twilight language

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Calque of Sanskrit सांध्याभाषा (sāṃdhyābhāṣā).

Noun[edit]

twilight language (countable and uncountable, plural twilight languages)

  1. A secret communication system, involving verbal, nonvisual, or visual symbols, associated with tantric traditions in Vajrayana Buddhism and Hinduism.
    • 1987, Laeh Maggie Garfield, Sound Medicine, Berkeley, C.A.: Celestial Arts, →ISBN, page 45:
      Therefore, when you hear your song for the first time and it seems to be nothing more than babble, do not dismiss it. For the words, should you receive them immediately, will not be in Chinese, Spanish, Sanskrit or any ancient earthly tongue. They will be in one of a multitude of twilight languages, which seep through the gate that leads from the Realm of Creation to the Physical Realm and vice versa.
    • 2012 April 12, Steven Heller, “The Secret History of Secret Societies”, in The Atlantic[1], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-27:
      One of the leading subjects of his research, conspiracy theorist James Shelby Downard, proposed a scenario about the JFK assassination that contained a fascinating speculation about the importance of Freemasonic "twilight language" (double and triple meanings, numerology, and onomatology).
    • 2013, Michael Cecchetelli, The Holy Guardian Angel: On the Practice and Experience of the Holy Guardian Angel, Nephilim Press, →ISBN, page 44:
      Ancient rituals were pulled from Middle Eastern caves, translated from the native language and its alleged twilight language, and the name of a forgotten Pharaoh Osar Onophris comes to us now in the phrase, "Myself made Perfect."

Further reading[edit]