Absolute Divine Simplicity: the metaphysical notion that God is one simple unified entity without any really distinct attributes or “parts”. God’s existence is identical to God’s essence, which means that each name we attribute to God means exactly the same as any other and is identical to His essence. It also implies that God is pure actuality without potentiality. This questions God´s free will because, for example, a God that is pure actuality cannot decide to become a creator at a specific point in time but has to be considered as an entity incapable of not emanating. This theory contrasts with the Orthodox Christian belief in God´s Essence/Energies distinction.
Advaita: usually translated as “Non-Dualism” (but often equated with Monism). In Hindu thought, it means that Brahman alone is ultimately real, while the world of the senses is ultimately an illusory appearance (Maya) of Brahman.
Apokatastasis: restoration of creation to a perfected or pre-fallen state. In Christianity, it is used to refer to an eventual universal salvation of everyone, including the devil. This notion is not accepted by the main Christian denominations because it lacks biblical support and because it is also a theory in line with definitions of God as “the Absolute” (a totality that includes all opposites, different from the Christian Tri-Une God).
Apophatic theology: also known as negative theology, it is a form of doing theology that approaches God through negations instead of affirmations or positive statements (Cataphatic theology). As God cannot be circumscribed by mere human thought or language, it is the most accurate form of representing Him. However, it also limits what we can communicate. Closely related to mystical experiences and the impossibility of completely expressing them.
Atman: immortal True Self or essence of each individual, which persists across multiple bodies and lifetimes. It is not the same as the common human mortal ego (Ahamkara). Sometimes defined as pure consciousness or witness consciousness.
It is a key concept in Indian philosophies, where Atman can be said to be completely identical (Advaita: Non-Dualist), completely different (Dvaita: Dualist), or simultaneously non-different and different (Bhedabheda: Non-Dualist/Dualist) to Brahman or ultimate reality. Buddhism denies the existence of such an intrinsic essence or Self.
Avatar: meaning ‘descent’ in Sanskrit. It refers to the temporal incarnation of a deity or spirit in our material plane of existence. A deity can incarnate multiple times in different forms in order to perform many particular tasks (e.g. Vishnu).
Brahman: In Hinduism, it refers to the highest reality or Universal Principle. The unchanging, infinite, eternal Truth-Consciousness-Bliss underlying all reality and the source of all (real or apparent) changes in our world. The single binding unity behind all (apparent) diversity.
Cataphatic theology: a way of doing theology that uses positive terminology to describe or refer to God, by naming His attributes or using a variety of God´s Names. See also Apophatic theology.
Eschatology: concerns expectations regarding the end of the present age, world, or creation itself (end times). It also refers to the end of our ordinary reality and the beginning of the age beyond change and time, once reunited with the divine.
Essence / Energies distinction: particular Orthodox Christian theological notion, where a distinction is made between God´s essence (Ousia) and His energies (Energeia). Famously expounded and defended by St. Gregory Palamas as part of his defense of the monastic practice of Hesychasm.
According to theologian Vladimir Lossky, God’s nature or essence is what God is, “that which finds no existence or subsistence in another or any other thing”, and cannot be directly experienced. Through God´s energies, however, we can know God through what His nature is capable of doing and, as St. John of Damascus stated, “all that we say positively of God manifests not his nature [which in its transcendence we cannot conceive] but the things about his nature.”
Contrary to Thomistic Catholicism, Orthodoxy considers this distinction as a real one, and not a “virtual” or “formal” one, therefore avoiding the dangers associated with conceptualizing God as pure Essence (e.g. which would be similar to defining god as the One, the All, the Source, or the God of the Philosophers).
According to Orthodox doctrine, if we deny the real distinction between essence and energies, we cannot fix any clear boundary between the procession of the divine Persons of the Trinity and the creation of the world. In this case, both the former and the latter would be equally created by God´s uncreated essence. The being and the actions of God being identical, God would be pure actuality without potentiality and, therefore, lack real free will. This line of thought would eventually abandon the Tri-Une God of Christianity and lead to pantheism/panentheism.
Hypostasis: usually translated as “person”. A term that refers to who God is. Not to be confused with God’s essence/nature (what God is; see Ousia), or God’s attributes (what God does). Hypostatic union, in turn, is a technical term used in Christian theology to describe the union of Jesus Christ’s two natures (human and divine) in one hypostasis (individual personhood).
Karma: predominant concept in Indian religions. The moral principle of cause and effect that affects the future life of every being and the quality of their future rebirths in the cycle of existence (Samsara). Good deeds and good intentions leads to better Karma and rebirths, ideally improving our chances of finally attaining liberation.
Logos: “Word, Discourse, or Reason”. A term used in Western philosophy, especially by the Stoics, for whom it represents the ordering principle of the Universe.
In Christianity, the Logos (Greek: Λόγος) is the Second Person of the Trinity: Jesus Christ. Expressed as Intellect, Wisdom, and the Providence of God in whom all things are created, it is the source of the many logoi or inner essences of everything in existence.
Through the Logos, Word, or Reason all things come into existence as is proper to them according to their inner reason for being.
Maya: illusion or magic in Indian philosophies. More specifically, it means a “magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem”. It denotes that which is constantly changing and is, therefore, spiritually unreal in comparison with the unchanging Absolute (see Brahman). It only exists because of our ignorance (avidyā) of our real Self (see Atman).
Moksha: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh term for various forms of emancipation or spiritual liberation that constitutes the final aim of all life. It means both freedom from Saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth, as well as from ignorance (through self-realization, awakening, and self-knowledge).
Ousia (Essence): a philosophical and theological term primarily meaning “essence”
or “substance”.
In Christian theology, the concept is used to refer to the imparticipable essence of God, or what God is, in contrast to who He is (see Hypostasis) or what he does (energies or operations). The term homousion (“same in being; same in essence”), in turn, refers to the common essence of all three Persons of the Tri-Une God.
Perichoresis: a term referring to the relationship of the three Persons of the Tri-Une God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to one another. Also called interpenetration, it was first used as a term in Christian theology by the Church Fathers, including the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus, Maximus the Confessor, and John of Damascus.
It is used to describe the relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, as well as between each member of the Holy Trinity.
Its use emphasizes the co-primacy of both unity and multiplicity, and the possibility of union without fusion (or confusion) of those being united. Because this uniquely Christian form of union preserves and loves the difference of each member being united, the Christian God can be described as the God of love, in contraposition to the God of the philosophers (the Monad or the One, where all difference is annihilated).
Prakriti: key Hindu notion (Sāṅkhya school). Usually said to refer to matter or nature, it includes all the cognitive, moral, psychological, emotional, sensorial, and physical aspects of reality. It has three different innate qualities (Guṇas), whose equilibrium is the basis of all observed reality in our plane of existence. Its counterpart is Purusha, pure awareness/consciousness.
Purusha: pure consciousness in Sāṅkhya philosophy. Unattached and unrelated to anything, pure, unchanging, passive. The complementary union between Purusha and Prakṛti (matter) gives rise to life. In Kashmir Shaivism, it is the universal Self (Paramātman) manifesting through many individual Selves (Jīvātman), limited in various ways.
Samsara: Pali/Sanskrit word meaning “wandering” as well as “world”. It has the connotation of cyclic change or running around in circles. When related to the theory of Karma, it is the Cycle of Rebirths in which we are currently trapped. This cyclic existence is one of the fundamental tenets of most Indian religions.
Theoria: until the sixth century the practice of mysticism was referred to by the Latin term contemplatio, meaning “looking at” or “being aware of” God or the divine. Christianity used both the Greek (theoria) and Latin (contemplatio) terms in order to describe different forms of prayer and the process of coming to know God.
Theosis: Orthodox Christian doctrine. Deification or divinization. It is the process of becoming united with God and salvation itself (see 2 Peter 1:4). It does not mean fusing with God´s Essence (see Apotheosis), which is imparticipable. Instead, it involves uniting with all of God´s eternal uncreated energies.
The statement by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, “The Son of God became man, that we might become god”, is a common explanation of this concept. Theosis assumes that humans were from the beginning made to share in the Life of the Holy Trinity, and that as much as the Second Person of the Trinity (see Logos) abased Himself (Kenosis) during the Incarnation, to the same degree we will be elevated through our cooperation (synergy) with God.
Theotokos: a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially by Orthodox Christianity. Common translations include “Mother of God” or “God-bearer”. This title is theologically significant because it emphasizes that Mary’s son, Jesus Christ, is both fully God and fully human. Two natures (divine and human) united in a single Person (Hypostatic Union) of the Tri-Une God.
Yoga: yoke or union. A group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices originated in ancient India that aim at controlling (to yoke) and stilling the mind, in order to find pure consciousness or our “true Self”.
The term Yoga, in the West, often refers to a modern form of Hatha (physical) Yoga which was traditionally considered only as a preliminary preparation for other mind-based disciplines able to procure liberation from the Cycle of Rebirths (e.g. Raja Yoga).
It was adapted in a variety of ways to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Different types may involve working with internal psychosomatic energies (Kundalini Yoga); with emotions through devotion (Bhakti Yoga); with knowledge (Jnana Yoga); or through acting in an altruistic and selfless way (Karma Yoga).
“As above, so below”: popular modern paraphrase originating in the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, one of the key early hermetical texts (“That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above”).
This metaphysical concept refers to the correspondence between the macrocosm (“great world” or Universe as a whole, understood as a great living being) and the microcosm (“small world” or human being, understood as a mirror reflection or a miniature version of the former).
Concept frequently used by occultists (e.g. Helena P. Blavatsky), it became a common New Age motto. It is also prominent in Greek and Hellenistic philosophy (e.g. Stoicism).
Apotheosis: the glorification of a few special subjects to divine levels. Usually understood as obtained by participating in the Divine Essence. Typical of imperial cults (e.g. Ancient Egypt [pharaohs] and Mesopotamia).
Catharsis (Katharsis): meaning purification, cleansing. Most commonly used to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions by way of confronting and expressing them, resulting in a state of emotional renewal.
Coincidentia Oppositorum: which means coincidence of opposites in Latin. This term is used to describe the underlying oneness of all things, previously perceived to be different. This immanentist view is mostly found in different monistic (e.g., Pantheism/Panentheism) and non-dualistic traditions.
Achieving the Unity of Opposites in order to transcend our common world of dualities and return to primordial unity (e.g. the One, the Absolute) is, then, the main objective of these traditions. This may imply integrating aspects that may be seen as incompatible in other worldviews (e.g., the Christian Tri-Une God is not made of light and dark aspects to be re-united).
Related to non-duality, it defines a situation in which the existence or identity of a thing depends on the dialectical co-existence of at least two conditions that are opposite to each other, yet dependent on each other and presupposing each other. The tension between these opposites is thus generative, creating other realities that depend on it.
This ubiquitous metaphysical concept can be found in Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism, Zen (Mahayana) and Vajrayana Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Alchemy, Kabbalah, Neoplatonism, Zoroastrianism, German mysticism, and Western esotericism, among others.
A: An image of the Primordial Buddha Samantabhadra1Samantabhadra (Ever-Perfect One) or (Tibetan) Kuntuzangpo, Tibet, early 20th century, copper alloy, gilt, paint. Accession number 2011.77. Part of the tantric art exhibit Honored Father-Honored Mother, Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas, USA. with his consort Samantabhadri, symbolizing the union of space (emptiness, female aspect) and clarity (awareness, male aspect).
B: The Rebis2Nollius, Heinrich (1617). Rebis from Theoria Philosophiae Hermeticae., the end result of the Great Work of the Alchemists.
C: Éliphas Lévi´s Seal of Solomon3Lévi, Éliphas (1910). Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Seal of Solomon, in the frontispiece of Volume I., a symbolic drawing of the different faces of the God of the Kabbalah (macroprosopus/microprosopus), with the totality being the union of his opposite (mirrored) light and dark aspects.
D: Baphomet, as drawn by Éliphas Lévi4Lévi, Éliphas (1856). A depiction of the Sabbatic Goat from Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. The arms bear the alchemical concepts SOLVE (dissolve) and COAGULA (coagulate)., formed by dichotomies (e.g., horns) representing “the equilibrium of opposites” (e.g., the flame in between the horns): half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil. Baphomet is used as a symbol of balance, of the “Absolute” or the “Divine Androgyne” in Western occult schools. Some occultists state that its origin may be related to the Ophite sect (Gnosticism) and/or the Templars.
Demiurge (Gnosticism): Gnostic systems draw a distinction between the unknowable highest reality and an intermediate entity, either ignorant or evil, who shaped and “created” this fallen material Universe. This intermediate being is neither All-Knowing nor All-Powerful.
In some cases, this demiurgic figure is identified with Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament of the Bible. Therefore, contrary to Christianity, some Gnostic systems see a conflict between Jesus Christ (the Logos), who represents the will of the Highest Being, and the demiurgic Yahweh. Also contrary to Christian thought, creation is conceived as a prison used by the Demiurge for trapping the divine aspects lost in matter.
Greek philosophy (e.g. Plato, Plotinus), when using the concept, does not consider the Demiurge as an antagonistic or inferior figure.
Emanationism: widespread metaphysical cosmogonical notion particularly frequent in the doctrines of “the One”. Emanation, meaning “to flow from” or “to pour forth or out of”, is conceived as the mode by which all things are derived from the first principle (e.g. the One, the Absolute). It is opposed to the notion of creation out of nothing (ex nihilo) present in Abrahamic faiths.
In this view, all existing things are derived from the highest reality, being of the same substance. The process of emanation creates beings and realities progressively farther away from the source, each successive emanation being more imperfect than the one before.
This concept also serves to explain (some would say to explain away) the concept of evil, as it is defined as just the last emanation and the logical conclusion of the process, usually associated with matter and non-existence.
Epistemology: branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Key questions asked are the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, and the rationality of belief.
Henosis: Greek term meaning mystical “oneness”, “union” or “unity”. It is used in Neoplatonism to refer to unification with the One (Τὸ Ἕν), the Source, or Monad. This metaphysical notion has precursors in Greek mystery religions, as well as parallels with Eastern philosophy (e.g. Advaita Vedanta), Hermeticism (e.g. Corpus Hermeticum), and Islamic Mysticism.
Logos: “Word, Discourse, or Reason”. A term used in Western philosophy, especially by the Stoics, for whom it represents the ordering principle of the universe.
In Christianity, the Logos (Greek: Λόγος) is the Second Person of the Trinity: Jesus Christ. Expressed as Intellect, Wisdom, and the Providence of God in whom all things are created, it is the source of the many logoi or inner essences of everything in existence.
Through the Logos, Word, or Reason all things come into existence as is proper to them according to their inner reason for being.
Metaphysics: the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality. This includes first principles such as being or existence, identity, change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity, actuality, and possibility. It also includes inquiries regarding the nature of consciousness, the relation between mind and matter, and between potentiality and actuality. It tries to answer the question: “What is it that exists?”
Monad: in Gnostic systems, the Highest Being/Reality is known as the Monad, the One, the Absolute, the Perfect Aeon, or Bythos (Depth or Profundity).
Through a process of emanation, from the One derive different hierarchically ordered divine entities and realms: the Aeons (thirty in total for Valentinus, 365 according to Basilides). Valentinus, the most important Gnostic systematizer, taught that the Monad is the source of the Pleroma, “the fullness of the Godhead”, the totality of all the Aeons.
Jesus was seen as an Aeon residing close to the Father, while the lowest emanation, Sophia (Wisdom), fell by attempting to create without her counterpart, creating this fallen material world in the process and birthing the Demiurge.
Monism: the philosophical position that asserts one single entity or principle as ultimate reality, with everything else ultimately deriving from it. In one way or another, absolute Unity and uniformity are believed to be the origin of all things.
This first principle can be either spiritual, material, or beyond both. Idealism, for example, believes that mind is the first principle from which matter (or our perception of matter) comes from. Materialism (or Physicalism), on the other hand, states that everything comes from undifferentiated matter, including mind. Neutral Monism, in turn, speaks of a third substance beyond mind and matter as the source of both.
Monism contrasts with Dualism, the philosophical stance that states that ultimate reality is composed of two different, sometimes opposite, principles (e.g. mind and matter in Cartesian Dualism).
Non-Dualism: the metaphysical and philosophical doctrine, common to many spiritual traditions (e.g. Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta), that states the fundamental underlying unity and lack of any real intrinsic separation or duality between all aspects of existence.
This view challenges the conventional ultimate distinction between self/other, mind/body, observer/observed, and any other dichotomies that shape human thought and perception.
Non-Dualism differs from Monism in its different solution to the problem of the One and the Many, of unity and plurality. While Monism posits a unique first principle as the foundation of all reality, Non-Dualism emphasizes unity amid diversity. However, contrary to the Christian Tri-Une God, non-dual metaphysics relies on an immanent (lesser) plane of existence as the source of multiplicity, with its characteristic impermanence, while transcendence is reserved for pure unity (e.g., Brahman, Emptiness, the Ground or Base of existence, the Tao/Taiji).
Different interpretations of non-duality exist, however, sometimes in conflict with each other. For example, Advaita Vedanta´s goal of identifying each particular soul (Atman) with ultimate reality (Brahman) contrasts with the Buddhist teachings on non-self (Anatta) that emphasize the non-existence of any particular soul or essence while teaching the intrinsic two-sidedness of all phenomena (relative [plurality] and absolute [unity: Emptiness]). Because of this, Non-Dualism has sometimes been labeled as a fuzzy concept for which many definitions can be found.
Ontology: the branch of philosophy that studies being. It studies what types of entities exist, how can they be grouped into categories, and how they relate to each other at the most fundamental level.
Shadow (Jungian Psychology): a concept derived from Jungian Analytical Psychology, it represents the repressed Id, shadow aspect, or shadow archetype of an individual. It is defined as an unconscious aspect of the personality that does not align with the ideal of the conscious ego, therefore being repressed by it and projected into the external world and other persons, usually leading to conflict.
The shadow is the Self’s emotional blind spot, a part of ourselves that our conscious personality does not want to acknowledge and that is experienced as archetypal images born of mankind´s Collective Unconscious (e.g., the trickster figure).
It represents the concept of “evil” in Jungian psychology, and the aim is not to completely reject but to integrate it into the conscious personality, transforming the ego into the Self. This process, as well as Jungian psychology as a whole, follows the alchemical/esoteric principle of the Unity of Opposites.
The One: Neoplatonic name for the highest reality. Defined as an utterly simple, ineffable, unknowable reality that is both the beginning (the Source) and end of everything that exists. All emanated existences come to be through the One´s subsequent emanations: Nous (Intellect) and World-Soul (Psyché).
The One is defined (and conditioned) by its absolute simplicity, and it cannot even be said to exist, being defined by Plato and Plotinus as being beyond being (Book VI of the Republic; The Enneads).
As difference and distinction are not present in the One, in order to return to Its homogeneous unity, any individual existence has to renounce its particular characteristics, understood as being inferior to the One´s absolute simplicity.
- 1Samantabhadra (Ever-Perfect One) or (Tibetan) Kuntuzangpo, Tibet, early 20th century, copper alloy, gilt, paint. Accession number 2011.77. Part of the tantric art exhibit Honored Father-Honored Mother, Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas, USA.
- 2Nollius, Heinrich (1617). Rebis from Theoria Philosophiae Hermeticae.
- 3Lévi, Éliphas (1910). Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Seal of Solomon, in the frontispiece of Volume I.
- 4Lévi, Éliphas (1856). A depiction of the Sabbatic Goat from Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. The arms bear the alchemical concepts SOLVE (dissolve) and COAGULA (coagulate).
