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T

Theurgist +

The first school of practical theurgy (from '''qeod,''' god, and''' ergon '''work,) in the Christian period, was founded by Iamblichus among certain Alexandrian Platonists. The priests, however, who were attached to the temples of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia and Greece, and whose business it was to evoke the gods during the celebration of the Mysteries, were known by this name, or its equivalent in other tongues, from the earliest archaic period. Spirits (but not those of the dead, the evocation of which was called ''Necromancy'') were made visible to the eyes of mortals. Thus a theurgist had to be a hierophant and an expert in the esoteric learning of the Sanctuaries of all great countries. The Neo‐platonists of the school of Iamblichus were called theurgists, for they performed the so‐called “ceremonial magic”, and evoked the ''simulacra'' or the images of the ancient heroes, “gods”, and daimonia ('''daimovia''', divine, spiritual entities). In the rare cases when the presence of a ''tangible'' and ''visible'' “ spirit ” was required, the theurgist had to furnish the weird apparition with a portion of his own flesh and blood — he had to perform the ''thepœa'' or the “creation of gods”, by a mysterious process well known to the old, and perhaps some of the modern, ''Tântrikas'' and initiated Brahmans of India. Such is what is said in the'' Book of Evocations'' of the pagodas. It shows the perfect identity of rites and ceremonial between the oldest Brahmanic theurgy and that of the Alexandrian Platonists. The following is from'' Isis Unveiled'': “The Brahman Grihasta (the evocator) must be in a state of complete purity before he ventures to call forth the Pitris. After having prepared a lamp, some sandal‐incense, etc., and having traced the magic circles taught him by the superior Guru, in order to keep away bad spirits, he ceases to breathe, and calls ''the fire (Kundalini'') to his help to disperse his body.” He pronounces a certain number of times the sacred word, and “ his soul (astral body) escapes from its prison, his body disappears, and the soul (image) of the evoked spirit descends into the ''double'' body and animates it”. Then “his (the theurgist’s) soul (astral) re‐enters its body, whose subtile particles have again been aggregating (to the objective sense), after having formed from themselves an aerial body for the deva (god or spirit) he evoked And then, the operator propounds to the latter questions “on the mysteries of Being and the transformation of the imperishable ”. The popular prevailing idea is that the theurgists, as well as the magicians, worked wonders, such as evoking the souls or shadows of the heroes and gods, and other thaumaturgic works, by ''super natural powers''. But this never was the fact. They did it simply by the liberation of their own astral body, which, taking the form of a god or hero, served as a ''medium'' or vehicle through which the special current preserving the ideas and knowledge of that hero or god could be reached and manifested. (See [[Iamblichus]].) [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG).

Thew, Margaret +

A resident of Worthing, England, who proofread the French texts for volume XI of [[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]]’s Collected Writings. ([[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]], [[Zirkoff B. - Foreword (BCW vol.11)#xxi|BCW 11:xxi]]) +

Thibaut, George Frederick William +

German scholar of Indian philosophy, astronomy and mathematics (1848-1914), formerly an assistant to Max Müller and principal of Benares Sanskrit College. He translated the ''Vedanta Sutras'' with commentaries and, with Sudhakara Dvivedi, the ''Panchasiddhantika'', and co-edited the ''Benares Sanskrit Series'' with Ralph Griffith. (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.3)#532|3:532-533]][[SMW::on]]). +

Thirty‐two Ways of Wisdom +

The ''Zohar'' says that Chochmah or Hokhmah (wisdom) generates all things “by means of (these) thirty‐ two paths”. (''Zohar'' iii., 290a The full account of them is found in the ''Sepher Yezirah'', wherein letters and numbers constitute as entities the Thirty‐two Paths of Wisdom, by which the Elohim built the whole Universe. For, as said elsewhere, the brain “hath an outlet from Zeir Anpin, and therefore it is spread and goes out to thirty‐two ways”. Zeir Anpin, the “Short Face” or the “Lesser Countenance”, is the Heavenly Adam, Adam Kadmon, or Man. Man in the'' '' ''Zohar ''is looked upon as the twenty‐two letters of the Hebrew alphabet to which the decad is added and hence the thirty‐two symbols of his faculties or paths. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thohu‐Bohu +

From ''Tohoo'' — “the Deep” and ''Bohu '' “primeval Space” — or the Deep of Primeval Space, loosely rendered as “Chaos” “Confusion” and so on. Also spelt and pronounced “''tohu‐bohu'' ”. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Tholuck, Friedrich August Gottreu +

German Protestant theologian who studied at Breslau and Berlin and lived in the household of the orientalist Heinrich Friedrich von Diez (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.8)#477|8:477]][[SMW::on]]). Bibliographical references include: Commentatio de vi quam graeca philosophia in theologiam tum Muhammedanorum tum Judaeorum exercuerit. See Vol. VIII, p. 477 of the present Series for biographical data (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.9)#457|9:457]][[SMW::on]]). +

Thomas Aquinas, Saint +

The appendix cites the ''Summa theologica'' through editions prepared by Claude-Joseph Drioux, which Blavatsky specifically mentions. (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.7)#399|7:399]][[SMW::on]]). +

Thomas, Franklin +

Set Volume V of [[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]]’s Collected Writings on the linotype, with particular care for its numerous Sanskrit diacritical marks. ([[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]], [[Zirkoff B. - Foreword (BCW vol.5)#xxiii|BCW 5:xxiii]]) +

Thomei +

The Goddess of Justice, with eyes bandaged and holding a cross. The same as the Greek Themis. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thomson, James +

British physicist. [[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]] tentatively identifies him as the Thomson named by [[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]] in discussing the future of the Sun. ([[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]], [[Blavatsky H.P. - The Pralaya of Modern Science|BCW 2:483]]) However, the theory of energy dissipation appears in his brother W. Thomson’s paper of 1852. On scientific context, William, later Lord Kelvin, is the more likely identification, although it is not conclusively established. ([https://informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/thomson/universal_tendency.html W. Thomson, On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy (1852)]) +

Thor +

From ''Thonar ''to “thunder”. The son of Odin and Freya, and the chief of all Elemental Spirits. The god of thunder, ''Jupiter Tonans''. The word Thursday is named after Thor. Among the Romans Thursday was the day of Jupiter, ''Jovis dies, Jeudi'' in French — the fifth day of the week, sacred also to the planet Jupiter. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thorah +

“Law”, written down from the transposition of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Of the “hidden Thorah” it is said that before At‐tee‐k‐ah (the “Ancient of all the Ancients ”) had arranged Itself into limbs (or members) preparing Itself to manifest, It willed to create a Thorah; the latter upon being produced addressed It in these words: “ It, that wishes to arrange and to appoint other things, should first of all, arrange Itself in Its proper Forms”. In other words, Thorah, the Law, snubbed its Creator from the moment of its birth, according to the above, which is an interpolation of some later Talmudist. As it grew and developed, the mystic Law of the primitive Kabbalist was transformed and made by the Rabbins to supersede in its dead letter every metaphysical conception; and thus the Rabbinical and Talmudistic Law makes Ain Soph and every divine Principle subservient to itself, and turns its back upon the true esoteric interpretations. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thornton, Edward +

Author of ''A Gazetteer of the Territories under the Government of the East India Company, and of the Native States on the Continent of India'', London, 1854; a corrected edition appeared in 1857. (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.3)#533|3:533]][[SMW::on]]). +

Thornton, R. +

Anglican clergyman, Doctor of Divinity and vicar of St John’s, Notting Hill. He presented a paper on Spiritualism at the Newcastle Church Congress in 1881. +

Thor’s Hammer +

A weapon which had the form of the Svastika; called by European Mystics and Masons the “ Hermetic Cross”, and also “Jaina Cross ”, ''croix cramponnée '' ; the most archaic, as the most sacred and universally respected symbol. (See [[Svastika]].) [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thoth +

The most mysterious and the least understood of gods, whose personal character is entirely distinct from all other ancient deities. While the permutations of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and the rest, are so numberless that their individuality is all but lost, Thoth remains changeless from the first to the last Dynasty. He is the god of wisdom and of authority over all other gods. He is the recorder and the judge. His ibis‐head, the pen and tablet of the celestial scribe, who records the thoughts, words and deeds of men and weighs them in the balance, liken him to the type of the esoteric Lipikas. His name is one of the first that appears on the oldest monuments. He is the lunar god of the first dynasties, the master of Cynocephalus — the dog‐headed ape who stood in Egypt as a living symbol and remembrance of the Third Root‐Race. (''Secret Doctrine,'' II. pp. 184 and 185). He is the “Lord of Hermopolis” — Janus, Hermes and Mercury combined. He is crowned with an ''atef ''and the lunar disk, and bears the “Eye of Horus ”, the third eye, in his hand. He is the Greek Hermes, the god of learning, and Hermes Trismegistus, the “ Thrice‐great Hermes ”, the patron of physical sciences and the patron and very soul of the occult esoteric knowledge. As Mr. J. Bonwick, F.R.G.S., beautifully expresses it : “ Thoth has a powerful effect on the imagination . . . in this intricate yet beautiful phantasmagoria of thought and moral sentiment of that shadowy past. It is in vain we ask ourselves however man, in the infancy of this world of humanity, in the rudeness of supposed incipient civilization, could have dreamed of such a heavenly being as Thoth. The lines are so delicately drawn, so intimately and tastefully interwoven, that we seem to regard a picture designed by the genius of a Milton, and executed with the skill of a Raphael.” Verily, there was some truth in that old saying, “ The wisdom of the Egyptians ”.When it is shown that the wife of Cephren, builder of the second Pyramid, was a priestess of Thoth, one sees that the ideas comprehended in him were fixed 6,000 years ago ”. According to Plato, “Thoth‐Hermes was the discoverer and inventor of numbers, geometry, astronomy and letters”. Proclus, the disciple of Plotinus, speaking of this mysterious deity, says: “He presides over every species of condition, leading us to an intelligible essence from this mortal abode, governing the different herds of souls”. In other words Thoth, as the Registrar and Recorder of Osiris in Amenti, the Judgment Hall of the Dead was a psychopompic deity; while Iamblichus hints that “ the cross with a handle (the ''thau'' or'' tau'') which Tot holds in his hand, was none other than the monogram of his name”. Besides the Tau, as the prototype of Mercury, Thoth carries the serpent‐rod, emblem of Wisdom, the rod that became the Caduceus. Says Mr. Bonwick, “ Hermes was the serpent itself in a mystical sense. He glides like that creature, noiselessly, without apparent exertion, along the course of ages. He is . . . a representative of the spangled heavens. But he is the foe of the bad serpent, for the ibis devoured the snakes of Egypt.” [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG).

Thothori Nyan Tsan +

A King of Tibet in the fourth century. It is narrated that during his reign he was visited by five mysterious strangers, who revealed to him how he might use for his country’s welfare ''four precious things'' which had fallen down from heaven, in 331 A.D., in a golden casket and “the use of which no one knew”. These were (1) hands folded as the Buddhist ascetics fold them; (2) a be‐jewelled ''Shorten'' (a Stupa built over a receptacle for relics); (3) a gem inscribed with the “ Aum mani padme hum” ; and ( the ''Zamotog'', a religious work on ethics, a part of the Kanjur. A voice from heaven then told the King that after a certain number of generations everyone would learn how precious these four things were. The number of generations stated carried the world to the seventh century, when Buddhism became the accepted religion of Tibet. Making an allowance for legendary licence, the four things fallen from heaven, the voice, and the five mysterious strangers, may be easily seen to have been historical facts. They were without any doubt five Arhats or Bhikshus from India, on their proselytising tour. Many were the Indian. sages who, persecuted in India for their new faith, betook themselves to Tibet and China. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thraetaona +

The Persian Michael, who contended with Zohak or Azhi‐Dahaka, the destroying serpent. In the ''Avesta ''Azhi‐Dahaka is a three‐headed monster, one of whose heads is human, and the two others Ophidian. Dahaka, who is shown in the Zoroastrian Scriptures as coming from Babylonia, stands as the allegorical symbol of the Assyrian dynasty of King Dahaka (Az‐Dahaka) which ruled Asia with an iron hand, and whose banners bore the purple sign of the dragon, ''Purpureum signum '' ''draconis''. Metaphysically, however, the human head denotes the physical man, and the two serpent heads the dual manasic principles — the dragon and serpent both standing as symbols of wisdom and occult powers. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Thrason +

Christian martyr traditionally described as a wealthy Roman who assisted Christian labourers and established a cemetery on the Salarian Way (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.10)#428|10:428]][[SMW::on]]). +

Thread Soul +

The same as ''Sutrâtmâ (q.v.)''. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +