The Magician's Dictionary

VACUUM

"As for 'something from nothing' -- there's no physical objection or limitation to the size or complexity of a virtual particle arising from zero-point fluctuation of the Quantum Vacuum. Eleven dimensions are a cinch. As long as net energy is zero, relative potentials can be arbitrarily large. 0 = (+1) + (-1) = (+4) + (-1) + (-3) = ...! Great Cthulhu could materialize, eat your head, then vanish as long as this represented a zero net energy exchange. Extremely unlikely, but it doesn't violate the basic equations. This result of his theories always disturbed Einstein." -- Druid Spechtold.

VAHANAS

The five vehicles or animals that carry the Boddhic manifestations: Elephant (sense of touch), Peacock (sense of taste), Horse (sight). The Creator Buddha's beast is the Flying Dragon, i.e., creation by thunder (sound). Garuda (sense of smell) is a mythical bird who brings the elixir of immortality to Vishnu's mother, then is captured by the Nagas, which are the serpents of death.

VAJRA

(Dorje, in Tibetan.) "Thunderbolt" or "diamond." Buddhistic wand or device designed to suggest the zigzag nature of reality. used in art and magic of Tibet: "Power of Diamond Truth." The diamond symbolizes the indestructible nature of enlightened mind.

VALENTINUS

An early Gnostic, born 100 C.E. Because our minds have lost their self-knowledge, we live in a self-created world that is lacking in integrity. Only the enlightenment of a Gnosis can rescue us from illusion, not the body is redeemed, but the inner spirit. We don't need salvation, but to be transformed by Gnosis. The sickness of the world is ignorance. Wholeness is not to be found in matter or mind, but in pneuma.

VALIS

Philip K. Dick's word: "VALIS" (acronym of Vast Active Living Intelligence System, from an American film); A perturbation in the reality filed in which a spontaneous self- monitoring negentropic vortex is formed, tending progressively to subsume and incorporate its environment into arrangements of information. Characterized by quasi-consciousness, purpose, growth and an armillary coherence."

VALLEY OF THORNS

HPB's term for the material world in which man has been exiled.

VAMPIRE

A demon, succubus, incubus, bat, zombie or night-thing between being and non-being who lives off the stolen "blood" of the living. Such blood can be literal blood, divine "Ambrosia," soma, physical energy, menses, semen, life itself or merely the mind or psyche. In languages around the world, words for "cruelty", "red" and "blood" have similar roots: Ainu fure ("red"); Latin burrus ("reddish"); Albanian vras ("hurt"; "kill"); Finnish verta ("blood"); Serbian vampir (vampire); Turkish uber ("witch"); Hungarian v�'r ("blood") and so on.

In his novel, Bat Wing, Sax Rohmer describes a particularly intelligent and horrible Central American vampire bat that has learned how to crawl under the mosquito netting of its sleeping donor.

Vampires, along with other automata and hell-beings created by the sick fantasies of human invention, swell in the qliphotic regions of the nightside of the Tree of Life. The magician crossing the qliphotic path of Characith (whose kala is cunnilingus) is warned to avoid lingering here too long lest he become an addict and vampire. In some black magic practices, the priestess is sacrificed and her soul turned into a familiar for the magician. Here the line between vampire and zombie has been almost deliberately blurred.

VARE

Wand of authority, forked stick.

VARUNA

One of the Vedic deities, the God of Water -- symbolizes "the Waters of Space." In the Agastya Samhita are instructions for building a dry-cell battery. Liquid energy, called Mitra Varuna ("Friendly Water God") is produced. Water can thereby be divided into Prana-vayu and Udana-vayu. Vayu means "air." Thus the Ancient Hindus correctly analyzed water as the mixture of two gases. Prana is the life principle (so must correspond to oxygen, which is essential to life) and Udana means "upward breathing" (so must correspond to hydrogen, which is the lightest element).

VE-VE (Or Vever)

Voodoo sigil or depiction of a deity or magical force. It is the Voodoo equivalent of a yantra, but whereas a yantra is a geometric design, a veve is a sigil within a circle and serves an entirely difference purpose. The veve attempts to capture the movement or sound of an energy, Loa or god by means of a stylized linear drawing on the ground (or in cornmeal) with a stick. When successful, the veve will assist in the evocation of the desired spirit.

VENUS

The planet not merely of enjoyment, but also of appreciation, gratitude and allegiance. Without Venus there is no reason for living. 19th Century occultists asserted that Venus, the planet, was inhabited by an advanced entity. Such Venusians, however, could not be humanoid, since the planet's temperature is well above suitability for human life.

VIDYA

(Sk. "Knowledge"; also jnana.) Equivalent of Illumination, Gnosis (inner wisdom). There are several varieties:

Atma Vidya -- Self-knowledge.
Gupta Vidya -- Secret wisdom.
Aryaj�ana -- Exalted understanding.
Rahasya -- Mystery-Gnosis.
Brahma Vidya -- Supreme illumination.

VIMANA (Or Viwan)

(Sk. "flying vehicle.") Blavatsky writes about the Atlantideans having viw�n vidya or "knowledge of a�ronautics and travel in their flying vehicles.' Elsewhere we hear of ancient Hindu vimanas flown by the gods.

VIRGO

This is the sign of earth's mutation and permutation. Virgo is both hermaphroditism and chastity. As Taurus is the procreative force of Aphrodite and Capricorn the descent into flesh, Virgo is earth in the throes of metamorphosis -- the seed becoming the tree, the clay becoming the pot, the wool becoming the garment.

Famous Virgoans include: Elizabeth the First, Richard the Lion-Hearted, Margaret Sanger, Schoenberg, Greta Garbo, H.G. Wells, D.H. Lawrence, Fay Wray, Tolstoy, Richelieu, Dvorak, Louis XIV, Ivan the Terrible, R. Crumb, Mary Shelley, Goethe, Ingrid Bergman, Lola Montez, Jorge Luis Borges.

VISHNU INCARNATION

One of the Gods of the Hindu Trinity (Trimurti), who volunteered for incarnation in order to help the righteous and bring them to enlightenment. Some say there have been eleven so far and the 12th is the coming incarnation, which will take place in this century, whilst others claim it to have taken place, 2000 years ago with the birth of X. Prithivi (earth) is supposed to have been the first avatar. HPB gives the ten subsequent avatars in this progression:

1. Matsya-Avatar: (Fish). Both first and last of the Kali-Yuga cycle's avatars. (There is really no "first" or "last." The ages are infinite.)

2. Kurm-Avatar: (Tortoise).

3. Varaha: (Boar).

4. Nara-Sing: (Man-Lion); the final animal line of demarcation.

5. Vamuna: (Dwarf). First example of the human.

6. Parasu-Rama: (Hero). Still imperfect.

7. Rama-Chandra: (Hero of Ramayana). Physically perfect human being; Hanuman, the talking monkey-god, is his closest kin and friend.

8. Christna-Avatar: (His mother is the Virgin Devaki or Devanaguy). Fathered by God, by the manifested Vishnu Deity or by Adam Kadmon.

9. Gautama-Buddha, Sakya-muni or Siddharta: It is not acceptable to Buddhist belief that the Buddha could be an avatar of Vishnu.

10. Here is the coming avatar, choosing to manifest as horse or rider, Kalki, playing the role both of destroyer and savior. The Kalki-Avataram is absolutely the last incarnation. Kalki's hooves come to pulverize everything that has been built over the ages.

VOODOO

(Or VOUDON; from Tovodun, the Dahomean gods.) The West African religion together with its transplanted form in Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean and Gulf. It derives from Dahomey or Yoruban vodun, "god" or "spirit" and the chief spirits are Legba, Ogoun, Ghede and, in the new world, Baron Samedi, Piquant and Cimit�re. Rites are said to involve serpent worship, sexual magic, cannibalism and corpses (see ZOMBIE). Another name for spirits, those that actually possess the worshippers, are the loa.

According to Michael Bertiaux, latterday priest or Hungan, Voodoo is not an evil religion and is much misunderstood. He heads La Couleuvre Noire, or modern "Black Serpent" Voodoo Cult working with the so-called "Ophidian Current" and "the leapers of the paths" on the other side of the Tree of Life. The latter practice is associated with Juju, another "modern" African religion.

Esoteric Voodoo is actually a highly practical procedure for leading us into making contact with our deepest levels of being and most ancient modes of consciousness, through the dark spirits of the universe that operate on the same frequencies.

Michael Bertiaux's Voudon Gnostic Workbook is probably the most comprehensive and illuminating contemporary work on the subject, both from the practical and from the philosophical, mystical points of view. It ranges in mind from the basic desires of the most ignorant levels of society to the esoteric abstractions of the heights of untrammeled consciousness.

VOODOO DOLL

If everything is connected to everything else, any intention to do harm is enthused into everything the "intender" touches. Indeed, there is no M/magic(k) at all without intention. Specifying the object of malevolence immediately begins to funnel the energy and the more the substitute object resembles the hated victim, the more effective it is. If, then, to this doll are added things that once belonged to the victim, such items help to focus the malevolence all the narrower, as a magnifying glass narrows and intensifies sunlight into actual fire. If chants using the victim's name are used, the hate-force is again intensified.

VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT

The notebook of Roger Bacon, written in a cipher which has so far resisted all efforts to break it, since it is unknown which language he used (English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) and because many letters employ the same symbol in the cipher.

There are those who believe that genius has its own fraternity and speaks its own language. The cipher is difficult for those who seek a consistent style of concealment -- but the problem may be solved, not by learning how to read it, but by discovering how it is written. The best way to break the cipher is to imitate it as closely as possible.

VRIL

Bulwer-Lytton's "earth" force which is supposed to transform man into Superman. It acknowledges the fact that we can't evolve into supermen without first descending into our lower nature. It's earth that must be transformed. Purely spiritual goals leave earth untouched.

V.V.V.V.V.

Crowley's motto as temple master: Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici -- "While still living, I have conquered the universe by dint of truth." These V's appear as half the digits of a 10-digit clock with an "Eye of Horus" at the center. (See HOUSES OF MERCURY.)

They are referred to as "the footprints of the camel," the camel of the High Priestess, that is, which is the desert abyss that the magician must cross for himself. For Crowley, whose alter nomen was Perdurabo, this was an underscoring of his persistence.