Alternative Therapy
Also referred to as complementary therapy, these treatments, therapies,
medicines, and beliefs fall outside conventional Western medicine. Examples of
alternatives include Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, meditation, and
massage.
Amulet
A magically empowered object that deflects (sends away) specific, usually
negative, energies.
BCE
"Before the Common Era." Synonymous with BC Refers to dates before the year 1.
Intended as a non-denominational dating system
Book of Shadows
A term coined by Aleister Crowley for a book of rituals, recipes, journal
entries, laws/rules, and other documents important to a witch or coven. Each
Book of Shadows is different as the individual decides what is necessary for
their book
Ceremonial Magick
Magic is a spectrum, from 'village' Witchcraft, with
its herb-growing, off-the-cuff divination by scrying in the washing-up bowl, and
ready cures for ailments from the home-made lotion cupboard, to the
highly-scripted, highly powerful, formal workings of high-magic lodges. In the
nineteenth century, the Cunning Folk read the same books as the lodge-members.
The overlap became less clear in the twentieth century, even though ceremonial
magic was a major force in the birth of modern Pagan Witchcraft, whether through
the direct influence of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, or via more
secret traditions. And don't forget that quite a number of ritual elements and
phrases in Wicca can be traced back to Freemasonry, the higher degrees of which
are also clearly linked to the Mysteries, and were themselves a major factor in
the origin of systems like that of the Golden Dawn.
There is also today a surprising number of Magicians who practise both Witchcraft and Ceremonial Magic. But one does not have to be a Pagan to be a ceremonial Magician: there are many who profess Christianity, or other religions. Ceremonial Magic is a path to the Mysteries, as is Witchcraft, and the Mysteries overlap and transcend all professed religions. Whether from the point of view of the Mysteries or of practical Magic, there is much to be learned from ceremonial magic.
Dion Fortune
Dion Fortune was born Violet Mary Firth in
Llandudno, North Wales on 6th December 1890, the daughter of a solicitor. Her
interest in occultism was sparked when she was working as a psychotherapist
around the time of the First World War. Her first esoteric teacher was Dr.
Theodore Moriarty who specialised in astro-etheric psychological conditions (and
who later provided the inspiration for her series of short stories The Secrets
of Doctor Taverner). Having found her 'path' in the Western Mystery Tradition
she joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1919. Moving to London in
1920, she joined an offshoot branch of the Golden Dawn run by Moina Mathers,
widow of MacGregor Mathers, one of the Golden Dawn's founders. She began to
write articles and stories under the name of Dion Fortune (taken from her family
motto Deo Non Fortuna, 'God not luck'), which were later published in book form
together with the first of many occult textbooks.
Some of her writing enraged Moina Mathers, who felt that Dion Fortune was betraying the secrets of the Order. Dion Fortune became increasingly disillusioned with the Golden Dawn, and after Dr. Moriarty's death in 1921 she set about founding her own esoteric order with a few of Moriarty's students and a few members of the Theosophical Society in London. In 1924 her little group bought an old officers' hut from the army and erected it at the foot of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset. This site, which they named Chalice Orchard, was the first headquarters of the Fraternity of the Inner Light (later re-named the Society of the Inner Light). Soon afterwards they also acquired a house in the Bayswater district of London -- which was big enough for certain members to live in as well as being an established magical lodge. Among those living there were Dion Fortune and her husband Dr. Penry Evans, although they divided their time between London and Glastonbury. The society soon became an initiatory school of high calibre. Working in trance mediumship, Dion Fortune made contacts with certain inner plane adepts, or Masters, whose influence on the Western Esoteric Tradition is still vital to this day.
During the 1930s Dion Fortune wrote several esoteric novels which contain much practical detail which was considered too 'secret' at that time to be published in her articles or textbooks. She also pioneered Qabalah as a key to the Western Mystery Tradition, and her book The Mystical Qabalah is still one of the best texts available on the subject. Her other main work was The Cosmic Doctrine, which was received mediumistically and originally reserved for initiates only. Its text is abstract and difficult to follow, and is intended for meditation rather than as a straight textbook.
During the Second World War she organised her own contribution to the war effort on a magical level -- this project is now published as The Magical Battle of Britain. The Society of the Inner Light continued to operate its lodge at 3 Queensborough Terrace in the midst of the Blitz, and even when the house was damaged by bombs the disruption was minimal.
In early January 1946 Dion Fortune returned from Glastonbury feeling tired and unwell and was admitted to Middlesex Hospital in London. The illness was leukaemia, and she died a few days later, aged 55. She is buried at Glastonbury. Her last novel, Moon Magic, was unfinished at her death; the last section was allegedly channelled by her through one of the society's mediums.
The Society of the Inner Light continued largely unchanged for many years after Dion Fortune's death. In 1960 the headquarters moved to 38 Steele's Road, London NW3 4RG. It continues today as an initiatory school with much the same principles as those in which it was originally founded.
Elementals
Nature-spirits or sprites. Every race of men on earth has believed in
these hosts of elemental entities -- some visible, like men, like the beasts,
like the animate plants; and others invisible. The invisible entities have been
called by various names: fairies, sprites, hobgoblins, elves, brownies, pixies,
nixies, leprechauns, trolls, kobolds, goblins, banshees, fawns, devs, jinn,
satyrs, and so forth. The medieval mystics taught that these elemental beings
were of four general kinds: those arising in and frequenting the element of fire
-- salamanders; those arising in and frequenting the element air -- sylphs;
those arising in and frequenting the element water -- undines; those arising in
and frequenting the element earth -- gnomes.
Esoteric
(Greek "esoterikos", "inner") beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding;
hidden or inner knowledge reserved for initiates.
Golden Bough
A monumental study in comparative folklore, magic and religion,
The Golden Bough shows parallels between the rites and beliefs, superstitions
and taboos of early cultures and those of Christianity. It had a great impact on
psychology and literature and remains an early classic anthropological resource.
Click to access an ecopy
Heka
Heka is an abstract Name, embodying the concept that there is power in the
spoken word - power which can be used for good or ill. While sometimes Heka is
simply translated into English as "magic," Heka is more than a "magic word" or a
"spell" - He is a lasting reminder of the responsibility to keep one's speech in
accordance with Ma'at. Anyone who has spoken an unkind word can attest to the
power speech has to change our lives; and Heka as embodied in the Ren, or name,
is a personal force in Kemetic culture - to speak of a thing is to cause it to
exist. Kemet's entire funerary industry may derive directly from this concept of
"meaningful speech," as to continue to repeat a person's name was to render them
immortal - so long as your name was known, you could not die. When depicted,
Heka is shown standing in the prow of Ra's Boat of Millions of Years along with
Hu (Authoritative Utterance/Command) and Sia (Perception).
Horus
The Egyptian day-god, represented in hieroglyphics by a
sparrow-hawk, which bird was sacred to him. He was son of Osiris and Isis, but
his birth being premature he was weak in the lower limbs. As a child he is seen
carried in his mother's arms, wearing the pschent or atf, and seated on a
lotus-flower with his finger on his lips. As an adult he is represented
hawk-headed. (Egyptian, har or hor, "the day" or "sun's path.") Strictly
speaking, Horus is the rising sun, Ra the noonday sun, and Osiris the setting
sun
Magick
Why spell magick with a k? This was started by Aleister Crowley to differentiate
between what Ill call fairground magic (the pulling rabbits out of a hat sort of
stuff) and magick in the context of spiritual development / as a religion / as a
part of paganism. There is, however, a school of thought that argues that the
spelling magic should be used in order to reclaim the word
Meditation
Although meditation is most often associated with Eastern practices such as
Buddhism, every spiritual practice has similar techniques for the purpose of
gaining insight, assessing and managing life processes (physiological, mental,
emotional, spiritual), enhancing performance or to just plain relax. These
techniques include specific postures and/or activities such as sitting or
walking, conscious breathing, observing thoughts and emotions, in order to
attain calm, contentment, resolution or realization
Moot
One dictionary definition is an ancient English meeting, especially a
representative meeting of the freemen of a shire. Today it is often used to
describe a pagan get together - either for a social occasion or, more in keeping
with the meaning of moot, to discuss or debate
- Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences, agencies, or phenomena.
- Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable.
- Available only to the initiate; secret: occult lore.
- Hidden from view; concealed.
Psychic Attack
An assault upon your aura, without your conscious permission, by another person,
place, thing or group. It will leave you feeling open, exposed, vulnerable and
sometimes, a sense of danger and an anxiety or panic attack
Ritual
An occasion when an individual or a group uses traditional practices in order to
focus energy for an identified purpose, such as healing, transformation,
empowerment, protection, celebration, etc. The basic elements of a ritual are:
grounding and purifying; casting the Circle; invocation of the Directions;
invocation of the Deity (or Deities); Magical working; sharing food and drink;
and opening the Circle
Sekhmet
the ancient Egyptian lioness goddess of war and destruction, Sekhmet was
depicted as a woman in red with the head of a lioness with the solar disk and
the uraeus on her head; the wife and sister of Ptah, Sekhmet was born out of the
fire of Re’s eye.
-
a prayer, or verbal direction of magickal energies toward the accomplishment of some goal
-
A form of low magic which often employs herbs, stones, candles, common household objects, the written or spoken word, plus various other items.
Spiritualism
Spiritism or spiritualism is the belief that the human personality survives
death and can communicate with the living through a sensitive medium. The
spiritualist movement began in 1848 in upstate New York with the Fox sisters who
claimed that spirits communicated with them by rapping on tables
Visualisation
A way of becoming relaxed, involving seeing an image in your mind and altering
it as you wish.
Wicca
A polytheistic Neo-Pagan nature religion inspired by various pre-Christian
western European beliefs, whose central deity is a mother goddess and which
includes the use of herbal magic and benign witchcraft.
Witchcraft
The practice of spells and magick, often involving the worship of many deities
or a supreme God and/or Goddess.