SOME HEAVENLY TERMS

All articles in this chapter are taken from -

The Software Toolworks Illustrated Encyclopedia (TM)

(c) 1990 Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.

Alchemy:

Alchemy is an ancient pseudoscience concerned with the transmutation of base metals, the more reactive metals, into gold and with the discovery of both a single cure for all diseases and a way to prolong life indefinitely. Alchemy emerged as a pseudoscience in China and in Egypt during the early centuries of this era. In China it was associated with Taoist philosophy and purported to transmute base metals into gold by use of a "medicine." The gold so produced was thought to have the ability to cure diseases and to prolong life. The mystical element was always strong in alchemy and became dominant with time so that alchemy in China degenerated into a complex of superstitions.

(John Turkevich)

Ambrosia:

In Greek mythology, ambrosia was the food of the gods. Fragrant and pleasant tasting, it preserved their immortality and conferred the qualities of divinity--beauty and strength--upon mortals who ate it. The drink of the gods was called nectar; but sometimes it was also called ambrosia.

Ancestor worship

Ancestor worship refers to the rites conducted in honor of deceased relatives by their descendants. It is related to Animism and is based on the idea that the dead continue to influence the world of the living.

Ancestor worship has been the most popular ritual in China and is also widespread in Korea, Japan, India, and sub-Saharan Africa. In China it began as a practice of a fertility cult, which used the phallus as an ancestral symbol. In the Shang dynasty (1558-1027 BC) and the Chou dynasty (1027-256 BC), only royal ancestors were worshiped. But beginning with the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the preceding four generations of ancestors of all classes were honored. Chinese villages and towns had ancestral halls where ancestors of the same paternal lineages were worshiped.

(David C. Yu)

Angel:

An angel (Greek: angelos, "messenger") is a celestial being believed to function as a messenger or agent of God in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. In the Near Eastern antecedents to Judaism, angels were often understood to be gods or lesser divinities. Their existence was taken for granted by the biblical authors. The use of the word angel may have been a way of describing what was believed to be an appearance of God himself in human form.

In the Old Testament, angels are called "messengers," "men," "powers," "princes," "sons of God," and the "heavenly host." They either have no body or one that is only apparent. They come as God's messengers to aid or punish, are assigned to individual persons or nations, and often have a name (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel). New Testament statements about angels reflect Jewish views of these beings. Angels, for example, announced Christ's birth (Luke 2) and resurrection (Matt. 28).

Ancient and medieval peoples widely accepted the influence of good spirits, or angels, and evil spirits, or fallen angels. During the Middle Ages, theologians developed a hierarchy of angels. They were classified in the following nine ranks (beginning with the lowest): angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. Angels are a popular subject in folklore, literature, and art.

(Anthony J. Saldarini)

Anubis:

In Egyptian mythology, Anubis was the jackal-headed god who took the souls of the dead to be weighed before the judge of the infernal regions.

Book of the Dead:

The Book of the Dead is a compilation of more than 100 texts translated and collated from Egyptian papyruses of the 18th and 19th dynasties. The hand painted originals are considered works of art. The texts, religious and poetic in spirit, are largely songs, hymns to the gods, and prayers to Amon-Re and Osiris. Committed to memory, these texts were supposed to aid the dead, giving the soul directions for the journey through the underworld, and words or magic spells to protect it from its enemies. The book is thus a primary source for the major religious beliefs of ancient Egypt: immortality of the soul, resurrection of the body, descent into the underworld, spiritual rebirth for believers, and final judgment before Osiris. The Papyrus of Nebseni (British Museum) lists the commandments, or the negative confession, that each soul recited before the seat of judgment.

(Norma L. Goodrich)

Siger de Brabant:

A professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, Siger de Brabant, b. Brabant (in modern Belgium), c.1235, d. c.1284, was the foremost Latin Averroist of his time. This school of Aristotelian philosophers regarded the Islamic philosopher Averroes as the greatest commentator on Aristotle. Siger maintained that philosophy demonstrates the impossibility of personal immortality, but that we know from faith that personal immortality is nevertheless possible. Critics such as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure accused him of holding a doctrine of "double truth." He was summoned (1276) by the French Inquisition, but he fled to Italy, where he was murdered, probably by his insane secretary. Dante, in the Divine Comedy, places Siger in heaven and has Aquinas praise him.

Cuna:

Cuna, a Chibchan-speaking Indian people who number over 20,000, inhabit the San Blas Islands off the eastern coast of Panama. They moved there in the mid-19th century, possibly because of the encroachment of the Choco and Catio, but small Cuna groups still live on the mainland.

Cuna have an anthropomorphic concept of divinity and are concerned about the passage of the soul to the afterworld. Shamans guide these souls through eight layers of an underworld and eight layers of heaven, reminiscent of Dante's conception in the Divine Comedy and possibly derived from Roman Catholicism.

(Louis C. Faron)

The Divine Comedy:

La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), an enduring literary masterpiece, is an epic poem written in Italian by Dante Alighieri. Probably begun in 1307 and finished just before the author's death in 1321, it was originally entitled simply Commedia. The long narrative, divided into 100 cantos (more than 14,000 lines), is in three main sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Its vivid scenes and sharply drawn characters highlight Dante's imaginative journey through the circles of hell to the rim of purgatory, under the guidance of Vergil, into the paradise of heaven, led by his lady Beatrice, where he briefly glimpses God's glory. The surface narrative conceals an allegory of life on Earth and the pilgrim poet as a figure of Everyman. For his material Dante drew on a wealth of scriptural, patristic, classical, and medieval sources, as well as his own experiences. The poem is composed in terza rima (triple rhyme), employing rich imagery and flexible vernacular language. The work, which is of Homeric proportions, is infused with the emotional and intellectual ardor of medieval Catholicism. The greatest poem of the Middle Ages, it has a beauty and humanity that transcend its times.

(Thomas G. Bergin)

Eleusinian mysteries:

In Greek religion the Eleusinian mysteries were part of a secret cult conducted at the temple of Demeter in the city of Eleusis, near Athens. The rites were based on the idea of death and rebirth, and celebrated the immortality of Persephone, daughter of the corn-and-earth goddess Demeter; Persephone had been carried off by the god Hades (also called Pluto), who wanted her as his wife and co-ruler of the underworld. While Demeter searched in vain for her lost daughter, no crops grew in the fields. Zeus, however, decreed that Persephone would spend part of her time (the crop-growing seasons) on earth with her mother and the rest of her time (the winter season) in the underworld with Hades.

The mystery rites were always conducted by the priests of Demeter; the central part of the worship was apparently built around the viewing of corn and the life-storing-planting-new-life cycle of corn. All initiates kept the secrets of the religion guarded and believed strongly that they, too, would enjoy a life after death because of their initiation into the mysteries.

(Robert E. Wolverton)

Elysian Fields:

In Greek mythology the Elysian Fields, also known as Elysium or the Isles of the Blessed, were the dwelling place after death of virtuous mortals or those given immortality by divine favor. The poets Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar variously describe this happy land as being on the banks of the river Oceanus at the edge of the Earth. In Vergil, Elysium was part of Hades.

Eos:

In Greek mythology, Eos, goddess of the dawn, was mother of the west wind Zephyr and of the morning star Eosphorus. Among the handsome young men whom she carried off as her lovers were Orion and Tithonus. Eos asked Zeus to give Tithonus immortality but forgot to include eternal youthfulness with her request. When Tithonus grew old and feeble, Eos tired of him and changed him into a grasshopper. In Roman mythology, Eos was known as Aurora.

Eros (mythology):

In Greek mythology and philosophy, Eros played many roles. In the Theogony of Hesiod (c.750 BC), Eros impregnated Gaea (mother earth), and their offspring were Uranus (heaven), the sea, and mountains. The Birds of Aristophanes contains another theogony, in which Chaos and darkness first existed. Then night laid an egg in darkness, and Eros was hatched.

Finally, Eros fertilized Chaos, who gave birth to ocean, heaven, earth, and all the gods. Among some early Greek philosophers, Eros was love, the force responsible for all creation--if present--and for all destruction--if absent.

As a young, playful god, he was often referred to as a son of Aphrodite and was frequently depicted as causing love by shooting a gold-tipped arrow. Many of his antics are related in the Aeneid of Vergil and in the Metamorphoses of Ovid. In art, he is usually depicted with wings, carrying a bow and wearing a quiver of arrows. In Roman mythology he is known as Cupid or Amor.

(Robert E. Wolverton)

Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a long Akkadian poem on the theme of human beings' futile quest for immortality. A number of earlier Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh, the quasi-historical hero of the epic, were used as sources, but the Akkadian work was composed about 2000 BC. It exists in several different recensions, none of them complete.

In the story, Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu seek immortality through fame, but when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh finds fame hollow. Unable to accept the finality of death, he goes to Utnapishtim, the Babylonian counterpart of the biblical Noah, to learn the secret of his immortality. Utnapishtim explains that he received it due to the unique circumstances of the flood, but he consoles the dejected Gilgamesh with news about a plant of life. A snake swallows the plant before Gilgamesh can use it, however, and he finally returns home, reluctantly accepting death as inevitable. The Bible has a similar deluge story (see Deluge) and shares the epic's general cultural views. The similarities probably derive from a common source in the body of ancient legend.

(J. J. M. Roberts)

Ghost

A ghost is the disembodied spirit of a dead person that appears to the living. Belief in ghosts and similar apparitions is found in all societies. It is based on the belief that the SOUL is distinct from the body and continues to exist after death. In folklore, ghosts appear as living persons in various forms; they are sometimes described as pale or nebulous.

Similar to a ghost is the poltergeist, an invisible spirit that causes disturbances by knocking, rapping, moving furniture, or throwing things about. Playful spirits, poltergeists are linked to the presence of children. Some people hold that poltergeist activity has been established beyond a doubt and that the only problem is to account for it. Today the generally accepted theory is that all such activity represents the unconscious exteriorization of repressed emotions either of aggression or sex, especially when these cannot find an outlet.

(Benjamin Walker)

Gnosticism:

Gnosticism was a religious philosophical Dualism that professed salvation through secret knowledge, or gnosis. The movement reached a high point of development during the 2d century AD in the Roman and Alexandrian schools founded by Valentinus. Scholars have attributed the origins of gnosticism to a number of sources: the Greek mystery cults; Zoroastrianism; the Kabbalah of Judaism; and Egyptian religion. The early Christians considered Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-24) the founder of gnosticism.

His doctrine, like that of other gnostic teachers, had nothing in common with the knowledge of the mysteries of God that Saint Paul called wisdom (1 Cor. 2:7).

The gnostic sects set forth their teachings in complex systems of thought. Characteristic of their position was the doctrine that all material reality is evil. One of their central convictions was that salvation is achieved by freeing the spirit from its imprisonment in matter. Elaborate explanations were given on how this imprisonment came to be and how the deliverance of the soul was to be accomplished. The transcendent God was removed from all matter by a succession of intermediary eternal beings called aeons. The aeons emanated as couples (male and female); the complete series (usually 30) constituted the Pleroma, the fullness of the Godhead. Beyond the Pleroma were the material universe and human beings to be saved.

In gnostic thought, a divine seed was imprisoned in every person. The purpose of salvation was to deliver this divine seed from the matter in which it was lost. Gnostics classified people according to three categories: (1) gnostics, or those certain of salvation, because they were under the influence of the spirit (pneumatikoi); (2) those not fully gnostics, but capable of salvation through knowledge (psychikoi); and (3) those so dominated by matter that they were beyond salvation (hylikoi). Gnostics often practiced excessive asceticism, because they believed that they were thus liberated by the spirit.

(Agnes Cunningham)

Hades:

In Greek mythology, Hades, also known as Pluto, was the god of the underworld. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he ruled over the souls of the dead with the aid of his wife, Persephone. Later, Hades became better known as a place, the underworld itself--the world of the dead, separated from the world of the living by the rivers Styx, Acheron, Lethe, Cocytus, and Phlegethon. New arrivals were ferried across the Styx by Charon; unwelcome visitors were deterred from entering Hades by the multiheaded dog, Cerberus. The judges of the dead decided whether a soul would go to the Elysian Fields, for the virtuous; or to Tartarus, a place of punishment; or to the Asphodel Meadows, for those neither virtuous nor evil. In the Greek Old Testament, Hades, a translation of the Hebrew Sheol, refers to the place of departed souls.

Heaven:

Heaven, a concept found in various forms in most world religions, refers to the dwelling place of God, gods, and other celestial beings and the place or state of being of the elect or righteous after death. In the Old Testament heaven is the abode of the Hebrew God Yahweh to which only exceptional human beings, such as Elijah, are raised after life on Earth.

In the New Testament heaven is the place where all believers in Jesus Christ will reign with him in glory after the Last Judgement The traditional Christian belief is that, after the general Resurrection of the dead, bodies and souls will be reunited in heaven. In Islam, paradise (al-janna, "the garden") is a place of physical as well as spiritual delights for the saved. Some conceptions of heaven in Eastern religions, such as the Orthodox Buddhist Nirvana, differ vastly from Judeo-Christian and Islamic views; many, however, bear strong resemblance. Although the popular theological interpretation of heaven is a condition of Grace with God, the allegorical depictions of heaven in the Bible, in other sacred scriptures, and in mythologies throughout the world are typically elaborate.

Immortality:

Immortality is the attribute of survival after physical death. The idea, in various modes, is almost universal and appears to have been held by human beings from the earliest times. It is found both in primitive religion and in the higher religions.

Philosophers from Plato on have reflected on death and survival and, in some cases, have taught that, while the physical body disintegrates in death, the human mind is not material and is intrinsically indestructible.

Some religions (for example, Hinduism and Buddhism) regard ultimate immortality in impersonal terms as reabsorption into the infinite. An intermediate stage of survival is reincarnation and the Transmigration Of Souls.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam posit a future life, not in impersonal terms, but as the survival of individual Souls. The Christian doctrine of immortality incorporates a belief in bodily resurrection, although this is usually interpreted to mean the survival of personality rather than the literal reconstitution of the old body. Eternal life consists of union with Jesus Christ by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God, which begins here on Earth and is extended, at physical death, into the realm of Eternity.

(Charles W. Ranson)

Al-Kindi:

Known as al-Arab because of his southern Arabian origins, al-Kindi, d. c.873, served as a translator and editor of Greek philosophical works at the court of the Abbasid caliphs al-Mamun and Mutasim. He was well versed in ancient learning and devoted his life to its dissemination in all areas of Muslim culture.

According to al-Kindi, revealed and natural theology (philosophy) reached the same conclusions, but he maintained that philosophy was inferior to revelation. He believed in the immortality of the individual human soul, but could not give philosophical proofs for the resurrection of the body, which, he declared, was a matter of faith, not reason.

(Tamara M. Green)

Lethe:

In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the five rivers in Hades. Souls drank from it to forget their earthly sorrows before passing into the Elysian Fields. In Dante's Divine Comedy, Lethe is a fountain in purgatory whose water obliterates all memory of sin.

Mithraism:

Mithraism, the worship of the ancient Indo-Iranian god of light, Mithra, became early Christianity's most serious rival as the mystery cult rapidly spread from Syria and Anatolia throughout the western Mediterranean and into Gaul and Britain. Its cultic origins remain obscure. Although the Persian god Mithra, the chief ally of Ahura Mazda, the force of good in later Zoroastrianism, is identical with the Roman deity, Western worship of Mithra had few connections with Zoroastrianism apart from its emphasis on the eternal struggle between good and evil.

There were seven grades of initiation into the cult, completion of which conferred immortality. The most important ritual was the slaying of the bull, a reenactment of Mithra's killing of the cosmic bull of creation, which symbolized the conquest of evil and death. Astrology and sun worship also played a role in Mithraism.

Introduced into the West in the 1st century AD by Roman soldiers who had fought against the Parthians, the cult remained particularly popular among the military--the god embodied such soldierly values as victory, courage, and loyalty--and merchant classes. Women were excluded from the cult. One of the most powerful religious movements in the Roman Empire by the 4th century, Mithraism, along with other non-Christian sects, suffered persecution after the conversion of Constantine and gradually died out.

Significantly, Mithra's birth was commemorated on December 25.

(Tamara M. Green)

Mystery cults:

The term mysteries is generally used to refer to those cults of the ancient world whose members believed that by means of the performance of particular secret rituals they would gain knowledge not available to the uninitiated and thus effect a mystical union with the divine. In contrast to traditional religion, which emphasized the gulf between God and humankind, the mystery cults promised a share in the life of the gods, most importantly in their immortality.

Because these cults focused on the search for eternal life, the central figures were usually gods who had died and were then reborn. The initiates thus guaranteed immortality for themselves by reenacting the death and rebirth of the divinity. The most important mysteries in Greece were the rites surrounding the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, and her daughter Persephone. At Eleusis, a town outside Athens, the people established the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which they reenacted Demeter's search for, and reunion with, Persephone after the latter's return from the underworld. By performing this ritual, as well as several others about which little is known, the initiates believed that they secured for themselves both the abundance of Demeter and a blessed life after death. At first restricted to the citizens of Eleusis and Athens, the Eleusinian mysteries became known throughout the ancient world and survived to the end of paganism. Similar Greek cults revolved around Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, and Orpheus.

In the Roman period many people belonged to mysteries that had been derived from Egypt, Syria, and Persia, such as the cults of Isis, Serapis, and Mithra and various gnostic sects. The proliferation of cults in this period resulted in more detail and individuality in ritual, although the emphasis on the acquisition of personal salvation was retained. Some scholars believe that early Christianity, in the gentile context, exhibited aspects of a mystery cult.

(Tamara M. Green)

New Age

New age is a term popularized in the mid-1980s to describe a nebulous, quasi-religious set of beliefs that are an outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture and the 1970s "human potential movement." In the United States the name alludes to the expectation of adherents, found particularly on the West Coast, that a new "spiritual" age is dawning in which humans will realize higher, more spiritual selves. New age encompasses a wide array of notions - spiritualism, astrology, out-of-body experiences, reincarnation, and the occult disciplines, as well as unorthodox psychotherapeutic techniques and pseudoscientific applications of the "healing powers" of crystals and pyramids.

Nirvana:

Although common to Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, the notion of nirvana became a concept of central importance only in Buddhism, where it refers to the ultimate state attained by the Buddha and to the goal recognized by all Buddhists. Involving a release from samsara, or bondage to physical desire and pain, nirvana in Hinduism can only be achieved by a complete cessation of the cycle of death and rebirth. In Buddhism, by contrast, nirvana refers to the cooling, or blowing out, of the passions, especially the extinction of the selfish passions, a state of enlightenment that can be achieved either in this life, through spiritual or physical exercises, or after death.

Osiris:

Osiris, god of the dead and the underworld, was one of the most important deities in ancient Egypt. A fertility god in the Pre-Dynastic Period, he had by about 2400 BC become also a funerary god and the personification of dead pharaohs. With his sister-consort Isis and their son Horus, he formed the great triad of Abydos.

The only complete account of the Osiris myth occurs in Plutarch's Of Isis and Osiris, although Egyptian fragments support much of his version. The son of the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut, Osiris is credited with introducing the skills of agriculture to the Egyptians. He is murdered by his brother SET, but Isis recovers the 14 scattered parts of his dismembered body and restores him to life. Osiris, however, remains in the underworld as king, while his posthumous son Horus becomes the king of the living.

Osiris represented the resurrection into eternal life that Egyptians sought by arranging that after death their bodies would be embalmed and swathed like that of the beneficent god. Osiris is represented mummified in green stone statues, but in pictures the color of his flesh suggests that he was a black god. His body is customarily wrapped in white funeral cloths. In his hands he holds the crook and flail of kings and the scepter of the gods. The Ani Papyrus (c.1250 BC; British Museum) of the Book Of The Dead shows a green Osiris enthroned, sitting in judgment over the dead, who recite before him their 42 "negative confessions."

(Norma L. Goodrich)

Pietro Pomponazzi:

Pietro Pomponazzi, b. Sept. 16, 1462, d. May 18, 1525, was an Italian Renaissance philosopher and follower of Aristotle who taught successively at Padua, Ferrara, and Bologna. In his best-known work, On the Immortality of the Soul (1516), he argued that while divine revelation says the soul is immortal, philosophical considerations tend to support the soul's mortality. He also argued that the soul's immortality was not necessary to ensure ethical conduct because virtue is its own reward and vice its own punishment. Although the Aristotelian tradition of Pomponazzi declined in the late 16th century, the skeptical philosophers of the Enlightenment looked back to him as a precursor. Resurrection:

The concept of resurrection from the dead is found in several religions, although it is associated particularly with Christianity because of the central belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hope of a resurrection from the dead may have entered Judaism from Persian sources, although the idea has deeper roots in Old Testament Yahwism and the concept of God's covenant with Israel. The resurrection life was variously conceived, but the type of hope that passed into early Christian thought centered on the transformation of human life from the dead into a transcendental mode of existence. This was expressed poetically as "shining like the stars in heaven" (Dan. 12:3) or becoming "like the angels" (Mark 12:25).

After the Easter experiences, earliest Christianity expressed its faith in what had happened to Jesus as resurrection in the transcendental sense. This concept is sharply distinguished from resuscitation, or a return to this-worldly existence, as narrated in the raisings of Lazarus and others attributed to Jesus. Saint Paul conceived the resurrection of Jesus as the first instance of an apocalyptic-type resurrection ("Christ the first-fruits," 1 Cor. 15:20, 23); as a result of Christ's resurrection, all believers may hope for resurrection at the Second Coming Of Christ. Paul indicates that the resurrection body will be new and "spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:35-54); most theologians interpret this to mean that it is the personality that is resurrected.

Islam also believes in the resurrection of the dead, as did traditional Judaism.

(Reginald H. Fuller)

Smith, Joseph

Joseph Smith, b. Sharon, Vt., Dec. 23, 1805, d. 1844, was the founder, prophet, and first president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Palmyra, N.Y., and 4 years later Smith experienced a vision of God and Jesus Christ, who instructed him not to join existing churches.

A few years later a heavenly messenger directed Smith to some gold plates, which he translated and published (1830) as the Book of Mormon. In it he tells the religious history of an ancient people who lived on the North American continent and whom he describes as descendants of the ancient Hebrews.

In 1830, Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and immediately began to send out missionaries. Because of the conversion of a large number of people in Ohio, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and built a temple. He then founded another community in Jackson County, Mo. Conflict with the non-Mormon population in Missouri caused the Mormons to be driven from Jackson County to northern Missouri. In 1837 persecution forced Smith to flee Kirtland, and within a few months after his arrival in Missouri his people were driven out and he was put in jail.

After several months his jailers allowed Smith to escape, and he fled to Illinois, where the Mormons were gathering. Smith helped to found (1839) the city of Nauvoo on the Mississippi.

The Mormon prophet was a talented and imaginative man with the ability to expound theology and to attract followers. He preached the gathering of the religious into one area and the eternal progress of humankind. In Nauvoo, Smith reached the high point of his career. The people of Illinois welcomed the persecuted Mormons, and Smith began the construction of a temple and a hotel. The state of Illinois gave the new city a charter that allowed for a militia called the Nauvoo Legion, with Smith as the commanding general. Later he also served as the mayor of Nauvoo, and in 1844 he announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidency.

In 1843, Smith had secretly instituted the practice of plural marriage among a select group. Because of rumors of polygamy (he himself was alleged to have as many as 50 wives) and because of jealousy over the Mormons' prosperity in Nauvoo, persecution increased. When the city council ordered the press of The Nauvoo Expositor--a dissident newspaper--destroyed, Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested and taken to Carthage, the county seat. On June 27, 1844, both were shot and killed by a mob. After Smith's death most of the members of the church followed Brigham Young to the Great Salt Lake valley.

(Ronald G. Watt)

Soul

Soul is a term rarely used with precise definition in philosophy, religion, or common life. It is generally regarded as descriptive of an entity related to but distinguishable from the body--the spiritual part of human beings that animates their physical existence and survives death.

Primitive religions tend to associate the soul with the vital force in humans and often identify it with particular parts or functions of the body (the heart or kidneys, the breath or pulse). Other religions show traces of such animistic ideas. In Hinduism, the Atman (originally meaning "breath") is the individual factor that is indestructible and that after death is reborn in another existence. But Atman is identified with Brahman, the Source of all things to which the soul ultimately returns when it ceases to have a separate existence. (Buddhism, on the other hand, repudiates the notion of Atman, positing the theory of Anatta, nonself.) Early Jewish thought did not conceive the soul as existing apart from the body except in the shadowy realm of departed spirits (Sheol). Greek and especially Platonic thought divided humans into two parts: body and soul.

The soul, often referred to as the psyche, was considered both preexistent and immortal.

The early Christian church lived under the influence of Greek ideas about the body and soul, although biblical teachings about Resurrection were superimposed on them. Throughout the history of the Christian church, there has been no clearly defined and universally accepted metaphysical conception of the soul. Nevertheless, Christian theology and worship have adhered firmly to the conviction of personal survival after death rooted in belief in the love of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Philosophy has long been preoccupied with speculation about the existence and nature of the soul and its relationship to the body. In the 20th century many philosophers have argued, following William James, that the concept of the soul is neither verifiable nor necessary to an understanding of humankind's mode of existence in the world.

(Charles W. Ranson)

Spiritualism

Spiritualism, in philosophy, is sometimes used as a synonym for Idealism. A far more common usage, however, refers to a system of religious beliefs centered on the presumption that communication with the dead, or spirits, is possible.

Attempts to evoke the spirits of the dead are recorded in ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian sources, and spiritualistic practices have a long history in India, where they are regarded as bhuta worship, or worship of the dead. Spiritualism in its modern sense, though, traces its origins to the activities of Margaret Fox and, to a lesser extent, her two sisters. Beginning in 1848 at their parents' farmhouse near Hydesville, N.Y., the Fox sisters were able to produce spirit "rappings" in answer to questions put to them. After moving to Rochester, N.Y., and receiving a wider audience, their fame spread to both sides of the Atlantic. By the mid-1850s they had inspired a host of imitators. Margaret Fox admitted later in life that she had produced rapping noises through manipulation of her joints.

A person who "channeled" communications between the earthly and spirit worlds was first referred to as a medium, although now they are often called channelers. The repertoire of the early mediums included table levitations, extrasensory perception, speaking in a spirit's voice during trances, automatic writing, and the manifestation of apparitions and "ectoplasmic" matter. All such phenomena were attributed by the mediums to the agency of spirits. Early supporters of spiritualistic phenomena included American journalist Horace Greeley, British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and British scientists A. R. Wallace and Sir William Crookes. Support for spirtualism diminished, however, as many 19th-century mediums were proven to be fakes.

Spiritualism has had, since its inception, a large following. Many churches and societies have been founded that profess some variety of spiritualistic beliefs. It achieved particularly widespread popular appeal during the 1850s and '60s and immediately following World War I. Closely aligned with other New Age beliefs, belief in spritualism again became popular during the 1980s, particularly in the United States. One new facet of spirtualism is that modern-day channelers are as apt to attempt contact with extraterrestrials or spirits from ancient mythical societies as they are to try to communicate with the recently deceased.

Swedenborg, Emanuel

The Swedish scientist, theosophist, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, b. Jan. 29, 1688, d. Mar. 29, 1772, pioneered in both scientific and religious thought. University trained at Uppsala, Swedenborg turned first to a scientific and technical career as a natural scientist and official with the Swedish board of mines (1710-45), concentrating on research and theory. His foremost scientific writing is Opera philosophica et mineralia (Philosophical and Mineralogical Works, 3 vols., 1734), which illustrates his unique combination of metaphysics, cosmology, and science. A first-rate scientific theorist and inventor, Swedenborg, in some of his insights, anticipated scientific progress by more than a century.

His study of mathematics, mechanics, and physics was motivated by an interest in cosmology and finally theology, which led to his second, theosophical career as a "seer of divine wisdom." After 1734, Swedenborg turned to the study of physiology and psychology, in which fields he was also a brilliant pioneer. Here again, however, the all-uniting structures that he sought - resting on spirit and deity - eluded him. Visited by a mystic illumination in 1745, Swedenborg claimed a direct vision of a spiritual world underlying the natural sphere. His voluminous works from this period are presented as divinely revealed biblical interpretations.

In his system, best reflected in Divine Love and Wisdom (1763; Eng. trans., 1965), Swedenborg conceived of three spheres: divine mind, spiritual world, and natural world. Each corresponds to a degree of being in God and in humankind: love, wisdom, and use (end, cause, and effect). Through devotion to each degree, unification with it takes place and a person obtains his or her destiny, which is union with creator and creation. Unlike many mystics, Swedenborg proposed an approach to spiritual reality and God through, rather than in rejection of, material nature. His 12-volume compendium The Heavenly Arcana (1747-56; Eng. trans., 1951-56) represents a unique synthesis between modern science and religion.

In response to a vision of the "last judgment" and the "return of Christ," Swedenborg proclaimed the advent of the New Church, an idea that found social expression in the Swedenborgian societies and in the Church of the New Jerusalem.

(James D. Nelson)

Taoism:

The term Taoism refers both to the philosophy outlined in the Tao Te Ching (identified with Lao-Tzu) and to China's ancient Taoist religion. Next to Confucianism, it ranks as the second major belief system in traditional Chinese thought.

The formulation of Taoist philosophy is attributed to Lao-Tzu (fl. 6th or 4th century BC) and Chuang-Tzu (c.369-c.286 BC) as well as the Lieh-tzu (compiled during the Han dynasty, 202 BC-AD 220). Three doctrines are particularly important: Tao (way) is nonbeing (wu), the creative-destructive force that brings everything into being and dissolves everything into nonbeing; return (fu) is the destiny of everything - that is, everything, after completing its cycle, returns to nonbeing; and nonaction (wu wei), or action in harmony with nature, is the best way of life. Chuang-tzu taught that, from a purely objective viewpoint, all oppositions are merely the creations of conceptual thought and imply no judgments of intrinsic value (one pole is no more preferable than its opposite). Hence the wise person accepts life's inevitable changes. The Lieh-tzu said that the cultivation of Tao would enable a person to live for several hundred years. Taoism teaches the devotee to lead a long and tranquil life through the elimination of one's desires and aggressive impulses.

Often regarded as a corruption of Taoist philosophy, the Taoist religion began in the 3d century BC with such practices as Alchemy (the mixing of elixirs designed to ensure the immortality of the body). The alchemy was carried out by Taoist priest-magicians at the court of Shih Huang-ti of the Ch'in dynasty (221-207 BC). These magicians were also acclaimed as spirit mediums and experts in levitation. They were the heirs of the archaic folk religion of China, which had been rejected by the early Confucianists. Among the prominent features of Taoist religion are belief in physical immortality, alchemy, breath control and hygiene (internal alchemy), a pantheon of deities (including Lao-tzu as one of the three Supreme Ones), monasticism and the ritual of community renewal, and revealed scriptures. The Taoist liturgy and theology were influenced by Buddhism. Its scriptures, the Tao-tsang, consist of hundreds of separate works totaling more than 5,000 chapters.

Among the principal Taoist sects to emerge was the Heavenly Master sect, founded in West China in the 2d century AD. It advocated faith healing through the confession of sin and at one time recruited members as soldiers and engaged in war against the government. The Supreme Peace sect, also founded in the 2d century, adopted practices much like those of the Heavenly Master sect and launched a great rebellion that went on for several years before ending in AD 205. The Mao-shan (Mount Mao) sect, founded in the 4th century, introduced rituals involving both external and internal alchemies, mediumistic practice, and visionary communication with divinities.

The Ling-pao (Marvelous Treasure) sect, also founded in the 4th century, introduced the worship of divinities called T'ien-tsun (Heavenly Lords). The Ch'uan-chen (Completely Real) sect was founded in the 12th century as a Taoist monastic movement. Eventually the Heavenly Master sect absorbed most of the beliefs and practices of the other sects and, in the 20th century, became the most popular Taoist group.

(David C. Yu)

Theosophy:

The term theosophy is derived from the Greek theos ("god") and sophia ("wisdom") and means wisdom of or about God. In a general sense, theosophy refers to a broad spectrum of occult or mystical philosophies, often pantheistic in nature. The Western theosophical tradition may be said to be derived from the hermetic tradition of the Renaissance and post-Renaissance and is characterized by an emphasis on the hidden tradition passed down in a succession from the ancients. This tradition is thought to provide a universal key to nature and to humanity's role therein.

More specifically, the term refers to the Theosophical Society, its offshoots, and the doctrines held by its members. The most important early figure in the movement was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who, along with H. S. Olcott (1832-1907) and W. Q. Judge (1851-96), founded the society in 1875.

According to Blavatsky, the doctrines of theosophy rest on three fundamental propositions. The first postulates an omnipresent, boundless, and immutable principle that transcends human understanding. It is the one unchanging reality, or infinite potentiality, inherent in all life and covers all that humans have tried to say about God. The second deals with the universality of the law of periodicity recorded by science as found in all nature. As morning, noon, and night are succeeded by morning again, so birth, youth, adulthood, and death are succeeded by rebirth. Reincarnation is the process of human development, in which all growth is governed by the law of justice or KARMA. The third proposition declares the fundamental identity of all souls with the universal Over-Soul, suggesting that brotherhood is a fact in nature, and the obligatory pilgrimage for every soul through numerous cycles of incarnation. Theosophy admits of no privileges or special gifts in humans except those won by their own effort and merit. Perfected individuals and great teachers, such as Buddha, Jesus, and the mahatmas, are universal beings, the flower of evolution.

Transmigration of souls:

Transmigration of souls, sometimes called metempsychosis, is based on the idea that a soul may pass out of one body and reside in another (human or animal) or in an inanimate object. The idea appears in various forms in tribal cultures in many parts of the world (for example, Africa, Madagascar, Oceania, and South America). The notion was familiar in ancient Greece, notably in Orphism, and was adopted in a philosophical form by Plato and the Pythagoreans.

The belief gained some currency in gnostic and occult forms of Christianity and Judaism and was introduced into Renaissance thought by the recovery of the Hermetic books.

The most fully articulated doctrine of transmigration is found in Hinduism. It does not appear in the earliest Hindu scriptures (the Rig Veda) but was developed at a later period in the Upanishads (c.600 BC). Central to the conception of human destiny after death was the belief that human beings are born and die many times. Souls are regarded as emanations of the divine spirit. Each soul passes from one body to another in a continuous cycle of births and deaths, their condition in each existence being determined by their actions in previous births. Thus, transmigration is closely interwoven with the concept of KARMA (action), which involves the inevitable working out, for good or ill, of all action in a future existence. The whole experience of life, whether of happiness or sorrow, is a just reward for deeds (good or bad) done in earlier existences. The cycle of karma and transmigration may extend through innumerable lives; the ultimate goal is the reabsorption of the soul into the ocean of divinity from whence it came. This union occurs when the individual realizes the truth about the soul and the Absolute (Brahman) and the soul becomes one with Brahman. It is often mistakenly thought that Buddhism also involves transmigration. The classical Buddhist doctrine of anatta ("no soul"), however, specifically rejects the Hindu view. The Buddhist position on the workings of karma is exceedingly complex.

The idea of transmigration has been propagated in the Western world by movements such as Theosophy and by the more recent proliferation of Oriental religious cults. Most of these Westernized versions appear to lack the intellectual rigor and philosophical content of the classical Hindu doctrine.

(Charles W. Ranson)

Lao-tzu (Laozi):

Lao-tzu, or Master Lao, is the name of the putative author of the Taoist classic Tao-te Ching. According to Taoist legend, Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism, was named Li Erh and had the courtesy name Lao Tan. An older contemporary of Confucius (551-479 BC), he was keeper of the archives at the imperial court. In his 80th year he set out for the western border of China, toward what is now Tibet, saddened and disillusioned that men were unwilling to follow his path to natural goodness. At the border (Hank Pass), however, the guard Yin Hsi requested that Lao-tzu record his teachings before he left, whereupon he composed in 5,000 characters the famous Tao-te Ching (The Way and Its Power). The essential teaching of Lao-tzu is the Tao, or Way, to ultimate reality--the way of the universe exemplified in Nature. The harmony of opposites (T'ai Ch'ai) is achieved through a blend of the Yin (feminine force) and the Yang (masculine force); this harmony can be cultivated through creative quietude (wu wei), an effortless action whose power (te) maintains equanimity and balance.

Valhalla:

In Norse mythology, Valhalla was the most beautiful mansion in ASGARD, where the heroes slain in battle feasted each night with ODIN on the boar Schrimnir and mead from the goat Heldrun. The heroes rode out each morning and fought one another until they were cut to pieces; they recovered from their wounds each evening.

Voodoo:

Voodoo is a religious system with followers predominantly in Haiti, the West Indies. Developed by slaves brought to Haiti by the French between the 17th and 19th centuries, it combines features of African and native West Indian religion along with some of the Roman Catholic liturgy and sacraments. The voodoo deities, called loa, are closely related to African gods and may be spirits of natural phenomena--such as fire, water, or wind--or of the dead, including eminent ancestors. A feature of the cult is that at special ceremonies the loa have the power to make their presence known. They temporarily displace the astral body of a living person and occupy his or her physical body. The individual thus possessed is said to be mounted by the loa and behaves and acts as the loa directs, usually in a manner characteristic of the loa itself. Priests called houngans preside over these ceremonies.

Two main groups constitute the loa: the rada, often mild and helping, and the petro, dangerous and often deadly. Graveyards, coffins, shrouds, bones, and skulls figure prominently in the symbolism of the petro cult. The bocor, or priest, is especially dreaded for his supposed ability to create the zombie, a newly dead body that he reanimates by causing it to be possessed by an elemental spirit under his control.

(Benjamin Walker)

Zoroastrianism:

During the 7th and 6th centuries BC the ancient polytheistic religion of the Iranians was reformed and given new dimensions by the prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathusthra). Zoroaster's life dates have been traditionally given as c.628-551 BC, but many scholars argue for earlier dates. Linguistic evidence suggests that he was born in northeastern Iran, but the prophet's message was to spread throughout the Persian Empire.

Adopted as the faith of the Persian kings, Zoroastrianism became the official religion of the Achaemenid empire and flourished under its successors, the Parthian and Sassanian empires. Its theology and cosmology may have influenced the development of Greek, later Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thought. The Muslim conquest of the 7th century AD marked the beginning of a steady decline of Zoroastrianism. Persecution resulted in the migration (about the 10th century) of the majority of Zoroastrians to India, where the Parsis of Bombay are their modern descendants.

In Zoroaster's theology the Amesha Spentas, or Bountiful Immortals, were divine beings who acted essentially as agents of the power of Ahura Mazda; they were traditionally seven in number: Bounteous Spirit, Good Mind, Truth, Rightmindedness, Dominion, Health, and Life. The first of these, Spenta Mainyu, is of special importance in that he is paired with a "twin," Angra Mainyu, or Hostile Spirit. When given a choice between good and evil, or truth and the lie, Bounteous Spirit chose truth and Hostile Spirit the lie. Creation becomes a battleground, with the demoted ahuras invoked for the doing of good and the daevas enlisted by Angra Mainyu in the doing of evil. Nevertheless, Ahura Mazda has decreed that truth will triumph, and the old world will be destroyed by fire and a new creation instituted.

An important reform movement.....arose within Zoroastrianism--the movement around Zurvan. The Zurvanites posited a supreme god, Zurvan (Infinite Time), who had sacrificed for 1,000 years in order to gain offspring. At the end of that time he experienced momentary doubt, and from that doubt arose Ahriman; at the same time, Ormazd came into being because of the efficacy of the sacrifices. At the end of 3,000 years Ahriman crossed the void that separated them and attacked Ormazd. The two made a pact to limit the struggle, and Ahriman fell back into the abyss, where he lay for 3,000 years. During that period Ormazd created the material and spiritual world; in retaliation, Ahriman called into being six demons and an opposing material world. In the next 3,000-year period Ahriman attempted to corrupt the creation of Ormazd; he was successful but was trapped in the world of light. The final period of 3,000 years was ushered in by the birth of Zoroaster, who revealed this struggle to man; the prophet is to be followed by three saviors, appearing at intervals of 1,000 years. At the appearance of the last, a day of judgment will occur, the drink of immortality will be offered to those who have fought against Ahriman, and a new creation will be established.

(Tamara M. Green)