DEFINITIONS

Most of the following definitions came from books I have read by, Silver RavenWolf and Scott Cunningham. Again for most of what is written here I took the basic idea from the book and reworded it into an expression that I understood clearly and could explain to others. Some of these definitions may change from tradition to tradition, but most are accurate. Blessings to you on this journey of learning.

Adept: a person who is highly skilled in a particular magickal system

Akashic Records: a giant database with every possible piece of magickal information on it that can be accessed through universal connections

Altar: a flat surface of magickal workings

Amulet: an object that has been magickally charged to deflect negative energies

Ankh: an Egyptian hieroglyph that is the symbol for reincarnation and love

Arcana: two halves of the Tarot deck, split into Major and Minor

Astral: the dimension you travel to when you’re dreaming

Astral Travel: separating your astral body from your physical one so you can travel in the astral plane

Athame: ceremonial knife, double edged, usually black handled… it is never used to cut on the physical plane

Bane: another word for evil or bad

Banish: to magickally put the end to something

Bind: to magickally restrain someone or something

Blood of the Moon: a women’s menstrual cycle

Book of Shadows: a collection of information… a place where you can write your spells, rituals and experiences

Bolline: a curved white handled knife used for practical purposes such as cutting

Burning Times: a reference to a historical time (around 1000 CE) when over nine million people were tortured and burned by the church because it was believed that they were Witches

Cabala: an ancient Hebrew magickal system

Call: invoking the Divine forces

Charkas: the seven major energy vortexes found in the body which are represented through colour… the crown is white, the forehead (third eye position) is purple, the throat is blue, the chest is pink or green, the navel is yellow, the abdomen is orange and the groin is red

The Charge: a story of a message from the Goddess to her children

Charms: an object that has been charmed by saying an incantation over it and instilling it with energy for a specific task

Cleansing: the act of removing negative energy from an object through the use of positive life energies

Consecration: the act of blessing an object with positive energy

Coven: a group of 13 or fewer Witches/Wiccans/Pagans who work together on their magickal endeavours… usually they all follow the same tradition

Dedication: a time when you vow to follow a certain path or religion

Deosil: clockwise movement

Divination: the use of magickal tools with symbols to gather information from the collective unconscious

Dowsing: using a pendulum or stick to find the actual location of a person, place or thing

Drawing Down the Moon: the ritual used during the full moon to empower oneself with a certain deity

Earth Magick: a form of magick wherein the powers and forces of Earth Mother are used to conduct magickal workings

Elder: someone who is highly trained, educated, adept and experienced in his or her craft

Elements: usually four of them, Earth, Air, Fire and Water… but some people count Spirit as the fifth element

Evocation: to call something from within

Familiar: an animal that shares a spiritual bond with you

Fascination: the mental effort of trying to control another person’s mind

Gaea/Gaia: a Greek Goddess which now means Mother Earth

Handfasting: a Wiccan/Pagan marriage ceremony

Invocation: to call something from without

Karma: follows the law of cause and effect… the belief that one’s thoughts and deeds can be counted against you

Macrocosm: the world around us

Microcosm: the world within us

Skyclad: celebrating or doing magickal workings in the nude

Spell: mental or physical energy that is spoken aloud, spoken to oneself or written

Tarot Cards: a deck of 78 cards that have symbols or pictures used to connect the diviner to the collective unconscious

Vision Questing: using astral projection or dreamtime to accomplish a goal

Webweaving: networking

Wheel of the Year: one full cycle of the seasonal year

Widdershins: counter clockwise motion

Working: also called a magickal working…. Using magick to reach a positive desired goal