Z.—The 26th letter of the English alphabet. It stands as a numeral for 2,000, and with a dash over it thus, Z, equals 2,000,000. It is the seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet—zayin, its symbol being a kind of Egyptian sceptre, a weapon. The zayin is equivalent to number seven. The number twenty-six is held most sacred by the Kabbalists, being equal to the numerical value of the letters of the Tetragrammaton

—thus
                                                                    he vau he yod

5 + 6 + 5 + ‘0 =26.

Zabulon (Heb.). The abode of God, the tenth Devachan in degree. Hence Zabulon, the tenth son of Jacob.

Zacchai (Heb.). One of the deity-names.

Zadok (Heb.). According to Josephus (see Antiquities, x., 8, § 6), Zadok was the first High-Priest Hierophant of Solomon’s High Temple. Masons connect him with some of their degrees.

Zalmat Gaguadi (Akkad.). Lit., “the dark race”, the first that fell into generation in the Babylonian legends. The Adamic race, one of the two principal races that existed at the time of the ‘ Fall of Man (hence our third Root-race), the other being called Sarku, or the “light race”.
(Secret Doctrine, II., 5.)

Zampun (Tib.). The sacred tree of life, having many mystic meanings.

Zarathustra (Zend). The great lawgiver, and the founder of the religion variously called Mazdaism, Magism, Parseeїsm, Fire-Worship, and Zoroastrianism. The age of the last Zoroaster (for it is a generic name) is not known, and perhaps for that very reason. Xanthus of Lydia, the earliest Greek writer who mentions this great lawgiver and religious reformer, places him about six hundred years before the Trojan War. But where is the historian who can now tell when the latter took place? Aristotle and also Eudoxus assign him a date of no less than 6,000 years before the days of Plato, and Aristotle was not one to make a statement without a good reason for it. Berosus makes him a king of Babylon some 2,200 years B.C.; but then, how can one tell what were the original figures of Berosus, before his MSS. passed through the hands of Eusebius, whose fingers were so deft at altering figures, whether in Egyptian synchronistic tables or in Chaldean chronology? Haug refers Zoroaster to at least 1,000 years B.C.; and Bunsen (God in History, Vol. I., Book iii., ch. vi., p. 276) finds that Zarathustra Spitama lived under the King Vistaspa about 3,000 years B.C., and describes him as “one of the mightiest intellects and one of the greatest men of all time”. It is with such exact dates in hand, and with the utterly extinct language of the Zend, whose teachings are rendered, probably in the most desultory manner, by the Pahlavi translation—a tongue, as shown by Darmsteter, which was itself growing obsolete so far back as the Sassanides— that our scholars and Orientalists have presumed to monopolise to themselves the right of assigning hypothetical dates for the age of the holy prophet Zurthust. But the Occult records claim to have the correct dates of each of the thirteen Zoroasters mentioned in the Dabistan. Their doctrines, and especially those of the last (divine) Zoroaster, spread from Bactria to the Medes; thence, under the name of Magism, incorporated by the Adept-Astronomers in Chaldea, they greatly influenced the mystic teachings of the Mosaic doctrines, even before, perhaps, they had culminated into what is now known as the modern religion of the Parsis. Like Manu and Vyâsa in India, Zarathustra is a generic name for great reformers and law-givers. The hierarchy began with the divine Zarathustra in the Vendîdâd, and ended with the great, but mortal man, bearing that title, and now lost to history. There were, as shown by the Dabistan, many Zoroasters or Zarathustras. As related in the Secret Doctrine, Vol. II., the last Zoroaster was the founder of the Fire-temple of Azareksh, many ages before the historical era. Had not Alexander destroyed so many sacred and precious works of the Mazdeans, truth and philosophy would have been more inclined to agree with history, in bestowing upon that Greek Vandal the title of “the Great”.

Zarpanitu (Akkad) The goddess who was the supposed mother, by Merodach, of Nebo, god of Wisdom. One of the female “Serpents of Wisdom”.

Zelator. The lowest degree in the exoteric Rosicrucian system; a kind of probationer or low chelâ.

Zervana Akarna, or Zrvana Akarna (Pahl.). As translated from the Vendîdâd (Fargard xix), lit.,
“Boundless”, or “Limitless Time”, or “Duration in a Circle”. Mystically, the Beginningless and the Endless One Principle in Nature ; the Sat of the Vedânta and esoterically, the Universal Abstract Space synonymous with the Unknowable Deity. It is the Ain-Soph of the Zoroastrians, out of which radiates Ahura Mazda, the eternal Light or Logos, from which, in its turn, emanates everything that has being, existence and form.

Zeus (Gr.). The “Father of the gods”. Zeus-Zen is Æther, there fore Jupiter was called Pater Æther by some Latin races.

Zicu (Akkad.). Primordial matter, from Zi, spirit-substance, Zikum and Zigarum.

Zio (Scand.). Also Tyr and Tius, A god in the Eddas who conquers and chains Fenris-WoIf, when the latter threatened the gods themselves in Asgard, and lost a hand in the battle with the monster. He is the god of war, and was greatly worshipped by the ancient Germans.

Zipporah (Heb.). Lit., the shining, the radiant. In the Biblical allegory of Genesis, Zipporah is one of the seven daughters of Jethro, the Midianite priest, the Initiator of Moses, who meets Zipporah (or spiritual light) near the “well” (of occult knowledge) and marries her.

Zirat-banit (Chald.). The wife of the great, divine hero of the Assyrian tablets, Merodach. She is identified with the Succoth Benoth of the Bible.

Zodiac (Gr.). From the word zodion, a diminutive of zoon, animal. This word is used in a dual meaning; it may refer to the fixed and intellectual Zodiac, or to the movable and natural Zodiac. “In astronomy”, says Science, “it is an imaginary belt in the heavens 16° or 18° broad, through the middle of which passes the sun’s path (the ecliptic) .“It contains the twelve constellations which constitute the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and from which they are named. As the nature of the zodiacal light—that elongated, luminous, triangular figure which, lying almost in the ecliptic, with its base on the horizon and its apex at greater and smaller altitudes, is to be seen only during the morning and evening twilights—is entirely unknown to science, the origin and real significanće and occult meaning of the Zodiac were, and are still, a mystery, to all save the Initiates. The latter preserved their secrets well. Between the Chaldean star-gazer and the modern astrologer there lies to this day a wide gulf indeed; and they wander, in the words of Albumazar, “‘twixt the poles, and heavenly hinges, ‘mongst eccentricals, centres, concentricks, circles and epicycles”, with vain pretence to more than profane human skill. Yet, some of the astrologers, from Tycho Braire and Kepler of astrological memory, down to the modern Zadkiels and Raphaels, have contrived to make a wonderful science from such scanty occult materials as they have had in hand from Ptolemy downwards. (See “Astrology”.) To return to the astrological Zodiac proper, however, it is an imaginary circle passing round the earth in the plane of the equator, its first point being called Aries 0º. It is divided into twelve equal parts called “Signs of the Zodiac”, each containing 30º of space, and on it is measured the right ascension of celestial bodies. The movable or natural Zodiac is a succession of constellations forming a belt of in width, lying north and south of the plane of the ecliptic. The precession of the Equinoxes is caused by the “motion” of the sun through space, which makes the constellations appear to move forward against the order of the signs at the rate of 501/3 seconds per year. A simple calculation will show that at this rate the constellation Taurus (Heb. Aleph) was in the first sign of the Zodiac at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and consequently the Equinoctial point fell therein. At this time, also, Leo was in the summer solstice, Scorpio in the autumnal Equinox, and Aquarius in the winter solstice ; and these facts form the astronomical key to half the religious mysteries of the world-—the Christian scheme included. The Zodiac was known in India and Egypt for incalculable ages, and the knowledge of the sages (magi) of these countries, with regard to the occult influence of the stars and heavenly bodies on our earth, was far greater than profane astronomy can ever hope to reach to. If, even now, when most of the secrets of the Asuramayas and the Zoroasters are lost, it is still amply shown that horoscopes and judiciary astrology are far from being based on fiction, and if such men as Kepler and even Sir Isaac Newton believed that stars and constellations influenced the destiny of our globe and its humanities, it requires no great stretch of faith to believe that men who were initiated into all the mysteries of nature, as well as into astronomy and astrology, knew precisely in what way nations and mankind, whole races as well as individuals, would be affected by the so-called “signs of the Zodiac”.

Zohak, or Azhi Dâhaka. The personification of the Evil One or Satan under the shape of a serpent, in the Zend Avesta. This serpent is three-headed, one of the heads being human. The Avesta describes it as dwelling in the region of Bauri or Babylonia. In reality Zohak is the allegorical symbol of the Assyrian dynasty, whose banner had on it the purple sign of the dragon. (Isis Unveiled, Vol. II., p. 486, n.)

Zohar, or Sohar. A compendium of Kabbalistic Theosophy, which shares with the Sepher Yetzirah the reputation of being the oldest extant treatise on the Hebrew esoteric religious doctrines. Tradition assigns its authorship to Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, AD. 80, but modern criticism is inclined to believe that a very large portion of the volume is no older than 1280, when it was certainly edited and published by Rabbi Moses de Leon, of Guadalaxara in Spain. The reader should consult the references to these two names. In Lucifer (Vol. I., p. 141) will be found also notes on this subject : further discussion will be attainable in the works of Zunz, Graetz, Jost, Steinschneider, Frankel and Ginsburg. The work of Franck (in French) upon the Kabalah may be referred to with advantage. The truth seems to lie in a middle path, viz., that while Moses de Leon was the first to produce the volume as a whole, yet a large part of some of its constituent tracts consists of traditional dogmas and illustrations, which have come down from the time of Simeon ben Jochai and the Second Temple. There are portions of the doctrines of the Zohar which bear the impress of Chaldee thought and civilization, to which the Jewish race had been exposed in the Babylonish captivity. Yet on the other hand, to condemn the theory that it is ancient in its entirety, it is noticed that the Crusades are mentioned; that a quotation is made from a hymn by Ibn Gebirol, A,D. 1050; that the asserted author, Simeon ben Jochai, is spoken of as more eminent than Moses; that it mentions the vowel-points, which did not come into use until Rabbi Mocha (AD. 570) introduced them to fix the pronunciation of words as a help to his pupils, and lastly, that it mentions -a comet which can be proved by the evidence of the context to have appeared in 1264. There is no English translation of the Zohar as a whole, nor even a Latin one. The Hebrew editions obtainable are those of Mantua, 1558; Cremona, 1560; and Lublin, 1623. The work of Knorr von Rosenroth called Kabbala Denudata includes several of the treatises of the Zohar, but not all of them, both in Hebrew and Latin. MacGregor Mathers has published an English translation of three of these treatises, the Book of Concealed Mystery, the Greater and the Lesser Holy Assembly, and his work includes an original introduction to the subject.

The principal tracts included in the Zohar are :—“ The Hidden Midrash”, “The Mysteries of the Pentateuch”, “The Mansions and Abodes of Paradise and Gaihinnom”, “The Faithful Shepherd”, “The Secret of Secrets”, “Discourse of the Aged in Mishpatim” (punishment of souls), “The Januka or Discourse of the Young Man”, and “The Tosephta and Mathanithan”, which are additional essays on Emanation and the Sephiroth, in addition to the three important treatises mentioned above. In this storehouse may be found the origin of all the later developments of Kabbalistic teaching. [w.w.w.]

Zoroaster. Greek form of Zarathustra (q.v.).

Zumyad Yasht (Zend). Or Zamyad Yasht as some spell it. One of the preserved Mazdean fragments. It treats of metaphysical questions and beings, especially of the Amshaspends or the Amesha Spenta—the Dhyân Chohans of the Avesta books.

Zuñi. The name of a certain tribe of Western American Indians, a very ancient remnant of a still more ancient race. (Secret Doctrine, II., p. 628.)