sacred

adj. holy, worthy of reverence; sanctified, consecrated; pertaining to religion

SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. It was the product of the work of about 50 students, ranging from college freshmen to Ph. D. students, over the course of several years. It was launched, after being postponed several times, onboard a Dnepr on July 26, 2006. The launch was a failure.
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Holiness, or sanctity, is the state of being holy or sacred, that is, set apart for the worship or service of God or gods. It is often ascribed to people, objects, times, or places.
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Adjective
1. concerned with religion or religious purposes; "sacred texts"; "sacred rites"; "sacred music"
(antonym) profane
(similar) ineffable, unnameable, unspeakable, unutterable
(see-also) consecrated, consecrate, dedicated
2. worthy of respect or dedication; "saw motherhood as woman's sacred calling"
(similar) worthy
3. made or declared or believed to be holy; devoted to a deity or some religious ceremony or use; "a consecrated chursh"; "the sacred mosque"; "sacred elephants"; "sacred bread and wine"; "sanctified wine"
(synonym) consecrated, sanctified
(similar) holy
4. worthy of religious veneration; "the sacred name of Jesus"; "Jerusalem's hallowed soil"
(synonym) hallowed
(similar) holy
5. (often followed by `to') devoted exclusively to a single use or purpose or person; "a fund sacred to charity"; "a morning hour sacred to study"; "a private office sacred to the President"
(similar) dedicated

(a.)
Solemnly devoted, in a bad sense, as to evil, vengeance, curse, or the like; accursed; baleful.
  

(a.)
Set apart by solemn religious ceremony; especially, in a good sense, made holy; set apart to religious use; consecrated; not profane or common; as, a sacred place; a sacred day; sacred service.
  

(a.)
Relating to religion, or to the services of religion; not secular; religious; as, sacred history.
  

(a.)
Hence, not to be profaned or violated; inviolable.
  

(a.)
Designated or exalted by a divine sanction; possessing the highest title to obedience, honor, reverence, or veneration; entitled to extreme reverence; venerable.
  

(a.)
Consecrated; dedicated; devoted; -- with to.
  

Animals, Sacred Many ancient peoples have attached great importance to animals in their rituals; and they may have had facts to support their theories. If the hierarchical system of the universe is a reality, it follows that every animal is a feeble representative on its plane of comic potencies that descend from lofty sources. Ceremonial magic, however, may be better suited to one age than to another; so that it may be better to explain than to attempt to reintroduce the ancient practices as to the use of sacred animals in ritual.
It is equally true that such words as lion, bull, and scorpion are often used in occult writings to denote, not the physical animals, but the potencies to which they correspond. Zodiac means the circle of (sacred) animals. As man himself is on this earth the model and storehouse of all forms, those as yet unexpressed as well as those which have already appeared, he had in his own composition the ideal forms and attributes of all the various animals who in eons of past history as stocks were derivatives from him as their superior. See also Zoolatry

Fire Fire has been venerated in all ages as the symbol of spirit as opposed to matter. Its essence or substance is spirit; with essential or substantial air or water -- considered as primordial elements -- it becomes soul; with the further addition of the element earth, it becomes animated bodies because ensouled and enlivened with the attributes and qualities of the preceding more ethereal elements. Great importance was attached in ancient times to keeping alive the sacred fires of hearth and altar. In all this it was recognized that terrestrial fire is the representative of celestial fire, a phase of cosmic consciousness. Deity is often spoken of as the cosmic fire of consciousness.
The ancient conception of fire thus embraced far more than the ordinary view of fire as chemical combustion or one of its phenomena. Among all the older peoples fire was multitudinous in both characteristics and attributes, ranging from divine-spiritual intellectuality through all intermediate stages of its manifestations to the physical heat arising from the burning of material such as wood, or the natural heat of the body. It is for this reason that certain ancient philosophers, such as Heracleitos, spoke of fire as the primordial element of the universe, in close accord with the archaic outlook.
Fire is the active, energic, vitalizing, quickening principle on all planes. It is often paired with water as spirit and form; contrasted with earth, as celestial and terrestrial; air is spoken of as its vehicle, as is also aether, because the root of cosmic aether is the celestial fire.
to be continue "Fire2 "

Sacred Heart In modern times a Roman Catholic cult which uses the heart as a symbol, especially the heart of Jesus, to which they address devotions. From time to time there have been various Christians who have particularly stressed this aspect of their religious views, among them St. Gertrude and St. Francis of Sales (17th century) who gave this symbol to his order as its object. By edict of Pope Pius IX (1856) the day is observed in the general calendar of the Church.
In ancient times the heart was also a sacred symbol, in Egypt associated with Horus, in Babylon, with Bel, while in Greece the lacerated heart was connected with Bacchus. "Its symbol was the persea. The pear-like shape of its fruit, and of its kernel especially, resembles the heart in form. It is sometimes seen on the head of Isis, the mother of Horus, the fruit being cut open and the heart-like kernel exposed to full view" (TG 283).

Sleep, Sacred The sleep of the neophyte when he is thrown into oblivion by magical processes and draughts of soma remaining entranced as through dead for several days while he becomes the receptacle for divine communications from his Augoeides (IU 1:357). What he reveals while in this state is not known to him, nor to anyone but the few adepts privileged to be present. The same thing is referred to by Isaiah, in describing the purification necessary for a prophet: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand . . . and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged" (6:6, 7). The state is in some respects different from the trance of the priestesses of Delphi, exhibited before the multitude.

Soma (Sanskrit) In Hinduism, the moon astronomically; mystically, a sacred beverage of initiates, "made from a rare mountain plant by initiated Brahmans" (TG 304). As the moon, Soma is an occult mystery, for the moon as a symbol stands for both good and evil, yet more often a symbol of evil than of good. Astrologically, Soma is the regent of the invisible or occult moon, while Indu represents the physical moon. "Soma is the mystery god and presides over the mystic and occult nature in man and the Universe" (SD 2:45). Soma or lunar worship was once purely occult and its rites were based upon a minute and profound knowledge of nature.
According to Hindu tradition, Soma as a sacred juice gave mystic visions and trance-revelations, the result of which union was Budha (esoteric wisdom). This sacred beverage was drunk by Brahmins and initiates during their mysteries and sacrificial rites.
"The 'Soma' plant is the asclepias acida, which yields a juice from which that mystic beverage, the Soma drink, is made. Alone the descendants of the Rishis, the Agnihotri (the fire priests) of the great mysteries knew all its powers. But the real property of the true Soma was (and is) to make a new man of the Initiate, after he is reborn, namely once that he begins to live in his astral body . . .; for, his spiritual nature overcoming the physical, he would soon snap it off and part even from that etherealized form. . . .
to be continue "Soma2 "

Spark A scintilla or atom of fire. Fire in its septenary or denary forms exists on all planes, so that we hear of sparks in various senses. Atman is the homogeneous divine spark which radiates in millions of rays, in their aggregate producing the primeval seven. The same idea in more mechanical form is found in Lucretius, who says that all fires come from the one scintilla. Sparks may be worlds, monads, or even atoms, though the word usually means the jiva within the atom. The divine spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread of fohat and journeys through the seven worlds of maya, passing upwards in its evolutionary course through the animate kingdoms. In man it is the monad in conjunction with the aroma of manas, and is called a jiva; it is that which remains from each personality and hangs by a thread from atman. The personalities are like the sparks that dance on moonlit waves -- fleeting reflections of their spiritual prototype.
With the Hebrews, the 'elohim, sparks, and cherubs are the devas, and fires and flames, and the rishis, the rudras and the 49 agnis or fires. In the Chaldean Book of Numbers, the Worker's Hammer strikes sparks from the flint (space), which become worlds. The sparks are the seven wicks of the divine flame. Terrestrial creative and generative fire are created by friction, and this is the analog of the celestial fire latent in, the union of buddhi and manas. to be continue "Spark2 "