Panaenus A Platonic philosopher in the Alexandrian school of the Philaletheians.

Pandora In Greek Mythology, the first woman on earth, created by Vulcan out of clay to punish Prometheus and counteract his gift to mortals. Each God having made her a present of some virtue, she was made to carry them in a box to Prometheus, who, however, being endowed with foresight, sent her away, changing the gifts into evils. Thus, when his brother Epimetheus saw and married her, when he opened the box, all the evils now afflicting humanity issued from it, and have remained since then in the world.

Pantheist One who identifies God with nature and vice versa. If we have to regard Deity as an infinite and omnipresent Principle, this can hardly be otherwise; nature being thus simply the physical aspect of Deity, or its body.

Parabrahm (Sans.) A Vedantin term meaning "beyond Brahmâ ." The Supreme and the absolute Principle, impersonal and nameless. In the Vedas it is referred to as That.

Paranirvana (Sans.) In the Vedantic philosophy the highest form of Nirvana-beyond the latter.

Parsis or Parsees The present Persian followers of Zoroaster, now settled in India, especially in Bombay and Guzerat; sun and fire worshipers. One of the most intelligent and esteemed communities in the country, generally occupied with commercial pursuits. There are between 50,000 and 60,000 now left in India where they settled some 1,000 years ago.

Personality The teachings of Occultism divide man into three aspects-the divine, the thinking or rational, and the irrational or animal man. For metaphysical purposes also he is considered under a septenary division, or, as it is agreed to express it in Theosophy, he is composed of seven principles, three of which constitute the Higher Triad, and the remaining four the lower Quaternary. It is in the latter that dwells the Personality which embraces all the characteristics, including memory and consciousness, of each physical life in turn. The Individuality is the Higher Ego (Manas) of the Triad considered as a Unity. In other words the Individuality is our imperishable Ego which reincarnates and clothes itself in a new Personality at every new birth.

Phallic Worship or Sex Worship; reverence and adoration shown to those gods and goddesses which, like Shiva and Durga in India, symbolize respectively the two sexes.

Philadelphians Lit., "those who love their brother-man." A sect in the seventeenth century, founded by one Jane Leadly. They objected to all rites, forms, or ceremonies of the Church, and even to the Church itself, but professed to be guided in soul and spirit by an internal Deity, their own Ego or God within them.

Philaletheians See Neo-Platonists.

Philo Judaeus A Hellenized Jew of Alexandria, a famous historian and philosopher of the first century, born about the year 30 bc, and died between the years 45 and 50 ad Philo's symbolism of the Bible is very remarkable. The animals, birds, reptiles, trees, and places mentioned in it are all, it is said, allegories of conditions of the soul, of faculties, dispositions, or passions; the useful plants were allegories of virtues, the noxious of the affections of the unwise and so on through the mineral kingdom; through heaven, earth, and stars; through fountains and rivers, fields and dwellings; through metals, substances, arms, clothes, ornaments, furniture, the body and its parts, the sexes, and our outward condition.

All of which would strongly corroborate the idea that Philo was acquainted with the ancient Cabala.

Philosopher's Stone A term in Alchemy; called also the Powder of Projection, a mysterious principle having the power of transmuting the base metals into pure gold. In Theosophy it symbolizes the transmutation of the lower animal nature of man into the highest divine.

Phren A Pythagorean term denoting what we call the Kama-Manas, still overshadowed by Buddhi-Manas.

Plane From the Latin Planus (level, flat), an extension of space, whether in the physical or metaphysical sense. In Occultism, the range or extent of some state of consciousness, or the state of matter corresponding to the perceptive powers of a particular set of senses or the action of a particular force.

Planetary Spirits Rulers and governors of the Planets. Planetary Gods.

Plastic Used in Occultism in reference to the nature and essence of the astral body, or the "Protean Soul." (See "Plastic Soul" in the Theosophical Glossary.)

Pleroma "Fullness," a gnostic term used also by St. Paul. Divine world or the abode of gods. Universal space divided into metaphysical Aeons.

Plotinus A distinguished Platonic philosopher of the third century, a great practical mystic, renowned for his virtues and learning. He taught a doctrine identical with that of the Vedantins, namely, that the spirit soul emanating from the One Deific Principle was after its pilgrimage on earth reunited to it. (See Theosophical Glossary.)

Porphyry (Porphyrius). His real name was Malek, which led to his being regarded as a Jew. He came from Tyre, and having first studied under Longinus, the eminent philosopher-critic, became the disciple of Plotinus, at Rome. He was a Neo-Platonist and a distinguished writer, specially famous for his controversy with Iamblichus regarding the evils attending the practice of Theurgy, but was, however, finally converted to the views of his opponent. A natural-born mystic he followed, like his master Plotinus, the pure Indian Raja-Yoga system, which, by training, leads to the union of the soul with the oversoul of the universe, and of the human with its divine soul, Buddhi-Manas. He complains, however, that in spite of all his efforts, he reached the highest state of ecstasy only once, and that when he was sixty-eight years of age, while his teacher Plotinus had experienced the supreme bliss six times during his life. (See "Porphyry," in the Theosophical Glossary)

Pot-Amun A Coptic term meaning "one consecrated to the god Amun," the Wisdom-god. The name of an Egyptian priest and occultist under the Ptolemies.

Prajña (Sans.) A term used to designate the "Universal Mind." A synonym of Mahat.

Pralaya (Sans.) Dissolution, the opposite of Manvantara, one being the period of rest and the other of full activity (death and life) of a planet, or of the whole universe.

Prana (Sans.) Life Principle, the breath of life, Nephesh.

Protean Soul A name for Mayavi-Rupa or thought-body, the higher astral form which assumes all forms and every form at the will of an adept's thought. (See "Plastic Soul" in the Theosophical Glossary)

Psychism The word is used now to denote every kind of mental phenomena, e.g., mediumship as well as the higher form of sensitiveness. A newly-coined word.

Purânas (Sans.) Lit., "the ancient," referring to Hindu writings or Scriptures, of which there is a considerable number.

Pythagoras The most famous mystic philosopher, born at Samos about 586 bc, who taught the heliocentric system and reincarnation, the highest mathematics and the highest metaphysics, and who had a school famous throughout the world. (See for fuller particulars, Theosophical Glossary)