SelfDefinition.Org
Life of Paracelsus
(1493-1541)
Franz Hartmann MD
Chapter 2 Explanation of Terms Used by Paracelsus
Including some other Terms frequently used by Writers on Occultism.
"Since the days of the unlucky medieval philosophers, the last to write upon these secret doctrines of which they were the depositaries, few men have dared to brave persecution and prejudice by placing their knowledge upon record. And these few have never as a rule written for the public, but only for those of their own and succeeding times who possessed the key to their jargon. The multitude, not understanding them or their doctrines, have been accustomed to look upon them as either charlatans or dreamers." H. P. BLAVATSKY: Isis Unveiled, vol. i.
Key
A
ABESSI, or REBIS. - Refuse; dead matter; excrementitious substances.
ADECH. - The inner (spiritual) man; the lord of thought and imagination, forming subjectively all things in his mind, which the exterior (material) man may objectively reproduce. Either of the two acts according to his nature, the invisible in an invisible, and the visible one in a visible manner, but both act correspondingly. The outer man may act what the inner man thinks, but thinking is acting in the sphere of thought, and the products of thought are transcendentally substantial, even if they are not thrown into objectivity on the material plane. The inner man is and does what he desires and thinks. Whether or not his good or evil thoughts and intentions find expression on the material plane is of less importance to his own spiritual development than to others who may be affected by his acts, but less by his thoughts.
ADMISURAL. - Earth (literally and allegorically).
ADROP, AZANE, or AZAR. - "The Philosopher's Stone." This is not a stone in the usual sense of that term, but an allegorical expression, meaning the principle of wisdom on which the philosopher who has obtained it by practical experience (not the one who is merely speculating about it) may fully rely, as he would rely on the value of a precious stone, or as he would trust to a solid rock upon which to build the foundation of his (spiritual) house.
ACTHNA. - An invisible, subterrestrial fire, being the matrix from which bituminous substances take their origin, and sometimes producing volcanic eruptions. It is a certain state of the "soul" of the earth, a mixture of astral and material elements, perhaps of an electric or magnetic character. [1]
[1. It is an element in the life of the "great snake" Vasuki, that according to Hindu mythology encircles the world, and by whose movements earthquakes may be produced. - H.P.B.]
ACTHNICI. - Elemental spirits of fire; spirits of Nature. They may appear in various shapes, as fiery tongues, balls of fire, &c. They are sometimes seen in "spiritual stances." [2]
[2. They are the Devas of fire in India, and bulls were sometimes sacrificed to them. -H.P.B.]
A'KASA. - An Eastern term. Living primordial substance, corresponding to the conception of some form of cosmic ether pervading the solar system. Everything visible is, so to say, condensed A'kasa, having become visible by changing its supra-ethereal state into a concentrated and tangible form, and everything in nature may be resolved again into A'kasa, and be made invisible, by changing the attractive power that held its atoms together into repulsion; but there is a tendency in the atoms that have once constituted a form, to rush together again in the previous order, and reproduce the same form; and a form may therefore, by making use of this law, be apparently destroyed and then reproduced. This tendency rests in the character of the form preserved in the Astral Light.
ALCAHEST. - An element which dissolves all metals, and by which all terrestrial bodies may be reduced into their Ens primum, or the original matter (A'kasa) of which they are formed. It is a power which acts upon the Astral forms (or souls) of all things, capable of changing the polarity of their molecules, and thereby to dissolve them. The power of Will is the highest aspect of the true Alcahest. In its lowest aspect it is a visible fluid able to dissolve all things, not yet known to modern chemistry.
ALCHEMY. - A science by which things may not only be decomposed and recomposed (as is done in chemistry), but by which their essential nature may be changed and raised higher, or be transmuted into each other. Chemistry deals with dead matter alone, but Alchemy uses life as a factor. Everything is of a threefold nature, of which its material and objective form is its lowest manifestation. There is, for instance, immaterial spiritual gold, ethereal fluid and invisible astral gold, and the solid visible, material and earthly gold. The two former are, so to say, the spirit and soul of the latter, and by employing the spiritual powers of the soul we may induce changes in them that may become visible in the objective state. Certain external manipulations may assist the powers of the soul in their work; but without the possession of the latter the former will be perfectly useless. Alchemical processes can therefore only be successfully undertaken by one who is an Alchemist by birth or by education. Everything being of a threefold nature, there is a threefold aspect of Alchemy. In its higher aspect it teaches the regeneration of the spiritual man, the purification of the mind, thought, and will, the ennobling of all the faculties of the soul. In its lowest aspect it deals with physical substances, and as it leaves the realm of the living soul, and steps down to hard matter, it ends in the science of modern chemistry of the present day.
ALCOL. - The substance of a body free from all earthly matter; its ethereal or astral form.
ALUECH. - The pure spiritual body (the Atma).
ANATOMY. - The knowledge of the parts of which a thing is composed; not merely of its physical organs and limbs, but of its elements and principles. Thus the knowledge of the sevenfold constitution of the universe embraces the anatomy of the Macrocosm.
ANIADUS. - The spiritual activity of things.
ANIADUM. - The spiritual (re-born) man; the activity of man's spirit in his mortal body; the Seat of Spiritual Consciousness.
ANIADA. - The activities that are caused by astral influences, celestial powers; the activity of imagination and phantasy.
ANYODEL. - The spiritual life; the subjective state into which the higher essence of the soul enters after death, and after having lost its grosser parts in Kama-loca. It corresponds to the conception of Devachan.
AQUASTOR. - A being created by the power of the imagination - i.e., by a concentration of thought upon the A'kasa by which an ethereal form may be created (Elementals, Succubi and Incubi, Vampires, &c.). Such imaginary but nevertheless real forms may obtain life from the person by whose imagination they are created, and under certain circumstances they may even become visible and tangible.
ARCHATES, or ARCHALLES. - The element of the mineral kingdom.
ARCHAEUS. - The formative power of Nature, which divides the elements and forms them into organic parts. It is the principle of life; the power which contains the essence of life and character of everything.
ARES. - The spiritual principle; the cause of the specific character of each thing.
ASTRA. - States of mind, either in the mind of man or in the universal mind. Each mental state in the mind of man corresponds to a similar condition in the mental atmosphere of the world, and as the mind of man acts upon the universal mind, so that mental atmosphere reacts upon him.
ASTRAL BODY. - The invisible ethereal body of man or of any other thing; the physical form being merely the material expression of the astral body, which builds up the external form.
ASTRAL LIGHT. - The same as the Archaeus. A universal and living ethereal element, still more ethereal and highly organised than the A'kasa. The former is universal, the latter only cosmic - viz., pertaining to our solar system. It is at the same time an element and a power, containing the character of all things. It is the storehouse of memory for the great world (the Macrocosm), whose contents may become re-embodied and reincarnated in objective forms; it is the storehouse of memory of the little world, the Microcosm of man, from which he may recollect past events. It exists uniformly throughout the interplanetary spaces, yet it is more dense and more active around certain objects on account of their molecular activity, especially around the brain and spinal cord of human beings, which are surrounded by it as by an aura of light It is this aura around the nerve-cells and nerve-tubes by which a man is enabled to catch impressions made upon the astral aura of the cosmos, and thereby to "read in the Astral Light". It forms the medium for the transmission of thought, and without such a medium no thought could be transferred to a distance. It may be seen by the clairvoyant, and as each person has an astral aura of his own, a person's character may be read in his Astral Light by those who are able to see it. In the case of a child who has not yet generated any special characteristics, that emanating aura is milk-white; but in the adult there is always upon this fundamental colour another one, such as blue, green, yellow, red, dark-red, and even black. Every living nerve has its astral aura, every mineral, every plant or animal, and everything of life, and the glorified body of the spirit is made to shine by its light.
ASTROLOGY. - The science of the "stars"; i.e., of the mental states in the mind. It is not to be confounded with modern physical astronomy.
ASTRUM. - This term is frequently used by Paracelsus, and means the same as Astral Light, or the special sphere of mind belonging to each individual, giving to each thing its own specific qualities, constituting, so to say, its world.
AVITCHI. - An Eastern term. A state of ideal spiritual wickedness; a subjective condition; the antitype of Devachan or Anyodei.
AZOTH. - The creative principle in Nature; the universal panacea or spiritual life-giving air. It represents the Astral Light in its aspect as the vehicle of the universal essence of life; in its lowest aspect the electrifying power of the atmosphere - Ozone, Oxygen, &c.
B
BERYLLUS. - A magic mirror or crystal in whose Astral aura apparitions may be seen by the clairvoyant. Berillistica ars: art of divining by means of seeing in crystals, magic mirror, flowing water, looking into cups, into stones, &c., all of which methods are calculated to render the mind passive, and thereby to enable it to receive the impressions that the Astral light may make upon the mental sphere of the individual by detracting the attention from external and sensual things, the inner man is made conscious and receptive for its subjective impressions.
BRUTA. - Astral force manifested in animals; second sight in animals; power of animals to discover instinctively poisonous or curative medicines, &c.
C
CABALLI, CABALES, LEMURES. - The astral bodies of men who died a premature death - that is to say, who were killed or killed themselves before their natural term of life was over. They may be more or less self-conscious and intelligent, according to the circumstances in which they lived and died. They are the earth-bound suffering souls of the dead, wandering in the sphere of the earth's attraction (Kania-loca) until the time arrives when they would have died according to natural law, when the separation of their higher principles from the lower ones takes place. They imagine to perform bodily actions, while in fact they have no physical bodies, but act in their thoughts; but their bodies appear to them as real as ours appear to us. They may under certain necessary conditions communicate with man through "mediums", or directly through a man's own mediumistic organisation.
CHAOMANTIA. - Divination by aerial visions; clairvoyance; second sight.
CHERIO. - "Quint-essence." The essence or fifth principle of a thing; that which constitutes its essential qualities, freed of all impurities and non-essentials.
CLISSUS. - The hidden specific power contained in all things; the life-force which in vegetables mounts from the roots into the trunk, leaves, flowers, and seeds, causing the latter to produce a new organism.
CORPUS INVISIBILE. - The invisible body; the animal soul (Kama rupa); the medium between material forms and the spiritual principle; a substantial, ethereal, but under ordinary circum stances invisible thing; the lower astral form.
CORPORA SUPERCOELESTIA. Forms that can only be seen by the highest spiritual perception; they are not ordinary astral forms, but the refined and intelligent elements of the same.
D
DERSES. - An occult exhalation of the earth, by means of which plants are enabled to grow. Carbonic acid gases, &c., are its vehicles.
DEVACHAN. - An Eastern term. A subjective state of happiness of the higher principles of the soul after the death of the body. (See ANYODEI.) It corresponds to the idea of Heaven, where each individual monad lives in a world which it has created by its own thoughts, and where the products of its own spiritual ideation appear substantial and objective to it.
DIVINATO. - The act of foreseeing future events by means of the soul's own light; prophecy.
DIVERTELLUM. - The matrix of the elements, from which the latter generated. [3]
[3. For instance, each metal has its elementary matrix in which it grows. Mines of gold, silver, &c., become exhausted, and after centuries (or millenniums) they may be found to yield again a rich supply; in the same way the soil of a country, having become infertile from exhaustion, will after a time of rest become fertile again. In both cases a decomposition and a development of lower elements into higher ones takes place.]
DURDALES. - Substantial but invisible beings, residing in trees (Dryades); elemental spirits of nature.
E
EDELPHUS. - One who divines from the elements of the air, earth, water, or fire.
ELEOTRUM MAGICUM. - A composition of seven metals, compounded according to certain rules and planetary influences; a preparation of great magic power, of which magic rings, mirrors, and many other things may be made.
ELEMENTALS. - Spirits of Nature. Substantial but (for us) invisible beings of an ethereal nature, living in the elements of air, water, earth, or fire. They have no immortal spirits, but they are made of the substance of the soul, and are of various grades of intelligence. Their characters differ widely. They represent in their natures all states of feeling. Some are of a beneficial and others of a malicious nature.
ELEMENTARIES. - The astral corpses of the dead, from which the spiritual part has departed, but in which, nevertheless, intellectual activity may have remained; the ethereal counterpart of the once living person, which will sooner or later be decomposed into its astral elements, as the physical body is dissolved into the elements to which it belongs. These elementaries have under normal conditions no consciousness of their own; but they may receive vitality from a mediumistic person, and thereby for a few minutes be, so to say, galvanised back into life and (artificial) consciousness, when they may speak and act and apparently remember things as they did during life. They very often take possession of Elementals, and use them as masks to represent deceased persons and to mislead the credulous. The Elementaries of good people have little cohesion and evaporate soon; those of wicked persons may exist a long time; those of suicides, &c., have a life and consciousness of their own as long as the division of principles has not taken place. [4] These are the most dangerous.
[4. This division takes place in consequence of the opposite attraction of matter and spirit. After it is accomplished, the astral body will be dissolved into its elements, and the spirit enter into the spiritual state. See A.P. SINNETT: Esoteric Buddhism.]
ELEMENTUM. - The invisible element or basic principle of all substances that may be either in a solid (earthly), liquid (watery), gaseous (airy), or ethereal (fiery) state. It does not refer to the so-called simple bodies or elements in chemistry, but to the invisible basic substance out of which they are formed.
ERODINIUM. - A pictorial or allegorical representation of some future events; visions and symbolic dreams that may be produced in various ways. There are three classes of dreams from which may arise four more mixed states of dreams. The three pure classes are: 1. Dreams that result from physiological conditions; 2. Dreams that result from psychological conditions and astral influences; 3. Dreams that are caused by spiritual agency. Only the latter are worthy of great consideration, although the former may occasionally indicate important changes in the planes to which they belong; for instance, a dream of a nail being driven into the head may predict apoplexy, &c.
EVESTRUM. - The Thought body of Man; his conscious ethereal counterpart, that may watch over him and warn him of the approach of death or of some other danger. The more the physical body is active and conscious of external things, the more is the Thought body stupefied; the sleep of the body is the awakening of the Evestrum. During that state it may communicate with the Evestra of other persons or with those of the dead. It may go to certain distances from the physical body for a short time; but if its connection with that body is broken, the latter dies.
F
FIRMAMENT. - The soul-sphere of the Macrocosmos, respectively that of the Microcosmos.
FLAGAE. - Spirits knowing the secrets of man; familiar spirits; spirits that may be seen in mirrors and reveal secret things.
G
GAMATHEI, or GAMAHEU. - Stones with magic characters and pictures, possessing powers received from astral influences. They may be made by art or in a natural manner. Amulets, charms.
GIGANTES. - Elementals having the human form, but of superhuman size. They live like men, and are mortal, though invisible under ordinary circumstances.
GNOMI, PYGMAEI, CUBITALL. - Little Elementals having the human form and the power to extend their form. They live in the element of the earth, in the interior of the earth's surface, in houses and dwellings constructed by themselves.
H
HOMUNCULI. - Artificially made human beings, generated from the sperm without the assistance of the female organism (Black magic).
HOMUNCULI IMAGUNCULAE. - Images made of wax, clay, wood, &c., that are used in the practice of black magic, witchcraft, and sorcery, to stimulate the imagination and to injure an enemy, or to affect an absent person in an occult manner at a distance.
I
ILECH PRIMUM, ILEIAS, ILEADUS. - The first beginning; primordial power; causation.
ILECH SUPERNATURALE. - The union of the superior and inferior astral influences.
ILECH MAGNUM. - The specific healing power of medicine.
ILECH CRUDUM. - The combination of a body out of its three constituent principles, represented by salt, sulphur, and mercury, or body, soul, and spirit; respectively the elements of earth, water, and fire.
ILEIADES. - The element of the air the vital principle.
ILIASTER. - The hidden power in Nature, by means of which all things grow and multiply; primordial matter; materia prima; A'kasa. Iliaster primus: life; the balsam of Nature. Il. segundus: the power of life inherent in matter. Il. tertius: the astral power of man. Il. quartus: perfection; the power obtained by the mystic process of squaring the circle.
IMAGINATIO. - The plastic power of the soul, produced by active consciousness, desire, and will.
IMPRESSIONES. - Effects of a passive imagination, which may give rise to various bodily affections, diseases, malformations, stigmata, monsters (hare-lips, acephali, &c.), moles, marks, &c.
INCUBUS and SUCCUBUS. - Male and female parasites growing out of the astral elements of man or woman in consequence of a lewd imagination. 2. Astral forms of dead persons (Elementaries), being consciously or instinctively attracted to such persons, manifesting their presence in tangible if not visible forms, and having carnal intercourse with their victims. 3. The astral bodies of sorcerers and witches visiting men or women for immoral purposes. The Incubus is male, and the Succubus female.
K
KAMA-LOCA. - An Eastern term. Region of Desire. The soul-sphere (third and fourth principle) of the earth not - necessarily on the earth's surface - where the astral remnants of the deceased putrefy and are decomposed. In this region the souls of the deceased that are not pure live (either consciously or in a state of torpor) until their Kama-rupas (bodies of desire) are laid off by a second death, and they themselves having been disintegrated, the division of the higher principles takes place. The lower principles being disposed of, the spirit, with his purified affections and the powers he may have acquired during his earthly existence, enters again into the state of Devachan. Kama-Loca corresponds to the Hades of the Greeks, and to the purgatory of the Roman Catholic Church - the Limbus. (See ELEMENTARIES.)
L
LEFFAS. Astral bodies of plants. They may be rendered visible out of the ashes of plants after the latter have been burned. (See PALINGENESIS, in the Appendix.) [page 294 of text, 316 of PDF]
LEMURES. - Elementals of the air; Elementaries of the deceased; rapping and tipping spirits, producing physical manifestations.
LIMBUS (Magnus). - The world as a whole; the spiritual matrix of the universe; Chaos, in which is contained that out of which the world is made.
M
MAGIC. - Wisdom; the science and art of consciously employing invisible (spiritual) powers to produce visible effects. Will, love, and imagination are magic powers that every one possesses, and he who knows how to develop them and to use them consciously and effectually is a magician. He who uses them for good purposes practices white magic. He who uses them for selfish or evil purposes is a black magician. [5] Paracelsus uses the term Magic to signify the highest power of the human spirit to control all lower influences for the purpose of good. The act of employing invisible powers for evil purposes he calls Necromancy, because the Elementaries of the dead are often used as mediums to convey evil influences. Sorcery is not Magic, but stands in the same relation to Magic as darkness to light. Sorcery deals with the forces of the human and animal soul, but Magic with the supreme power of the spirit.
[5. See "Magic, White and Black; or, The Science of Finite and Infinite Life", by Dr. F. Hartmann. /magic/hartmann/white-and-black/introduction-spiritual-law.htm ]
MAGISTERIUM. - The medicinal virtue of medicinal substances, preserved in a vehicle.
MANGONARIA. - A magic power by which heavy bodies may be lifted without any great physical effort; magical suspension levitation. It is usually accomplished by changing their polarity in regard to the attraction (gravity) of the earth.
MATRICES. - The vehicles of things; elementary bases.
MELOSINAE. - Elemental spirits of water, usually appearing in female forms, but which may also take the forms of fishes or snakes. They have souls, but no spiritual principle; but they may obtain the latter by entering into a union with man. (The fourth principle uniting with the fifth.) The human shape is their true form; their animal forms are assumed. They are also called Undines.
METAPHYSICS. - The science of that which is "supersensual" but not purely spiritual; consequently the knowledge of the astral plane, the ethereal elements in the organism of man and of Nature, the anatomy and physiology of the "inner man," the correlation of spiritual energies, &c. &c.
MACROCOSMOS. - The Universe; the great world, including all visible and invisible things.
MICROCOSMOS. - The little world. Usually applied to Man. A smaller world is a Microcosmos if compared with a larger one. Our Solar System is a Microcosm in comparison with the Universe, and a Macrocosm if compared with the Earth. Man is a Microcosm in comparison with the Earth, and a Macrocosm if compared with an atom of matter. An atom of matter is a Microcosm, because in it are all the potentialities out of which a Macrocosm may grow if the conditions are favourable. Everything contained in a Microcosm in a state of development is contained in the Microcosm in germ.
MONSTRA. - Unnatural - usually invisible beings, that may spring from corruption or from unnatural sexual connection, from the from the effects of a morbid (astral) putrefaction of sperma, or imagination. All such and similar things may pass from the merely subjective into the objective state; because "objective" and "subjective" are relative terms, and refer rather to our capacity to perceive them, than to any essential qualities of their own. What may be merely subjective to a person in one state of existence may be fully objective to one in another state: for instance, in delirium tremens and insanity, subjective hallucinations appear objective to the patient.
MUMIA. - The essence of life contained in some vehicle. (Prana, Vitality; clinging to some material substance.) Parts of the human, animal, or vegetable bodies, if separated from the organism, retain their vital power and their specific action for a while, as is proved by the transplantation of akin, by vaccination, poisoning by infection from corpses, dissection wounds, infection from ulcers, &c. (Bacteria are such vehicles of life.) Blood, excrements, &c., may contain vitality for a while after having been removed from the organism, and there may still exist some sympathy between such substances and the vitality of the organism; and by acting upon the former, the latter may be affected. [6]
[6. A case is cited in which a plastic operation was performed on a man's nose by transplanting on it a piece of skin taken from another person. The artificial nose answered its purpose for a long time, until the person from whom the piece of skin was taken died, when the nose is said to have rotted. Cases are also known in which persons have felt a pain caused by the pressure of a stone upon a recently amputated leg that, without their knowledge, had been buried, and the pain instantly ceased when the stone was removed. This sympathy existing between man's consciousness and his body is the cause that the astral form of a dead person may keenly feel any injury inflicted upon his corpse. The "spirit" of a suicide may feel the effects of a post-mortem examination as severely as if he had been cut up while alive.]
MYSTERIUM MAGNUM. - Original matter; the matter of all things; the ultimate essence; essentiality of the inner nature; specific quality of the semi-material part of things. All forms come originally from the Mysterium magnum, and all return to it in the end; the Parabrahman of the Vedantins.
MYSTICISM AND MYSTIC KNOWLEDGE. - Mystical is that which is mysterious and occult, and therefore not generally known. Mysticism generally refers to a morbid craving for gratifying a curiosity to know all about spooks, witchcraft, black magic, &c.; true mystic knowledge is soul-knowledge, and is based upon the development of the power of the soul to distinguish between that which is real, eternal and permanent, and that which is illusive, temporal, and subject to change.
N
NECROCOMICA. - Visions of future events in the air.
NECROMANTIA. - Sorcery; witchcraft; the art of employing the unconscious Elementaries of the dead by infusing life into them, and employing them for evil purposes.
NECTROMANTIA (NECTROMANCY). - The perception of the interior (the soul) of things; psychometry; clairvoyance.
NENUFARENL. - Elementals of the air. Sylphs.
NYMPHAE. - Elementals of water-plants.
O
OCCULTISM. - The science that deals with things that transcend sensual perception and are generally little known. It deals especially with effects that cannot be explained by the universally known laws of Nature, but whose causes are still a mystery to those who have not penetrated deep enough into the secrets of Nature to understand them correctly. What may be occult to one person may be fully comprehensible to another. The more the spirituality and intelligence of man grows, and the more it becomes free of the attractions of sense, the more will his perceptive power grow and expand, and the less will the processes of Nature appear occult to him.
P
PARAGRANUM (from para = over, and granum = kernel). - The science that deals with the very heart of things, taking into account their mysterious origin.
PARAMIRUM (from para = over, and mirare = admire). - The science which deals with that which is spiritual, wonderful, elevating, holy, and admirable in Nature.
PENATES or PENNATES, LARES, HERCII, ETESII, MEILICHII. - Spirits of the elements of fire, as well as imps, hobgoblins, &c., attached to particular places, haunted houses, &c. They may produce noises, "physical manifestations," stone-throwing, &c.
PENTACULA. - Plates of metal with magic symbols written or engraved upon them. They are used as charms, amulets, &c., against diseases caused by evil astral influences.
PHANTASMATA. - Creations of thought; "spirits" living in solitary places (they may be produced by the imagination of man, and be able to communicate with him); hallucinations.
PRAESAGIUM. - Omen; signs of future events.
PYGMAEI. - Spirits of the Element of the Earth; being the products of a process of organic activity going on in that element, by which such forms may be generated. They are dwarfs and quite microscopical beings, ever at war with the Gnomes.
R
RUPA. - An Eastern term. Form. Kama-rupa, form caused by desire; Mayavi-rupa, illusive form caused by the will and imagination of a person who consciously projects his own astral reflection as that of any other form.
S
SAGANI. - Elementals or spirits of Nature.
SAHMANDRI. - Salamanders; spirits living in the element of fire.
SALT, SULPHUR, AND MERCURY. - The three constituent states or principles of the cosmos, corresponding to Substance, Energy, and Consciousness. [These are explained in Chapter 7, Medicine.]
SCAIOLAE. - Spiritual powers, qualities, virtues, depending on the quality and quantity of the elements that produce them. Such powers are thought, love, hate, imagination, hope, fear, &c.
SIDEREAL BODY. - The same as the astral soul or the body formed by thought.
SOMNIA. - 1. Dreams. 2. The invisible astral influences that one person may exercise over another in his dream. A person may thus make another person dream what he desires him to perceive; or the astral body of one sleeping person may converse with that of another; or such astral bodies of living persons may be impressed or be made to promise to do certain things after awakening, and they will then keep such promises when they awake.
SPIRIT. - This term is used very indiscriminately, a fact that may cause great confusion. In its true meaning spirit is a unity, a one living universal power, the source of all life; but the word spirit and spirits is also used very often to signify invisible, but nevertheless substantial things forms, shapes, and essences, elementals and elementaries, shades, ghosts, apparitions, angels, and devils.
SPIRITISM. - The dealing with spooks, ghosts, elementals, &c., and believing them to be the immortal spirits of departed human beings.
SPIRITUALISM. - The science of that which is spiritual, the contrary of "materialism"; the understanding of religious truths, based upon spirituality.
SPIRITUS VITAE. The vital force; a principle taken from the elements of whatever serves as a nutriment, or which may be imparted by "magnetism."
SPIRITUS ANIMALIS. - Astral power, by which the will of the inner principles in man is executed on the sensual and material plane; instincts.
SYLPHES. - Elementals residing in mountainous regions (not in the air).
SYLVESTRES. - Elementals residing in forests; the Dusii of St. Augustine; fauns.
SYRENES. - Singing elementals. Melusinae, attracted to and often keeping in the waters; half women, half fishes.
T
THEOSOPHIA. - Supreme wisdom, acquired by practical experience, by which it is eminently distinguished from merely speculative philosophy. Theosophy, or divine self-knowledge, is therefore not to be confounded with theosophical doctrines that are the result of theosophical knowledge; to say nothing about the idle dreams and vagaries which are often dealt out under the name of "theosophy," and which have brought this term into general disrepute.
TRARAMES. - An invisible power that may communicate with man through sounds, voices, ringings of bells, noises, &c.
U
UMBRATILES. - Shadows; astral appearances becoming visible and sometimes tangible (modern spiritistic form manifestations); [7] the Scin-lecca, or wraith, or the German Doppelgaenger of a person. They may become visible by attracting ethereal material elements from the body of a medium, or any other person in whom there is little cohesion of his lower elements in consequence of some disease, or on account of inherited peculiarities of his organisation; or they may attract them from the surrounding atmosphere. Their life is borrowed from the medium, and if it were prevented to return to the medium, the latter would be paralysed or die. (See EVESTRUM.)
[7. Ruland says about them: "Umbratilia transmutata sunt in hominem conspectum ab astris et suis ascendibus occultis oblata, quae non sicus lemures apparent oculis, idque per magiam efficaciam." – Lexic. Alchemic., Alchemic., p. 466.]
V
VAMPIRES. - Astral forms living at the expense of persons from whom they draw vitality and strength. They may be either the astral bodies of living persons, or of such that have died, but which still cling to their physical bodies buried in the grave, attempting to supply them with nutriment drawn from the living, and thereby to prolong their own existence. Such cases are especially well known in the south-east of Europe - Moldavia, Servia, Russia, &c. (Vourdalak). [8]
[8. Well-authenticated cases of vampires may be found in Maximilian Perty's works and in H. P. Blavatsky's "Isis Unveiled."]
X
XENI NEPHIDEI. - Elemental spirits that give men occult powers over visible matter, and then feed on their brains, often causing thereby insanity. [9] A great number of physical mediums have become insane from this cause.
[9. They assist "physical mediums" to lift material objects without any visible means.]
Y
YLIASTER. Primordial matter out of which the universe has been formed in the beginning of time.