^..thank you for that helpful glossary Rising Spirit..!

i like your definition of Maya..'As if dreaming or as if appearing within a subjective mirage.' ..which leads to my next point..

..well, as Jin says, yes!..your description of the majesty of the creation, spinning its web is to me the sum of Maya (of whom Adi Shankaracharya said was 'most wonderful' ) ..the absolute, in both Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism has no form or attributes..but Maya is what we mostly experience..it brings us joy and tears..

Adya (the original shakti, projected from the absolute)

..in beholding and contemplating the many forms of the Devi (great goddess) one comes to see all of them as one..and becomes at one with the Devi, mind purified, personal agenda dissolved..seeing the the creation..the means of the three gunas (creation, preservation, destruction)

..the Devi, i think, is the furthest one can go with senses and mind..beyond that is the unfathomable..that which cannot be conceived..the absolute..

..Adya is nature..the universe.."when She merges again with the absolute, the universe dissolves" (R. E. Svoboda)

to become at one with Adya is far as knowledge can go..for in the old Shakta works, she is Vidya, knowledge..

..Maya (a form, or multitude) is wonderful, because she inspires me to meditate and dance, and become closer to the absolute Brahman..Shaktism, the tantric path (in the true sense of tantra, not the californian)..

in the Shiva/Parvati dynamic schools, both are one..

i concur with the absolute Advaita of the Upanishads and Shankaracharya, and the middle way of Buddha..

i also celebrate this great illusion called life..

.

Jai Ma !