mani

Mani may refer to:Mani (prophet), a third-century founder of  Manichaeism.Mani (name), a Persian and Indian masculine personal nameMani, short for the mantra of Avalokiteshvara, Om mani padme hum, another name for a prayer wheel used for prayers in Tibetan BuddhismMani stone, stone inscribed with mantras, used for prayer in Tibetan BuddhismMani Rimbdu, a Nepalese festival, see Culture of NepalMani (god), a god of the moon in Norse mythologyMani people, a Negrito ethnic group from Thailand
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In Norse mythology, Máni was the god of the moon and a son of Mundilfari and Glaur. Máni pulled the moon through the sky every night, pursued by the wolf, Hati. At Ragnarok, Hati catches up to Mani, trying to consume it as one of the tragedies of Ragnarok.The Old Norse word máni is the everyday word for "moon".
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n. hand, deal, game, side, fist, coat, lead

n. obstacle, hindrance, impediment, crimp, disincentive, slashing

[Norse] In Norse myth, Mani is the personification of the moon, son of Mundilfari and brother of Sol, the sun. At night he rides a chariot pulled by horses through the sky, and determines its waxing and waning. Mani is chased by the wolf Hati ("hate"). Whenever the wolf managed to catch the moon, a lunar eclipse would take place. This caused great consternation, and by making a lot of noise people tried to scare the wolf away. A man named Vidfinn had two children named Hjuki and Bil. He sent them to the well Byrgir to fetch a cask of water. When Mani saw the two children he took them away with him to the moon. The two children, together with their cask and pole, can be seen on the face of the moon (the moon spots).

Manichaeans A sect which originated in the 3rd century in Persia and rapidly diffused itself in Mesopotamia and beyond the Oxus, lasting under one or another form down to the 13th century. Its founder was Mani, said to have been a Persian, whose name in Greek became Manes or Manichaios. Little can be ascertained about him, but he is said to have been a natural mystic, conscious of a mission, and endowed with the breadth of view and concentrated zeal characteristic of the founders of systems. He successfully amalgamated the religious, philosophical, and mystical ideas of his time and surrounding countries into a coherent system adapted to the tastes of the age.
The salient feature of Manichaeism is its uncompromising dualism, for it recognized a world of light and a world of darkness as eternally coeval; and there is a God of light opposed to a hostile Satan. Teachings of the esoteric gnosis as taught by Neoplatonists, Gnostics, and others were materialized, and both doctrine and ritual assumed forms less exacting and therefore better calculated for perpetuation in an age of increasing materialism. It showed little affinity for Christianity or facility for combination with it, and Manichaeism and Christianity may be regarded as Oriental and Occidental products of the same materializing influence transforming and adapting the original gnosis. It has more affinity with Gnostic than with ecclesiastical Christianity, for there was a large amount of truly esoteric thought and teaching in what for centuries passed under the name of Manichaeism.