Property:CTD term description

This property has type Text.

Usage6024

FilterThe <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Property_page/Filter">search filter</a> allows the inclusion of <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Query_expressions">query expressions</a> such as <code>~</code> or <code>!</code>. The selected <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Query_engine">query engine</a> might also support case insensitive matching or other short expressions like:<ul><li><code>in:</code> result should include the term, e.g. '<code>in:Foo</code>'</li></ul><ul><li><code>not:</code> result should to not include the term, e.g. '<code>not:Bar</code>'</li></ul>

Showing 20 pages using this property.

P

Pythagoras +

The most famous of mystic philosophers, born at Samos, about 586 B.C. He seems to have travelled all over the world, and to have culled his philosophy from the various systems to which he had access. Thus, he studied the esoteric sciences with the ''Brachmanes'' of India, and astronomy and astrology in Chaldea and Egypt. He is known to this day in the former country under the name of Yavanâchârya (“Ionian teacher”). After returning he settled in Crotona, in Magna Grecia, where he established a college to which very soon resorted all the best intellects of the civilised centres. His father was one Mnesarchus of Samos, and was a man of noble birth and learning. It was Pythagoras. who was the first to teach the heliocentric system, and who was the greatest proficient in geometry of his century. It was he also who created the word “philosopher”, composed of two words meaning a “lover of wisdom” — ''philo‐sophos''. As the greatest mathematician, geometer and astronomer of historical antiquity, and also the highest of the metaphysicians and scholars, Pythagoras has won imperishable fame. He taught reincarnation as it is professed in India and much else of the Secret Wisdom. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Pythagorean Pentacle +

A Kabbalistic six‐pointed star with an eagle at the apex and a bull and a lion under the face of a man; a mystic symbol adopted by the Eastern and Roman Christians, who place these animals beside the four Evangelists. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Pythia +

Modern dictionaries inform us that the term means one who delivered the oracles at the temple of Delphi, and “any female supposed to have the spirit of divination in her — ''a witch''” (Webster). This is neither true, just nor correct. On the authority of Iamblichus, Plutarch and others, a Pythia was a priestess chosen among the ''sensitives ''of the poorer classes, and placed in a temple where oracular powers were exercised. There she had a room secluded from all but the chief Hierophant and Seer, and once admitted, was, like a nun, lost to the world. Sitting on a tripod of brass placed over a fissure in the ground, through which arose intoxicating vapours, these subterranean exhalations, penetrating her whole system, produced the prophetic ''mania,'' in which abnormal state she delivered oracles. Aristophanes in Væstas “ I., reg. 28, calls the Pythia ''ventriloqua vates'' or the “ventriloquial prophetess”, on account of her ''stomach''‐ voice. The ancients placed the soul of man (the lower ''Manas'') or his personal self‐consciousness, in the pit of his stomach. We find in the fourth verse of the second ''Nâbhânedishta ''hymn of the Brahmans: “Hear, O sons of the gods, one who speaks through his name (''nâbhâ''), for he hails you in your dwellings!” This is a modern somnambulic phenomenon. The navel was regarded in antiquity as “the circle of the sun”, the seat of divine internal light. Therefore was the oracle of Apollo at ''Delphi'', the city of'' Delphus,'' the womb or abdomen — while the seat of the temple was called the ''omphalos,'' navel. As well‐known, a number of mesmerized subjects can read letters, hear, smell and see through that part of their body. In India there exists to this day a belief (also among the Parsis) that adepts have flames in their navels, which enlighten for them all darkness and unveil the spiritual world. It is called with the Zoroastrians ''the lamp of '' ''Deshtur'' or the “High Priest”; and the light or radiance of the ''Dikshita ''(the initiate) with the Hindus. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG).

Pytho +

The same as ''Ob'' — a fiendish, devilish influence; the '''''ob '''''through which the sorcerers are said to work. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Pétau, Dénis +

Bibliographical references include: De angelis-De Opificio sex dierum. See J. P. Migne, Theol. C. Compl. Vol. VII, 1839 (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.8)#471|8:471]][[SMW::on]]). +

Pétis de la Croix, François +

French Orientalist (1653-1713), traveller, translator of Persian historical works and interpreter to the French court. De Zirkoff considers him the probable person meant by Blavatsky, but could not identify her reference concerning Druze writings. (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.3)#517|3:517-518]][[SMW::on]]). +

Q

Q +

The seventeenth letter of the English Alphabet. It is the obsolete Æolian ''Qoppa'' and the Hebrew ''Koph.'' As a numeral it is 100, and its symbol is the back of the head from the ears to the neck. With the Æolian Occultists it stood for the symbol of differentiation. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Qabbalah +

The ancient Chaldean Secret Doctrine, abbreviated into Kabala. An occult system handed clown by oral transmission; but which, though accepting tradition, is not in itself composed of merely traditional teachings, as it was once a fundamental science, now disfigured by the additions of centuries, and by interpolation by the Western Occultists, especially by ''Christian'' Mystics. It treats of hitherto esoteric interpretations of the Jewish Scriptures, and teaches several methods of interpreting Biblical allegories. Originally the doctrines were transmitted “from mouth to ear” only, says Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, “in an oral manner from teacher to pupil who received them; hence the name Kabbalah, Qabalah, or Cabbala from the Hebrew root QBL, to receive. Besides this Theoretic Kabbalah, there was created a Practical branch, which is concerned with the Hebrew letters, as types a like of Sounds, Numbers, and Ideas.” (See “Gematria”, “Notaricon”, “ Temura”.) For the original book of the ''Qabbalah''—the'' Zohar''—see further on. But the'' Zohar ''we have now is not the'' Zohar'' left by Simeon Ben Jochai to his son and secretary as an heirloom. The author of the present ''approximation ''was one Moses de Leon, a Jew of the XIIIth century. (See “Kabalah” and “Zohar”.) [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Qadmon, Adam +

The Heavenly or Celestial Man, the Microcosm (''q.v.''), He is the manifested Logos; the ''third'' Logos according to Occultism, or the Paradigm of Humanity. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Qai‐yin +

The same as Cain. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Qaniratha +

Our earth, in the Zoroastrian Scriptures, which is placed, as taught in the ''Secret Doctrine'', in the midst of the other six ''Karshwars'', or globes of the terrestrial chain. (See ''Secret Doctrine'', II. p. 759.) [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Quadrivium +

A term used by the Scholastics during the Middle Ages to designate the last four paths of learning—of which there were originally seven. Thus grammar, rhetoric and logic were called the ''trivium'', and arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy (the Pythagorean obligatory sciences) went under the name of ''quadrivium''. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Quarles F. - Job Militant +

A poem by [[Quarles, Francis|F. Quarles]] with meditations divine and moral (1624); [[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]] identifies section XI as the source of [[Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna|H. P. Blavatsky]]’s epigraph. ([[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]], [[Blavatsky H.P. - Tetragrammaton#142|BCW 8:142]]) +

Quarles, Francis +

English poet. Educated at Christ's college, Cambridge, 1608, and Lincoln's Inn. Was made cup-bearer to the Princess Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, 1613, remaining abroad for some years (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.8)#472|8:472]][[SMW::on]]). +

Quatrefages de Bréau J.L.A. de - The Human Species +

An English translation of the third French edition of 1877: New York, D. Appleton, 1879; second English edition, London, C. Paul, 1881. ([[Zirkoff, Boris|B. de Zirkoff]], [[Blavatsky H.P. - Literary Jottings#35|BCW 8:35]]) +

Quatrefages de Bréau, Jean-Louis Armand de +

The bibliography lists L’Espèce humaine (Paris, 1877; English editions as The Human Species from 1879) and Souvenirs d’un naturaliste (Paris, 1854, two volumes). A biography is referenced in BCW VIII, 472-473. (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.2)#540|2:540]][[SMW::on]]). French naturalist. Studied at Collège de Tournon, then at Collège de Strassburg, first philosophy of science, later medicine, becoming doctor, 1832 (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.8)#472|8:472-473]][[SMW::on]]). +

Quetil, Ch. J. +

Member of the Theosophical Society ("F.T.S."); contributed [[Quetil ChJ - Polarity of the Human Body|"Polarity of the Human Body"]] to ''The Path'' (June 1886), reporting and discussing the experiments of H. Durville, director of the ''Journal du Magnétisme'' (Paris), on the polarity of the human body. No further biographical information located. +

Quetzo‐Cohuatl +

The serpent‐god in the Mexican Scriptures and legends. His wand and other “land‐marks” show him to be some great Initiate of antiquity, who received the name of “Serpent” on account of his wisdom, long life and powers. To this day the aboriginal tribes of Mexico call themselves by the names of various reptiles, animals and birds. [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Quiche Cosmogony +

Called ''Popol Vuh''; discovered by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. (See [[Popol Vuh]].) [[Category: CTD info from Theosophical Glossary]] (TG). +

Quicherat, Louis-Marie +

French philologist. After a college education, taught rhetoric in various universities and was appointed, 1843, director of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève (BCW [[SMW::off]][[Zirkoff B. - Appendix (BCW vol.9)#449|9:449]][[SMW::on]]). +