How to Become a Witch by Amber K. (large ebook reader txt) 📗

of a goal through magickal means; also a rite of passage or a celebration of the seasons.

Ritual Tools: Any tools, such as an altar, an athame, a chalice, salt and water bowls, lamps of art, or a pentacle, used in ritual to aid younger self in becoming engaged.

Sabbat: One of the eight great holy days of Wicca and many other Neopagan religions, celebrating themes (such as birth, fertility, or death) related to the turning of the seasons of the year. They have more than one name each, but one set of names is Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnassad, Mabon, and Samhain. Not all traditions celebrate all eight.

Sacred Space: Of course all space is sacred, but the term usually refers to the area enclosed when the circle is cast. See also Casting the Circle.

Samhain: (sow’-wen or so-veen’) A sabbat usually celebrated October 31; traditionally the night the veils between this world and the next are thinnest. Witches often contact the spirits of the ancestors and/or their beloved dead at Samhain.

Scrying: The art of divination by gazing into a reflective surface such as a showstone; the images seen with the third eye, or psychic vision, can illuminate events or trends in your life.

Shadow Work: The emotional journey a Witch undertakes in order to confront and come to terms with “dark” issues such as pain, fear, illness, death, and grief. Such work is an ongoing part of a Witch’s spiritual growth.

Skyclad: Naked; clad only by the sky. Some Witches go skyclad at their rituals.

Smudging: Using incense, traditionally sage, to cleanse an area and people before a ritual.

So Mote It Be: Traditional words used at the end of a spell in order to seal and finalize it, to make it happen.

South: One of the directions corresponding to the elements, usually corresponding to fire.

Spell: A pattern or series of words and/or actions performed with magickal intent, or sometimes simply a spoken incantation or chant.

Spirit: The nonphysical, immortal component of an entity; the soul. With earth, air, fire, and water, one of the five basic components of All That Is; represented by the top point of the pentagram.

Summerland: The traditional destination for a Witch after death. It is said to be a state of being where one can rest and absorb the lessons of one’s most recent life before moving on to another incarnation.

Sun: Not simply the star that warms and lights our world, but also a symbol of success, expansiveness, spiritual illumination, and healing, as well as a powerful energy source for magick. In some religions, the sun is personified as a goddess (Amaterasu Omikami, Arinna, Bast, etc.) and in some as a god (Apollo, Ra, Helios, etc.).

Talisman: A drawn symbol or constructed item that is charged with a very specific energy and carried, worn as jewelry, or put in a special place. If carried on one’s person, its energy exerts a continual subtle influence on one; if placed somewhere, the emanation of its energy influences the immediate environment.

Tarot: A divination tool consisting of a deck of cards (in classic decks, seventy-eight) with powerful scenes or images representing various energies, processes, or spiritual conditions. They are divided into four suits (wands or rods, pentacles or disks, cups, and swords, usually) that make up the Minor Arcana, and twenty-two other cards that make up the Major Arcana.

Temple: An area reserved and sometimes decorated and equipped specifically for religious or magickal activities; also any area consecrated as sacred space, whether or not it is normally considered so.

Thaumaturgy: “Low magick” used to influence things and events in everyday life: to protect your house, get a job, heal your cold, travel safely, etc.

Theurgy: “High magick” employed to connect with Deity and foster spiritual growth.

Threefold Law: The idea that whatever you send out (energy, words, ideas, actions, either good or bad) will come back to you threefold. Also called the Law of Return.

Tradition: A branch or denomination of Wicca. There are dozens of traditions; most share common values but vary in their ritual practices and program emphases.

Wand: A stick traditionally about eighteen inches long, or “from elbow to fingertips,” often carved from one of the traditional sacred woods and used to channel power (attract or repel) and represent air or fire, according to various traditions.

Waning Moon: The period during which the visible part of the moon shrinks from full to dark; an appropriate time for spells of banishing, release, or cleansing.

Warlock: An oath-breaker or traitor. Mistakenly used by some cowans to mean a male Witch.

Water: Mixed with salt, may be used to purify; the bowl (or large shell) containing it is kept on the altar. Also the element that corresponds to the west, emotions, love, and intuition, and the colors light green, blue, and silver.

Waxing Moon: The period during which the visible part of the moon grows from dark to full; an appropriate time for spells for growth or increase.

West: One of the directions corresponding to the elements, usually water.

Wheel of the Year: The solar year and the sabbats that mark the turning of the seasons.

Wicca: A beneficent and magickal earth religion that celebrates immanent Deity, often in the forms of the Triple Goddess of the Moon and the Hornéd God of Nature; also called the Old Religion, the Craft, or Witchcraft.

Wiccan: A practitioner of Wicca, and the adjective form of Wicca, e.g., the Wiccan Rede.

Wiccan Rede: The ethics of the Craft are summed up in the Rede’s eight words: “An ye harm none, do as ye will,” meaning “As long as you do not harm anyone (including yourself), follow your inner guidance, your true will.”

Widdershins: Counterclockwise, the direction a magician moves around the circle when wishing to banish, remove, or release energy; the opposite of deosil.

Wise Woman: The female equivalent of cunning man, also often a midwife and healer; one who uses nature magick. Frequently an expert in the use of spells, herbs, and charms. A Witch.

Witch: A priestess or priest of the Old Religion, Wicca. Some Witches distinguish between themselves and Wiccans, but it is mostly semantics