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DAATH

The Hebrew word for knowledge. It is an existing/non-existing 11th sephirah on the Tree of Life, the "Gateway to the Other World" (and to the shadow-side of the tree), thence leading to the 22 qliphotic tunnels and their demonic sentinels. By the same token, it is the same doorway through which death, non-existence and Hell come into life. Power brokers who seek knowledge of the left-handed path of darkness must be warned that ego feeds on ignorance.

DAEDALUS

Intricate. So-called after Daedalous, the artist who built the labyrinth of Crete.

DAGDAGIEL

The guardian of the 14th tunnel of Set, the equivalent of the Empress, but here degraded to a prostitute. Her magic is love philtres. Sicknesses are venereal diseases and nymphomania.

DAGON

National god of the Phillistines; half fish/half man. Sometimes confused with DOGON.

DAWN IN THE WEST

Translation of Aurora Favonio, part of a qabalistic seal. Prophetic of the atomic bomb vs. spiritual awakening.

DEATH

"Mental materiality". Life becomes more and more "mental" until death (even as death becomes more and more physical until birth).

DEATH

We should not dwell on the psychic envelopes that remain behind for those wraiths, ghosts, apparitions and so on who must make their way the best they can from the clues of their predecessors. Nor should we dally with the shells of the qlipoth attending the sephiroth. The normal soul for whom, from below, the gates appear as the gates of extinction and from above the gates of birth (or vice-versa) has no time for leisurely observation. Nor does the yogin, for whom death is merely a higher state of medi tation, require distraction. But we magicians should stop for a moment at the pylons themselves, at the door of the Abyss, the pause before lingam joins yoni, we should linger and observe the transitional threshold.

Death and sex are not merely metaphorically identical, but physically so. Since death (the second, total death, after the yesodic stage) results in instant rebirth, it is obvious that birth and death are the entrance and withdrawal motions of cosmic coit us on a slow-action timescale over successive reincarnations.

DEATH

The 13th Arcanum, lettered Nun, "The World of Truth". In esoteric philosophy, Death is considered a gateway between modes of being. The Abyss, which all magicians must cross unaided, is part of the path of Death, but not entirely. On the Tree, the gateway to the darkside is the existent/non-existent portal of Daäth, but the pathway of the Death Arcanum lies between Tiphareth (rebirth) and Netzach (the individual). Notice the message, however, which is that the severed heads and limbs ar e the "fruit" which has ripened and fallen from the Tree of Life.

The Egyptians in their preoccupation with death were not being morbid. It is difficult for contemporary man to see the importance of keeping a link to the past. The Egyptian custom of embalming the dead served an existential as well as a metaphysical purpose. It was an indication of their total commitment to the past and their veneration of it.

For Crowley, the Atu is the "Death" of The Son, or His sacrifice, which in our terms is His birth into this life.

DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS

(Mors Justi.) Death in union with orgasm - since the orgasm is the affirmation of the body and death is the rejection of the body, exact simultaneity is difficult. One will generally precede the other.

DEATH POSTURE

Austin Osman Spare's (auto-erotic) trance-state, in the Zos Kia Cultus, for receiving the divine mudra of Death,
in which, says Grant, "the world of appearance ceases and its noumenal source is revealed." Normally this can happen only at the point of physical death itself.

DEATH STAR

(Sitra Achara as opposed to the Star of David.) Another term for "Universe B". Dr. Philip S. Berg in The Power of Aleph Beth informs us that the force of darkness constantly seeks to destroy Creation. Evil, for the Qabalist, is a necessity without which the Universe would revert to its former condition "which allowed no relief from the burden of 'Bread of Shame.'"

DELPHI

A project amongst some hi-IQ groups or bodies of experts, involving many "consultants" and based on stochastical principles to obtain a consensual or "average" response to any given question.

DELUSIONAL SELF

The ultimate confusion of psychedelic psychosis results in extreme terror because one becomes lost in an abyss of meaningful connections. The conscious mind spends most of its time keeping the contents of the chaotic cosmos from overwhelming it. In order to do this it creates a delusional self, an anchor of "pretended" reality with roots in the past and continuity through the present times. When the delusional self is dissolved by the mystical experience, or by physical shock (such as imminent death), the mind explodes into an uncontrollable paroxysm (or orgasm) of omniscience.

DEOSIL

Clockwise, to the right, in the direction of the sun. This is the direction of God, so deosil operations are positive and powerful. (See WIDDERSHINS.)

DEVACHAN

The Land where the Gods are reborn. Life's threshold, located between the manvataras and between earth-lives. The higher realm above the astral (Skt. and Tibetan deva, "light" + chan, "dwelling place"). Madame Blavatsky, in writing of the realm of Devachan and the "wheatfields of Aanroo", is careful to point out that Manas splits here, after death, between the higher and lower minds. Only the higher mind remains. The lower, self-directed mind goes with the kama-rupa to the "Abode of Shells", or the place of the Hebrew Qlipoth. Our "I" or "atman" (with small a) rejoins that spiritual part of itself that is not incarnated, and as "Atman (large A), it proceeds on through the aionic planets. According to HPB, in Devachan we relive the totality of our past lives and re-experience our "enduring selfhood". We relive the trans-personal "I" which our labors, filtered through numberless incarnations, have made of the monadic essence which we originally introduced into form. The visualized solar system is the materialistic waste of an as-above-so-below operation. Hence all archetypes and ideas ultimately surface to the material world. Here we blueprint all the evolutions and involutions ("Not the One in many, but the oneness of the Many"). Rulers of these archetype-beings along with their human evolution make up the Dhyan-Choans, gods or "contemplative lords".

There are rare beings who sacrifice their rest, Devachan or Nirvana to remain earthbound in continual rebirth out of compassion for mankind. Animals, though their astral bodies possess some temporary survival potential, have no ego-manas, hence no Devachan. The animal monad can reincarnate only as a higher species. By the same token, HPB states (Secret Doctrine), "Eastern philosophy rejects the Western theological dogma of a newly-created soul for every baby born, as being as unphilosophical as it is impossible in the economy of nature. There must be a limited number of monads growing..."

Prior to Zoroaster and the Forth, or present, race, there was no Devachan, but only rebirth, phoenix-like out of the ashes of the previous body. Xtianity teaches the doctrine of the Old Third Race in which there is no higher Manas and the human monad does not reincarnate until the Second Coming.

In orthodox Xtianity there is no rebirth - only literal resurrection on the Day of Judgment with Christ's return (this opening of graves does not accompany the return of Zoroaster, Kalki or the Maitreya Buddha). Also, unlike the Theosophical version of the hereafter, there is no comparable split of spirit from soul in orthodox Xtianity. Reincarnation is a Gnostic or Neoplatonic heresy (Plato called this the "Realm of Ideas").

DEVIL, THE

The 15th Arcanum, lettered Ayin. Connects Hod (Knowledge) and Tiphareth (Beauty). It is clearly the pathway of error. The Devil is always illusion, delusion and disillusion. the material world is illusion. Only spirit is real and eternal. As we operate best from a position of confidence, the Devil is the opposite position of doubt. Thus, for the true initiate, the temptations of the Devil are not difficult to resist. In divination, the Devil is the actual source of the problem, which may or may not be hidden from the conscious mind.

15 = 1+5 = 6, hence the Devil is another aspect of Enigma VI, "The Lovers". Thus, if the Lovers represents a choice, the Devil represents the negative result of that choice. As the epitome of "Earth" he bears the sign of Capricorn and holds sway over all the four elements. Esoterically, according to Crowley, the Devil represents mere physical (or "gross") procreation, strictly on the physical level.

DHYAN-CHOANS

Gods or "contemplative lords".

DIFFERENCE

All things are one and separation is an illusion, but we are "separated" from reality for the purpose of maximizing experience. The nature of the universe is mind. the purpose of mind is to know itself, and knowing can be done only through particularization.

We must, therefore, respect the differences between one another and honor the wisdom of the individual. Sameness is not an imitation of divinity; it is dross. That which in society is undifferentiated is ugly, evil and dangerous.

The only number of value is One, the number of divinity. No common thread connects things unless it is their complementarity or synergy. Things partake of divinity in proportion to their uniqueness. All power comes from the One, the number of the Magician. All great things, all beautiful or important things reach perfection once and once only. Thus there is no separate "Creator God" apart from his "Creation". That would mean diversity is a lie. Still, diversity is the nature of the One and there is only One. Separation is the illusion, not differentiation. The One mirrors itself, differentiating according to our attention. In Crowley's words, "Every man and every woman is a star."

DIOTIMA

An Arcadian initiate or priestess of Mantinaea, legendary or not, who taught Socrates the "Ladder of Love", which runs the gamut from physical Eros to the love of the philosophical and universal. Socrates invoked it as converting him from sodomy and from there went into a tribute to Philosophy.

DISCORDIAN SOCIETY

A right-wing secret organization said to control the world, descended from the Bavarian Illuminati. Now loosely associated with the new Golden Dawn's Neo-Thelemites, who (as far as we know) are not political and do not derive in an unbroken line from the original.

DIVINATION

Works on the principle that meaningful coincidence, or synchronicity, is not the exception, but the rule of reality. All things and events reflect all other things and events in past, present and future. The trick is merely learning how to read the meaning in the connection. Thus astrology is the correlation of simultaneously parallel events in heaven and earth, the patterns in tea leaves indicate comparable patterns in life, and so on. (See TAROT , GEOMANCY, SCRYING.)

DJWHAL KHUL

Entity of whom Alice Bailey was an amanuensis.

DJED

The spinal column of Osiris. It is important because originally there were arms still attached, still grasping the flail and crook, thus indicating that Osiris continued to rule, even after death and dismemberment.

DOLMEN

Huge prehistoric unworked stone resting atop two other upright stones. Used as a gateway or entrance to the underworld. To be distinguished from Cromlech (which is a kind of womb). The Druids apparently preferred monoliths, although Stonehenge, an ancient Druidic temple, contained both. The reason for that is that the Druids themselves customarily practiced on the sites of pervious, prehistoric stone circles of unknown origin. Dolmen sites were connected to one another by paths aligned in patterns called "ley lines" to form lattices of occult energy.

DORJE

Tibetan thunderbolt wand. (See VAJRA.)

DRAGON SYMBOLISM

The dragon swallows up all souls that don't have Gnosis, to return them forthwith, via its tail, to begin a new struggle toward the Gnosis, which will save them from recurrence. In China the dragon is the Everything, the ruler of the East and of sunrise. It stands opposite to the Tiger, which is the West and death.

DRUID

Celtic priest initiate. Based on oral tradition (dendrological analogs?). the philosophy of the Celts was that neither matter, energy nor the reincarnating soul can be destroyed. They proposed three circles of being: the inner (Abred) or central source, the outer circle (Keugant) of the divine realm and the middle circle (Gwenved) containing the bliss of ordinary life. Druids still meet annually, it's said (as of 1980), at Chartres.

DRUID SPECHTOLD

New age magus and local electronic media celebrity of Newsbase BBS, San Francisco during the mid-80's.

DRUIDIC MONTHS

The names of the months in "Newtime", based on ancient Druidic designations:

DUGPAS

The "Red Cap" lamas of Tibet, who are the greatest sorcerers (and hedonists).

DWELLERS OF THE ABYSS

Between the Tree of Life and Death, qlipoth and demons inhabit the paths.

DZYAN

A corruption of Sanskrit Dhyana, "meditation" > Chinese Ch'an, Japanese Zen. The word, however, has entirely different meanings in each language. The Book of Dzyan or Stanzas of Dzyan is one of the 90 treatises of the Buddhist and Pre-Buddhist "Book of the Golden Precepts" written in Senzar, the ancient, sacred precursor to Sanskrit, which HPB partially translated in Tibet. The Book of Klu-Te is apparently another esoteric Tibetan work. These incredibly ancient books comprise most of HPB's sources for her Secret Doctrine.

Major Keyhoe states that in The Book of Dzyan there is an account of beings who arrive on earth from the sky in metal ships, build rival cities, then destroy one another with nuclear missiles.

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