A Practical Guide To Witchcraft And Magic Spells Part 24

Medicine Wheel: A concept central to all Native American magick. The wheels link the celestial, human and natural cycles. Also known as the Circle of Power.

Morphic resonance: The spreading of goodwill and positivity, through magick and good deeds, to increase the benign energies of the Earth and cosmos.

Mother G.o.ddess: The giver of all life and fertility and mother of the animals, worshipped by hunter-gatherer societies since paleolithic times. In the shamanic religions in Siberia and Lapland, the Mother of the Herds is still a central icon of power. During the neolithic period, the Mother G.o.ddess was the bringer of fertility to the land as well as to animals and humans. Gradually, she came to be seen as the wife of the great Sky G.o.ds. She survives in the form of Mary in the Christian religion.

Mutable: The mutable signs of the zodiac are Sagittarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces, as when the Sun enters them the seasons are about to change. Those born under them are correspondingly versatile and ready to compromise.

Oimelc: See Imbolc.

Ostara: The Celtic festival of the spring equinox.

Pentacle: A ritual item, symbol of the Earth, consisting of a flat, round disc, engraved with a pentagram.

Pentagram: A five-pointed diagram, one of the most sacred geometric forms in magick. Each of the five points represents one of the five elemental powers. The uppermost, single point is symbolic of Spirit, or Akasha.

Poppet: A featureless doll made of cloth that is filled with herbs and used in healing or as a talisman to attract love or fertility. It may also be made of clay and used as a focus for positive magick to being health or happiness to the person represented by it.

Power hand: The hand you write with, used to transmit a.s.sertive and creative energies. See also Receptive hand.

Quarters: The four segments of a magical circle. Each is a.s.sociated with specific archangels, colours, crystals, herbs, incenses, ritual tools, etc.

Receptive hand: The hand you do not write with. Used for receiving energies. See also Power hand.

Rede: A rule or moral code. The Wiccan Rede states: An [If] it harm none, do what you will', and so ensures all magick has a positive intent.

Sabbat: One of eight special days of the year on which Wiccan celebrations are held - the solstices, the equinoxes and the Celtic Fire festivals.

Samhain: The Celtic Fire festival of the new year, celebrated at the end of summer.

Scrying: Seeing magical images in a reflective medium, such as a crystal ball, mirror or a natural moving source of inspiration, such as fire, water or clouds. The word 'scry' comes from the Anglo-Saxon word descry, which means 'to perceive dimly'.

Shamanism: Possibly the oldest spiritual practice in the world, continued today in communities as far apart as India, Australia, j.a.pan and China, Siberia and Mongolia, in Africa, among the Bedouins in the Middle East and in North, Central and South America.

Sky-clad: Naked.

Sky G.o.ds: The powerful patriarchal G.o.ds of the cla.s.sical and Viking world, for example Zeus of the Greeks, Jupiter of the Romans, Odin of the Vikings and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons.They gained supremacy over the Earth Mother who appears as their wife-consort, full of human foibles.

Solstice: One of the main astronomical points of the year. The summer solstice (21 June, or 21 December in the southern hemisphere) marks the Sun at its height and greatest power. The winter solstice (21 December or 21 June) is the shortest day when the Sun is at its weakest and it was feared by early humans that the Sun would die.

Spirit guides: Guardians from another dimension who advise and protect humans. They may be deceased relatives, wise teachers, for example Native Americans, angels or evolved essences who never a.s.sumed mortal form.

Talisman: A charm or amulet that has been charged with specific healing or magical energies to make it powerful and to attract health, wealth or luck. It tends to become more powerful the more it is used.

Tarot: A pack of 78 highly ill.u.s.trated cards often used in rituals to represent people or qualities that are being sought in a spell.

Threefold Law: A law in Wicca that states that whatever you do or send to others, good or bad, will be returned to you threefold - a great incentive to positive thought and action.

Thurible: See Censer.

Transcendent: Term used of G.o.d forms to express the belief that their existence extends beyond and is separate from creation. See also Immanent.

Triple G.o.ddess: A concept of a deity found in many cultures. May represent the three main phases of the Moon - maiden, mother and crone - or, as in Celtic tradition especially, three sisters.

Tulpa: A thought form created by medieval occultists seeking mastery over the elemental beings that they fashioned by their incantations. In extreme cases a tulpa might destroy its creator -hence the warnings of the Threefold Law.

Wheel of the Year: See Eightfold Wheel of the Year.

Wicca: A contemporary, neo-pagan religion that regards the divine life source as a part of nature, not a force beyond creation. This divine source of life is manifest as the G.o.d and G.o.ddess within everything living, male and female, animal, bird, tree and flower. Sometimes regarded as the oldest religion on the world.

Wiccan Rede: See Rede.

Widdershins: Anti-clockwise, moonwise, or against the Sun. The direction used in closing a circle, banishing or removing pain and in banishing magick generally. See also Deosil.

Yin and yang: The complementary components of everything in life, according to ancient Chinese philosophy. Yang is the original Sun concept of light, power, masculinity, a.s.sertiveness, logic and action. It controls heaven and all things positive. It is balanced by Yin, the original Moon concept of darkness, receptivity, femininity, intuition, acceptance and inaction. Yin controls the Earth and all things negative.

Further Reading (Removed)Useful Contacts (Removed)Index of Spells (Removed)Index (Removed)

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