Timeless (24 page)

Sarsaparilla - Love, money.

Sassafras - Health, money.

Savory, Summer - Mental powers.

Safety Pins - Protection.

Sesame - Money, lust.

Shoestrings - Cord and knot spells.

Spearmint - Healing, love, mental powers.

Speedwell - A simple and effective lotion or skin wash that speeds wound healing.

Strawberry - Love, luck.

Sugar Cane - Love, lust, sympathy.

Sunflower - Fertility, wishes, health, wisdom.

Tea - Riches, courage, strength. Health.

Thyme - Health, healing, sleep, psychic powers, love, purification, courage.

Tobacco - Healing, purification.

Tomato - Prosperity, protection, love.

Tuna - Prosperity, abundance.

Turnip - Protection, ending relationships.

Vanilla - Love, lust, mental powers.

Walnut - Health, mental powers, infertility, wishes.

Wheat - Fertility, money.

Wintergreen - Protection, healing.

Witch Hazel - Protection, chastity.

WITCHCRAFT – TERMINOLOGY.

AFTERWORLD – The world of the dead, the place where human souls go to after death. Also see: Summerland.

AKASHA - Element of Spirit, the fifth element, the omnipresent spiritual power that permeates the universe. It is the energy out of which the Elements formed. Usually envisaged as violet in color. It embraces the other four elements - earth, air, fire, and water. This is the realm of pattern, or causality, from which the realm the normally thought of five senses manifests. Some define it is the "other" of the "two worlds" that the witch or magician walks between.- the spiritual ether (or Aether).

ALL HALLOWS EVE - Another name for Samhain, a Pagan festival that is celebrated on the last day of October.

ALTAR - A raised structure (as a square or oblong erection of stone or wood) on which the various tools of witchcraft are placed and candles and incense burned to a deity.

ANIMISM - Belief that a spirit or force residing in every animate and inanimate object, every dream and idea, gives individuality to each. The related Polynesian concept of man holds that the spirit in all things is responsible for the good and evil in the universe.

ANKH - Egyptian "Cross of Life" which represents the union of male and female and is regarded as a universal life charm. The symbol is a cross with a looped, oval top. Also called the Key of the Nile.

AN-SHET - Another word for a Witch's magical wand.

APPARITION - The appearance of a phantom seen in a dream or trance or waking state as the result of astral projection.

ARADIA - Daughter of the Goddess Diana, and a name for the Goddess used by Italian Witches or Strega, commonly used in many Wiccan traditions today.

ARCHETYPES - Universal symbols that speak in the language of the subconscious. They are the ideal images of deities and other powers.

ARIANRHOD - A Welsh Goddess-name much used by witches. The name means `Silver Wheel'. Caer Arianrhod (Castle of Arianrhod), symbolizes the resting-place of souls between incarnations.

ASPECTS - Forms, facets, or personas of Deity: for example, Brighid, Iseult, Eos, and Kore are all aspects of the Maiden, and the Maiden is an aspect of the Goddess.

ASPERGER - A bundle of fresh herbs or a perforated object used to sprinkle water during or preceding Ritual, for purification purposes.

ASTRAL PLANE - The invisible "other" world that is unseen from our material/temporal world, another dimension of reality.

ASTRAL PROJECTION - The process of separating oneself (or one’s self) from the physical body in trance states in order to visit other planes, times or locations.

ATHAME or RITUAL KNIFE - The Athame is charged with the energy of the owner and is used as a pointer to define space (such as casting a sacred circle) and as a conductor of the owner’s will and energy.

ATTUNEMENT - An activity that brings the mind, emotion and psyche of an individual into harmony.

AUTUMN EQUINOX - One of the eight Sabbats celebrated on the first day of autumn, which is on or near September 23rd. Also known as Alban Elfed and the Second Festival of Harvest.

AVATAR - An advanced soul, who returns to a physical body to teach less evolved souls.

BANE - An archaic word for something that is bad, evil, destructive.

BANISH - To magically send away or repel negative energies or entities from the person, home, or ritual area.

BESOM - The witches’ broomstick. Often used to sweep away negative energies from a space before casting a circle there.

BALEFIRE - The traditional bonfire of the Sabbats, still used in many pagan celebrations.

BELTANE - An ancient Celtic Fire Festival celebrated on May 1. The modern version still celebrates the marriage of the Goddess and the God, and the passage of the Goddess from Maiden to Mother. Fertility rituals are commonly a part of this Sabbat.

BIND - To magically restrain something or someone.

BINDRUNES - A powerful magical talisman, normally made from wood or metal, and inscribed with two or more different rune symbols that are combined in an aesthetically pleasing way.

BLACK MAGIC - Any negative magic performed to harm or manipulate people or situations in a negative way. Practitioners of black magic are said to be on the "left hand path."

BLACK MIRROR - Tool used for divination and dark aspect meditations.

BLESSED BE - An all purpose greeting, response and farewell among Witches. It reminds us that everything and everyone is sacred. Pronounced as three syllables.

BLOOD OF THE MOON - A woman’s menstrual cycle and her most powerful time, especially if it occurs on a Full or New Moon.

BODHISATTVA - A human entity so highly developed that he or she no longer needs to reincarnate on Earth but chooses to do so in order to help mankind.

BOOK OF SHADOWS - Also known as a Witch's Grimoire. Traditionally this is a hand-written book of Witches' spells, rituals, poems, recipes and inspirations. There is no one single Book of Shadows and each is individual to the writer. In most cases, parts may have been copied from a covens "standard" Book of Shadows or from the book of another adept Witch. Traditionally, this book is destroyed when the owner dies, or is returned to the coven for disposal. Sometimes a book is handed down to a sibling, but this is usually only accepted if so instructed by the original owner. Some traditions have a "standard" Book of Shadows that serves as the basis for new initiates, but the initiate’s book soon changes as additions are made. The name is believed to be a reminder from the "burning times" when witches had to remain "in the shadows".

BURNING TIME - a term used by some witches for the period of persecution in the middle ages and later. It is in fact a misnomer in some places, as witches were only burned in Scotland, and on the continent of Europe. In England and the U.S., they were hanged.

CAKES AND ALE - This is the ritual meal shared with the Goddess and God near the end of a religious ritual.

CALL UP - To invoke divine forces, as when one calls the Guardians of the Watchtowers before casting a circle.

CANDLE MAGIC - A form of sympathetic magic that uses different colored candles to represent the people and things at which its spells are directed.

CARDINAL POINTS - North, South, East and West, often marked by candles of green, red, yellow, and blue.

CASTING CLOTH - Layout cloth with appropriate markings, used for tossing the ogham fews (or for runes).

CAULDRON - A favourite tool of witches, this three-legged cooking pot has many uses. It may be used to cook potions and for SCRYING. On an altar, the cauldron symbolizes the Goddess.

CENSER - A heatproof container with a perforated lid in which incense is burned. One of the elemental tools, representing the Air element.

CEREMONIAL MAGIC - Involves the use of elaborate rituals, dramatic invocations of the spirit, and mystic sacraments.

CERNUNNOS (Cerunnos) - The only known name of the Celtic Horned God; it is much used by witches, in the Cernunnos form.

CHAKRAS - Seven major intersections of energy located on the vertical axis of the body. Each is associated with a color and an area of the body. 

CHALICE - A witch’s tool, which can be used to represent the element of water and may be used to hold juice or wine for the offering.

CHANNELING - Involves allowing a spirit entity to speak through the channeler. The process is virtually impossible to prove, and therefore does not enjoy a particularly good reputation.

CHARGE OF THE GODDESS, THE - The Traditional words of the Goddess to her followers, or "hidden children". Normally delivered by the High Priestess at every coven Circle. Also known as "The Charge of the Goddess".

CHARM - May be a gemstone, amulet, talisman or other object that has been charged with power for a specific task. Objects made and infused with magical energy, and carried or placed to achieve a goal. These objects are usually infused with specific energy for specific purposes, for example, protection.

CIRCLE - Within this sacred circle, two main activities occur: celebration, and the practice of magic. Celebration is most important at the major seasonal holy days, the Sabbats. At these times, the myths of that particular holiday are enacted in ritual drama, and dancing, singing, feasting, and revelry are all part of the festivities.

CLAIRVOYANCE - The ability to be aware of events, facts or phenomena. A person with this ability will perceive future events in varying detail. This ability is not exclusively an ability to tell the future but also an ability to see what happened in the past without having been there. The insight may be experienced in forms that vary from voices to visions and dreams and even music.

CONE OF POWER - Energy or power raised within a circle by either an individual or group for a specific purpose. After the power is raised and visualized, it is released to work the magic.

CLEANSING - The process of removing negative energy from an object or place.

CONJURATION - The act of evoking spirits by means of formulas or words of power. (see also Evocation).

CONSECRATION - The act of cleansing and blessing an object or place by charging it with positive energy.

COVEN - An organized group of Witches, led by a High priestess and/or a High Priest who meet regularly for magical workings, ceremonies, worship and fellowship. The traditional membership is 13, but in fact, most covens number considerably fewer. 3 is the minimum in the Georgian Tradition. In Middle English, "Covin" a group of confederates; In Old French "Covine" a band or group with a single purpose; Latin "Com"-together, "Venire"-to come or move.

COVEN STEAD - The meeting place for a coven.

COYOTE ENERGY - Trickster energies. Named for the American Indian Trickster, Coyote, who tricks man into learning what he needs to learn. Applies to one who constantly jokes and clowns. Also applies to the concept of "Holy Fool" in many traditions.

CRAFT, THE – Another name or witchcraft.

CROSS QUARTERS - The modern name for the Celtic Fire Festivals.

CRYSTAL BALL - A sphere of crystal or glass used for scrying. They come in all sizes and colors.

CURSE -
Also called a
jinx
,
hex
or
execration
, is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, "curse" may refer to a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any supernatural powers, such as a spell, a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic, witchcraft, a natural force, or a spirit. In many belief systems, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual) is considered to have some causative force in the result. To reverse or eliminate a curse is called
removal
or
breaking,
and is often believed to require equally elaborate rituals or prayers.

DARK MOON - Representative of the Goddess as the One Who Transforms in her aspect of Tomb and Womb.