Qaballa

Kabbalah ("reception", Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbâlâh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah) is an interpretation (exegesis, hermeneutic) key, "soul" of the Torah (Hebrew Bible), or the religious mystical system of Judaism claiming an insight into divine nature.

Quarter Days

The solstices and equinoxes.

Quarters

The North, East, South, and West parts of a  magickal circle or other ritual area.

Rede

The Wiccan ethical code, which states, "If it harm none, do what you will."

Reincarnation

The doctrine of rebirth to allow the evolution of the soul

Requiem

(1)  A song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. (2) A musical setting for a Mass celebrating the dead. (3) A Mass celebrated for the dead

Right Hand Path

(1) The people we like who are doing magic. (2) Occultists who spend their time being constructive, manipulative and “good.”

Rite

Ceremony. A specific form of movement, manipulation of objects or inner processes designed to produce desired effects. In MAGIC it allows the magician to move energy toward needed goals. A SPELL is a magical rite.

Ritual

A ceremony to mark the Sabats, Esabats, dedications or for magickal workings and to unite with the Deities.

Rowan

One of the sacred trees of Wicca/Witchcraft.  As with most trees one of its main properties is that of protection.

Runes

Stones, bones or wood pieces marked with magickal symbols. Used in divination

Sabat

A Witchcraft ceremony of honor acknowledging the eight segments of the Wiccan year and the cycle of the seasons.  There are eight Sabbats: Yule, Imbolic, Ostra, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasad, Mabon and Samhain.

Saging

The ritual for a man reaching crone status.

Salamander

An entity that dwells in the realm of Fire

Samhain

The Sabbat marking the Witches' New Year on Oct. 31, which observes the symbolic death of the God as he passes into the Land of the Young.

Scrying

To gaze into or at an object for divination purposes

Seining

Pagan “baptism” rite

Shamanism

The Practice of shamans, usually ritualistic or magical in nature, sometimes religious.

Shapeshifting

Transformation or transmogrification is a change in the form or shape of a person, especially: A change from human form to animal form and vice versa a change in appearance from one person to another.

Sigil

A type of symbol. A magickally oriented seal, sign, glyph (sculptured character or symbol) or other device used in a magickal working. The most powerful sigils are those that you create yourself

Skyclad

The practice of performing rituals in the nude; also used as an adjective for those who do so. The practice was taught by Gardner and is still practiced by many, but not all, Wiccan traditions.

So Mote it be

An affirmation that ends many chants and magical rhymes. This has been in common usage among folk magicians for many years. A transliteration might be: “So must it be,” (though this isn't linguistically correct).

Solitary

Wicca practiced, due to either choice or circumstance, by individuals without group support.

Sorcery

Those who use (or are suspected of using) magic, especially when acting as independent agents and/or using their magic for “evil” purposes.

Soul

The soul according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the ethereal substance — spirit (Hebrew: rooah or nefesh) — particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being.

Spell

An act that may use a variety of aids (herbs, string, candles, etc.) to help the a Witch focus energy on his or her desire

Spellcasting

The art of casting a spell

Spirits

1) The vital principle or animating force within living things. (2) The nature and essential substance of human souls, through which each is connected to all others, and by the experience of such connection is a primary basis for spiritual belief.

Strega

1) The religion of Italian Witches. (2) Is an antiquated word for witchcraft in the Tuscan dialect of the Italian language. The term comes from the Italian strega ('witch' or 'hag'), itself descended from the Latin word strix or striga ('owl'; the latter form is applied exclusively to a blood-drinking night spirit). It was popularized by C.G. Leland's book entitled Aradia or the Gospel of the Witches published in 1899. Stregheria is witccraft, and stregoneria is a form of magical sistem but not religious.

Summerland

A spiritualist word for the Heaven which souls enter after death. Often used by believers in Reincarnation  to denote the astral stage of rest after physical death, before the Individuality withdraws from all the lower levels to prepare for its next Incarnation

Summons

Calling Guardians into the circle

Sylph

Sylph is a faux-mythological creature in the Western tradition. The term "Sylph" originates in Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as invisible beings of the air, his elementals of air. There is no substantial mythos associated with them.

Synchronicity

Two or more events happening at the ‘same’ time are likely to have more associations in common than the merely temporal.

Talisman

An object that has been magickally charged and is then carried or kept near the person it was made for.

Tarot

A set of 78 cards, 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana, which carry pictures and symbols used for divination. On one knows the specific origin of the cards.

Tasseography

Is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves. The term also refers to the reading of coffee grounds, especially in the Middle Eastern tradition.

Telekinesis

The moving of an object without touching it and only using the power of the mind.

Telepathy

A type of ESP involving the communication of data from one mind to another without the use of the normal sensory channels. Note that telepathic sending and reception may be two different talents

Teutons

A member of an ancient people, probably of Germanic or Celtic origin

Thaumaturgy

The performance of miracles; magic

Thelema

This is the enduringly popular philosophy of Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947, left), based around the central concept of "Do What Thou Wilt shall be the whole of The Law," and the key text Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law), which he apparently received from a non-human intelligence in 1904. Thelema is ostensibly a distillation of Golden Dawn magic, Rabelais, Sex Magic, the Egyptian Mysteries, Abramelin, Yoga, Buddhism, and Taoism.

Theurgy

The use of magic for religious and/or psychotherapeutic purposes, in order to attain “salvation” or “personal evolution.”

Third Eye

This is the sensitive area between the eyes & up on the forhead about an inch. Site of a Major Chakra, the Pineal gland. It relates to intuitive input to the Conscious Mind & is often called The Mind's Eye

Threefold Law

Wiccan ethical doctrine that good or bad deeds will come back upon the doer threefold.

Titan

(1) A person of exceptional importance and reputation. (2) Greek mythology any of the primordial giant gods who ruled the Earth until overthrown by Zeus; the Titans were offspring of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth).

Totem Animal Tradition

Symbol totem animal based on Native American tradition is actually more about being chosen. It is lessons to be learned, guidance, spirituality and finding your path

Transmutation

An APK talent for changing the atomic structure of matter, so as to alter its elemental or molecular nature.

Tree Calendar

The Celtic system of reckoning the 13 lunar months of the year by assigning each a sacred tree.

Ulalation

Howl: a long loud emotional utterance; "he gave a howl of pain"; "howls of laughter"; "their howling had no effect".

Uncasting

Opening the circle at the end of a ritual.

Underworld

Hel, Hades, the "waiting room" of the after life. 

Unmanifest

The unknowable source of existence. It is deity divested of all attributes.

Valhalla

Hall of the Slain, in Norse mythology is the hall presided over by Odin. This vast hall has five hundred and forty doors. The rafters are spears, the hall is roofed with shields and breast-plates litter the benches. A wolf guards the western door and an eagle hovers over it.

Vampirism

The practice of subsisting on the vitality of another. Commonly this is blood, other times it is life force (sapped psychically).

Vanatru

(1) A West African word meaning “deity” or “power.” (2) General term for a variety of eclectic religions and associated magical systems practiced throughout the Americas, consisting of mixtures of various African tribal beliefs with various Native American tribal beliefs, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, Spiritualism, Theosophy and other systems (including Hinduism, Islam, Neopagan Witchcraft and anything else that seems useful). Different names include Candomble, Macumba, Santeria, Hoodoo, Voodoo and many others. (3) In the United States and Canada, systems of thaumaturgic magic and religion practiced by people who are usually poor, uneducated and nonwhite.

Veil of Unknowing

A term used to indicate the boundary between manifest being and the unknowable source

Virtues

Magickal properties of objects like herbs, stones, and creatures as was assigned to them during their divine creation.

Visualization

Forming mental images and being able to "see" them in the physical world.

Vodou

A spiritual tradition which originated in Haiti during the period of French colonial slavery.

Voodoo

The term Voodoo (Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the Dominican Republic) is applied to the branches of a West African ancestor-based Theist-Animist religious tradition. Its primary roots are among the Fon-Ewe peoples of West Africa, in the country now known as Benin (formerly the Kingdom of Dahomey), where Vodun is today the national religion of more than 7 million people. The word vodun is the Fon-Ewe word for spirit.

Wand

A branch or piece of wood used to channel energy, direct a cone of power or to invoke the deities.

Waning

The phase of the moon between Full Moon and New Moon. This is the  time for performing banishing magick.

Ward

A magical barrier used to keep unwanted beings out of a certain area

Warlock

A term coined in the Burning Times . It was used to denote a traitor to the Craft, or one who had betrayed the followers of the Old Religion. It's origin is Scottish. Because of the negative connotations, it is not used by most Wiccans today.

Watchtowers

Originally from the Enochian branch of Ceremonial Magick, now incorporated into many "Traditions" of Wicca, these are the four elemental "directions" or "quarters" (corresponding to the appropriate points on the compass) called to protect the Circle during its establishment. Each of them have a correspondence between the compass point, an element, and (varying amongst different traditions) color associated with them.

Waxing

The phase of the moon from New Moon to Full Moon. This is the time for magick that involves growth and increase

Wheel of the Year

One full cycle of the Wiccan year, divided into eight seasons celebrated with the Sabbats.

Wicca

1) A contemporary pagan religion with spiritual roots in the earliest expressions of reverence for nature and celebration of the Goddess and God. 2) It is thought that this term was originally coined by Selena Fox of the Circle Sanctuary in an effort to describe the modern religion of Witchcraft (as begun by Gerald Gardner in England in the 1950's).

Wiccan

Of or relating to WICCA.

Widdershins

Counterclockwise

Wise Woman

1) A person believed to be skilled in magic or local customs. (2) A solitary female practitioner of witchcraft who gave charms and healing salves to villagers in Europe.

Wita

Scottish Wicca.

Witch

A person who practices Witchcraft; Wiccan

Witch Ball

An 18th century tradition; a glass sphere hung in windows to ward off evil spirits. This is where the Christian concept of the Christmas tree ornament came from.

Witchcraft

The craft of the Witch. Magic, especially magic utilizing PERSONAL POWER in conjunction with the energies within stones, herbs, colors, and other natural objects. While this does have spiritual overtones, witchcraft, according to this definition, isn't a religion. However, some followers of WICCA use this word to denote their religion. Spell-casting.

Witta

Irish Wicca.

Wizard

From the Old English “wys-ard,” meaning “wise one.” Originally may have referred to anyone whose wisdom was respected; later came to mean a male witch; now used to mean a powerful and wise magician.

Word of Power

A word or name which is supposed to have great power when spoken, most are almost impossible to pronounce and have no meaning in any language.

Working, Magickal

Any act involving magick or ritual.

World Tree

This tree links all the worlds of Norse myth together, and has various creatures living among its roots and branches.

Wort

An old word meaning ‘herb.’ Mugwort preserves the term. A word stemming from the Old English wyrt, meaning a plant or herb. It is used chiefly in combination: mugwort and Saint John's wort are two examples.

Wyrd

Fate personified; one of the three Weird Sisters

Yggdrasil

In Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil (pron. ig'dra-sil; Old Norse: Yggdrasill) also sometimes called Mimameid or Lerad was the "World tree", a gigantic tree, thought to connect all the nine worlds of Norse cosmology. It is often suggested to be an ash tree, an interpretation generally accepted in the modern Scandinavian mind. Another possibility is that the tree was formerly conceived of as a yew, consistent with its Eddic attribute of being evergreen.

Yule

A Sabbat marking the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21) celebrating the rebirth of the God

Yule Log

The Yule log comes from the Yule festival, which gave rise to many other popular Christmas traditions. The word Yule means wheel, a symbol representing the sun, and the yuletide was a festivity celebrating the fact that the days would now start to get longer and warmer again. The Yule log was a huge log (sometimes an entire tree) that was burned slowly throughout these days to herald the birth of this new sun.