Theosophy Wales:- Esoteric Glossary O-P

WALES

Esoteric

Glossary

O – P

Occultist The true occultist is a scientist and a devotee; where these two are not merged we have the mystic, as well as the individual in danger of black magic, being governed by the intellect and not by selflessness; the occultist is only the mystic functioning on a higher plane - that of the mind.

Path (The) The "linking light" or "bridging radiance" created between the higher and the lower; communion or interplay between the personality and the Soul, and later between the personality and Spirit; "Before the person can tread the path, they must become that path themself"; The antahkarana is the Path symbolically. This is one of the paradoxes of the esoteric science. Step by step and stage by stage, we construct that Path just as the spider spins its thread. It is that "way back" which we evolve out of ourselves; it is that Way which we also find and tread.

Permanent atom Small force centres on each of the planes which hold the memory of all incarnations, and which the reincarnating soul draws upon when building new bodies of manifestation.

Personality The sumtotal of the threefold lower self: physical, astral, mental: a blend of mental energy, of emotional energy and of vital force, and these three are masked, hidden or revealed (note this terminology) by an outer shell or form of dense physical matter. This outer crust is in itself a form of negative energy. The result of this union of three energies in an objective form is self-consciousness and their fusion produces that sense of individuality which justifies the use of the wword "I," and which relates all occurrences to a self; where this central conscious entity exists, utilising the mind, reacting sensuously through the emotional body, and energising the dense physical (via the vital body), then one has a personality; awareness of identity in relation to other identities - true of God or man; sense or identity persists only during the creative process; a state of awareness which has its conditioning factor in the mind stuff and this can be transcended when the mind stuff no longer controls.

Plan The expression of Purpose in time and space; all we really know is the fact of the Plan and that it is very good; that we are enfolded within it and subject to it; the objective of the Plan is to reproduce upon the plane of the earth the inner kingdom of the soul.

Plane (of Perception) A level of existence. There are seven planes of perception on this, the "cosmic physical" plane - physical, astral, mental, buddhic, atmic, monadic and Adi. These planes are subdivided into seven subplanes each, making 49 subplanes in all. An essential part of "septenaries" in occultism that can be applied, with the 7 rays, to broaden understanding.

Planetary Logos This term is generally applied to the seven highest spirits corresponding to the seven archangels of the Christian. They have all passed through the human stage and are now manifesting through a planet and its evolutions, in the same way that man manifests through his physical body. The highest planetary spirit working through any particular globe is, in reality, the personal God of the planet. The Being Who is the life of our planet; the One in Whom we live and move and have our being; the sumtotal of all organized life; the informing, ensouling life of this planet earth; the life which integrates the planet as a whole, and pours through all forms - great or small - which, in their aggregate, constitute the Planetary form; our planetary Logos has been given the name of the "experimenting divine physicist." A planetary logos is the informing entity of any planetary scheme, which is made up of many other globes and chains - the physical planet just being one expression of the great life incarnate in a scheme. The Kumara for our planet, Sanat Kumara, is simply the personality expression of this great being.

Prakriti That which caused the universe to manifest itself.

Prana The Life principle, the breath of life.

Pranayama The science of rhytmic breathing as applied in meditation.

Prayer The dim, faint and inadequate expression of the Science of Invocation and Evocation; affirmation of divinity in order to attain material well-being.

Precipitation An aggregation of energies arranged in a certain form, in order to express the idea of some creative Thinker, and qualified or characterised by the nature of his thought and held in that peculiar form as long as thought remains dynamic.

Principle The embodiment of some aspect of truth on which this system of ours is based; that which governs always the action of the ego on its own plane. The basic differentiations, essential qualities or types of energy upon which all things are built; they give the distinctive nature of all forms. Principles are eternal, personalities temporal. Principles are to be viewed in the light of eternity, personalities from the standpoint of time. The trouble is that, in many situations, two principles are involved, one of which is secondary. The difficulty lies in the fact that (both being principles) both are right. It is a rule for safe guidance always to remember that usually basic principles (for their wise comprehension and fruitful working out) call for play of intuition whilst secondary principles are more purely mental. The methods hence necessariy differ. While holding to the basic principles, the wisest methods are silence and a joyful confidence that the Law works.

Principle of Expansion That which brings about the development of consciousness so that the latent germ of sentiency or of sensitive response to environment may be fostered in the living unit.

Principle of Liberation Closely linked with that of the problem of limitation; death is governed by the Principle of Liberaton, and not by that of Limitation. Death is only recognised as a factor to be dealt with by self-conscious lives and is only misunderstood by human beings, who are the most glamoured and deluded of all incarnated lives. (See Death)

Principle of Limitation The outcome of the purposeful will and formulated desire of some thinking Being, and governs consequently the form-taking process of all incarnated lives; controls the scope of an incarnation, sets its measure and rhythm, determines the radius of its influence, and brings about that illusory appearance of reality which we call manifestation. (see Principle of Liberation)

Principle of Periodic Manifestation The Law of Cycles; a beneficent operation of the love-wisdom of innate divinity; produces that sequence of the states of consciousness which we term Time; produces in the world field of awareness a gradual and slow growth towards self-expression, self-appreciation, and self-realisation.

Purpose The motivating Life behind all that emanates from Shamballa; impulses all the activities of the Hierarchy; the task of the Hierarchy is to formulate the Plan for all forms of life in the three worlds and the four kingdoms in nature; the Purpose of God is that which implements the Plan; God reveals His purpose through the activity of the mind - which in turn impresses the brain, attuned to receptivity. Later again, the mind becomes responsive to an illumination, emanating from the Spirit aspect. Purpose is an energy, released within the confines of the Council Chamber (Shamballa) and there it takes shape. Behind it looms that which has brought it into being. (see Plan)

Purusha The spiritual self. The embodied self. The word literally means "The dweller in the city" - that is, in the body. It is derived from the Sanskrit "pura" which means city or body, and "usha" a derivative of the verb "vas," to dwell.