Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01462)

ISIS008.TXT (Isis Unveiled, 1st Edition) - BEFORE THE VEIL
   (continued)

INITIATES. -In times of antiquity, those who bad been initiated
   into the arcane knowledge taught by the hierophants of the
   Mysteries; and in our modern days those who have been initiated
   by the adepts of mystic lore into the mysterious knowledge,
   which, notwithstanding the lapse of ages, has yet a few real
   votaries on earth.

KABALIST, from [a Hebrew word "KBLH"]; an unwritten or oral
   tradition. The kabalist is a student of "secret science," one
   who interprets the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the
   help of the symbolical Kabala, and explains the real one by
   these means. The Tanaim were the first kabalists among the Jews;
   they appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third
   century before the Christian era. The Books of Ezekiel, Daniel,
   Henoch, and the Revelation of St. John, are purely kabalistical.
   This secret doctrine is identical with that of the Chaldeans,
   and includes at the same time much of the Persian wisdom, or
   "magic."

LAMAS. - Buddhist monks belonging to the Lamaic religion of Thibet,
   as, for instance, friars are the monks belonging to the Popish
   or Roman Catholic religion. Every lama is subject to the grand
   Taley-Lama, the Buddhist pope of Thibet, who holds his residence
   at Lha-ssa, and is a reincarnation of Buddha.

MAGE, or Magian; from Mag or Maha. The word is the root of the word
   magician. The Maha-atma (the great Soul or Spirit) in India had
   its priests in the pre-Vedic times. The Magians were priests of
   the fire-god; we find them among the Assyrians and Babylonians,
   as well as among the Persian fire-worshippers. The three magi,
   also denominated kings, that are said to have made gifts of
   gold, incense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus, were
   fire-worshippers like the rest, and astrologers; for they saw
   his star. The high priest of the Parsis, at Surat, is called
   Mobed, others derived the word from Megh; Meh-ab signifying
   something grand and noble. Zoroaster's disciples were called
   Meghestom, according to Kleuker.

MAGICIAN. - This term, once a title of renown and distinction, has
   come to be wholly perverted from its true meaning. Once the
   synonym of all that was honorable and reverent, of a possessor
   of learning and wisdom, it has become degraded into an epithet
   to designate one who is a pretender and a juggler - a charlatan,
   in short, or one who has "sold his soul to the Evil One" - who
   misuses his knowledge, and employs it for low and dangerous
   uses, according to the teachings of the clergy, and a mass of
   superstitious fools who believe the magician a sorcerer and an
   enchanter. But Christians forget, apparently, that Moses was
   also a magician, and Daniel, "Master of the magicians,
   astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers" (Daniel, v. II). The
   word magician then, scientifically speaking, is derived from
   Magh, Mah, Hindu or Sanscrit Maha - great; a man well versed in
   the secret or esoteric knowledge; properly a sacerdote.

MANTICISM, or mantic frenzy. During this state was developed the
   gift of prophecy. The two words are nearly synonymous. One was
   as honored as the other. Pythagoras and Plato held it in high
   esteem, and Socrates advised his disciples to study Manticism.
   The Church Fathers, who condemned so severely the mantic frenzy
   in Pagan priests and Pythiae, were not above applying it to
   their own uses. The Montanists, who took their name from
   Montanus, a bishop of Phrygia, who was considered divinely
   inspired, rivalled with the [Gk. manteis] (man teis) or
   prophets. "Tertullian, Augustine, and the martyrs of Carthage,
   were of the number," says the author of Prophecy, Ancient and
   Modern. "The Montanists seem to have resembled the Bacchantes in
   the wild enthusiasm that characterized their orgies," he adds.
   There is a diversity of opinion as to the origin of the word
   Manticism. There was the famous Mantis the Seer, in the days of
   Melampus and Proetus, King of Argos; and there was Manto, the
   daughter of the prophet of Thebes, herself a prophetess.  Cicero
   describes prophecy and mantic frenzy by saying that "in the
   inner recesses of the mind is divine prophecy bidden and
   confined, a divine Impulse, which when it burns more vividly is
   called furor" (frenzy, madness) .

But there is still another etymology possible for the word mantis,
   and to which we doubt if the attention of the philologists was
   ever drawn. The mantic frenzy may, perchance, have a still
   earlier origin. The two sacrificial cups of the Soma-mystery
   used during the religious rites, and generally known as grahas,
   are respectively called Sukra and Manti. [See "Aytareya
   Brahmanan," 3, 1.]

It is in the latter manti or manthi cup that Brahma is said to be
   "stirred up." While the initiate drinks (albeit sparingly) of
   this sacred soma-juice, the Brahma, or rather his "spirit,"
   personified by the god Soma, enters into the man and takes
   possession of him. Hence, ecstatic vision, clairvoyance, and the
   gift of prophecy. Both kinds of divination - the natural and the
   artificial - are aroused by the Soma. The Sukra-cup awakens
   that which is given to every man by nature. It unites both
   spirit and soul, and these, from their own nature and essence,
   which are divine, have a foreknowledge of future things, as
   dreams, unexpected visions, and presentiments, well prove. The
   contents of the other cup, the manti, which "stirs the Brahma,"
   put thereby the soul in communication not only with the minor
   gods - the well-informed but not omniscient spirits - but
   actually with the highest divine essence itself. The soul
   receives a direct illumination from the presence of its "god".
   but as it is not allowed to remember certain things, well known
   only in heaven, the initiated person is generally seized with a
   kind of sacred frenzy, and upon recovering from it, only
   remembers that which is allowed to him. As to the other kind of
   seers and diviners - those who make a profession of and a living
   by it - they are usually held to be possessed by a gandharva, a
   deity which is nowhere so little honored as in India.

MANTRA. - A Sanskrit word conveying the same idea as the "Ineffable
   Name." Some mantras, when pronounced according to magical
   formula taught in the Atharva-Veda, produce an instantaneous and
   wonderful effect. In its general sense, though, a mantra is
   either simply a prayer to the gods and powers of heaven, as
   taught by the Brahmanical books, and especially Manu, or else a
   magical charm. In its esoteric sense, the "word" of the mantra,
   or mystic speech, is called by the Brahmans Vach. It resides in
   the mantra, which literally means those parts of the sacred
   books which are considered as the Sruti, or direct divine
   revelation.

MARABUT. - A Mahometan pilgrim who has been to Mekka; a saint,
   after whose death his body is placed in an open sepulchre built
   on the surface, like other buildings, but in the middle of the
   streets and public places of populated cities. Placed inside the
   small and only room of the tomb (and several such public
   sarcophagi of brick and mortar may be seen to this day in the
   streets and squares of Cairo), the devotion of the wayfarers
   keeps a lamp ever burning at his head. The tombs of some of
   these marabuts have a great fame for the miracles they are
   alleged to perform.

Scanned and uploaded by Alan Bain
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