The Magician's Dictionary. Edward E. Rehmus

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СКАЧАТЬ incarnations.

      BUDDHISM — Since we waste our youth suffering from boundless ignorance and unfulfilled desire and since age is mostly a time of physical hardship and blunted hopes, it seems clear that life, for all its promises, is more often a burden than a joy. Since, however, to die is to be instantly reborn into life, death is apparently an even more absolute cheat. Considering also, that all things have arisen in the Mind, in the midst of the Void, and since we are ourselves our own creators and gods (in a multiplicity of aspects and a simultaneous gallimaufry of forms), there is no escaping from the inevitability of either the existing or the potential cosmos. Indeed, it is this very weariness which Reality seeks to assuage by confusing itself as to its own identity.

      The Buddha, sensing the horror and outrage of life on earth, wants to lead us to the perfection of the Absolute. He teaches that birth and death (the wheel of Samsara), together with the Karmic burden, can be dropped in enlightenment and we can enter into Nirvana directly. In an even deeper understanding we are shown that Samsara and Nirvana are already one — so there is not even any need for Enlightenment! (But of course you have to be enlightened before you can understand that you are already enlightened!)

      

       Footprints of Buddha

      To the average westerner this seems fairly tame stuff and much too intellectual for his taste. He doesn’t want contemplation, he wants action. But he should understand that Buddhism is a discipline of conscious mind and is meant to accompany action, not to take its place. It is serenity of the mind which enables creative work to be done and acceptance of life to take place. The other thing the westerner sometimes fails to recognize is that death and reincarnation are as much a part of his belief system as they are that of a Hindu philosopher. What, after all, is Heaven but the prospect of rebirth on a higher plane? What is Hell but the karma of past lives?

      BUFOTENIN — A hallucinogenic derived from the active ingredient in the fluid taken from toad warts.

      BUSINESS ZOK — As the century draws to a close, more and more corporations, having seen the value of original research, are carrying an intuitive approach beyond research into experimental investment. Growth is less important than perfectable stability. “Business Zok” (i.e., “zero overkill”) is a futuristic trend in which organizations of all types and sizes must look to their own community service as a source of profit and loss. This does not mean responding to human weakness, but rather educating public response to and participation in metaphysical and esthetic goals. “Trade Esthetics” is financially sound insofar as it is based on eternal values, rather than fashion and so long as it seeks to harmonize with its market rather than assault or exploit it. Business is moving actively, beyond mere elitism, to integrate with the conscious individual and his New Aeon (Neon) need to transform the dying world. Industry, management, retail merchandising, etc. increasingly must reflect holistic needs, not merely through streamlined standardization and product reliability, but through transcendental agendas as well.

      C

      CACABUS — Graeco-Roman equivalent of Hebrew Kochav, or “Star.”

      CADUCEUS — < Kerux, “herald” — a herald’s wand, kerukeion. Symbolic of the spinal column and of matter and spirit intertwining to produce the manifest world and create a channel for the sexless Sushumna power. Pingala and Ida, the serpents, are male and female. Ultimately the embodiment of Kundalini, the sexual, hence vital force or “healing power.” The doubled serpent is unconditional, absolute wisdom. A herald’s wand confers immunity in all regions — protection from attack (especially since the serpents are vipers).

      Apart from being the emblem of the wandering healer, the caduceus also stands for the Qabalah as a whole. The staff itself is the middle pillar and the serpents are the two flanking pillars, representing the slippery extremes. A recently unearthed hieroglyph depicts Thoth with a staff surmounted by two cobras bearing, respectively, the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt (the conscious and unconscious mind). In medicine, the black and white serpents signify disease and health.

      CANCER — The 4th sign of the Zodiac (June 22 - July 23). The Crab is the final resolution of material manifestation, symbolized by the depth of the sea or the lake between the mountains. It is the sign of the soul’s incarnation and the beginning of material life.

      All the other creatures of the Zodiac move in a forward direction, but the Crab is able to move backwards and sideways as well. This indicates that Cancer is the sign of the time-traveller. (The Chariot is a time machine.) Colin Wilson believes that the Crab symbolizes the fact that when we have our skeletons on the outside we are undeveloped followers of the will of others and must learn to grow our skeletons on the inside so that we can become leaders.

      For the Egyptians, Cancer, coinciding with the rising of Sirius, was the “Theme of the World,” the universal horoscope (what today we call the “mundane chart”) in which, according to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, the planets, etc. were in the positions they occupied at the very beginning, long before the Age of Aries.

      Famous Cancerians: Alexander the Great, John the Baptist, Count Von Zeppelin, Mary Baker Eddy, George Orwell, Helen Keller, P.T. Barnum, Jean Cocteau, Rousseau, Pirandello, Charles Laughton, Buckminster Fuller, Ingmar Bergman, Jerry Rubin, Colin Wilson, Hermann Hesse, Kafka, Tesla, Hawthorne, Proust, Thoreau, Rembrandt, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, George McGovern, Marshall McLuhan, Rube Goldberg.

      CAP OF MAINTENANCE — (Like that of St. Nicholas.) Worn before nobility as a show of respect — sometimes worn by nobility as well.

      CAPRICORN — The Tenth sign of the Zodiac (Dec. 22 - Jan.20). The Fish-Goat is the culmination of all the signs, symbolized by the mountaintop. At this point, the spirit is about to begin its ascent into spirit. It is the sign of kings and messiahs who sacrifice themselves for the common people.

      Famous Capricornians: Tycho Brahe, Carlos Castenada, Alan Watts, Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Gurdjieff, Mao Tse-Tung, Matisse, Nostradamus, Paracelsus, Pasteur, Woodrow Wilson, Stalin, Loyola, Joan Baez, Nixon, Albert Schweitzer, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin, Poe.

      CARPOCRATES — A 2nd Century Gnostic who advocated promiscuity and thereby earned the hatred of orthodox Xtianity, which in turn delighted in distorting his philosophy. What Carpocrates meant was that the flesh is of so little importance compared to the soul, that it can be used and abused for a higher purpose. Since the body was a prison, the idea was to experience the flesh and thereby transcend it, freeing oneself of all desire. Any human experience missed will simply cause reincarnation in another body. If we do not break all the divine laws we cannot be free to return to the Unbegotten. Carpocrates is credited with having said, “Nothing is evil by nature” and his ideas can be traced to Plato and Pythagoras. Another thing that made the Carpocratians unpopular with the orthodox Xtians was their idea of communal property, an early form of Communism.

      CASSANDRA — This daughter of Hecuba who had inherited her mother’s gift of prophecy, rejected Apollo, who, in revenge, caused her predictions to be disbelieved by everyone. Just as no one rejects Apollo who expects popular success, so no one who cruelly paints the truth always in the harshest colors, will be heeded.

      CASTANEDA, CARLOS — Author of many books on Mexican brujería, centering on the Yaquí sorceror, Don Juan Matus, a healthy championer of mescalito and peyote. СКАЧАТЬ