THE PENTAGRAM

The pentagram, or five-pointed star, may be the most misunderstood religious symbol around these days. Being the most common symbol of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, it has nevertheless been denigrated by movie and publishing industries which seem 'hell-bent' on connecting it with Satanism and other malevolent practices. However, like the Roman Cross or Crucifix, it is only when the symbol is INVERTED that it alludes to negativity. And even then, there are exceptions, as we shall see.

Read more here: » Paganism: THE PENTAGRAM

Malevolent:

Malevolent spirit is a way to describe a malicious supernatural force that causes harmful acts to living beings.

(See also: Malevolent , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Occultism [from Latin occultus hid]

The science of things behind the veils of nature both visible and invisible, things hidden from the multitudes. In theosophy frequently synonymous with the esoteric philosophy or secret doctrine. The study of genuine occultism signifies penetrating deep into the causal mysteries of universal being; the occult arts, by contrast, include psychism, black magic, hypnotism, psychologization, and similar uninstructed or malevolent uses of astral and mental forces.

The term occult has noble, but largely forgotten origins. It properly defines anything which is undisclosed, concealed, or not easily perceived. Early theologians, for example, spoke of "the occult judgment of God," while "occult philosopher" was a designation for the pre-Renaissance scientist who sought the unseen causes regulating nature's phenomena. In astronomy, the term is still used when one stellar body "occults" another by passing in front of it, temporarily hiding it from view. Writing a century ago, when the word had not acquired today's mixed connotations, H.P. Blavatsky defined occultism as "altruism pure and simple" -- the divine wisdom or hidden theosophy within all religions.

As the study or science of things which are hid and secret, occultism is a generalizing term because what is hid or secret in one age may readily be in a succeeding age more or less commonly known and open to public investigation. Many things that in medieval Europe were distinctly secret and therefore occult, are today the field of scientific investigation; and what is now considered to be occult, if science continues in its progress and research, may in the succeeding age in its turn become open and matter of common knowledge. Occultism then will simply have shifted its field of investigation and study to matters still more secret, still more recondite, still more deeply hid in fields of nature which are now scarcely suspected.

Theosophy or the wisdom-religion is the study of the ancient wisdom of the gods, and comprises in any one period that particular portion of knowledge which has been delivered to those who study it; whereas occultism in any age is that portion of the ancient wisdom dealing with matters which at such time are secret, hid, and unknown to the multitude.

Thus occultism is that portion of theosophy which has not yet been openly and publicly promulgated. Occultism is founded on the principle that Divinity is concealed -- transcendent yet immanent -- within every living being. As a spiritual discipline occultism is the renunciation of selfishness; it is the "still small path" which leads to wisdom, to the right discrimination between good and evil, and the practice of altruism.

(See also: Occultism , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Witch Dream Symbols:

(Source: Myths - Dreams - Symbols)

Related pages: Dream Symbols, Dream Interpretation, Dream Symbol Witch, Dream Dictionary Witch, Meaning of dreams about Witch, Dream Interpretation Witch, Dream Analysis Witch, Dreaming of Witch

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Shamanism Generally regarded as spirit worship, commonly and often unjustly classed with the religions of primitive peoples referring particularly to the beliefs of wandering tribes in Siberia, Tartary, and Monglia. Belief in a supreme being is a prominent feature but this supreme being must be propitiated through secondary powers, both beneficent and malevolent, by means of intermediaries -- priests or shamans.

Blavatsky had contacted several shamans and wrote concerning it: "What is now generally known of Shamanism is very little; and that has been perverted, like the rest of the non-Christian religions. It is called the 'heathenism' of Mongolia, and wholly without reason, for it is one of the oldest religions of India. It is spirit-worship, or belief in the immortality of the souls, and that the latter are still the same men they were on earth, though their bodies have lost their objective form, and man has exchanged his physical for a spiritual nature. In its present shape, it is an offshoot of primitive theurgy, and a practical blending of the visible with the invisible world." "The true Shamanism . . . can no more be judged by its degenerated scions among the Shamans of Siberia, then the religion of Gautama-Buddha can be interpreted by the fetishism of some of his followers in Siam and Burmah. It is in the chief lamaseries of Mongolia and Thibet that it has taken refuge" (IU 2:615-6).

"Its followers have neither altars nor idols, and it is upon the authority of a Shaman priest that we state that their true rites, which they are bound to perform only once a year, on the shortest day of winter, cannot take place before any stranger to their faith. . . . Whenever they assemble to worship, it is always in an open space, or a high hill, or in the hidden depths of a forest -- in this reminding us of the old Druidical rites. Their ceremonies upon the occasion of births, deaths, and marriages are but trifling parts of their worship" (IU 2:624).

(See also: Shamanism , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Afrit:

In Arabian traditions, an afrit is the spirit of a murder victim which rises to avenge the crime. Traditions hold that the spirit rises from the slain person's body in the form of 'smoke rising from a fire'. The spirit form is malevolent and their activities are regarded as quite terrifying in nature.

The time honored tradition of removing these violent spirits is to drive an iron nail into the ground in the location the murder was committed. See also "nailing down the ghost".

(See also: Afrit , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

GOD

Anything from a psychic projection to a full macrocosmic individual. Einstein, shunning Judeo-Xtian pleadings, defined God as the ultimate natural order. Deus est homo. Man is God. Indeed all beings are Gods or immortal entities. The Gods, as such, however, inhabit various levels of substantiality and, as superior entities, exist independently in their own right. And this is not just because strong personalities (as well as human society in general) create and batten projections and archetypes, but because semi-being actually wills itself to be born into that state between Matter and the Void. the Gods are being itself, rather than any particular substance. That is, they are pure substance or the conscious potentiality behind substance. Every mortal, Theosophy has pointed out, has his divine counterpart, his celestial doppelganger or heavenly prototype. It is this personal archetype that we call The Father (or Guardian Angel). Theophany is the rare union (in adepts) of the heavenly counterpart with its earth shadow-self. The divine archetypes are not confined to ordinary human beings, moreover, but ascend to ever more infinite celestial monads themselves. When we speak of The Gods or the God beyond the Gods, such as Allfather Odin or Zeus, Father of the Gods we refer to just these higher monads.

It is difficult to remember that all seemingly separate things -- all individuals -- created themselves out of the Original Void and go on forever creating themselves. Thus, spirit manifests itself through matter; we never cease to embody and demonstrate divinity -- sometimes wisely, more often not. It is the gravest error to reproduce and propagate life indiscriminately. Such attempts to reincarnate oneself on the merely material plane, to maintain the same identity perptually through the generation of progeny -- this form of lust vitiates the Spirit and greedily confines matter disproportionately to a single, inferior and separationist aim. That in turn results in premature entropy and the abortion of Cosmic Purpose.

We should distinguish between various divine synonyms. Daimon, for instance, did not, amongst the Greeks, have our sense of demon, but was rather a spirit or higher self. Socrates spoke often of his daimon who conversed with him. The Sanskrit deva, although translated god, amongst the Hindus means any God, but in the Zend Avesta it is always a malevolent spirit. In Buddhism deva refers to almost anything from a legendary hero to a hobgoblin, but pure Buddhism attaches no importance to Gods of any kind. It considers them to be illusions, like everything else.

Whether reflective of reality or not, it is easy enough to plot an origin for God in the singular, but whence the proliferation of multi-deities? In Egypt they were seen simply as the natures of things (neteru). Iamblichus asks of the Egyptians, however, what the cause of the distinction between them is and whether it is from their energies, or their passive motions, or from things that are consequent, or from their different arrangement with respect to bodies. By the latter, he goes on to say that he means, for example, that Gods inhabit the ethereal, that demons inhabit the air and that souls inhabit terrestrial bodies.

Of course, it is differentiation that being comes to be in the first place. Before differentiation there is nothing but tohu-bohu -- indeed between the Void and confusion (or chaos), there is little difference. With the utterance of the command Be! the zero is annihilated.

(See also: GOD , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

traditionally a person who practices black magic, usually by aid
of malevolent spirits; modern term used by some magic-users to
differentiate themselves from witches

(See also: sorcerer, sorceress , Magic, Shamanism, Pagan Dictionary)

Jinn, Jinni, Jinnee (Arabic) singular jinniy, plural jinn; also genii. In the Koran a class of beings, both male and female, between angels and human kind and represented as being created from smokeless fire, abounding particularly in desert places.

Popularly jinn are regarded as being able to appear to mankind in the form of domestic animals or of human beings of gigantic size, the benevolent ones appearing in beautiful shape, the malevolent in horrible guise.

(See also: Jinn, Jinni, Jinnee , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

incantation: Mantraprayoga. The chanting of prayers, verses or formulas for magical or mystical purposes. Also refers to such chants (mantra). Vashakriya is the subduing or bewitching by charms, incantation or drugs. Incantation for malevolent purposes (black magic) is called abhichara.

See: mantra.

(See also: Incantation , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Meaning of Dreams in Islam

Few Western dream researchers have any familiarity with the rich dream traditions of Islam. The Muslim faith first emerged in seventh century B.C.E. Arabia as a profound revisioning of early Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices. One theme the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) drew from the scriptures of those two religions was a reverence for dreaming. In the Quran, as in the Jewish Torah and the Christian New Testament, dreams serve as a vital medium by which God communicates with humans. Dreams offer divine guidance and comfort, warn people of impending danger, and offer prophetic glimpses of the future. Although the three religions drastically differ on many other topics, they find substantial agreement on this particular point: dreaming is a valuable source of wisdom, understanding, and inspiration. Indeed, as I will propose in this brief essay, Islam has historically shown greater interest in dreams than either of the other two traditions, and has done more to weave dreaming into the daily lives of its members. From the first revelatory visions of Muhammed to the myriad dream practices of present-day Muslims, Islam has developed and sustained a complex, multifaceted tradition of active engagement with the dreaming imagination.

Read more here: » Meaning of Dreams in Islam: Reflections on the Dream Traditions of Islam

The techniques of past life therapy have been proven effective for many specific conditions. Still, there are cases where results just don't seem to develop in the course of good therapeutic practice. In these cases, the reason may be that we are not using the right tool for the job. The client will locate the real source of a condition if the therapist asks the right questions.

Read more here: » Regression Therapy: The Three Faces of Regression Therapy

Dweller on the Threshold (Dweller of the Threshold) Coined by Bulwer-Lytton in his romance Zanoni, where it represents a malevolent entity of awful and terrifying aspect awaiting to menace and tempt the aspirant to occultism. The author, by means of this vivid portrayal, has expressed the mystical fact that when one has taken a stand to overcome a certain weakness in one's nature, or even a habit, such resolution seems to array all the opposing forces against the aspirant.

Thus it may readily be understood that when one seeks to enter the domain of the occult, a similar experience awaits the candidate; but the forces or energies thus aroused are of one's own making, and they must be met and conquered by their originator before progress may be successfully made.

"The real Dweller on the Threshold is formed of the despair and despondency of the neophyte, who is called upon to give up all his old affections for kindred, parents and children, as well as his aspirations for objects of worldly ambition, which have perhaps been his associates for many incarnations. When called upon to give up these things, the neophyte feels a kind of blank, before he realizes his higher possibilities." (Subba Row, Theos 7:284).

Generally speaking, because of their menacing aspects, the term Dweller on the Threshold might be applied to the denizens of kama-loka, specifically to the past kama-lokic or astral remnants of a former incarnation which haunt the new imbodiment of that reincarnating ego.

A person who gives way to strongly material impulse and desires forms for himself a kama-rupa which, when the person dies, can persist without undergoing complete dissolution until the quick return of such materially-minded human soul to reincarnation, when the kama-rupa is then strongly attracted to the person thus reimbodied and haunts him as an evil genius, continually instilling by automatic psychomagnetic action thoughts and impulses of evil, temptations, and suggestions of fear and terror -- all of which the person himself was responsible for in his last life.

There is even such a dweller for globes of a planetary chain of strongly material characteristic. Our moon is such a dweller to the earth. All planetary chains in the solar system probably have or have had their moons, but not in all have such moon-dwellers lasted long after the planetary chain undergoes imbodiment anew.

(See also: Dweller on the Threshold , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Witchcraft , Sorceries, Sorcery ,    :

An act of employing sorcery (the use of power gained from the assistance or control of spirits), especially with malevolent intent, and the exercise of supernatural powers and alleged intercourse with the devil or a familiar. (From Webster, 3d ed)

(See also: Witchcraft , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

YARTHKIN: A fertility spirit (also called Tiddy People or Greencoaties - with one known as Tiddy Mun having specific beneficent actions), when neglected and proper tributes are not kept up they can become malevolent as in the case of the spirit known as Yallery Brown.

(See also: YARTHKIN , Witch, Witchcraft, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Nature Spirits

Various types of beings that are said to be the "soul" of natural forms. Belief in the existence of nature spirits is common to all cultures throughout history.

They are usually attached to a specific place, such as a tree, river, plant or mountain. They come in a variety of shapes and temperaments. Some are described as human in form, others are like animals or are half-human, half animal; some are helpful, others deceitful or malevolent. They are normally invisible to humans, except to those with the gift of clairvoyance.

Elementals are a sub-class of nature spirits that are a part of the life force of all things in nature. They are ruled by archangels and are generally regarded as benevolent. The Neoplatonic Greeks categorized elementals according to the four elements:

• Earth elementals are gnomes;
• air elementals are sylphs;
• Water elementals are undines; and
• Fire elementals are salamanders.

In the Middle Ages interest in these main groups was revived and alchemists and magicians sought to control and manipulate the forces of nature and the universe. Other elementals include elves, who live in the woods, and household spirits such as brownies, goblins and bogies. Fairies are also sometimes included in this category.

(See also: Nature Spirits , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Fairy:

Small, human-like mythical being. May be benevolent or malevolent.

(See also: Fairy , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

DEMONOLOGY:

Magick involving work with malevolent spirits;

 The study of demons and beliefs about them and extended by some to include the study of any supernatural beings other than acknowledged deities;

 A treatise on demons.

(See also: DEMONOLOGY , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

(succubi) malevolent female entity that takes sexual possession
of sleeping men

(See also: succubus , Magic, Shamanism, Pagan Dictionary)

Manes (Latin) [from manus good]

Deified ancestral spirits, the benevolent class of shades, as distinguished from the larvae and lemures, which were malevolent. The word seems originally to have denoted a class of titans, kabiri, or dhyanis, and to have ranked in the sequence of patriarchs, heroes, and manes, who acted as divine instructors of earlier races.

But far later, in Roman usage, the name became degraded and applied to the better astral shades or denizens in kama-loka, which in so many lands have been propitiated by offerings as is still the case with some peoples. Sometimes they wear a retributive aspect, as in Vergil, where the painful purification of the shades before they can pass to Elysium is described: "Each of us suffers his own Manes" (Aeneid 6:743).

Difficult as it is to distinguish as among the manes, larvae, and lemures, the manes were considered by Roman philosophers and poets equivalent to the human soul or monad; whereas the larvae and lemures were distinctly the shells or shades existent in the astral light and being the cast-off portions of the human monad when it ascends into, or reaches, devachan.

(See also: Manes , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)