Dr. Richard Kirby
The New Dictionary of Civilization
By Dr. Richard Kirby , Feb 25, 1999

The New Dictionary of Civilization is a reference book of new words and phrases that enlarge the ability of students, teachers and practioners of civilization building to do their work with an enriched vocabulary and frame of reference. A sampling of words and phases are listed below, as an invitation to submit entries.

The first listing was drawn up January 27, 1999, consisting largely of contributions and coinages by Dr. Thomas Daffern, Director, International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy. Please direct additional suggestions and feedback to Dro Daffern or Dr. Kirby using our contact form.

For proper publishing negotiations over the projected Dictionary, please contact:
Dr. Thomas C. Daffern, Director
Int'l Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy
4 Woollas Hill, Worcestershire
England, U.K. WR10 3DN
Tel/Fax: +44 01386 750965

SAMPLE WORD LIST

Academic Mollour

Academic Teneritas

Apocalypso

Camenae

Comhumanist Party

Enlovement

Epochee

Hologamy

Muse

Noetic History

Noetic Recoverings

Pratyeka Messiah

Socratic Hadith

Universal Termas

Who We ?

Wisdom Services

Wyrk


HOLOGAMY - noun - "a holistic relationship/plane" (from holos - Greek for whole, and gamos - Greek for marriage) meaning a soul partnership, a sexual union, which is based on the fulfilment of the entire spectrum of human nature, from physical union through emotional compatibility, to mental attunement, and finally through to spiritual interconnectedness - this new noun added to the English language in 1997 is used in some circles to denote a striving after a more fulfilling model of relationships than the conventional types of gamos on offer (monogamy, polygamy) or other strategies often adopted by spiritual seekers (celibacy, or at the opposite end of the spectrum, promiscuity). Hologamy is a state entered into freely and willingly by fully awakened souls seeking to complete their enlightenment process on the planet in this lifetime, yet who are not abstaining from active engagement with human life in the ordinary sense, including relationships and sexuality, but rather are actively exploring sacred relationship as a path and practice of spiritual fulfilment and enlightenment (Coined by Dr Thomas Daffern).


ENLOVEMENT - The state of being truly "in love" as a sustained practice of consciousness raising, bringing the energies of mind to rest in the awakened heart of love - it is a bhaktic equivalent to the more jnanic concept of "enlightenment" which in Buddhist and other idealistic and rmentalistic traditions essentially defines "enlightenment" as a mental state achieved by "thinking things through so as to perceive the illusory nature of the distinctions of form and emptiness, and to grasp clearly the one substratum out of which both are formed" - ENLOVEMENT is itself defined as the highest goal of human aspiration, a state or condition of continual bliss and joy and happiness; it is the state of being which has both object and subject held in perpetual harmonious union, a field of energy which, like space, is totally receptive and giving simultaneously, which is infinitely big and infinitely small; it is the state Socrates referred to when asked "had he ever been in love" and to which he replied, "My dear friend, there has never been a time I have not been in love" (Coined by Dr Thomas Daffern).


SOCRATIC HADITH - the unwritten sayings of the philosopher; still to be compiled from various sources (Coined by Dr Thomas Daffern).


MUSE - the object of veneration of all true academics; Plato's Academy was dedicated to their worship. Traditionally there are 9 of them, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania, each of them covering a different branch of learning and knowledge. They deserve to be brought back as the guardian inspirers and goddesses of all learning, arts and sciences. The word is related to Myein, meaning to become initiated, to be silent, to become silence, stilled, at peace. True inner initiation arises from a profound experience on inner peace, and only in this space can one hear the Muses. The represent the voice of he inner conscience, which manifests out as creative achievement and expression. traditionally female, Muses nowadays can be either female or male depending on one's own spiritual orientation, although it is best to memorise the names of the original nine. Their mother was Mnemosyne, memory, and their father Zeus. This represents the coming together of the dark unconscious mind, the feminine depths of memory and storehouse consciousness, with the fertilising light principle of Zeus, the creative act of intellect, which Aristotle called "active intellect". From their union comes the whole range of all that can be known or studied or taught or discovered, as a manifestation of primal beauty. (revived in contemporary academic usage by Dr Thomas Daffern).


CAMENAE - the equivalents to the Muses in Ancient Rome; they instructed Numa Pompilius in his introduction of religious knowledge to the Roman; they were associated with streams, springs, lakes. In Rome their favoured location was the spring near the porta Capena, where the Vestal Virgins drew water. Their leader was Carmenta, who sang about the fate and destiny of a child at its birth. Eggeria was another famous Camenae. They were also known as the Carmena, Carmentes and Casmena. The name Carmen is related to this. The Camenae had prophetic powers, and represented the spiritual power of womankind as a divine being, as a bridge between the material world and the spiritual worlds. Eggeria advised Numa Pompilius, 2nd King of Rome, in his institution of the priesthood of Mars, 12 specially chosen Priests, the Salii, or sacred dancers, who had as their duty the guarding of the ancilla or sacred shields. It came abut in this way: as Numa was invoking Jupiter's guidance for Rome, with Eggeria besides him, a Bronze shield (ancilla) miraculously manifested out of the air. Eggeria predicted that wherever the sacred shields were duly protected and preserved, the people of that place would have rule over the whole earth. Whereupon Numa made another 12 shields exactly like it, and gave it to the Salii fro protection, and twice a year the sacred shields were born through the city on ceremonial procession. Originally however the God Mars was a fertility deity, not a God of War, but a God of energy and vitality and male "oomph" ! Likewise, Egeria's prophecy can be interpreted as indicating that whoever preserves and safeguards the sacredness of life itself, which is the function of the shield, that people who have an authentic communion with the true power of the power energy, in the sense of self mastery and wisdom, not in the sense of lording it over other people, but rather in the sense of being able to feel compassion and sympathy for all beings on this earth plane, for rule over implies responsibility for implies justice and mercy. Lao interesting is the way that the Shield came to be central to the Grail Knights of King Arthur and the whole chivalrous and heraldic traditions of the middle ages. Likewise in academic institutions, each college or university has its own shield. There are many other vital legends and stories concerning the Camenae - which are in the process of being reassessed by scholars. (revived in contemporary academic usage by Dr Thomas Daffern).


NOETIC HISTORY - the history of the mind, also referred to as intellectual history, or the history of ideas; Noetic history seeks to place the history of ideas in the wider context of the spiritual nature of mankind in general, seeking an integrated approach to history which includes all other aspect of historiography, such as political , economic, psychological, religious etc. but which does not necessary foreclose on the question of causative priority, seeking rather an integrated and wholistic perspective which integrates all levels of historical analysis, as yet unattained in a collective sense of humanity. (activated in contemporary academic usage by Dr Thomas Daffern).


COMHUMANIST PARTY - otherwise known as the Invisible College of True Rosicrucians, the leading edge of the revolution; the vanguard of human progress; the Knights of the Geist (pronounced "Jest") etc. A party without borders, without structure, without the craving for power, yet which is all powerful - it is a mixture of Communist and Humanist - meaning actually the party which is with humanity, on the side of all human beings. It cannot exist in the formal outer sense of being an organised political party due to current earth conditions. It would speak for the universal species essence as Marx defined from Feuerbach the innermost spiritual quality within us all. Unfortunately all parties and factions and power interests which speak from a lesser place, which seek to advance their own separate issues, be they tribal or nationalist or class based, or religiously inspired, or doctrinal or ethnicist or whatever, would naturally oppose this party, which is why it remains a secret organisation. .(coined for contemporary academic usage by Dr Thomas Daffern).


EPOCHEE - (noun) the practice of epoche as advocated by Husserl and traditional academic scepticism, practised with the finesse of a fencer, using a rapier instead of a razor, updating Ockham for the next Millennium. Intellectuals like to fence with contrary styles of epochee ! (coined by Thomas Daffern after the Greek epoche)


ACADEMIC MOLLOUR - the balance to academic rigour - which is much vaunted in academic circles, to indicate that one is a really tough and hard and practical and real world thinker.... rigour denotes hardness, from the Latin word for hard - but it is also used in rigor mortis - meaning the hardness which comes with death. Too many academics have developed a sort of hardening or rigorisation of the intellectual pathways - so that they cannot see the interconnectedness of all knowledge anymore - and so that they have blocked up their spiritual link with the Great Holy Spirit of the Goddess of Wisdom - and those practising academic rigor would not doubt dismiss the Goddess of Wisdom as a mere projection or epiphenomenon of their paycheque or the chemicals in their brain... however, as Boethius maintained, and King Alfred and many others before an since - Sophia actually is a real living spiritual energy, best typified or experienced as a Goddess; and her worship demands the most profound abilities of mind and intellectual achievement which all the main philosophers and scientists and logicians could ever possibly achieve or practice - but conducted in an overall context not of hardness, competition, violence, aggression, insensitivity, bullying, fear and all the other tricks and games which the modern male academic tends to practice - but rather in a spirit of surrendering all our hardness, our steel and diamond hard qualities to the service of the greater softness, to the more feminine form of Wisdom... since the feminine form is more traditionally associated with softness, with roundedness, even with voluptuousness, so too the academics of the 3rd millennium, will need to practice ACADEMIC MOLLOUR in honour her fully... The word is from Latin Mollor meaning softness, and mollio, to make soft... It is worth observing however hat too much academic mollour without academic rigour can also be debilitating, confusing, cause hallucinations and all kinds of strange experiences - the ideal is to get the right balance of mollour and rigour, since after all, both male and female, hard and soft qualities, are needed in the practice of perfect enlovement (coined by Thomas Daffern)


ACADEMIC TENERITAS - another version of the above idea, to show that there is greater variety and possibilities in cultivating the path of softness and yielding quality of yin consciousness than in the hard path which led us away from Eden....Only TENERITAS will take us back to the realisation that we have never in fact left Eden, but simply failed to realise we were there still all along. TENERITAS also has the added linkage to the word "temerity" meaning bold, courageous, without fear, even foolish and rash perchance.. to practice academic teneritas in today's climate can be sometimes to be a little Quixotic - but it has to be done. Secretly, it means to be part of the academic SAS team, the Knights of the Geist


WISDOM SERVICES- this is a higher version and form of the intelligence services - it is operative wherever true philosophers gather and discuss the affairs of the world; to become a wisdom operative one must have combined academic rigour and academic mollour; achieved or be close to achieving enlovement; have accessed the species essence; and have a living daily practice of devotion to the 9 Muses and the Goddess of wisdom. It will bring access to secrets and mysteries not normally known except to the saints an sages of previous eras, combined with access to information and problems and challenges only available to senior CIA or MI5 operatives - but with the difference that one is sworn to observing karmic laws of absolute compassion and love and the service of wisdom - above one's service to all outer governance structures or political regimes; that one services wisdom directly with all the fruits of one's knowledge. Historically, a number of key thinkers and saints can be said to have worked for the collective wisdom services of planetary history - they would include among many others Harun al Rashid, Jafar as Sadiq; Dr John Dee; Anthony and Lord Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson...


NOETIC RECOVERINGS - a process whereby ancient texts or archaeological discoveries, which can shed light on the intellectual and spiritual history of humanity, are retrieved in the contemporary era; the Nag Hammadi Manuscripts, or the Dead Sea Scrolls, would count as such (coined by Thomas Daffern)


UNIVERSAL TERMAS - Termas are advanced spiritual teachings according to the Tibetan Buddhist which have been left at different times in world history by great spiritual teachers such as Padmasambhava for the benefit of all sentient beings, which have been concealed for the discovery by future ages; Termas can be either actual texts, or oral transmissions, or even mind energy streams which a devotee can pick up on in a sacred space or state of mind; Noetic TERMAS are similar teachings which are universal in their origin and orientation and which do not adhere exclusively to Tibetan Buddhist teachings, but which rather arise from al the great philosophical and spiritual teachers of planetary history; they can be contacted in varying degrees of depth and intensity by anyone who has a serious bent on discovering wisdom (as Christ said, "Seek and you shall find"). (coined by Thomas Daffern)


PRATYEKA MESSIAH - a term combining Buddhist, Jewish and Christian thought - referring to the unknown Messiahs of world history, similar to the legend of the 10 just men who sustain the world, or the hidden Qutub of Sufism and Islam; one of the sayings connected with this is the traditional Jewish saying: "The Messiah will only come when he is no longer necessary" - meaning, we have to get on with the work ourselves (as Krishnamurti, and many other Messiahs are always at pains to point out) Thus, the PRATYEKA Messiah is a term used to denote the innermost spiritual attainments of universal consciousness and enlovement which each one of us can access within ourselves, with sufficient discipline and guidance and perseverance, yet which due to chaotic and ridiculous economic and political situation in the world, cannot be publicly expressed or shared for the time being; it also equates to the Hidden Imam of Shiite thought. (coined by Thomas Daffern)


APOCALYPSO - the positive apocalypse of life affirming rather than life denying spirituality - it is a term for the great party at the end of time (ie. fulfillment of time) - it means literally the unveiling of the beauty of the Goddess, as in the nymph Calypso who kept Odysseus on her island for 7 years in perfect bliss and happiness. Thus it stands for the attainment of the isles of the blessed, the isle of Avalon etc. which only exists so to speak on the inner planes. the great Apocalypse of the world can only happen when enough people have awoken their genuine spiritual perceptive faculties to see the interconnectedness of heaven and earth - that this earth plane (samsara) literally is heaven (nirvana) already - all we have to do is to stop fouling it up and learn to practice deep wu wei and enlovement (coined by Thomas Daffern)


WHO WE ? The Western spelling of Wu Wei, meaning Not Doing, the apex of Zen Buddhist practice for enlightenment - in its Western spelling it means, well, here we still all are after, after pacticing not doing for a long time,. so maybe we could do some work together and get on with it - WHO WE ? meaning - lets do it together ! This phrase carries resonance with the saying of Rabbi Hillel - If not now, when - if not us, who ? (coined by Thomas Daffern)


WYRK - the combination of the Anglo Saxon term for destiny or fate or karma (wyrd) and labour energy expenditure. Wyrk means spiritually and karmically satisfying work. This is the only possible philosophical remedy to unemployment - and can include play as well as repetitive labour tasks performed under duress. Anything that we do which is fulfilling our own self unfoldment on the road to enlovement, and which simultaneously liberates, encourages, inspires, helps, enlightens others - all this is WYRK. It may or many not be rewarded in traditional monetary ways (coined by Thomas Daffern)