AUGOEIDES: While this term isn't truly considered Old Craft I add it here on the off chance that related studies by the student of the Old Craft mayhap run across it and be in need of this definition. The holy guardian angel (HGA) or higher genius. Also the mediator between one's self and the Gods. Derived from the Greek word for *morning light* augos.

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

Voodoo, Vodou (African, "divine spirits", also Vodou, Vodoun, Vodun)

African- Christian new religion born in Haiti, whose followers worship the "divine spirits" in life and rituals and accept possession by those spirits for healing and spiritual guidance. Originally a pejorative term -"Voodoo" is now acknowledged as the proper designation for the complex beliefs and practices among the majority of the populace of Haiti.

Voodoo began as the clandestine religion of enslaved African sugar-plantation workers in Haiti in the seventeenth century, but its early history is preserved only in scattered eighteenth-century colonial records and ordinance codes. The reports of covert meetings, dances, funeral practices, and even trance possession among enslaved and freed Africans indicate that they preserved ancient traditions in the face of enormous obstacles; the development of Voodoo is itself a tribute to the spirit and stamina of those early devotees. It is rooted in the West African Yoruba, Fon, and Angolan communities, as well as in French Roman Catholicism.

It has primarily continued African priestly roles, ritual themes, symbolism, and pantheons of named female spirits (especially Ezili) and male ones (Ogou, Damballah-Wedo, Legba). Voodoo theology parallels traditional medieval Christianity, for its followers acknowledge a high creator deity, Bondye (Bon dieu), but invoke the intermediary spirits for intercession in human affairs. It is only the intermediaries-identified individually with Christian saints or sacred places-who descend to "mount" their "horses," their followers, during possession rituals.

Roman Catholicism provides the ritual framework for the lives of Voodoo members as well, for they not only follow its traditional liturgical calendar for scheduling pilgrimages and lesser ceremonies but also participate in the common rituals of baptism, marriage, and the Mass. Roman Catholic prayers, some still in Latin, form a significant component of some Voodoo rituals, as do other lesser aspects and ritual objects from traditional Catholic festivals.

The divine spirits (loa or lwa) of Voodoo occupy separate pantheons or nations; two of these, the Rada, whose spirits are generous and benevolent, and the Petro, whose strong spirits evince terrible powers, dominate worship in urban centers. The higher powers (lemiste) are associated with natural dimensions or places, such as sacred springs or cemeteries, and are joined in the spirit world by souls of the dead and ancestral spirits (lemo) and sacred twins (lemarasa). Individual worshipers, drawn to individual spirits by necessity or similarities in personality or temperament, may choose among them for personal devotion but must not neglect those ancestors and spirits traditionally venerated in the family.

Voodoo rituals range from simple devotional acts, such as the lighting of candles with accompanying prayers, to family observances for the family dead to elaborate rituals enhanced by large meals, drumming and singing, and exuberant dance. The spiritual leaders in the Voodoo community are the male hungans and female mambos; in their religious roles, they perform divination and healing rituals for individual members, as well as oversee all training and calendrical ceremonies. As elders and teachers, they guide the possession trance dances, which allow the individual divine spirits to be present among their followers, to receive worship, and to offer healing and counsel.

In Haiti, rural communities continue Voodoo as a family-centered religion firmly tied to traditional agricultural life, while urban centers have interwoven a wider variety of practices, some structured and formal-including rituals of initiation, funeral rites, pilgrimage to Catholic shrines, and festivals-some less so, including not only divination, but also the making of amulets for luck and protection.

(See also: Voodoo, Vodou , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Afterlife

The life after death, the spirit world. the astral world. etc.

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

Ouija Board

A board and pointer used for divination and to contact the spirit world. The name is said to come from the French for 'yes', oui, and the German for 'yes', ja - though there are other claims.

The board, which has the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 to 9, and the words 'yes' and 'no' printed on it, is placed on a table. Participants rest their fingertips lightly on the pointer, a heart-shaped device with three felt-tipped legs. One person poses a question, and the pointer is then supposed to move to answer the question.

Similar board-type instruments were used for divination in ancient China and Greece. In the mid-nineteenth century a similar device, the planchette, came into use in Europe. The modern Ouija board is marketed as a game, originally called 'Ouija Talking Board', and was developed in the late 1890s by an American, William Fuld, who sold the patent to the Parker Brothers game company in 1966.

Ouija boards became popular during and after World War I, when many people were desperate to communicate with friends and loved ones killed in the fighting.

Parapsychologists regard the Ouija board as a means to tap into the subconscious; critics of its use claim that it is dangerous in that users have no control over repressed material, which may lead to psychological trauma. Most fundamentalist Christians condemn the Ouija board as dangerous tinkering with potentially harmful occult forces and a tool of the Devil.

(See also: Ouija Board , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Mind

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

ANIMA LOCI:  The soul of a place, specifically in Nature. Several cultures believe that natural forms such as wells and lakes as well as mountains, stone menhirs, and monoliths are sacred and venerable spots where the Numinous Divine resides and that it is possible for humans to make contact with this Anima Loci.

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COMPASS: The magical working area known also as a bought, circlestead, mill -- traditionally nine foot in diameter and created and made by using the red or white cord and a dod at the nowl.

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

A dictionary of Parapsycology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

IYNX: Plural Iyinges. Also associated with the Latin verb Iungere: to join. In it's most cosmic aspect as a numinous magical vortex it is said to have the root meaning *primal transmission*. The term is derived from the name of the Wryneck bird (Iynx from Iugmos - a shrieking sound) which was spread eagled across a wheel, itself known as the Iynx or Rhombus which was then spun on two strings to attract the beloved.

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BAWMING THE THORN: The act of dressing or adorning a living tree with flowers and ribbons and making merry with great celebration afterwards including public games and various amusements. This event usually took place on or near Old Midsummer but the term bawming may include Yule trees as well as the traditional May Pole.

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SCORE ABOVE THE BREATH: The belief carried over from medieval times that causing a Wytch to bleed above the mouth and nose (by intentionally scratching, slashing or poking) would cause any workings that had been done or magical acts performed to become null and void.

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BLOUT: A ceremony or a ritual.

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AVERSE: Harmful or baneful.

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BIDDING: A specific prayer or an incantation.

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BAN: Another word for a curse.

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BOUGHT: Another term for compass or ritual circle.

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World Egg, Mundane Egg The virgin or eternal egg is chaos, which is fecundated by the ray from spirit, and yet remains immaculate. According to the Stanzas of Dzyan, "The ray shoots through the virgin egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal germ, which condenses into the world-egg" (SD 1:28). The non-eternal egg signifies the transitory worlds of manifestation and is often used for the universe in germ preceding its emanational unfolding. The first cause of a universe, its emanating spirit, was figurated as a bird which dropped an egg into chaos, the egg in course of aeons becomes the manifested universe.

According to the Laws of Manu, hiranyagarbha "is Brahma the first male formed by the undiscernible Causeless cause in a 'Golden Egg resplendent as the Sun,' " (SD 1:89). The Rig-Veda says that the incomprehensible divine germ of our universe, " 'the one Lord of all beings . . . the one animating principle of gods and man,' arose, in the beginning, in the Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha -- which is the Mundane Egg or sphere of our Universe" (ibid.).

Ptah, the Egyptian god of creation, is represented as bringing forth beings from a lump of clay on a potter's wheel. This lump of clay represents the world egg, out of which all the beings creep. And the winged globe, so prominent in Egyptian symbology, is another symbol of the world egg.

See also EGG

(See also: World Egg, Mundane Egg , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

NUMEN: A presiding divinity or spirit of a place. A spirit believed by Witches to inhabit certain natural phenomena or objects. Creative energy; genius.

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TWILIGHT SLEEP: Also Twylyt Sleep. A trance state.

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World-germs A metaphor for cosmic monads, fundamental elementary principles of all ancient religious and philosophical systems. Each monad is an eternal cosmic unity, albeit they appear, disappear, and reappear during the eternally revolving cosmic cycles. In themselves they are divine consciousness-centers, divine-spiritual particles, points of abstract, conscious, cosmic substance existing during manvantaras in a state of primeval differentiation.

The world-germs, are scattered like spawn throughout space. Each one pursues its karmic destiny, descending from a state of pure spirit through various phases by emanating from itself a series of sheaths or veils until the karmic limit has been reached, when each has become the cosmic spirit of a universe, world, sun, planet, etc., as the case may be. The spiritual essence of any world-germ or cosmic monad at no time actually descends or leaves its own high plane or status, but in the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, each establishes a world, universe, or hierarchy with karmically destined portions of itself, and yet remains separate, transcendent.

During the course of this descent into manifestation, fohat sets in motion the primordial world-germs, the aggregation of cosmic atoms and matter, some one way, some another. The world-germs come into frequent meetings and separations, or collisions and partings, until forming their final cosmic aggregation; afterwards as individuals they pass through the nebular phase and then become comets in space.

World-germs are "viewed by Science as material particles in a highly attenuated condition, but in Occult physics as 'Spiritual particles,' i.e., supersensuous matter existing in a state of primeval differentiation" (SD 1:200-1).

(See also: World-germs , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

WARD: The spiritual guardian of an area or a place or the act of using magic via the form of workings etc. to protect a place - to ward and wane.

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