378.)
TG Sigurd (Scand.). The hero who slew Fafnir, the "Dragon", roasted his heart and ate it, after which he became the wisest of men. An allegory referring to Occult study and initiation.
MO Sigyn [[Norse]] (seeg-in) Loki's wife
GH Sikhandin A son of Drupada, king of Panchala, who accomplished the death of Bhishma in the great conflict. The story regarding Sikhandin, is one of the specific instances portraying reincarnation, with which the Mahabharata is studded. The epic relates that the eldest daughter of the king of Kasi Amba (q.v.), was rejected by her betrothed through the fault of Bhishma, whereupon she retired into the forest and by severe penances and sacrifices obtained a boon from Siva promising her immediate rebirth as a man in order to mete out judgment upon her wrongdoer, Bhishma. She thereupon ascended her funeral pyre and was forthwith reborn as Sikhandin. (Bhagavad-Gita, W. Q. Judge, p. 4)

WGa Sila, morality.
SEE PARAMITAS

OG Silent Watcher -- A term used in modern theosophical esoteric philosophy to signify a highly advanced spiritual entity who is, as it were, the summit or supreme chief of a spiritual-psychological hierarchy composed of beings beneath him and working under the Silent Watcher's direct inspiration and guidance. The Silent Watchers, therefore, are relatively numerous, because every hierarchy, large or small, high or low, has as its own particular hierarch or supreme head a Silent Watcher. There are human Silent Watchers, and there is a Silent Watcher for every globe of our planetary chain. There is likewise a Silent Watcher of the solar system of vastly loftier state or stage, etc. "Silent Watcher" is a graphic phrase, and describes with fair accuracy the predominant trait or characteristic of such a spiritual being -- one who through evolution having practically gained omniscience or perfect knowledge of all that he can learn in any one sphere of the kosmos, instead of pursuing his evolutionary path forwards to still higher realms, remains in order to help the multitudes and hosts of less progressed entities trailing behind him. There he remains at his self-imposed task, waiting and watching and helping and inspiring, and so far as we humans are concerned, in the utter silences of spiritual compassion. Thence the term Silent Watcher. He can learn nothing more from the particular sphere of life through which he has now passed, and the secrets of which he knows by heart. For the time being and for ages he has renounced all individual evolution for himself out of pure pity and high compassion for those beneath him.
IN Silent Watcher The summit of a hierarchy; the terrestrial Silent Watcher is the Mahaguru, the Great Sacrifice, who renounces nirvana and individual progress for the sake of all lower sentient beings.

TG Simeon-ben-Jochai. An Adept-Rabbin, who was the author of the Zohar, (q.v.).
TG Simon Magus. A very great Samaritan Gnostic and Thaumaturgist, called "the great Power of God".
TG Simorgh (Pers.). The same as the winged Siorgh, a kind of gigantic griffin, half phoenix, half lion, endowed in the Iranian legends with oracular powers. Simorgh was the guardian of the ancient Persian Mysteries. It is expected to reappear at the end of the cycle as a gigantic bird-lion. Esoterically, it stands as the symbol of the Manvantaric cycle. Its Arabic name is Rakshi.
TG Sinai (Heb.). Mount Sinai, the Nissi of Exodus (xvii., 15), the birthplace of almost all the solar gods of antiquity, such as Dionysus, born at Nissa or Nysa, Zeus of Nysa, Bacchus and Osiris, (q.v.). Some ancient people believed the Sun to be the progeny of the Moon, who was herself a Sun once upon a time. Sin-ai is the "Moon Mountain", hence the connexion.
MO Sindre [[Norse]] (sin-dreh) [dross] A dwarf: the vegetable kingdom

TG Sing Bonga. The Sun-spirit with the Kollarian tribes.
FY Sing Bonga, sun spirit of the Kolarian tribes.

TG Singha (Sk.). The constellation of Leo; Singh meaning "lion".
TG Sinika (Sk.). Also Sinita and Sanika, etc., as variants. The Vishnu Purana gives it as the name of a future sage who will be taught by him who will become Maitreya, at the end of Kali Yuga, and adds that this is a great mystery.
TG Sinivali (Sk.). The first day of the new moon, which is greatly connected with Occult practices in India.
MO Sinmara [[Norse]] (sin-mah-ra) Hag who guards the caldron of matter, experience in the underworld
TG Siphra Dtzeniouta (Chald.). The Book of Concealed Mystery; one division of the Zohar. (See Mathers' Kabbalah Unveiled.)
TG Sirius (Gr.). In Egyptian, Sothis. The dog-star: the star worshipped in Egypt and reverenced by the Occultists; by the former because its heliacal rising with the Sun was a sign of the beneficent inundation of the Nile, and by the latter because it is mysteriously associated with Thoth-Hermes, god of wisdom, and Mercury, in another form. Thus Sothis-Sirius had, and still has, a mystic and direct influence over the whole living heaven, and is connected with almost every god and goddess. It was "Isis in the heaven" and called Isis-Sothis, for Isis was "in the constellation of the dog", as is declared on her monuments. "The soul of Osiris was believed to reside in a personage who walks with great steps in front of Sothis, sceptre in hand and a whip upon his shoulder." Sirius is also Anubis, and is directly connected with the ring "Pass me not"; it is, moreover, identical with Mithra, the Persian Mystery god, and with Horus and even Hathor, called sometimes the goddess Sothis. Being connected with the Pyramid, Sirius was, therefore, connected with the initiations which took place in it. A temple to Sirius-Sothis once existed within the great temple of Denderah. To sum up, all religions are not, as Dufeu, the French Egyptologist, sought to prove, derived from Sirius, the dog-star, but Sirius-Sothis is certainly found in connection with every religion of antiquity.

TG Sishta (Sk.). The great elect or Sages, left after every minor Pralaya (that which is called "obscuration" in Mr. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism), when the globe goes into its night or rest, to become, on its re-awakening, the seed of the next humanity. Lit. "remnant."
WG Sishta, chastened, corrected, taught, instructed, ruled.
OG Sishta(s) -- (Sista, Sanskrit) This is a word meaning "remainders," or "remains," or "residuals" -- anything that is left or remains behind. In the especial application in which this word is used in the ancient wisdom, the sishtas are those superior classes -- each of its own kind and kingdom -- left behind on a planet when it goes into obscuration, in order to serve as the seeds of life for the inflow of the next incoming life-wave when the dawn of the new manvantara takes place on that planet. When each kingdom passes on to its next globe, each one leaves behind its sishtas, its lives representing the very highest point of evolution arrived at by that kingdom in that round, but leaves them sleeping as it were: dormant, relatively motionless, including life-atoms among them. Not without life, however, for everything is as much alive as ever, and there is no "dead" matter anywhere; but the sishtas considered aggregatively as the remnants or residuals of the life-wave which has passed on are sleeping, dormant, resting. These sishtas await the incoming of the life-waves on the next round, and then they re-awaken to a new cycle of activity as the seeds of the new kingdom or kingdoms -- be it the three elemental kingdoms or the mineral or vegetable or the beast or the next humanity. In a more restricted and still more specific sense, the sishtas are the great elect, or sages, left behind after every obscuration.
SKf Sishta Sishtas literally mean 'remainders'; derived from the verb-root sish -- to remain. Mystically the Sishtas refer to those entities from every kingdom who remain behind on a Globe or a Planet when the main stream of lives moves on, and whose duty it is to become the 'remainder-forms' or 'seeds of life' so that when the hosts of lives of all classes return they will find appropriate bodies ready for them. These Sishtas are always from among the highest representatives of each kingdom or class of beings. Thus they are able to provide for the more evolved entities returning in the next cycle.
IN Sishta(s) (Skt) "Residue, remainders," those left behind; the most evolved representatives of each kingdom which remain behind at the end of a cycle to serve as seeds for that kingdom in the next cycle.
SP Sista [sishta] -- residue, remains of one manvantara as seeds for the next.

TG Sisthrus (Chald.). According to Berosus, the last of the ten kings of the dynasty of the divine kings, and the "Noah" of Chaldea. Thus, as Vishnu foretells the coming deluge to Vaivasvata-Manu, and, forewarning, commands him to build an ark, wherein he and seven Rishis are saved; so the god Hea foretells the same to Sisithrus (or Xisuthrus) commanding him to prepare a vessel and save himself with a few elect. Following suit, almost 800,000 years later, the Lord God of Israel repeats the warning to Noah. Which is prior, therefore? The story of Xisuthrus, now deciphered from the Assyrian tablets, corroborates that which was said of the Chaldean deluge by Berosus, Apollodorus, Abydenus, etc., etc. (See eleventh tablet in G. Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis, page 263, et seq.). This tablet xi. covers every point treated of in chapters six and seven of Genesis -- the gods, the sins of men, the command to build an ark, the Flood, the destruction of men, the dove and the raven sent out of the ark, and finally the Mount of Salvation in Armenia (Nizir-Ararat); all is there. The words "the god Hea heard, and his liver was angry, because his men had corrupted his purity", and the story of his destroying all his seed, were engraved on stone tablets many thousand years before the Assyrians reproduced them on their baked tiles, and even these most assuredly antedate the Pentateuch, "written from memory" by Ezra, hardly four centuries B.C.
TG Sistrum (Gr.). Egyptian ssesh or kemken. An instrument, usually made of bronze but sometimes of gold or silver, of an open circular form, with a handle, and four wires passed through holes, to the end of which jingling pieces of metal were attached; its top was ornamented with a figure of Isis, or of Hathor. It was a sacred instrument, used in temples for the purpose of producing, by means of its combination of metals, magnetic currents, and sounds. To this day it has survived in Christian Abyssinia, under the name of sanasel, and the good priests use it to "drive devils from the premises", an act quite comprehensible to the Occultist, even though it does provoke laughter in the sceptical Orientalist. The priestess usually held it in her right hand during the ceremony of purification of the air, or the "conjuration of the elements", as E. Levi would call it, while the priests held the Sistrum in their left hand, using the right to manipulate the "key of life" -- the handled cross or Tau.
TG Sisumara (Sk.). An imaginary rotating belt, upon which all the celestial bodies move. This host of stars and constellations is represented under the figure of Sisumara, a tortoise (some say a porpoise!), dragon, crocodile, and what not. But as it is a symbol of the Yoga-meditation of holy Vasudeva or Krishna, it must be a crocodile, or rather, a dolphin, since it is identical with the zodiacal Makara. Dhruva, the ancient pole-star, is placed at the tip of the tail of this sidereal monster, whose head points southward and whose body bends in a ring. Higher along the tail are the Prajapati, Agni, etc., and at its root are placed Indra, Dharma, and the seven Rishis (the Great Bear), etc., etc. The meaning is of course mystical.

TG Siva (Sk.). The third person of the Hindu Trinity (the Trimurti). He is a god of the first order, and in his character of Destroyer higher than Vishnu, the Preserver, as he destroys only to regenerate on a higher plane. He is born as Rudra, the Kumara, and is the patron of all the Yogis, being called, as such, Maha-Yogi, the great ascetic, His titles are significant: Trilochana, "the three-eyed", Mahadeva, "the great god", Sankara, etc., etc., etc.
FY Siva, one of the Hindu gods, with Brahma and Vishnu, forming the Trimurti or Trinity; the principle of destruction.
WG Siva, one of the Hindu trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Siva), the destroyer, or transformer. (Literally, "the gracious one," an euphemism for Rudra, "the howler," "the horrible one.")
GH Siva The third aspect of the Hindu Trimurti commonly called the destroyer, but with the idea intimately associated therewith of regeneration, hence also the regenerator. The name Siva does not appear in the Vedas, nor does the concept of the Trimurti; but the deity Rudra does occur (associated in the Vedas with Agni the fire god), and in later times Siva is known under the name of Rudra, hence the association of the two has been made. Rudra is hailed in the Rig-Veda as the lord of songs and sacrifices, the lord of nourishment, he who drives away diseases and removes sin -- the beneficent aspect of Siva. In the Mahabharata, Siva's place in the Trimurti is maintained, although he is not quite as prominent as Vishnu (the preserver), nevertheless the deity comes in for his share of reverence.
Siva is described as the beautiful white deity with a blue throat -- blue because of the poisons he drinks in order to preserve mankind thereby; his hair is of a reddish color and piled on his head in matted locks -- for Siva is the patron deity of ascetics. He is depicted with three eyes, one placed in the center of his forehead, representing the eye of wisdom (Called by Occultists the eye of Siva or the third eye): the three eyes represent Time, present, past, and future. A crescent moon above his forehead indicates Time measured by the phases of the moon, while a serpent around his neck indicates the measure of Time by cycles: a second necklace (of human skulls) refers to the races of men which Siva continuously destroys in order to regenerate new races. The serpents which surround him represent the deity as king of the Nagas (q.v.), standing also for symbols of spiritual immortality. Siva is often represented with five faces -- representing the five manifested elements.
In many of the Puranas Siva is regarded as the greatest of deities, hence he is called Mahadeva (the great god). He is also spoken of as the patron deity of Esotericists and as the divine protector of the mystic Occultists. For Siva is "the howling and terrific destroyer of human passions and physical senses, which are ever in the way of the development of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the inner eternal man -- mystically," (Secret Doctrine, I, p. 459).
Siva, although the destroying deity, is Evolution and Progress personified, he "is the regenerator at the same time; who destroys things under one form but to recall them to life under another more perfect type." (Secret Doctrine, II, p. 182)
In the Bhagavad-Gita Siva is referred to under his alternative name of Sankara (Bhagavad-Gita, W. Q. Judge, p. 73).
SEE TRIMURTI

TG Siva-Rudra (Sk.). Rudra is the Vedic name of Siva, the latter being absent from the Veda.
FY Sivite, a worshipper of Siva, the name of a sect among the Hindus.
VS six (I 27) [[p. 10]] The six principles; meaning when the lower personality is destroyed and the inner individuality is merged into and lost in the Seventh or Spirit.

List of Abbreviated Titles (in alphabetical order)
FY | Five Years of Theosophy - 1885 | H. P. Blavatsky, ed.
GH | Gods and Heroes of the Bhagavad Gita - 1939 | Geoffrey A. Barborka
IN | An Invitation to the Secret Doctrine - 1988 | Grace F. Knoche, ed.
IU | Isis Unveiled - 1877 | H. P. Blavatsky
KT | Key to Theosophy - 1889 | H. P. Blavatsky
MO | The Masks of Odin - 1985 | Elsa-Brita Titchenell
OG | Occult Glossary - 1933, 1996 | G. de Purucker
PV | Esotericism of the Popol Vuh - 1979 | Raphael Girard (glossary by Blair A. Moffett)
SK | Sanskrit Keys the Wisdom Religion - 1940 | Judith Tyberg
SKo Sanskrit terms from The Ocean of Theosophy, by William Q. Judge, 1893.
SP | Sanskrit Pronunciation - 1992 | Bruce Cameron Hall
TG | Theosophical Glossary - 1892 | H. P. Blavatsky
VS | Voice of the Silence - 1889 | H. P. Blavatsky
WG | The Working Glossary - 1892 | W. Q. Judge
WGa Terms from The Working Glossary Appendix
WW | Word Wisdom in the Esoteric Tradition - 1980 | G. de Purucker