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Daiva:(Old Persian, "evil
god," "demon")
Persian divinities opposed to the high god. A collective term for
archaic Indo-European divinities, it was demonized by the Zoroastrian
tradition.
Dakini: (Sanskrit)
A female spiritual being in Buddhist
Tantrism. Two major types are mentioned, worldly dakini, representing
non-Buddhist values, and supermundane dakini, who protect and convey the
wisdom of enlightenment. Levels of supermundane dakinis include feminine
embodiments of Buddhahood itself; their retinue of active manifestations;
and their messengers, who may appear to people at any time. Dakinis are
both purely spiritual beings revealed in visions and human women. They are
frequently depicted as dancing in Tibetan iconography
Daksha :(Sanskrit)
A lord of created beings
Dalai Lama:Tibetan dalai, "ocean,"
; lama, "no
one is superior to"
Spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, considered an emanation of
Avalokiteshvara, an enlightened being who embodies the compassion of past,
present, and future Buddhas. Each Dalai Lama, regarded as a reincarnation
of the previous one, is identified through a combination of oracles,
dreams, and visions. The present and fourteenth Dalai Lama, born in
eastern Tibet in 1935, has lived in exile in India since 1959, nine years
after the Chinese takeover of Tibet. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in
1989 for peaceful efforts to preserve Tibetan culture in his homeland and
among refugee communities. He has worked to democratize the Tibetan
government in exile, and is considering new methods for choosing the next
Dalai Lama.
Dama: (Sanskrit)
Self-control. Control of the senses
Darshan: (Sanskrit-
"seeing"
Achieving enlightenment from the presence of one;s guru. When the two
become one.
Dashaa: (Sanskrit)
In Vedic Astrology, a planetary period or
system of directions. Also means the actual major planetary period
itself. There are many of these the most used being vi.nshottarii or 120
year cycle system. Others are ashhTottari (108), Chatursheetisama (84),
Dwadashottari (112), Dwisaptatisama (72), Panchottari (105), ShashhTisama
(60), Shatatri.nshatsama (36), Shodashottari (116), Yogini (30). These are
lunar based. Then there are Rashi (sign) based systems: chara, sthira,
kaala chakra and kendraadi dashas etc
Dashavatara: (Sanskirt)
The ten avataras of Vishnu
David, Moses (King David):
Pseudonym for David Berg, the late founder of The
Family (Children of God).
Dawn Bible Students:
One of the original splinter groups formed after Joseph Rutherford
assumed leadership of the Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society.
Dead Sea Scrolls:
A collection of manuscripts containing 520 identifiable Jewish texts
from the third century BC through the first century AD discovered in
1947at Qumran in (then) Transjordan. Of these, 157 are biblical texts
constituting the oldest recovered manuscripts, with crucial import for
textual criticism and transmission. The remainder are a variety of forms
of literature, including Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts of apocryphal
writings formerly known largely in Greek and a large collection of
previously unknown texts. The identification of the site and the
connection with the Essenes is controversial.
Death:
The word "death" has two
meanings to Christians. First, it is used to describe the cessation of
life. Second, death refers to an eternal separation from God as a result
of sin This, they teach, is unnatural. When God created Adam and Eve,
death was not part of the created order. It was not until they sinned that
death entered the scene They further teach that death will be destroyed
when Jesus returns and the believers receive their resurrected bodies.
Decalogue:
The Ten Commandments found in
Exodus 20. Deca means ten in Latin. Logue comes from "logos" which means
"word." They Ten Commandments originally consisted of ten words which
were interpreted.
Dee, John: (1527-1608)
English mathematician and
astrologer, most noted for his studies in necromancy and alchemy, which
drew the attention of royalty. He was born in London on July 13, 1527,
educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and made a foundation fellow of
Trinity College in 1546. After lecturing and studying at Louvain, Brussels
and Paris between 1547 and 1550, he returned to England in 1551 and was
granted a pension by Edward VI. Dee
met the future Queen Elizabeth while she was being held under house arrest
by Queen Mary. The two developed a friendship that lasted for the rest of
their lives.
Dee's house in Mortlake, near London, was for many years a major
center of science in England. Dee salvaged many ancient scientific tomes
that had been scattered when Roman Catholic churches and monasteries were
ransacked during the Reformation, and his own library of more than 4000
books may have been the largest of its kind in Europe at the time. His
preface to the English Euclid, translated by Henry Billingsley (1570),
pointed out the practical applications of
geometry and, together with several of his other words, fostered the
revival in England of the mathematical arts. Dee spent the years 1583-89
in Poland and Bohemia with the astrologer and alchemist Edward Kelly. It
was during this time that he
began his experiments in trying to contact discarnate entities in 1581,
mainly fuelled by strange dreams, feelings and mysterious noises within
his home. March 1582 Dee started to search for a work colleague. Edward
Kelly seemed to fit the bill perfectly, however he was a gifted con artist
and continued to fool Dee for many years to come. In November 1582 they
encountered an Angel, Uriel. The Angel gave instructions for a magical
talisman with which they could contact the spirit world more easily. Many
of their ritual objects including Dee's obsidian scrying
mirror are
now in the British Museum. Kelly
would continuously make new discoveries that amazed Dee, and he introduced
him to the fact that both good and evil spirits existed beyond the veil.
It was around this time that Dee started using the mysterious Enochian
script to communicate with the Angels. Called the language of angels it is
definitely a structured language, although its real origins are obscure.
As the claims of Kelly and his abilities grew, the pair's fame flourished,
even in continental Europe. With fame came a source of income, which Dee
used to fund his experiments into metal transmutation. Dee also claimed to
have found the 'Elixir Vitae' (The philosophers stone) hidden in the ruins
of Glastonbury Abbey. He died in poverty at Mortlake in December 1608.
Deer Park:
The site in
northern India, near the city of Benaras, where Buddha is said to have
preached his first sermon.
Deification:
The elevation of a human to the rank of a god. It is most commonly
achieved after death.
Deism:
A Christian theological position that asserts that God is the creator
of the universe, but does not thereafter exert providential or sovereign
control over it. Developed first in England in the late sixteenth century
and in France in the eighteenth century, it was an outgrowth of the
thinking that propounded natural religion, which was juxtaposed to
traditional Christian support of the notion of revealed religion (Compare
to Atheism, Agnosticism,
and Theism.)
Deja Vu:
The feeling of having already experienced
an event or place that is being encountered for the very first time .
Deluge:
The Great Flood. This story is found in many religions and myths
around the world.
Demon:
A Greek word for a guiding spirit, or
guardian angel. Later corrupted to mean an malevolent spirit. An evil
spirit. fallen angel
who assists Satan in the opposition
of God. Many primitive peoples believe that demons are evil and can
possess people.
Demonic Possession: (see
Possession)
Demythologization:
A method of interpretation practiced by Christian theologian Rudolf
Bultmann (1884-1976) to free the New Testament of first-century mythical
concepts and discern its essential message (Gk. kerygma).
As a theologian, Bultmann affirmed that Christianity is based on the
Christ of faith and not on the Jesus of history. As a German pastor, he
was concerned that the essential proclamation of that faith be preached in
ways that twentieth-century persons could appropriate. Thus,
demythologization entailed eliminating such prescientific concepts as a
three-story universe (sky, earth, and underworld) and miraculous healings
and replacing them with contemporary concepts.
Deprogramming:
A coercive attempt to dissuade an individual of religious or
ideological convictions believed to be harmful, through a concentrated
(usually two to three days) counseling procedure designed to produce a
sudden "snapping out." Deprogramming was developed in the 1970s by Ted
Patrick and others as a way to rescue family members who were perceived to
have undergone negative personality change after joining destructive
religious groups.. Often presented as an antidote for brainwashing or mind
control, some deprogrammers rationalized the unethical use of force
and coercion to rescue victims by illegally holding them against their
will (abduction or "snatching") in a process known as "involuntary"
deprogramming.
Determinism: (See
Fate)
Deva: (Sanskrit)
God, a god, a demi-god (see Daiva)
Devadasi:(Sanskirt
"female servant of God")
In India, a dwindling institution of
women dedicated to temple service who danced and sang in the daily ritual,
remained unmarried but sexually active, and embodied auspiciousness. A
nun, a female servant of God, especially, a temple prostitute)
Devi: (Sanskrit
A goddess.
Devil:
(Greek
"diabolos," which means accuser. According to Christian theology: the
greatest of all the fallen angels who opposes God and is completely
evil. They say his name is Lucifer . Various Christian theologies proclaim
that he is: the accuser of the brethren, the dragon, the tempter, the
prince of demons, the ruler of this world. Upon Jesus' return, the Devil
will be vanquished to the eternal lake of fire- depending on the
eschatological position. See Satan.
Fallen Angel
Devil's
Advocate:
A once popular name for the person who
argued against, or investigated arguments against, a person's being
considered for canonization as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. This
office is also called the "Promoter of the Faith."
Dhammapada: (Pali,
"Dhamma Verses" or "footsteps of Dhamma")
Buddhist scripture containing 423 stanzas
on a variety of topics; some are doctrinal, but many are gnomic or moral
verses. It is often considered, especially in the West and in Theravada
countries, one of the most representative Buddhist texts, although it
contains many stanzas found elsewhere in non-Buddhist Indian literature
and barely touches on some of the central doctrines and beliefs of
Buddhism. Its popularity in antiquity, however, seems attested by the
number of recensions that have survived in different Buddhist languages,
including Pali, "Hybrid" Sanskrit, Gandhari, Prakrit, and classical
Sanskrit.
Dhanayoga:
In Vedic astrology, the 2nd, 5th, 9th and
11th are wealth producing houses. Any inter-relation of their rulers, by
way of position aspect or conjunction, will produce money. The more
strongly they are inter-related, the more wealth is promised in the birth
chart, which the native will get eventually in the related major or
sub-periods
Dharma:(Sansksrit)
1) religion, religious
doctrines, a code of life, way of good living, duty. 2)The
continuous refinement of consciousness. Each manifested state is the
potential state of the next evolutionary substance unfolding into more
permanent reality, until the consciousness is purified. By virtuous
practice of Dharma one may reach a condition which is referred to as the
dharma body. This body is not a material body in the normal sense of a
body, but is made of indestructible consciousness. It is not only that
form of consciousness which created all the primordial matter in the
Universe but creates consciousness itself, i.e. I AM or Self consciousness
Dharma, Santarna, (Sanskrit
- the eternal religion or eternal truth)
Hinduism, it was founded in India, where it is still
practiced by 80% of the people. It is more than a religion in the Western
sense. It is also a way of life. Man is limited, but the Supreme Being
isn't. Because of our inability to comprehend the infinite, we may look
upon Hinduism as polytheistic, but, actually, "Hinduism worships multiple
forms of the one God."
Diamond Sutra:
A Mahayana Buddhist scriptural text that expounds the doctrine of the
Perfection of Wisdom. The Diamond Sutra was written in India in Sanskrit,
then carried into East Asia, where it was translated into Chinese (ca.
400) and became one of the most revered summaries of the teachings of
Mahayana Buddhism. The text belongs to the body of literature known as the
Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, and expresses the central teaching of the
Perfection of Wisdom in the paradoxical claim that a bodhisattva
(Buddha-to-be) should resolve to lead all the beings in the universe to
nirvana (liberation), while understanding that no beings at all are led to
nirvana.
Diana:
Ancient Roman deity worshiped in wooded areas and in the city of Rome;
she was related to human fertility, childbirth, and children.
Dianetics:
Bestselling scripture of the Church
of Scientology
Diaspora:
1) The religion
and culture of any group apart from its homeland. 2) Most commonly refers
to the Jewish dispersal in Gentile lands following their eviction from
Judea in the first century.
Dichotomy:
The teaching that a human
consists of two parts: body and soul. Sometimes the soul is also referred
to as spirit. (See Trichotomy)
Dimension:
According to popular belief, another realm or reality other than this
one. Many envision an infinite number of "dimensions' coexisting
side-by-side like envelopes in a tray. Travel between the various
"dimensions" is accomplished through super scientific devices or spiritual
or psychic power. In reality, a dimension is the measurable quality of
something. It is neither a place nor location. Time is the fourth
dimension. It is used to measure motion. Dimensions greater than four
measure qualities that only physicists and mathematicians can understand.
Diocese:
The geographical area over which a
Christian bishop presides. In the Orthodox Church the term is restricted
to the area governed by a patriarch.
Dionysus:
A major Greek god, the son of Zeus and Semele. He was the patron of
wine and drama and generally of those experiences that transported one
beyond the normal human condition. He was worshiped publicly and in
private mystery religions concerned with the worshiper's fate after death.
In art, he was shown accompanied by wild, half-human satyrs and ecstatic
females (Maenads). He was conceived in a sacred marriage in a stable. At
his birth he was cradled in a winnowing fan (which is a symbol of the Holy
Spirit) At the time of his marriage to Ariadne, he turned water into
wine. He said that he was God who had taken on the form of man.
Discarnate:
The state or condition of a living
creature who has died, without a body.
Disciple:
A pupil or follower of a
religion, a person, or a movement. Christians often confuse this term with
Apostle.
Disfellowshipping:
As practiced by the Mormons and many other groups, this is a level of
church discipline involving a probationary period of restricted
privileges, but retaining church membership. As practiced by th Jehovah's
Witnesses, it is an alternate term for “excommunication,” being completely
cut off from the church organization; see shunning.
Dispensationalism:
.
That Christian doctrine which
says that God uses different means of administering His will and grace
which coincide with different periods of time. Scofield says there are
seven dispensations: of innocence, of conscience, of civil government, of
promise, of law, of grace, and of the kingdom. Dispensationalists
interpret the scriptures in light of these (or other) dispensations.
Compare to Ages
Diti: (Sanskrit)
The mother of the daityas demons
Diva: (Sanskrit}
A goddess, angel or spiritual being.
Divali:
Hindu philosophy of
Enlightenment.
Divakara: (Sanskrit)
The Sun
Divination:
The act of foretelling the future or
gaining unknown information by using psychic skills or other methods
outside of the ordinary senses,palmistry, astrology, tarot and I Ching are
examples of divination.
Divine Right:
The claim to authority to rule as granted by God. Divine right is most
commonly asserted by monarchs.
Divine Science:
A New Thought church headquartered in
Denver. CO.
Divinity:
The nature or quality of being
God or God-like. Christian theologies are divided on just how divine
Jesus was and whether or not man is divine.
Doctrine and Covenants:
One of the scriptures of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints accepts
a different version of the work as scripture. Earlier editions were
called The Book of
Commandments.
Dojo: (Japanese,
"practice hall")
Japanese hall or room used either for martial arts such as judo, or
for religious purposes, especially in Buddhism and also in a number of new
religions.
Dome of the Rock:
An octagonal domed shrine built by the Umayyad Muslim Caliph Abd
al-Malik in 691 on the sacred place in Jerusalem known as the Haram
al-Sharif. Enshrined beneath the dome is an outcropping of the bedrock
atop the Jewish Temple Mount. The shrine was built to symbolize the
commonality yet dominion of Islam over the two other monotheistic
religions that regard Jerusalem as a sacred city. For Muslims, the rock
under the dome marks the from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended into the
Seven Heavens (Qur'an 17:1).
Don Juan:
The Yaqui Indian shaman who taught Carlos Casteneda in his books.
The Door:
See Potter’s
House.
Dorje: (Tibetan,
"diamond," "thunderbolt")
In Buddhism, Tibetan term for the Sanskrit vajra.
Double Bind:
A mental or psychological dilemma caused when a person receives from a
single leader or teacher conflicting messages or "truths" resulting in no
appropriate response or answer. See Cognitive
Dissonance.
Dowsing Rod:
A forked rod, or branch of tree,
that in the hands of certain people is said to indicate, by spasmodic
movements, the presence of water and minerals underground. Traditionally
the rod is of hazel wood and V or Y shaped. The ends are held by the
operator. Other materials such as right-angle wire rods are claimed to be
equally effective. Diviners claim that the rod twists or revolves when the
operator passes over underground water or minerals.
Doxology:
Praise or glorification of a deity. Among
Christians, a short hymn of praise.
Dracomancer:
A practitioner of magick who uses dragons
in their workings.
Drawing Down the Moon:
A ritual performed by the high-priest
which invokes the Goddess into the high-priestess
Dreadlocks:
The physical expression of the Jamaican
Rastafarian pride in African hair. The hair is grown in its natural form
with long flowing locks, uncombed and untreated after washing. Numbers 6:5
provides biblical justification.
The Dreaming:
An English expression adopted by Australian Aborigines to convey ideas
that, though related in their thought, are not usually denoted by a single
word in any of their languages. One sense is that of a primordial epoch,
the Dreaming or Dreamtime, when beings with remarkable powers arose from
the ground, descended from the sky, or appeared from over the horizon.
They gave the earth its shape by creating physical features (often from
parts of their own bodies), fixed life in species form, established human
culture, and gave everything its name. These creative beings, who in their
totality are the ultimate explanation of all things, are themselves called
Dreamings (roughly equivalent to the anthropological term totems).
Their significance to the Aborigines is not merely historical but personal
and social, for each individual and group gains a distinctive identity
through its association with one or more Dreamings. In many regions it is
held that such beings reincarnate themselves as humans, or that they left
relics behind that, to this day, are sufficiently potent to impregnate
women. This sense of oneness, in which past and present, spirit being and
human being, are somehow fused, is also seen in ceremonies in which the
actors wear designs and make movements symbolic or mimetic of what the
Dreamings did in the Dreamtime. By extension, from these two senses of
Dreaming, the Aborigines form other expressions, such as Dreaming-place (a
site at which a Dreaming was active and left something of itself) and
Dreaming-track (an imagined path along which a Dreaming traveled from
place to place in the primordial epoch). Contrary to what is sometimes
suggested, the term has no necessary connection with the verb to
dream, even though
present-day revelations to humans by Dreamings normally occur while the
recipient is in a dream or trance state. See Astral World.
Dreams:
Dreamtime: (See
The Dreaming)
Dreshkana:
A Varga. In Vedic astrology this is a
subdivision of one third of a sign.
Druidism
An ancient Celtic religion which has
undergone a modern revival.
Druid: (Celtic, "true seer")
A member of the priestly and intellectual elite of the Celts. Druids
were the religious and legal authorities in Gaul before its conquest by
the Romans (51 BC) and were celebrated for their esoteric knowledge. The
druid survived as a stock figure in medieval Irish literature. A priestly
caste of the ancient Celtic people of France and the British Isles. They
were the keepers of oral history and law, and officiates of religious
practices. Modern Druids are various new religious traditions that attempt
to incorporate the insights of ancient Druidism, Celtic history and lore,
and romanticized notions of the ancient Druids formed in the eighteenth
century. In England today, there are the Order of Bards, Ovates and
Druids, and the Ancient Order of Druids, among others. While there is no
scholarly connection between the Druids and Stonehenge, the Ancient Order
of Druids used Stonehenge for their rituals until instances of vandalism
by the curious closed the ancient site. In the United States, the Reformed
Druids of North America (RDNA) began in 1963 as a satirical protest
against required attendance at chapel at Carleton College in Northfield,
Minnesota. The RDNA developed rituals and lore from Celtic history,
poetry, and anthropology, and the movement continued and became more
serious, even after the chapel attendance requirement was dropped. The
RDNA considered Druidism a philosophy of life, not a religion. In 1966 the
New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA) reformed Druidism as a
Neo-Pagan religion. A few chapters of both groups still exist. Other
current American Druidic groups include Ar nDraiocht Fein ("Our Own
Druidism"), founded by Isaac Bonewits in 1983. Currently the largest
American revivalist Druid organization, it sees itself as a Neo-Pagan
religion based on the beliefs and practices of the ancient Indo-Europeans
but adapted to modern needs and sensibilities, such as the preservation of
the earth and excellence in arts and scholarship.
Druze/Druse:
Adherents of a heterodox Ismaili Shiite sect, called Duruz after
Muhammad al-Darazi (d. ca. 1919), an Ismaili missionary. Founded in 1017
in Egypt, the Druze community was oppressed by the larger group of Ismaili
Shiites, the Muslim Fatimid dynasty that ruled Egypt and North Africa. The
Druze sought refuge in the mountains of Syria-Lebanon, where they since
have played a historic role. Professed monotheists, the Druze hold the
Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (r. 996-1021) to be the sole incarnation of
divinity, appearing in all ages. Al-Hakim is believed by the Druze to have
created five cosmic principles or ranks: the Intellect, Universal Soul,
Word, Preceder, and Follower, which were incarnated in five Druze
missionaries. Baha al-Din al-Muqtana (the Follower), who occupies the
lowest rank in this cosmic hierarchy, was the author of most of the Druze
scriptures, known as the Epistles of Wisdom. Faced with serious problems
of schism led by ambitious missionaries, in 1333 Baha al-Din closed the
door of initiation. The Druze have since remained a closed community.
Below the five incarnate principles are the fully initiated leaders and
then the larger community of ordinary Druze believers. In opposition to
these are evil principles representing the darker side of the cosmic
order. At death, human souls are immediately reborn in human form. At the
end of time al-Hakim, along with one of the incarnate principles (Hamza,
who is in occultation), will return to usher in the end of this age and a
new messianic era.
Dual Covenant:
The belief that the New Testament applies to Gentiles only. The Jewish
people must relate to God through the earlier Old Testament or Abrahamic
covenant. A similar doctrine called the Plural Covenant theory emphasizes
other covenants in addition to these two major systems.
Dualism:
An understanding of reality as existing in two opposite extremes.
Metaphysical dualism sees the universe as existing in two contrary (and
sometimes conflicting) realities—mind and matter, or spirit and physical,
or yin
and yang. Ethical dualism posits a conflict between universal good and
an equal and opposite force of universal evil (e.g., the belief that God
and Satan are equal and opposite beings).
Dynamic Monarchianism:
A late second-century doctrine denying the Trinity, put forth by Theodotue
of Byzantium and later adoped in modified forms by Paul of Samosata,
Noetus and Prazeas.
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