Via Christa Glossary

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absolute: (adjective) Originally disengaged or free from imperfection or qualification; from interference, connexion, relation, comparison, dependence; from condition, conditional forms of knowledge or thought. Absolute in quality or degree; perfect. Free from all imperfection or deficiency; complete, finished; perfect, consummate. Of degree: Complete, entire; in the fullest sense. Pure and simple. Of ownership, authority: Free from all external restraint or interference; unrestricted, unlimited, independent. Viewed without relation to, or comparison with, other things of the same kind; considered only in its relation to space or existence as a whole, or to some permanent standard; real, actual; opposed to relative and comparative. Free from condition or mental limitation; unconditioned. Of persons and things: Free from all doubt or uncertainty; positive, perfectly certain, decided. Of statements: Free from conditions or reservations; unreserved, unqualified, unconditional. Metaphysics. Existing without relation to any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned. Considered independently of its being subjective or objective.OED. The absolute is neither singly that which affirms, nor that which is affirmed; but the identity and living copula of both.—S. T. Coleridge.

The Absolute: (noun) The solitary, uniquely unconditioned, utterly independent, and ultimately all-encompassing spiritual being that comprises all of reality according to such Romantic idealists as Schelling, and Hegel. British philosopher F. H. Bradley emphasized that the Absolute must transcend all of the contradictory appearances of ordinary experience, while American Josiah Royce took the Absolute to be a spiritual entity whose self-consciousness is reflected (though only imperfectly) in the totality of human thought.TPP.

absolute emanations: (noun) the Emanations of Light, as Wisdom, Love and the Logos (Word), are ultimate, the absolute principles of being, the universal realities of the Godhead, the framework and ruling principles of God’s Creation.—ViaChrista.org.


“Absolute principle is ultimate truth, unalterable and permanent fact.”


absolute principle: (noun) the universal framework operating as emanations of Light, contains all that is at the Source to govern, regulate and control the universe through its being and action. Absolute principles are ultimate truths, unalterable and permanent facts, the universal realities of the Godhead. The Emanations of Light, as Wisdom, Love and the Logos, are ultimate principles, the absolute principles of being.—ViaChrista.org.

abomination: (noun) “a cause of abhorrence or disgust: revolting, disgusting, hateful; anything hateful or shamefully vile; an abominable thing or action; in biblical use, often that which is ceremonially impure.”—CDC. “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”—Proverbs 6:16-19.
  To commit an abomination is to act in a manner that is disgusting and abhorrent. Scripture refers to certain types of sins as abominations.—ViaChrista.org. See sin.

abstract: (adjective) conceived apart from matter and from special cases as an abstract number, a number as conceived in arithmetic, not a number of things. In grammar, applied specially to that class of nouns which are formed from adjectives and denote character, as goodness, audacity, and more generally to all nouns that do not name concrete things. Produced by the mental process of abstraction: as, an abstract idea. Demanding a high degree of mental abstraction; difficult; profound; abstruse. Applied to a science which deals with its object in the abstract: as, abstract logic; abstract mathematics: opposed to applied logic and mathematics. Separated from material elements; ethereal; ideal. abstract: (noun) That which concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; the essence; specifically, a summary or epitome containing the substance, a general view, or the principal heads of a writing, discourse, series of events, or the like. To consider as a form apart from matter; attend to as a general object, to the neglect of special circumstances; derive as a general idea from the contemplation of particular instances; separate and hold in thought, as a part of a complex idea, while letting the rest go. To form abstractions; to separate ideas; to distinguish between the attribute and the subject in which it exists.CDC. abstract (idiom) in the abstract: in a way that is conceptual or theoretical, as opposed to actual or empirical.AHD.

abstract laws of being: (noun) every absolute principle becomes the source of many abstract laws of being (see being). In dealing with being as it applies to spiritual laws, we are concerned with states of consciousness, which are states of being. The laws of being include every instance in the Bible where God commands us to be some soul quality. Every law of being embodies the foundation of a soul virtue, and leads the soul toward an ideal state of being that God destined us to become.—ViaChrista.org. See relative laws of doing.

abstract principle: (noun) a principle rooted in an Emanation (Wisdom, Love or the Logos), but lowered one or more grades in its rate of vibration. Thus, one principle hinges on another and using one without involving others is virtually impossible. For example, Love becomes Substance when the Godhead exerts it, but is relative love or faith when we express it. Abstract principles are not discernible by the senses; thus, abstract terms name things that are not available to the senses. Concrete terms refer to objects or events that are perceived through the senses.—ViaChrista.org.

abyss: (noun) an immeasurably deep chasm, depth, or void. In the book of Genesis, the primeval Chaos out of which earth and sky were formed. The abode of evil spirits; hell. Infinite time; a vast intellectual or moral depth.AHD.
  A physical abyss is a section of condensed substance in space, resulting from the friction created by incoming Emanations passing outgoing Emanations. Such an abyss is filled with unnumbered, unnamed life sparks. An abyss in consciousness is a passage into and through the unknown that elicits all possible fears, doubts and uncertainties.—ViaChrista.org.

accept, acceptance: (intransitive verb, noun) to answer affirmatively. To agree to take (a duty or responsibility). To receive (something offered), especially with gladness or approval. To regard as proper, usual, or right. To regard as true; believe in. To endure resignedly or patiently.AHD. acceptance: the act or fact of accepting, or taking what is offered, whether as a pleasure, a satisfaction of claim, or a duty, to take or receive willingly, or with consenting mind, to receive a thing or person with favor or approval, with patience or resignation, to tolerate.OED.
  Acceptance is how you apply the principle of nonresistance in your various relationships. However, do not accept anything, to take it into your being or consciousness, unless you first lift it and consider whether it is an appearance or a reality. The vow of acceptance is: This is mine to lift right now. I accept this as my present lesson. Let me gather from it every bit of knowledge for my future soul guidance and protection.—ViaChrista.org. See repudiation.

act, action: (intransitive verb) to behave like or pose as; impersonate. To appear or seem to be. To carry out an action. To operate or function in a specific way. act (noun) the process of doing or performing something. Something done or performed; a deed.AHD. action: (noun) “The state or process of acting or doing. Something that is done or accomplished; a deed. The causation of change by the exertion of power or a natural process. Habitual or vigorous activity; energy. Behavior or conduct.”—AHD. (noun) “The process or state of acting or of being active, as opposed to rest; change, the cause of which lies within the subject; activity; active exertion; energy manifested in outward acts as contrasted with contemplation.”—CDC.
  Action is the product of choice or decision. Action is how you permit (let) God, as the Light, to operate through you. Action is an abstract principle, the most obvious law of doing, and a Via Christa Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

action and reaction: The law of cause and effect, rooted in the principles of correspondence and reciprocity. Eastern religions and philosophies call this law karma, and believe that the soul debts or credits accrued in one life will be carried over to the next. As the basic law of doing, the law of action and reaction inevitably brings initiations as you travel the Via Christa, the Way of the Christ.—ViaChrista.org. See correspondence, reciprocity.

Adamic civilization: (noun) The masses of humanity as they descended from the Biblical Adam and Eve, in bodies such as we have now, as Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens.—ViaChrista.org.

adept: (adjective) very skilled or accomplished. (noun) a highly skilled person; an expert. adeptship: (noun) The state of being an adept; adeptness.
  An Adept (noun), as the third degree in initiation, is skilled at using his commanding persona for manipulation—ranging from subtle to forceful—of Mind, Substance and Power. While the degree is integral to completing the Via Christa, the Adept must rise above the urge or desire to use Power selfishly or willfully to gain his personal ends. A Christos Adept is selfless in his release of the Power, directing and controlling it only for healing. Any use of Power potentially creates spiritual debts. Adeptship is the use of Power to control or manipulate Mind, Substance, and Power, also to control people, usually to gain selfish ends. Adeptship includes emotionally manipulating people.—ViaChrista.org.

adrenal glands: synthesize and store neurotransmitters (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) that control dilation and constriction of arteries and veins, increase the blood flow to the kidneys, elevate blood pressure and slow the heart rate, increase heart activity, and bronchodilation. The adrenal glands also stimulate glycogen production in the liver, increase fatty acid in the blood, and diminish gastrointestinal activity. The adrenal cortex secretes hormones synthesized from cholesterol, including glucocorticoids that act principally on carbohydrate metabolism; mineralocorticoids that affect the metabolism of the electrolytes, sodium and potassium, androgens, estrogens and progestins, which are important in reproduction. These hormones influence nearly every body system. Cortisol and cortisone are important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, water, muscle, bone, central nervous system, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and blood metabolism; they are also important anti-inflammatory agents. Their principal long-term effect is catabolic. The adrenal medulla is intimately related to physical responses to emotional states (fight/flight).—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The adrenal glands are associated with the Adept Degree. The use of force and coercion under this degree can damage the function of these glands, causing adrenal exhaustion.—ViaChrista.org.

adjust: (verb) to arrange, compose, settle, harmonize things that are or may be contradictory, differences, to adapt oneself.AHD. See agreeing and adjusting.

adulterate: (transitive verb) to pollute, to make impure by adding extraneous, improper, or inferior ingredients. adultery: (noun) voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a partner other than the lawful spouse.AHD.
  Adultery is a vice and a sin. Metaphysically, adultery is permitting anything to taint a high vibration. Soul taints adulterate your consciousness, and rot the rungs of the ladder of ascension you are climbing.—ViaChrista.org.

adversary: (noun) An enemy or foe; one who has enmity at heart. In scripture, Satan is called THE adversary by way of eminence. An opponent or antagonist. And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite.—1 Kings 11:14. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries.—Nahum 1:1. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.—Matthew 5:25. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.—1 Peter 5:8.

a fortiori: (Latin = from the stronger (argument)) arguing from an accepted conclusion to an even more evident one.LLP.

agree: (adjective) is to be pleased with, to receive or take in good part, to accept favorably, to make persons pleased with, or well disposed towards each other, to reconcile, make friends, to bring into harmony things that differ, to conciliate a difference.AHD. See agreeing and adjusting.

agreeing and adjusting: a dual virtue: Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.—Matthew 5:25. Agree with God that this (situation) is good and adjust to your fellow man’s opinion (Yes, I can see and understand that you believe so) without arguing.—ViaChrista.org. See nonresistance.

aion: (noun) (Greek = aἰών) time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe and the zodiac. Aion represents unbounded time [eternity], in contrast to Chronos as empirical time divided into past, present, and future.Thayer’s Greek Lexicon.

amalgamate: (transitive verb) to soften or dissolve (a metal) by combination with mercury. (intransitive verb) to enter into combination with mercury. (All metals, except iron and copper, spontaneously unite and amalgamate with mercury.) To mix any substances so as to form a uniform compound. To unite together (classes, races, societies, ideas, etc.) so as to form a homogeneous or harmonious whole.OED.

amygdala: (Latin noun = amygdalum = almond) The amygdala is a complex of multiple small nuclei located immediately beneath the cerebral cortex of the medial anterior pole of each temporal lobe. It has abundant bidirectional connections with the hypothalamus as well as with other areas of the limbic system. …The amygdala receives neuronal signals from all portions of the limbic cortex, as well as from the neocortex of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes—especially from the auditory and visual association areas. Because of these multiple connections, the amygdala has been called the window through which the limbic system sees the place of the person in the world. In turn, the amygdala transmits signals (1) back into these same cortical areas, (2) into the hippocampus, (3) into the septum, (4) into the thalamus, and (5) especially into the hypothalamus.…The amygdalas seem to be behavioral awareness areas that operate at a semi-conscious level. They also seem to project into the limbic system one’s current status in relation to both surroundings and thoughts. On the basis of this infomation, the amygdala is believed to make the person's behavioral response appropriate for each occasion.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

anacoluthon: (noun) (Greek = inconsistent) An abrupt change within a sentence to a second construction inconsistent with the first, sometimes used for rhetorical effect; for example, (you really ought to—well, do it your own way). Anacolutha (plural) frequently occur in speech to express excited or distraught emotion or thoughts.AHD.

androgynous being: (noun) (Greek = ἀνδρόγυνος, andr- = man + gyné = woman) a genderless being, having both masculine and feminine characteristics or qualities; a term descriptive of various spiritual vehicles that are precursors to the physical state; a supra-physical Holy Pair of begotten creator gods, encased within a sphere of Light, joined at the umbilical center by a cord of rainbow lights. Even when differentiated into masculine and feminine, they retain their essential unity in the Light.—ViaChrista.org.

anger: (noun) A strong feeling of displeasure or hostility. (intransitive verb) To make angry; enrage or provoke. To become angry.AHD.
  Anger is thwarted self and ego, a self-distillation of resentment, impatience, and irritation, which the self combines to result in anger. Self and ego being thwarted are always the sources of anger, which is a sure sign that soul is not in charge. Anger indicates a soul taint, a moral defect, a negative influence, a spiritual contamination. When you feel anger, a soul taint is rearing its head; when you act on that anger, you sin. Offer the anger to God and ask for illumination on its root within you.—ViaChrista.org.

antinomy: (Greek noun = anti = against + nomos = law.) A contradiction between two beliefs or conclusions that are in themselves reasonable; a paradox.MWD.
  Antinomy describes the seeming paradox that results from applying the criteria of reason that are proper to the universe of sensible perception or experience (phenomena) to the universe of pure thought. You cannot use empirical reason to establish rational truths because it goes beyond possible experience when applied to the sphere of that which transcends it.—ViaChrista.org.

apagoge: (Greek noun = apagogē = a leading away) in logic, an indirect argument which serves to prove something by showing the contrary to be absurd or impossibleCED.

aperçu: (Latin noun = introspective self-consciousness or mental perception) A discerning perception; insight. A short outline or summary; a synopsis.AHD. (noun) A detached view; an isolated perception of or insight into a subject, as into a system of philosophy.CDC.

apodictic: (Greek adjective= apodeiktos = to demonstrate, to show) propositions that are demonstrably, necessarily or self-evidently the case. (noun) apodixis refers to logical certainty.—AHD.

apostatize: (Greek verb = apostasia = a defection or revolt) to renounce, forsake or abandon one’s religious belief, faith, or allegiance; to become (noun) an apostate: one who has abandoned one’s religious faith, one’s principles, or a cause.AHD.

a posteriori: (Latin adjective = from the latter) knowledge that is derived from experience. The Latin phrases a priori (from what is before) and a posteriori (from what is after) were used in philosophy originally to distinguish between arguments from causes and arguments from effects.EB.
  Knowledge that is a posteriori results from reasoning backward from an effect to its causes, which can lead to false conclusions.—ViaChrista.org.

appear, appearance: (verb, noun) To appear (Latin = apparerem = to appear, to come into sight) is To come or be in sight; to be in view; to be visible. To become visible to the eye, as a spirit, or to the apprehension of the mind; a sense frequent in scripture. To seem, in opposition to reality.WAD. appearance: The act of coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye. The thing seen; a phenomenon. Semblance; apparent likeness. External show; semblance assumed, in opposition to reality or substance; as, we are often deceived by appearances; he has the appearance of virtue.WAD. The LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.—1 Samuel 16:7. See reality.

apperceive, apperception: (verb, noun) to apperceive is to perceive (something) while being conscious of perceiving (something) in terms of past experience. Thus, apperception is introspective self-consciousness, a mental perception, especially the process of understanding something in terms of your previous experience.MWD.
  Apperception combines the prefix ap- (to fix or appoint beforehand) with perception. Apperception describes the process by which the soul amalgamates a posteriori knowledge (empirical, based on the soul’s current life experience) into a priori knowledge (transcendental, or based on the soul’s total prior experience). The soul gains access to its a priori knowledge via its super-conscious phase of mind. Apperception is a law of being, a law of doing, and a virtue. Apperception is rooted in the principle of nonresistance, the key to how the soul synthesizes all sublimated physical senses, mental, and soul faculties into virtue. The experience of soul knowing is an overwhelming sense of absolutely knowing something is true, as when you find yourself saying I don’t know how I know this, but I know without doubt that it is true. Apperception is also the key to precognition, to perceive or know a thing before it happens. At its highest degree, apperception, is a facet of the Oversoul’s cosmic Christ consciousness, I AM.—ViaChrista.org.

appetitive soul (or impulsive appetitive soul): (noun) equates with the subconscious portion of embodied soul-as-mind composed of life sparks of the physical and desire body vehicles. The appetitive facet of soul is a continuum of impulses, urges and appetities ranging from the basest physical to the mental and moral soul expressions. Appetitive soul maintains physical metabolism and mediates the fight/flight instinct within the human creature body.—ViaChrista.org. See limbic system, tripartite soul.

appreciate, appreciation: (verb, noun) to recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude of; to be fully aware of or sensitive to; to realize; to be thankful or show gratitude for.AHD. appreciation the recognition of the quality, value, or significance of people and things; a judgment or opinion, especially a favorable one, an expression of gratitude; awareness or delicate perception, especially of aesthetic qualities or values.AHD.
  Appreciation is a soul virtue, the twin of gratitude. Appreciation rightly gives rise to praise for the good in life.—ViaChrista.org.

apprehend, apprehension: (verb, noun) to take into the mind; seize or grasp mentally; take cognizance of. To understand; take an intelligent view of.CDC. apprehension a laying hold by the mind; mental grasp; forming an image in the imagination (the common meaning in English for three centuries, and the technical meaning in the Kantian theory of cognition).CDC. We apprehend many truths which we do not comprehend. The great mystery, for instance, of the Holy Trinity—we lay hold upon it (ad prehendo), we hang upon it, our souls live by it; but we do not take it all in, we do not comprehend it. It belongs to the idea of God that he may be apprehended though not comprehended by his reasonable creatures; he has made them to know him, though not to know him all, to apprehend though not to comprehend him.—Richard Trench, On the Study of Words.
  Apprehension is a form of precognition; the acquisition of knowledge, to understand before the fact of comprehension.—ViaChrista.org. See apperception.

a priori: (Latin = from what is before) knowledge that is acquired independently of any particular experience, as opposed to a posteriori (Latin = from what is after) knowledge derived from experience. The phrases a priori and a posteriori are used to distinguish between arguments from causes and arguments from effects.EB. See a posteriori.

areté: (Greek = ἀρετή; Latin = virtus = virtue) signifies goodness, excellence or virtue. Plato designated areté as a state of the soul, which we know as a virtue or soul power, the strength by which the soul touches the Divine.—ViaChrista.org

argue, arguing: (verb) to give reasons for or against, to debate; to contend or disagree in words. Synonyms for arguing include feuding, quarreling, wrangling, squabbling and bickering.—AHD.
  To argue is to speak the Word with negative force, a soul taint and easily a sin. Only the self desires to argue forcefully, and does so to domineer, to assert self and to be proven right. Arguing is the use of verbal force.—ViaChrista.org.

argumentum ad hominem: (Latin adjective = against the man) a type of argument or attack that appeals to prejudice or feelings or irrelevantly impugns another person’s character instead of addressing the facts or claims made by the latter.EB.

ark of the mother: (noun) a place where something is generated; an encompassing, protective hollow or space.AHD. the womb—ViaChrista.org.

arrogance: (Latin noun = arrogantia = presumption, pride, haughtiness) a manifest feeling of superiority of one's worth or importance, combined with contempt of others.—Etymonline. To arrogate is to take or claim for oneself without right.AHD.
  Arrogance claims unwarranted importance or consideration out of overbearing pride, and always exalts the self. Arrogance is often haughty, believing that the self is great while forgetting that God has given you everything good. Excessive arrogance is a sin.—ViaChrista.org. See pride.

ascend, ascension: (Latin verb, noun = ascendere = to climb up, mount)—Etymonline. to go or come up, originally by a gradual motion, to a relatively higher position; to climb up, travel up, to soar, mount, to rise by process of growth or construction, to be raised or reared, to erect itself, to proceed from the inferior to the superior; to rise in thought, degree of characteristic quality.OED.. ascension: to rise from the inferior to the superior, advancement in thought or feeling, in station, dignity, or estimation.OED.
  To ascend: to climb to a relatively higher position, rise by process of soul growth, to proceed from inferior self to superior soul, to rise in degree of characteristic quality, to move up to a higher point in consciousness and conquering. Soul ascension is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a degree, and the Christos initiation. God’s entire Creation is in the process of ascension, ascending to become one with Him. All laws are laws of ascension. We walk the Way of the Christ, the Via Christa, which is the initiatory Path of Ascension of consciousness to become as perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. The Via Christa is the way of complete ascension to attain the high tower, the fortress of ascension in the Garden of Eden, where you live by the precepts of soul, by pure illumination, and complete the final conquering of self. Soul ascension is a continually growing consciousness and awareness, a continually increasing rate of vibration and a continually expanding aura.—ViaChrista.org.

ascending creator god: (adjectival noun) a member of the Elect, a living soul, descended from Heavenly Realms to earth to gain experience in physical expression, who chooses to follow the Via Christa, the Way of Christ, back to the Source.—ViaChrista.org.

asking, seeking and knocking: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.—Matthew 7:7-8. Asking, seeking and knocking are an interlocking set of laws of doing, laws of right action, and three legal pursuits for the ascending soul. Always ask when you are unsure or confused ‘and it shall be given’; seek first the kingdom of God always, and knock forever at Heaven’s Gates, or on the outer doors when given the green light.—ViaChrista.org.

aspire, aspiration: (verb, noun) to have a great ambition or ultimate goal, to desire strongly; to strive toward an end; to soar. aspiration: a strong desire for high achievement, or an object of such desire; an ambition.AHD.
  Aspiration is the soul faculty of desire to ascend and become one with your Source of Being, God. Aspiration is a soul virtue; you have the power to aspire and ascend.—ViaChrista.org.

atomic body: See mental body.

attend, attention, attentive: (verb, noun, adjective) to stretch to; hence, to direct the mind or observant faculties, to listen, apply oneself, to watch over, minister to, wait upon, follow, frequent, to wait for, await, expect. (noun) attention: the concentration of mental powers upon an object, a close or careful observing or listening, the ability or power to concentrate, and observant consideration or courtesy.OED. (adjective) attentive: Heedful; intent; observant; regarding with care. It is applied to the senses of hearing and seeing, as an attentive ear or eye; to the application of the mind, as in contemplation; or to the application of the mind, together with the senses abovementioned, as when a person is attentive to the words, the manner and matter of a speaker at the same time.WAD.
  Paying attention is a law of doing, a faculty, a virtue, and a function of consciousness and a magnifier: Wherever you center your attention, the Power follows and creates. Carelessness and sloppiness are the opposites of attention. When you are paying attention, you are alert and aware, fully cognizant of what is happening in your environment and consciousness. If your mind is on the world, watch out! You can pay attention to God or to the world, but not really to both at once.—ViaChrista.org.

attention to details: Paying attention to details is a law of doing and a virtue under the abstract principle of order. Attention to details is an initiation, an accurate measure of your degree of consciousness, or lack of awareness. Attention to details is the key to soul ascension.—ViaChrista.org.

attract, attraction: (verb, noun) attract: to draw to; to cause to move towards, and unite with; as, electrical bodies attract by physical laws. To draw to or incline to unite with though some cause may prevent the union. To draw by influence of a moral kind; to invite or allure. To engage; as, to attract attention. attraction: In physics, attraction is an invisible power in a body by which it draws anything to itself; the power in nature acting mutually between bodies or ultimate particles, tending to draw them together, or to produce their cohesion or combination, and conversely resisting separation.—Noah Webster, WAD.
  Attraction: The action of drawing or sucking in. The action or faculty of drawing to or towards the subject; the force that so draws; the fact of being so drawn. The action of a body or substance in drawing to itself, by some physical force, another to which it is not materially attached; the force thus exercised. Attraction types: magnetic attraction: the action of a magnet or loadstone in drawing and attaching iron to itself. electric attraction: the similar action of electrified substances upon certain other bodies. attraction of gravity or gravitation: that which exists between all bodies, and acts at all distances, with a force proportional to their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of their distance apart. molecular attraction: that which takes place between the molecules of bodies, and acts only at infinitely small distances. attraction of cohesion: that by which the particles composing a body are kept together. attraction of adhesion: that by which certain substances, when brought into contact, stick together. capillary attraction: that whereby a liquid is drawn up or ascends through a hair-like tube. chemical attraction = affinity. Personal influence, figured as magnetic. The action of causing men or animals to come to one by influencing their appetites or desires. attractive influence: the action of drawing forth interest, affection, or sympathy; the power of so doing. attracting quality: a quality which draws forth the interest or admiration. attractive appeal: a thing or feature which draws people by appealing to their desires, tastes, etc.OED.
  In humans, attraction is personal charm, the action or power of drawing forth a response, a force acting mutually between particles of matter, tending to draw them together, and resisting their separation; something that attracts or is intended to attract people by appealing to their desires and tastes. Synonyms for attraction: attraction, affinity, sympathy describe the relationship existing between things or persons that are naturally or involuntarily drawn together. Attraction implies the possession by one thing of a quality that pulls another to it. Affinity implies a susceptibility or predisposition on the part of the one drawn. Sympathy implies a reciprocal or natural relation between two things that are both susceptible to the same influence.MWD.
  Attraction is the source of the saying, ‘Opposites attract.’ Regarding the so-called law of attraction, thinking only good thoughts will tend you toward optimism, just as thinking about the bad aspects of your life will lead to depression. Both kinds of thinking require sustained effort to achieve a material outcome. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.—Philippians 4:8 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.—Proverbs 23:4-7.—ViaChrista.org.

aura: (Greek noun = αὔρα or αὔρη) a subtle emanation or exhalation from any substance, a distinctive impression of character or aspect, a subtle emanation from and enveloping living persons and things, viewed by mystics as consisting of the essence of the individual.CDC. Emerson said, The condition of true naming, on the poet’s part, is his resigning himself to the divine aura which breathes through forms. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.—Matthew 5:16.
  The aura is your personal or unique law of being and of doing, your personal sphere of spiritual influence, the Light that emanates through you; a vibration of Light that radiates from the soul, containing all spiritual, mental and emotional attributes of Light modified by your present state of consciousness. The aura displays your state of being under the principles of Light and color, and responds instantly to what you think, feel or intend. The aura’s patterns of light are anchored in the body’s glands and plexus centers. No soul always emits the same lights and colors or lights (Hebrew urim and perfections thummim), the aura’s radiance and hues, which change with the body’s physical chemistry, yet constant undercurrents of light reveal a soul’s basic character. The aura is somewhat like a rainbow in the way its well-defined colors blend.—ViaChrista.org.

authentic: (adjective) having authority; possessing inherent authority; duly authorized; authoritative. Real; of genuine origin; being what it purports to be: opposed to pretended or imaginary, fictitious, counterfeit, apocryphal, or unauthorized. Entitled to acceptance or belief; reliable; trustworthy; of established credit, credibility, or authority. Original; first-hand.CDC.

awake: (adjective) completely conscious; not in a state of sleep. Fully alert; attuned.AHD.
  To be awake is to be fully conscious. Always strive to be totally alive, alert and aware!—ViaChrista.org.


“To be awake is to be fully conscious.”—Edna Lister


aware, awareness: (adjective, noun) the state of being informed, conscious and cognizant.OED. Synonyms for aware: aware, cognizant, conscious, sensible, alive, awake mean having knowledge of something. Aware implies vigilance in observing or alertness in drawing inferences from what one experiences; cognizant implies having special or certain knowledge as from firsthand sources; conscious implies that one is focusing one’s attention on something or is even preoccupied by it; sensible implies direct or intuitive perceiving especially of intangibles, of emotional states or qualities; alive adds to sensible the implication of acute sensitivity to something; awake implies that one has become alive to something and is on the alert.MWD.
  Awareness is a soul virtue, a faculty, and a degree, an instinctive aspect of consciousness. As awareness increases, it becomes consciousness, the functioning state of the rational soul, and the soul faculties of intuition and illumination. Ignorance and obliviousness are opposites of awareness. Certain scriptures treat awareness as being ‘awake,’ and obliviousness as being ‘asleep.’—ViaChrista.org.

axiom: (Greek noun = axioma = authority) a well-established or universally-conceded principle, a maxim, rule or law, a statement that needs no proof because its truth is obvious, a self-evident proposition.OED.


B

balance: (verb, noun) to weigh; especially, to weigh or consider in the mind; ponder over.To estimate the relative weight or importance of two or more things; make a comparison between as to relative importance, force, value, etc. To bring into a state of equipoise or equilibrium; arrange or adjust (the several parts of a thing) symmetrically. To keep in equilibrium or equipoise; poise; steady. To serve as a counterpoise to; counterbalance; offset. To bring into a state of equality; make equal, equalize.CDC. As a noun, balance is the metaphorical balance of justice, reason, opinion, by which actions and principles are weighed or estimated. Subjective uncertainty; hesitation, wavering, doubt. Objective uncertainty or suspense; risk, hazard. Power to decide or determine; authoritative control. The general harmony between the parts of anything, springing from the observance of just proportion and relation. Stability or steadiness due to the equilibrium prevailing between all the forces of any system. a. Physical equipoise, perfectly balanced action. Equipoise of mind, character, or feelings; equanimity, mental composure, sanity. The preponderating weight; the net result of estimating conflicting principles, forces, etc.OED.
  Balance is poise and equilibrium in your service to God and man. You must balance the scales of life, personally and within your sphere of influence constantly. As a law of being, balance is the power to decide or determine, authoritative control that produces equilibrium, equipoise of mind, character, or feelings, equanimity, mental composure, sanity. You must become and remain balanced in emotions, thoughts, words and deeds, which, in turn, creates physical balance. You came forth from the divine equilibrium, and are here to create harmony, which we return to God as balance. Balance is rooted in the principle of nonresistance. High balance under the Emanations is maintaining harmony and equilibrium, which coordinate mind, imagination and emotions as perfect knowing, a blend of spiritual seeing and hearing.—ViaChrista.org.

baptism by fire: I [John the Baptist] indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he [Jesus Christ] that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.—Matthew 3:11. Baptism by fire is the formal initiation of the third Degree of the Adept, and describes the descent of the Holy Spirit. You must burn away self by ascending your personal will and desire, to balance your emotions at the solar plexus center. The flames of the Holy Spirit dance upon your shoulders, to awaken the glands for spiritual seeing and hearing. A baptism by fire stops just short of a crucifixion, which involves the death of a body, a desire, a hope or some cherished idea. For example, the Lord required that Abraham take his son Isaac to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice there. Abraham obeyed, even to raising the knife to slay his child, but was spared as a ram miraculously appeared as an offering instead. God required Abraham’s willingness to obey as the sacrifice, not the death of Isaac. Valley Forge was a trial by fire for George Washington and the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The Civil War was a trial by fire for the United States.—ViaChrista.org.

baptism by water: is the initiation of the second Degree of the Disciple and symbolizes the soul’s true repentance, the turning away from the lure of the world for the grace of God. You must walk on water to conquer your emotions, by lifting and sacrificing your excess of self-will to achieve a state of calm under trial. Any emotionally upsetting event is a baptism by water in some degree. All emotional trials help you to overcome fears and threats to self. You take initiations on emotions to strengthen your poise so you will not wilt or lose your balance under fire. Emotional maturity is crucial if you want God or the world to take you seriously.—ViaChrista.org.

Barbara: (noun) in logic, a mnemonic name of a syllogism of the first figure, all whose parts are universal affirmative propositions: as, All men are mortal; all the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, etc.) are men; hence, all patriarchs are mortal.CDC.

basal ganglia: are four neuron clusters crowning the brain’s thalamus, which help to regulate body movement by relaying information from the cerebral cortex to the brainstem and cerebellum.… The basal ganglia help {the cerebellum} to plan and control complex patterns of muscle movement, controlling relative intensities of the separate movements, directions of movements, and sequencing of multiple successive and parallel movements for achieving specific complicated motor goals.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

be, being: (verb, noun) to exist; have existence or being; possess reality; be true or real.CDC To be is to have an objective existence : have reality or actuality.MWD. being is existence or presence, belonging to the material or immaterial universe, substance, constitution or nature.MWD. In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being. Philosophy: being is “that which has actuality either materially or in idea, or absolute existence in a complete or perfect state, lacking no essential characteristic; essence.CED.
  be: (verb) is synonymous with exist; however, existence is not merely or purely physical, but means to subsist in a metaphysical, supra-physical or transcendent state. The verb to be has eight different forms: be, am, is, are, was, were, being, and been. To be is to exist, which is the definition and explanation of the statement I AM THAT I AM.—Exodus 3:14. I AM describes your personal state of being. Each time you preface a statement with I am, you are about to report on your state of being—physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.—Matthew 5:48. Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:1.
  being (noun) is the ONE, unchanging, and eternal; being is truth, the ultimate ground of reality. God is. Being describes God as absolute principle; God, the all that is, as potential and actual Wisdom, Love and the Logos. Being is the widest term applicable to all objects of sense or thought, material or immaterial. In dealing with being as it applies to spiritual laws, we are concerned with states of consciousness, which are states of being. The laws of being include every instance in the Bible where we are commanded to be some soul quality. In the ancient world the Hebrews and the Greeks were the first to discourse philosophically and theologically on being as The One God: ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.’—Deuteronomy 6:4. (Gr. τò ὄν, εἶναι) ‘In Him {God} we live, and move, and have our being…for we are also His offspring.’—Acts 17:28. God is the author of our being.—ViaChrista.org.

Beatitudes: (Latin noun beatitudinem = supreme blessedness or happiness) The Beatitudes are the declarations of blessedness that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, attitudes toward life that set a keynote of gentle, good manners in the world. The Beatitudes are laws of being, rooted in the principle of nonresistance; also laws of doing: you must do as they instruct until you become the states of being they describe.—ViaChrista.org.

beauty: (Latin noun = bellus pretty, handsome, charming) an assemblage of graces, or of properties in the form of the person or object, which pleases the eye. In the person, due proportion or symmetry of parts. Beauty is intrinsic, and perceived by the eye at first view, or with the aid of the understanding and reflection. Thus, the beauty of a machine is not perceived, till we understand its uses, and adaptation to its purpose, which is the beauty of utility. The word beauty is used to express what is pleasing to the other senses, or to the understanding.WAD
  Plato treats of beauty (Greek = καλλονή = kalōnā) in Hippias Major: Platonic Aesthetics. Emerson said, “We ascribe beauty to that which is simple, which has no superfluous parts, which exactly answers its end.” James Barry said, “Beauty consists of unity and gradual variety, or unity, variety, and harmony.” “From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined.”—Psalm 50:2.
  God is beauty. Beauty is an abstract principle: While you cannot see beauty itself, you can recognize what is beautiful. Beauty is a law of being; a person or thing that is in syzygy with its source is beautiful because it partakes of the beauty of its source. Plato defined beauty as the Luster of the Good.—ViaChrista.org.

begotten creator gods: See androgynous beings.

Belial: a fallen angel in John Milton’s Paradise Lost who tries to persuade the others to be more discreet so that their unacceptable behaviour is less conspicuous. The Hebrew word bĕlīyaʾal, apparently with the literal meaning worthlessness, was used in Old Testament epithets for the wicked and impious, such as the sons of Belial.EB.
  Belial is generally understood to come from two common Heb. words meaning without and to profit, hence signifying worthlessness or wickedness. From the general concept of unprofitableness the thought moved into the realm of moral force, thus the resultant rendering of wickedness. In the OT uses of the word there is no indication of a proper name.… The Talmud considers it a compound word meaning without a yoke. However, others equate it with one who has thrown off the yoke of heaven, hence lawless. The apocalyptic concept of Belial as a person…[appears] in 2 Corinthians 6:15, where the name is Beliar. The apostle is arguing the incompatibility of the Christian faith with the heathenism…In v. 14 the contrasts are between abstracts, but in v. 15 the argument and questioning move into the realm of the concrete: Christ over against Beliar (Βελίαρ) and a believer contrasted with an unbeliever. It has been suggested that ‘the man of sin’ (2 Thess 2:3) is actually ‘the man of lawlessness,’ the equivalent of Belial. The most that can be said for this position is that the Gr. anomia is lawlessness, but this does not warrant the conclusion {emphasis added} that the person intended is Satan rather than the personal antichrist.Encyclopedia of The Bible.
  In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Belial is the archfiend from whom emanate the seven spirits of seduction that enter man at his birth (Reuben ii.; Levi iii.; Zebulun ix.; Dan. i.; Naphtali ii.; Benjamin vi., vii.), the source of impurity and lying (Reuben iv., vi.; Simeon v.; Issachar vi.-vii.: Dan. v.; Asher i., iii.), ‘the spirit of darkness’ (Levi xix.; Joseph vii., xx.).—Jewish Encyclopedia. BeliarThayer’s Greek Lexicon.

Blackstone (Sir William): wrote The Commentaries on the Laws of England, an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford, 1765—1769.

blame: (verb) to bring into disrepute or discredit.OED.
  Blame is a soul taint and an initiation. Its close synonym is criticism, and its opposite is to praise. Blame holds another responsible, finds fault, censures, and places responsibility on another’s back. When you blame, it shows a soul taint in you. Blame is an initiation, whether you are receiving it or doling it out.—ViaChrista.org.

bless, blessing: (verb, noun) To set apart or consecrate to holy purposes; to make and pronounce holy. To consecrate by prayer; to invoke a blessing upon.WAD. blessing: A solemn prophetic benediction, in which happiness is desired, invoked or foretold. Any means of happiness; a gift, benefit or advantage; that which promotes temporal prosperity and welfare, or secures immortal felicity.WAD.
  Blessing is speaking the Word, a law of doing under the principle of the Logos which is the spoken Word, and a soul virtue. Blessing is a benediction, literally a good word. What you bless, you consecrate to God. Your blessings help to heal the world.—ViaChrista.org.

blood platelets: called thrombocytes, the physical platelets are small, irregularly-shaped clear cell fragments (i.e., cells that do not have a nucleus containing DNA), 2-3 microns in diameter, which derive from fragmentation of precursor megakaryocytes. A platelet normally lives just five to nine days. A natural source of growth factors, platelets circulate in the blood of mammals and are involved in the formation of blood clots. One drop of blood contains approximately one million platelets. Read more about physical platelets.
  The physical blood platelets are duplicated in the desire body, where they carry small components of memory, records of physical, emotional and intellectual experiences, which have affected your desire, thinking and imagination. When the soul breathes itself into the body, it enters the bloodstream through the platelets. The soul uses the platelets to store memories.—ViaChrista.org.

boasting and bragging (verbs) are synonyms: to boast is to talk or write about oneself or something related to oneself in a proud or self-admiring way. To glorify oneself in speech, to speak vaingloriously. To brag is to talk or write about oneself in a proud or self-impressed way. Bragging is arrogant or boastful speech.AHD.
  When you boast, you exalt the self, not God or your soul. Boasting and bragging are soul taints, misuses of the spoken Word. Braggarts and boasters are so self-centered that they are generally unaware of how ridiculous they may sound and appear.—ViaChrista.org. See pride.

body: (noun) any integrated set of functions.OED
  The human body is the physical or material frame or structure of man, the whole material organism viewed as an organic entity. The law, The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.—Matthew 6:22, may also be read If therefore thine I be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. —ViaChrista.org.

borderline: (noun) the area between the Realms of Heaven and the world, including the lesser planes of consciousness surrounding earth.—ViaChrista.org.

brain: (noun) a complex offshoot of the spinal cord, composed of the forebrain, formed mostly by cerebral hemispheres; the midbrain, the top of the brainstem; the hindbrain, formed by the cerebellum and remaining parts of the brainstem.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  Both the brain and central nervous system are associated with the Christos Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

brainstem: (noun) the brain’s root and core (the reptilian brain), composed of the medulla oblongata, pons and midbrain; it serves as a carrier of sensory and motor nerves; it is an initiator of action in higher brain centers, the controller of consciousness and regulator of essential life processes.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

bravery: (noun) possessing or displaying courage; valiant. Its close synonyms include courageous, fearless, intrepid, bold, audacious, valiant, valorous, dauntless, undaunted. These adjectives all mean having or showing courage under difficult or dangerous conditions.
  Bravery is a Via Christa Degree and a virtue. Being brave is frequently associated with an innate quality. Courageous implies an act of consciously rising to a specific test by drawing on a reserve of inner strength. Bravery (courage), consecration and action form the fifth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is sacrifice. Bravery is also related to the Mystic Degree, who dares to do and to be silent about it. Bravery is that inborn quality of soul that takes a deep breath, girds its loins, and acts as if this is the frosting on its cake.—ViaChrista.org.

bridging the abyss: the abyss is an unfathomable chasm, a yawning gulf, an immeasurably profound depth or void, the primeval chaos.
  Bridging the abyss is a series of initiations that involves sacrificing the known for the unknown. A spatial abyss is a section of condensed unnamed life sparks of substance in space, created by the friction of passage between incoming and outgoing Emanations. An abyss in consciousness is metaphysical, a passage into and through the unknown that elicits all possible fears, doubts, and uncertainties for the soul to conquer. The abyss in these initiations is one of consciousness, considered in quality and in quantity. Most of earth’s inhabitants are awake, but in a quasi-mesmerized, dreamlike state, not fully conscious. You can acquire greater conscious awareness by sacrificing the self and your selfish concerns rooted in the material world. Being able to ask, Is this all there is? marks the soul’s first awakening; from there, you step into the abyss to becoming.—ViaChrista.org.

budding: (noun) the process of forming sphere sheaths of Light to hold masculine and feminine created creator gods, and later for human bodies.—ViaChrista.org.

burden: (noun) a load of labor, duty, responsibility, blame, sin, sorrow, etc.MWD.
  Feeling burdened gives birth to doubt and fear, and is the tell-tale warning of self-pity and martyrdom. You would be wiser to ascend in consciousness to cast that burden upon the Lord’s altar in exchange for His weightless Light. Thus, the sense of being burdened is an invitation to change your reaction.—ViaChrista.org.

burning bush: (noun) The angel of the Lord appeared unto [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.—Exodus 3:2. The burning bush initiation is the result of the personal desire to achieve and to know, which is great enough to consume the self-will, and which causes the spinal column, medulla oblongata, pineal and pituitary, to work together to become the burning bush. Becoming the burning bush is a culminating initiation that results from surrendering earthly earthy desires and will for the pure heavenly fire. To the spiritual eye, your aura appears as a bush, burning with spiritual light.—ViaChrista.org.

burning sands of the desert: (adjectival noun) a series of fire initiations. Navigating the dry, hot and barren burning sands of the desert is your task as you begin walking the Via Christa to reach your full Path of Destiny. Following the excitement of awakening (Neophyte Rebirth) and the new Light on your path (Disciple), you must face and overcome the sheer drudgery of the same old hard, boring, conquering of the ugly self. Passage through the burning sands of the desert may take weeks, months, years or decades to complete. Most candidates for ascension quit right there, well before finishing the journey to glory.—ViaChrista.org.

burnt offerings: (noun) (1 Kings 3:3-5, 9-14) The thousand burnt offerings of self are a formal initiatory series that results in fully opened spiritual faculties. Solomon’s thousand burnt offerings symbolize a thousand days of loving God enough to declare everything in your life good. The thousand burnt offerings are one thousand days of perfection, complete sublimation and sacrifice of self, thirty-seven lunar months, three years and one month with never a negative thought.—ViaChrista.org.

C

cadit quaestio: (Latin idiom) the question drops; the dispute is over; the case is closed.MWD.

cardiac plexus: (noun) innervates the heart (fibers of vagus nerve slow the heart rate), pharynx, larynx, carotid body, bronchial muscles and lungs, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, colon and thoracic and abdominal viscera.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The cardiac plexus is associated with the Mystic Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

carotid body: (noun) a flat structure at the bifurcation of the common carotid artery. It contains cells that respond to changes and concentrations of oxygen in the blood and to changes in the blood pressure. Accompanying it is the carotid sinus, an area richly supplied with vagus nerve endings. These, when stimulated by a rise in blood pressure, bring about reflex vasodilation and a slowing of the heart rate.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The carotid body is also called the gate to the upper Pole of Paracelsus (in the brain).—ViaChrista.org.

categories of being: (noun) being, reality, quantity, quality, relation, and modality (after the works of Aristotle and Immanuel Kant).—ViaChrista.org.

categories of expression: (noun) five necessary phases of study in your approach to God: psychology, metaphysics, science, philosophy and mysticism.—ViaChrista.org.

causae cognoscendi: (Latin idiom) the facts or means by which we come to know the objective cause of the occurrence.

causae fiendi: (Latin phrase) causes of becoming.

causal domain: a collection of persons, or processes linked by the law of cause and effect, such as family, clan, state, nation, etc.—ViaChrista.org.

cause: (noun) That which produces an effect; that which gives rise to any action, phenomenon, or condition. Cause and effect are correlative terms. A person or other agent who brings about or occasions something, with or without intention. (Often in bad sense: one who occasions, or is to blame for mischief, misfortune, etc.) A fact, condition of matters, or consideration, moving a person to action; ground of action; reason for action, motive. OED.
  The four causes of Aristotle were the efficient cause, the force, instrument, or agency by which a thing is produced; the formal; the material, the elements or matter from which it is produced; the final, the purpose or end for which it is produced. The First Cause, the original cause or Creator of the Universe; secondary causes, those derived from a primary or first cause.OED.

cause and effect: (noun) See law of cause and effect.

cavil: (verb) to quibble, to raise trivial and frivolous objections.AHD. to nitpick.—ViaChrista.org.

cellular body: See physical body.

center of being: (noun) the Oversoul star (figuratively five-pointed) that ignites higher creative center in the golden bowl (head) to open the three windows of the soul toward Jerusalem, the white Light of the Christ.—ViaChrista.org.

centers of life: (noun) the physical nerve plexus centers and endocrine system, desire body vital centers, mental body lotus centers, and fire body sun centers.—ViaChrista.org.

central nervous system: (noun) the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system consists of those portions of the nervous system beyond the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system), divided into two portions, somatic and autonomic systems. The somatic nervous system is composed of motor nerves that make muscles act on orders from brain or spinal cord. Its sensory nerves direct information to the central nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls glands and organs like the lungs and heart, blood vessels and pupils of the eyes. Linked with the spinal cord and hypothalamus, it has two subsystems, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which act in opposition to one another, using a negative feedback mechanism, as brakes and accelerator.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

cerebellum of the brain: (noun) involved in control of skeletal muscles, it is important in coordination of voluntary muscular movements, and is the “autopilot” for learned movements. It receives sensory impulses, discharges motor impulses, it may reinforce some reflexes and inhibit others, and it may influence emotional development. The cerebellum’s size has more than tripled in the past million years.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

cerebrum: (noun) the largest brain portion, composed of the right and left hemispheres united by the corpus callosum, the complexity of the cerebrum’s wrinkled surface layer gives the brain intelligence. It is concerned with interpretation of sensory impulses and all voluntary muscular activity; it receives visual, auditory, gustatory, and olfactory input.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The cerebrum is the seat of consciousness and center of higher mental faculties such as memory, learning, reasoning, judgment, intelligence, and the emotions.—ViaChrista.org.

chakras: See vital centers.

change: (verb) to cause to turn or pass from one state to another; to alter, or make different; to vary in external form, or in essence.WAD.
  Change is an initiation in which you willingly or under compulsion exchange the known for the unknown. You must become a master of change, eventually changing every part of your being, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, back into the Light from which you sprang. The mystery of transfiguration exemplifies change.—ViaChrista.org.

chaos: (noun) The confused or formless elementary state, not fully existing, in which the universe is supposed to have been latent before the order, uniformities, or laws of nature had been developed or created: the opposite of cosmos.CDC.


“Character is the sum of moral and mental qualities
that distinguish a soul.”—Century Dictionary.


character: (noun) the combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one soul, person, group, or thing from another, a distinguishing feature or attribute, moral or ethical strength, uprightness, a description of a person’s attributes, traits, or abilities.OED.
  Character is an abstract principle, a law of being, and a law of doing; the sum of the moral and mental qualities that distinguish a soul, man's mental or moral constitution. Character versus reputation names the contrast between the soul and the self image. Character is the outgrowth of your accrued inner qualities, the objective truth of reality of your being.—ViaChrista.org. See reputation.

children: See kinship.

choice: (noun) the preferential determination between things proposed, selection, election, the power, right or faculty of choosing, option.OED.
  Choice is also called free will, but nothing about it is free, unless your will is the will of God for you.—ViaChrista.org. See choice and separation.

choice and separation: choice is the preferential determination between things proposed; separation is the action of parting, of setting or keeping apart, to make a severance or division, the action of separating oneself, withdrawing, or parting company.OED.
  You are always choosing one thing or course of action over another. Your choice either draws you closer to or pushes you further from God. The ascending choice is ever to draw closer, separating yourself from those things that divide you from the divine. During initiations, choice involves separation, which is the action of parting, of setting or keeping apart, to make a severance or division, the action of separating oneself, withdrawing, or parting company. Choose this day whom thou wilt serve.—Joshua 24:15. Choose self or God, then separate yourself from all that does not advance you on the Path of Soul Ascension.—ViaChrista.org.

Christing: (noun) the Oversoul descending to be enfolded within the outer physical sheath.—ViaChrista.org.

Christ principle: (Greek = χρῑστός = Khristos = the anointed one) the energizing Power of God, rooted in the Word (Greek = λόγος = Logos), embodied in Holy Spirit, the Son, and the red ray of action. When you speak of joy and selflessness, you are describing actions of the Christ principle. The Logos, as kinetic energy, animated all forms planned by Mind and filled with Substance. The Logos is Light as energy and action. Light expresses as harmony. Energy expresses as equilibrium. Action expresses as perfect balance.—ViaChrista.org.

Christos: (noun) The seventh or highest degree of initiation, the Christos surrenders all vestiges of selfish will and desires, including all personalized identity as separate from God or the Divine. As the direct offspring of the One, the Christos gives all, expecting nothing in return, thus inheriting every hypostatized attribute of reality.—ViaChrista.org.

chronological age: (noun) the age of the living soul, dated from the moment of numbering and naming of its life sparks of soul substance.—ViaChrista.org.

clairaudience: (noun) mentally perceiving sounds beyond the range of ordinary hearing; it is spiritual hearing.—ViaChrista.org. See seeing and hearing.

clairvoyance: (noun) keenness of mental perception, clearness of insight into things concealed from or beyond range of ordinary perception; it is spiritual vision. Clairvoyance, literally ‘clear’ seeing, enables perception of sight beyond what is considered the normal human range. This faculty is also called psychic ability or extrasensory perception. It is perception of only a limited range of light and sound, bound by the truth of appearance and subject to illusion.—ViaChrista.org. See vision, seeing and hearing.

coccygeal body: (noun) A small plexus of arteries supported by fibrous tissues at the level of the coccyx (tailbone). It is associated with the median sacral artery, and involved with heat transfer from the body’s core to the skin.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The coccygeal body is also called the gate to the lower Pole of Paracelsus (at the sacrum plexus).—ViaChrista.org.

cohesion: In physics, cohesion is the molecular attraction by which the particles of a body are united. In spiritual terms, this is ‘cleaving to’ or ‘clinging to’ God. Will and desire form the cohesive bond between the soul and the Godhead.—ViaChrista.org.

color: (noun) The quality or attribute in virtue of which objects present different appearances to the eye, when considered with regard only to the kind of light reflected from their surfaces. A particular hue or tint, being one of the constituents into which white or ‘colourless’ light can be decomposed, the series of which constitutes the spectrum; also any mixture of these. In speaking of the colours of objects, black and white, in which the rays of light are respectively wholly absorbed and wholly reflected, are included. Fundamental, primary, or simple colours: formerly, the seven colours of the spectrum, viz. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; now, the three colours red, green, and violet (or, with painters, red, yellow, and blue), out of different combinations of which all the others are produced. Secondary colours: colours resulting from the mixture of two primary colours.OED.
  Color is the first abstract expression of the absolute trinity of Light, which reveals the primary rays of yellow, blue and red, which become the full spectrum of Light. Color is an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing; as a law of being, color is rooted in the principle of substance. Color is a law of being and doing: whatever you choose to do colors your reality and your aura of lights.—ViaChrista.org.

command: (verb) to bid; to order; to direct; to charge; implying authority, and power to control, and to require obedience. To govern, lead or direct; to have or to exercise supreme authority over. (noun) To have in power; to be able to exercise power or authority overWAD. See orders.

compare, comparison: (verb, noun) to consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous; to liken; to examine in order to note the similarities or differences. A comparison is the action of comparing, likening, or representing as similar, the relation between things such as admits of their being compared, comparable condition or character, always with negative expressed or implied.AHD.
  Comparison is a law of doing; judgmental comparison is a soul taint. Thus, comparison is an initiation. The only legal comparison is to some established norm of performance. In spiritual terms, you may compare yourself only to the Christ in the Light.—ViaChrista.org.


“Compassion is empathy, not sympathy.”


compassion: (noun) The feeling or emotion, when a person is moved by the suffering or distress of another, and by the desire to relieve it; pity that inclines one to spare or to succour.OED.
  Compassion is an attribute of the Godhead, rooted in the principle of the Logos. Compassion is empathy, not sympathy. Your relative expression of compassion is in the perfect balance between Love and Wisdom in action. Compassion is the highest vibration of the elastic relative law of tolerance, under the principle of equilibrium.—ViaChrista.org.

complain/complaining, complaint: (verbs, noun) To complain is to utter expressions of grief, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or dissatisfaction; lament or murmur about anything; find fault. A complaint is to make a formal accusation against a person, or on account of anything; make a chargeCDC.
  Complaining and whining and complaining are purely soul taints of the “little self,” ploys for attention, and are a thin cover for escapist tendencies; they are misuses of the spoken Word.—ViaChrista.org. See whining.

complex: (noun) In psychology, a group of emotionally charged ideas or mental factors, unconsciously associated by the individual with a particular subject, arising from repressed instincts, fears, or desires and often resulting in mental abnormality; freq. with defining word prefixed, as inferiority, Œdipus complex, etc.; hence colloq., in vague use, a fixed mental tendency or obsession.OED. In psychology, a group of related, often repressed ideas and impulses that compel habitual patterns of thought, feelings, and behavior. An exaggerated or obsessive concern or fear.AHD. a group of repressed desires and memories that exerts a dominating influence upon the personality; an exaggerated reaction to or preoccupation with a subject or situation.MWD.
  An aggregate of emotionally loaded ideas in conflict with other ideas a person accepts about a subject, which may be partly or wholly repressed. An interconnected system of desires based on memories, the sources of which remain unclear, which exerts a dominating influence on the personality. The memories associated with such a complex are difficult to trace because they may be rooted in prior existences; the more distant in time, the more difficult to trace.—ViaChrista.org.

comprehension: (noun) the act or fact of grasping the meaning, nature, or importance of; understanding, and the knowledge that is acquired in this way.AHD.
  Comprehension is the embodied soul's mental capacity for understanding and knowing accrued over time; the receptivity and ability to hold fast to new ideas and integrate them. Comprehension is an abstract principle, a law of doing, an initiatory degree, a faculty; the final Degree of the Via Christa, a degree of service and dedication that combines all other degrees.—ViaChrista.org.

conation, conatus: (nouns) an inclination (such as an instinct, a drive, a wish, or a craving) to act purposefully; impulse. In psychology, voluntary agency, embracing desire and volition.MWD. In philosophy, the power or act which directs or impels to effort of any kind, physical or psychical.AHD. Conation is the proactive (as opposed to habitual) part of motivation that connects knowledge, affect, drives, desires, and instincts to behavior. Along with affect and cognition, conation is one of the three traditionally identified components of mind.—APA Dictionary of Psychology. The term conatus (noun, Latin = effort, to attempt) in Spinozism, conation refers to the inclination of a thing to persist in its own being. WAD.

condemn, condemnation: (verb, noun) condemn to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil usually after weighing evidence and without reservation; to pronounce guilty; to adjudge unfit for use or consumption.MWD. (noun) condemnation is severe reproof; strong censure.CDC.
  Condemnation is damning another, and renders you liable for judgment yourself. The self-righteous desire to condemn is a soul taint; condemnation as excessive criticism is a sin.—ViaChrista.org.

confidence: (noun) the mental attitude of trusting in or relying on a person or thing; firm trust, reliance, faith, assurance, boldness, fearlessness, arising from reliance (on oneself, on circumstances, on divine support, etc.), and is synonymous with trust, which is firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.OED.
  Confidence is a soul virtue, and law of being, rooted in the principle of faith. You cannot be “somewhat” confident; you are or are not confident.—ViaChrista.org.

conflict (noun) a state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war; a state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.AHD.
  Conflict and war begin with personal internal conflicts. In psychology, conflict is a mental or spiritual struggle, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.—ViaChrista.org. See war.

conquer: (verb) to conquer is to master or overcome, to vanquish, subjugate or subdue through a struggle, to acquire, obtain or gain by effort.OED.
  Conquering is becoming all of the laws received through initiations under the Seven Degrees. Controlling self is what we do until we conquer. Control is but the first step in conquering self, and it begins with bridling the tongue. Self, in the context of soul ascension, describes egocentricity, an exaggerated sense of your own importance. Edna Lister quoted these two Proverbs frequently in regard to self: He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.—Proverbs 16:32. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.—Proverbs 25:28.—ViaChrista.org.


“Conscience is the working of the soul’s moral compass.”


conscience: (noun) the awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one’s conduct with the urge to prefer right over wrong.OED. Internal or self-knowledge, or judgment of right and wrong; or the faculty, power or principle within us, which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections, and instantly approves or condemns them. is first occupied in ascertaining our duty, before we proceed to action; then in judging of our actions when performed.WAD.
  Conscience is a virtue and a faculty, that soul impulse which directs to right conduct. Conscience, your moral compass, speaks with the voice of your morality and ethics. As an embodied soul, you use your endocrine and central nervous systems to tune in on a light wave and hear the Voice of God. You use the higher creative center in the brain to tune in on a light wave and hear the Voice of God, as in 1 Kings 19:11-12. You must know the voice of your Shepherd, as in John 10:2.—ViaChrista.org.

conscious, consciousness: (adjective) To be be aware of one’s environment, one’s own existence, sensations and thoughts, to be mentally perceptive or alert, awake, and capable of thought, will or perception.OED. Synonyms: To be sensible, aware, conscious. Aware refers commonly to objects of perception outside of ourselves; conscious, to objects of perception within us. Aware indicates perception without feeling; conscious, generally recognition with some degree of feeling.CDC. Consciousness must be an essential attribute of Spirit.—Isaac Watts.
  Consciousness is rooted in the principles of Wisdom and Mind; the greater the Light, the greater the consciousness.Conscience and conscious have the same root, implying that to be fully conscious is to have a conscience and vice versa. Consciousness exists on a continuum from the sleeping rock to God the Source of all consciousness. God is absolute consciousness and is absolutely conscious. Light is God’s conscious identity. Consciousness is an abstract principle, a law of being, a soul virtue and a mental faculty.—ViaChrista.org.

conscious mind: (noun) the functioning phase of mind for super-conscious mind, operating as the rational soul. Being conscious is being aware of one’s environment, one’s own existence, sensations and thoughts, to be mentally perceptive or alert, awake, and capable of thought, will, or perception.—ViaChrista.org. See awareness, subconscious mind, super-conscious mind.

consecrate, consecration: (verb, noun) to make sacred, the separation of a thing or person for divine service; of the Eucharist, the act by which the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ; the setting apart of altars, churches, temples and sacred vessels exclusively for the service of God.OED.
  Consecration, with bravery and action, forms the fifth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is sacrifice. You consecrate your will, desires and actions to the service of God and Christ.—ViaChrista.org.

consideration: (noun) regard for the circumstances, feelings, comfort, etc. of another, thoughtfulness for another, thoughtful kindness.OED.
  Consideration, a soul virtue, is an aspect of empathy and an expression of the Golden Rule.—ViaChrista.org.

contemplation: (noun) to act of the mind in considering with attention; continued attention of the mind to a particular subject; meditation; musing; study. Holy meditation; attention to sacred things; a particular application of the foregoing definition.WAD. Milton wrote, In contemplation of created things, by steps we may ascend to God.

contraction: (noun) the action of drawing together or collecting; decrease in length, breadth, extent, or volume, shrinking, shortening, narrowing, a reduction, an epitome, a condensation. To contract is to become reduced in size by or as if by being drawn together.
  Contraction is an expression of Wisdom as an absolute principle, an abstract principle, a law of being, and a law of doing. Wisdom becomes contraction when the Godhead exerts it, you express wisdom when you practice caution and deliberately focus your mind. You apply contraction as a law of doing whenever you restrict self. Contraction and expansion were among the first fundamental principles God established as universal laws, and they condition your thinking, imagination and emotional desires. You may lower the rate of vibration and contract consciousness or condense substance under the primary law of contraction.—ViaChrista.org.

controlling, manipulating others: infrequently necessary, but usually soul taints and sins: to control another is to exercise authoritative or dominating influence over him; to manipulate is to control the action of others by artful or fraudulent management; to influence or manage shrewdly or deviously.AHD
  Controlling and manipulating the behavior of others has become a pervasive topic in modern dialog and pop psychology.—ViaChrista.org. (This page is under construction.)

correspondence: (noun) The action or fact of corresponding, or answering to each other in fitness or mutual adaptation; congruity, harmony, agreement; also said of the relation of one of the corresponding things. Relation of agreement, similarity, or analogy. Doctrine of Correspondences: the tenet of Swedenborg, that every natural object symbolizes or corresponds to some spiritual fact or principle which is, as it were, its archetype or prototype, and that the Scriptures were written in harmony with these correspondences. Correspondence theory [in] Philospohy, the theory that the definition, or the criterion, of truth is that true propositions correspond to the facts (opp. coherence theory).OED.
  Correspondence, also called the law of reciprocity, informs us that each grade or vibration below holds all above within itself.—ViaChrista.org.

correspondence, reciprocity: (noun) correspondence is answering to each other in fitness or mutual adaptation, congruity, harmony, agreement, relation of agreement, similarity, or analogy. Reciprocity is the state or condition of being reciprocal, a state or relationship in which there is mutual action, influence, giving and taking, correspondence, etc., between two parties or things.
  Correspondence and reciprocity are each absolute and abstract principles.—ViaChrista.org.

cosmic consciousness: See apperception.

cosmic divisions: (noun) the names of twelve wedge-shaped apportionments of the cosmic magnitudes, created by rays of Christ Light extending from the Source to the outermost spherical magnetic wall. They are the seats of Wisdom government throughout universes, the signs of the Zodiac in the outermost magnitude.—ViaChrista.org.

cosmic magnitude: (noun) one of the twelve concentric spheres of space, the supra-physical gestating space in which Mind, Substance, and Power lower in their rate of vibration and to condense as substance to take on form.—ViaChrista.org.

cosmology: (noun) The general science or theory of the cosmos or material universe, of its parts, elements, and laws; the general discussion and coördination of the results of the special sciences. That branch of metaphysics which is concerned with the a priori discussion of the ultimate philosophical problems relating to the world as it exists in time and space, and to the order of nature.CDC. The study of the physical universe considered as a totality of phenomena in time and space. The astrophysical study of the history, structure, and constituent dynamics of the universe. A specific theory or model of this structure and these dynamics. A philosophical, religious, or mythical explanation of the nature and structure of the universe.AHD.
  Cosmology is the scientific and/or philosophical study of the origin and general structure of the universe, its parts, elements and laws, especially such characteristics as space, time, causality and freedom.—ViaChrista.org.

cosmos: (Ancient Greek noun κόσμος = kosmos) often simply means universe, but generally suggests an orderly or harmonious universe, as it Pythagoras originally used it in the 6th century B.C. Thus, both the physicist and the religious mystic may help put us in touch with the cosmos. The same is often true of the adjective cosmic: Cosmic rays (really particles rather than rays) bombard us from outer space, but cosmic questions arise from human attempts to find order in the universe.—ViaChrista.org.

Councils of Light: 144 begotten creator gods who form twelve Councils of Light, one for each ray of Christ Light within each cosmic magnitude.—ViaChrista.org.

courage: (Latin noun = cor= heart) the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery. To discourage is to deprive of confidence, hope, or spirit.AHD.
  Courage is a faculty of the Mystic Degree, which rules the heart center. Courage is a soul faculty of the heart. When you say, He has heart, you are saying he is courageous.—ViaChrista.org.

courtesy: (noun) polite, well-mannered behavior, courtly elegance and politeness of manners, graceful politeness or consideration with others, nobleness, generosity, benevolence, goodness.OED.
  Courtesy is a soul virtue, the Golden Rule in application and in action. Noblesse oblige is a French phrase meaning nobility obliges: As God’s sons and daughters, we must conduct ourselves nobly, with honor toward and courtesy toward our fellow man.—ViaChrista.org.

covet; coveting: (verb) To desire or wish for, with eagerness; to desire earnestly to obtain or possess; in a good sense. To desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a negative sense.WAD.
  To covet is inordinate desire to possess what belongs to another or that to which you have no right. Coveting is both a soul taint and a sin. “Thou shalt not covet” is one of the Ten Commandments. Coveting is a misuse of the desire principle under the Love principle; it is irresponsible and the basis for theft. For the covetous person, life’s glass is always half empty.—ViaChrista.org. See envy, jealousy.

created gods: (noun) the order of lesser descended creator gods, who are thought into being by androgynous beings.—ViaChrista.org. See Holy Pairs.


“Creative fire is the Holy Breath in man.”


creative fire: (noun) the activity of the Holy Breath vitalizing the soul’s life sparks, as expressed through love, joy, enthusiasm. It is the activator of the quest for union with God, called kundalini or chi in Eastern terms. This invisible, physically imperceptible stream of creative fire incessantly ascends and descends via three distinct canals in the spinal cord: the left carrier of lunar energy (ida), the right carrier of solar energy (pingala) and the central canal (shushumna). To spiritual sight, the creative fire appears brick red at the base of the spine, and clears to brilliant white at the base of the skull (in the pons of the medulla oblongata). You use the creative fire constantly, in everything you do, from baking a cake to writing a symphony to being physically intimate. By misusing the creative fire, you unwisely invest your life sparks of soul substance in people and things.—ViaChrista.org.

Creative Impulse: (noun) the action that backs the desire to create, which philosophy calls the Uncaused Cause of all Creation.—ViaChrista.org.

creator: (noun) One who originates or speaks the creative Word in full obedience to all law to bring good into being within time and space.—ViaChrista.org.

creator gods: (noun) living souls who descended from various locations in the heavenly realms to earth to gain experience in physical expression.—ViaChrista.org.

creature: (noun) an animal or animate being who lives by instinctive intelligence and desire, and the urges of eating, sleeping and procreating. Some in human form are creatures.—ViaChrista.org. See appetitive soul.

credit: (noun) an acknowledgment of work done; the deduction of a payment from an amount due; the positive balance or amount remaining in a person’s account. See demerit.
  Credits and demerits are initiations involving how ego and pride affect your choices and actions in dealings with others. God’s appointed accountant enters the day’s transactions on your heavenly balance sheet as payables (demerits) and receivables (credits). Self counts only gross income (credits), so is usually shocked by its thousands of niggling expenditures (demerits).—ViaChrista.org.

cremation: (noun) The act or custom of cremating; a burning, as of the deceased; incineration; incremation.CDC.
  Cremation of the physical body three days following decease is the best method of freeing all the embodied soul’s life sparks for lifting and redemption.— Via Christa.org

criticism: (noun) the action of criticizing, or passing judgment upon the qualities or merits of anything, especially the passing of unfavorable judgment, fault-finding, censure. Lincoln said, If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference.
  Criticism, a faculty, virtue or a taint, is a use of the spoken Word, operates under the absolute principle of contraction. You may apply criticism positively (as in pruning the shoots of self) or negatively (as in destroying another’s joy). Criticism of darkness is legal, but not criticism of personality. A well-honed critical faculty is a soul virtue and a faculty; criticism, as passing judgment, is a soul taint.—ViaChrista.org.

crown: (noun) the top of the physical head, the site of the crown center and the 1,000-petaled lotus; when alive with Light under conquering of self, the petals glow and produce a halo effect; the crown of life and Light.—ViaChrista.org.

crucifixion: (noun) the act of crucifying, execution on a cross; figuratively, it is an extremely difficult, painful trial, a torturous suffering.AHD.
  Mystically stated, you must willingly lay personal or self will on the transverse of the Master’s Cross until you only respond to the will of God for you. You must assume full responsibility for lifting everything around you, as you polish your standard of honor, ethics and morals. Crucifixion of the self is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It is the initiation of the fifth Degree of the Master: You begin making a thousand burnt offerings, a thousand days of perfection as you surrender your emotional and mental leftovers to the Light.—ViaChrista.org. See marriage of the Lamb.

cruelty: (noun) To be cruel is to be disposed to inflict pain or suffering; causing suffering.MWD.
  Cruelty is an act or remark that causes pain or suffering; the infliction of physical or mental distress. Cruelty, a sin, is the antithesis of love, and a terrible perversion of the Love principle.—ViaChrista.org.

curiosity: (Latin noun = curiositatem = desire of knowledge, inquisitiveness) a strong desire to see something novel, or to discover something unknown, either by research or inquiry; a desire to gratify the senses with a sight of what is new or unusual, or to gratify the mind with new discoveries; inquisitiveness.WAD.

curses, cursing: (noun) a curse is an abomination; cursing is a sin. Curses include swearwords, but worse is to invoke evil or misfortune; an appeal or prayer for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something. Curses are maledictions that involve verbal misuse and perversion of the spoken Word.—ViaChrista.org.

D

daimon: (Ancient Greek noun = δαίμων = a god, godlike power, fate; Latin = daemon) a lesser deity or guiding spirit; sometimes a hero exalted to divine status. A daimon is not an evil demon! The confusion between these classes of beings arises because they have no physical vehicle and are usually invisible to ordinary human vision; however, they are visible to clairvoyant sight and so are often assumed to be the same. The (Greek) daimon and (Latin) daemon were originally seen as a guardian spirit, what we would call a guardian angel. When in doubt, declare, In the name of Jesus Christ, show your colors! and the apparition must do so or depart.—ViaChrista.org. See demiurgos, demon.

darkness: (noun) the absolute or comparative absence of light, or the modification of visual sensation produced by such absence; gloom; physical blindness. Mental or spiritual blindness; lack of knowledge or enlightenment, especially in religion and morality.AHD.
  Any shadow or darkness must yield to God's Light Light shall overcome all darkness.—ViaChrista.org. See evil, sin.

Day of Creation: See Great Day of Manifestation.

death: (noun) the act of dying; termination of life, the state of being dead.AHD.
  Death is the cessation of the vital spark of life, and many now believe it is the end of everything for them, a purely materialistic falsehood. Death of the physical body is the soul's transition from one state to another, from materiality to immortality. You can die in many ways: from an old attitude to a new, from an. old idea to a new; from am old way of living to a new life in Christ.—ViaChrista.org. See second death.

debt: (noun) an obligation; a sin or tresspass.MWD. An offense requiring reparation or expiation; default of duty: a trespass; a sin.CDC. See spiritual debts.

deceit: (noun) the action or practice of concealing the truth in order to mislead, deception, fraud, cheating, false dealing, a trick, stratagem or wile.OED.
  Deceit begins as the soul taint of hiding things, and is a sin because it is a perversion of truth and reality. An appetite for deceit or habitual motivation to deceive is a hallmark of Belial, the Father of Lies.—ViaChrista.org.

defend, defense: (verb, noun) defend is to make or keep safe from danger, attack, or harm; to support or maintain, as by argument or action; justify. (noun) defense is the act of defending against attack, danger, or injury, a means or method of defending or protecting.AHD.
  To defend, with to improve and to expand, forms the sixth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is to conquer. Standing on truth is your best defense.—ViaChrista.org.


“Heaven is a place of degrees.”


degree: (noun) A step or stage in a process, in an ascending or descending scale, a relative condition or state of being; the degree is the relative intensity, extent, measure or amount of a quality, attribute or action.OED.
  The degrees are initiations by temptations on every law, to test your selflessness, devotional attitudes and soul expressions toward God and man. No equality in status exists, for heaven is a place of degrees. Desire for perfection takes you through the final degrees of initiation.—ViaChrista.org. See Seven Degrees.

degree and kind: (nouns) A degree is a step or stage in a process, especially in an ascending or descending scale. Kind is implanted by nature, innate, inherent, naturally pertaining to, or associated with, a person or thing, proper, appropriate, fitting, belonging to one by right of birth, descent, or inheritance, lawful, rightful.OED.
  Degree and kind is an absolute law: All life exists according to its degree and kind: A rose can be no other kind of flower, but it can grow in degree from bud to full-blown. Divine omniscience operates through the law of degree and kind: Everything is now good according to its own degree and kind. The law of degree and kind explains why all people do not have the same talents, skills, ability and intelligent comprehension. All souls are created with the equal right to become, but equality ends with their choices in what kind to become and to what degree. The law of degree and kind is rooted in the principle of nonresistance; it is an abstract principle, a law of being and a law of doing.—ViaChrista.org.

deity: (noun) Godhead; divinity; the nature and essence of the Supreme Being. Deity is God, infinite self-existing Spirit. The deity of the Supreme Being is manifest in his works.WAD.

delay: (noun) hindrance to progress; to retard; stop, detain, or hinder for a time; obstruct or impede progress.CDC.
  Delay can result from a failure in will or a thwarted desire, but is an irritating or a disappointing initiation. Delay is a great test and trial. Yet when met in peace of mind, knowing that law is acting, delay creates strength great enough to stand throughout the ages, against any apparent obstacle, hindrance or hurt that the world may present.—ViaChrista.org.

delusion: (noun) a fixed false mental conception, occasioned by an external object acting upon the senses, but not capable of correction or removal by examination or reasoning. Thus, a fixed belief that an inanimate object is a living person, that all one's friends are conspiring against one, that all food offered is poisoned, and the like, are delusions. A delusion is a mental error or deception, and may have regard to things actually existing, as well as to illusions. Delusions are ordinarily repulsive and discreditable, and may even be mischievous.CDC.
  A delusion is anything that deceives the mind with a false impression, a deception, a fixed false opinion or belief that resists all one’s efforts of reason to dislodge.—ViaChrista.org.

demand: (verb ) To ask or require as by right or authority, or as that to which one has some valid claim; lay claim to; exact: as, parents demand obedience; to make a demand; inquire peremptorily; ask. (noun) An insistent asking or requisition; exaction without reference to right.CDC.
  Demands without reference to right, which involve the use of verbal and psychological force, are extortionate sins. Raising your voice in making a demand is verbal force and a misuse of the Word.—ViaChrista.org.

demerit: (noun) a quality or characteristic deserving of blame or censure; a fault, a mark made against one’s record for a fault or for misconduct. See credit.
  Credits and demerits are initiations involving how ego and pride affect your choices and actions in dealings with others. God’s appointed accountant enters the day’s transactions on your heavenly balance sheet as payables (demerits) and receivables (credits). Self counts only gross income (credits), so is usually shocked by its thousands of niggling expenditures (demerits).—ViaChrista.org.

demiourgos: (noun) the Latin form of the Greek δημιουργός, originally meant craftsman or artisan, but eventually creator. The Greek demiurge is the volitional aspect of the Elohim, the creator gods. The philosophical usage derives from Plato’s Timaeus, in which the demiurgos is presented as the creator of the universe, responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe.—ViaChrista.org.

demon: (noun) a spirit, or immaterial being, holding a middle place between men and the celestial deities of the Pagans. The ancients believed that there were good and evil demons, which had influence over the minds of men, and that these beings carried on an intercourse between men and gods, conveying the addresses of men to the gods, and divine benefits to men. Hence demons became the objects of worship. It was supposed also that human spirits, after their departure from the body, became demons, and that the souls of virtuous men, if highly purified, were exalted from demons into gods. The demons of the New Testament were supposed to be spiritual beings which vexed and tormented men. And in general , the word, in modern use, signifies an evil spirit or genius, which influences the conduct or directs the fortunes of mankind.—Noah Webster, WAD. an evil spirit, a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin.MWD.
  A demon is NOT a (Greek) daemon or daimon, which is a guardian spirit, a guardian angel. The confusion between these two classes of beings arises because neither has a physical vehicle and are usually invisible to ordinary human vision. However, they are visible to clairvoyant sight and so are often assumed to be the same.—ViaChrista.org.

de rerum natura: (Latin phrase = on the nature of things) the world of nature as distinguished from the world of human beings: of the realm of material things.EB.

depression: (noun) a negative affective state, ranging from unhappiness and discontent to an extreme feeling of sadness, pessimism, and despondency, that interferes with daily life. Various physical, cognitive, and social changes also tend to co-occur, including altered eating or sleeping habits, lack of energy or motivation, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, and withdrawal from social activities. It is symptomatic of a number of mental health disorders.APA Dictionary of Psychology.
  Depression is a soul taint that begins with arrogance and exercising self-will to the point of disobedience to law as you know it. A sense of guilt and sorrow caused by being out of balance under law creates the depression. You hang on the pendulum, swinging between the poles of self and soul, until you repent and work your way back to balance. David, the psalmist, helped King Saul to battle depression by composing many psalms; you can battle yours by reading them. A popular definition of depression is anger turned inward. Depression is a vicious circle, a physical positive feedback loop and thus, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Self lives on a diet of positive feedback, but soul acts as the brakes in the system with negative feedback. Self skews the body’s chemistry, but soul stabilizes it. The ideal state is homeostasis, a physical equilibrium.—ViaChrista.org

descended creator gods: (noun) living souls who descended from Heavenly Realms to earth to gain experience in physical expression.—ViaChrista.org

design: (noun) a plan, conceived in mind, intended for subsequent execution.OED


“Desire is rooted in memory.”


desire: (Greek noun = epithumia = strong desire: epi- = above + thumos, thymos = strong) The fact or condition of desiring; that feeling or emotion which is directed to the attainment or possession of some object from which pleasure or satisfaction is expected; longing, craving; a particular instance of this feeling, a wish. Physical or sensual appetite; lust. Longing for something lost or missed; regret; desiderium.OED. Desire is an emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected; a passion excited by the love of an object, or uneasiness at the want of it, and directed to its attainment or possession. desire is a wish to possess some gratification or source of happiness which is supposed to be obtainable. A wish may exist for something that is or is not abtainable. desire when directed solely to sensual enjoyment, differs little from appetite. In other languages, desire is expressed by longing or reaching toward, and when it is ardent or intense, it approaches to longing, but the word in English usually expresses less than longing.WAD. Thou open Thine hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.—Psalm 145:16. Lord, all my desire is before Thee.—Psalm 38:9. A man should pray to have right desires, before he prays that his desires may be fulfilled.—Jowett Plato.
  In the Homeric poems, thymos is one of a family of terms associated with internal psychological process of thought, emotion, volition, and motivation. Though the range of the term’s applications in Homer is wide, that in itself gives us a sense of the unity of cognitive, affective, and desiderative processes in Homeric psychology. No post-Homeric author can rival that range, but something of the richness of the Homeric conception of thymos as an interrelated set of motivations re-emerges in Plato’s conception of the tripartite soul in the Republic and the Phaedrus. Plato’s thymos represents a pared-down model of human agency typified by one central desire or aim in life but also exhibiting whatever further capacities of persons are necessary to enable it to pursue that aim in interaction with the other elements of the personality. As in Homer, the metaphorical agency of Plato’s thymos does not detract from the notion of the individual as the real centre of agency. Plato’s conception of thymos, in turn, is a fundamental point of reference for Aristotle’s treatment of thymos as a type of desire (orexis). Though Aristotle tends more generally to use the term as a synonym for orgē (anger), there are also traces of older associations between thymos and qualities such as assertiveness and goodwill towards others. Elsewhere, thymos tends to mean heart or mind (as aspects of mental functioning), spirit, inclination, or anger. —Douglas Cairns, thymos. Oxford Classical Dictionary.
  Desire is an absolute principle; God desired to create and the universe was born. Desire is the central building faculty of consciousness. The law of increase operates in you as desire. All desires occur under the expansion principle, which explains why restricting certain desires is necessary. Context defines the degree and kind of desire.—ViaChrista.org

desire body: (noun) the molecular vehicle which, together with physical body, serves as seat of the appetitive soul, the seat of emotion, empowered by seven vital centers, formerly referred to as the astral body.—ViaChrista.org

despair: (noun) to lose all hope, to be overcome by a sense of futility or defeat; hopelessness.AHD.
  You despair when you give in to the thoughts and fears of self and the world, losing your pure Christ mind in the darkness you permit to occupy your thoughts. Despair is a soul taint and a sin.—ViaChrista.org

detail: (noun) an item, a minute or subordinate portion of any whole (especially a large or complex), the particulars or items of any whole considered collectively.OED.
  Attention to detail is the king of all laws, for each smallest task, each simple detail is based on law. What you do, do properly, leaving nothing out of place. That is the law of details.—ViaChrista.org

development: (noun) the generation of a new living being considered inductively as a fact, without reference to the question whether it is to be regarded as evolution or unfolding, or as epigenesis or new formation; the subject-matter of the science of descriptive embryology or embryogeny. The internal or subjective process of unfolding or expanding; the coming forth or into existence of additional elements, principles, or substances; gradual advancement through progressive changes; a growing out or up; growth in general: as, the development of the mind or body, or of a form of government; the development of the principles of art or of civilization.CDC.
  Development, a first step in Ascension, is a gradual unfolding from a latent condition, germination or growth and unfoldment of what is in germ.—ViaChrista.org

devotion: (noun) ardent, often selfless affection and dedication to a person; religious ardor or zeal; piety.OED.
  Your devotion is written in the profile of vows you have made and paid. Devotion, with fidelity and obedience, form the fourth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is Gratitude.—ViaChrista.org

dialectic: (noun) that branch of logic which teaches the rules and modes of reasoning. For a full expanded discussion of dialectic, see Appendix: Dialectic.—ViaChrista.org

dictum de omni et nullo: (Latin axiom in logic) whatever may be affirmed or denied of a class may be affirmed or denied of every member of it.MWD.

differentia: (noun) in logic, the formal or distinguishing part of the essence of a species, by which it is distinguished from other members of its genus; the characteristic attribute of a species; specific difference; as, a proper definition must have both genus and differentia; the set of characteristics distinguishing an entity from related entities.Wictionary.

discernment: (noun) to separate things, or one thing from another as distinct; to distinguish and divide; to recognize as distinct, to distinguish or separate mentally one thing from another, to perceive the difference between things; to perceive or recognize the difference or distinction, to make a distinction, to distinguish or discriminate between, to distinguish one thing or fact by the intellect; to recognize or perceive distinctly.OED.
  “The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”—1 Corinthians 2:14. “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”—Hebrews 4:12. “Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”—Hebrews 5:14.
  Discernment is the intellectual faculty of perception that you use to design thought. To properly study and understand Edna Lister’s laws on discernment, you must also study all laws she taught pertaining to perception, awareness, attention and consciousness in general. Faith enables discernment. Discernment is being a good judge of character.—ViaChrista.org.

disciple: (noun) one who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another; an active follower of a movement or philosophy.AHD.
  The Disciple is the second Degree of Ascension, where one learns self-discipline and forgiveness. A disciple submits to spiritual discipline to re-create his soul’s integrity of intention and of performance.

discipline: (noun) mental and moral training, either under one’s own guidance or under that of another; the cultivation of the mind and formation of the manners; instruction and government, comprehending the communication of knowledge and the regulation of practice; specifically, training to act in accordance with rules.CDC. Eisenhower said, Freedom is the priceless opportunity for self discipline.
  Discipline of the self is the primary activity of the Disciple Degree. Perfect discipline is command over the self until it is utterly subordinate to the soul. Discipline of the self is a law of doing and a soul virtue.—ViaChrista.org.

discord: (noun) a lack of agreement among persons, groups, or things, tension or strife resulting from a lack of agreement, dissension.AHD.
  Discord is disharmony, caused by self usurping soul’s role in life. It is the psychological use of force.—ViaChrista.org.


“Discretion is knowing when to speak and when to remain silent.”


discretion: (noun) is prudence, or knowledge and prudence; that discernment which enables a person to judge critically of what is correct and proper, united with caution; nice discernment and judgment, directed by circumspection, and primarily regarding ones own conduct. To be discreet is to be prudent; wise in avoiding errors or evil, and in selecting the best means to accomplish a purpose; circumspect; cautious; wary; not rash.WAD. A good man will guide his affairs with discretion.—Psalms 112:5. My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion.—Proverbs 3:21.
  Discretion often refers to being silent when speech would be harmful or inappropriate. To properly study and understand Edna Lister’s laws on discretion, you must also study the laws she taught pertaining to idle words, blessings and curses, the spoken Word, and speech in general. Discretion is the power of deciding or judging, the mental faculty of prudence or judgment. You use discretion to consider all factors before making a choice. Being discreet is knowing when to speak and when to remain silent, when to act and when not to act. I vow to keep my silence shining and golden is the Mystic’s vow.—ViaChrista.org.

discrimination: (noun) the mental faculty of differentiation, of making an exact distinction between things in mind and in action, the power of accurately observing differences, for example, between right and wrong.WAD.
  Discrimination, which is both acute and discerning, is the faculty that governs right choice. Discrimination is essential to good judgment. Political correctness is destroying the discriminative faculty. Discrimination is doing the right thing next.—ViaChrista.org.

dishonor: (noun) the loss of honor, respect, or reputation; disgrace; to bring shame or disgrace upon. Honesty is a synonym of honor.AHD.
  Dishonor is the result of committing dishonorable acts in thought, word and deed. Each instance of dishonor sullies the soul, dulls the keen edge of the spiritual and mental faculties, and weakens the moral fiber. Dishonor results in the loss of one’s moral compass; one walks in the darkness and can no longer find Home.—ViaChrista.org.

disobedience: (noun) Neglect or refusal to obey; violation of a command or prohibition; the omission of that which is commanded to be done, or the doing of that which is forbid; breach of duty prescribed by authority. Non-compliance. (transitive verb) disobey: to neglect or refuse to obey; to omit or refuse to do what is commanded, or to do what is forbid; to transgress or violate an order or injunction. Refractory children disobey their parents; men disobey their maker and the laws; and we all disobey the precepts of the gospel. (Disobey is applicable both to the command and to the person commanding.)WAD. By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.—Romans 5:19.
  You disobey law for only three reasons: lack of knowledge that there is a law that covers this instance; a lack of understanding when you do know; willful disobedience. You disobey every time you object. Disobedience is a soul taint. Persistent or deliberate disobedience is a sin. Parents are under solemn obligation before law to teach their children the need for obedience to law, and to teach the laws themselves. Failure to do so causes the parents to share the child’s debts for disobedience in adulthood.—ViaChrista.org.

divinity: (noun) The state of being divine; Deity; Godhead; the nature or essence of God. God; the Deity; the Supreme Being. A false God; a pretended deity of pagans. A celestial being, inferior to the Supreme God, but superior to man. Something supernatural. The science of divine things; the science which unfolds the character of God, his laws and moral government, the duties of man, and the way of salvation; theology; as the study of divinity.WAD.


“What you do either maintains or disturbs the universal equilibrium.”


do, doing: (verb, noun) To do: to perform; to execute; to carry into effect; to exert labor or power for brining any thing to the state desired, or to completion; or to bring any thing to pass.WAD. In six days thou shalt do all thy work.—Exodus 20:9. I will teach you what ye shall do.—Exodus 4:15. I the Lord do all these things.—Isaiah 45:7. Doing: To execute; to discharge; to convey. To perform; to practice; to observe.WAD. We lie and do not the truth.—1 John 1:1. A thing done; a transaction, feat, or action, good or bad.CDC.
  The abstract principles of doing or expression are equilibrium, harmony and balance. What you do or say either maintains or disturbs the universal equilibrium, creates either harmony or dissonance, creates either balance or imbalance in your affairs and relationships. The laws of doing include every instance in the Bible where God commands us Thou shalt (248 times) or Thou shalt not (365 times). Every law of doing directs the soul to the right choice for action. Your freedom to choose makes you the architect of your own life. Each action or expression as doing grows from a choice you have made.—ViaChrista.org. See relative laws of doing.

dogmatic: (adjective) Pertaining to or of the nature of a dogma or an authoritatively settled doctrine; pertaining to dogma or authoritative doctrine in general: as, dogmatic theology. Asserting, or disposed to make positive assertions of, opinion, doctrine, or fact without presenting argument or evidence, or in an overbearing and arrogant manner. In Kantian philosophy, relating to that kind of metaphysics which deduces its doctrines syllogistically, or from the analysis of conceptions, setting out with those which seem perfectly clear and distinct: opposed to critical.CDC.
  Dogmatism is the arrogant, stubborn assertion of one’s own opinion or belief. In effect, any form of dogmatism is closing the question, and when you do so, you close the door to attaining any higher comprehension of the subject, which is unwise at best. Always leave the door open to Truth, for only by doing so may you garner even geater Good.—ViaChrista.org.

doubt: (verb, noun) to waver or fluctuate in opinion; to hesitate; to be in suspense; to be in uncertainty; to be in suspense; to be in uncertainty, respecting the truth or fact; to be undetermined. (transitive verb) To question, or hold questionable; to withhold assent from; to hesitate to believe. (noun) A fluctuation of mind respecting truth or propriety, arising from defect of knowledge or evidence; uncertainty of mind; suspense; unsettled state of opinion.WAD.
  Doubt and fear are soul taints in your faculties of faith and trust. They arise from confusion and uncertainty. To sacrifice them in prayer is your only solution.—ViaChrista.org. See fear.

dualism: (noun) The condition of being double; duality. Philosophy: The view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter. Psychology: The view that the mind and body function separately, without interchange. The concept that the world is ruled by the antagonistic forces of good and evil. The concept that humans have two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual.AHD.
  In religion, dualism means the belief in two supreme opposed powers or gods, or sets of divine or demonic beings, that caused the world to exist. It may conveniently be contrasted with monism, which sees the world as consisting of one principle such as mind (spirit) or matter; with monotheism; or with various pluralisms and polytheisms, which see a multiplicity of principles or powers at work.EB.
  See Howard Robinson, “Dualism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

duality of God: principle and personality.—ViaChrista.org.

dweller on the threshold of consciousness: (noun) The challenger to consciousness, which is a sample of everything negative one has ever done or destroyed, the aggregate of soul taints, the entity formed of an individual’s soul substance misused throughout all past incarnations. If you say, “In the name of Jesus Christ,” its current form will explode, which reduces it. Thomas Bulwer-Lytton’s book, titled Zanoni, describes the dweller on the threshold.—ViaChrista.org.

E

earnings, wages, rewards: (nouns) earnings are that which is gained or merited by labor, service, or performance (wages), hence, to obtain or deserve (money, praise, any advantage) as the reward of labor; to gain a position through hard work and the accumulation of experience, often in the face of difficulties, in a wider sense, to deserve. A wage is a payment for service rendered, recompense; a fitting return. A reward is recompense made to, or received by a person for some favor, service or merit, for hardship endured; recompense for worthy behavior or in retribution for evil acts. Earnings, wages and rewards are all effects, as under the law of cause and effect, reactions under the law of action and reaction. Thus, they are all results of acts under the laws of doing.—ViaChrista.org.

ego: (Greek noun = εγώ = ego) Ego, in psychoanalytic theory, that portion of the human personality which is experienced as the self or I and is in contact with the external world through perception. It is said to be the part that remembers, evaluates, plans, and in other ways is responsive to and acts in the surrounding physical and social world. According to psychoanalytic theory, the ego coexists with the id (said to be the agency of primitive drives) and superego (considered to be the ethical component of personality) as one of three agencies proposed by Sigmund Freud in description of the dynamics of the human mind.EB.
  Freud based his entire psychoanalytical theory (superego, ego, id) on Plato’s conception of the tripartite soul (psyche), which consisted of reason, spirit and appetite. Each of these facets of the soul are far more complex than three simple one-word labels. Soul uses mind, and Mind uses soul. In descending order we name these facets Oversoul, rational soul, and appetitive soul. We limit use of ego to the conscious, thinking subject, the embodied rational soul, an individualized expression of God, as a son or daughter, as opposed to the non-ego or object.—ViaChrista.org. See Oversoul, rational soul, and appetitive soul.

egoic soul: See rational soul.

egoism: (noun) The doctrine that human behavior is motivated by self-interest. The belief that self-interest provides the proper basis for moral behavior.AHD. The habit of valuing everything only in reference to one’s personal interest; pure selfishness or exclusive reference to self as an element of character. noun In ethics, the doing or seeking of that which affords pleasure or advantage to one’s self, in distinction to that which affords pleasure or advantage to others: opposed to altruism.
  Egoism is the theory that regards self-interest as the foundation of morality, the regard of one’s own interest as the supreme guiding principle of action, systematic selfishness.—ViaChrista.org.

egotism: (noun) An inflated sense of one's own importance; conceit.AHD. Synonyms: pride, vanity, conceit, self-conceit, self-consciousness. Pride and egotism imply a certain indifference to the opinions of others concerning one’s self. Pride is a self-contained satisfaction with the excellence of what one is or has, despising what others are or think. Vanity is just the opposite; it is the love of being even fulsomely admired. Pride rests often upon higher or intrinsic things: as, pride of family, place, or power; intellectual or spiritual pride. Vanity rests often upon lower and external things, as beauty, figure, dress, ornaments; but the essential difference is in the question of dependence upon others. Over the same things one person might have pride and another vanity. One may be too proud to be vain. Conceit, or self-conceit, is an overestimate of one’s own abilities or accomplishments: it is too much an elevation of the real self to rest upon wealth, dress, or other external things. Egotism is a strong and obtrusive confidence in one’s self, shown primarily in conversation, not only by frequent references to self, but by monopolizing attention, ignoring the opinions of others, etc. It differs from conceit chiefly in its selfishness and unconsciousness of its appearance in the eyes of others. Conceit becomes egotism when it is selfish enough to disparage others for its own comparative elevation. Self-consciousness is often confounded with egotism, conceit, or vanity, but it may be only an embarrassing sense of one’s own personality, an inability to refrain from thinking how one appears to others; it therefore often makes one shrink out of notice.CDC
  Egotism is the expression of the bad habit of talking about one’s self or one’s doings, the vice of thinking too much of one’s self, self-centered conceit, and boastfulness.—ViaChrista.org.

eidetic: (adjective from Greek noun eidos = form) of, relating to, or marked by extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images.AHD.
  Eidetic is the technical term used to describe what we more commonly call a photographic memory. The ability of certain individuals to recall images, sounds, or events with uncanny accuracy remains a subject of fascination for researchers in the field of psychology.—ViaChrista.org.

eidolon: Greek noun eidolon = appearance, reflection in water or a mirror; later = mental image, apparition, phantom; then = image, statue, idol; from eidos = form, shape.—Etymonline. See idol.

elect: (verb) to select from among a number; specifically, in theology, to select, especially as an object of divine mercy or favor. To choose; prefer; determine in favor of. (noun) One that is chosen or selected; one selected by divine will for salvation.CDC
  The Elect are those who choose God first, and qualify themselves to become the Chosen, the Elect, through their obedience to divine law, sacrifice of self, and ascension of consciousness to access the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Calvinist doctrine holds that God predestined Elect souls for salvation, a doctrine we do not share. God opens His kingdom to all souls who work out their own salvaton by the surrender of self, obedience to God’s law, and ascension of consciousness.—ViaChrista.org

electric current: (noun) is the rate of flow of electrons in a conductor. Conductors, such as the human body, aqueous solutions of salts, and metals like iron, silver and gold, allow the free flow of electrons from one particle to another. Voltage is the force required to drive the current flow through the conductor. Insulators, such as plastic, wood and glass, restrict the free flow of electrons. The flow of electrical current is measured in amperes.—Byjus.com.

electromagnetic spectrum: (noun) the entire range of electromagnetic radiation, which includes, in order of increasing frequency and decreasing wavelength, radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, and gamma rays.AHD.
  The electromagnetic spectrum is God’s Light expressing as all possible degrees of energy. The EMS accounts only for the energies that science can measure.—ViaChrista.org.

electronic body: See fire body.

Elohim: (noun) literally, a host of androgynous, and masculine and feminine beings of Light, referred to in the Bible as gods, God or the Lord God—ViaChrista.org.

emanation: (noun) is the act of flowing or issuing from a fountainhead or origin; emission; radiation.OED. In philosophy: Efficient causation due to the essence and not to any particular action of the cause. Hence, the production of anything from the divine essence.CDC.
  The doctrine of emanation states that all existence flows from the Essence of God, as in the begetting of the Logos, the Son.—ViaChrista.org.
  emanations of Light: (noun) Light emanates from the Godhead throughout the universe as the carrier waves of Wisdom, Love and the Logos. Every emanation is the One Light acting as three expressions of Being, each named for the divine aspect predominating. Light, as the absolute principle and universal framework, contains all that is at the Source as potential and operates as emanations of Mind, Substance and Power to govern, regulate and control the universe through its being and action. The emanations are the absolute principles of being and action: Wisdom manifests as omniscient mind, law, intelligence, knowing, thinking, and planning. Love manifests as omnipresent substance, faith and every nourishing and sustaining expression. The Logos manifests as omnipotent Power, exercised as energy, selflessness, joy, equilibrium and every unifying expression.—ViaChrista.org.

embodiment: Ancient Greek noun = ἐνσωμάτωσις = ensōmatōsis = incarnation.—Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexicon. Investment with or manifestation through an animate body; incarnation; bodily presentation: as, metempsychosis is the supposed embodiment of previously existing souls in new forms.CDC.

emotions: (noun) any agitation or disturbance of mind, feeling, passion, any vehement or excited mental state, a mental feeling or affection (e.g., of pleasure or pain, desire or aversion, surprise, hope or fear, etc.), as distinguished from cognitive or volitional states of consciousness.OED.
  Emotions are based on physical chemistry, and the bodily senses rule them; therefore you have but a few positive emotions. The emotions control subconscious mind and the body when you permit them to. The soul expresses true emotions from the head centers, not from the heart or solar plexus. The first law of expression is to lift desire and emotions to achieve physical balance. To emote is to dramatize your emotion, to act emotionally.—ViaChrista.org.

empathy: (Ancient Greek noun = ἐμπάθεια = empatheia = ἐν = en-, in + πάθος = pathos, feeling) the capacity for understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.MWD.
  Empathy is a combination of imagination and the love of God that gives complete understanding of what others are feeling. Your degree of empathy dictates the development of your moral sense; it can be described as emotional common sense, tact and diplomacy. Empathy, an innate soul quality, is similar to compassion in that a soul who has dispensed with empathy may be forced to suffer in order to relearn it. Develop empathy, which is born of Christlike compassion, because self-based sympathy invites life to kick your teeth in. Empathy is an absolute principle and an abstract principle rooted in the Love principle, a spiritual faculty and a soul virtue.—ViaChrista.org. See compassion, sympathy.

endocrine system: (noun) Concerned primarily with controlling various metabolic functions through the release or inhibition of hormones, the endocrine system of ductless glands includes the gonads—ovaries and testes—islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, the cortex of the darnels, the thymus, thyroid and parathyroid glands, pituitary gland and pineal body.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. See hormones.

endurance: (noun) The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress. The state or fact of persevering. Continuing existence; duration.AHD. “He who endures to the end shall be saved.”—Matthew 24:13. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”—1 Corinthians 13:7.
  Endurance is a character alloy of physical strength, mental stamina and spiritual tenacity. Endurance is an abstract principle rooted in the absolute principle of Power, a law of being, a virtue, a faculty and a Via Christa Degree. The law of endurance, the great virtue of which is to hold, operates under the principle of nonresistance. To apply faith as nonresistance, you must stand, hold and endure, which is the background, the foundation and the reason for miracles.—ViaChrista.org. See fortitude, perseverance.

enemies, adversaries: (nouns) An enemy is an unfriendly or hostile person, one that cherishes hatred, that wishes or seeks to do ill to another, also an adversary, antagonist, opponent, one who hates or opposes a cause, custom, state of things, something that operates prejudicially upon, counteracts the action of.OED. An adversary is one who takes up a position of antagonism, or acts in a hostile manner, an opponent, antagonist, an enemy, foe, opposed, antagonistic, hostile, inimical.OED.
  Enemies and adversaries provide you with endless initiations. You can never be successful in dealing with enemies or adversaries if you view them in personal terms, or take their speech and actions personally. You can pass every initiation when you realize that they oppose God or a principle that you are expressing.—ViaChrista.org.

energy: (Greek noun = ἐνέργεια = energeia = activity, action, operation) a dynamic quality; the capacity of acting or being active; a usually positive spiritual force; the vigorous exertion of power; a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in the production of physical change within the system and usually regarded as the capacity for doing work; usable power (such as heat or electricity), also the resources for producing such power.MWD. Energy is the capacity for work or vigorous activity; vigor; power.OED.
  Energy is relative and temporal, the result of absolute Power being exerted. Beware of conflating mere energy with its source, Power, an absolute principle. Aristotle used energy with a sense of its being actual, real, and existent, as opposed to potential. The scientific usage of the term, energy, dates from 1807.—ViaChrista.org.

ensample: (noun) A sample or specimen; an instance; a typical example. A pattern or model; a guiding example. To exemplify; show by example.CDC. Being ensamples to the flock.—1 Peter 5:3.
  An ensample is an authentic design, a pattern or model of conduct, which may be followed or imitated. There are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.—Hebrews 8:4-5. —ViaChrista.org.

envy: (noun) the feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.AHD. (transitive verb) To envy is to feel displeasure and ill will at another’s happiness, success, reputation, or the possession of anything desirable, to wish oneself on a level with another in happiness or in the possession of something desirable, to wish to possess something that another has.OED.
  Envy is a soul taint and a sin. Envy is ingratitude for what you have; it leads to bitterness and hatred. To an envious soul, life’s glass is always half empty.—ViaChrista.org. See jealousy, coveting.

epoptes: (Greek noun = ἐπόπτης = epoptés) an overseer, or spectator of the Eleusinian Mysteries; one who has been instructed in the mysteries of a secret system.—Thayer's Greek Lexicon.
  The plural term epoptai appears in 2 Peter 1:16 to describe those who witnessed Jesus’ Transfiguration: For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. —ViaChrista.org.

equality: (noun) The state of being equal; identity in magnitude or dimensions, value, qualities, degree, etc.; the state of being neither superior nor inferior, greater nor less, better nor worse, stronger nor weaker, etc., with regard to the thing or things compared.CDC.
  Equality is a Via Christa Degree. A sense of equality is a virtue of character. Equality, with honor and morality, forms the first lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is responsibility. Heaven is a place of degrees; each is on his proper degree … no lasting equality exists, but all have an equal right to ascend.—ViaChrista.org.

equilibrium: (noun) A condition in which all acting influences are canceled by others, resulting in a stable, balanced, or unchanging system. Mental or emotional balance. Physics The state of a body or physical system at rest or in unaccelerated motion in which the resultant of all forces acting on it is zero and the sum of all torques about any axis is zero. Chemistry The state of a chemical reaction in which its forward and reverse reactions occur at equal rates so that the concentration of the reactants and products does not change with time. The state of a system in which more than one phase exists and exchange between phases occurs at equal rates so that there is no net change in the composition of the system.AHD.
  Equilibrium is an absolute and abstract principle and a law of being, is the state of equal balance among all parts of a complex unity, or the living soul, an expression of the Logos. Equilibrium is an absolute and abstract principle and a law of being. The laws of equilibrium, in manifestation, include gravitation, expansion, repulsion, suction and contraction.—ViaChrista.org.

esse est percipi: (Latin phrase = to be is to be perceived) Berkeleianism: a tenet that existence consists in the condition of being perceived.MWD.

eternal identity: See identity.

eternity, eternal: (noun, adjective) Time without beginning or end; infinite time; the state or quality of being eternal, the timeless state following death, the afterlife; immortality.AHD. eternal: existing without beginning or end of existence; existing throughout all time. Having a beginning but no end of existence or duration; everlasting; endless; imperishable: as, eternal fame. In a special metaphysical use, existing outside of all relations of time; independent of all time-conditions; not temporal.CDC.
  Eternity radiates in every direction from now. It overlaps and holds all the past, present and future in this handful of life right now. Eternity is an absolute and an abstract principle, and a Via Christa Degree. Eternity, combined with the degrees of space and time, forms the ninth lesser Via Christa trinity, whose keynote is immortality through conquering space and time. Eternal is being without beginning or end; existing outside of time; continuing without interruption; perpetual; everlasting, forever true or changeless; of or relating to spiritual communion with God, especially in the afterlife. Eternal is that which has always and will always exist; immortal, such as eternal truths, infinite time, and the future life. —ViaChrista.org.

ether: (Greek noun = αἰθήρ, æther) the material element (quintessence, the fifth element) that fills the kosmos above the terrestrial atmosphere. Aether was the mythological personification of space and heaven.—ViaChrista.org.

etheric currents: (noun) The medium filling the upper regions of space, as air fills lower regions, the element breathed by the creator gods. The etheric currents are cosmic rays, as yet unrecognized by science, that nurture and sustain the embodied soul when consciously and intentionally indrawn in the breath. Etheric currents separate heaven and the world. The heliosphere and the Van Allen radiation belt of energetic charged particles (plasma) are examples of etheric currents.—ViaChrista.org.

ethics: (noun) a system of moral principles, the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc., or of an individual; the branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.RHD.
  Ethics is how you apply your morality, your moral code of honor.—ViaChrista.org. See morality.

eudaimonia (Greek noun = εὐδαιμονία = eu = good + daimōn = spirit.) happiness, welfare or flourishing.—ViaChrista.org.


“Evil is a conscious choice made against the Light.”


evil: (Old Englisg noun = yfel) the antithesis of good; in the widest sense, evil is the reverse of good, and is whatever is censurable or morally depraved, bad, wicked, vicious; doing or tending to do harm, hurtful, prejudicial, depraved intention or purpose, desire for another’s harm, causing discomfort, pain, or trouble, unpleasant, offensive, disagreeable, troublesome, painful.OED. “Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they are done in God.”—John 3:20-21.
  Evil includes, iniquity, abomination and vice. Iniquity is a grossly immoral or unjust, wicked choice or an action. Abomination is a disgusting and abhorrent choice of action. The world defines a vice on a continuum ranging from a slight personal failing; a foible, a flaw, an imperfection or a defect, to a serious moral failing, to wicked or evil conduct or habits; corruption, or an evil, degrading, or immoral practice or habit. Vices are usually associated with physical appetites and sensations, and open the door to evil choices. Abstain from all appearance of evil.—1 Thessalonians 5:23 means not to do, think or say it if another can misconstrue it. Evil is an abstract principle, subsidiary to the principles of correspondence and reciprocity under the law of freedom to choose. You cannot see evil, but you can and do see the results of evil choices. Evil is subject to the law of being in the sense that you can choose to do so many evil acts that you become evil. Evil is the perversion of honor, a conscious choice against the Light. Evil cannot exist without a base of individual personality and mind through which to operate. Spiritual darkness accompanies and is a result of the presence of evil.—ViaChrista.org. See sin, darkness.

evolution: (noun) A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form; a result of this process; a development.AHD. The act or process of unfolding, or the state of being unfolded; an opening out or unrolling; hence, the process of evolving or becoming developed; an unfolding or growth from, or as if from, a germ or latent state, or from a plan; development.CDC.
  the process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena. Humankind did not evolve from simian creatures. You are not defined by the body you wear, but by the state of development of your living soul and consciousness. You are a soul who wears a body, not a body that has a soul.—ViaChrista.org. See ascension, development.

example: (noun) a typical instance, a fact or incident that illustrates a general principle or rule.OED. A pattern; a copy; a mode; that which is proposed to be imitated. A pattern, in morals or manners; a copy, or model; that which is proposed or is proper to be imitated. (I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.—John 13:15.) Example is our preceptor before we can reason. A person fit to be proposed for a pattern; one whose conduct is worthy of imitation.WAD.

ex hypothesi: (Latin idiom) according to assumptions made: by hypothesis.MWD.

expand, expansion: (verb, noun) To expand is to open; to spread; to enlarge a surface; to diffuse. To dilate; to enlarge in bulk; to distend; as, to expand the chest by inspiration; heat expands all bodies; air is expanded by rarefaction. The noun expansion is The act of expanding or spreading out. The state of being expanded; the enlargement of surface or bulk; dilatation. We apply expansion to surface, as the expansion of a sheet or of a lake, and to bulk, as the expansion of fluids or metals by heat; but not to a line or length without breadth.WAD.
  Expansion is spreading out, unfolding, opening out, anything that is spread out, an expanse, especially the expanse of heaven, the firmament. Expansion is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being and of doing; a component of a trinity including the principles of contraction and equilibrium. Contraction and expansion were among the first fundamental principles God established as universal laws, and they condition your thinking, imagination and emotional desires. Simply stated, the law of expansion dictates that you may raise the rate of vibration of spiritual consciousness or physical substance, and it expands.—ViaChrista.org.

expectancy: (noun) is anticipation, to look forward to, but also means to presume, to take for granted or demand. Expectations are prospects, especially of success or gain. Living in a state of fervent expectancy of the good is how to always ready for a miracle. Expectancy is an abstract principle, a law of being, and a virtue; an expectation may reveal a taint.—ViaChrista.org.

express, expression: (verb, noun) to press or squeeze out; to force out by pressure. To utter; to declare in words; to speak. To write or engrave; to represent in written words or language. The noun expression defines the act of expressing; the act of forcing out by pressure. The act of uttering, declaring or representing; utterance; declaration; representation.WAD.
  Expression is the overall absolute and abstract principle of doing, forming a trinity with energy and action. Expression is how the Light pours through you to become what you think, desire, emote, believe, speak and do to create. Expression is the overall absolute and abstract principle of doing, forming a trinity with energy and action. God has created law to govern your outer expression. God created you for law to use. Expression includes all laws of doing.—ViaChrista.org.

extension: See intension.

ex vi termini: (Latin idiom) from the force of the boundary : by definition : by implication.MWD.

Eye of God: (noun) the single mystic eye of God sees spiritually, to contemplate all at once. It is the highest degree of spiritual vision, a soul virtue. The Eye of God, with simplicity and sincerity, forms the third lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is balance.—ViaChrista.org.

F

fact: (noun) Anything done, or that comes to pass; an act; a deed; an effect produced or achieved; an event. Reality; truth; as, in fact So we say, indeed. Facts are stubborn things. To deny a fact knowingly is to lie.WAD.
  Fact, combined with legend and vision, forms the seventh lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is relationship.—ViaChrista.org.

faculty, faculties: (noun) That power of the mind or intellect which enables it to receive, revive or modify perceptions; as the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of imagining, of remembering, etc.: or in general, the faculties may be called the powers or capacities of the mind. The power of doing any thing; ability. There is no faculty or power in creatures, which can rightly perform its functions, without the perpetual aid of the Supreme Being.WAD.
  A faculty is an inherent power or ability of individual mind. The faculties include any of the powers or capacities possessed by the human mind. Faculties may pertain to mind (e.g., logic) or to soul (e.g., intuition). Faculties include such mental powers as logic, memory, mimicry, and perception. You may find it difficult to distinguish your faculties from your soul virtues because your faculties are soul virtues at higher levels of ascension of consciousness. Pondering on high matters accelerates the faculty processes. We acknowledge the soul’s relative physical material, mental and spiritual faculties as powers of being. The spiritual and mental faculties are tools of the creator servant of God. The spiritual faculties include wisdom, love and power of discerning truth, faith, comprehension, joy, understanding and peace. The mental faculties include logic, reason and will, discrimination, discretion and discernment and courage, strength and endurance (learning obedience).—ViaChrista.org.

faith, faithful: (noun, adjective) The assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete evidence; belief in general. Firm belief based upon confidence in the authority and veracity of another, rather than upon one's own knowledge, reason, or judgment; earnest and trustful confidence. In theology, spiritual perception of the invisible objects of religious veneration; a belief founded on such spiritual perception. Intuitive belief. The doctrines or articles which are the subjects of belief, especially of religious belief; a creed; a system of religion; specifically, the Christian religion. Recognition of and allegiance to the obligations of morals and honor; adherence to the laws of right and wrong, especially in fulfilling one's promise; faithfulness; fidelity; loyalty expressed in a promise or pledge; a pledge given.CDC. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.—Hebrews 11:1. Adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, cause, or idea; loyal.CDC.Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.—Revelation 2:10.
  Faith is an absolute and abstract principle. The law of materialization is to believe and know, nothing doubting. Complete faith fulfills the law of materialization, because faith is the divine substance of all things hoped for. To take one step at a time in unalterable faith is the law of progress.—ViaChrista.org.

fakir: (noun) A dervish or ascetic, itinerant wonder-worker or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance.AHD. See Adept.

false god: (noun) anything that you worship in place of God, for instance, the body, money, power, pleasures of the world, etc. False gods can also be sins and may be vices. Worshiping the senses is a vice.—ViaChrista.org.

family: See marriage, relationships.

Fans of Pharaoh: See white Wings of the Christ.

fear: (noun) is a very unpleasant or disturbing feeling caused by the presence or imminence of danger. A state or condition marked by this feeling. A feeling of disquiet or apprehension. A reason for dread or apprehension. Extreme reverence or awe, as toward a deity.AHD. The expectation of evil or harm, accompanied by a strong desire to escape it; an active feeling of dread of which fright and terror are the intenser degrees; anxiety. Reverence; respect for rightful authority; especially, reverence manifesting itself in obedience.AHD. To fear (intransitive verb) is to be afraid or frightened of; to be uneasy or apprehensive about; to revere or be in awe of (God, for example).AHD See doubt.

fidelity: faithfulness to obligations, duties, or observances; exact correspondence with fact or with a given quality, condition, or event; accuracy. Faithful is adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, a cause, or an idea; loyal; having or full of faith; worthy of trust or belief; reliable; consistent with truth or actuality.AHD.
  Fidelity operates under the principle of faith as faithfulness. Itis an abstract principle, a law of being, a law of doing, a Via Christa Degree, and a virtue. Fidelity, with obedience and devotion, forms the fourth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is gratitude.—ViaChrista.org.

fire body: an electronic structure, empowered by seven sun centers, which serves as the vehicle of the Oversoul, the electronic body or soulual body.—ViaChrista.org.

fool, foolishness: (noun, intransitive verb) A fool is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding. To fool someone is to deceive or trick; dupe.AHD. The adjective foolish: having or revealing stupidity; devoid of good sense or judgmentWordNet. See ignorance.

force: (noun, verb) physical power or strength possessed by a living being; strength or power exerted upon a person; physical coercion; violence. To use force is to compel, constrain, or oblige (oneself or another person) to do something; to drive or propel against resistance; to compel by force; overcome resistance to (an action or practice).RHD.
  Force is the exertion of self-will that separates the Three-as-One—Mind, Substance and Power: Mind forgets, Substance becomes diseased, and Power is transmuted into relative force, which must then be redeemed (taken back) through a physical object. Force is the misuse of Power, and is a sin. Force may be covert, as in manipulation—exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one’s own advantage—or overt, as in violence—the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one’s will on pain of being hurt. When you bring human will to bear on Power, it becomes force, which must be lifted through a physical object. Jesus said to Peter: When you were young, you girded yourself, and walked where you wished: but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish.—John 21:18, signifying how you pay the debt for forcing your will.—ViaChrista.org. See correspondence, reciprocity.

forgiveness: (noun) the act of forgiving; the pardon of an offender, by which he is considered and treated as not guilty. The forgiveness of enemies is a Christian duty. The pardon or remission of an offense or crime; as the forgiveness of sin or of injuries. Disposition to pardon; willingness to forgive.WAD. “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”—Mark 11:25-26. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”—John 20:23.
  Forgiveness to give the love of God for whatever comes to you. loving with the love of God for God. Forgiveness is a state of being, an absolute and an abstract principle that operates as balance under the absolute principle of equilibrium, a law of being; a law of doing under the principles of mercy and love, and is a virtue.—ViaChrista.org.

form: (noun) The shape or external appearance of a body; the figure, as defined by lines and angles; that manner of being peculiar to each body, which exhibits it to the eye as distinct from every other body. Thus we speak of the form of a circle, the form of a square or triangle, a circular form the form of the head or of the human body, a handsome form an ugly form a frightful form. Matter is the basis or substratum of bodies, form is the particular disposition of matter in each body which distinguishes its appearance from that of every other body. Essential form is that mode of existence which constitutes a thing what it is, and without which it could not exist. Thus water and light have each its particular form of existence, and the parts of water being decomposed, it ceases to be water. Accidental form is not necessary to the existence of a body. Earth is earth still, whatever may be its color.WAD.
  In philosophical terms form is the structure, pattern, organization, or essential nature of anything; structure or pattern as distinguished from matter. In comprehending the nature of form, avoiding the sensory snare of the relative appearance of a form is essential: The form of a thing, anything, represents the Idea from which it springs. The form of anything is its kind. Form is Light at its outermost point of solidity, held together by the universal law of Mind. Form is the principle of concrete reality or expression, and is a law of being.—ViaChrista.org. See Platonic Form.

fortitude: (Latin noun = fortitudo, from fortis, strong.) That strength or firmness of mind or soul which enables a person to encounter danger with coolness and courage, or to bear pain or adversity without murmuring, depression or despondency. Fortitude is the basis or source of genuine courage or intrepidity in danger, of patience in suffering, of forbearance under injuries, and of magnanimity in all conditions of life. We sometimes confound the effect with the cause, and use fortitude as synonymous with courage or patience; but courage is an active virtue or vice, and patience is the effect of fortitude. Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.WAD.
  Fortitude is holding fast to your principles, which gives soul the power to exercise choice. Fortitude is an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a cardinal virtue and a Via Christa Degree under the principles of Power and energy. See endurance, perseverance.

free choice: choice is the soul power of choosing, or selection.—ViaChrista.org. See free will.


“The very essence of man’s divinity lies in his power of choice.”


frenetic: (Greek noun = φρένες = phrenes = midriff, stomach and lower chest or breast) wildly excited or active; frantic; frenzied; also relating to or accompanied by mental disorder; frenzied; frantic.AHD.
  Frenetic is rooted in the Greek phrenes = midriff, which Edna Lister wrote and spoke about in her teachings on Spectrology: Human Geography. The midriff, the area surrounding the solar plexus is the respiratory rate of balance among the stomach, heart and lungs; the conjoint seat of emotions, and of bodily appetites such as hunger.—ViaChrista.org.

free will: In Book IV of The Republic, Plato posits rational, spirited, and appetitive aspects to the human soul. The wise person strives for inner ‘justice’, a condition in which each part of the soul plays its proper role—reason as the guide, the spirited nature as the ally of reason, exhorting oneself to do what reason deems proper, and the passions as subjugated to the determinations of reason. In the absence of justice, the individual is enslaved to the passions. Hence, freedom for Plato is a kind of self-mastery, attained by developing the virtues of wisdom, courage, and temperance, resulting in one’s liberation from the tyranny of base desires and acquisition of a more accurate understanding and resolute pursuit of the Good (Hecht 2014).—O’Connor, T. and C. Franklin, Free Will, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  Free will is the ability or discretion to choose, the power of making choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will. You always choose from a pair of opposites and give up one or the other. This is the limit of free will, freedom to chose the path you take. What you really have is free choice. The law of obligation states that because man is free and endowed with choice and knowledge of moral good and evil, he is under the absolute obligation to conform to law. It is his plain duty to obey the dictates of truth and justice. The very essence of man’s divinity lies in his power of choice. In choice lies the exercise of free will. Free will is the freedom to use the faculty of will through the perfection of the Wisdom of God. Free will is inevitably God’s Will and can never be anything else. The Father’s Will is free only when it may move freely through you without being colored by the earth personality’s willfulness. Thus, free will is a God-given tool for learning through experience, to gain conscious knowledge of what law means and how it will react under every possible combination of conditions and circumstances; your exercise of free will brings complete and undeniable personal responsibility for any and all creations you call into being, whether physical, emotional or mental.—ViaChrista.org.

fundamentum: (Latin noun, literally, foundation) a logical basis or ruling principle.MWD.

G

Garden of Eden: (noun) the biblical earthly paradise inhabited by the first created man and woman, Adam and Eve, prior to their expulsion for disobeying the commands of God.EB.
  Edna Lister, in her lectures on Human Geography, emphasized that every place name and/or proper noun metaphysically corresponds with some feature or process in the human body. In this way, the Garden of Eden refers to everything above the collar bones (clavicles) that join the shoulder blades to the breastbone in the human body. The throat center, which lies just above this, is the transition point between the Promised Land and the Garden of Eden, and marks the final requirement for crossing out the self (I-me-my) in your speech. The gates to the Garden of Eden are closed to the embodied soul until you conquer idle words, your misuse of the Word.—ViaChrista.org.

garment of the soul: (noun) enfolding sheaths of Light condensed into increasingly heavier grades of substance, as the soul takes on form: We are familiar with only the subatomic, atomic, molecular, and cellular levels.—ViaChrista.org.

Gates of Light: (noun) points of ingress or egress between the planes of consciousness within the world (defined as that which is within the heliosphere) and the Realms of Heaven. Only Sagittarius, the Gate of Ascension, always remains open. In Judaism this is the Gate of Repentance (metanoia), which means to turn to God. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.—Malachi 3:7. —ViaChrista.org. See world, repentance.

gift, giving: (noun, verb) A gift is something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation; A faculty, power, or quality miraculously bestowed as an emanation from the Holy Spirit; inspiration, the gift of tongues; a natural endowment, faculty, ability, or talent. As a (transitive verb) giving is an act of giving, a bestowal; to give as a gift, gratuitously, for nothing. As a verb, the action of giving is bestowal: as a gift, given gratuitously, for nothing.OED. Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.—Luke 6:38. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Lights.—James 1:17. A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.— Proverbs 18:16.
  Giving is generosity in action. Giving is a law of doing, and a virtue. Giving is the keynote of the second lesser trinity of the 33 Via Christa Degrees, and it includes the degrees of inspiration, justice and religion. This is the law of all creation: Give and you shall receive.—ViaChrista.org.

glandular centers coordinate body functions by releasing chemical messengers directly into the bloodstrean: endocrine hormones, neurotransmitters, and neuroendocrine hormones. The endocrine system includes the hypothalamus, the pineal body, pituitary gland, the thyroid andparathyroid glands, the thymus, adrenals, pancreas and gonads; the stomach, kidneys, small intestine and adipose tissue (fat) also serve the endocrine system. (See Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology).—ViaChrista.org.

goal: (noun) the end toward which effort is directed.MWD; the end or final purpose; the end to which a design tends, or which a person aims to reach or accomplish.WAD. This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 3:13-14.
  Goals are your intentions, formalized. Setting and reaching goals is an initiation that you face constantly, daily, although you may not recognize it as such. The goal is to be as perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. The goal of your personal work is to attain the Christ mind, the I AM of Oversoul consciousness.—ViaChrista.org.

golden bowl: (noun) Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, [before] the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken.—Ecclesiastes 12:1,6. The golden bowl is the skull of man and everything encased within it, including the higher creative centers, in the brain, hypothalamus, pineal body and pituitary glands. The golden bowl holds the embodied soul’s seat of control over the physical instrument to perfectly express Mind, Substance and Power.—ViaChrista.org.

golden silence: (noun) the state of cosmic consciousness, the I AM, where life is ruled by intuition and illumination expressed in perfect balance, the place of becoming a seer and a prophet. Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?—1 Kings 19:11-13. When Elijah obeyed law and commands, the Lord spoke to him in the silence.—ViaChrista.org.

gonads: (noun) the female ovaries and male testes, which form cells (sperm and ova) necessary for human reproduction. Female hormone secretions include estrogen and progesterone; male hormone secretions include androgen and testosterone. (See Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology)
  The gonads are associated with the Neophyte Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

good: (adjective, noun) Complete or sufficiently perfect in its kind; having the physical qualities best adapted to its design and use; opposed to bad, imperfect, corrupted, impaired. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good.—Genesis 1:4. Having moral qualities best adapted to its design and use, or the qualities which God's law requires; virtuous; pious; religious; applied to persons, and opposed to bad, vitious, wicked, evil. Conformable to the moral law; virtuous; applied to actions. In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works—Titus 2:3. being positive or desirable in nature; having the qualities that are desirable or distinguishing in a particular thing; in excellent condition; sound; superior to the average; satisfactory. Antonyms to good include wrong, sin, evil and immorality.WAD.
  The good is that which is morally proper or right; goodness, righteousness, moral excellence, and virtue. The Good is an absolute principle: God is the absolute and ultimate good. Good is an abstract principle, a law of being, a law of doing, and a virtue. Good is the whole, the perfect, the complete. Good is the fully integrated and sound, in perfect alignment with God. Good is God’s name on earth, which is why we declare things good and very good.—ViaChrista.org. And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.—Matthew 19:16-17.

gossip: (noun) rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature, to engage in or communicate idle, indiscreet talk, and a gossip is a person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumors or facts. A rumor is unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.AHD.
  Gossip is composed primarily of idle words, often damaging to the reputation of others; thus, gossip is a misuse of the spoken Word, both a taint and often a sin.—ViaChrista.org.


“Grace is the milk of God’s mercy overflowing to nourish the soul.”


grace: (noun) Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart and restraining from sin. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner.WAD.
  Grace is the milk of God’s mercy overflowing to nourish the soul, yet you obtain grace only by perfect surrender, repentance and devotion, which turn the divine judgment into mercy. Because God grants you grace, it is incumbent upon you to act graciously toward others. Grace (graciousness) is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being, a law of doing, and a virtue. Grace is an eternal Godlike soul quality, a state of love, comprehension and compassion. You occupy a state of grace when you pray with a whole heart as a Mystic who communes directly with God.—ViaChrista.org.

gratitude: (noun) An emotion of the heart, excited by a favor or benefit received; a sentiment of kindness or good will towards a benefactor; thankfulness. Gratitude is an agreeable emotion, consisting in or accompanied with good will to a benefactor, and a disposition to make a suitable return of benefits or services, or when no return can be made, with a desire to see the benefactor prosperous and happy. gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of duty. The love of God is the sublimest gratitudeWAD. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God.—1 Thessalonians 5:18.
  Gratitude is a law of being, a law of doing, a virtue and the keynote of the fourth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, which includes fidelity, obedience and devotion. Gratitude is the first law of increase. All growth comes under the law of appreciation or gratitude.—ViaChrista.org.

gravity, gravitation: (noun) the gravitational attraction of the mass of the earth, the moon, or a planet for bodies at or near its surface; a fundamental physical force that is responsible for interactions which occur because of mass between particles, between aggregations of matter (such as stars and planets), and between particles (such as photons) and aggregations of matter, that is 10-39 times the strength of the strong force, and that extends over infinite distances but is dominant over macroscopic distances especially between aggregations of matter.MWD.
  Souls are attracted to God through what we call paradise gravity.—ViaChrista.org.

greased pole: (noun) A pole covered with an oily substance to make it more difficult to climb or walk along, used especially as a form of entertainment; used to refer to the difficult route to the top of someone’s profession. Benjamin Disraeli is said to have asserted ‘I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole’ on becoming Prime Minister. (W. Monypenny and G. Buckle Life of Benjamin Disraeli vol. 4 (1916) ch. 16) See Oxford Reference.

Great Day of Manifestation: (noun) A great Age, said to be 4.32 billion years in duration, according to calculations in the Vedas, composed of lesser days and nights; also call a Day of Creation, a Day of God or of a Day of Brahm—ViaChrista.org.

Great Guards: (noun) guardian angels, beings from a higher Celestial Realm who guide and direct embodied souls through use of powerful telepathic suggestions.—ViaChrista.org.

grief (noun) is the pain of mind produced by loss, misfortune, injury or evils of any kind; sorrow; regret. We experience grief when we lose a friend, when we incur loss, when we consider ourselves injured, and by sympathy, we feel grief at the misfortunes of others. Grief is also the pain of mind occasioned by our own misconduct; sorrow or regret that we have done wrong; pain accompanying repentance. We feel grief when we have offended or injured a friend, and the consciousness of having offended the Supreme Being, fills the penitent heart with the most poignant grief.WAD.
  Grief is an emotional reactions to losing something you cherish or value, and provides a sympathetic insight into others’ feelings. Grief is deep mental anguish, as that arising from bereavement. Grief and sorrow Grief is a difficult initiation because your emotions are engaged. Grief too great borders on sin, for it makes the loss greater than life.—ViaChrista.org. See sorrow.

group soul: (noun) many creator gods working together as one to guide and direct creature consciousness. A dedicated group soul is assigned to each level in a family, genus and species.—ViaChrista.org.

growth: (noun) The gradual increase of animal and vegetable bodies; the process of springing from a germ, seed or root, and proceeding to full size, by the addition of matter, through ducts and secretory vessels. In plants, vegetation. We speak of slow growth and rapid growth; of early growth; late growth and full growth. Production; any thing produced. Increase in number, bulk or frequency. Increase in extent or prevalence. Advancement; progress; improvementWSD. See increase.

grudge: (noun) Sullen malice or malevolence; ill will; secret enmity; hatred.WAD. A deep-seated feeling of resentment or rancor.AHD.
  When you hold a grudge, you break your own hold on God and the Light; you can hold either love or a grudge, but not both simultaneously. Holding a grudge is breaking the law of forgiveness.—ViaChrista.org.

guilt: (noun) that state of a moral agent which results from his actual commission of a crime or offense, knowing it to be a crime, or violation of law. To constitute guilt there must be a moral agent enjoying freedom of will, and capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, and a wilful or intentional violation of a known law, or rule of duty. The guilt of a person exists, as soon as the crime is committed; but to evince it to others, it must be proved by confession, or conviction in due course of law. Guilt renders a person a debtor to the law, as it binds him to pay a penalty in money or suffering. guilt therefore implies both criminality and liableness to punishment. Guilt may proceed either from a positive act or breach of law, or from voluntary neglect of known duty.WAD.
  Guilt is a soul taint, at worst, rooted in self-pity. In the best light, guilt is an indicator that one feels a sense of failed responsibility for an action of inaction.—ViaChrista.org.

H

hallucination: (noun) the mental condition of being deceived or mistaken, an idea or belief corresponding to nothing real.OED.
  An hallucination is distinguished from an illusion in the strictest sense as not necessarily involving a false belief, but is a false perception having no relation to reality and not accounted for by any external stimuli. Hallucinations may be visual, auditory or olfactory.—ViaChrista.org.

harmony: (noun) the combination or adaptation of parts, elements, or related things, to form a consistent and orderly whole, agreement, accord, congruity, agreement of feeling or sentiment, peaceableness, concord.OED.
  Everything in the universe operates according to the perfect, meticulous harmony of law. Personal harmony is remaining on one’s own life chord, without descent into self, which creates dissonance and finally cacophony.—ViaChrista.org.

hate: (noun) an emotion of extreme dislike or aversion, detestation, abhorrence, hatred. To hate is to hold in very strong dislike, to detest, to bear malice to, the opposite of to love.OED. Synonyms: Hate, abhor, detest, abominate, loathe. These words express the strongest forms of dislike and aversion of either persons or things. Hate may include the others; it is more permanent and includes more ill-will toward that which is hated. To abhor, literally to start from with horror, is to have all the better feelings excited against that which is abhorred: as, we abhor cruelty. To detest, literally to bear witness against, is to condemn with indignation. Abominate, by derivation and the Biblical use of its congeners, has generally reference to what is offensive to moral and religious sentiment. To loathe is primarily to have great aversion to food, and hence to have like disgust toward that which is offensive to the moral nature or the feelings.CDC.
  Hate is love inverted. Hatred is the destroyer that dissolves the bonds of love. It flourishes only in darkness of soul and invites the presence of evil.—ViaChrista.org.

heal, healing: (transitive and intransitive verb) To cure of a disease or wound and restore to soundness, or to that state of body in which the natural functions are regularly performed. To cure; to remove or subdue. To restore to soundness. To restore purity to; to remove feculence or foreign matter. To remove, as differences or dissension; to reconcile, as parties at variance; as, to heal a breach or difference. In Scripture, to forgive; to cure moral disease and restore soundness.WAD.
  Healing is the restoration to health or wholeness, to perfect balance, harmony and equilibrium: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually; process or act based on the principle of the spoken Word, movement from a lesser to a higher rate of vibration and state of consciousness.—ViaChrista.org.

hear, hearing: (verb) To perceive by the ear; to feel an impression of sound by the proper organs; as, to hear sound. To give audience or allowance to speak. To attend; to listen; to obey. To enjoy the sense or faculty of perceiving sound. To listen; to hearken; to attend. To grant an answer to prayer.WAD.
  Hearing is more than the faculty or external sense by which sound is perceived. Is the source of what you hear of darkness or of the Light? You must guard th eportals of your mind, and your fuve sense are critical to this. To hear of not enought, for you must listen to know the voice, whether of your Master, or of the the world.—ViaChrista.org. See seeing and hearing.

Heavenly Realms: See Realms.

heritage: (noun) (birthright) that which has been or may be inherited, any property that devolves by right of inheritance. It is the portion allotted to or reserved for anyone, e.g., that of the righteous or the wicked in the world to come. A birthright includes the rights, privileges, or possessions to which birth entitles you, an inheritance or patrimony.—OED.
  Perfection is your divine birthright and heritage. The character that Jesus portrayed in the Beatitudes is your birthright. Our heritage is to become perfect servants of love. Heritage is an abstract principle and a law of being.—ViaChrista.org.

hierophant: (Greek = ἱεροφάντης = hierophantes = to show.) a religious conductor, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, who brings congregants into the presence of what is deemed holy, one who interprets, or who can explain the religious or ancient mysteries.—ViaChrista.org.

higher creative center: (noun) the organs of the creator located within the skull: The hypothalamus, pineal body and pituitary gland, the optic thalamus, the brow and crown vital centers and the lotus centers.—ViaChrista.org. See golden bowl.

hindbrain: (noun) is composed of the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the cerebellum. The hindbrain coordinates functions that are fundamental to survival, including respiratory rhythm, motor activity, sleep, and wakefulness.

hippocampus: (noun) forms part of the limbic system, which is particularly important in regulating emotional responses. The hippocampus is thought to be principally involved in storing long-term memories and in making those memories resistant to forgetting.EB.

hold: (verb) To be true, not to fail, to stand, as on a fact or truth. We often say, to hold true, to hold to the good, to continue unbroken or unsubdued. To hold is not to yield, not to surrender, not to be subdued.WAD.
  Hold fast to God, to His truth and the good without wavering or letting go; conquering the self and its love of the senses and the world consists of this. Cleave to your standpoint and you shall be the victor.—ViaChrista.org. See standing, holding and knowing.

Holy Pair: See androgynous beings.

Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, Holy Breath: The Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, and Holy Breath are essentially one in the same. In Hebrew, the Holy Spirit is Ru’aḥ ha-Kodesh = רוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ = divine spirit of inspiration. In Ancient Greek pneuma = πνεῦμα = vital breath, spirit, animation. Ghost comes to us from Old English gast = breath, spirit, angel. Spirit, Ghost, and Breath all refer to supernatural essence or being. God the Holy Spirit acts as the Universal Christ consciousness or Christ principle, and as the Christ Life within mankind. The Holy Spirit is the composite vibration of equilibrium, harmony, and balance.—ViaChrista.org.

homoeomeria: (Ancient Greek noun = ὅμοιος = similar, like + μέρος (portion, part, share).) Anaxagoras taught a doctrine, which H. C. F. Jenkin described: We may with the exercise of a good deal of fancy see in the doctrine of homoeomeria, which taught that all things contained the materials of everything else in a latent state, a foreshadowing of the chemical theory which proves that our bodies are made of the same chemical materials as peas, cabbages, etc., but it requires an elastic imagination to link the old and new creed together.

honesty: (Latin noun = honestas = honor received from others; reputation, character;) In principle, an upright disposition; moral rectitude of heart; a disposition to conform to justice and correct moral principles, in all social transactions. In fact, upright conduct; an actual conformity to justice and moral rectitude; fairness; candor; truthWAD.
  Honesty implies truthfulness, fairness in dealing with others, and refusal to engage in fraud, deceit, or dissembling. Honesty is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being, and a virtue.—ViaChrista.org.

honor: (Latin noun = honorem = honor received from others; reputation, character) the feeling and expression of admiration, respect, or esteem accorded to another as a right or as due. Honor refers to virtue, purity, a keen sense of ethical conduct, and integrity. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) sets the keynote of honor toward God above all things. “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from God only?” — John 5:44.
  Honor is God first and in the center of one’s life. Honor is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a virtue, and one of the 33 Via Christa Degrees. Honor, morality and equality form the first lesser trinity of degrees, whose keynote is responsibility. We honor God as personality, but are loyal to God as principle. A Master learns honor, and polishing ethics and morals.—ViaChrista.org.

hormone: (Greek = ὁρμῶν = hormon = to rouse, set in motion) a chemical substance secreted into body fluids that exerts a physiological control effect on other cells. A hormone is formed in one organ or part of the body and carried in the blood to another organ or part where they exert functional effects; depending on the specificity of their effects, hormones can alter the functional activity, and sometimes the structure, of just one organ or tissue or various numbers of them. Various hormones are formed by ductless glands, but molecules such as secretin, cholecystokinin/somatostatin, formed in the gastrointestinal tract, by definition are also hormones. The definition of hormone has been recently extended to chemical substances formed by cells and acting on neighboring cells (i.e., paracrine function) or the same cells that produce them (i.e., autocrine function).—Stedman’s Medical Dictionary.

hubris: (Ancient Greek ὕβρις) exaggerated pride or self-confidence. The ancient Greeks considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods, and was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the classical Greek tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep human lboundaries and imitations to assume godlike status; the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of his or her mortality. The Greeks viewed hubris as extreme pride and ambition so great that they offended the gods and lead to one’s downfall. Hubris was often a character flaw in the heroes of classical Greek tragedy, including Oedipus and Achilles. The familiar old saying Pride goeth before a fall refers to hubris.—ViaChrista.org.

humility: (Latin noun = humilitatem = lowness, small stature; insignificance) the quality of being humble or having a lowly opinion of oneself, meekness, lowliness, humbleness, the opposite of pride or haughtiness. Humility is a soul virtue. Humility is nonresistance in its purest expression, and it comes before faith. You cannot have real faith without humility, and you cannot reach humility until you give up self. The law of humility is God’s Wisdom and Love in perfect balance as compassion. Humility is nonresistance in its purest expression. True humility is complete willing surrender to be ready for the Father’s use in any capacity, in any way, anywhere, anytime.—ViaChrista.org. See Matthew 11:29.

hyparxis: (Ancient Greek noun = ὕπαρξις) essential nature, the Neoplatonic term for the summit, beginning, or hierarch of a hierarchy. Proclus uses it to mean the summit of any nature, or blossom, as it were, of its essence. Thus, Others, suspending indeed all bodies from incorporeal natures, and defining the first hyparxis to be in soul, and the powers of soul, call (as appears to me) the best of souls, Gods; and denominate the science which proceeds as far as to these, and which knows these, theology. But such as produce the multitude of souls from another more ancient principle, and establish intellect as the leader of wholes, these assert that the best end is a union of the soul with intellect, and consider the intellectual form of life as the most honorable of all things. Proclus, On the Theology of Plato, Thomas Taylor, trans., Ch. 3, 1.

hypocrisy: (Attic Greek: ὑπόκρισις = hypokrisis = the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness, acting)—Etymonline. Simulation; a feigning to be what one is not; or dissimulation, a concealment of one’s real character or motives; assuming of a false appearance of virtue or religion; a deceitful show of a good character, in morals or religion; a counterfeiting of religion; deceitful appearance; false pretence.WAD.
  Jesus taught several laws that warn against hypocrisy, and often called members of the religious establishment hypocrites, notably Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.—Luke 12:1. Hypocrisy is deceit and a sin.—ViaChrista.org.

hypogastric plexus: innervates the colon, bladder, bladder sphincter, gonads and sexual organs.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The hypogastric plexus is associated with the Disciple Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

hypostasis: (Ancient Greek noun ὑπόστᾰσις = under state) Philosophy: The substance, essence, or underlying reality; any of the persons of the Trinity; the essential person of Jesus in which his human and divine natures are united.—AHD.
  Hypostatization: (Ancient Greek ὑποστατίζω = hypostatos = substantially existing, from hyphistasthai; transitive verb = to attribute real identity to a concept—AHD.) refers to a sense of the essence, or underlying reality. We do not wish to conflate hypostatization and reification = reification is the illict imputation of ontological status to something that does not have such status.—Bill Vallicella

—ViaChrista.org.

hypothalamus: a small, versatile nerve cluster that includes the optic chiasm, it lies beneath thalamus; an essential coordinator of the central nervous system, it plays a crucial role in emotions and controls certain metabolic activities, such as maintenance of water balance, control of thirst and hunger, sugar and fat metabolism, regulation of body temperature, influence on blood pressure, sexual behavior, aggression, fear and sleep, as well as secretion of inhibiting and releasing hormones. The hypothalamus, which represents less than 1% of the brain mass, is one of the most important of the control pathways of the limbic system. It controls most of the vegetative and endocrine functions. —Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

I

I AM: The One Mind of God in its Christ consciousness phase, the mind that was in Christ Jesus, which man accesses through his super-conscious mind using his Oversoul faculty of apperception.—ViaChrista.org.

ida: (Sanskrit) the left-hand channel (along the left spinal vertebrae) through which lunar energy flows up and down the spine in the molecular desire body.

idea: (Attic Greek noun ἰδέα = idea = archetype, concept of a thing in the mind of God—Liddell and Scott) In the Platonic philosophy, and in similar idealistic thought, an archetype, or pure immaterial pattern, of which the individual objects in any one natural class are but the imperfect copies, and by participation in which they have their being. A mental image or picture. In the language of English philosophers, an immediate object of thought—that is, what one feels when one feels, or fancies when one fancies, or thinks when one thinks, and, in short, whatever is in one’s understanding and directly present to cognitive consciousness. A conception of what is desirable or ought to be, different from what has been observed; a governing conception or principle; a teleological conception. An opinion; a thought, especially one not well established by evidence. An abstract principle, of not much immediate practical consequence in existing circumstances.—CDC.
  doctrine of ideas: the words (εἶδος = eidos), and ideas (ἰδέα = idea) are attested in the earliest Greek literature.—Liddell and Scott. The theory of matter and form started with Plato; the forms were considered as being “in” something else, which Plato called nature (physis). The latter, corresponding to materia in Latin, from which the word matter is derived, means shaped by receiving (or exchanging) forms.

Socrates, he [Parmenides] said, I admire the bent of your mind towards philosophy; tell me, now, was this your own distinction between abstract ideas and the things which partake of them? and do you think that there is an idea of likeness apart from the likeness which we possess, or of the one and many, or of the other notions of which Zeno has been speaking?
  I think that there are such abstract ideas, said Socrates.
   Parmenides proceeded. And would you also make abstract ideas of the just and the beautiful and the good, and of all that class of notions?
   Yes, he said, I should.
   And would you make an abstract idea of man distinct from us and from all other human creatures, or of fire and water?

ideal: (noun, adjective) A conception of something in its absolute perfection. One that is regarded as a standard or model of perfection or excellence. An ultimate or worthy object of endeavor; a goal.AHD (adjective) Conforming to a standard of perfection or excellence; perfect or highly satisfactory. Existing as an archetype or pattern, especially as a Platonic idea or perception. Of or relating to idealism.—AHD Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and obeys it.-Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

identity: (noun) the quality or condition of being the same in substance, composition, nature, properties, or in particular qualities under consideration, absolute or essential sameness, oneness, the sameness of a person or thing at all times or in all circumstances; individuality, the condition or fact of remaining the same person throughout the various phases of existence, continuity of the personality, an individual’s distinguishing character or personality, a person’s emotional, intellectual and moral qualities.OED.
  God is the primal and ultimate Identity. God must number and name every life spark used to condense an outer form with the particular rate of vibration of a descending living soul. Each living soul’s number and name is specific and unlike any other in the whole universe. Once God numbers and names a life spark, nothing can change or appropriate its identity, for it forever vibrates to its original, God-given number and name. From the complete living soul itself to the life sparks that form the outer physical sheath, substance forever clings to its own number and name and to no other. Number and name constitute eternal identity. Once God bestows eternal identity on a living soul, it cannot be lost unless you destroy yourself by misusing Light, which is all Mind, all Power and all Substance.
  Eternal identity is the source of your freedom of choice, and of your personal identity. Identity is the name and number governing an aggregation of life sparks called a living soul. Spirit is all unnamed, unnumbered universal substance ready to become. A living soul has a specific name and number. Soul expression is personality. Soul does not change, but personality does. Personality must eventually express soul identity, which is the great individuality called the Oversoul. Identity is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being and a law of doing (expression).
—ViaChrista.org. See Personality.

idle words: speech lacking worth or basis; having no value, use, or significance; worthless; useless, vain; futile; pointless, baseless; unfounded.OED.
   Idle words are a misuse of the spoken Word. Using idle words is both a soul taint and a sin, depending on how deliberate the misuse. The defining Christ law on vain speech is Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.—Matthew 12:36-37.—ViaChrista.org.


“That which destroys ignorance liberates the truth.”


ignorance, ignnorant: the fact or condition of being ignorant, a want of knowledge, general or specific.OED.
  Ignorance is caused lack of observation, definite lukewarmness, indifference or failure to care after observation has taken place. Ignorance is a relative law of doing, or in this case, of not doing by not obtaining wisdom. To the soul, ignorance is caused lack of observation, definite lukewarmness, indifference or failure to care after observation has taken place. Ignorance is darkness and knowledge is Light. That which destroys ignorance liberates the truth.—ViaChrista.org.

ignoratio elenchi (Latin phrase = ignoring refutation, fr. Ancient Greek ἄγνοια ἔλεγχος = agnoia elenchos) beside or missing the point, is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument whose conclusion fails to address the issue in question. Also called a red herring argument or irrelevant conclusion, it is one of many relevance fallacies.

illumination That which gives light. Brightness; splendor. Infusion of intellectual light; an enlightening of the understanding by knowledge, or the mind by spiritual light. Inspiration; the special communication of knowledge to the mind by the Supreme Being.WAD.
  spiritual or intellectual enlightenment. Illumination is an absolute and an abstract principle, and a law of being. Illumination is the soul faculty attained when Light penetrates and permeates every cell of the body until you can spiritually see and know. Illumination is the faculty most closely aligned with the Wisdom principle. Illumination is a vibration of Light, which is the Word that was with God and was God. Observation is the lower, outer pole of illumination. The super-conscious mind functions as the faculties of intuition and illumination. Humanity may be humanly intelligent, humanly creative, humanly brilliant, but it lacks spiritual illumination. We lack spiritual illumination only because for centuries of separation from the spiritual world, we focused our intelligence primarily on material and mental subjects. Unless you reach into pure Light and a higher octave of your own chord of life, you can receive no higher illumination of any law. Reaching a higher octave to understand law is achieving illumination.—ViaChrista.org.

illusion: (Latin noun illusio, fr. illudo = illude = deceit, deception) an erroneous perception of reality, an erroneous concept or belief, the condition of being deceived by a false perception or belief, something, such as a fantastic plan or desire, that causes an erroneous belief or perception. Illusion is the deceit of the bodily eye by false or unreal appearances, or the mental eye by false prospects, statements; something that deceives or deludes by producing a false impression; an inaccurate perception, misinterpretation of sensory impressions; in memory, a subjective falsification by addition, omission or substitution in recall of a past experience; a fixed illusion is a delusion.OED.
  Illusion is always founded on a fact, which is then distorted to fit a perversion of truth. Illusion is an initiation in perception of the difference between the truth of appearances (often an illusion) and the truth of reality. Illusion is the misrepresentation of reality by individuals or personalities.—ViaChrista.org.

imagination: the formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses, the mental image so formed, the ability or tendency to form such images, and the ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of mind, resourcefulness.
  Imagination is soul seeing, the faculty of visualization, of making mental pictures or images in the mind’s eye. Imagination is the builder of forms, but produces all illusions when controlled by self. Imagination is the highest creative faculty of mind, but the most unruly faculty. Emotion (desire) is its only unruly phase. Imagination moves from the concrete to the abstract. You can turn the imagination faculty down or up. Imagination turned downward is bondage to self. Imagination turned upward is soul vision, and becomes the faculty of comprehension. As you ascend, your soul vision grows according to the clarity of your disciplined imagination.—ViaChrista.org.

immanence: in philosophy and theology, a term applied, in contradistinction to “transcendence,” to the fact or condition of being entirely within something (from Latin immanere, “to dwell in, remain"). Its most important use is for the theological conception of God as existing in and throughout the created world, as opposed, for example, to deism, which conceives him as separate from and above the universe. This concept has been expressed in a great variety of forms, including theism and pantheism.EB.

immoral, immorality: is defined as inconsistent with moral rectitude; contrary to the moral or divine law; wicked; unjust; dishonest; vicious. Every action is immoral which contravenes any divine precept, or which is contrary to the duties which men owe to each other. Every man who violates a divine law or a social duty, is immoral but we particularly apply the term to a person who habitually violates the laws.
  immorality describes the condition of being immoral. Immoral means contrary to established moral principles. Immorality is a sin, and often involves a vice. Immorality is the result of the conditioning to perversion of morals among youth or another group. It is the sign of a damaged or broken moral compass. Immorality is the precursor to amorality, having no moral compass at all, the hallmark of the sociopath.—ViaChrista.org.

immortality: the quality or condition of being immortal; endless life or existence. To be immortal is to be undying, no longer subject to death.
  Immortality is an absolute and abstract principle; God is immortal, as are the souls He brought into being. Immortality is a law of being; the soul is immortal. Immortality is part of the soul’s true inherent nature, a gift from God. You are formed of immortal substance and named with the immortal Word of God. Immortality is the keynote of the ninth lesser Via Christa trinity, which includes space, time and eternity.—ViaChrista.org.

impatience and irritation: Impatience is a form of forcing, a want of endurance, a failure to bear suffering, discomfort, annoyance with equanimity, irritability, irascibility. Irritation, which is a hallmark of biological life, is the state of being easily annoyed or excited to anger or impatience, proneness to vexation or annoyance, petulance. Impatience and irritation are soul taints. To feel impatience and irritation is a sign that self is rising to the top. When one indulges impatience and irritation, one is pandering to the self.

imponent (Latin imponere) “to impose, put upon; to establish. Thus, an imponent is one who imposes a duty, rule or obligation.

impression: change produced in a passive subject by an external cause, an effect produced by an external force on the senses or mind, a purely receptive sensation or sense perception.

improve: to raise to a more desirable or more excellent quality or condition, to make better; to increase productivity or value; to become better; to make beneficial additions or changes. Improving is a law of doing, rooted in the principle of desire. The ability to improve is a fundamental aspect of ascension. Improvement defines the purpose of ongoing initiation. The ability to improve is grouped with the abilities to defend and to expand to form the sixth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is to conquer.

incarnation: Ancient Greek noun = ἐνσωμάτωσις = embodiment.—Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexicon.

increase: to become greater or larger, to multiply; reproduce. Growth is the process of growing; full development; maturity; development from a lower or simpler to a higher or more complex form; evolution; an increase, as in size, number, value, or strength; extension or expansion. Gratitude is the first law of increase. All soul growth comes under the great law of appreciation, or gratitude.

indifference and lukewarmness: Indifference is the absence of feeling for or against, want of zeal, interest, concern, or attention, unconcern, apathy. Lukewarmness is having little warmth or depth of feeling, lacking zeal, enthusiasm or ardor, indifferent. Indifference and lukewarmness act as opiates to consciousness, and eventually paralyze the will and desires, and kill the mental faculties. They are terrible soul taints. See Procrastination.

ingratitude: lack of gratitude; ungratefulness. Ungratefulness is not feeling or exhibiting gratitude, thanks, or appreciation. Ingratitude begins as a soul taint, but obdurate ingratitude is a sin.

iniquity: a gross injustice, wickedness, a wicked act, a sin.— American Heritage Dictionary. Lack of equity; gross injustice; unrighteousness; wickedness. A violation of right or duty; an unjust or wicked action; a wilful wrong or crime.—CDC. To act in an iniquitous ways is to choose or act in grossly immoral or unjust way, to be wicked.— ViaChrista.org. See evil and sin.

initiation: the formal introduction by preliminary instruction or initial ceremony into some position, office, or society, or to knowledge of or participation in some principles or observances; admission to the knowledge, or instruction in the elements, of any subject or practice.—OED.
  Initiations are also tests. To initiate is to begin something new, which encompasses change from one degree of knowledge to another. Each opportunity for change is an invitation to improve your soul’s command over the self, to do better. Every choice is an initiation; thus, you face countless initiations daily. You progress from degree to degree of ascension by tests and trials called initiations. An initiation is always an invitation to do better. You face many sets of initiations — the Seven Degrees, the 33 Degrees, the Labors of Hercules and lesser initiations on every principle, law, degree, virtue, taint and sin. The laws governing initiation and the initiations themselves apply to every soul embodied on earth, whether they believe in them or not. Understanding them, and the framework in which they operate, offers you invaluable insight to the problems you face in daily life.—ViaChrista.org.

inner conflict: A conflict is a mental or spiritual struggle within, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition, clashing or variance of opposed principles, statements, arguments, or the simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies. Inner conflicts are soul taints. Inner conflict is cognitive dissonance, the uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously.
  We all learned family patterns at home, while we were young. In adulthood, when you find these patterns are at odds with reality, you may entertain inner conflict before you decide to retain or discard the patterns. Political correctness and self-will are often at odds with the readings you register on your moral compass (assuming that your compass is intact, not broken or damaged). Political correctness is not usually healthy or even honest. Instead, it sets the stage for inner conflict and cognitive dissonance. Forceful self-will is immature.

in rerum natura: in the nature of things in the world of nature as distinguished from the world of human beings: in the realm of material things.

inspiration: divine influence or action on a person, believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation; the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions; the act of influencing or suggesting opinions. Inspiration is the action of the Holy Ghost moving through all the soul’s vehicles on every inhalation of the Holy Breath. Inspiration is a law of being; you are inspired by the Holy Breath of God. Inspiration is a law of doing under the principle of desire; through the power of the Holy Breath inspiring you, you may become an inspiration to others. Inspiration, with justice and religion, forms the second lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is giving.

insult: (intransitive verb) to treat with gross insensitivity, insolence, or contemptuous rudeness. synonym: offend. To affront or demean. (noun) An insulting remark or act. Something that causes injury, irritation, or trauma.—MWD. An affront, or a hurt inflicted upon one’s self-respect or sensibility; an action or utterance designed to wound one’s feelings or ignominiously assail one’s self-respect; a manifestation of insolence or contempt intended to provoke resentment; an indignity. Contemptuous treatment; outrage.—CDC. See offenses.

integrity: steadfast adherence to a code of moral or ethical values, incorruptibility, and the quality or state of being complete or undivided. Integrity is the complete integration of mind, soul and Spirit, a syzygy of consciousness. Integrity is a law of doing; you may act in an integrated way, in alignment with your Source of Being and thus inspire others to be confidant in you.

intellect: the ability to learn and reason, the capacity for knowledge and understanding, the ability to think abstractly or profoundly. Intellect is a mental faculty whose quantity is limitless, but whose quality is restrained by the degree of self governing its use. Self holds intellect in an uncreative pattern, ranging from lack of critical thinking skills to inability to think imaginatively. Intellect, under the soul’s command, has no upper limit to creativity. Intellectual intelligence has 44 faculties, which you never discard. The five essential mental faculties (logic, reason, discernment, discrimination, and discretion) lead to spiritual intelligence and understanding. Each grade (degree) of intellect interprets according to its kind. Living in the intellect brings the consciousness down and holds you at the horizontal level. When you worship intellect, you are worshiping your own mental faculties. Do not confuse wisdom with pride of intellect.

intension, extension: in logic, are correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: intension indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and extension indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of ship as a substantive is vehicle for conveyance on water, whereas its extension embraces such things as cargo ships, passenger ships, battleships, and sailing ships. The distinction between intension and extension is not the same as that between connotation and denotation.EB.

intolerance: the absence of tolerance for difference of opinion or practice, especially in religious matters, denial of the right to differ, narrow-minded or bigoted opposition to dissent. Intolerance is a soul taint, spiritual repudiation externalized as opinion and personalized as prejudice.—MWD.

intuition: the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference: immediate apprehension or cognition: knowledge or conviction gained by intuition: quick and ready insight.MWD.
  Intuition is immediate mental apprehension without the intervention of any reasoning process. It is absolute knowing without suspicion or rationalization. Intuition is the soul faculty most closely aligned with the Love principle; intuition is knowing through love. Intuition is an abstract principle, a law of being, and a mental and spiritual faculty. Intuition is not to be confused with ESP, psychic ability, hunches, suspicion or rationalization. God created you to express Light through intuition and illumination. The super-conscious mind functions as these faculties. The five physical senses (hearing, seeing, speech, feeling, tasting) form the basis of the faculty of intuition. Intuition awakens as you apply the mental faculties of logic, reason, discrimination, discretion and discernment. The power of intuition from the heart of being ignites inspiration and causes the mental faculties to look up in fervent enthusiasm and expectancy. Spiritual seeing is first a sense of knowing, which is purely spiritual intuition.—ViaChrista.org. See illumination.

involution the act or an instance of enfolding or entangling: an inward curvature or penetration.”—MWD.
  Involution describes the journey outward into Creation, involving the creator gods in separation and darkness, the creative process used to lower the rate of vibration and condense substance, descension.

ipse dixit: (Latin = he himself said it.) an assertion made but not proved.MWD.

ipso facto: (Latin = by that very fact or act) an inevitable result.MWD.

irritation: The condition of being irritated; vexation.—AHD. (noun) The act of irritating, or the state of being irritated; impatient or angry excitement; provocation; exasperation. Stimulation; incitement; a stirring up to activity. In physiology, the act of evoking some action, or change of state, in a muscle, nerve, or other living tissue, by some chemical, physical, or pathological agent; the state or action thus evoked.—CDC.
  Irritation, which is a hallmark of biological life, is the state of being easily annoyed or excited to anger or impatience, proneness to vexation or annoyance, petulance. Irritation is a soul taint. To feel irritated is a sign that self is rising to the top. When one indulges irritation, one is pandering to the self.—ViaChrista.org. See impatience.

isomorphic: being of identical or similar form, shape, or structure.MWD.

J

jealousy: Negatively, jealousy is being fearful or wary of being supplanted, of losing affection or position, being resentful or bitter in rivalry, envious. Positively, jealousy is being vigilant in guarding something, and insistent on loyalty or fidelity. To be jealous is to be “hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage: intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness: disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness: vigilant in guarding a possession.” — Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
  Jealousy, an intensely personal form of coveting, is a soul taint and a sin. See coveting and zeal.

joy: (Latin gloria) is a vivid emotion of pleasure arising from a sense of well-being, the feeling or state of being delighted, exultation of spirit, gladness, especially the perfect bliss of heaven.
  Joy is an absolute principle, energy; joy is love in action. Joy is an aspect of the Logos Emanation, an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being, a soul virtue and a spiritual faculty. Joy perfectly describes the state of Christed consciousness. Joy is an anticipating soul quality, and an outer state of consciousness. Joy is the essence of responsibility, responsibility the essence of joy, and they are one. “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”—John 15:11. The law of rejoicing recreates body, mind, heart and soul into the image and likeness of the One God.

judgment, judging: (noun) The act or process of judging; the formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation. An opinion or estimate formed after consideration or deliberation, especially a formal or authoritative decision. The mental ability to perceive and distinguish relationships; discernment. The capacity to form an opinion by distinguishing and evaluating. The capacity to assess situations or circumstances and draw sound conclusions; good sense: synonym: reason.— American Heritage Dictionary. (noun) Specifically— The intellectual power of perceiving relations between ideas, as the relations of similarity, difference, etc. The act of judging. The act of affirming (or denying) a relation (as of similarity or difference) between two ideas. The process of arriving at a conclusion or decision; the determination of a doubtful or debatable matter.The product of the mental act of judging; the recognition of a relation between objects; a mental affirmation or proposition; the thought that a given general representation is really applicable to a certain object; the actual consciousness of belief.The decision of a judge, or of one acting as a judge; an authoritative determination; specifically, the judicial decision of a cause in court; adjudication; award; sentence.— Century Dictionary. The formation of an opinion or notion concerning something by exercising the mind upon it; an opinion, estimate, the faculty of judging, the critical faculty, discernment, good or sound judgment, discernment, discretion, wisdom, understanding, good sense.— Oxford English Dictionary.
  Judgment may be righteous or unrighteous, according to the amount of self you introduce in the equation. We think of those who judge righteous judgment as being a good judge of character. We think of those who judge without righteousness as being judgmental. Judgment is an absolute and an abstract principle rooted in Wisdom, a law of being, and a mental faculty. “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”—John 7:24. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”—Matthew 7:1-2.

Judgmental: disapproving : tending to judge people too quickly and critically.— Britannica Dictionary.
  Judgment may be righteous or unrighteous, according to the amount of self you introduce to the equation. We think of those who judge righteous judgment as being a good judge of character. We think of those who judge without righteousness as being judgmental. Being judgmental is a soul taint and a sin.

just appraisal: a combination of mental faculties: To be just is to be upright and impartial in one’s dealings, rendering everyone his due, equitable. An appraisal is a formal evaluation of the performance of a person over a particular period, evaluation or assessment in this manner, intended to improve individual performance. A just appraisal is different from analysis, criticism or suspicion. You apply the law of a just appraisal to the appearance of the situation or person, without being gullible. Illumination, intuition, plus common sense gives you a just appraisal. Yet you must watch that it does not degenerate into criticism.

justice: the conformity of an action to moral right, or to reason, truth, or fact, fairness, correctness, propriety.
  Justice is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a virtue and a Via Christa Degree. One of the four cardinal virtues, justice is observance of the divine law, the state of being righteous or just before God. Justice, with inspiration and religion, forms the second lesser trinity of the Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is giving. You must be justice tempered with mercy, for mercy tempered with justice is too soft. Once the soul signs the vows and covenants with the Oversoul, the divine principle of justice shows you your appetitive soul faults and brings you back in line. You always collect the interest you’ve earned, and receive pure justice under divine law.

justification: (noun) The act of justifying, or of showing something to be just or right; proof of fairness, propriety, or right intention; vindication; exculpation; upholding. Specifically In law: The showing of a sufficient reason in court why a defendant did what he is called to answer: as, a plea in justification. In theology, the act by which the soul is reconciled to God. The act of adjusting or making exact; the act of fitting together, as the parts of anything. Synonyms apology, exculpation, exoneration. — Century Dictionary.To justify is to demonstrate or prove to be just, right, or valid; to declare free of blame; to absolve.— Oxford English Dictionary.
   Justification is a law of doing, an initiation or a taint. God always justifies you when you are upright and obedient to law under the Light. Soul stands on principle and awaits God’s justification; self impatiently and defensively excuses, explains and justifies itself. Thus, justification is an initiation.

K

karma (Sanskrit noun = “carry over”) The totality of a person’s actions and conduct during successive incarnations, regarded as causally influencing his or her destiny. The law or principle through which such influence is believed to operate. Fate or destiny resulting from one’s previous actions.— American Heritage Dictionary.
   Karma expresses the law of action and reaction, cause and effect. See spiritual debts.

kinship: (noun) Connection by heredity, marriage, or adoption; family relationship. Relationship by nature or character; affinity.— American Heritage Dictionary. Relationship; consanguinity; generic affinity.— Century Dictionary.
  Kinship includes many laws of being and doing. The parent-child relationship is one of kinship, the connection may be by blood, marriage, adoption, or any family relationship. Spiritually, kinship is relationship by nature or character, as soul affinity. Kinship is rooted in the principles of Spirit and love or substance; kinship must obey the laws of being and of doing.

knowing: “to perceive directly; grasp in the mind with clarity or certainty; to regard as true beyond doubt: to have a practical understanding, as through experience; be skilled in: to have fixed in the mind: to have experience of: to perceive as familiar; recognize: to be acquainted with: to be able to distinguish; recognize as distinct: to discern the character or nature of.” Knowing is an absolute principle; God is all-knowing, or omniscient. Knowing is both fact-based knowledge and intuition, which is your relative apprehension of divine Mind. Knowing is an abstract principle of Mind, a law of being, and a mental and a spiritual faculty. See standing, holding and knowing.

knowledge acquaintance, familiarity gained by experience, intellectual acquaintance with or perception of, fact or truth, understanding, a mental apprehension, perception, intuition, or other cognition. Knowledge is information gained through observation, pondered, analyzed and fitted into the facts of one’s life.

L

Labors of Hercules: The twelve Labors of Hercules is a series of formal initiations that outline the soul’s advance in its ascent to God. Initiation is how you step from degree to degree by tests and trials. You face many sets of initiation on every principle, law, degree, virtue, taint and sin. The ancients used the stories of the Labors of Hercules to describe the initiations that a candidate must face while traveling one full round on the spiral Path of Ascension. They often associated the stories with the twelve signs of the zodiac, which they used as a mnemonic device, making the steps to the goal easier to remember. The stories are an ancient form of parables. The order in which the Labors occurred differs at various places in the two accounts, by Diodorus Siculus and Apollodorus.

Land of Egypt: The abdominal cavity, organs and systems contained therein, which is the seat of the lower three vital centers, the solar plexus (ruled by Pharaoh), the splenic and the sacral, and the lower pole of Paracelsus.


“Develop a sense of humor that gives you balance, perspective,
poise, and patience.”


Laughter, a virtue, is a soul-expanding delight that shortens time. Every laugh you manage cuts short the miles and hours and days of drudgery. You can ascend the physical body on laughter. Develop a sense of humor that gives you balance, perspective, poise, and patience. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Learn to laugh at yourself and go up in consciousness.

law, the framework of Creation, describes the nature of the Light, and how Light differentiates into innumerable living souls. Light is the origin and culmination of all being, which holds the potential for all becoming. Laws describe the infinite varieties of forms, all made of Light. Laws define the nature of your relationship with your Source, God as the Light, and govern your relationships, vertically with God, and horizontally with humankind. Where life does not proceed according to the rule of law, the result is without structure or form, void, the destructive chaos of confusion. Life without law is a body without a skeleton, unable to rise above the muck that nourishes protozoa.
  Law is “a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society, a rule of conduct imposed by authority.” Divine law is the body of commandments which express the will of God with regard to the conduct of His intelligent creatures, law as communicated by express revelation, especially in the Bible, as implanted by nature in the human mind, or as capable of being demonstrated by reason. Law is what is or is considered right or proper; justice or correctness of conduct. Every absolute principle becomes many abstract laws of being and laws of doing. Being is all that God is as potential Wisdom, Love and the Logos. The laws of being include every instance in the Bible where God commands you to “be” some soul quality. Every law of being embodies the foundation of a soul virtue, and leads the soul toward an ideal state of being that you are destined to become.
  We form laws of doing to temper abstract principle to suit individual intelligence and consciousness, to control and govern soul unfolding, behavior and relationships, according to our present degree of understanding and development. The abstract principles of doing or expression are equilibrium, harmony and balance. The laws of doing apply to visible, material things and living souls, and deal with personal expression and action. The laws of doing include every instance in the Bible where God commands “Thou shalt” (248 times) or “Thou shalt not” (365 times). Every law of doing directs the soul to the right choice for action; apply this rule to discover many more unrecorded laws. The law that humanity recognizes comes from a higher set of principles, many of which yet remain undiscovered. Law attempts to define the relation of elements and their behavior toward each other. Law governs relationship. The law governing the relationship of a part to the whole also governs and controls the relationship of part to part, which explains the basis of attaining perfect harmony in all outer relationships. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” — Matthew 5:18.

law of becoming: God has given Substance the power of becoming.

law of cause and effect: The law of action and reaction, the source of Newton’s third law of motion, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

law of contraction: Substance and consciousness may be contracted or lowered in their rate of vibration.

law of degree and kind: Everything is now good after its own degree and kind (for this kind of thing, in this degree).

law of expansion: Substance and consciousness may be expanded or raised in its rate of vibration.

law of force, is the reaction of misuse of Power under the law of cause and effect, the boomerang effect that always returns the force of misuse to the sender, or to its starting point.

law of freedom of choice: God has given the living soul the power of conscious direction and control.

law of observation is the application of the mental faculties of logic, reason, discrimination, discretion and discernment.

laws of absolute necessity: If you live by the following laws of absolute necessity, you will have full protection: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” — Matthew 6:33. “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.” — Matthew 5:25. “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:22. “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” — John 21:22. “I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me.” — John 12:32. “This is Good! Let there be Light!” — Genesis 1.

laws of action: The law of freedom of choice, the law of degree and kind, and the law of becoming. See Laws of doing.

laws of being: are absolute and abstract principles as states of being and consciousness; all are facets of conscience and direct you to action, right or wrong. Every absolute principle becomes many abstract laws of being and laws of doing. Being is all that God is as potential Wisdom, Love and the Logos; doing implies action and is kinetic thinking, sustaining and activity, derived from being. In dealing with “being” as it applies to spiritual laws, we are always concerned with states of consciousness, which are states of being. The laws of being include every instance in the Bible where God commands you to “be” some soul quality. Every law of being embodies the foundation of a soul virtue, and leads the soul toward an ideal state of being that you are destined to become.

laws of doing temper abstract principles to suit individual intelligence and consciousness, to control and govern soul unfolding, behavior and relationships, according to our present degree of understanding and development. The laws of doing apply to visible, material things and living souls, and deal with personal expression and action. Doing is the action of the verb “to do, action, proceeding, conduct, performance or execution of something.” The abstract principles of doing or expression are equilibrium, harmony and balance. What you do either maintains or disturbs the universal equilibrium. What you do creates either harmony or dissonance, and will create either balance or imbalance in your affairs and relationships. The laws of doing include every instance in the Bible where God commands “Thou shalt” (248 times) or “Thou shalt not” (365 times). Every law of doing directs the soul to the right choice for action; apply this rule to discover many more unrecorded laws. Our freedom to choose is the underpinning of every law of doing. Each action or expression as “doing” grows from a choice you have made.

laws of substance: The law of expansion and the law of contraction; see Contraction, Expansion and Sublimation.

laziness: See procrastination.

leadership, a virtue: A leader is “one who conducts, precedes as a guide to others in action or opinion, one who takes the lead in any enterprise or movement, one who is ‘followed’ by disciples or adherents, the most eminent member of a profession, a person of eminent position and influence, the first person in a file, one in the front rank"; see Luke 6:39-40. Edna Lister said, “Our nation is to give to the world the love and understanding of one for all others. This joy, to create in love, will encircle the world as universal love is established. The only ruling law is love. It will bind nations together. The people’s faith in their leaders shall be supreme. By your faith in your Lord and Master, by talking of this to others, you will lead all to him. Think, talk about and look for unity, and it will come from unexpected sources."

Learning lessons: Learning is “the action of receiving instruction or acquiring knowledge; a process which leads to the modification of behavior or the acquisition of new abilities or responses, and which is additional to natural development by growth or maturation.” A lesson is “an occurrence from which instruction may be gained, an instructive example, a rebuke or punishment calculated to prevent a repetition of the offence.” Learning lessons is your reason for being on earth. You are here to learn how to live as the Christ lived while he dwelt on earth. Learning a lesson is always an initiation.

legend: A legend is a story about mythical or supernatural beings or events. Such stories usually embody wisdom or a cautionary tale. Knowing and understanding legends is essential to comprehending your eternal identity with God, the Source of All. Legends grow from facts. You must search for the truth in legends, to unfold their hidden facts. Legend, with Facts and vision, forms the seventh lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is relationship.

letting, a virtue: To let is “to allow to pass, to loose one’s hold of, let go, to desist, forbear, to set free, liberate, to abstain from interfering with or paying attention to a person or thing, to abstain from doing an action.” The right use of Power is letting. To “let” is to become unconquerable, fully invincible as law. “Let” is the only legal claim on Power. God has given the rational soul the power of conscious direction and control through the spoken Word. God has given universal Substance only the power to become the vibration the spoken Word decrees. “Let” is the only spoken Word that Substance recognizes. Self regards “letting” as being a passive doormat. Yet “to let” is to cause or to command dynamically, as in the soul commanding the self and causing it to ascend. Letting is a law of doing under the absolute principle of nonresistance. Letting is the individual’s application of the principle of nonresistance. Letting, without attempting to control the outcome, is usually a stiff initiation.

lies and lying: A lie is “an act or instance of lying, a false statement made with intent to deceive.” Lying is untruthful, mendacious, deceitful, and false. Lies are falsehoods, a deliberate deviation from truth. The Father of Lies (Belial) is the author of evil and murder. Lying is the perversion of the spoken Word and a sin.

life is the combination of physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute existence; a spiritual state regarded as a transcending of corporeal death. Life is the Breath of God within you working to its own purposes, using you as its instrument of expression.

life principles: Mind, Power and Substance as expressions of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence.

life spark: The smallest particle of original, primordial, invisible Light-Substance from which God formed all Creation.

life urges or principles: Seven trinities of action, the first of which is mating, eating and sleeping; second, emergence maturity and decline; third, instinct, intelligence and intellect; fourth, respiration, aspiration and inspiration; fifth, thinking, planning and building (seeking, knocking and finding); sixth, belief, faith and knowing; seventh, loving, brotherhood and service.

life wave: In each Day of Manifestation, the Light emanates from the Source of All That Is in seven successive waves, called life waves, which animate the whole of Creation, according to its inherent degree of consciousness. For example, on our planet, Light as life ranges from the life sparks forming lead, the heaviest of elements, to the ultraviolet and infrared extremes embodied in the electromagnetic spectrum.


“This is good. Let there be Light.”


lifting: To lift is “to carry from a lower to a higher position, to raise; to raise in condition, rank, or esteem; to uplift; to elate.” Lifting is an abstract principle and an act of love. Lifting is a law of being; you must remain lifted up in consciousness. Lifting is a law of doing, an expression of your love, and a soul virtue. Lifting is the right response to any negative thought, emotion or situation, the right use of imagination by seeing on a cloud of Light every person, place, situation or thing on your lines of Light, and speaking the Word for their healing: “This is good. Let there be Light."

Light, the universal absolute principle, is the original, primordial, universal substance of Light, as life sparks. A life spark is the smallest particle of original, primordial, invisible Light-substance from which all creation is formed. Light is the Godhead, the universal absolute principle, the source of the Emanations. Light is. God is. God is Light. Light is God, externalized in manifestation. Light pours from the Godhead through the universe as waves or Emanations of Light, which consist of Wisdom, Love and the Logos.
  Law, which is the framework of Creation, describes the nature of the Light, which is God. Laws describe the infinite manifestations of forms, all of which are made of Light, and how that Light is differentiated into innumerable living souls. Light is what the soul becomes. Light also works as the lesser principles of color, tone, number, name (spoken Word) and form. A universe is illuminated by three types of light, material light, intellectual insight and spiritual luminosity.

lights and colors: The radiance and hues of the soul’s aura that change with each passing emotion.

limbic system: Encircling the brainstem like a “wishbone,” the limbic system is a minibrain that largely controls emotions and behavior, arouses or tempers feelings ranging from joy to misery and love to hate; apparently it is also crucial for learning and short-term memory; man’s limbic system shows little difference from that of primitive mammals.—Guyton and Hall

line of fate: The path of one who lives by self, instinctive desire and the intelligence of creature consciousness, seeking to control and manipulate the conditions of life, with little or no personal desire to become selfless and perfect.

lines of Light: Filaments of soul substance life sparks radiating from each living soul to every other numbered and named rate of vibration ever contacted, which includes soul substance invested in others, animals, objects, or situations.

little self: The appetitive soul, the instinctive intelligence and selfish desire of the creature.

living soul: Mind condensed as Substance into physical form as a vehicle of expression, the living soul is that creator servant presence we call an individual; see Soul portions.

logic is “the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference; reasoned and reasonable judgment; the principles that guide reasoning within a given field or situation.” Logic is the fundamental science of thought, a means of proving; a set of absolute abstract principles which governs and balances reasoning; from the Greek term, logos, meaning “word.”
  You use logic, which is the set of absolute abstract principles that govern and balance reasoning, as a means of distinguishing correct from incorrect reasoning; logic enables you to apply abstract principle to daily living. Logic is an absolute principle, rooted in the Logos Emanation, an abstract principle, and a faculty. Your logic faculty opens when you meet an unchangeable principle or fact of life that you cannot alter or interpret to suit your theories or to justify your actions or statements. As you apply logic, it leads to right thinking, which can recondition your life into perfection.

logic-chopping (also known as quibbling, nit-picking, smokescreen, splitting-hairs, trivial objections), is defined as “using the technical tools of logic in an unhelpful and pedantic manner by focusing on trivial details instead of directly addressing the main issue in dispute; irrelevant over-precision. https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Logic-Chopping

logorrhea: A tendency to extreme loquacity; talkativeness.

Logos: In grammar, logos is a form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker uses logic as the main argument. In Judaism, it is the Word of God, which itself has creative power; in Christianity, the Logos is the creative Word of God, which is itself God and incarnate in Christ. In Presocratic philosophy, the Logos was the principle governing the cosmos. Among the Sophists, it included the topics of rational argument. In Stoicism, the Logos was the active, material, rational principle of the cosmos.
  The Logos (Word) is an Emanation, an absolute and abstract principle, and a law of doing. The third Emanation, the Son principle contains all possible combinations of Sons and Daughters of God as personality; the Holy Ghost, Holy Breath, the white Light of the Christ, the Universal Christ Principle, Christed consciousness in man, Selflessness, Joy, the red ray of the Son, Source of all Energy; Equilibrium, the root of all action and motion leading to harmony and balance.

lotus centers: The forty-four atomic mental body centers must be open and flexible to transform the etheric currents into physical energy to balance the endocrine and central nervous system.


“Love is the cohesive power of attraction throughout the universes.”


love: The world defines love as “a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude, a feeling of intense desire and attraction.” Love is an Emanation of Light from the Godhead, the substance, the foundation, the framework, the matrix of all things. Love, with Wisdom and Joy (the Logos) forms the Absolute Trinity of the Emanations that are the ruling vibrations of the universe. Love is an absolute principle of being, and the great law of being. You are destined to become the Love of God, being as He is. Love is a law of doing: Your solemn yet joyous obligation is to love as God loves. Love is omnipresent as Substance, faith and every nourishing and sustaining expression of the feminine Mother-aspect of God. Love is the very Substance of which are formed, the carrier wave of Light, Mind and Power. Love, with Wisdom and Power, forms the eighth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is Action.
  Love ignites suns and fuels their burning radiance. Love is the cohesive power of attraction that holds solar systems and galaxies in their places, endlessly orbiting the Primal Source of All Light. Love is the glue that holds everything together as magnetic attraction. You are drawn to God through Love, acting on your soul as Paradise Gravity. Desire, fully matured in the soul, becomes Love divine, the most aggressive, cohesive power in the universe. Love nourishes and sustains every being and body in the universes. Love sent you out here, and Love will take you home, when you let it. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love operates the endocrine system (glands and hormones). Wisdom operates the central nervous system (neurotransmitters). This insight causes all laws to slide into place.
  Love is the cohesive power of attraction throughout the universes. The second Emanation, the Mother-God principle contains all feminine aspects of God as personality; it is the blue ray of Love or blue color of principle as the Mother. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” — Matthew 22:37-40. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” — John 15:12.

loyalty is “unswerving in allegiance, and implies a faithfulness that is steadfast in the face of any temptation to renounce, desert, or betray.” Your loyalty reveals that with which you identify, and is inseparable from your honor and integrity. Loyalty is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being and doing, a Via Christa Degree and a soul virtue. Loyalty is an absolute principle; God is loyal to His Creation. Loyalty to God is the first commandment. Live what it teaches, to love honor above all things.

lukewarmness: See indifference.

M

magnetic currents: Lines of electromagnetism created by the iron-nickel core of planet earth, the flow of attraction which, when consciously indrawn, enables one to appropriate magnetic energy or substance. The magnetic currents strengthen the will and the self-will.

manipulate: to negotiate, control, or influence (something or someone) cleverly, skillfully, or deviously. See Force, violence and manipulation.

marriage, family and relationships: Every human relationship is a facet of your relationship with God. Many people expect a relationship (marriage, children or a new job) to change their life for them, but unless they choose to change themselves and/or their approach to relationships, only harder, more difficult initiations will result. To master relationships on the outer, you must seek a more perfect relationship with your Creator, then learn to love as God loves.

marriages of the Lamb: The marriage of the Lamb is a series of initiations in which you focus will and desire in a process of sublimation until the self becomes subsumed in the soul. Desire is how you first express the love principle. Will is how you first express the wisdom principle. You must consciously lift your expressions of desire and will to become love and wisdom, loving as God loves, thinking and choosing as God thinks and chooses. As you desire to ascend, and choose to lift the urges and propensities of the self, you alter your own chemistry, your neurotransmitters and hormones. The physical structures of your central nervous system and endocrine system begin to change, imperceptibly, slowly, slowly creating a new feedback loop that shift your focus from the physical to the spiritual. You are no longer body-driven, but a victor in command, a soul who has and uses a body, not the reverse. You are ready to progress when you surrender your personal desires, all desires of the self, to God’s desire for you, pure love, which is all good and perfection. When you surrender all vestiges of your personal or self-will to God’s will for you, to return to Him, you will have completed all phases of the marriage of the Lamb. Thus, you become a living oblation, a fitting sacrifice. See Mastery.

Masoretic: The text that is universally accepted as the authentic Hebrew Bible.

Master: The world defines a master as a person with exceptional skill at a certain pursuit, a person who has complete control of a situation, a worker or craftsman fully qualified to practice his trade and to train others in it, a highly regarded teacher or leader whose religion or philosophy is accepted by followers. The Master is the fifth Degree of Ascension. To followers of the Via Christa, the soul is the master of the self, never the self as master over another. A Master never claims victim status. The biggest trap in Mastery is misunderstanding the meaning of the law, “A Master is responsible for everything about him (or her).”
  Your real responsibility for “everything” is to declare it good and to invoke Light to move through. You are responsible for lifting the other person onto a cloud of light and declaring, “This is good. Let there be Light.” You are responsible for putting him back on that cloud every time you drag him off with an opinion or less than perfect thought about him. You are responsible for maintaining impersonal objectivity, which is avoiding the temptation to judge them unrighteously, even if another asks your opinion. This underscores why silence is the province of mastery. You are not responsible for taking anyone on personally, for trying to fix them or their affairs, but must leave such urges behind in the Adept Degree. You are not responsible for covering another’s transgressions or remaining silent when to do so permits fraud, injustice or evil to occur or continue. Making the flaw public is not your responsibility, but reporting it to the proper authority is.
  The world frequently misconstrues mastery to be adeptship, but the two degrees— Adept and Master—are different. You need to be able to know and recognize the hallmarks of both degrees and their distinct differences, which is a matter of discernment, discrimination and discretion. The Master vows to dare, to do and to remain silent about it. So the Master engages in no boasting, bragging or self-promotion, claims no credit, nor expects it. An Adept, on the other hand, brags, boasts and self-promotes shamelessly. He claims all the credit, but disappears if blame is due. A person may say, “I take full responsibility,” but unless he backs that claim with full accountability, he is no Master, but an Adept.

mastery is the state or condition of being a controller or ruler, authority, sway, dominion; possession of consummate skill; the status of master or ruler; control; full command of a subject of study. Mastery is command over the little self, and is how you begin the long process of becoming absolutely responsible and accountable for everything in your life. Mastery trades adept arrogance for experienced wisdom. Every Adept believes he is a Master; every Master knows he is but one step removed from being an Adept. Mastery is the personal expression of the white Light of the Christ, which is selfless, pure, perfect and whole in every way, at all times, in every form. Mastery is the outcome of lifting the final appetitive soul cell to be one with the Three-as-One, which you are as a living soul.
  Mastery consists of complete surrender of the little self to the Source by the process of the three marriages of the Lamb. The first marriage lifts the appetitive soul, the “little self,” into absolute oneness with the rational soul. The second Marriage lifts the rational soul, which now enfolds the appetitive soul, into absolute oneness with the Oversoul. The final marriage of the Lamb is the absolute surrender of the trinity of soul as one to God, making a living soul. The rational soul conscious mind o’ershadows the appetitive soul-subconscious mind and Oversoul o’ershadows both. This forms a trinity of being to be o’ershadowed by the white Light of the Christ, which is the only true mastery.

material possessions: See money.

materialism: The doctrine of materialists; the opinion of those who maintain that the soul of man is not a spiritual substance distinct from matter, but that it is the result or effect or the organization of matter in the body. This belief stand in exact opposittion to the truth of reality. See also Money and material possessions.

mediator: “By way of eminence, Christ is the mediator the divine intercessor through whom sinners may be reconciled to an offended God” ("There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” — 1 Timothy 2:5-6). “Christ is a mediator by nature, as partaking of both natures divine and human; and mediator by office, as transacting matters between God and man.” An earthly mediator is an intervener, messenger or agent, one who mediates between God and man, a seer and prophet who has soul knowing, whose obedience to spiritual law refines subconscious and conscious mind to open super-conscious faculties.

medium: An intermediate agency, instrument or a trance channel with clairvoyance and clairaudience (or psychic ability) to give messages, but not soul knowing; one who suspends rational consciousness to serve as a passive vehicle of personalities not known with conscious mind.

medulla oblongata: An enlarged portion of the spinal cord in the cranium, the lower portion of the brainstem; it links the 8th through the 12th cranial nerves to higher brain centers; other cell clusters maintain the heart and lungs.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

melioration: the semantic change in a word to a more approved or more respectable meaning. Amelioration = an act or instance of making better; something that ameliorates; an improvement.

memory, remembering: a faculty, the capacity for retaining, perpetuating, or reviving the thought of things past; the capacity of a body or substance for manifesting effects of its previous state, behavior, or treatment. To remember is to retain in, or recall to, the memory; to bear in mind, recollect, not to forget. Memory and remembering are aspects of an abstract principle under the Wisdom principle of Mind. Memory is a law of being; remembering is a law of doing. a good memory is a highly developed instinctive mental faculty and a soul virtue. Memory is cumulative, whether unconscious or conscious. Self rules the unconscious memory, creating from it urges and cravings. Soul rules the conscious memory, a direct link to super-conscious mind that results in varying degrees of eidetic or photographic memory, visual or aural. A poor memory is due to mental, emotional and physical laziness with many self-excuses. To remember, which is a virtue, means to retain in, or recall to, the memory; to bear in mind, recollect, not to forget.

mental body: The atomic body, empowered by 44 lotus centers, which serves as a vehicle for soul above the Gates of Light.

mercy: compassionate treatment, especially of those under one’s power, a disposition to be kind and forgiving. Grace is the milk of God’s mercy overflowing to nourish the soul, yet grace is obtained only by perfect surrender, repentance and devotion, which turn the divine judgment into mercy. Mercy is an absolute principle under Love (God is merciful); mercy is an abstract principle rooted in Love, a law of being (we must be merciful as God is merciful), a law of doing (we must act mercifully whenever it is appropriate), and a soul virtue. Justice tempered with mercy is the rule, not mercy tempered with justice, which does not work, for it is too soft. See Grace.

mesh of Light: The mesh of Light is a spiritual talis or prayer shawl that you create through prayer reveals your degree of purity, which is complete when your mesh is as perfect as the Master’s. See Purity.

metabolism functions Power. The sum of all physical and chemical changes that occur within an organism; all energy and material transformations that occur within living cells. It includes material changes, changes undergone through growth, maturity and aging; all transformations of chemical energy from food to mechanical energy or heat. Congenital metabolic diseases are caused by inherited absence or deficiency of specific enzymes essential to the metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamins or essential trace elements. Anabolism is the constructive phase of metabolism by which a cell takes from blood the substance required for repair and growth. Catabolism is the destructive phase of metabolism, which includes all processes in which complex substances are converted into simpler substances, usually with release of energy.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

metanoia (Greek) to change one’s mind; to repent, a change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion.

metaphysics: (Greek meta ta physikais) the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space; theoretical philosophy as the ultimate science of being and knowing; principle modified into livable laws and statements of truth suitable for finite consciousness. Metaphysics studies the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, and potentiality and actuality.

midbrain: lying below the forebrain (prosencephalon), the midbrain (mesencephalon) is a relatively narrow, short top of the bulging stalk of nerve fibers and nuclei called the brainstem; a relay station for sensory impulses, it adjusts size and movement of the pupils.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. Midbrain neurons contain the personal soul records.

mimicry: Biologically, mimicry is “the resemblance of one organism to another or to an object in its surroundings for concealment and protection from predators.” To mimic is “to copy or imitate closely, especially in speech, expression, and gesture.” Mimicry is how you imitate or pattern after the actions and speech of those around you. Mimicry is an instinctive mental faculty, highly developed in the child. Every child will pattern after the strongest soul in its environment, whether that soul is a highly-developed nurturer or brutal predator. Mimicry often breeds “followers” who follow the leader in imitating behavior, attitudes and thinking. Thus, mimics stunt their ability to think for themselves. Mimicry a holdover of creature consciousness.

mind is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a faculty. The world defines mind as “the human consciousness that originates in the brain and is manifested especially in thought, perception, emotion, will, memory, and imagination; the collective conscious and unconscious processes in a sentient organism that direct and influence mental and physical behavior; the principle of intelligence, the spirit of consciousness regarded as an aspect of reality; the faculty of thinking, reasoning, and applying knowledge; individual consciousness, memory, or recollection.”
  Mind is Father-God Who thinks and plans all creations, creates man in His own image and likeness; Whose Wisdom as Will holds in place all magnetic walls of the universe; Who establishes rays of repulsion radiating from each celestial body holding them in their courses; Who establishes and holds all your molds while you nourish them with your praise; Mind that thought you into form. Wisdom is absolute Mind expressing as Omniscience and relative consciousness, cosmic or limited. The abyss between God’s infinite Mind and the finite mind of humanity is an immutable principle, but God as personality (Father, Mother and Son) bridges this abyss.

miracle: “a marvelous event occurring within human experience, which cannot have been brought about by human power or by the operation of any natural agency, and must therefore be ascribed to the special intervention of the Deity or some supernatural being; chiefly an act (e.g. of healing) exhibiting control over the laws of nature, and serving as evidence that the agent is either divine or is specially favored by God. A miracle is the reestablishing of harmony, a cooperative rate of vibration; it is an acceleration of time, the manifestation of perfection.

mistakes: A mistake is “a misconception or misapprehension of the meaning of something, hence, an error or fault in thought or action.” Mistakes are initiations into learning how not to do it. A mistake is only a slight retrogression caused by having already descended from the Light.

mists of matter: See veils of illusion.

modus tollendo ponens (Latin = “mode that by denying, affirms"; it is also known as the disjunctive syllogism. If either of two statements is true, and one of them is not to be true, it follows that the other one is true. For example, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. "– Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four, ch. 6, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1890.

molecular body: See desire body.

money: a “commodity, such as gold, or an officially issued coin or paper note that is legally established as an exchangeable equivalent of all other commodities, such as goods and services, and is used as a measure of their comparative values on the market; assets and property considered in terms of monetary value; wealth.” The value of money and other material possessions denoting wealth is chiefly symbolic and respected only in this world, not in the world to come. The trappings of wealth are a trap to the senses and to the ego of one who believes that riches confer great power or gain the respect of others. God will not be impressed with how much you made, but by what you did with your assets. Thus, money is an initiation.

monism is the metaphysical and philosophical doctrine of cosmology that attempts to explain cosmic phenomena as being derived of one principle of being or ultimate substance.— Oxford English Dictionary. Monism: “a view that there is only one kind of ultimate substance: the view that reality is one unitary organic whole with no independent parts: a viewpoint or theory that reduces all phenomena to one principle.”— Merriam-Webster Dictionary. We identify this as the supernal Light. See also Schaffer, Jonathan, “Monism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/monism/).

moral compass: the soul’s individual exercise of its moral imperative. See moral imperative and morality.

moral imperative is the personal compulsion to action, arising from conscience or the sense of right and wrong, which varies from soul to soul. Moral means of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character; teaching or exhibiting goodness or correctness of character and behavior; virtuous; arising from conscience or the sense of right and wrong. Imperative means having the power or authority to command or control, and in this sense, to command or to control the self.

morality “the quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct; a system of ideas of right and wrong conduct; virtuous conduct. Moral means of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character; teaching or exhibiting goodness or correctness of character and behavior; virtuous; arising from conscience or the sense of right and wrong.
  ” Morality is an absolute principle (God is moral) and an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a virtue, a degree and an initiation. As a law of doing, morality serves as your moral compass, which is the degree to which you put your honor, loyalty and integrity into action as your personal code of ethics. Morality is a soul virtue, and you are initiated on your morals, morality and ethics daily.

Music of the Spheres: “In the Pythagorean concept of the music of the spheres, the interval between the earth and the sphere of the fixed stars was considered to be a diapason — the most perfect harmonic interval. The allowing arrangement is most generally accepted for the musical intervals of the planets between the earth and the sphere of the fixed stars: From the sphere of the earth to the sphere of the moon; one tone; from the sphere of the moon to that of Mercury, one half-tone; from Mercury to Venus, one-half; from Venus to the sun, one and one-half tones; from the sun to Mars, one tone; from Mars to Jupiter, one-half tone; from Jupiter to Saturn, one-half tone; from Saturn to the fixed stars, one-half tone. The sum of these intervals equals the six whole tones of the octave.” — Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages.

mysteries of the Father: the Wisdom mysteries hidden in the cosmic divisions, which unveil all principles and law.

Mysteries of the Holy Spirit: your relationship to God, your Source, and unfolding your necessary attitude toward others if you are to return to your heavenly Source. These mysteries are hidden in twelve radiating rays of pure Christ Light.

mysteries of the Mother: the Love mysteries hidden in cosmic magnitudes, which reveal the process of creation itself.

mysteries of the Son: the practical application of principle to the creative process, the catalyst of Christ consciousness, the liaison between man and the Source, the Christ principle of the Son combines the Father and Mother as the family of personality.

mystery “any matter that is hidden, secret, unexplained or inexplicable, beyond human knowledge or comprehension, such as a religious truth known only from divine revelation.”

mysticism is “belief in the possibility of union with divine nature, trust in spiritual intuition as a means of acquiring knowledge of mysteries inaccessible to intellectual apprehension; the study of God as personality.”

N

name: A name is a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known. To name is to identify, specify, or mention by name.
  Name is a primary law of expression, an abstract law of doing. Name is the principle governing the use of the spoken Word, let, without which there can be no creation; every creation must be numbered, named and declared good and very good. “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”—Genesis 2:19.

narthex: “A portico or lobby of an early Christian or Byzantine church or basilica, originally separated from the nave by a railing or screen. An entrance hall leading to the nave of a church.” Etymology: From Ancient Greek νάρθηξ (narthēks, "giant fennel, a plant of the genus Ferula, whose hollow stem could be used to store items"), later ‘casket’.—American Heritage Dictionary.

needs versus wants: A need is a lack of something required or desirable, something required or wanted; a requisite, a necessity; obligation; a condition of poverty or misfortune. To want is to desire greatly, to wish for, to be without; to be in need of, to require. A need implies a necessity, but a want implies a desire. Needs are objective, while wants are subjective. Listen carefully when someone tells you they have a need for you to fill. Discerning needs versus wants is key to understanding how you lie to yourself, and is always an initiation.

Neophyte: A beginner or a novice, a recent convert to a belief; a novice of a religious order or congregation. The Neophyte is the first of the Seven Degrees of Ascension. A neophyte is a beginner, a novice, and thus, easily discounted or overlooked. Yet, with every change in heart or mind, in habits or attitudes, you become a Neophyte again.

Neophyte vows include all activities involved in making the body a fitting dwelling place for soul: Diet, water, breathing, rest and diversion.

Night of Rest and Assimilation: a great Age of the same duration as a Day of Manifestation, during which all begotten and created beings assimilate their gained experience.

nisus is “a mental or physical effort to attain an end: a perfective urge or endeavor; from the Latin niti “to lean, to rely, to strive."

non possumus, “not possible": a statement expressing inability to do something.

nonresistance is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, and a virtue. Nonresistance is “letting,” which is the ultimate control of Power’s distribution. The law of nonresistance is the liaison principle of power control between heaven and earth, God and humanity. The world defines nonresistance as the practice or principle of complete obedience to authority even if unjust or arbitrary; the practice or principle of refusing to resort to force even in defense against violence.
  Nonresistance is an absolute and abstract principle, rooted in the Logos; a law of being, a law of doing, which you exercise as acceptance and agreeing and adjusting, and a soul virtue. The principle of nonresistance is ultimate control of Power’s distribution. The law of nonresistance is the liaison principle of power control between heaven and earth, God and humanity. The law of nonresistance is the most energetic of the whole Decalogue (Ten Commandments). When Power meets inner resistance, it causes trouble. You can vitalize soul debts rather than produce something good. “Resist not evil.”—Matthew 5:39 means to agree with your adversary quickly, and is the law of nonresistance, but not giving in to evil. See Resistance.

nota notae: The logical principle Nota notae est nota rei ipsius, that is, the predicate of the predicate is the predicate of the subject, which is laid down in several places by Aristotle as the general principle of syllogism.

noumenon, plural noumena: To apprehend, conceive; an object of purely intellectual intuition, devoid of all phenomenal attributes. Noumenon, in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, is the thing-in-itself as opposed to what Kant called the phenomenon—the thing as it appears to an observer. Though the noumenal holds the contents of the intelligible world, Kant claimed that man’s speculative reason can only know phenomena and can never penetrate to the noumenon. Man, however, is not altogether excluded from the noumenal because practical reason—i.e., the capacity for acting as a moral agent-makes no sense unless a noumenal world is postulated in which freedom, God, and immortality abide.

nous (Greek νοῦς) is the faculty of the human mind necessary for understanding what is true or real; it designates mind, intelligence, and intuitive apprehension. The activity of this faculty is “intellection” or the Greek words noēsis and noeîn (νόησις, νοεῖν). This activity describes the modern concept of intuition.

number: a position in an ordered sequence that corresponds to one of the positive integers; one item in a group or series considered to be in numerical order; a total; a sum. (verb) to assign a number to; to determine the number or amount of; count; to total in number or amount. Light, and the principles of color and tone combine as one to produce the principle of number that brings the basic units of divine substance, the life sparks, together for countless combinations, ready to be acted upon by Mind exercising Power.

O

obedience: submission to the rule or authority of another, compliance with or performance of a command, law, yielding to some actuating force or agency. To obey is to carry out or fulfill or comply with a command, order, or instruction.
  Obedience to divine law removes every obstacle from your path, and creates within you every joyful and loving soul virtue. Obedience creates peace of heart, mind and soul. Obedience is the instantaneous synthesis of all you know with all that comes to you, and choosing to do the will of God. Desire, imagination, the spoken Word, praise, will power, forgiveness, balance and equilibrium, and love as your spiritual anchor, build obedience to law. Obedience to law builds your poise and powers of concentration into completeness. Instant obedience demands application of all laws on every situation. Use logic, reason, discrimination, discretion and discernment constantly. Obedience is an abstract principle (all Creation must obey the law of the Creator), a law of being (we must be obedient) and of doing (we must obey law), and a soul virtue. Obedience, fidelity and devotion form the fourth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is gratitude.

oblation: a solemn offering to God, a sacrifice.

observation: To observe is “to be or become aware of, especially through careful and directed attention, to notice, or watch attentively.” Observation is an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, and a virtue. Observation is a law of being; you must be observant. Observation is a law of doing; you must observe to avoid blunders. Observation is the lower pole of souk illumination, based on alertness, logic, reasoning, and how you apply all you know to everything you do. Discrimination is the art of observation raised to its zenith of power. “I now observe every detail of my life. I am alive and alert to observe above and below. As I use observation in my outer life, according to my practice of observation, exactly so shall I see and hear in heaven, the inner.” This is the third great law of the creator.

obsession: an influence, notion or fixed idea, which persistently assails or vexes so as to discompose the mind; the uncontrollable desire to dwell on an idea or emotion, frequently involving an urge toward some form of action.

occult means hidden from sight, veiled, secret, communicated only to the initiated, not traceable by the physical senses.

offenses and insults: An offense causes anger, resentment, displeasure, or affront. An insult is to treat another with gross insensitivity, insolence, or contemptuous rudeness, to demean, or to behave arrogantly. Receiving offenses or insults is an initiation in poise. While being subjected to offenses and insults are initiations, being offensive or insulting to others is a severe soul taint. You may offend in word and in deed.

omni means in all ways, in all places, of all things; as all, both in the Source and its Creations.

omnipotence is unlimited or universal power or authority, all-powerful. The Logos manifests as omnipotent Power, energy, selflessness, joy, equilibrium and every unifying expression. Omnipotence is an absolute and abstract principle. Omnipotence means all-powerful in all ways and places of all creation, through all things unconscious and as all things conscious, the principle of Power.
  Omnipotence operates through the law of freedom of choice: God gives the living soul the power of conscious direction and control (freedom of choice, which people often call free will) over substance. St. Paul described our potential expression of omnipotence when he said, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.” — Philippians 4:13.

omnipresence means present everywhere simultaneously. Love manifests as omnipresent Substance, faith and every nourishing and sustaining expression. Omnipresence is an absolute and abstract principle. Omnipresence is all Love-Substance present in all ways and in all places of all creation, all Love-Substance present through all unconscious things, and all Love-Substance present as all conscious beings.
  Omnipresence is the transmutation principle, and its function is vibration. Omnipresence operates through the law of becoming: God gives Substance the power of becoming. Mind must condition it.

omniscience is having total knowledge, knowing everything. Wisdom manifests as omniscient Mind, law, intelligence, knowing, thinking, and planning. Omniscience is all-knowing Mind in all ways and through all places of all creation, as all creation, conscious or unconscious, the principle of Mind. Omniscience is an absolute and an abstract principle; God is omniscient. Omniscience operates through the law of degree and kind: Everything is now good after its own degree and kind.

opinions and prejudices: An opinion is a belief or conclusion held with confidence but not proved by positive knowledge or proof. A prejudice is an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowing or examining the facts. Opinions are rooted in hidebound intellect (the Wisdom principle), prejudices in stagnant emotions (the Love principle). Neither opinions nor prejudices involve thinking or logic — only knee-jerk reactions, intellectual or emotional.

optic chiasma: an X-shaped crossing of optic nerve fibers in the brain. “The optic nerves send electrical signals from the eyes to meet in the brain at the optic chiasm (or chiasma), where the left visual signal is combined with the right eye signal and vice versa. Then the signals split again. Nerves from the right eye go to the left brain and the left eye to the right side of the brain. This way, visual messages from both eyes reach both halves of the visual cortex. The brain then merges the signals into the one image with which you view the world. This partial crossing of the nerve fibers at the optic chiasm is why humans have stereoscopic sight and a sense of depth perception.”—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

oracle: one who speaks with absolute authority by divine inspiration; a divine revelation, declaration or message delivered by divine inspiration, a mediator in a high degree. See Mediator.

order is a condition of logical or comprehensible arrangement among the separate elements of a group, a condition in which freedom from disorder or disruption is maintained through respect for established authority. Order is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, and a virtue related to the principles of harmony and balance. The Mind of God orders all things. Every blade of grass is part of the universal plan, and takes its place correctly in divine order. To order your thinking, start with logic, reason, discernment, discrimination, and discretion. See command

order: An authoritative indication to be obeyed, a command or direction. A command is an order given with authority. Orders and commands are relative laws of doing, principles modified as guides to right action, to meet the needs of a single soul or a family, a group, a tribe or a nation. Following orders begins with obedience to divine law. Every law is an order, a command to right being or action. When you do not “know what to do,” you have not listened for your specific orders. Orders and commands usually come to the individual through the voice of conscience, according to the internal moral compass; rarely, one will have a strong impression or hear a voice. The “burden of prophecy” is a divine message that a chosen prophet is ordered to deliver.

Oversoul: (noun) Mind and soul are virtual connate terms for consciousness. Soul is mind and Mind is soul. Oversoul equates with Plato’s reasoning facet of soul (Republic 4), but is much more: its continuum encompasses every degree of mind as consciousness from the lowest level to the Christ mind (Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 2:5), which the embodied soul accesses through its ultimate ascension of consciousness in a marriage of the Lamb. Oversoul is the I AM portion of the living soul that descends to direct and control the embodied soul through its rational soul consciousness upon completion of a marriage of the Lamb. Edna Lister described the interrelatedness of the tripartite soul facets this way: Oversoul stands above, appetitive soul crouches below, and between them they tear the rational soul apart; this explains all our inner conflicts. —ViaChrista.org. See appetitive soul and rational soul.

oxytocin is a hormone that is made in the hypothalamus of the brain. It is transported to and secreted by the pituitary gland. Oxytocin acts both as a hormone and as a brain neurotransmitter. The pituitary gland releases oxytocin to regulate two female reproductive functions, childbirth and breast-feeding.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

P

paean: (Greek παιάν) a song or expression of thanksgiving, triumph, healing or praise.

palingenesia: (Greek παλινγενεσίᾳ = a new birth, regeneration, renewal) Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.—Matthew 19:26-29. After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.—Titus 3:4-7.

pancreas: situated behind stomach in front of the 1st and 2nd lumbar vertebra in a horizontal position, it is attached to the duodenum and reaches to the spleen. The islets of Langerhans secrete hormones, insulin and glucagon, which with adrenal and pituitary hormones, play a primary role in regulating carbohydrate metabolism.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The pancreas is associated with the Disciple Degree.—ViaChrista.org

panentheism: “considers God and the world to be inter-related with the world being in God and God being in the world. It offers an increasingly popular alternative to both traditional theism and pantheism. Panentheism seeks to avoid either isolating God from the world as traditional theism often does or identifying God with the world as pantheism does. Traditional theistic systems emphasize the difference between God and the world while panentheism stresses God’s active presence in the world.” — John Culp, “Panentheism.”

panpsychism: the view that “the mind or a mindlike aspect is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality.” —Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; a theory that “the mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe.—Panpsychism: Contemporary Perspectives.
  Panpsychism is one of the oldest philosophical theories, ascribed first to Thales and Plato.—ViaChrista.org

pantheism: the philosophical form of monism that identifies mind and matter, finite and infinite, as manifestations of One Universal or Absolute Being, the doctrine which holds that the self-existent universe, conceived as a whole, is God.OED

paradoxOED a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory, absurd or at variance with common sense, though, on investigation or when explained, it may prove to be well-founded.

parathyroid glandsOED are located close to the thyroid gland, consisting of four small bodies back of and at the lower edge of the thyroid, or imbedded within its substance. They secrete parathyroid hormone, which regulates calcium-phosphorus metabolism. The parathyroid glands are associated with the Master Degree.

parents (parenting): (noun) one’s mother and father. See kinship.

parent cells: sperm and ovum.

patience: the capacity of enduring hardship or inconvenience, which emphasizes calmness, self-control, and the willingness or ability to tolerate delay. Its opposite is weakness. Patience is a state of being that includes everything that God is. Your expression of patience is based on the height, breadth and depth of your faith. Use patience to invoke the outpouring of the principle of nonresistance. Let your sense of humor give you balance, perspective, poise and patience. Patience, together with peace and love, forms the trinity of compassion.

peace: inner tranquility and serenity of soul.
  Peace is so much more than ‘freedom from or cessation of war or hostilities’, or ‘quiet, tranquility, an undisturbed state.’ Peace is the child of Poise and Power. Peace is an absolute and abstract principle: God is peace. Peace is a law of being, a soul virtue and a spiritual faculty. You move up to poise and power to reach peace and patience. The ‘peace of God that passes all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7) is standing and enduring in joy.—ViaChrista.org

perception: is the process, act, or faculty of perceiving, the recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory; the neurological processes by which such recognition and interpretation are effected; insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving. To perceive is to become aware of directly through any of the senses, especially sight or hearing; to achieve understanding of; to apprehend.MWD
  Perception gives you the ability to look right through the outer appearance and to know that you know. Conscious perception is the ability to perceive a thing with understanding before or as it happens. Perception is mental “seeing,” the mind’s thinking ability; apperception is a “knowing,” the mind’s mystic eye of the soul. Perception is an instinctive mental; it is the mental faculty of recognition.—ViaChrista.org

per impossibile: as is impossible.—AHD

perseverance: constant persistence in a course of action, purpose, or state, steadfast pursuit of an aim, tenacious assiduity or endeavor.AHD
  Perseverance, a soul virtue and an initiatory degree, is continuance in a state of grace, leading finally to a state of glory. You may characterize your perseverance with dogged determination or deliberate joyousness; the former makes your task grimly onerous, the latter a pleasure. Your Ascension work must equal the Power moving through you, and you must back it with persistence, perseverance and a continuous soul-need to move higher, reach higher, understand more, comprehend more. All obstacles become a challenge for the initiate to practice steadfastness and perseverance. Persevere in standing under the Light, which will shine on your path to the goal.—ViaChrista.org; See endurance and fortitude.

personal soul records the soul’s personal records of the current embodiment are stored in the midbrain neurons with the memories of past incarnations. They are tight scroll-like cells formed after the pattern of a Nautilus shell.—ViaChrista.org


“God speaks as personality, through personality, to personality.”


personality: the pattern formed by a person’s collective character, behavioral, temperamental, emotional, and mental traits, the assemblage of qualities that makes a person what he is, as distinct from other persons, distinctive personal or individual character, especially when of a marked or notable kind.
  Personality is both absolute and relative. God is absolute personality. All created beings partake of relative personality in their varying degrees. Personality is how God the One expresses as the “many.” Personality is the indwelling living soul’s personalized outer expression. God speaks as personality through personality to personality. Individual personality is what the world sees of soul, the synthesis of emotional experience and developed intellect. You lose your earthly identity in the glory of God’s Power when you finally conquer on the Christos Degree.
  The world is afraid to surrender self, fearing that it means the loss of identity. The unthinking masses fear they will lose identity if they live by love rather than by the self. Yet you, the soul, must consciously identify with your Source. The Light is yours; thus, you are Light. The Light is One; thus you are one with the Light. Soul expression is what we call personality. Soul cannot change, but personality can and does. Personality must eventually express soul identity, the great individuality called the Oversoul.—ViaChrista.org; See identity.

perversion: “the action of turning something to the wrong use. Perversion is a sexual practice or act considered abnormal or deviant.”
  The various forms of perversion are sins often called vices. To be perverted is to be morally and ethically bent or twisted. Propaganda and lies are perversions of the truth. Perversions are always attacks on the truth of reality, and possible only in the world of appearances.—ViaChrista.org

petitio principii: Latin=‘an assumption from the beginning’; a logical fallacy in which a conclusion is taken for granted in the premises; also called begging the question, or a circular argument. Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhêi aiteîsthai), ‘to assume from the beginning’.

phases of mind: within an embodied soul. See subconscious, conscious and super-conscious.

pharyngeal plexus innervates the pharynx (voice box), taste buds, carotid sinus and carotid body, thereby controlling respiration.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
  The pharyngeal plexus is associated with the Master Degree.—ViaChrista.org

philosophy: the love, study, or pursuit of wisdom or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical.
  Philosophy is the study of all Wisdom at the Source and of all principle as God’s Creation.—ViaChrista.org

phrenes: Greek name for the solar plexus vital center/impulsive appetitive soul. (Greek φρένες: “The midriff, stomach and lower chest or breast; the seat of emotions, heart; seat of bodily appetites such as hunger.) Root of frenetic: wildly excited or active; frantic; frenzied; also relating to or accompanied by mental disorder; frenzied; frantic.”—AHD

phronesis: (Greek φρόνησῐς, phrónēsis) practical or moral wisdom, the type of wisdom relevant to practical action, implying both good judgement and excellence of character and habits, or practical virtue.

physical body: the cellular vehicle used for earth incarnation, empowered by twelve glands and nerve plexus centers, the densest vehicle used by the living soul; with the molecular desire body, it serves as the seat of the appetitive soul.—ViaChrista.org

pineal body: a gland-like structure in brain; while pea-shaped, the ancients symbolized it as a pine cone. It appears to be a major site of melatonin (pigmentation) biosynthesis, but melatonin’s effect on the body and exact function of the pineal remain unknown. The pineal is exceedingly light-sensitive and may function as a seasonal “clock” affecting sleep and the gonads.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.
   The pineal body is associated with the Christos Degree—ViaChrista.org

pingala: the right-hand channel (along the right spinal vertebrae) through which solar energy flows up and down the spine. See ida and shushumna.

pituitary gland: often referred to as the master regulating gland of the body, is actually two glands in one: anterior and posterior. The anterior pituitary secretes numerous hormones which regulate many body processes, including growth, reproduction and conversion of food into energy. The posterior pituitary controls, pigmentation, growth, adrenal function, thyroid function, gonad function, lactation, vasoconstriction, urine output and water conservation.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. The pituitary gland is associated with the Priest Degree.

Plan of Salvation: the plan for saving earth and all embodied souls, formulated after the “rebellion in the skies.” After the fall, earth was enclosed in a magnetic wall (the world) and the Gates of Light were closed. With the completion of the Crucifixion, Jesus the Christ opened the Gates. It is the task of the Elect to hold them open and lift all souls though them. See Rebellion in the skies.

plans and planning: A plan is “a formulated or organized method according to which something is to be done, a scheme of action, a project, design,” the way in which you propose to carry out some proceeding. Planning, which is “to devise, contrive, design some action or proceeding to be carried out, to project or arrange beforehand,” requires a thorough knowledge of details and law. Plans and planning are initiations related to the principles of Wisdom and Mind, the mental faculties, and with a goal. See Goals.

Planes of consciousness: Borderline, Dawn Zone, Desire Plane, Psychic Plane, etc., which surround earth and lie below the Gates of Light.

Platonic Form: the doctrine of Forms, also called Ideas, is a philosophical concept, attributed to Plato, which states that the objects and matter in the physical world are imitations of the eternal, absolute, unchangeable Ideas, which are the supra-physical essences of all things.—ViaChrista.org.

The plexus centers are various networks of intersecting nerves in the physical body, such as the solar plexus and the sacral plexus.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

Poise is a state of balance or equilibrium, stability, a balanced or hovering condition, a pause between two periods of motion or change. Its opposite is instability or awkwardness. Poise is an absolute and an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, and a virtue. You must be poised to act in a poised manner. While poise is highly valued as a social grace, emotional and mental poise, based on internal honesty, are invaluable in protecting you from inner conflict. Poise is absolute flexibility of soul standing in harmony as balance, harmony and equilibrium, immovable from the heart center of Oversoul.

Pole of Paracelsus, also called the pole of Spirit in man, runs between the lower creative centers (sacrum plexus and the coccygeal body) and the higher creative centers (carotid bodies and the golden bowl). It is named for Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist, known as the father of modern chemistry. Paracelsus said, “Man is related to the stars by reason of his sidereal body,” meaning literally “star body."

pons (Latin for “bridge") lies between the medulla and cerebellum, and appears as a broad band of transverse fibers; contains tracts connecting the medulla oblongata and the cerebellum with the upper portions of brain. The origin of the abducens, facial, trigeminal and cochlear division of 8th cranial nerve are at borders of the pons.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

Pool of nonresistance: See Abyss of life sparks.

Possession is the state of being controlled or dominated by an evil spirit, demon or entity. See Possessiveness and possession.

Possessiveness and possession: Possession is the act or fact of possessing, also that which is possessed. Possessiveness is akin to envy and jealousy, and is a soul taint. Possession of another, to control them, is a sin. The only possession permissible is having God’s Light, Wisdom, Love and Power possess you unto perfection.

Power is an absolute and abstract principle, laws of being and of doing, a faculty, and a via Christa degree. Power is the ability or capacity to perform or act effectively; a specific capacity, faculty, or aptitude; strength exerted or capable of being exerted; might. Power is also the ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority; effectiveness. The principle of Power is rooted in the third Emanation, the Logos, the Son of God, called Selflessness and Joy. The Logos become Power as kinetic energy, which animates all forms planned by Mind and filled with Substance. The Logos is absolute selfless joy expressing as omnipotence, Power actively exerted and potential and kinetic energy. The Son of all Energy moves forth as Holy Ghost, Logos, the red ray that contains all that the Father-Mother God is, the Source of All Life you breathe. Power becomes harmony, equilibrium, balance and all motion and action in the universe. Paul described omnipotence when he said, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.” — Philippians 4:13.

Powers of Being (noun): The first Power of Being is conquering the forces working in the lower self subconscious or appetitive soul, which comes under acceptance and self-mastery. The second Power of Being is command of all inner forces under the process of growth, which deals with the principles of expansion and contraction. The third Power of Being is command over all outer forces under complete surrender of self. The fourth Power of Being is setting aside gravitation, becoming too light to be held by earth gravity. The fifth Power of Being is becoming too heavy to be moved by exhaling and invoking the power on the fifth atomic breath. The sixth Power of Being is becoming invisible to darkness, by clothing yourself in Light. The seventh Power of Being is to create or to invoke life by the spoken Word. The eighth Power of Being is overcoming death (1 Corinthians 15) by becoming law and comprehension, casting off the grip of earth gravity, responding only to paradise gravity.

Praise: Earthly praise expresses approval or admiration. When you offer God praise, you exalt and worship the Deity. The Psalms mention praise nearly 200 times, so use them often for inspiration in praising. Praise is the perfect use of the spoken Word, a soul virtue, the interaction of the conscious creation with its Creator. Praise is an abstract principle and a law of being and of doing under the Emanation of the Word. Praise is the only activity that creates burning desire to comprehend, to act, to conquer. Praise builds a pipeline of determination from God’s storehouse of potential Power to transfer kinetic energy to fill your molds with Substance. If you praise God, though tried and beset beyond human endurance, you fulfill all law. All God asks of you is to praise under all earth conditions.

Prayer is an address (as a petition) to God in word or thought; an earnest request or wish. Prayer is the soul’s formal or informal communion and communication with God. You address prayer to God as a personality, your Father, who hears and answers your call. Of all the Father’s earthly Creation, only humanity possesses the ability to form the Divine Alphabet of Creation into words. Speaking the Word, as God spoke the Word to form the heavens and the earth, is the essential step in perfectly powerful prayer. The gift of speech is your most valuable tool for making, forming, and creating form from Light. Therefore, as a student learning how to become a full co-creator with God, pray aloud to release the Power of the Word.

Preaching is the giving of modified laws and statements of truth so arranged as to incline the hearer from darkness into Light, with an appeal to live in Light.

Precipitate: We use this term in the sense a substance such as water that condenses from a vaporous form to a denser state from which it falls to it lowest heaviest firm. We use this term in some instances to describe how the soul condenses its own named and numbered substance to form a physical body. The term also applies when you break a law or a vow: your chosen illegal action causes all associated soul debts to fall due immediately, precipitating your debts. Your opportunities to pay equal the force you have used, causing your debts to “rain” on you abruptly.

Prejudice: See Opinions and prejudices.

Pride: While pride is a sense of your own proper dignity or value and self respect, it also can be arrogant or disdainful conduct or treatment, haughtiness, an excessively high opinion of one’s self, or conceit. Pride contains much more than just one emotion. It is a composite of competition, one-upmanship, arrogance, self-exaltation, and playing God. Excessive pride is a sin. See Arrogance.

Priest: A priest is a person having the authority to perform and administer religious rites, especially sacrificial rites. The Priest is the sixth Degree of Ascension, whose hallmark is selfless sacrificial service. A priest is set apart, protected, uncontaminated, has conquered, and has attained mastery in the world.

Primary laws: See Abstract laws of being.

Primary principles: See Abstract principles.

Principium individuationis: “The principle of individuation,” also known as the criterion of identity; the principle of association with a kind of thing, telling we have two of them when we have only one.” For example, a lexicographer uses the etymology and variances in spelling and meaning to determine whether we have different words or just one. We also may need to know whether we have two appearances or stages of just one thing of a kind. Individuation is also a psychological term for the self-formation of the personality into a coherent whole.


“Principle is the absolute framework of the universe.”


principle is the absolute, universal, unchangeable, undeviating immutable foundation upon which all universes are based and established. Principle is the absolute framework of the universe. Principle contains all that is at the Source, and it governs, regulates and controls the universe created by the Supreme Father. Principle is spiritual Substance, which becomes, and divine law that directs and controls. One principle usually hinges on another, and using one without involving the whole or parts of all the others is virtually impossible. The world defines principle as a basic truth, law, or assumption, a rule or standard, especially of good, the collective of moral or ethical standards or judgments, a fixed or predetermined policy or mode of action, a basic or essential quality or element determining intrinsic nature or characteristic behavior.
  The Emanations are ultimate principles: An Emanation is a direct outpouring of Wisdom, Love and the Logos from the Godhead. Every Emanation is the Three (Wisdom, Love and the Logos) as One, but is named for the aspect predominating. As the framework of the universe, absolute principle, an Emanation, contains all that is at the Source, and it governs, regulates and controls the universe through its being and action. Many principles are absolute: Absolute principle is ultimate truth, an unalterable and permanent fact. Abstract principles are rooted in an Emanation (Wisdom, Love or the Logos), lowered one grade in its rate of vibration. We classify principles as either being or doing, and many principles form laws of being and laws of doing. George Washington, on taking his oath of office as the first President of the United States, said, “As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent,” and he wrote James Madison, “It is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."

principles of expression: See omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence.

privative: “causing privation.” In logic, a term indicating the absence of any quality which might be naturally or rationally expected; that of which the essence is the absence of something.

problem: a situation, matter, or person that presents perplexity or difficulty.
  Problems are initiations that embody the acute and chronic forms of one need, to look up in consciousness to God, the Light, and to ask for help.—ViaChrista.org. See troubles.

procrastination to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness, to postpone or delay needlessly. Lazy is resistant to work or exertion, disposed to idleness.
  Procrastination and laziness are soul taints rooted in indifference and lukewarmness. Excessive procrastination and laziness are sins rooted in selfish rebellion. The Medieval Church called this sloth. Today, we recognize procrastination and laziness as passive-aggressive behaviors.—ViaChrista.org.

pPromised land: symbolizes the thoracic cavity in man, everything below the collar bones and above the diaphragm, all organs and systems contained therein, the seat of the heart center.—ViaChrista.org.

propension: the archaic form of propensity, from Latin prōpēnsiōn- (stem of prōpēnsiō), meaning inclination.

propensities: A propensity is the inclination, disposition, tendency or bent of mind or nature, to be or do in a certain way, and implies a degree of physicality. Propensities are the outgrowth of appetitive soul urges.—ViaChrista.org. See urge.

prophecy: divinely inspired discourse flowing from the revelation and impulse of the Holy Spirit, the foretelling of future events, which includes inspired teaching. The prophets referred to the prophecies they were given to share as a burden.

prophesy: (intransitive verb) to speak by divine inspiration in the name of God.CDC

prophet: an interpreter, a proclaimer or spokesman of God, one who speaks for God as inspired revealer or interpreter of His will, an inspired teacher.—ViaChrista.org

psyche: (Greek = ψυχή) soul or spirit.

psychology: The science of the nature, functions and phenomena of the human soul or mind; mystically, the personality of God expressing as man, the Mind of God functioning as man in three phases subconscious, conscious and super-conscious.—ViaChrista.org

psychosomatic: mind (psyche) and body (soma), pertaining to the relationship between mind and body; disorders that have a physiological component, but are thought to originate in emotions, are called psychosomatic. A psychosomatic illness can arise from internal conflict between mind and body, for example from the cognitive dissonance that arises when your actions or what you accept go against your code of ethics, your sense of right and wrong.—ViaChrista.org

purity: freedom from moral corruption, or pollution, stainless condition or character, innocence, chastity, ceremonial cleanness. Purity is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being, and a soul virtue. The mesh of Light (a spiritual talis or prayer shawl) that you create through prayer reveals your degree of purity, which is complete when your mesh is as perfect as the Master’s. Integrity and purity of heart are living by the hallmark of Oversoul, “honor above all things.” Pythagoras taught the soul’s immortality and the necessity of a personal holiness and purity to prepare oneself for admission into the society of the gods. We call this soul ascension. “Blessed are the pure in heart.”—Matthew 5:8.—ViaChrista.org

pyramidal decussation: at the point where the spinal cord meets the medulla, 900,000 of one million nerve fibers in each corticospinal tract cross over from one side to the other; nerves from the left side of body cross to right hemisphere and vice versa. In Eastern teachings, the left nerve tract is lunar, and the right nerve tract is solar in nature.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

Q

Q.E.D.: the Latin phrase “quod erat demonstrandum”: written or said after an argument to show that you have proved something that you wanted to prove.

quaternio terminorum: In the categorical syllogism (logic, formal, § 5), the major and minor premisses must have a term in common, the middle term. Violation of this rule is the fallacy of quaternio terminorum, or of four terms. It is most apt to arise through equivocation (q.v.), an ambiguous word or phrase playing the role of the middle term, with one meaning in the major premiss and another meaning in the minor premiss; and in this case the fallacy is called the fallacy of ambiguous middle.

questioning: To question is to interrogate, to call to account, challenge, or to accuse."Confrontational questioning is a soul taint, but asking questions is part of the learning process, a mental faculty. When you can ask the question, you are in sight of the answer. Paying attention is critical, for the answer can come from any direction, through any person.—ViaChrista.org

R

rational soul: (noun) the embodied portion of the living soul that uses conscious mind as its means of expression. Plato called this the spirited facet of soul, which describes a continuum of lesser consciousness ranging from impulsive and angry to virtuous and honorable. The rational soul is subject to the strong urges of the appetitive facet of soul among souls of lesser debelopment and consciousness.—ViaChrista.org. See appetitive soul and Oversoul.

rays of Christ Light: twelve rays emanating from the Source divide cosmic magnitudes into cosmic divisions, like spokes of a wheel radiating from a central hub of Light. They function in twelve great powers or virtues, each having its counterpart in the physical body.—ViaChrista.org

reaction: “response to a stimulus; a reverse or opposing action; atendency to revert to a former state. Physics: An equal and opposite force exerted by a body against a force acting upon it.”—AHD. See action and reaction.

reality: In philosophy, real is regarded as having an existence in fact, not only in appearance, thought, or language; as having an absolute and necessary existence, in contrast to a relatively contingent one. Reality is the property or quality of being real, that which underlies the truth of appearances or phenomena, the real nature or constitution of things. Real means actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed; not imitation or artificial; genuine; true or actual. In philosophy, real is something as it is, not as it may be described or distinguished. (See appearance.)

realms: The portion of space located above the planes of consciousness and beyond the Gates of Light, the Heavenly Realms.—ViaChrista.org


“All reasoning is thinking, but not all thinking is reasoning.”


reason: the capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence; good judgment; sound sense; a premise, usually the minor premise, of an argument. Philosophically, reason is the power by which you grasp first principles prior to experience, as distinguished from understanding.
  Reason is the intellectual faculty ordinarily used in adapting thought or action to some end. Reason deals with the changeable relative, to the conscious application of abstract principles in a relative way to gain understanding. Reason opens the Light on your path. All reasoning is thinking but not all thinking is reasoning, because not all thoughts are necessarily conscious. People often use reasoning in place of logic to excuse the self, which is a tactic of sophistry and creates many logical fallacies. Reason describes the effect of the higher Oversoul, plus the influence of the lower spirited facet of soul on the rational soul. Reason is a law of doing and a mental faculty that you apply with logic, discrimination, discretion and discernment.—ViaChrista.org

rebellion: an act or a show of open resistance to lawful authority.
  Do not let another’s self-righteousness breed rebellion in you. Rebellion is a soul taint akin to repudiation of the good.—ViaChrista.org. Rebellion in the skies.

rebirth: a second or new birth, a reincarnation.
  Mystically, a rebirth is being born again in consciousness, continually to a higher degree. The Neophyte is the second of the Seven Degrees; the Neophyte’s need is to lift personal desires and emotions to achieve physical balance. As you “die” to self-expressions, you are reborn to the Christ-life to be made anew in a long process either of relinquishing self’s hold or as an instantaneous act of soul surrender. Rebirth is the Neophyte’s initiation. Rebirth is not a once-in-a-lifetime act or experience. Rebirth means that you are learning, opening the doors of your mind and letting the new light of illumination penetrate and permeate your brain cells and memory.
  The rebirth in consciousness is perhaps the most common initiation you experience, hourly, daily. You are reborn in consciousness each time you exclaim “Aha!” When you notice something new or make sense of what you have not understood before, you are reborn. Your identity, knowledge of your self, of your soul shifts with each rebirth, and you reintegrate yourself at a new and higher level. Rebirth is essential to becoming all you really are, and who and what God designed you to be. For those who have asked how many rebirths you must experience, we say that it is a seemingly endless process of metamorphosis. With each reintegration of identity you spin a protective chrysalis in which to gestate your “new” reality. When you are strong enough, you break free yet again. Your new soul wings carry you just so far, then you must be reborn to a new consciousness. The greatest of these Rebirth experiences always involve your reawakening to God and His Christ as the center of your life and consciousness. Each Rebirth takes you farther on the way Home.
—ViaChrista.org

receptivity: being capable of or qualified for receiving.
  Receptivity relates to the skills of listening and reading. Receptivity is having an open mind: When you look, you see, and when you hear, you listen. Receptivity atrophies when you give room to opinion and prejudice. Jesus often finished a teaching by saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear,” which is an admonition to be receptive.—ViaChrista.org

reciprocity: a state or relationship in which there is mutual action, influence, giving and taking, correspondence, etc., between two parties or things. In the Kantian philosophy: Mutual action and reaction.OED.
   As above, so below is the immutable law of reciprocity: See Matthew 25:40-41 and Luke 16:10.—ViaChrista.org

recognition: acknowledgment; formal avowal; as the recognition of a final concord on a writ of covenant; memorial; knowledge confessed or avowed; as the recognition of a thing present; memory of it as passed.
  Recognition is to know again, to perceive to be identical to something previously known.—ViaChrista.org.

recollect, recollection

redemption: the act of redeeming or the condition of having been redeemed. Recovery of something pawned or mortgaged. The payment of an obligation. Deliverance upon payment of ransom; rescue.
  By redeeming the bits of self and soul substance you have invested in the world and its illusions, you redeem your own soul. This you do under the Priest Degree as an act of Resurrection.—ViaChrista.org.

redintegration: the act or process of making whole again; renewal.

reductio ad absurdum: (Latin = reduction to the absurd) a logical disproof by showing that the consequences of the proposition are absurd; or a proof of a proposition by showing that its negation leads to a contradiction.

regression: the act of regressing, movement backward. In biology, regression is degeneration; retrograde metamorphosis; passing from a more complex to a simpler structure. In medicine, retrogression is the act or process of deteriorating or declining; a return to a less complex biological state or stage.
  Spiritually, to retrogress is to go backward into an earlier and usually worse condition; to move backward. Synonyms to retrogress include to decline, degenerate, retrograde, withdraw, retreat, revert. Soul retrogression is devolution.—ViaChrista.org.

relationship: the condition or fact of being related; connection or association. A relation is the logical or natural association between two or more things; relevance of one to another; connection. Relationship is most easily understood by considering it in stages, from earth to the Source: First is man’s relationship to himself. The second relationship is man to man and the understanding of other people. The third is man’s relationship to God and God’s to man. Relationship is the keynote of the seventh lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, which includes facts, legend, and vision.—ViaChrista.org See marriage, family.

relative laws of doing: We form laws of doing to temper abstract principles and laws to suit individual intelligence and consciousness, to control and govern the soul’s unfolding, behavior and relationships, according to your present degree of understanding and development. The abstract principles of doing or expression are equilibrium, harmony and balance. The laws of doing apply to visible, material things and living souls, and deal with personal expression and action. The laws of doing include every instance in the Bible where God commands “Thou shalt” (248 times) or “Thou shalt not” (365 times). Every law of doing directs the soul to the right choice for action; apply this rule to discover many more unrecorded laws.—ViaChrista.org.

religion: belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe, a set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader, a cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
  Religion designates the activity of manifestation, or God in action. Religion includes all that is. Religion is a law of being (you must be religious) and a law of doing (you must practice your religion), and a Via Christa Degree: Religion, inspiration, and justice form the second lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is giving.—ViaChrista.org.

remembering: is a priori soul knowledge, which Plato taught as the doctrine of recollection, the soul remembering what has occurred before.—ViaChrista.org. See memory, recollection.

repentance: (Greek metanoia) is a transformative change of heart a spiritual conversionMWD. Repentance is penitence, to feel remorse, contrition, or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do, to be contrite, to regret past conduct and to change one’s mind regarding it, to change for the better as a result.MWD.
  Repentance is from the Greek metanoiein (= to change your mind, repent = (meta- + noein to think, from nous mind). So too repent is to turn around or to return. Repentance is a law of being (you must be repentant), and a law of doing (you must repent). Repentance is your sole avenue to redeeming misspent or unwisely invested soul substance, amending the foolishness of your past choices, and your request to be permitted to repay any debts of force that you may have created. Thus, repentance is also an initiation. The vow of repentance is Here I am, Father! Let Light shine on the blot in my memory that drew this lesson to me. Let Thy Light cleanse and scrape my appetitive soul clean as I lift it into Thy glory now. —ViaChrista.org.

repress, repression: (transitive verb, noun) To repress is to hold in by self-control; to prevent the natural or normal expression, activity, or development; to exclude from consciousness. A repression is a mental process by which distressing thoughts, memories, or impulses that may give rise to anxiety are excluded from consciousness and left to operate in the unconscious.MWD.
  The thoughts and ideas you repress, you then submerge in the subconscious where they continue to exert their influence on you. Do not hide anything from your conscious mind!—ViaChrista.org.

repudiate, repudiation: (transitive verb, noun) to repudiate is to reject as having no authority or binding force on one, to refuse to discharge or acknowledge a debt or other obligation.MWD.
  Self often repudiates moral and ethical obligations that are binding on soul, thus tainting the soul. Repudiation is a taint that can quickly become a habit, and then a sin. To repudiate responsibility for a brother is mankind’s greatest psychological and moral sin.—ViaChrista.org.

repulsion: In physics, repulsion is the force with which bodies, particles or like forces repel one another.
  Repulsion is the opposite of attraction; two like electrical charges, for example, repel on another.—ViaChrista.org.

reputation: the opinion, supposition or view of one about something, the common or general estimate of a person with respect to character or other qualities, the relative estimation or esteem in which a person is held, the honor or credit of a particular person, one’s good name, good report, or fame in general.
  Character versus reputation names the contrast between the soul and the self image. Character is an abstract principle and a law of doing, the outgrowth of your accrued inner qualities, the objective truth of reality of your being. Reputation is a worldly assessment, based on the subjective truth of appearances.—ViaChrista.org. See character and truth of appearances.

responsibility: a charge, trust, or duty, for which one is responsible.” To be responsible is to be correspondent or answerable, accountable to another for something, liable to be called to account, morally accountable for your actions, capable of rational conduct.
  The law of absolute responsibility is to assume all blame and responsibility for all about you, wherever your name is used, with whatever you are connected.—ViaChrista.org.

resentment: indignation or ill will: smoldering anger generated by a sense of a grievance, real or imagined; to feel indignantly aggrieved at; resentment’s synonym is anger.
  Indignation is righteous anger at something regarded as wrongful, unjust, or evil. Resentment is a soul taint that can easily become a sin. If you do not pull the stinging nettles of resentment, you will grow a thorny hedge of hatred.—ViaChrista.org. See anger.

resistance: to strive against, or oppose, the capacity to resist. Psychology: A process in which the ego opposes the conscious recall of anxiety-producing experiences. Biology: The capacity of an organism to defend itself against a disease, or to withstand the effects of a harmful environmental agent. Electricity: The opposition of a body or substance to current passing through it, resulting in a change of electrical energy into heat or another form of energy. See nonresistance.

restraint: the act of holding back or keeping in check; control; to deprive of freedom or liberty; to limit or restrict. Synonyms for restraint include prudence, modesty, discipline, temperance, humility and meekness.
  The Platonic ideal of restraint of the passions, emotional balance and moderation is μετριοπαθία = metriopathia. This virtue is classed as one of the greatest goods.
  Restraint is an abstract principle under the principle of contraction, a law of being (you must be restrained in conduct), a law of doing (you must act in a restrained manner), and a soul virtue. You practice restraint as a law of doing, called self-control under the lesser degrees of Neophyte, Disciple and Adept; the Mystic begins to see the need to restrain self, and soul perfects this virtue under the three higher degrees of the Master, Priest and Christos. The law of restraint governs sincerity. Sincerity, a virtue, is candor, honesty, and freedom from duplicity. The laws of restraint are Matthew 25:40 and Matthew 5:19. At the physical-emotional level, the Ten Commandments are laws of restraint meant to teach you how to act, and are the foundation of our earthly legal system.—ViaChrista.org.

resurrection: the act of rising from the dead or returning to life, the act of bringing back to practice, notice, or use; a revival. Theology defines resurrection as the rising again of Jesus on the third day after the Crucifixion, or the rising again of the dead at the Last Judgment.
  Resurrection is a law of doing under the principle of redemption: To redeem your own soul you must resurrect all good from the dead in Spirit. Resurrection is the initiation of the sixth Degree of the Priest. In Resurrection, you arise into the Light to transform your cross into a ladder of Ascension. Your personal desires and will become one with divine Love and Wisdom as you daily practice the full surrender of self.—ViaChrista.org.

retaliation: the act of returning like for like, repayment in kind, requital, reprisal.
  Retaliation is a sin that calls upon you the full weight of the law of action and reaction, cause and effect. When you retaliate, you are sitting in the judgment seat, acting as judge, jury and executioner.—ViaChrista.org. See revenge and retaliation.

reticular formation: located deep within the brainstem, the reticular formation runs between the medulla and midbrain; it is a cluster of small nerve cells and short fibers that rules consciousness: even when sleeping, the reticular formation remains ready to alert the forebrain if the senses signal threat.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

revenge: Revenge inflicts punishment for injury or insult, and is retaliation, spite, or vindictiveness. Spite is malicious ill will prompting an urge to hurt or humiliate. Vindictive suggests “unmotivated rancor and a disposition to retaliate for wrongs, real or imagined. Retaliation is the act of returning like for like, repayment in kind, requital, reprisal.
  Revenge and retaliation are sins that call upon you the full weight of the law of action and reaction, cause and effect. When you see revenge or retaliate, you are sitting in the judgment seat, acting as judge, jury and executioner.—ViaChrista.org

revolution in the skies: the rebellion of certain created and begotten creator gods who descended and acted from self-will against God and the Plan of Creation. The war in heaven preceded the Fall of Man. Satan sided with Belial, the Father of Lies, and they drew one-third of the stars of heaven down with them. They became the “giants in the earth,” spoken of in Genesis 6. See Genesis 6:1-2, Judges 5:8, 20, Revelation 12:7, Jude 1:5-7.—ViaChrista.org. See Plan of Salvation.

reward: a consequence that happens to someone as a result of worthy or unworthy behavior. Money offered or given for some special service, such as the return of a lost article or the capture of a criminal. A satisfying return on investment; a profit.AHD. See earnings, wages and rewards.

righteousness: righteous is a translation of the Hebrew word, tsedeq, defined as right, righteous, just, innocent, honest, upright, pious, God-fearing; correct; acquitted. Righteousness is uprightness of character, being on the plumb line with God. Righteousness is an abstract principle, a law of being (you must be righteous) and a law of doing (you must express righteousness in all your dealings), and a virtue of the upright before God; you begin perfecting righteousness under the Master Degree. Righteousness is honor, loyalty and integrity combined, the state of consciousness of learning to be right, not through opinion and prejudice, but with principle and the Love of God. It is a state of grace, living by your highest ideas, living with the Christ. Righteousness misused as self-righteousness is hypocrisy.

rings of Saturn: rays of sensitivity formed to protect the physical body and vital centers from earth vibrations when the five senses are indrawn to serve the soul through the Oversoul Star. The Rings of Saturn are protective bands of rainbow lights around the waist-line that flood the lower three vital centers.

River of Life: The absolute emanations, Wisdom, Love and the Logos form the River of Life, eternally pouring from the Throne of God as omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence, Mind, Substance and Power to become all that is, and returning to the Source. The three great Emanations, each of which flows as an independent river, are simultaneously always a whole, complete river or triple Emanation as one, with twelve virtues for each Emanation. These Emanations alternate, one with the other, dependent upon which Emanation is to be uppermost to uphold the universes to finish the cleansing of the life sparks. The river is like a vast arterial system, through which flows the white Light of the Christ. All galaxies and suns are on this broad highway, which is a figure eight. The cohesion principle draws the River of Life to you, and you to its great cyclic Path of Life.

rod of poise: See rod of Power.

rod of Power: The spinal column in the human body, acting as the pathway of the creative fire, the rod of poise.

rotary treatment for balance and vitality is a metaphysical healing treatment. See Rotary Treatment for detailed instructions on how to do a rotary treatment.

royal celestial centers: See sun centers.

S

sacral plexus: fibers from 4th and 5th lumbar nerves and 1st, 2nd and 3rd sacral nerves form sacral plexus, which innervates abdominal organs, sexual organs, buttocks, hips, thighs and legs.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

sacrifice: to offer as a sacrifice to a deity; to forfeit one thing for another thing considered to be of greater value; to sell or give away at a loss. The act of sacrifice is an oblation, defined as the act of offering something, such as worship or thanks, to a deity; a charitable offering or gift. A sacrifice is anything material or immaterial, offered to God or a deity as an act of propitiation or homage, the destruction or surrender of something valued or desired for the sake of something having, or regarded as having, a higher or a more pressing claim, the loss entailed by devotion to an interest, also, the thing so devoted or surrendered. To sacrifice is to surrender or give up something for the attainment of some higher advantage or dearer object.
  Sacrifice is an initiation in which you are asked to surrender something you do not really need, but may still believe you do. The more the self desires to hold onto the trait or self taint that soul is offering up, the greater the sacrifice weighs in the balance. Your sacrifice must be dear to you, or is otherwise meaningless. Sacrifice is a law of doing: You must make a sacrifice of self. Sacrifice is the keynote of the fifth lesser Via Christa Trinity, and it includes the degrees of consecration, bravery and action. The vow of sacrifice: “Father, let me find new things of self still buried in my appetitive soul, hidden from my conscious mind, to lie on Thy altars forever. Accept my soul, heart, body and affairs as living sacrifices to Thee so that I may be used as Thy servant and strong pillar in Thy Temple."

science includes those branches of study relating to the phenomena of the physical universe and its laws, a connected body of demonstrated truths with observed facts systematically classified under general laws; the study of relative, modified principles which can be proven through physical measurements and through physical senses.

scholia, scholium, sch.: (Greek scholion = school or scholar) an ancient scholar’s commentary; marginal notes or commentaries intended to illustrate a point in the text.—Wordnik.

seat of appetitive soul: Cells of the physical body enfold both the desire body (seat of all emotional activity) and the mental body (seat of the subconscious mind).

secondary laws are relative laws, modified and diluted to suit individual intelligence and consciousness. Common sense is the application of modified relative laws.

second death: Loss of soul identity.

secret place of the Most High: The higher creative center within the golden bowl (brain), the sanctuary or high place in man.

secrets: A secret is something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few. Secrets conform to a law of doing, and sharing or holding a secret can be an initiation. What you hide, from yourself and the world, always betrays you at the most inopportune moment.

seeing and hearing: See Spiritual seeing and hearing.

seer: One who sees, to whom divine revelations are made in visions, one gifted with profound spiritual insight; the interpretation of symbols, seeing the future.

self: (adjective) the total essential, or particular being of a person; the essential qualities distinguishing one person from another; one’s consciousness of one’s own being or identity; one’s own interests, welfare, or advantage.AHD. Self is a permanent subject of successive and varying states of consciousness; what one is at a particular time or in a particular aspect or relation, one’s nature, character, or sometimes physical constitution or appearance, considered as different at different times. Philosophically stated, self is the ego, often identified with the soul or mind as opposed to the body. Psychologically, self is an assemblage of characteristics and dispositions that we may conceive as constituting one of various conflicting personalities within a human being.OED.

self-: word-forming element indicating oneself, also automatic, (pronoun) in compounds, such as self-control, self-love, self-will. auto- (reflexive pronoun) (Greek = autos) word-forming element meaning self, one's own, by oneself, of oneself. —Etymonline.

self-control: Edna Lister’s work reveals that the only legal forms of control are the soul controlling the self, and of God controlling His creations and the universe. Parents may control the behaviors of their children only with the intent and purpose of instilling discipline of self within them. Control is but the first step in conquering. The obsession with control and manipulation of the behavior of others is a pathological side effect of the Degree of the Adept, whose soul task is to perfect control of the self as the basis for soul conquering, not for domineering or enslaving others. Such possessive control of another, Edna Lister said, is a form of possession, the deepest and darkest evil, a form of black magic. As you involve yourself in the world and its affairs, self expands to fill all available space. You must exert the principle of contraction to restrict the selfish will, to rein it in and return command to the soul. You must redeem all self to give soul the power to ascend. Whether conscious or unconscious of your ability, you do have the power of conscious direction and control. Your unconscious thinking holds you in bondage. Edna Lister taught that God has given the rational soul the power of conscious direction and control through the spoken Word. God has given universal substance only the power to become the vibration that you decree by the spoken Word. Controlling the self is a law of doing and an initiation. Control is but the first step in conquering self, and it begins with bridling the tongue. The principle of nonresistance is the control for all Power. Nonresistance is ultimate control. Controlling self is what you do until you conquer. An Adept controls self, and the Adept Degree is the practice of controlling the self. Period.—ViaChrista.org.

self-exaltation: is the glorification of the self at the expense of the soul’s God-consciousness, the inflation of the self-image to the detriment of character.—ViaChrista.org.

selfishness: puts the cares, thoughts, concerns and welfare of the self first, places self at the center of the universe and is utterly untrustworthy. Selfishness is a soul taint and a sin. Selfishness is devotion to or concern with one’s own advantage or welfare to the exclusion of regard for others. Science and religion both teach selfishness: That the first rule of life is self preservation, which results in “me first” and the creed of materialism. Selfishness results from the original sin of separateness (separation).—ViaChrista.org.

selflessness: altruism, the unselfish concern for the welfare of others. Selflessness is an attribute of the Logos and is a Christ principle. Selflessness is another name for the Logos Emanation, an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being (we must be unselfish) and a law of doing (we must act in an unselfish manner), and a Christed soul virtue.—ViaChrista.org.

self-love: puts self first, but soul love places God in the top slot. The most popular term for self-love today is narcissism.—ViaChrista.org.

self-will: the willful or obstinate persistence in following one’s own desires and opinions. Self-will and self desires are the opponents in your inner conflicts. Whenever you hear yourself (or another) exclaim “Why does this always happen to me?” — you know that you (they) have been acting from self-will, not in accordance with God’s will for you. Egypt’s Pharaoh, refusing to “let My people go,” is the epitome of self-will. “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.” The appetitive soul of self presides as Pharaoh, the intellectual self-will, at the solar plexus. The Master (Luke 22:42) revealed the perfect method by which you may escape the dictator of self-will. You must choose between the desirable and the undesirable. The Disciple learns mental balance by crucifying self-will. The Master of Law lays his self-will upon the crossbar of the Master’s cross of crucifixion and assumes full responsibility for lifting everything.—ViaChrista.org.

semantics: the study of meaning. Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that you use to express yourself through language. In grasping semantic meaning, you must know what the words you use denote and connote. Denotation is the literal or primary meaning of a word. Connotation is the idea or feeling that a word evokes in addition to its literal meaning.—ViaChrista.org.

separation: the action of parting, of setting or keeping apart, to make a severance or division, the action of separating oneself, withdrawing, or parting company. Joshua 24:15 tells us to “choose this day whom thou wilt serve,” God or self, then separate yourself from all that does not advance you on the path of soul ascension. The lie, the illusion that you are separate from God is the “original sin” because it separates Mind, Power and Substance, which sunders the soul’s knowledge of its bond with God.—ViaChrista.org.

sephiroth: the combination of emanations, the 1st ebsolute Trinity and 2nd eupreme trinity with seven trinities moving forth below, making ten members of the first hierarchy of the Supreme Creator gods; spheres or sontainers for Light.—ViaChrista.org.

Septuagint: The earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew, presumably made for the use of the Jewish community in Egypt when Greek was the universal trade language.—ViaChrista.org.

service: “the condition of being a servant, the fact of serving a master.” Service is a particular ministerial office or charge, a duty, serving God by obedience, piety, and good works. Service, the 33rd Degree of the Via Christa, is Wisdom, Love and Selflessness in fourfold action: To protect others, keep to purity, give to others, and to praise. Service is the rent you pay for the universal space you occupy. Service is a virtue, which you perfect under the Degree of Priest, who practices selfless sacrificial service.—ViaChrista.org. See Responsibility, Faith and Free-will.

seven breaths: A deep physical breath containing seven degrees or grades of substance; the three higher breaths are called the breaths of the Creator.—ViaChrista.org.

Seven Degrees: The Seven Degrees (Neophyte, Disciple, Adept, Mystic, Master, Priest and Christos, in ascending order) form the basis of your challenges and initiation in daily life (even when you’re unaware), under the guise of personal choice, commitment, action, acceptance, responsibility, service and sublimation.—ViaChrista.org.

Seven Great Trinities: Wisdom, Love and the Logos, Father, Son and Spirit, Father, Mother and Son, Mind, Power and Substance, Light, Color and Tone, Number, Form and Expression, Will, Desire and Action.—ViaChrista.org.

seven Lights before the throne:> The seven Creative Trinities as personalities. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.—Revelation 1:12-16.—ViaChrista.org.

shame: the painful emotion arising from the consciousness of something dishonoring, ridiculous, or indecorous in one’s own conduct or circumstances, or in those of others, whose honor or disgrace one regards as one’s own, or of being in a situation which offends one’s sense of modesty or decency, disgrace, ignominy, loss of esteem or reputation. Shame is the result of betraying one’s own code of ethics, or moral compass. shame indicates a soul taint.—ViaChrista.org.

Shekinah glory: Shekinah is a Hebrew term for the radiance of the Presence of God.—ViaChrista.org.

shushumna: (Sanskrit) the central spinal canal though which the creative fire ascends and descends the spine.—ViaChrista.org.

sight draft: a draft or bill that is payable on demand or upon presentation (also called a demand draft).

silver cord: the line composed of a thousand strands of heavy Light (invisible to ordinary vision), joining the embodied soul incarnate to the Oversoul portion above.—ViaChrista.org.

simplicity: is the quality of being simple or uncompounded; a lack of subtlety; the absence of affectation or pretense. Simplicity of spirit is single-mindedness, which enables you to detect, recognize and observe the law of truth that lies beneath and within all ideas, events and personalities on earth, no matter how it is presented. Simplicity, with the Eye of God and sincerity, forms the third lesser trinity of the 33 Via Christa Degrees, under the keynote of balance.—ViaChrista.org.

sin: a transgression of a religious or moral law, a deliberate disobedience to the known will of God, a condition of estrangement from God resulting from such disobedience, or something regarded as shameful, deplorable, or utterly wrong. A sin is any word, emotion, thought or act that can separate divine Mind, Substance and Power, thus creating mental confusion, illusion or delusion, diseased substance and denatured Power, or force. Sin is missing the mark, living by a negative, not a positive pattern. Sin and evil are born of choices made by personalities. See 1 John 3:4 and John 8:34. Mankind’s greatest psychological sin is repudiation of responsibility for a brother.—ViaChrista.org. See evil.

sincerity: candor, honesty, and freedom from duplicity, rooted in sincere, which means not feigned or affected; genuine; without hypocrisy or pretense; true. Sincerity is your truth of being, and honesty in your expression. Sincerity is a virtue; you cannot attain the Christos Degree without it. Sincerity, with the eye of God, and simplicity, forms the third lesser trinity of the 33 Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is balance.—ViaChrista.org.

sine qua non: Latin idiom = something absolutely indispensable or essential; literally “without which, not,” which means “Without (something), (something else) won’t be possible."

si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses: This quote, often attributed to the Latin philosopher Boethius of the late fifth and early sixth centuries, translates literally as, “If you had been silent, you would have remained a philosopher.” The phrase expresses actions contrary to fact.

si vales bene est: (Latin phrase) “If you are well, it is good."

slippery slope: a course of action that seems to lead inevitably from one action or result to another with unintended consequences.

sloth: one of the seven deadly sins, sloth is indifference, lukewarmness, carelessness, apathy and laziness. See procrastination.

solar plexus: the celiac plexus innervates the stomach, liver, pancreas, adrenal medulla, spleen, kidney, colon, bladder, bladder sphincter, gonads, and sexual organs.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. The solar plexus is the associated with the Adept Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

sons and daughters of God: a created Order, the last group to leave their original cosmic magnitudes as living souls.—ViaChrista.org.

sons and daughters of men: rational souls ascending from the creature stage of evolution.—ViaChrista.org.

sons of Sceva: “Then certain of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, We exorcize you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”—Acts 19:13-16.

sophia: (Greek noun = Σοφία = σοφία = wisdom) is a central idea in Greek philosophy, Platonism, Gnosticism, and Christian theology. Originally meaning “cleverness, skill,” it later evolved to imply phronesis ("wisdom, intelligence"). Plato significantly shaped the term as “philosophy” ("love of sophia").—ViaChrista.org.

sophist: a class of ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric, philosophy, and the art of successful living prominent about the middle of the 5th Century B.C. for their adroit subtle and often specious reasoning; a captious or fallacious reasoner.—ViaChrista.org.

sophistry: the use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving; a fallacious argument. The use of sophistry in rhetoric (public speaking) is the primary tool of politicians, liars, cheats, fraudsters, and propagandists.—ViaChrista.org.

sophrosyne: (Ancient Greek σωφροσύνη) is the Platonic ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind, which when combined in one well-balanced individual leads to other qualities, such as temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, decorum and self-control; the personified spirit (daimona) of moderation, self-control, temperance, restraint, and discretion.—ViaChrista.org.

sorrow (Middle English verb = feel sad, grieve) The uneasiness or pain of mind which is produced by the loss of any good. or of frustrated hopes of good, or expected loss of happiness; to grieve; to be sad.WAD.
  Sorrow is a sympathetic insight into others’ feelings, and an emotional reaction to losing something you cherish or value. Sorrow is a difficult initiation because your emotions are engaged.—ViaChrista.org. See grief.

soul: the animating and vital principle in human beings, credited with the faculties of thought, action and emotion, and often conceived as an immaterial being; the spiritual nature of human beings, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state. The soul, often called the living soul, is your individuated ground of being. Your soul is the person who can say I am. The soul is a portion of the divine Mind, which God condenses as life sparks of Substance and animates (Power) by breathing it into a physical form as a vehicle of expression, what we call an individual.—ViaChrista.org.

soul flight: A soul flight takes you through the Gates of Light, into the mystic realms of Heaven. It is different from a dream, astral travel or astral projection, during which you remain below the Gates of Light, in one of the various planes of consciousness &mdash the desire plane or the psychic plane.—ViaChrista.org.

soul portions: Half of a descended creator god, including the life sparks thrown off to come up through evolution; the appetitive soul encased in these life sparks (subconscious mind), the rational soul (conscious mind), the Oversoul (super-conscious mind).—ViaChrista.org. See Supreme Oversoul, tripartite soul.

soul records: The record of all personal experience incorporated into the midbrain neurons.

soul substance is a living soul’s personal life sparks of Light, named and numbered with its unique rate of vibration.—ViaChrista.org.

Source of All Light: The original sphere encompassing all the Substance needed to create the universe, the Heart Center of Being.—ViaChrista.org.

Source Sphere: See Source of All Light.

space: The world defines space as the infinite extension of the three-dimensional field in which all matter exists; the expanse in which the solar system, stars, and galaxies exist; the universe. Space is God as Being-Itself, infinitely extended in every direction and dimension, the habitation of the Infinite Eternal, the multiverse. Space is an absolute principle (God is all space), an abstract principle, and a Via Christa Degree: Space, eternity and time form the ninth lesser Via Christa trinity, whose keynote is immortality through conquering space and time. Place (space) was one of Aristotle’s categories.—ViaChrista.org.

speaking the Word: is a relative law of doing that originates in the Logos Emanation, the Word of God itself. Speaking the Word as a co-creator with God is the most powerful action you can take on earth. The mandates for speaking the Word were among the first events in Creation: Your task is to emulate the Divine by declaring for Light — “Let there be Light” — and by declaring your creations good and very good, as God did, seven times in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. The spoken Word acts as law on Substance, directed by Mind. Wisdom speaks the Word to set it in action under the law of Love and attraction. See John 1:1-3, and Genesis 1:31. This is the secret of a fulfilled and finished creation.—ViaChrista.org.

spinal column: The vertebral column enclosing the spinal cord and consisting of 33 vertebrae (called 33 Steps to Glory): Seven cervical, twelve dorsal or thoracic, five lumbar, five sacral fused to form one bone, and four in the coccyx united to form one bone.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

spinal cord: The ovoid column of nervous tissue, extending from the medulla to the second lumbar vertebra in the spinal canal. All nerves to the trunk and limbs issue from the spinal cord, the center of reflex action containing conducting paths to and from the brain. Sensory neurons enter posteriorly; motor nerves arise anteriorly.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

Spirit: Original universal Substance, perfect and untouched, all qualities uncondensed, a primary rate of vibration, the spiritual substance used in the bond to soul to pay the soul’s debts.—ViaChrista.org.

spiritual debt: An ordinary debt is that which is owed or due, anything (as money, goods, or service) which one person is under obligation to pay or render to another. Spiritual debt is the sum of actions in successive states of existence that determines fate in the next, hence, necessary fate, following as effect from cause. The debts owed or due an individual as a result of separation of Mind, Substance and Power under the law of cause and effect, are called karma. Spiritual debts fall under the great law of action and reaction, cause and effect. In Oriental philosophies and religions, karma is universal indebtedness. Creating and paying spiritual debts falls under the laws of doing. Spiritual debt is a burden of honor and discharging it is an initiation.—ViaChrista.org.

spiritual seeing and hearing: clairvoyance and clairaudience, literally “clear” seeing and hearing, enable perception of sight and sound beyond what is considered the normal human range. Some call these faculties psychic ability or extrasensory perception. They are perception of only a limited range of light and sound, bound by the truth of appearance and subject to illusion. Spiritual seeing and hearing are soul faculties, tools of the creator servant. Seeing is first a sense of knowing, which is purely spiritual intuition. As you look and listen, it reaches into the physical nerves that function the “all seeing eye.”
  Spiritual seeing and hearing is based on the endocrine and central nervous systems’ development and degree of function, which is a measure of present soul expression; the clarity depends on the degree of sublimation of appetitive soul or subconscious mind. The clarity of seeing and hearing depends on the degree of conquering or sublimation of self and subconscious mind already accomplished, which is also a measure of present soul expression. Beyond clairvoyance and clairaudience lay higher orders of vision and hearing (fully aware and non-trance), seership and prophecy. Seership, the ability to foresee the future, includes mastery of interpreting symbols. Prophecy, foretelling the future, includes inspired teaching.—ViaChrista.org. See imagination, seer, oracle, prophecy.

spiritual faculties: include desire, will, understanding, intuition, illumination and aspiration.—ViaChrista.org.

spleen: An organ consisting of lymphatic tissue differentiated into white and red pulp. In the embryo, the spleen forms all types of blood cells, but in the adult, only lymphocytes and monocytes. If adult bone marrow is damaged, the spleen can release old blood cells. It filters blood, removing bacteria, particulate matter, aged or non-functioning platelets and other red blood cells.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. The spleen is associated with the Disciple Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

standing, holding and knowing:> laws of doing and initiations of poise, endurance and conscious awareness. Stand on principle always as you hold fast to the Light of God in truth, and you know that “This is Good. Let there be Light” is the perfect declaration in all cases of need. Standing: Ephesians 6:13. Holding: Hebrews 10:23. Knowing: Matthew 10:26.—ViaChrista.org.

star of Oversoul: The five-pointed Star of the heart of your being that rests upon the pineal and pituitary, and over the three windows of soul.—ViaChrista.org.

Stations of the Cross: The fourteen Stations of the Cross compose a series of fourteen representations that depict the events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion. The church hierarchy developed the stations during the Middle Ages as a devotional substitute for following the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrow), the route in Jerusalem that Christ followed to Calvary. These stations cover the time between when Pilate condemned Jesus until he was laid in the grave. The Stations of the Cross are the minimum levels of initiation required to pass the Gates of Light and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.—ViaChrista.org.

Steps of the Creator: The desire to create, thinking and planning, and conscious directing and controlling.—ViaChrista.org.

strength:> the state, property, or quality of being strong; the power to resist attack, strain or stress, durability, the ability to maintain a moral or intellectual position firmly, the capacity or potential for effective action. Physical strength or lack of it is not your problem, but your lack of burning desire is. In addition to being physically powerful, strong is having force of character, will, morality, or intelligence, capable of the effective exercise of authority, not easily upset; resistant to harmful or unpleasant influences, persuasive, effective, and cogent, forthright and explicit; intense in degree or quality.

Strength is an abstract principle, rooted in the Logos Emanation, lowered one grade in its rate of vibration; the Logos becomes Power when the Godhead exerts it, and relative power or strength when you express it. Strength is also a soul virtue and a mental faculty.—ViaChrista.org.

striving: to strive is to exert much effort or energy; to endeavor.—ViaChrista.org.

struggling and striving: to struggle is to be strenuously engaged with a problem, a task, or an undertaking; to make a strenuous effort, to strive. Struggling and striving are initiations. The candidate for ascension initiation knows that the only struggle is with the self, and the only real conflicts are internal. The struggle with conflicting desires, internal and external, builds character: John Adams said, “People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity."—ViaChrista.org.

subconscious mind: the instinctive animal consciousness gained during evolution, the repository of all past racial memory, family and world impressions and repressions carried from generation to generation, plus the accumulation of thinking, emotions and imaginings of the present life. Liebnitz asserted that there are certain phases of the mind of which you are not aware; the subconscious is the lowest level of human consciousness, an animal-like awareness.—ViaChrista.org. See conscious mind, super-conscious mind.

sublimate: to raise, elevate or exalt to high place, to dignify, to honor, to transmute directly into something higher, nobler or more refined. We practice the sublimation of self expression into soul expression.—ViaChrista.org.

subsoul: See appetitive soul.

substance: the physical material from which something is made or which has discrete existence. Substance is an absolute and an abstract principle, rooted in the Love Emanation. As an absolute abstract principle, Substance is metaphysical Light made manifest as an ultimate particle, the life spark. The photon of physical light is the smallest particle of measurable substance known to physics and science, and it acts as both a particle and a wave. Substance is both visible and invisible. God is omnipresent as substance; thus, substance is an expression of the divine Love of God for all Creation. You are the divine substance in individualized form of “soul substance.”
  When you choose to express God as Love and Substance, you do so by loving and by faith: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” — Hebrews 11:1. As a law of being, God numbers and names universal Substance with uncountable particular rates of vibration that become the soul substance identities of living souls. Substance is the Mother-God who nourishes and sustains all Father-God’s creations. She fills all molds with Substance under the spoken Word. Hers is the healing, devouring ray without which nothing could disintegrate; the death ray, the beneficent ray of life that draws all vibrations back to the Source, and which absorbs magnetic walls of the universe at the end of a Day of Manifestation while making ready for a Night of Rest and Assimilation; see Life sparks.

suction: The act or process of exerting a force upon a liquid, solid or gaseous body by reason of a reduced air pressure over a part of its surface.

sun centers: seven royal celestial centers, located in the electronic fire body, which must be open, developed and alighted to attain cosmic consciousness.—ViaChrista.org.

super-conscious mind: functions as the faculties of intuition and illumination. The Oversoul uses the super-conscious mind. Liebniz asserted that there are certain phases of the mind of which we are unaware; the super-conscious mind is the highest level of human mentation.—ViaChrista.org. See I AM

supernal: being or coming from on high: heavenly, ethereal.

supplicant: A person making a humble or earnest plea to God or someone in power or authority.

suppression: “the conscious inhibition of an idea or desire, as distinguished from repression, which is considered an unconscious process.”

supreme Oversoul: the half of a descended begotten creator god, remaining at the Source to serve as the eternal anchor for all other soul portions.—ViaChrista.org.

surd: A number or quantity that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two integers. The term also refers to a symbol (usually √ = square root) that is sometimes used to indicate that the number or quantity that follows it is a root.

surrender: to relinquish possession or control of to another because of demand or compulsion: to give up in favor of another: to give up or give back (something that has been granted): to give up or abandon: to give over or resign (oneself) to something, as to an emotion.
  Surrender, as a virtue, is letting, always giving up selfish will to God. Surrender is an initiatory degree.The world misunderstands surrender, interpreting it as the passive action of a loser, not the dynamic act of an ascending soul. To surrender is to let go of what you do not need. By letting go of self-credits, self-doubts and all thoughts of self, you conquer by obedience to the law of surrender, knowing that the Power does the work. Surrender is breaking self’s hold to let soul take charge. You surrender selfish will and desires to become the servant of all the Power. The vow of surrender is “Here I am, Father, surrendering all my past, present, and future to Thee that I may be Thy perfect servant of all the Power.” The law of surrender is that all Power comes from above.—ViaChrista.org.

syllogism: a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion; for example, the syllogism, “All humans are mortal, I am a human; therefore, I am mortal” is constructed thus: “All humans are mortal” is the major premise. “I am a human” is the minor premise, and “therefore, I am mortal"is the conclusion. A syllogism is reasoning from the general to the specific, a deduction.

sympathy: an emotional affinity in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other, and its synonym is pity. Sympathy must become empathy. Empathy, which is important in the development of a moral sense, is the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, motives, and actions.—ViaChrista.org.

syzygy: in astronomy, a syzygy is a straight alignment configuration of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system. A spiritual syzygy requires three elements, which are subconscious, conscious and super-conscious mind or appetitive soul, rational soul and Oversoul. Syzygy is supercharged serendipity, alignment, conjunction, congruence, integration and conscious Union with All That Is, without loss of personal identity. The Light is alive and sentient, the living radiance of the Divine Presence, essentially feminine, the Shekinah, the Syzygus.—ViaChrista.org.

T

taint: A soul taint is a moral defect, a negative influence, a spiritual contamination. Taints arise within the soul when self-will conflicts with divine will, and self desires conflict with the divine desire for you. Unless you lift and surrender it to God, a taint always becomes the breeding ground for sin. Soul taints adulterate your consciousness, and rot the rungs of the ladder of ascension you are climbing. A taint is missing the high mark in the calling of God through Christ Jesus. Taints are “treasures of darkness,” which you must eradicate by sacrifice. First you must learn what your taint is.—ViaChrista.org.

teachers and teaching: To teach is “to impart knowledge or skill to, to provide knowledge of, to instruct in, to condition to a certain action or frame of mind, to cause to learn by example or experience, to advocate or preach.” A true teacher blazes a path toward the supernal truth, toward the heart of all Light and never steps from that path to please any man. The true teacher never teaches what she only thinks or believes, but teaches only what she knows is truth.—ViaChrista.org.

teleology: (from Greek telos, “end,” and logos, “reason") in philosophy teleology is the “explanation by reference to some purpose, end, goal, or function. Traditionally, it was also described as final causality, in contrast with explanation solely in terms of efficient causes (the origin of a change or a state of rest in something). Human conduct, insofar as it is rational, is generally explained with reference to ends or goals pursued or alleged to be pursued, and humans have often understood the behaviour of other things in nature on the basis of that analogy, either as of themselves pursuing ends or goals or as designed to fulfill a purpose devised by a mind that transcends nature.”—Encyclopedia Britannica.

telomere: (noun) a segment of DNA occurring at the ends of chromosomes in cells containing a clearly defined nucleus. Telomeres are made up of repeated segments of DNA that consist of the sequence 5′-TTAGGG-3′ …. Some human cells contain as many as 1,500 to 2,000 repeats of this sequence at each end of each chromosome. The number of repeats determines the maximum life span of a cell: each time a cell undergoes replication, multiple TTAGGG segments are lost. Once telomeres have been reduced to a certain size, the cell reaches a crisis point and is prevented from dividing further. As a consequence, the cell dies. Thus, the processes of cell aging and cell death are regulated in part by telomeres.EB.

temptation: (noun) The act of tempting; enticement to evil by arguments, by flattery, or by the offer of some real or apparent good: When the devil had ended all the temptation he departed from him for a season.—Luke 4:13. Solicitation of the passions; enticements to evil proceeding from the prospect of pleasure or advantage. The state of being tempted or enticed to evil. When by human weakness you are led into temptation resort to prayer for relief. Trial: Lead us not into temptation.—Matthew 6:13. That which is presented to the mind as an inducement to evil: Dare to be great without a guilty crown, | View it, and lay the bright temptation down.—John Dryden,Aureng-zebe.
  All temptations are initiations. The three temptations in the wilderness, recounted in Matthew and Luke, occurred just after Jesus received the baptism of the Holy Spirit through his cousin John the Baptist, and right before he began his public ministry. Satan tempts Jesus to disobey law three different ways. While the Gospels describe these initiations as a single series of events, they are recurring and cyclic in your life; you face these tests annually, and each time you advance a step or degree in ascension. All temptations are initiations in Mind, Substance or Power. You face the three temptations each time you repeat any phase of the Mystic Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

Ten Commandments: A commandment is a command, an edict. On Mount Sinai God gave Ten Commandments to Moses, which are the original laws of doing that apply to living souls, visible, material embodiments, and deal with personal expression and action. The full body of the Law includes every instance in the Bible where God commands “Thou shalt” (248 times) or “Thou shalt not” (365 times). Every law of doing directs the soul to the right choice for action; apply this rule to discover many more unrecorded laws.—ViaChrista.org.

tertium quid: (Latin = third something) a third someting from its failing to fit into a dichotomy; a middle course or an intermediate component; a third party of ambiguous status.

tests, trials, and temptations: A test is “a procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something.” A trial is “an examination of evidence and applicable law by a competent tribunal to determine the issue of specified charges or claims; the act or process of testing, trying, or putting to the proof.” A temptation is “something that is tempting or enticing.”
  Tests, trials. and temptations are all initiations, methods by which God gathers real proofs of your soul’s state of being. He tests you to determine the quality and truth of your soul’s being, as in being free of self. Cyclically, you are tried to prove your degree of conquering, and whether you have become the virtues and soul qualities to which you aspire. Most temptations appeal to the physical appetites, the senses, primarily taste and touch (gustatory and sensual); some escapist temptations distort reality (drugs and alcohol). Other temptations invite you to wallow in emotion or indulge in mental malpractice and idle word or acts.—ViaChrista.org.

thalamus: Located in the middle of the brain above the brainstem, the thalamus receives all sensory stimuli except olfactory, which are then associated, synthesized and relayed to specific areas of the cerebrum. Impulses are also received from the cerebrum, hypothalamus, and corpus striatum and relayed to body’s muscles; it is the center for appreciation of primitive, uncritical sensations of pain, crude touch and temperature.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

theodicy: vindication of God; the defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716 AD) coined the term “theodicy” in 1710 in his work Théodicée, though various responses to the problem of evil had been previously proposed by St. Irenaeus (130-202 AD). Plotinus (204/5-270 AD), and St. Augustine (354-430 AD).

theurgy: Divine or supernatural intervention in human affairs; the performance of miracles with supernatural assistance. magic performed with the aid of beneficent spirits, as formerly practiced by the Neoplatonists. The art or technique of compelling or persuading a god or beneficent or supernatural power to do or refrain from doing something. Late Greek theourgia, from theourgos miracle worker, from Greek the- + ergon work

thinking: thought, cogitation, meditation, mental action or activity. To think is to form in the mind, conceive (a thought); to have in the mind as a notion, an idea; to do in the way of mental action; to reason about or reflect on; ponder; to decide by reasoning, reflection, or pondering; to judge or regard. Thought is the act or process of thinking; cogitation; a product of thinking; the faculty of thinking or reasoning; the intellectual activity or production of a particular time or group; consideration; attention.
  Thinking is how you apply your mental faculties, using logic, reason, discernment, discrimination, and discretion to chart your course in life. You think on a continuum ranging from utterly selfish and subjective to sublimely objective and Godlike. Thinking is an abstract principle, a law of doing, and a faculty.—ViaChrista.org. See recognition.

Thirty-three Degrees: See Via Christa.

thumos: “impulsiveness, indignation, anger, wrath, rage.” Plato, Cratylus [419e]: “Nor is there any difficulty about ἐπιθυμία (desire), for this name was evidently given to the power that goes (ἰοῦσα) into the soul (θυμός). And θυμός has its name from the raging (θύσις) and boiling of the soul. The name ἵμερος (longing) was given to the stream (ῥοῦς) which most draws the soul; [420a] for because it flows with a rush (ἱέμενος) and with a desire for things and thus draws the soul on through the impulse of its flowing, all this power gives it the name of ἵμερος. And the word πόθος (yearning) signifies that it pertains not to that which is present, but to that which is elsewhere (ἄλλοθί που) or absent, and therefore the same feeling which is called ἵμερος when its object is present, is called πόθος when it is absent. And ἔρως (love) is so called because it flows in (ἐσρεῖ) from without, and this flowing is not inherent in him who has it, [420b] but is introduced through the eyes; for this reason it was in ancient times called ἔσρος, from ἐσρεῖν—for we used to employ omicron instead of omega—but now it is called ἔρως through the change of omicron to omega.”

thymus: Located anterior to and above heart, the thymus consists of two flattened symmetrical lobes. At birth, the average weight of the thymus is thirteen grams. Growth is rapid for two years, then slows, obtaining a weight of about thirty grams at puberty, after which it begins to atrophy and thymic tissue is replaced with fat and connective tissue. It is important in development of the immune response in the newborn and is essential to maturation of T cells, which are thymic lymphoid cells. T cells may survive up to five years and are key to the body’s cell-mediated immune response.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. The thymus gland is associated with the Mystic Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

thyroid: A gland located in the base of the neck on both sides of the lower part of the larynx and upper part of the trachea, consisting of two lateral lobes connected by an isthmus. It secretes thyroxine, triiodothyronine and calcitonin.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology. The thyroid gland is associated with the Master Degree.—ViaChrista.org.

time: a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future, an interval separating two points on this continuum; a duration. Time, space and eternity form the ninth lesser trinity of Via Christa Degrees, whose keynote is immortality through conquering space and time. “Time is the principle of form under which we relate events; the form of an antecedence in which sequence makes possible all outer experience. The idea of time is born in the interval between happenings. Time governs the law of mental synthesis, and binds all things together.”—ViaChrista.org.

timocracy: government in which a certain amount of property is necessary for office; government in which love of honor is the ruling principle.

tolerance: the disposition to be patient with or indulgent to the opinions or practices of others; freedom from bigotry or undue severity in judging the conduct of others; forbearance; universality of spirit. To be tolerant is to be inclined to tolerate the beliefs, practices, or traits of others; forbearing.
  Your tolerance here on earth properly is rooted in the principles of nonresistance and compassion. Never allow your tolerance to become a moral or ethical taint, permitting evil. Political correctness is often an example of the latter.—ViaChrista.org.

tone: the quality of sound, a musical or vocal sound, considered with reference to its quality, as acute or grave, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, clear or dull. Your tone of voice can convey a particular quality, pitch, modulation or inflection of the voice expressing or indicating affirmation, interrogation, hesitation, decision, or some feeling or emotion; vocal expression.
  The Logos, which is the third Emanation, is the source of tone and of the spoken Word. The principle of tone predominates in the Supreme Trinity. It is the source of the musical chromatic scale (which proceeds by semitones, notes that do not appear in the diatonic scale). Tone is an abstract principle and a law of being and of doing. Tone is a law of doing; you must command your tone of voice and actions. Your imagination, thinking and desires all possess a certain tone, which you have created as the result of your choices in applying principles as laws and your expression of those principles. All facets of creation add their voices to the celestial symphony; for example marine biologists have recorded whale songs and dolphin speech, and radio astronomers have recorded the tones emitted by the stars of distant galaxies. The first recorded action in the Book of Genesis is divine speech, the Creative Fiat: God said, Let there be Light, and Light was.—Genesis 1:3.—ViaChrista.org.

transcendence: (Latin = transcendere) to climb over, to surpass, or to go beyond, a term describing the relation existing between two things when one is superior and extrinsic to the other, e.g., God and the world, animal and plant, and knower and thing known. It implies an aspect of discontinuity, hiatus, or break between both the realities involved and the means of passing from the one to the other, and this either in reality or in knowledge. Transcendence is opposed to immanence, which stresses remaining within or under, although the two can be regarded as complementary. Thus God is transcendent, since He is above the world as the highest being and the ultimate cause; He is also immanent, since He is present in the world through participation and through causality. The notion of transcendence is basic in theology and religion in their treatment of God and to philosophy in its treatment of knowledge and of being.—B. A. Gendreau, Transcendence.

transfiguration: a marked change in form or appearance; it is to undergo a metamorphosis, a change that glorifies or exalts. To transfigure is to elevate, glorify, idealize or spiritualize.
  The Transfiguration refers to the sudden emanation of radiance from the person of Jesus that occurred on the mountain. Transfiguration is the initiation of the fourth Degree of the Mystic. During Transfiguration, you stand in the golden silence to maintain constant contact with the Source, and to name all things good. When you balance Love and Wisdom perfectly, to stand in balance under the pure white Light of the Christ, the materiality of self falls from your soul and your face shines as pure joy.—ViaChrista.org.

transmigration: originally meant the movement of the soul from one body to another after the decease of the physical, but the defnition has devolved into the belief that man’s soul regularly may enter into the body of an animal. We do not hold that belief, nor do we believe it to be true except for extremely rare cases of regression.—ViaChrista.org.

treachery: cheating, violation of faith or betrayal of trust, perfidious conduct, the perfidy of a traitor, treason against a sovereign, lord, or master.
  Treachery is a sin, a frequent activity of the evilly inclined.—ViaChrista.org.

treatments: declarations of perfection and gestures used in prayer for persons and situations.—ViaChrista.org.

trials: See tests, trials and temptations.

trinities of being: The Three-as-One stepped down to a lower rate of vibration, all potential Mind, Substance, and Power, containing all powers, qualities and attributes of the divine Whole.—ViaChrista.org.

trinity of creative doing: The microcosm of man, composed of Oversoul and super-conscious mind, rational soul and conscious mind, appetitive soul and subconscious mind of man expressing as will, desire, and action.—ViaChrista.org.

trinity of Oneness with God: the outer trinity of the appetitive soul, rational soul and Oversoul which become one under marriages of the Lamb; at-one-ment.—ViaChrista.org.

tripartite soul: Plato’s conception and nomenclature of the soul: the logos is the Oversoul, which is rooted in the brain’s pineal body, pituitary gland and hypothalamus, but rests slightly above the head. Oversoul directs and controls the embodied soul through its rational or reasoning function, the rational soul, which is the body’s molecular and atomic link to its full living soul and the mind which was in Christ Jesus, the Mind of God. The selfish desires and impulses you entertain limit your access to the divine mind of Christ consciousness. The appetitive soul rules the body’s metabolism and constantly rebuilds it, atom by atom. Plato indentified appetitive soul by its two primary traits: desire (eros) and spiritedness (thymos), its forceful impulsiveness, which strongly influences the nature and strength of its physical desires. Thymos is located in the midriff, the diaphragm, and eros in the stomach. We know this area as the domain of the solar plexus, also called the abdominal brain; we call this interplay the respiratory rate of balance between mind and body, which you, the embodied soul, can direct and control through deep, relaxed breathing.—ViaChrista.org.

trouble: trouble describes “a state of distress, affliction, danger, or need.” Troubles are initiations that embody the acute and chronic forms of one need, to look up in consciousness to God, the Light, and to ask for help.—ViaChrista.org.

trust<: firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.
  Trust is your proof of your faith in God. Trust is soul-confidence expressing as your bridge over the abyss between the visible and the invisible. Trust in God gives you faith in yourself. Trust God first, but trust others only to their degree and kind. People may fail you, but God never will.—ViaChrista.org.

truth: conformity with fact, agreement with reality, accuracy, correctness, verity of a statement or thought, genuineness, reality, conduct following the divine standard, spirituality of life and behavior, that which is true, real, or actual in a general or abstract sense, reality, specifically in religious use, spiritual reality as the subject of revelation or object of faith.
  Truth is what is real. It is an absolute and abstract principle, a law of being and of doing. Truth is an absolute ultimate principle, unadulterated, an unalterable and permanent fact; God is truth. Truth is a law of being; you must be truth to do what is true. Truth is a law of doing: You must think, choose, speak, act and live according to truth. Truth is being and doing as Light, through Light, of Light, for Light, by Light. Truth (ἀλήθεια, alétheia), is not relative truth as spoken, but truth of idea, reality, sincerity, truth in the moral sphere, divine truth revealed to man.—ViaChrista.org.

truth of appearances versus the truth of reality: Appearance is outward aspect, something that appears; a phenomenon, a superficial aspect; a semblance. Reality is the quality or state of being actual or true; the totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence, that which exists objectively and in fact; that which has necessary existence and not contingent existence.
  Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality is subject to infinite diversification, and both are capable of virtually unlimited divine coordination and eternal stabilization. This is the premise of law, the Source of truth for your unlimited capacities, the foundation from which anyone can do anything. The first fundamental law of expression is to ignore the truth of appearances and to accept, surrender to, and declare the truth of reality, the secret of creation in Genesis, which is to declare, “Let there be Light,” and your creation good: “It is good and very good.” Discerning the truth of appearances versus the truth of reality is always an initiation.—ViaChrista.org.

U

unconscious stages of evolution: Light, spheres of fire, gaseous, vapor, water, mineral, vegetable, amphibians, insects and reptiles, birds and mammals.—ViaChrista.org.

understand: to comprehend, to apprehend the meaning or import of, to grasp the idea of, to comprehend as a fact, to grasp clearly, to realize, to have knowledge of, to know or learn, by information received. Understanding is the power or ability to understand, intellect, intelligence, intelligent, capable of judging with knowledge, the faculty of comprehending and reasoning, the intellect.
  Understanding is a result of integrated mental faculties, the insight gained by applying the mental faculties. You gain understanding by always standing under the Light. Understanding is a soul virtue and a spiritual faculty.—ViaChrista.org.

unfolding: the process of opening, to expand or to spread out, and is a step of ascension.—ViaChrista.org.

universal record: the Book of Remembrance, a record of universal experience, the Book of Life in Scripture, called the Akasha or akashic record in Oriental religions.—ViaChrista.org.

unrighteousness: “not righteous, wicked, not right or fair, unjust.” Righteousness means “morally upright, without guilt or sin, in accordance with virtue or morality.”
  Unrighteous describes a bent or twisted soul; it offers a million degrees of inclination to evil. Unrighteousness is a sin.—ViaChrista.org.

urge: an impelling motive, force or pressure.OED.
  An urge is the desire of instinctive intelligence, of creature consciousness. The primary creature urges are to eat, to sleep and to mate. The Seven Life Urges or life principles include 1 mating, eating and sleeping; 2 emergence maturity and decline; 3 instinct, intelligence and intellect; 4 respiration, aspiration and inspiration; 5 thinking, planning and building (seeking, knocking and finding); 6 belief, faith and knowing; 7 loving, brotherhood and service.—ViaChrista.org.

V

veils of maya: Sanskrit = illusion. See veils of illusion.

veils of illusion: the mists of matter, connoting illusion or spiritual blindness and denoting the truth of appearance or a limited perception of the truth of reality. They are seven grades or degrees of universal substance, particular rates of vibration, discernible from the Source, becoming impenetrable and invisible at successively lower rates of vibration. The veils are seven barriers of protection against the misuse of Mind, Substance and Power.—ViaChrista.org.

ventricle: one of several fluid-filled cavities within the brain. The heart’s chamber are called ventricles.—Guyton and Hall, Medical Physiology.

Via Christa: The path of one who chooses to conquer self and live by soul, the Way of the Christ, the Path of Ascension, The Path of Destiny, the path of the soul’s attainment. The Via Christa, the Way of the Christ, is the initiatory Path of Ascension on which you work out your own salvation to become as perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Your measure is God, the Father. The rod to measure by is all the law given to you for following the Via Christa, the Way of the Light of the Godhead. The Path of Destiny is the Master’s work. The Master’s cloak is upon you. You must bear it in love to enter other souls’ hearts, then wisdom will come to you. In reality, every law that Jesus taught is part of the Way of the Christ, the Via Christa.—ViaChrista.org.

Via Christa Degrees: The Via Christa, the Way of the Christ, is the initiatory Path of Ascension on which you work out your own salvation, to become as perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. The Via Christa is composed of 33 degrees of tests, trials and temptations to purify the soul. The Master’s Path is steps, degrees, and only by climbing while building the next step, gaining the strength to stand on and defend that new step do you become a Master in law. —ViaChrista.org.

vicarious atonement: “the teaching that the atonement which states that Christ’s death was ‘legal.’ It satisfied the legal justice of God. Jesus bore the penalty of sin when he died on the cross. His death was a substitution for the believers. In other words, he substituted himself for them upon the cross. Jesus hung in our place as he bore our sin in his body on the cross. See 1 Peter 2:24.”—The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.

vice: (noun) Properly, a spot or defect; a fault; a blemish. In ethics, any voluntary action or course of conduct which deviates from the rules of moral rectitude, or from the plain rules of propriety; any moral unfitness of conduct, either from defect of duty, or from the transgression of known principles of rectitude. Vice differs from crime, in being less enormous. We never call murder or robbery a vice; but every act of intemperance, all falsehood, duplicity, deception, lewdness and the like, is a vice. The excessive indulgence of passions and appetites which in themselves are innocent, is a vice. The smoking of tobacco and the taking of snuff, may in certain cases be innocent and even useful, but these practices may be carried to such an excess as to become vices. This word is also used to denote a habit of transgressing. Depravity or corruption.—Noah Webster, WAD.
  The world defines a vice on a continuum ranging from a slight personal failing; a foible, a flaw, an imperfection or a defect,” to “a serious moral failing, to wicked or evil conduct or habits; corruption, or “an evil, degrading, or immoral practice or habit.” Vices are usually associated with physical appetites and sensations. Any habit will become a vice when uncontrolled.—ViaChrista.org.

vicerunt empirici: Latin=empiricism overcame.

vicious: (adjective) mean-spirited or deliberately hurtful; malicious. Extremely violent or injurious; cruel. Disposed to violent or destructive behavior. Severe, powerful, or intense; fierce. adjective Having the nature of vice; evil, immoral, or depraved. Given to vice, immorality, or depravity. Faulty or defective.AHD.
  In logic, a vicious argument is defective or invalid; therefore a logical fallacy also called begging the question=petitio principii; circular argument=circulus in probando, a vicious circle. Begging the question presumes the conclusion that was at question in the first place. In a circular argument the conclusion appears at the beginning and the end of the argument, thus an endless circle. See Grammarphobia.

vigilance: (noun) alert watchfulness.AHD. Wakefulness. The state or character of being vigilant; watchfulness in discovering or guarding against danger, or in providing for safety; circumspection; caution.CDC.
  Your solemn obligation, as you walk the Via Christa, is to remain alert to incursions of the self into the soul’s domain. You must always practice vigilance to monitor your environment and your loved ones, to detect negativity or evil. Constant vigilance is a keynote of life. Success comes at the price of an eternal vigilance that neither slumbers nor sleeps.—ViaChrista.org.

violence: (noun) “exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse; injury by or as if by distortion, infringement, or profanation.”—OED. Behavior or treatment in which physical force is exerted for the purpose of causing damage or injury. Intense force or great power, as in natural phenomena. Extreme or powerful emotion or expression. Distortion of meaning or intent.AHD.
  Violence incorporates one’s forceful use of will and manipulation on a person or situation.—ViaChrista.org. See ‘force, manipulation and violence.

virtue: (noun) Strength; that substance or quality of physical bodies by which they act and produce effects on other bodies. In this literal and proper sense, we speak of the virtue of plants in medicine, and the virtues of drugs. Bravery valor (the predominant signification of virtus among the Romans). Moral goodness; the practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and conversation to the moral law. In this sense, virtue may be, and in many instances must be, distinguished from religion. The practice of moral duties for motives of convenience, or from compulsion, or from regard to reputation, is virtue as distinct from religion. The practice of moral duties from sincere love to God and his laws, is virtue and religion.— Noah Webster,WAD.
  Virtue is strength. And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.—Luke 8:46. Where the Wycliffe Bible uses virtue, many translations use power. Virtues are abstract principles, laws of being, and soul powers. The Medieval Church taught seven cardinal virtues, which were divided into the natural (justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude) and the theological virtues (hope, faith, charity). The twelve prime soul virtues are honor, love, joy, peace, harmony, agreeing and adjusting with Light, gratitude, praise, beauty, obedience, compassion and faith, all of which protect you. You develop six virtues as gifts of devotion to God, and open the rest as gifts of devotion to humanity. The twelve prime virtues divide into 144 virtues that are laws. Every virtue is a soul power, such as compassion, order, patience, poise, and perseverance. All virtues state or represent an abstract law of being, rooted in an absolute principle.—ViaChrista.org.

vis inertiae: The resistance of matter, as when a body at rest is set in motion, or a body in motion is brought to rest, or has its motion changed, either in direction or in velocity; the term refers to inertness, inactivity.—WordSense Online Dictionary.

vision: (noun) the faculty of sight, something that is or has been seen; unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight; the manner in which one sees or conceives of something. A mental image produced by the imagination, or the mystical experience of seeing as if with the eyes the supernatural or a supernatural being.AHD. To see as in a vision; perceive by the eye of the intellect or imagination. The act of seeing external objects; sight. The faculty that perceives the luminosity, color, form, and relative size of objects; that sense whose organ is the eye; by extension, an analogous mental power. As noting one of the five special senses of the body, vision is correlated with olfaction, audition, gustation, and taction. That which is seen; an object of sight; specifically, a supernatural or prophetic appearance; something seen in a dream, ecstasy, trance, or the like; also, an imaginary appearance; an apparition; a phantom.CDC.
   Vision is both a physical and spiritual faculty. Vision is spiritual seeing the unseen, of seeing only the things Christ would see through the eyes of Oversoul. Beyond clairvoyance lies a higher order of vision, seership and prophecy. Seership, the ability to foresee the future, includes mastery of interpreting symbols. Prophecy, foretelling the future, includes inspired teaching. Seeing is based on the endocrine and central nervous systems’ development and degree of function, which is a measure of your present soul expression. The clarity of seeing depends on the degree of conquering or sublimation of self-subconscious mind already accomplished, which is also a measure of present soul expression. Vision is a Via Christa Degree, seeing the truth of reality as opposed to remaining blinded by the truth of appearances. Vision, with fact and legend, forms the Via Christa’s seventh lesser trinity, whose keynote is relationship.—ViaChrista.org.

vital centers: seven major vitality centers in the molecular desire body whirl clockwise to transform the magnetic currents of earth into a physical energy to balance the endocrine and central nervous system. Also called chakras, meaning “wheel” in Sanskrit, the vital centers are named (from bottom to top) the sacral center, the splenic center, the navel center, the heart center, the throat center, the brow center and the crown center. Aligned along the physical spine, the vital centers overlie the sacrum plexus, spleen (hypogastric plexus), solar plexus (celiac plexus), heart (cardiac plexus), thyroid (throat or pharyngeal plexus), brow (the pituitary gland “third eye” at the center of the forehead), and the crown (the pineal and top of the head).—ViaChrista.org.

vow: “a solemn promise made to God to perform some act, or make some gift or sacrifice, in return for some special favor, a solemn engagement, undertaking, or resolve, to achieve something or to act in a certain way, a solemn promise of fidelity, an earnest wish or desire, a prayer, a supplication, a votive offering.”—CDC.
  Vows are laws of doing and initiations. Vows are promises you make to God and to yourself, dynamic declarations of intention to become some new state of being or to act in a new way. With every vow, you invite the universe to test your resolve until you have completed changing into what God destined you to be.—ViaChrista.org.

W

wage: “a compensation given to a hired person for services; price paid for labor; recompense; hire.”—AHD. See earnings, wages and rewards.

war: is “A contest between nations or states, carried on by force, either for defense, or for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce or acquisition of territory, or for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other. These objects are accomplished by the slaughter or capture of troops, and the capture and destruction of ships, towns and property. Among rude nations, war is often waged and carried on for plunder. As war is the contest of nations or states, it always implies that such contest is authorized by the monarch or the sovereign power of the nation. When war is commenced by attacking a nation in peace, it is called an offensive war and such attack is aggressive. When war is undertaken to repel invasion or the attacks of an enemy, it is called defensive, and a defensive war is considered as justifiable. Very few of the wars that have desolated nations and deluged the earth with blood, have been justifiable. Happy would it be for mankind, if the prevalence of Christian principles might ultimately extinguish the spirit of war and if the ambition to be great, might yield to the ambition of being good. Preparation for war is sometimes the best security for peace.”—WAD.
  War is a sin rooted in misuse of the Power principle. Conflict and war begin with personal internal conflicts. God uses war to break down crystallized thought forms, and to create perfection.—ViaChrista.org.

Watchers: (noun) descended creator gods who oversee Creation at all times.—ViaChrista.org.

Wheels of Ezekiel: (noun) Each cosmic magnitude, with the abyss that separates it from the next magnitude, forms one of twelve creative Wheels of Ezekiel; Ezekiel 1:1-28 and Ezekiel 10:1-22.—ViaChrista.org. See zodiac.

whine, whining: (adjectival verb) To whine is a plaintive tone; the nasal puerile tone of mean complaint; mean or affected complaint. whining is expressing murmurs by a mean plaintive tone.WAD.
   To whine is to complain or protest in a childish or annoying fashion. Complaining and whining and complaining are purely soul taints of the impulsive appetitive soul, ploys for attention, and a thin cover for escapist tendencies; they are misuses of the spoken Word.—ViaChrista.org. See complaining.

white wings of the Christ: (noun) feathers of Light fastened into the heart of the four-petaled lotus under the mental body thyroid to uphold, vitalize and quicken it into eternal youth from above; also known as the fans of Pharaoh.—ViaChrista.org.

will: (noun) that faculty of the mind by which we determine either to do or forbear an action; the faculty which is exercised in deciding, among two or more objects, which we shall embrace or pursue. The will is directed or influenced by the judgment. The understanding or reason compares different objects, which operate as motives; the judgment determines which is preferable, and the will decides which to pursue. In other words, we reason with respect to the value or importance of things; we then judge which is to be preferred; and we will to take the most valuable. These are but different operations of the mind, soul, or intellectual part of man. Great disputes have existed respecting the freedom of the will; will is often quite a different thing from desire.WAD. (intransitive verb) To determine; to decide in the mind that something shall be done or forborne; implying power to carry the purpose into effect. In this manner God wills whatever comes to pass.WAD.
  Will, which in humanity is a faculty or function, is directed toward conscious and intentional action, the power of choice regarding action. Will is determination, acting as if you had it. Will is what your soul uses to function as the Wisdom of God through your brain centers and glands. You first express God’s Wisdom as will. Your will proclaims and executes the idea of the good that is in you. Will is an abstract principle under the Wisdom principle, a law of being and of doing, a soul virtue and a mental and moral faculty.—ViaChrista.org.

windows of the soul: (noun) the upper three points of the symmbolic five-pointed star of Oversoul resting above the head, with the lower two points resting in the fully developed higher creative center in the brain. Other titles include the door of soul, the door of Brahm, the crown center, and the thousand-petaled lotus.—ViaChrista.org.

wisdom: the capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct, sound judgment in the choice of means and ends, sound sense, especially in practical affairs, knowledge, especially of a high or abstruse kind, enlightenment, learning, erudition.OED.
  Wisdom is an absolute and primary principle, the first Emanation, which operates as divine Will to hold the universe’s magnetic walls in place. Wisdom is the Light of illumination that expresses itself as law at every level of consciousness—creature instinct, instinctive intelligence, intellect, intuition, and illumination. As a soul faculty, wisdom is the capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct, sound judgment in the choice of means and ends, sound sense, especially in practical affairs, knowledge, especially of a high or abstruse kind, enlightenment, learning, erudition. The end of fear is the beginning of wisdom.—ViaChrista.org.

Word: See Logos.

world mind: (noun) that portion of universal Mind immediately encircling earth, which also contains the composite of all subconscious thoughts of all embodied souls, of all persons incarnated.—ViaChrista.org.

worship: “the reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, or a sacred object, the ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.”—AHD.
  Worship, as a law of being, requires that you retrain yourself to be in a state of reverence toward God, and in a state of awe at the absolute beauty of His Creation — the full spectrum of nature in the world and in the starry cosmos. God Himself instructs you in how to worship him: The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.—Job 38:1-7. Let there be Light is the first principle of all Creation. Light contains all three Emanations (Wisdom, Love and the Logos) as One.—ViaChrista.org. See religion.

worthiness: (noun) distinguished by good qualities, entitled to honor or respect on this account, estimable, having a high moral standard, adequate or suitable in respect of moral excellence or noble aims.OED.
  Worthiness is an aggregate of moral virtue. The world emphasizes self-esteem, believing that a lack of it causes most people problems; the emphasis is wrong: If all souls are taught the good qualities and high moral standards essential to worthiness, self-esteem would be automatic. As Lincoln said, It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. —ViaChrista.org.

Y

yetzer hara: (Hebrew noun = yetzer ha·ra = ˈhärə) the inclination or impulse to evil considered as an essential part of human nature in Jewish traditional belief.—MWD.

Yetzirah paths of initiation: (Hebrew noun יְצִירָה = formation, creation) Yetzirah is the third of four worlds in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, after Assiah and Briah. The ancients called it the World of Formation, because created beings and objects assume shape and form on this level. Every thought assumes some degree of form, existent, but not necessarily visible to the physical eye. Most people create an impressive mess of mental monsters before they realize the truth of this law.—ViaChrista.org.

Z

zeal: (noun) ardor in the pursuit of anything; ardent and active interest; enthusiasm and fervor.MWD. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.—Psalm 69:9, John 2:17. See jealousy.

zodiac: (Greek noun zodiakos = circle, and zoe = life) a circle of space surrounding our solar system as a belt, divided into twelve equal parts called signs, transited by planets from west to east, from Aries to Pisces;the outermost Wheel of Ezekiel.—ViaChrista.org.

Zohar: (noun) (Hebrew זֹהַר; splendor, radiance) widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, is a mystical commentary on the Torah (five books of Moses), written in medieval Aramaic and Hebrew. It contains a mystical discussion of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, sin, redemption, good and evil, and related topics, scriptural interpretations as well as material on theosophic theology, mythical cosmogony, mystical psychology, and what some would call anthropology. Learn more.

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No clear understanding is possible unless you analyze words and their shades of meaning carefully. The instant a word’s meaning seems ambiguous, stop and discern exactly what it means. — Edna Lister


References

American Heritage Dictionaries, Editors of. American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016; ISBN 9780544454453.

APA Dictionary of Psychology. Dec. 5, 2023.

“Belial.” Encyclopedia of The Bible. Dec. 5, 2023.

Blackburn, Simon. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford University Press; 3rd ed., 2016.

Culp, John. “Panentheism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta, ed., Winter 2016,

Dictionary.net.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “ego.” Encyclopedia Britannica, January 18, 2023.

electric current. Byjus.com. December 18. 2023.

Hellner-Eshed, Gershom and Melila. The Zohar and Kabbalah. The Jewish Virtual Library. November 30, 2023.

Gendreau, B. A. “transcendence.” Encyclopedia.com. October 18, 2023.

Guyton, Arthur C. and Hall, John E. Textbook of Medical Physiology, 14th ed., Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1996.

Hall, Manly P. “The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color.” The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy. San Francisco: H.S. Crocker Co., Inc., 1928. Public Domain.

Kemerling, Garth. The Philosophy Pages.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV). Public Domain.

Latin Phrases and Terms. In Rebus.

Liddell, H. G. and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 2023.

The Oxford American Dictionary, New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

The Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Ed.: 2 vols. Oxford University Press, 1971.

Princeton University WordNet. 2010.

Robinson, Howard. “Dualism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Spring 2023 ed.), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.).

Runes, Dagobert D. (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy. London: Vision Press, 1942. Public Domain.

Slick, Matt. “vicarious atonement,” Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, Dictionary of Theology, 2013.

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, 28th ed., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, © 2006.

Stevenson, R. L. Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin,, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1901, p. 198. Public Domain.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, December 2023.

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, December 2023.

Trench, Richard. On the Study of Words, 4th ed. New York, London: The Macmillan Company, 1892. Public Domain.

Vallicella, Bill. Reification and Hypostatization, The Maverick Philosopher. January 25, 2013; January 29, 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. “List of Latin phrases”. Wikipedia, December 2023.


Definitions

We use many online sources, the most common of which we abbreviate as shown:

(AHD) American Heritage Dictionary.

(EB) Encyclopædia Britannica.

(CDC) The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.

(CED) Collins English Dictionary.

(LLP) List of Latin phrases, Wikipedia.

(MWD) Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

(ODP) The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy.

(OED) The Oxford English Dictionary.

(TPP) The Philosophy Pages.

(WAD) Webster’s American Dictionary, 1828.

WordNet

Wordnik.