The Magician's Dictionary. Edward E. Rehmus

      For Crowley, the Atu is the “Death” of The Son, or His sacrifice, which in our terms, is His birth into this life.

      DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS — (Mors Justi.) Death in union with orgasm — since the orgasm is the affirmation of the body and death is the rejection of the body, exact simultaneity is difficult. One will generally precede the other.

      DEATH POSTURE — Austin Osman Spare’s (auto-erotic) trance-state, in the Zos Kia Cultus, for receiving the divine mudra of Daäth, in which, says Grant, “the world of appearances ceases and its noumenal source is revealed.” Normally this can happen only at the point of physical death itself.

      DEATH STAR — (Sitra Achara.) Another term for “Universe B.” Dr. Philip S. Berg in The Power of Aleph Beth informs us that the force of darkness constantly seeks to destroy Creation. Evil, for the Qabalist, is a necessity without which the Universe would revert to its former condition “which allowed no relief from the burden of ‘Bread of Shame.’”

      DELPHI — A project amongst some hi-IQ groups or bodies of experts, involving many “consultants” and based on stochastical principles to obtain a consensual or “average” response to any given question.

      DELUSIONAL SELF — The ultimate confusion of psychedelic psychosis results in extreme terror because one becomes lost in an abyss of meaningful connections. The conscious mind spends most of its time keeping the contents of the chaotic cosmos from overwhelming it. In order to do this it creates a delusional self, an anchor of “pretended” reality with roots in the past and continuity through the present time. When the delusional self is dissolved by the mystical experience, or by physical shock (such as imminent death), the mind explodes into an uncontrollable paroxysm (or orgasm) of omniscience.

      DEOSIL — Clockwise, to the right, in the direction of the sun. This is the direction of God, so deosil operations are positive and powerful. (See WIDDERSHINS.)

      DEVACHAN — The Land where the Gods are Reborn. Life’s threshold, located between the manvantaras and between earth-lives. The higher realm above the astral (Skt. & Tibetan deva, “light” + chan, “dwelling place”). Madame Blavatsky, in writing of the realm of Devachan and the “wheatfields of Aanroo” is careful to point out that Manas splits here, after death, between the higher and lower minds. Only the higher mind remains. The lower, sense-directed mind goes with the kama-rupa to the “Abode of Shells,” or the place of the Hebrew Qliphoth. Our “I” or “atman” (with small a) rejoins that spiritual part of itself that is not incarnated, and as “Atman” (large A), it proceeds on through the aionic planets. According to HPB, in Devachan we relive the totality of our past lives and re-experience our “enduring selfhood,” We relive the trans-personal “I” which our labors, filtered through numberless incarnations, have made of the monadic essence we originally introduced into form. The visualized solar system is the materialistic waste of an as-above-so-below operation. Hence all archetypes and ideas ultimately surface to the material world. Here we blueprint all the evolutions and involutions. (“Not the One in many, but the oneness of the Many.”) Rulers of these archetype-beings then along with their human evolution make up the Dhyan-Choans, gods or “contemplative lords.”

      There are rare beings who sacrifice their rest, Devachan or Nirvana to remain earthbound in continual rebirth out of compassion for mankind. Animals, though their astral bodies possess some temporary survival potential, have no ego-manas, hence no Devachan. The animal monad can reincarnate only as a higher species. By the same token, HPB states (Secret Doctrine), “Eastern philosophy rejects the Western theological dogma of a newly-created soul for every baby born, as being as unphilosophical as it is impossible in the economy of nature. There must be a limited number of monads growing...”

      Prior to Zoroaster and the Fourth, or present, Race, there was no Devachan, but only rebirth, phoenix-like out of the ashes of the previous body. Xtianity teaches the doctrine of the Old Third Race in which there is no higher Manas and the human monad does not reincarnate until the Second Coming.

      In orthodox Christianity there is no rebirth — only literal resurrection on the Day of Judgment with Christ’s return. (This opening of graves does not accompany the return of Zoroaster, Kalki or the Maitreya Buddha. Also, unlike the Theosophical version of the hereafter, there is no comparable split of spirit from soul in orthodox Christianity. Reincarnation is a Gnostic or Neoplatonic heresy.

      DEVIL, THE — The 15th Arcanum, lettered Ayin. Connects Hod (Knowledge) and Tiphareth (Beauty). It is clearly the pathway of error. The Devil is always illusion, delusion and disillusion. The material world is illusion. Only spirit is real and eternal. As we operate best from a position of confidence, the Devil is the opposite position of doubt. Thus, for the true initiate, the temptations of the Devil are not difficult to resist. In divination, The Devil is the actual source of the problem, which may or may not be hidden from the conscious mind.