I .—The ninth letter in the English, the tenth in the Hebrew alphabet. As a numeral it signifies in both languages one, and also ten in the Hebrew (see J), in which it corresponds to the Divine name Jah, the male side, or aspect, of the hermaphrodite being, or the male-female Adam, of which hovah Jah-hovah) is the female aspect. It is symbolized by a hand with bent fore-finger, to show its phallic signification.

 

Iacchos (Gr.). A synonym of Bacchus. Mythology mentions three persons so named: they were Greek ideals adopted later by the Romans. The word Iacchos is stated to be of Phœnician origin, and to mean “an infant at the breast ”. Many ancient monuments represent Ceres or Demeter with Bacchus in her arms. One Iacchos was called Theban and Conqueror, son of Jupiter and Semele; his mother died before his birth and he was preserved for some time in the thigh of his father; he was killed by the Titans. Another was son of Jupiter, as a Dragon, and Persephone ; this one was named Zagræmus. A third was Iacchos of Eleusis, son of Ceres: he is of importance because he appeared on the sixth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Some see an analogy between Bacchus and Noah, both cultivators of the Vine, and patrons of alcoholic excess. [w.w.w.]

 

Iachus (Gr.). An Egyptian physician, whose memory, according to Ælian, was venerated for long centuries on account of his wonderful occult knowledge. Iachus is credited with having stopped epidemics simply by certain fumigations, and cured diseases by making his patients inhale herbs.

 

Iaho. Though this name is more fully treated under the word“Yaho” and “Iao”, a few words of explanation will not be found amiss. Diodorus mentions that the God of Moses was Iao; but as the latter name denotes a “mystery god”, it cannot therefore be confused with Iaho or Yaho (q.v.). The Samaritans pronounced it Iabe, Yahva, and the Jews Yaho, and then Jehovah, by change of Masoretic vowels, an elastic scheme by which any change may be indulged in. But “Jehovah” is a later invention and invocation, as originally the name was Jah, or Iacchos (Bacchus). Aristotle shows the ancient Arabs representing Iach (Iacchos) by a horse, i.e., the horse of the Sun (Dionysus), which followed the chariot on which Ahura Mazda, the god of the Heavens, daily rode.

Iamblichus (Gr.). A great Theurgist, mystic, and writer of the third and fourth centuries, a Neo-Platonist and philosopher, born at Chalcis in Cœle-Syria. Correct biographies of him have never existed because of the hatred of the Christians; but that which has been gathered of his life in isolated fragments from works by impartial pagan and independent writers shows how excellent and holy was his moral character, and how great his learning. He may be called the founder of theurgic magic among the Neo-Platonists and the reviver of the practical mysteries outside of temple or fane. His school was at first distinct from that of Plotinus and Porphyry, who were strongly against ceremonial magic and practical theurgy as dangerous, though later he convinced Porphyry of its. advisability on some occasions, and both master and pupil firmly believed in theurgy and magic, of which the former is principally the highest and most efficient mode of communication with one’s Higher Ego, through the medium of one’s astral body. Theurgic is benevolent magic, and it becomes goetic, or dark and evil, only when it is used for necromancy or selfish purposes; but such dark magic has never been practised by any theurgist or philosopher, whose name has descended to us unspotted by any evil deed. So much was Porphyry (who became the teacher of Iamblichus in Neo-Platonic philosophy) convinced of this, that though he himself never practised theurgy, yet he gave instructions for the acquirement of this sacred science. Thus he says in one of his writings, “Whosoever is acquainted with the nature of divinely luminous appearances fasmata ( knows also on what account it is requisite to abstain from all birds (and animal food) and especially for him who hastens to be liberated from terrestrial concerns and to be established with the celestial gods”. (See Select Works by T. Taylor, p. 159.) Moreover, the same Porphyry mentions in his Life of Plotinus a priest of Egypt, who, “at the request of a certain friend of Plotinus, exhibited to him, in the temple of Isis at Rome, the familiar daimon of that philosopher “. In other words, he produced the theurgic invocation (see “Theurgist”) by which Egyptian Hierophant or Indian Mahâtma, of old, could clothe their own or any other person’s astral double with the appearance of its Higher EGO, or what Bulwer Lytton terms the “ Luminous Self”, the Augoeides, and confabulate with It. This it is which Iamblichus and many others, including the mediæval Rosicrucans, meant by union with Deity. Iamblichus wrote many books but only a few of his works are extant, such as his “Egyptian Mysteries” and a treatise “On Dæmons”, in which he speaks very severely against any intercourse with them. He was a biographer of Pythagoras and deeply versed in the system of the latter, and was also learned in the Chaldean Mysteries. He taught that the One, or universal MONAD, was the principle of all unity as well as diversity, or of Homogeneity and Heterogeneity; that the Duad, or two (“ Principles”), was the intellect, or that which we call Buddhi-Manas; three, was the Soul (the lower Manas), etc. etc. There is much of the theosophical in his teachings, and his works on the various kinds of dæmons (Elementals) are a well of esoteric knowledge for the student. His austerities, purity of life and earnestness were great. Iamblichus is credited with having been once levitated ten cubits high from the ground, as are some of the modern Yogis, and even great mediums.

 

Iao (Gr.). See Iaho. The highest god of the Phœnicians the light conceivable only by intellect”, the physical and spiritual Principle of all things, “the male Essence of Wisdom ”. It is the ideal Sun light.

 

Iao Hebdomai (Gr.). The collective “Seven Heavens” (also angels) according to Irenæus. The mystery-god of the Gnostics. The same as the Seven Manasa-putras (q.v.) of the Occultists.
(See also “Yah” and “Yaho”.)

 

Ibis Worship. The Ibis, in Egyptian Hab, was sacred to Thoth at Hermopolis. It was called the messenger of Osiris, for it is the symbol of Wisdom, Discrimination, and Purity, as it loathes water if it is the least impure. Its usefulness in devouring the eggs of the crocodiles and serpents was great, and its credentials for divine honours as a symbol were: (a) its black wings, which related it to primeval darkness—chaos; and (b) the triangular shape of them—the triangle being the first geometrical figure and a symbol of the trinitarian mystery. To this day the Ibis is a sacred bird with some tribes of Kopts who live along the Nile.

 

Ibn Gebirol. Solomon Ben Yehudah: a great philosopher and scholar, a Jew by birth, who lived in the eleventh century in Spain. The same as Avicenna (q.v.).

 

Ichchha (Sk.). Will, or will-power.

 

Ichchha Sakti (Sk.). Will-power; force of desire; one of the occult Forces of nature. That power of the will which, exercised in occult practices, generates the nerve-currents necessary to set certain muscles in motion and to paralyze certain others.

 

Ichthus (Gr.). A Fish: the symbol of the Fish has been frequently referred to Jesus, the Christ of the New Testament, partly because the five letters forming the word are the initials of the Greek phrase, Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter, Jesus Christ the Saviour, Son of God. Hence his followers in the early Christian centuries were often called fishes, and drawings of fish are found in the Catacombs. Compare also the narrative that some of his early disciples were fishermen, and the assertion of Jesus― “I will make you fishers of men”. Note also the Vesica Piscis, a conventional shape for fish in general, is frequently found enclosing a picture of a Christ, holy virgin, or saint; it is a long oval with pointed ends, the space marked out by the intersection of two equal circles, when less than half the area of one. Compare the Christian female recluse, a Nun—this word is the Chaldee name for fish, and fish is connected with the worship of Venus, a goddess, and the Roman Catholics still eat fish on the Dies Veneris or Friday. [w.w.w.]

 

Ida (Scand.). The plains of Ida, on which the gods assemble to hold counsel in the Edda. The field of peace and rest.

 

Ideos, in Paracelsus the same as Chaos, or Mysterium Magnum as that philosopher calls it.

 

Idises (Scand.). The same as the Dises, the Fairies and Walkyries, the divine women in the Norse legends; they were reverenced by the Teutons before the day of Tacitus, as the latter shows.

 

Idæic Finger. An iron finger strongly magnetized and used in the temples for healing purposes. It produced wonders in that direction, and therefore was said to possess magical powers.

 

Idol. A statue or a picture of a heathen god; or a statue or picture of a Romish Saint, or a fetish of uncivilized tribes.

 

Idospati (Sk.). The same as Narayana or Vishnu; resembling Poseidon in some respects.

 

Idra Rabba (Heb.). “The Greater Holy Assembly ‘ a division of the Zohar.

 

Idra Suta (Heb.). “The Lesser Holy Assembly”, another division of the Zohar.

 

Iduna (Scand.). The goddess of immortal youth. The daughter of Iwaldi, the Dwarf. She is said in the Edda to have hidden “ life” in the Deep of the Ocean, and when the right time came, to have restored it to Earth once more. She was the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry; a most charming myth. Like Heimdal, “born of nine mothers”, Bragi at his birth rises upon the crest of the wave from the bottom of the sea (see “Bragi”). He married Iduna, the immortal goddess, who accompanies him to Asgard where every morning she feeds the gods with the apples of eternal youth and health. (See Asgard and the Gods.)

 

Idwatsara (Sk.). One of the five periods that form the Yuga. This cycle is pre-eminently the Vedic cycle, which is taken as the basis of calculation for larger cycles.

 

Ieu. The “first man”; a Gnostic term used in Pistis-Sophia.

 

Iezedians or lezidi (Pers.). This sect came to Syria from Basrah. They use baptism, believe in the archangels, but reverence Satan at the same time. Their prophet Iezad, who preceded Mahomet by long centuries, taught that a messenger from heaven would bring them a book written from the eternity.

 

Ifing (Scand.). The broad river that divides Asgard, the home of the gods, from that of the Jotuns, the great and strong magicians. Below Asgard was Midgard, where in the sunny æther was built the home of the Light Elves. In their disposition and order of locality, all these Homes answer to the Deva and other Lokas of the Hindus, inhabited by the various classes of gods and Asuras.

 

Igaga (Chald.) Celestial angels, the same as Archangels.

 

I.H.S. This triad of initials stands for the in hoc signo of the alleged vision of Constantine, of which, save Eusebius, its author, no one ever knew. I.H.S. is interpreted Jesus Hominum Salvator, and In hoc signo. It is, however, well known that the Greek IHS was one of the most ancient names of Bacchus. As Jesus was never identical with Jehovah, but with his own “Father” (as all of us are), and had come rather to destroy the worship of Jehovah than to enforce it, as the Rosicrucians well maintained, the scheme of Eusebius is very transparent. In hoc signo Victor ens, or the Labarum  T (the tau and the resh) is a very old signum, placed on the foreheads of those who were just initiated. Kenealy translates it as meaning “he who is initiated into the Naronic Secret, or the 600, shall be Victor” but it is simply “through this sign hast thou conquered”; i.e., through the light of Initiation—Lux. (See “Neophyte and “Naros”.)

 

Ikhir Bonga. A “Spirit of the Deep” of the Kolarian tribes.

 

Ikshwaku (Sk.). The progenitor of the Solar tribe (the Suryavansas) in India, and the Son of Vaivaswata Manu, the progenitor of the present human Race.

 

Ila (Sk.). Daughter of Vaivaswata Manu; wife of Buddha, the son of Soma; one month a woman and the other a man by the decree of Saraswati; an allusion to the androgynous second race. Ila is also Vâch in another aspect.

 

Ilavriti (Sk.). A region in the centre of which is placed Mount Meru, the habitat of the gods.

 

Ilda Baoth. Lit., “the child from the Egg”, a Gnostic term. He is the creator of our physical globe (the earth) according to the Gnostic teaching in the Codex Nazaræus (the Evangel of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites). The latter identifies him with Jehovah the God of the Jews. Ildabaoth is “the Son of Darkness” in a bad sense and the father of the six terrestrial “ Stellar”, dark spirits, the antithesis of the bright Stellar spirits. Their respective abodes are the seven spheres, the upper of which begins in the “middle space”, the region of their mother Sophia Achamôth, and the lower ending on this earth—the seventh region (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. II., 183.) Ilda-Baoth is the genius of Saturn, the planet; or rather the evil spirit of its ruler.

 

Iliados. In Paracelsus the same as “Ideos” (q.v.). Primordial matter in the subjective state.

 

Illa-ah, Adam (Heb.). Adam Illa-ah is the celestial, superior Adam, in the Zohar.

 

Illinus. One of the gods in the Chaldean Theogony of Damascius.

 

Ilmatar (Finn.). The Virgin who falls from heaven into the sea before creation. She is the “daughter of the air” and the mother of seven Sons (the seven forces in nature).
(See Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland.)

 

Illusion. In Occultism everything finite (like the universe and all in it) is called illusion or maya.

 

Illuminati (Lat.). The “Enlightened”, the initiated adepts.

 

Ilus (Gr.). Primordial mud or slime; called also Hyle.

 

Image. Occultism permits no other image than that of the living image of divine man (the symbol of Humanity) on earth. The Kabbala teaches that this divine Image, the copy of the sublime and holy upper Image (the Elohim) has now changed into another similitude, owing to the development of men’s sinful nature. It is only the upper divine Image (the Ego) which is the same; the lower (personality) has changed, and man, now fearing the wild beasts, has grown to bear on his face the similitude of many of them. (Zohar I. fol. 71a.) In the early period of Egypt there were no images; but later, as Lenormand says, “In the sanctuaries of Egypt they divided the properties of nature and consequently of Divinity (the Elohim, or the Egos), into seven abstract qualities, characterised each by an emblem, which are matter, cohesion, fluxion, coagulation, accumulation, station and division ”. These were all attributes symbolized in various images.

 

Imagination. In Occultism this is not to be confused with fancy, as it is one of the plastic powers of the higher Soul, and is the memory of the preceding incarnations, which, however disfigured by the lower Manas, yet rests always on a ground of truth.

 

Imhot-pou or Imhotep (Eg.). The god of learning (the Greek Imouthes). He was the son of Ptah, and in one aspect Hermes, as he is represented as imparting wisdom with a book before him. He is a solar god; lit., “the god of the handsome face “.

 

Immah (Heb.). Mother, in contradistinction to Abba, father.

 

Immah Illa-ah (Heb.). The upper mother; a name given to Shekinah.

 

In (Chin.). The female principle of matter, impregnated by Yo, the male ethereal principle, and precipitated thereafter down into the universe.

 

Incarnations (Divine) or Avatars. The Immaculate Conception is as pre-eminently Egyptian as it is Indian. As the author of Egyptian Belief has it: “It is not the vulgar, coarse and sensual story as in Greek mythology, but refined, moral and spiritual “; and again the incarnation idea was found revealed on the wall of a Theban temple by Samuel Sharpe, who thus analyzes it: “First the god Thoth . . . as the messenger of the gods, like the Mercury of the Greeks (or the Gabriel of the first Gospel), tells the maiden queen Mautmes, that she is to give birth to a son, who is to be king Amunotaph III. Secondly, the god Kneph, the Spirit . . . . and the goddess Hathor (Nature) both take hold of the queen by the hands and put into her mouth the character for life, a cross, which is to be the life of the coming child”, etc., etc. Truly divine incarnation, or the avatar doctrine, constituted the grandest mystery of every old religious system!

 

Incas (Peruvian). The name given to the creative gods in the Peruvian theogony, and later to the rulers of the country. “The Incas, seven in number have repeopled the earth after the Deluge ‘, Coste makes them say (I. iv., p. 19). They belonged at the beginning of the fifth Root-race to a dynasty of divine kings, such as those of Egypt, India and Chaldea.

 

Incubus (Lat.). Something more real and dangerous than the ordinary meaning given to the word, viz., that of “nightmare ”. An Incubus is the male Elemental, and Succuba the female, and these are undeniably the spooks of mediæval demonology, called forth from the invisible regions by human passion and lust. They are now called “Spirit brides” and “Spirit husbands” among some benighted Spiritists and spiritual mediums. But these poetical names do not prevent them in the least being that which they are—Ghools, Vampires and soulless Elementals; formless centres of Life, devoid of sense; in short, subjective protoplasms when left alone, but called into a definite being and form by the creative and diseased imagination of certain mortals. They were known under every clime as in every age, and the Hindus can tell more than one terrible tale of the dramas enacted in the life of young students and mystics by the Pisachas, their name in India.

 

Individuality. One of the names given in Theosophy and Occultism to the Human Higher EGO. We make a distinction between the immortal and divine Ego, and the mortal human Ego which perishes.

 

The latter, or “personality” (personal Ego) survives the dead body only for a time in the Kama Loka; the Individuality prevails forever.

 

Indra (Sk.). The god of the Firmament, the King of the sidereal gods. A Vedic Deity.

 

Indrâni (Sk.). The female aspect of Indra.

 

Indriya or Deha Sanyama (Sk.). The control of the senses in Yoga practice. These are the ten external agents; the five senses which are used for perception are called Jnana-indriya, and the five used for action—Karma-indriya. Pancha-indryani means literally and in its occult sense “the live roots producing life”(eternal). With the Buddhists, it is the five positive agents producing five supernal qualities.

 

Induvansa (Sk.). Also Somavansa or the lunar race (dynasty), from Indu, the Moon.
(“See “Suryavansa”.)

 

Indwellers. A name or the substitute for the right Sanskrit esoteric name, given to our “inner enemies”, which are seven in the esoteric philosophy. The early Christian Church called them the “seven capital Sins ‘: the Nazarene Gnostics named them, the “seven badly disposed Stellars”, and so on. Hindu exoteric teachings speak only of the “six enemies” and under the term Arishadwarga enumerate them as follows: (1) Personal desire, lust or any passion (Kâma); (2) Hatred or malice (Krodha); ( Avarice or cupidity (Lobha); ( Ignorance (Moha); ( Pride or arrogance (Mada); (6) Jealousy, envy (Matcharya); forgetting the seventh, which is the “unpardonable sin”, and the worst of all in Occultism.
(See Theosophist, May, 1890, p. 431.)

 

Ineffable Name. With the Jews, the substitute for the “mystery name” of their tribal deity Eh-yeh, “I am”, or Jehovah. The third commandment prohibiting the using of the latter name “in vain”, the Hebrews substituted for it that of Adonai or “the Lord”. But the Protestant Christians who, translating indifferently Jehovah and Elohim—which is also a substitute per se, besides being an inferior deity name— by the words “Lord” and “God”, have become in this instance more Catholic than the Pope, and include in the prohibition both the names. At the present moment, however, neither Jews nor Christians seem to remember, or so much as suspect, the occult reason why the qualification of Jehovah or YHVH had become reprehensible; most of the Western Kabbalists also seem to be unaware of the fact. The truth is, that the name they bring forward as “ineffable”, is not in the least so. It is the “unpronounceable”, or rather the name not to be pronounced, if any thing; and this for symbological reasons. To begin with, the “Ineffable Name” of the true Occultist, is no name at all, least of all is it that of Jehovah. The latter implies, even in its Kabbalistical, esoteric meaning, an androgynous nature, YHVH, or one of a male and female nature. It is simply Adam and Eve, or man and woman blended in one, and as now written and pronounced, is itself a substitute. But the Rabbins do not care to remember the Zoharic admission that YHVH means “not as I Am written, Am I read” (Zohar, fol. III., 23Oa). One has to know how to divide the Tetragrammaton ad infinitum before one arrives at the sound of the truly unpronouncable name of the Jewish mystery-god. That the Oriental Occultists have their own “Ineffable name” it is hardly necessary to repeat.

 

Initiate. From the Latin Initiatus. The designation of anyone who was received into and had revealed to him the mysteries and secrets of either Masonry or Occultism. In times of antiquity, those who had been initiated into the arcane knowledge taught by the Hierophants of the Mysteries; and in our modern days those who have been initiated by the adepts of mystic lore into the mysterious knowledge, which, notwithstanding the lapse of ages, has yet a few real votaries on earth.

 

Initiation. From the same root as the Latin initia, which means the basic or first principles of any Science. The practice of initiation or admission into the sacred Mysteries, taught by the Hierophants and learned priests of the Temples, is one of the most ancient customs. This was practised in every old national religion. In Europe it was abolished with the fall of the last pagan temple. There exists at present but one kind of initiation known to the public, namely that into the Masonic rites. Masonry, however, has no more secrets to give out or conceal. In the palmy days of old, the Mysteries, according to the greatest Greek and Roman philosophers, were the most sacred of all solemnities as well as the most beneficent, and greatly promoted virtue. The Mysteries represented the passage from mortal life into finite death, and the experiences of the disembodied Spirit and Soul in the world of subjectivity. In our own day, as the secret is lost, the candidate passes through sundry meaningless ceremonies and is initiated into the solar allegory of Hiram Abiff, the “Widow’s Son”.

 

Inner Man. An occult term, used to designate the true and immortal Entity in us, not the outward and mortal form of clay that we call our body. The term applies, strictly speaking, only to the Higher Ego, the “astral man” being the appellation of the Double and of Kâma Rupa (q.v.) or the surviving eidolon.

 

Innocents. A nick-name given to the Initiates and Kabbalists before the Christian era. The “Innocents” of Bethlehem and of Lud (or Lydda) who were put to death by Alexander Janneus, to the number of several thousands (B.C. 100, or so), gave rise to the legend of the 40,000 innocent babes murdered by Herod while searching for the infant Jesus. The first is a little known historical fact, the second a fable, as sufficiently shown by Renan in his Vie de Jésus.

 

Intercosmic gods. The Planetary Spirits, Dhyan-Chohans, Devas of various degrees of spirituality, and “Archangels” in general.

 

Iranian Morals. The little work called Ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian Morals, compiled by Mr. Dhunjibhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, a Parsi Theosophist of Bombay, is an excellent treatise replete with the highest moral teachings, in English and Gujerati, and will acquaint the student better than many volumes with the ethics of the ancient Iranians.

 

Irdhi (Sk.). The synthesis of the ten “supernatural” occult powers in Buddhism and Brahmanism.

 

Irkalla (Chald.). The god of Hades, called by the Babylonians “the country unseen”.

 

Isarim (Heb.). The Essenian Initiates.

 

Ishim (Chald.). The B’ne-Aleim, the “beautiful sons of god”, the originals and prototypes of the later
“Fallen Angels”.

 

Ishmonia (Arab.). The city near which is buried the so-called “petrified city” in the Desert. Legend speaks of immense subterranean halls and chambers, passages, and libraries secreted in them. Arabs dread its neighbourhood after sunset.

 

Ishtar (Chald.). The Babylonian Venus, called “the eldest of heaven and earth“, and daughter of Anu, the god of heaven. She is the goddess of love and beauty. The planet Venus, as the evening star, is identified with Ishtar, and as the morning star with Anunit, the goddess of the Akkads. There exists a most remarkable story of her descent into Hades, on the sixth and seventh Assyrian tiles or tablets deciphered by the late G. Smith. Any Occultist who reads of her love for Tammuz, his assassination by Izdubar, the despair of the goddess and her descent in search of her beloved through the seven gates of Hades, and finally her liberation from the dark realm, will recognise the beautiful allegory of the soul in search of the Spirit.

 

Isiac table. A true monument of Egyptian art. It represents the goddess Isis under many of her aspects. The Jesuit Kircher describes it as a table of copper overlaid with black enamel and silver incrustations. It was in the possession of Cardinal Bembo, and therefore called “Tabula Bembina sive Mensa Isiaca ”. Under this title it is described by W. Wynn Westcott, M.B., who gives its “History and Occult Significance” in an extremely interesting and learned volume (with photographs and illustrations). The tablet was believed to have been a votive offering to Isis in one of her numerous temples. At the sack of Rome in 1525, it came into the possession of a soldier who sold it to Cardinal Bembo. Then it passed to the Duke of Mantua in 1630, when it was lost.

 

Isis. In Egyptian Issa, the goddess Virgin-Mother; personified nature. In Egyptian or Koptic Uasari, the female reflection of Uasar or Osiris. She is the “woman clothed with the sun” of the land of Chemi. Isis Latona is the Roman Isis.

 

Isitwa (Sk.). The divine Power.

 

Israel (Heb.). The Eastern Kabbalists derive the name from Isaral or Asar, the Sun-God. “Isra-el” signifies “striving with god”: the “sun rising upon Jacob-Israel ” means the Sun-god Isaral (or Isar-el) striving with, and to fecundate matter, which has power with “God and with man” and often prevails over both. Esau, Æsaou, Asu, is also the Sun. Esau and Jacob, the allegorical twins, are the emblems of the ever struggling dual principle in nature—good and evil, darkness and sunlight, and the “ Lord” (Jehovah) is their antetype. Jacob-Israel is the feminine principle of Esau, as Abel is that of Cain, both Cain and Esau being the male principle. Hence, like Malach-Iho, the “Lord” Esau fights with Jacob and prevails not. In Genesis xxxii. the God-Sun first strives with Jacob, breaks his thigh (a phallic symbol) and yet is defeated by his terrestrial type—matter; and the Sun-God rises on Jacob and his thigh in covenant. All these biblical personages, their “Lord God” included, are types represented in an allegorical sequence. They are types of Life and Death, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, of Matter and Spirit in their synthesis, all these being under their contrasted aspects.

 

Iswara (Sk.). The “Lord” or the personal god—divine Spirit in man. Lit., sovereign (independent) existence. A title given to Siva and other gods in India. Siva is also called Iswaradeva, or sovereign deva.

 

Ithyphallic (Gr.). Qualification of the gods as males and hermaphrodites, such as the bearded Venus, Apollo in woman’s clothes, Ammon the generator, the embryonic Ptah, and so on. Yet the phallus, so
conspicuous and, according to our prim notions, so indecent, in the Indian and Egyptian religions, was associated in the earliest symbology far more with another and much purer idea than that of sexual creation. As shown by many an Orientalist, it expressed resurrection, the rising in life from death. Even the other meaning had nought indecent in it: “These images only symbolise in a very expressive manner the creative force of nature, without obscene intention,” writes Mariette Bey, and adds, “It is but another way to express celestial generation, which should cause the deceased to enter into a new life”. Christians and Europeans are very hard on the phallic symbols of the ancients. The nude gods and goddesses and their generative emblems and statuary have secret departments assigned to them in our museums; why then adopt and preserve the same symbols for Clergy and Laity? The love-feasts in the early Church—its agapæ as pure (or as impure) as the Phallic festivals of the Pagans; the long priestly robes of the Roman and Greek Churches, and the long hair of the latter, the holy water sprinklers and the rest, are there to show that Christian ritualism has preserved in more or less modified forms all the symbolism of old Egypt. As to the symbolism of a purely feminine nature, we are bound to confess that in the sight of every impartial archæologist the half nude toilets of our cultured ladies of Society are far more suggestive of female-sex worship than are the rows of yoni-shaped lamps, lit along the highways to temples in India.

 

Iurbo Adunaї. A Gnostic term, or the compound name for Iao Jehovah, whom the Ophites regarded as an emanation of their Ilda-Baoth, the Son of Sophia Achamoth—the proud, ambitious and jealous god, and impure Spirit, whom many of the Gnostic sects regarded as the god of Moses. “Iurbo is called by the Abortions (the Jews) Adunai” says the Codex Nazaræus (vol. iii., p.13  The “Abortions” and Abortives was the nickname given to the Jews by their opponents the Gnostics.

 

Iu-Kabar Zivo (Gn.). Known also as Nebat-Iavar-bar-Iufin-Ifafin, “Lord of the Æons” in the Nazarene System. He is the procreator (Emanator) of the seven holy lives (the seven primal Dhyan Chohans, or Archangels, each representing one of the cardinal Virtues), and is himself called the third life (third Logos). In the Codex he is addressed as “the Helm and Vine of the food of life”. Thus, he is identical with Christ (Christos) who says “I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husband- man “(John xv. i). It is well known that Christ is regarded in the Roman Catholic Church, as the “chief of the Æons”, and also as Michael “who is like god”. Such was also the belief of the Gnostics.

 

Iwaldi (Scand.). The dwarf whose sons fabricated for Odin the magic spear. One of the subterranean master-smiths who, together with other gnomes, contrived to make an enchanted sword for the great war-god Cheru. This two-edged-sword figures in the legend of the Emperor Vitellius, who got it from the god, “to his own hurt”, according to the oracle of a “wise woman”, neglected it and was finally killed with it at the foot of the capitol, by a German soldier who had purloined the weapon. The “sword of the war-god” has a long biography, since it also re-appears in the half-legendary biography of Attila. Having married against her will Ildikd, the beautiful daughter of the King of Burgundy whom he had slain, his bride gets the magic sword from a mysterious old woman, and with it kills the King of the Huns.

 

Izdubar. A name of a hero in the fragments of Chaldean History and Theogony on the so-called Assyrian tiles, as read by the late George Smith and others. Smith seeks to identify Izdubar with Nimrod. Such may or may not be the case; but as the name of that Babylonian King itself only “appears” as Izduhar, his identification with the son of Cush may also turn out more apparent than real. Scholars are but too apt to check their archæological discoveries by the far later statements found in the Mosaic books, instead of acting vice versa. “The chosen people” have been fond at all periods of history of helping themselves to other people’s property. From the appropriation of the early history of Sargon, King of Akkad, and its wholesale application to Moses born (if at all) some thousands of years later, down to their “spoiling” the Egyptians under the direction and divine advice of their Lord God, the whole Pentateuch seems to be made up of unacknowledged mosaical fragments from other people’s Scriptures. This ought to have made Assyriologists more cautious; but as many of these belong to the clerical caste, such coincidences as that of Sargon affect them very little. One thing is certain Izdubar, or whatever may be his name, is shown in all the tablets as a mighty giant who towered in size above all other men as a cedar towers over brushwood—a hunter, according to cuneiform legends, who contended with, and destroyed the lion, tiger, wild bull, and buffalo, the most formidable animals.