New Age Dictionary V

Vagina Dentata: ( Latin, "vaginal teeth") 

Motif in stories throughout North and South America, Siberia, Northern Russia, and Greenland.   Certain women are depicted as having the teeth of a rattlesnake or some other serpent set in their vaginas. They kill men who would have intercourse with them. As a result, these women may collect the deceased men's hunting equipment, but often these women are able to hunt with their toothed vaginas. A culture hero, sometimes acting the role of a young husband, is often involved in breaking and wearing down the vaginal teeth with a wedge or stone penis, so that intercourse does not end in death.

Vairagya: (Sanskrit)

Dispassion; the power of renunciation by which a yogi is able to pursue the true rather than the false, the eternal rather than the ephemeral.

Vaisheshika:

One of the schools (systems) of Indian philosophy

Vaishnavism:

The system of Hindu beliefs and practices that honor Vishnu/Krishna as Supreme God; probably the most widely followed kind of Hinduism. Bhakti yoga is the primary practice of this religion, the final reward of which is eternal communion with God. The most famous of this god's many names are Vishnu, Narayana, Hari, Bhagavan, Krishna, and Rama; hence the usage Vishnu/Krishna.    Vaishnavism's ancient name, Bhagavata ("followers of the Blessed Lord, i.e., Bhagavan"), may clarify its beginnings, for it makes a connection with the movement's two most important literary works: the Bhagavad Gita (first put in print ca. 150 BC) and the Bhagavata Purana (Shrimad Bhagavatam, ca. 850-900). Though the tradition began earlier, two things became clear by about 200 BC: the Bhagavatas related to their god, Krishna, by devotion and accepted the Vedas and Upanishads, the scriptures of Brahmanic Hindu religion. In this process the Brahmanic deities Vishnu and Narayana became identified with Bhagavan Krishna. Thereafter, Krishna has been viewed as an incarnation (avatara) of the Supreme God Vishnu (by South Indian Vaishnavas), and Vishnu has been viewed as a subordinate form of the Supreme God Krishna (by North Indian Vaishnavas).   The Bhagavad Gita is the earliest full statement of the Bhagavata synthesis. Krishna teaches a path of salvation: desire-free performance of one's born duty should be combined with the meditative wisdom of the Upanishads, suffused by and culminating in loving devotion to Krishna. 

Vaishnava: (Sanskrit)

A follower of the Hindu god Vishnu

Vajra: (Sanskrit) 

One of the channels in the astral spine

Vakrasana: (Sanskrit) 

The curved posture

Valentinus:(100-180)

Alexandrian Gnostic poet and author, born in Egypt  Founded a school in Rome c. 140.  He composed hymns, psalms, poems, and letters, of which only fragments survive. The only known writing of his is a mystical sermon, the Gospel of Truth, which describes the search for God and salvation through the Savior who proclaims truth and brings joy and knowledge. Written for initiates, it alludes to but does not discuss fully developed doctrines, leaving it to his many pupils and followers to develop and clarify his original ideas.

Valentinianism:

A Gnostic sect derived from Valentinus,  A form of Christianity that spread throughout the Roman world and continued until the seventh century. Valentinus  Teaching include the idea that the responsibility for the tragedy in the divine world that gave rise to material creation is not attached to any one age. This deliberate ambiguity employed when speaking of the cosmic tragedy was eradicated by subsequent writers such as Irenaeus in his accounts of Valentinus's work. Ptolemy identified two Sophias responsible for the tragedy so as to resolve ambiguities in Valentinus's original teaching. The two schools of Valentinianism, Roman and Alexandrian, took different positions regarding Jesus' true nature. The former asserted that Jesus was united to the Holy Spirit at baptism while the latter held that he was conceived and born spiritually.   Valentinians believed themselves to be pneumatics (spiritual ones). The psychics were ordinary Christians who could rise to the pneumatic level or descend to the lowest level of material existence. Valentinians were also known for their allegorical method of explaining Scripture (Ptolemy wrote to Flora to explain the Hebrew Law;  Herakleon wrote the earliest commentary on the Fourth Gospel). This respected and ancient mode of textual exposition emerged subsequently in the Christian school of Alexandrian exegesis. In Valentinian understanding, the authority for this method was the apostle Paul, who employed this technique in his letters.

Valhalla:

In Norse mythology, the banquet hall where the principal god, Odin, played host to the Einherjar, the souls of warriors who had died a courageous death in battle.  Valhalla was the largest building in Asgard, the heavenly home of the gods, and it constituted one of Asgard's 12 realms. There the Einherjar feasted while awaiting the final battle of the world, Ragnarok. The Einherjar were brought to Valhalla by Odin's warlike maidens, the Valkyries, who were sent out by Odin to gather the souls of heroes as they fell on the battlefields. The name Valhalla is derived from the Old Icelandic term Valholl, meaning "hall of the slain." The Norse vikings were a warrior people, and in their warrior religion, stories of Valhalla played an important role. There was no other "heaven," and warriors who did not die valiantly in battle went to the murky, miserable underworld. And unlike the Christian concept of heaven, Valhalla itself was not a place of eternal reward. 

Valkyrie:  (German) 

In Scandinavian mythology a female power of death who chooses those who are going to die on the battlefield.

Vampire:

1) A person who, for sexual or ritual reasons, drinks the blood of others.  2)  The vampire is  usually believed to be a restless soul of a heretic, criminal or suicide — that refuses to join the ranks of the dead but instead leaves its burial place — in its original body or taking possession of another's corpse — and becomes a bloodsucking creature in order to