Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Cyclops/289

Annotations

tantras     (Sanskrit) A tantra is a Hindu religious text. In Theosophy, tantras are mystical and magical words comprising rituals associated with black magic or sorcery.

etheric double     (Theosophy) In Theosophy, the double, or Astral Body, is the ethereal counterpart or shadow of a man or animal's physical body.

jivic rays     (Theosophy) In Theosophy, jiva refers to Life, as the Absolute. It may also refer to the Monad, the immortal part of man which is reincarnated. The adjectival form jivic appears to be Joyce's own coinage.

prālāyā     (Sanskrit) dissolution. In The Theosophical Glossary, Helen Blavatsky defines Pralaya as: A period of obscuration or repose—planetary, cosmic or universal—the opposite of Manvantara. In the context of Theosophy, pralaya refers to the period between death and reincarnation.

In transliterating Sanskrit terms from Devanagari to Roman script, a macron is placed over a long vowel. There are no long vowels in pralaya; Joyce's macrons here and below (lines 16 and 19) are whimsical.

See also 041.04.

tālāfānā, ālāvātār, hātākāldā, wātāklāsāt     telephone, elevator, hot and cold [plumbing], water closet. The whimsical spellings and macrons parody the Theosophists' predilection for Sanskrit terms. See prālāyā above.

Māyā     (Sanskrit) Illusion. In both Hindu philosophy and Theosophy māyā refers to the idea that the physical world of sense perception is not part of true reality.

In this case, Joyce's whimsical macrons are justified, but it is probably fair to say he would have added them even if they were not.