Words Flashcards
Akasha
The fifth element, the omnipresent spiritual power that permeates the universe. It is the energy out of which the elements formed.
Amulet
a magically charged object that deflects specific, usually negative energies. Generally, a protective object.
Asperger
a bundle of fresh herbs or a perforated object used to sprinkle water during or preceding ritual, for purification purposes.
Athame
a Wiccan ritual knife. It usually has a double-edged blade and a black handle. The athame is used to direct personal power during ritual workings. It is seldom (if ever) used for actual, physical cutting. Sometimes called the Magic
Balefire
a fire lit for magical purposes, usually outdoors.
Bane
that which destroys life, which is poisonous, destructive, evil, dangerous.
Beltane
Beltane is a Wiccan festival that celebrates the symbolic union, mat-ing, or marriage of the Goddess and God, and links in with the approaching summer months.
Besom
Broom
Bolline
the white-handled knife, used in magic and Wiccan ritual for practical purposes such as cutting herbs or piercing a pomegranate.
Book of Shadows
a Wiccan book of rituals, spells, and magical lore. Once hand copied upon initiation, the Book of Shadows is now photocopied or typed in some covens. No one “true” Book of Shadows exists; all are relevant to their respective users.
Censer
a heat-proof container in which incense is smoldered. An incense burner. It symbolizes the element of air.
To Charge
to infuse an object with personal power. “Charging” is an act of magic.
Conscious Mind
the analytical, materially based, rational half of our consciousness. The mind at work when we compute our taxes, theorize, or struggle with ideas.
Corn Dolly
a figure, often human-shaped, created by plaiting dried wheat or other grains. It represented the fertility of the earth and the Goddess in early European agricultural rituals and is still used in Wicca.
Coven
a group of Wiccans, usually initiatory, and led by one or two leaders.
The Craft
Wicca. Witchcraft. Folk magic.
The Days of Power
Sabbats
Deosil
clockwise, the direction of the sun’s apparent motion in the sky. In Northern Hemisphere magic and religion, deosil movement is symbolic of life, positive energies, the “good.” It is much-used in spells and rituals; i.e., “walk deosil around the circle of stones.”
Divination
the magical art of discovering the unknown by interpreting random patterns or symbols through the use of tools such as clouds, tarot cards, flames, and smoke. Divination contacts the psychic mind by tricking or drowsing the conscious mind through ritual and observation or through manipulation of tools.
Divine Power
the unmanifested, pure energy that exists within the Goddess and God. The life force, the ultimate source of all things.
Earth Power
the energy that exists within stones, herbs, flames, wind, and other natural objects. It is manifested divine power and can be utilized during magic to create needed change.
the Elements
earth, air, fire, and water. These four essences are the building blocks of the universe. Everything that exists (or that has potential to exist) contains one or more of these energies. The elements hum within ourselves and are also “at large” in the world. They can be utilized to cause change through magic.
Esbat
a Wiccan ritual, usually occurring on the full moon.
Evocation
calling up spirits or other nonphysical entities, either to visible appearance or invisible attendance.
Grimoire
a magical workbook containing ritual information, formulae, magical properties of natural objects, and preparation of ritual equipment.Many of these works include “catalogs of spirits.”
Handfasting
a Wiccan, pagan, or Gypsy wedding.
Imbolc
a Wiccan festival that celebrates the first stirrings of spring and the recovery of the Goddess from giving birth to the sun (the God) at Yule.
Initiation
a process whereby an individual is introduced or admitted into a group, interest, skill, or religion. Initiations may be ritual occasions but can also occur spontaneously.
Invocation
an appeal or petition to a higher power (or powers), such as the Goddess and God. A prayer. Invocation is actually a method of establishing conscious ties with those aspects of the Goddess and God that dwell within us. In essence, then, we seemingly cause them to appear or make themselves known by becoming aware of them.
Kahuna
a practitioner of the old Hawaiian philosophical, scientific, and magical system.