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
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