Gabriel
The (Hebrew) name means literally “God has shown himself Mighty”, or “man of God”. (See Daniel 8:16, and 9:21., where he brought visions of the Judgement day.) In the book of Enoch he is said to sit at the left hand of God (II Enoch 24:1.), is set over all powers, and is said to cast the wicked into the furnace so that God may be avenged. (I Enoch 54:6.) He is the angel of the Annunciation in Luke 1:11-20 and I:26-38, who informs the Mothers of both John and Jesus that they will bear Divine children – “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee….” The symbolism of “the sixth month” here has a direct reference to the esoteric function of this Archangel, in that he is the ruler of the sixth sphere, the astral plane, therefore of the sum of its watery substance, of the waters per se. He is thus the agent of the Great Deva Lord Varuna, from where emanates Gabriel’s rulership of the process of gestation and birth of the Christ-child, the consciousness aspect. For Love-Wisdom is an aspect of, and born through, the waters.
Gabriel is one of the most important Angelic Lords in relation to human evolution, once the function and significance of the role the astral plane plays in our lives is understood. It incorporates both the hell and heavenly realms experienced in the after death state. Might is the force of the sixth Ray (astral) energy of devotion as it propels the thought forms of all into outer objective expression. It is that driving energy that concretises phenomenal happenings. Hence the planetary ruler assigned to Gabriel is Mars, the God of War.
He is the sixth of the Raja Lords governing the planes of perception, embodying the Watery astral element. The colour assigned to Him is rose.
Gæa
(Greek) This is primordial substance of space/the Earth itself in Hesiod’s Cosmogeny. The wife of Ouranos (Uranus), who embodies absolute time. She is the feminine aspect of the ancient trinity of Ouranos, Eros, and Gæa.
Galadiel
The Raja or Deva Lord that embodies the substance of the abstract Mind, the higher mental plane. The colour attributed to Him is white. He forms a triplicity with Raphael and Rivendiel.
Gandharva
Gandha = fragrance. The celestial angelic musicians of ancient India. Thus the revealers of the most sacred science of mantric sound to humanity. They are said to control the ambrosial juice of the sacred Soma plant, which conveys the higher or omniscient subjective perceptions, once drunk. Vayu (the wind) is said to be their King in the Vishnu Purana.
Ganesha
The elephant-headed God of Wisdom in the Hindu religion, the Son of Shiva. Sometimes spelled Ganesa.
Ganga
The sacred river in India. It symbolises the qualities of the Sushumna nadi. Hence, it is the most revered of all the rivers.
Garuḍa
Devourer, vehicle of Amoghasiddhi. Associated with Vajrapāṇi and the wrathful forms of Padmasambhava. A mythic bird-man of the sun, usually shown with a raptor’s beak, is an enemy of serpents, and as such represents the mechanism of the transmutation of evil forces, the tainted saṃskāras depicted in the form of serpents (nāgas). As the sun he controls the abgas, who have power over Water. Garuda is also the steed of Viṣṇu, (the second person of the Hindu trimūrti) in the form of a great bird in the ancient Hindu religious epic, the Ramayāna. He can thus be seen to embody the major cycles of time wherein consciousness evolves.
Gatha
Metrical chants or hymns, consisting of moral aphorisms in Hindu and Buddhist religious texts.
Gatra
Brahma’s limbs, from which His Sons, the (seven) Kumaras were born.
Gayatri
From gai = to relate in metrical language, especially in songs to Divinity. The ancient song of obeisance to the Sun, taken from the Hindu Rig-Veda. The Brahman caste in India are said to repeat this verse every morning and evening in their daily devotions.
Gehenna
An Israelite term meaning “Valley of Hinnom”. Only in Greco-Roman times has this term come to represent the fiery hell state presented to us by Christian dogmatists.
Gematria
The science of numbers as related to the Hebrew Kabbala. and thus the esoteric doctrine as related to that system of revelation.
Genesis
The doctrine or religious lore, mythological, esoteric, or otherwise, that concerns the beginning of all manifest things, hence of Creation.
Genii
A Latin term referring to the myriad forms of angelic beings. Good and evil spirits of Destiny.
Ghaṇṭā
Bell, symbol of the transient, the feminine, wisdom principle (prajñā). The vajra then represents the masculine, compassionate principle.
Gnana
The Sanskrit term for higher, or esoteric, knowledge. Often spelt Jnana.
Gnan Devas
The greater Deva Lords (“of Knowledge”). Self-conscious Devas.
Gnanashakti
The shakti (or psychic Power) that evokes Knowledge of things as they are. Also Gnanasakti, Jnanasakti.
Gnomes
The elemental Devic Beings that embody and care for the substance of the earth, especially the metallic and mineral wealth. They are not yet self-consciousness beings. Sometimes depicted with little shovels and picks. Geoffrey Hodson describes them thus in his book “The Kingdom of the Gods”: “The true gnome normally lives within the etheric double of the earth, is usually thin and lanky, grotesque in appearance, cadaverous and lantern jawed and is sometimes a solitary. He gives the impression of extreme old age; his whole appearance and bearing are utterly different from those of present day man. His arms are too long for our sense of proportion and like, his legs are bent at the joints as if they had grown stiff with age. The complexion is very rough and coarse, the eyes are small and black, sloping slightly upwards at the sides. The earth gnome is not a pleasant type of elemental; those met with in England have been either quite black or peat brown in colour and though I have rarely incurred their active hostility, their atmosphere is decidedly unpleasant”.
Gnosis
Greek term meaning knowledge, of God, of the Mysteries of Being, inner wisdom. It relates to an understanding of the wisdom religion.
Gnostics
The philosophers of the early Christian era who taught the Gnosis or wisdom religion, the esoteric doctrine concerning the nature of a Christ. They utilised Greco-Egyptian symbolism and emphasised the nature of the Christ’s Radiant Light Body rather than His physical appearance. Their doctrines thus conflicted with the more materialistic formulations of those who founded the Roman Catholic Church, and were thus systematically persecuted and finally exterminated by the Church forefathers.
“God” Basically, God or Deity can be defined as a Great liberated En-lightened Being That has Creatively built a Body of Activity that incorporates the collective-consciousness of all Kingdoms of Nature (including the human and angelic Kingdoms), giving them a Purpose for existence, and coherent unity. (These Kingdoms must yet evolve to the God state, and for this Purpose, have been appropriated into/as the Body of Expression of Deity.) “God” is thus the originating Cause, the embodying Thought, and That which is indicative of the future of all Being. It is however, a “Cause” that is “Causeless” in the sense that there is no beginning and no ending.
Deity can be considered a liberated Buddha that has long ago passed the need for corporeal evolution, but that sustains a world-sphere or Universe, and the related evolving entities, for a specific purpose. This Purpose originates in That Entity’s Compassionate Understanding or Meditative Awareness of Need on a Cosmic, or certainly on an inter-planetary or inter-Solar scale.”
It should be understood, that the terms “Deity” and “God” in esoteric texts basically refer to That Entity that incorporates humanity as part of “His” Body of manifestation. (The World-Sphere of a Buddha.)
The concept of “God” is a relative term, and changes according to the degree of Initiation into the Mysteries of the Kingdom one has attained. What is God to us is but a Heavenly Man undergoing a stage of evolution on His own massive scale with other such Heavenly Men, Who are in Their turn but part of the Body of Manifestation of the One About Whom Nought May Be Said, Who embodies the sum of the Constellations seen in the night sky. And even This ONE is but a Brother to similar Cosmic Logos….
Golden Age
The first of the four great ages, the next one being symbolised by silver, then bronze, and finally iron. The Golden age governs evolutionary development in subjective space, and thus concerns primeval simplicity, purity, and freedom from karmic woes.
Great Age
See Mahamanvantara.
Great Symbol
See Mahamudra.
Grimoire
An old alchemical or magical text.
Guhya Vidya
Also Gupta Vidya. Guhya means that which is concealed, or secret, and Vidya, means knowledge. Thus this is another appellation relating to the Esoteric Sciences, the hidden Wisdom.
Guṇas, three
The gunas are the divisions of matter or substance, of which there are three types inherent in all forms, sattva (rhythm or balance), rajas (activity), and tamas (darkness, inertia). Tamas, for instance, relates to the qualities of the three-fold personality, rajas to the Soul, and sattva to the spiritual triad or Monad. The personality vehicle can also be subdivided in terms of the gunas, in that the mental body will take the quality of sattva when it governs the personality expression. The astral (emotional) body then takes the quality of rajas, in that it is continually in motion, and the dense physical vehicle, the quality of tamas, in that it is relatively inert.
Guru
From Gu = dispeller, ru = darkness, hence one who can dispel darkness to reveal the light (of knowledge, wisdom), a spiritual teacher. Technically, one can only be considered a “Guru” if he has attained the third Initiation, for he has the ability to truly lead one from the arenas of darkness to the Light of the Soul, the Christ. But anyone who acts thus in relation to another can be considered a Guru.
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