Spiritual Rituals Dictionary

HINDUISM: The main religious and social system in India. Hinduism has various sects with the commonality of the belief in reincarnation, polytheism and an ordained caste system as its social base.

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

RITUAL:

1) (noun) a system of rites, the order prescribed for a ceremony. (adjective) relating to rites. General usage: refer to Sabbats such as "The Rites of Spring". Ritual is used more often when referring to Magickal practices.

2) A ceremony or festival.

3) A spell.

3) Specific movements and manipulations to produce desired effects. In religeon, its purpose is to unite Self with the Divine. But in magick, it's to allow the person to move energy in desired ways.

(See also: RITUAL , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Ritual:

Any ordered sequence of events, actions and/or directed thoughts, especially one that is repeated in the “same” manner each time, that is designed to produce a predictable altered state of consciousness within which certain magical or religious (or artistic or scientific?) results may be obtained.

(See also: Ritual , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

RITUAL -

1. focused mental or physical ceremony to honor or thank one’s chosen pantheon or to perform magickal working or act. (TRASB)

2. Ceremony to restore balance with nature and the world and bring back lost harmony and sacredness. Periodic, repetitive behavior to create, recreate, enforce, reinforce certain tendencies and potentialities in the bio-psyche. (Gary Snyder) (NAD)

3. a systematic, formal or informal, prescribed set of rites whose purpose is to imprint a lasting change on the life and psyche of the participant. (CMM)

(See also: RITUAL , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

cuy ritual (passing the cuy): Ancient Andean variation of transference treatment. It involves prayer, rubbing a cuy (Andean guinea pig) over the patient, killing the animal with a ritual knife, and purporting to read its entrails. For example, if the subject has a gastric tumor, a tumor or lump will appear in the cuy's stomach. According to cuy ritual theory, damage and fright are the basic causes of disease, and the cuy can absorb the negative energy they generate.

(See also: Cuy ritual , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

A Welsh Myth Concordance

The following concordance is based on the four branches of the Welsh "Mabinogi", as retold in the four books by Evangeline Walton: "Prince of Annwn", "The Children of Llyr", "The Song of Rhiannon", and "The Island of the Mighty".

TRADITIONS - any of the various sects of Wicca such as Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Georgian, Seax, etc.

(See also: TRADITIONS , Wiccan, Wicca, Witchery, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

ISLAM, ISLAMISM: The monotheistic religious doctrine as revealed by the Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah. There are many sects of Islam and believers are called Muslims.

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

yajna: (Sanskrit) "Worship; sacrifice."

One of the most central Hindu concepts - sacrifice and surrender through acts of worship, inner and outer.

1) A form of ritual worship especially prevalent in Vedic times, in which oblations - ghee, grains, spices and exotic woods - are offered into a fire according to scriptural injunctions while special mantras are chanted.

-       The element fire, Agni, is revered as the divine messenger who carries offerings and prayers to the Gods.

-       The ancient Veda Brahmanas and the Shrauta Shastras describe various types of yajna rites, some so elaborate as to require hundreds of priests, whose powerful chanting resounds for miles. These major yajnas are performed in large, open-air structures called yagashala.

-       Domestic yajnas, prescribed in the Grihya Shastras, are performed in the family compound or courtyard. Yajna requires four components, none of which may be omitted: dravya, sacrificial substances; tyaga, the spirit of sacrificing all to God; devata, the celestial beings who receive the sacrifice; and mantra, the empowering word or chant.

-       While puja (worship in temples with water, lights and flowers) has largely replaced the yajna, this ancient rite still continues, and its specialized priestly training is carried on in schools in India.

-       Yajnas of a grand scale are performed for special occasions, beseeching the Gods for rain during drought, or for peace during bloody civil war. Even in temples, yajna has its Agamic equivalent in the agnikaraka, the homa or havana ceremony, held in a fire pit (homakunda) in an outer mandapa of a temple as part of elaborate puja rites.

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2) Personal acts of worship or sacrifice. Life itself is a jivayajna.

-       The Upanishads suggest that one can make "inner yajnas" by offering up bits of the little self into the fires of sadhana and tapas until the greater Self shines forth.

The five daily yajnas, pancha mahayajna, of the householder (outlined in the Dharma Shastras) ensure offerings to rishis, ancestors, Gods, creatures and men. They are as follows.

-       brahma yajna: (also called Veda yajna or rishi yajna) "Homage to the seers." Accomplished through studying and teaching the Vedas.

-       deva yajna: "Homage to Gods and elementals." Recognizing the debt due to those who guide nature, and the feeding of them by offering ghee and uncooked grains into the fire. This is the homa sacrifice.

-       pitri yajna: "Homage to ancestors." Offering of cakes (pinda) and water to the family line and the progenitors of mankind.

-       bhuta yajna: "Homage to beings." Placing food-offerings, bali, on the ground, intended for animals, birds, insects, wandering outcastes and beings of the invisible worlds. ("Let him gently place on the ground [food] for dogs, outcastes, svapachas, those diseased from sins, crows and insects" Manu Dharma Shastras 3.92).

-       manushya yajna: "Homage to men." Feeding guests and the poor, the homeless and the student. Manushya yajna includes all acts of philanthropy, such as tithing and charity. The Vedic study is performed in the morning.

The other four yajnas are performed just before taking one's noon meal. Manu Dharma Shastras (3.80) states, "Let him worship, according to the rule, the rishis with Veda study, the devas with homa, the pitris with shraddha, men with food, and the bhutas with bali."

Mystics warn that all offerings must be tempered in the fires of kundalini through the power of inner yajna to be true and valuable, just as the fire of awareness is needed to indelibly imprint ideas and concepts on one's own akashic window.

See: dharma, havana, homa, puja, sacrifice.

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

RITUAL

There is only one thing to be said for ritual: Create your own or risk being swallowed up by some damned religion's stercus taurinum.

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

Ritual - A focused mental/physical ceremony to either honor or thank ones choosen pantheon,or to perform a specific magickal working or act.

(See also: Ritual , Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary)

ÁR NDRAÍOCHT FÉIN (“Our Own Druidism”): A Druid Fellowship founded in 1983 by P.E.I (Isaac) Bonewits, former Archdruid of several groves in the Reformed Druids of North America.

Ár Ndraíocht Féin is an American based neo-pagan Druid religious fellowship. It has no direct links to the ancient Druids but is a reconstruction of Druidic and Indo-European pagan rituals and religions. It integrates religion with alternate healing arts, ecology-consciousness, psychic development and artistic expression. It is organized in groves, many of them named after trees. They have eight seasonal High Days (celebrated on the same dates as the Sabbats) and they conduct regular study and discussion groups in addition to a wide range of artistic activities.

(See also: ÁR NDRAÍOCHT FÉIN , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

RITUAL MAGICK:  Magick that calls upon the aid of beneficent spirits and is akin to religion. Ritual Magick is based upon a blend of doctrines of Plato and other Greek philosophers, Oriental mysticism, Judaism and Christianity and currently is divided into three forms: Enochian, Thelemic and Eclectic.

Enochian Magick originated with John Dee and Edward Kelly in the 16th century and communication with spirits involved the Nineteen Calls (or Keys): incantations in the Enchonian language, a complex language of unknown origin. This system of Magick was revived by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and studied at length by Aleister Crowley. In turn, Crowley developed the Thelemic Magick system from his studies and Ritual Magickians have since expanded to develop Eclectic Magick systems based on a variety of different systems, inclusive of Alchemy, Egyptology, Kabbalistic doctrines, Chaos Magick etc..

Ritual Magick requires a rigorous discipline and has an intellectual appeal, the mage derives power from God (the Judeo-Christian God) through the successful control of spirits, usually demons, which are believed easier to control than angels. Demons may be good, evil, or neutral. In its highest sense, Ritual Magick is a transcendental experience that takes the mage into mystical realms and into communication with the Higher Self.  Also known as Ceremonial Magick, High Magick, Theurgic Magick, Theurgy.

(See also: RITUAL MAGICK , Pagan Organisations, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary, Wicca,)

Ritual Cannibalism:

The eating of all or part of the physical or symbolic body of a given person or personified entity in hopes of gaining one or more of their desirable attributes.

(See also: Ritual Cannibalism , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram: Abbreviated LBRP. A basic Golden Dawn ritual that uses the figure of the pentagram to cleanse the temple or ritual space of unwanted energies.

Also See: LBRP

(See also: Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

PASSING OVER RITUAL - a ritual observed when a love one dies. Depending on one’s tradition this ceremony includes keening and candle lighting, feasting and revelry, sitting up with the body, ritualized fare will speeches, drinking and storytelling. (CMM)

(See also: PASSING OVER RITUAL , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

AMERICAN TRADITIONAL WICCA: The groups that have no initiatory connection to Gardner or Sanders, but who have based their rituals and practices on what has been published about the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Traditions; they therefore follow a Wiccan practice based upon Gardnerian or Alexandrian without having initiatory lineage.

(See also: AMERICAN TRADITIONAL WICCA , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

GARDNERIAN WICCA: A Wiccan tradition founded by Gerald Gardner, and the first denomination of Wicca to make itself known publicly. It is disputed to be the original form of Wicca versus Alexandrian Wiccan. Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a surviving Coven of Traditional Witches in the New Forest by "Old Dorothy" Clutterbuck in 1939. Gardner was accused of inventing the whole concept of Wicca and of getting Aleister Crowley to write its rituals although the Gardnerian Book of Shadows is a compilation from various sources, much of it actually contributed by Doreen Valiente.

The Gardnerian tradition places emphasis on the Goddess over the God, has a degree system of advancement and does not allow for self-initiation. Covens work skyclad and aim to equal numbers of male and female, paired. Covens are autonomous and are found in most countries around the world.

Gardnerian Wiccans are considered to be Traditional Witches who trace their line of initiatory descent from Dorothy Clutterbuck through Gerald Gardner and through a line of Gardnerian High Priests and High Priestesses. The adhere to the rituals laid out in the Gardnerian Book of Shadows.

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

RITUAL TOOLS - a general name for magickal or ritual tools used by a witch or magician, also called by their Kabbalistic name, Elemental Weapons. (CMM)

(See also: RITUAL TOOLS , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

A dictionary with common spiritual words from Hinduism and Sanskrit. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.