A Dictionary of the Sacred Language of All Scriptures and Myths (Routledge Revivals)

G Gaskell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317589419
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Critique et interprétation bibliques

G. A. Gaskell's Dictionary of the Sacred Language of All Scriptures and Myths, first published in 1923, examines several different aspects of religion, including examples from Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology to modern-day Christianity, providing explanations of gods, events, and symbols in alphabetical order. This is a perfect reference book for students of theology or the history of religion.

SABBATH, JEWISH:—

A symbol of a state of rest of the life forces which supervenes on the higher planes at the close of a period of activity on the lower planes, when a result has been accomplished.

“And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work…. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it: because that in it he rested from all his work.”—GEN. ii. 2, 3.

And on the seventh period of the Divine outbreathing and inbreathing, when the return of the Life into Itself is accomplished, the Divine nature is said to rest. At this stage the Divine Spirit is said to “rest,” inasmuch as a suspension of activities is rendered necessary, prior to another and distinct movement forth. And the Supreme blesses and sanctifies the period, for at this termination of the process of Involution the soul has arrived at that blessed condition which answers to completion and entirety, when the Spirit appears to cease its operations.

“Malkhuth represents the Sabbath or seventh day, the close of the construction or building of the universe, the Rest Day or harmony of all.”—I. MYER, Quabbalah, p. 272.

The buddhic principle contains the scheme and consummation of the lower plane activities, therefore the indrawal of the Life would be to the buddhic plane a state of rest and harmony.

In the Hebrew Genesis the period of Involution is signified by the six days of Divine activity preceding the Sabbath of rest or inactivity, after which the universe and the soul awaken to the new life-process of Evolution, as described in the first part of the second chapter.

The Jewish Saturday Sabbath connotes a cessation from activity (pralaya), and not a rousing to life (manvantara) which is signified by Sunday.

“This seventh day of rest is the stage here drawn, the state of ‘full age,’ or ‘perfection,’ when instead of growth and change, and the varying life of faith, and the struggle between the old state and the work of God within us, we reach the life of vision and of rest.”—A. JUKES, Types of Genesis, p. 42.

“This ‘resting’ (on the seventh day)—which is not annihilation but repose,—involves the return of Matter (from its dynamic) to its static condition of Substance. The idea presented is that of the cessation of active-creative force, and the consequent return of phenomenal existence into essential being. This stage it is which constitutes the termination of the creative period, and the perfection of every creative work. It is at once the ‘rest which remains for the people of God’; the attainment of perfection by the individual, system, or race; and the return of the universe into the bosom of God, by re-absorption into the original substance.”—KINGSFORD and MAITLAND, The Perfect Way, p. 16.

In the completion of involution of all qualities and forms the soul is perfected potentially as the Archetypal Man, who dies within the lower nature and becomes the prototype of the many souls, who incarnate and actualise in the present period of evolution.

See ARC. MAN, BREATH (divine), BUDDHIC (plane), CREATION, EVOLUTION, HOUR (mid-day), IMAGE, INCARNATION OF SOULS, INVOLUTION, MALKHUTH, MANVANTARA, NIGHT, NOX, PLANETARY CHAIN, PRALAYA, PROTOTYPES, SATURDAY, SEVENTH, SUNDAY.

SABBATHS:—

A symbol of periodic states or conditions of the cosmic and soul life on the lower planes, or the higher, i.e. material or spiritual states.

“Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.”—DEUT. xxvi. 34, 35.

Then shall the general outspread life of the soul enjoy the buddhic consciousness during the periodic spiritual states when it is without the sensations, passions and desires (desolate), and the lower qualities, being relative and unreal, are nonexistent (in enemies’ land). Even then shall the indrawn life partake of bliss. As long as it is without the opposites it shall have peace; even the peace which it had not in the periodic material states when the lower qualities were in the stress and suffering of life.

“These Sabbaths (of LEV. xxiii) are seven Pralayas between seven manvantaras, or what we call Rounds.”—H. P. BLAVSTSKY, Secret Doctrine, Vol. II. p. 790.

See BLISS, BUDDHI, DEARTH, KARSHVARES, LAND, MANVANTARA, OPPOSITES, PRALAYA, QUALITIES, ROUND, SNOW, SPARROWS, SUMMER (unfruitful), WINTER.

SACKCLOTH ON FLESH:—

A symbol of severe discipline and restraint put upon the lower nature during periods of re-incarnation of the soul.

“And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.”—ISA. xxxvii. 1.

This refers to the turning of the personality from the allurements of desire, and to the change of opinions, and restraint of the lower nature, and reliance upon the Divine.

“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.”—Ps. xxix. 11.

At the end of the cycle the soul rises from the lower nature, liberated from desire, and enters into the harmony and joy of life on the higher planes.

“For by ‘sackcloth’ is set forth the roughness and the piercing of sin, but by ‘ashes’ the dust of the dead…. Let piercing sins then be considered in sackcloth, let the just punishment of sins, which succeeds by the sentence of death, be considered in ashes.”—ST. GREGORY, Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. III. p. 666.

See ASCETICISM, ASHES, AUSTERITIES, CLOTHES, DANCE, RENDING GARMENTS.

SACRAMENT:—

A symbol of a binding compact within the sanctuary of the soul:—a covenant between the inner Divine soul and the outer advanced qualities, whereby they may be consciously raised to higher efficiency and purity.

“Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”—MATT. xxvi. 26–8.

The “body” of the Divine Soul (Christ) is the transmuted lower nature (flesh), for that makes possible his activity in the soul,—it is his vesture whereby he manifests. This transmuted nature is the wisdom-nature, or Truth the substance of Goodness, which is the “bread of heaven.” On Truth-Goodness the advanced qualities (disciples) must feed.

Truth-Goodness (Christ’s body in us) is not only of the inner nature, it is also an expressed fact of human life, whose beauty and efficacy is exemplified in the outer nature as well as the inner.

The “wine” is the “blood,” that is, the Divine Life, the active Spirit. The “cup” and the “wine” signify respectively the Soul and the Life,—the psychic receptacle for the Spirit, and the vivifying Spirit itself.

The Divine Life is to be absorbed by the qualities, for it is the Life now welling up within the soul, which was “shed” at the “foundation of the world,” when Spirit with its potencies descended into matter, thus becoming in Involution the Divine Sacrifice for the “remission of sins” in Evolution (new testament).

“Jesus,” symbol of the now perfected, or fully evolved, personality, has no further need of the means of evolution, hence he joins the “Christ” in the resurrection, when a “new” order obtains (see verse 29).

The partaking of this sacrament implies an intelligent compact between the advanced part of the lower nature, which seeks the food of the Spirit, and the responding Christ within. The soul, in becoming conscious of its destiny, yearns for instruction in the Truth, that it may progress the faster.

“Sacraments served to abolish the time-form of the redemption myth, in that they represented under symbolic signs the eternal spiritual truth that lay hidden in the myth—the truth of the continuous incarnation of God in the hearts of good men.”—O. PFLEIDERER, Early Ch. Conception of Christ, p. 169.

“John the Scot (Erigena) says: ‘There is nothing in the visible and material world which does not signify something immaterial and reasonable,’ so that everything is a symbol, and has a sacramental significence. Matter is only a concourse of accidents or qualities, no real being. It is wholly dependent on thought for its existence, and therefore it would be absurd to say that the ‘material’ Bread and Wine are more than symbols. The value of a sacrament for John could only be an inward and spiritual value—a value for faith.”—R. M. JONES, Mystical Religion, p. 121.

“Action and contemplation must act and react upon each other; otherwise our actions will have no soul, and our thoughts no body. This is the great truth which the higher religions express in their sacraments. A sacrament is more than a symbol. The perception of symbols leads us from the many to the One, from the transitory to the permanent, but no...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• Y
• Z
• Appendix