Useful Words and Phrases for the Interdimensional Traveler
Copyright © 1971, 2005 c.e., Isaac Bonewits
Absorption:
An antipsi talent for absorbing the power out of psychic energy fields, including those around other beings. See Tapping and Vampire, Psychic.
Achromatics:
The “colors” black, grey and white; used occasionally to refer to moralistic schools of occultism.
Active Ritual:
One in which those persons raising and focussing the psychic energies are not the main targets intended to be changed.
Active Talent:
A psychic talent that involves the discharge of energy or data from the agent to the target.
Adept:
One who is very skilled in magic or mysticism.
Agent:
The person or animal exercising a psychic talent.
Air:
One of the main “elements” in occultism; associated in the West with thought, knowledge, yellow, blue, swords, activity, daring, light, communication, heat, dampness, etc.
Akasa or Akasha:
One of the “elements” in Indian and Tantric occultism, equivalent in most ways to the “ether” concept and/or that of “astral” matter.
Akasic Records:
A concept in Indian metaphysics, of a gigantic repository of all the memories of every incarnation of every being; some gifted ones are said to be able to “read” these records (possibly through retrocognition or the clair senses) and to gain data about past events. See Switchboard.
Amplification:
A psi or antipsi talent for boosting the power levels of psychic energy fields.
Anachronism:
Something that appears to be from a time period other than the one in which it is perceived; as in medieval knights and ladies in modern America or astronomical computers in the Stone Age.
Angel:
A personification of what we consider good or pleasant. In theoilogy, a being just below the main god(s) in power for good. In some magical systems, a sort of “psychic robot.”
Angelology:
Medieval science of studying angels. Question: how many angels can dance on the head of a photon? Answer: give the physicists who are working on quantizing consciousness another decade or two.
Animal-Psi or Anpsi:
A little-used term for psychic phenomena involving the interactions of animals with humans, each other and the environment.
Animism:
The belief that everything is alive. The Law of Personification taken as a statement of universal reality rather than as one of psychic convenience.
Anthropomancy:
Divination from human entrails.
Anti-Psi or Antipsi:
A categorical term for several genuine psychic talents that (for the most part) serve to frustrate, avoid, confuse, destroy or otherwise interfere with the operation of normal psi; they can affect the power and/or information content and/or vector of psi fields within range.
APK:
See Atomic Psychokinesis.
Apopsi or Avoidance:
An antipsi power that appears to generate an energy field into which no external psi field can penetrate; may work through transmutation, retuning or aportation; may interfere with internal psi fields as well.
Aportation:
A PK talent involving the seemingly instantaneous movement of an object from one location in space-time to another, apparently without going through the normal space-time in between. See Teleportation.
Archetype:
(1) Original astral form of a phenomenon; (2) In the psychology of C. G. Jung, an inherited idea or mode of thought derived from the experiences of the species and present in the unconscious of the individual who picks it up from the collective unconscious of the species.
Asceticism:
A method of altering the state of one’s consciousness through the avoidance of comfort and pleasure; when extreme, may become masochism.
Aspect, Astrological:
An angle formed between two items on an astrological chart.
Assimilation:
A technique of psychic healing involving the picking up of a patient’s pain and/or illness by the healer, who experiences it personally for a short time, after which it is supposed to vanish in both patient and healer; may also be done accidentally.
Association:
Connection or correlation between two or more objects, ideas or beings; thus forming a pattern.
Association, Law of:
“If any two or more patterns have elements in common, the patterns interact ‘through’ those common elements and control of one pattern facilitates control over the other(s), depending (among other factors) upon the number of common elements involved.”
Astral Planes:
Subjectively real “places” where some astral projectors perceive themselves as traveling; said to be multiple “levels” of (a) material density in the same space, and/or (b) awareness and concentration.
Astral Projection:
An OOBE or Psi talent that may involve traveling GESP with the image of a body and/or the separation of a “less dense” body from the normal physical one.
Astrology:
Divination through the correlation of earthly events with celestial patterns.
Athame:
Ritual dagger used by Neopagan Witches, borrowed by Gerald Gardner from medieval grimoires. Probably was originally “athane.” May be pronounced as “ATH-ah-may” or “ah-THUH-may” (it's all “ah-THAYM” to me).
Atomic Psychokinesis or APK:
Psychokinesis done upon the molecular, atomic or subatomic levels; a subcategory of PK.
Augury:
Divination by means of whatever is most handy at the time.
Aura:
One or more energy fields supposedly generated by and surrounding all beings and many objects; those persons blessed with clairvoyance or other psychic talents can “read” the patterns of energy and determine information about the person or object. See Kirlian Photography.
Belle Indifference:
Lack of interest or concern on the part of a “hysteric” or RSPKer towards unusual events occurring in or around him or her.
Beltane:
Celtic fire festival beginning the summer half of the year; starts at sunset on May 4th and is also known as Bealtaine, Galan- Mai, Roodmas, Walpurgistag, St. Pierre’s Day, Red Square Day, etc. Celebrated by most Neopagans and many Marxists as a major religious holiday.
Bibliomancy:
Divination through the random selection of words or phrases taken out of books, especially the Bible.
Biocurrents:
Electrochemical energy currents generated by living cells.
Biological Radio:
One Russian term for telepathy.
Biophysics:
The physics of biological phenomena.
Bit:
From “binary digit,” a unit of data equal to the result of a choice between two equally probably alternatives, used in computer technology. Eight bits usually equals one “byte.”
Black Magic:
A racist, sexist, creedist and classist term used to refer to magic being done for “evil” purposes or by people of whom the user of the term disapproves.
Blessing:
The use of magic to benefit an object or being.
Bon:
The native Tibetan religion that later merged with Buddhism and Tantrism.
Bonding Control:
A PK talent involving the creation and/or alteration of bonding patterns on the intermolecular, interatomic and subatomic levels; thus causing disintegration or cohesion. See Geller Effect.
Boomerang Curse:
Spell designed to make an attacker suffer the effects of whatever hostile magic they may have launched at the user; a variation of the “mirror effect,” probably operates through reddopsi.
Buddhism
A variety of religions founded by a man named Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha (“Enlightened One”). An outgrowth of Vedic Paleopagan mysticism, rooted in the “Four Noble Truths:” (1) Existence is suffering, (2) Suffering is caused by desire, (3) Desire can be overcome, (4) by following the Eightfold Path (right belief, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation).
Cabala:
See Kabbalah.
Cartomancy:
Divination through the use of cards, especially Tarot Cards.
Casting Runes:
(1) Divination through the use of small objects which have been inscribed with runic letters. (2) A method of focusing or firing a spell through the carving or writing of runes.
Catapsi:
An antipsi talent for the generation of strong fields of psychic static, frequently at such high intensity that all other psi fields within range are disrupted and/or drowned out, usually with the information content of those fields collapsing first.
Cause and Effect, Law of:
“If exactly the same actions are done under exactly the same conditions, they will usually be associated with exactly the same ‘results’.” Good luck with those “exactlies!”
Cellular Psychokinesis or CPK:
A subcategory of PK, involving the use of what is probably several different APK talents in order to psychically affect the structure and behavior of living organisms, working primarily on the cellular level.
Centre or Center, The:
Point of intersection of various planes or modes of existence, including space and time, and which can be used for (at least subjective) transportation between them.
Ceremonial Magic:
Schools or methods of magic which place their emphasis upon long and complex rituals, especially of the Medieval and later European traditions; often degenerates into ritualism.
Chakras:
Several psychic centers of power associated with different parts of the human body in Tantric systems of anatomy.
Chalice:
Cup used in rituals and usually associated in western occultism with “element” of Water (though it often contains more potent fluids).
Circuit:
A pattern or connection between whole or partial metapatterns within the Switchboard; often may be (or be associated with) an archetype, deity or other spirit.
Clairaudience:
ESP input as if it were normal hearing, without the medium of another mind.
Clairempathy:
A term I once tried to get people to use instead of “psychometry,” but which I am no longer using myself.
Clairgustance:
ESP input as if it were normal tasting, without the medium of another mind.
Clairolfaction:
ESP input as if it were normal smelling, without the medium of another mind or of a cosmetics company.
Clair Senses:
General term for all the forms of ESP that start with the prefix “Clair-.”
Clairtangency:
ESP input as if it were normal touching, without the medium of another mind.
Clairvoyance:
ESP input as if it were normal seeing, without the medium of another mind; often used as a term for clair senses, psychometry and/or precognition. See Remote Viewing. Classification:
Association of some phenomenon into a predetermined pattern or class of phenomena.
Cleric:
A person who uses both passive and active talents and rites for both thaumaturgical and theurgical purposes, for personal and public benefit.
Cold Control:
The use of temperature control to freeze or thaw objects or beings.
Color:
An interpretation of the ways in which photons hit your eyes; one way to see the difference between two objects of identical size, shape, distance and illumination.
Color Classifications:
Sets of associations between various colors and particular concepts, interests or acts.
Computer:
A network of electronic gates and memories that processes data; an unimaginative but very logical problem solving machine; a magnificent slave and miserable ruler; a great tool and toy for any technologically oriented occultist.
Cone of Power:
Term for the focusing of a group’s magical energies, visualized as a cone of psychic power based upon a ritual circle containing the participants (who are usually Neopagan or Feminist Witches). There is some confusion among various groups as to what exactly should be done with the energies at the moment of “firing.”
Contagion, Law of:
“Objects or beings in physical or psychic contact with each other continue to interact after spacial or temporal separation.”
CPK:
See Cellular Psychokinesis.
Craft, The:
(1) Old term used by Freemasons to refer to their activities and beliefs. (2) Current term used by Neopagan, Feminist and some other modern Witches to refer to their activities and beliefs.
Critique:
A calm and unbiased evaluation of the structure and performance of a ritual, not usually done in American occult groups thanks to internal politics and delicate egos.
Crystallomancy:
Divination through the use of (usually) spheres of quartz crystal, glass or plastic as focussing devices.
Cult:
Any secretive religious, magical, philosophical or therapeutic group of which the user of this term does not approve. See the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame.
Curse:
The use of magic to harm an object or being.
Cybernetics:
Comparative study of the autonomic control system formed by the brains and nervous systems of human and other animals, as well as electro-chemical-mechanical devices and communications systems.
Dactylogy:
Finger signaling system of language (such as Ameslan) used by deaf and mute persons; can also be used as powerful mudras in rituals.
Dactylomancy:
Divination by means of finger movements upon tripods, planchettes, pendulums, Oui-Ja Boards, etc., or through the use of finger rings.
Daemon:
A “supernatural” spirit or being in ancient Greek religion and philosophy, far below the Gods in power for good, evil or neutral purposes; probably the actual sort of “demon” conjured by Goetic magicians.
Dagger:
A ritual knife used for severing psychic bonds, exorcising, cursing and/or initiating.
Damping:
A psi or antipsi talent for lowering the power levels of psychic energy fields.
Data:
Information or concepts of any sort.
Definition:
The meaning of a word; the classification pattern that it fits into during the time period and for the given population involved.
Deflection or Bouncing:
An antipsi talent for altering the force vectors of incoming psi broadcasts, thus “bouncing” them away.
Deity:
(1) The most powerful sort of “supernatural” being. (2) A powerful pattern in the Switchboard. (3) The memory of a dead hero(ine) or magician. (4) An ancient visitor from outer space. (5) An ancient visitor from inner space. (6) All of the above?
Demon:
(1) A personification of what we consider to be evil or unpleasant (often repressed guilt feelings). (2) A nonphysical entity of a destructive and evil nature opposed to the will of the God(s), such as Maxwell’s.
Demonology:
Medieval science of studying demons.
Density Control:
A PK talent for increasing or decreasing the density of an object or being.
Devil:
A minor spirit perceived as a force for evil.
Devil, The:
“Heir of Man,” originally the Evil God of the Zoroastrians; later a creation of Christian and Islamic theologians (who called him Satan and Shaitan) consisting of old fertility gods, wisdom spirits and nature elementals combined with Ahriman into a figure of terror and malevolence fully equal to that of that Good God (Jehovah or Allah); the deity worshiped by Neogothic Witches.
Dharanis:
One phrase creeds or statements of belief, often used as mantras, such as “E = mc2.”
Dhyana:
Tantric trance, possibly a form of hypnosis.
Difficult Passage:
A common mythological motif involving a hard transition or journey from one state or location to another through impossibly dangerous or paradoxical territory.
Discipline:
Training or experience that corrects, molds, strengthens, or perfects (especially) the mental faculties or moral character; noted primarily by its absence in American occult groups.
Disk of Shadows:
A grimoire or other magical text (especially one of witchcraft rituals) kept on a computer memory disk.
Divination:
The art and science of finding out hidden information about the past, present or future through the use of psychic talents.
Diviner:
Obviously, one who does divination.
Dowsing:
See Rhabdomancy.
Druids, Ancient:
From the root “dru-,” meaning “oak tree, firm, strong;” the entire intelligentsia of the Celtic peoples, including doctors, judges, historians, musicians, poets, priests and magicians; 99.9% of what has been written about them is pure hogwash.
Druids, Masonic:
Members of several Masonic and Rosicrucian fraternal orders founded in the 1700’s (and since) in England, France and elsewhere; some claim to go back to the original Druids.
Druids, Reformed:
Members of several branches of a movement founded in 1963 c.e. at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota; most are now Neopagans, though the original founders were not.
Dualism:
A religious doctrine that states that all the spiritual forces of the universe(s) are split into Good Guys and Bad Guys (white and black, male and female, etc.) who are eternally at war with each other
Dualistic Polytheism:
A style of religion in which the Good Guys and Bad Guys include several major and minor deities (though they may not always be called that by the official theologians); what most so- called “monotheisms” really are. Examples would be Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, and Christian Fundamentalism.
Duotheism:
A style of religion in which there are two deities accepted by the polytheologians, usually of opposite gender; all other deities worshiped are considered to be “faces” or aspects of the two main figures.
Dynamic Balance, Law of:
“In order to survive, let alone to become a powerful magician, one must keep every aspect of one’s universe(s) in a state of dynamic balance with every other one.”
Earth:
One of the main “elements” in occultism; associated in the West with matter, brown, black, pentacles, passivity, inertness, silence, food fertility, wealth, practicality, cold, dryness, etc.
Earth-Mother:
Female personification of the Life force, fertility of the Earth and its inhabitants. One of the most widespread deity concepts in the world (though far from universal); She is now worshiped in the West as Mother Nature.
Electric Control:
An APK talent involving the control of electricity and other electron phenomena. See Picachu.
Electrochemical:
Having to do with the interchanges between electrical and chemical energy, especially (in this text) those taking place in the body.
Electroencephalograph or EEG:
A machine that records electromagnetic activity in the brain (the so-called “brain waves”), usually upon a moving roll of paper.
Electromagnetic Spectrum:
The entire range of frequencies or wave-lengths of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves to the shortest gamma rays. Visible light is only a tiny part of this range.
Elementals:
Personifications of the four or five “elements” of Western or Eastern occultism; in the West these are “Gnomes” for Earth, “Undines” for Water, “Sylphs” for Air, “Salamanders” for Fire, and “Sprites” for Spirit.
Elementals, Artificial:
Term used by some Western occultists to refer to spiritual entities “created” by magicians, usually to perform specific tasks.
Elementals, Nature:
Term used by some to refer to various minor spirits inhabiting or associated with various natural phenomena such as trees, streams, rocks, dust storms, etc.
Elements, The:
A classification system based upon the division of all phenomena into four or five categories; in Western occultism there are Earth, Water, Air, Fire and sometimes Spirit or Ether (or in India, Akasha); in Chinese occultism these are Earth, Water, Metal, Fire and Wood.
Empath:
One who can use the psi talent of empathy.
Empath, Controlled:
Someone who uses psychometry and/or empathy and/or absorption, occasionally to the point of draining others of their psychic energy.
Empath, Total:
One who has trouble controlling their empathic and/or other passive psychic talents, and subsequently gets “overloaded” with data and power.
Empathy:
As I now use it, a type of telepathic reception limited to the perception of emotions; obviously this talent would tie in nicely with absorption.
Energy Control:
In Tantra, the control of biocurrents and their movements through the body; otherwise the control of energy in general.
Energy Field:
A continuously distributed something in space that accounts for actions at a distance; an area where energy does something. Don’t blame me for the vagueness of this definition; it’s a standard one used in modern physics.
Entity:
A being, spirit, living creature or personification.
ESP:
See Extrasensory Perception.
Ether:
A hypothetical “substance” filling all space and conveying waves of energy. See Space-Time Continuum.
Ethics:
(1) That part of philosophy and theoilogy dealing with matters of “right and wrong,” “good and evil,” etc. (2) A set or system of moral values. (3) Principles of conduct governing an individual or profession.
Ethnography:
Part of social and cultural anthropology emphasizing descriptions of individual cultures rather than cross-cultural comparisons; when engaged in by the untrained, often degenerates into scrapbooking.
Evocation, Law of:
“It is possible to establish external communication with entities from either inside or outside of oneself, said entities seeming to be outside of oneself during the communication process.”
Exorcism:
The severing or disruption of all unwanted psychic circuits and circuit potentials within a specific object, person or place; hence the dismissal of ghosts and spirits.
Exorcist:
(1) One who performs exorcisms. (2) A magician or psychic (often very religious) with strong talents for CPK, antipsi and the clair senses, who specializes in forcing or persuading unwanted psychic energies (including spirits) to depart from objects, persons or places.
Experiment:
A test of an idea or guess.
Experimental Design:
The way the test is put together, hopefully for maximum output of useful data.
Exponential Decay Function:
A “decaying” or “falling apart” function in which an independent variable appears as one of the mathematical exponents.
Extrasensory Perception or ESP:
The categorical term for several psi talents involving the reception of (usually) external data through other than the commonly recognized sensory means.
Faith Healing:
CPK and/or other psi talents interpreted as religious phenomena in curing.
False:
That which is improbable, unpleasant or inconvenient to believe.
Familiars:
Animals supposedly used by Gothic Witches and others to help them with their magic; often believed to be incarnated spirits or the messengers of noncarnate ones.
Fam-Trad:
Short term for “Familial Tradition.” See Witchcraft, Familial and Tradition.
Feedback:
Data returned as a reply or result, containing corrections and additions.
Filtering:
An antipsi ability to use apopsi, reddopsi or deflection selectively, thus stopping part of a psi broadcast or field while letting the desired remainder (usually part of the information content) through.
Finite Senses, Law of:
“Every sense mechanism of every entity is limited by both range and type of data perceived, and many real phenomena exist which may be outside the sensory scanning ability of any given entity.” The Supreme Being(s) may be excepted from this law.
Fire:
One of the main “elements” in occultism; associated in the West with flames, red, orange, wands or staves, activity, light, will, animals, energy, assertiveness, heat, dryness, etc.
Firing:
The discharge of psychic energy in a ritual, the timing of which is frequently critical.
Folklore:
The study of folktales and legends, a subject overlapping that of mythology.
Folktale:
Story handed down among a people, such as “Cinderella,” “Rumpelstiltskin” or “Our Leader Knows Best.”
Geller Effect:
One or more psi talents (probably including bonding control) that enable the user to bend metal objects without touching them, named after this century’s best known user, Uri Geller. The effect is real and has been done by Geller and others under impeccable laboratory controls, regardless of the tales told by Geller’s supporters and detractors.
General Extrasensory Perception or GESP:
A term used when two or more forms of ESP are operating at the same time.
Germ Theory:
(1) In Tantra, the theory that every entity has a germinal or root sound, the repetition of which can create that entity. (2) In the West, a folk belief that all diseases are caused by miniature demons called “germs” or “viruses.”
Ghost:
Personification of data received as the result of a plug-in to an individual metapattern within the Switchboard, and/or the spirit of a dead person or animal, still existing in a nonphysical manner, and/or something(s) else entirely.
Goal:
The general result one actually wishes to accomplish with a particular magical or psychic act. Compare with Target.
God or Goddess, A:
See Deity.
God or Goddess, The:
The particular masculine or feminine deity worshiped by a particular mono-, heno-, or duotheist.
“God or Goddess, Thou Art:”
A statement of divine immanence common among Neopagans, originally from Robert Heinlein’s book, Stranger in a Strange Land.
Godling:
A young or minor deity.
Goetia:
From words meaning “howling or crying,” the medieval books of ceremonial magic, such as The Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon.
Golem:
An artificial person given life by the carving of a Sacred Name upon his or her forehead and usually used as a slave. Has deeper meanings in real Hebrew Mysticism, in which we are all golems in some sense.
Graphology:
(1) An officially nonpsychic method of personality assessment based upon the study of handwriting samples. (2) A method of divination based upon the use of such samples as contagion links.
Gravity Control:
A psychic talent for altering the gravitational fields in a particular location, such as in a room or around an object or being.
Gray Magic:
Magic that is neither “black” nor “white,” hence morally neutral, at least according to those who use these quaint terms.
Grimoires:
So-called “Black Books” of (usually Goetic) magic, consisting of recipe collections, scrapbooks of magical customs, Who’s Who’s of the spirit worlds and phone directories for contacting various entities. Fairly useless unless you know enough Hebrew, Greek and Latin to correct all the mistakes.
Group mind:
A section of the Switchboard consisting of two or more metapatterns linked into an identity circuit. Term is used for those formed telepathically in rituals but can also be used to refer to mobs or other cases of crowd hysteria.
Gymnastics, Metaphysical
The fine art of leaping from an unverified assumption to a foregone conclusion, without traversing the logical space in between. See Theology.
Hallucination:
(1) Perception of objects or beings with no reality or not present within normal sensory scanning range. (2) Experience of sensations with no exterior cause, usually as a result of nervous dysfunction. (3) Perceptions not in accord with consensus reality.
Hallucination, Veridical:
One in which the content is essentially factual.
Hallucinogen:
A chemical or biochemical substance capable of inducing hallucinations when introduced into the human metabolism.
Hauntings:
Recurrent plug-ins to the Switchboard and/or perceptions of ghostly entities associated with a particular location or being.
Heathenism:
The religion of those who live on the heath (where heather grows). See Paganism.
Hedonism:
A method for altering the state of one’s consciousness through the experience of intense pleasures; when extreme, may become tiring.
Henotheism:
A polytheistic religion where one deity is the official Ruler and is supposed to be the prime focus of attention.
Hepatoscopy:
Divination through the use of animal innards (see Anthropomancy), especially livers. When done with French hens, usually indicates cowardice.
Heat Control:
The use of temperature control to start or stop fires and other heating phenomena, also called “psychopyresis.”
Hinayana (aka “Lesser Vehicle”) Buddhism
The oldest or most “orthodox” form of Buddhism, with deities demoted to very minor roles or completely absent.
Hixson’s Law:
“All possible universes that can be constructed out of all possible interactions of all existing subatomic particles through all points in space-time, must exist.”
Horoscope:
A two-dimensional chart of the way “important” parts of the sky look at a particular time and location, especially at birth, used in astrology.
Hyperapotheosis:
The promotion of one’s tribal deity to the rank of Supreme Being, as in Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
Hypercognition:
A categorical term for those psi talents consisting of superfast thinking, usually at a subconscious level, often using data received via ESP, which then reveals all or part of the “gestalt” (whole pattern) of a situation; this is then presented to the conscious mind as a sudden awareness of knowledge (or “a hunch”), without a pseudo-sensory experience. See Retrocognition and Precognition.
Hyperesthesia:
Excessive or pathological sensitivity of the skin or other senses; heightened perception or responsiveness to the environment; often mistaken for real ESP.
Hypnosis:
(1) As used in this book, an altered state of consciousness within which the following can occur at will: increase in bodily and sensory control, in suggestibility, in ability to concentrate and eliminate distractions, and probably in psychic abilities as well. (2) A useful word and tool for those who cannot conceive of nor practice real mesmerism.
Hypothesis:
Scientific term for wild guess, hunch, tentative explanation or possibility to be tested.
Iatromancy:
The divination of medical problems and solutions.
I Ching:
Chinese “Book of Changes;” key to sortilege system.
Identification, Law of:
“It is possible through maximum association of the elements of one’s own metapattern and those of another being’s to actually become that being, at least to the point of sharing its knowledge and wielding its power.”
Imaging or To Image:
Term for strong visualization of a concept being used for focusing.
Imbolg or Imelc:
Celtic fire festival beginning the second quarter of the year (or spring); starts at sunset on February 3rd and is also known as Candlemas, St. Bridget’s Day, Bride’s Day, Lady Day, etc. Celebrated by most Neopagans as a major religious holiday.
Impossible:
Unlikely, difficult, implausible, uncomfortable, new.
Incantation:
Words used in a ritual or spell, should always be chanted or sung.
Infinite Data, Law of:
“The number of phenomena to be known is infinite and one will never run out of things to learn.”
Infinite Universes, Law of:
“The total number of universes into which all possible combinations of existing phenomena could be organized is infinite.” See Hixson’s Law and Personal Universes, Law of.
Information Theory:
Study of communication.
Information Transfer:
Communication.
Initiation:
An intense personal experience, often of a death and rebirth sort, resulting in a higher state of personal development and/or admission to a magical or religious organization.
Input:
The way incoming data is interpreted or classified.
Instrumental Act:
One which is useful, even if for no other purpose than to relieve stress.
Interdisciplinary Approach:
The use of data and techniques from more than one art or science in order to analyze phenomena.
Invocation, Law of:
“It is possible to establish internal communications with entities from either inside or outside of oneself, said entities seeming to be inside of oneself during the communication process.”
Jargon:
Any technical terminology or characteristic idiom of specialists or workers in a particular activity or area of knowledge; often pretentious or unnecessarily obscure.
Kabbalah:
(1) A Hebrew word for “collected teachings,” referring to several different lists of books and manuscripts on various occult and mundane topics. Sloppy translations of a handful of texts in the Kabbalah of Mysticism, with Christian names and concepts forcibly inserted, are responsible for much of what is now called “Cabala” by western metaphysicians. If you can’t think fluently in Hebrew, you have no business trying to do Kabbalistic magic. (2) A general term for collections of magical and mystical texts from various cultures, thus “Greek Kabbalah,” “Arabic Cabala,” etc.
Kachina:
A (usually benevolent) supernatural being in Hopi religion; may be a personification of an aspect of nature, an ancestor, or something revealed in a dream.
Kama-kali:
Ritual sexual intercourse in Tantra.
Karma:
In many eastern religions, the load of guilt or innocence carried from one incarnation to the next, determining one’s lot in the next life; often used by American occultists as a general term for moral responsibility, as in “You can do that if you want to, but it’s your karma.”
Karma Dumping Run:
American occult slang for a ritual process of visiting someone’s “just deserts” upon them, by “concentrating the karma” they may have earned in their life (or recent past) and delivering it back to them in one brief period of time; usually done when someone is suspected of evil doing but proof is lacking, since it is considered a morally neutral way of stopping them.
Kinesis:
Physical movement including quantitative, qualitative, and positional change; sometimes movement caused by stimulation but not directional or aimed.
Kinetic Energy:
Energy associated with motion.
Kirlian Photography:
A lenseless electrical photographic technique invented by Russian parapsychologists S. D. and V. Kirlian in 1939 and which can be used to record energy fields around living or once living objects and beings. Although the “Kirlian auras” vary with emotional excitement and intent, there is as yet no proof that they are the same as the “psychic auras” traditionally seen by clairvoyants. Time will tell.
Klutzokinesis:
Term invented by Arlynde d’Loughlan to describe the use of CPK to make people more clumsy (or agile) through interference with neuron or muscle activities.
Knowledge, Law of:
“Understanding brings control; the more that is known about a phenomenon, the easier it is to exercise control over it.”
Koran:
The sacred book of Islam.
Ksana:
The “favorable moment;” a temporal Centre.
Law:
A statement of the ways phenomena seem to work.
Law of Magic:
A statement of the ways magical phenomena seem to work.
Laws, Law of:
“The more evidence one looks for to support a given law, the more one finds.”
Law, Sturgeon’s:
From science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon: “90% of everything is crud.”
Left-Hand Path:
(1) The people we don’t like who are doing magic. (2) Occultists who spend their time being destructive, manipulative and “evil” — or at least annoying.
Levitation:
A psi talent involving the combination of PK proper with Gravity Control and/or Mass Control in order to produce floating effects.
Light Control:
An APK talent for the control of photons.
Linguistics:
The study of human speech, including the units, nature, structure and development of language(s).
Litany:
Long prayer or incantation with constantly repeating refrain.
Lodges:
Groups of magical and mystical workers similar to (1) the old European guild systems, with apprentices, journeypeople and masters, or (2) church organizations with rank based upon goodness or evilness. In America at least, these are usually tiny, incompetent and riddled with internal and external warfare and politics.
Lughnasadh:
Celtic fire festival beginning the third quarter of the year (or fall); starts at sunset on August 6th or 7th and is also known as Lammas, Apple Day, etc. Celebrated by most Neopagans as a major religious holiday.
Mage:
A general term for anyone doing magic, especially of the active kinds; often used as synonym for “magus.”
Magi:
Zoroastrian priests. Later used for powerful magicians of any sort.
Magic:
(1) A general term for arts, sciences, philosophies and technologies concerned with (a) understanding and using various altered states of consciousness within which it is possible to have access to and control over one’s psychic talents, and (b) the uses and abuses of those psychic talents to change interior and/or exterior realities. (2) A science and an art comprising a system of concepts and methods for the build-up of human emotions, altering the electrochemical balance of the metabolism, using associational techniques and devices to concentrate and focus this emotional energy, thus modulating the energies broadcast by the human body, usually to affect other energy patterns whether animate or inanimate, but occasionally to affect the personal energy pattern. (3) A collection of rule-of-thumb techniques designed to get one’s psychic talents to do more or less what one wants, more often than not, one hopes. It should be obvious that these are thaumaturgical definitions.
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