Wiccan, Witchcraft & Pagan Definitions 2

D-I

Days of Power: See Sabbat. They can also be days triggered by astrological occurrences - your birthday, a woman's menstrual cycle, your dedication/initiation anniversary.

Dedication: The process where an individual accepts the Craft as their path and vows to study and learn all that is necessary to reach adept ship. It is a conscious preparation to accept something new into your life and stick with it, regardless of the highs and lows that may follow.

Deosil: Clockwise, the direction in which the shadow on a sundial moves as the Sun "moves" across the sky. Deosil is symbolic of life, positive magick, positive energies.

Dirk: Ritual knife of the Scottish tradition.

Divination: The magickal art of using tools and symbols to gather information from the Collective Unconsciousness. This can be on people, places, things and events past, present, and future.

Divine Power: The unmanifested, pure energy that exists within the Goddess and God. The life force, the ultimate source of all things.

Dowsing: The divinatory art of using a pendulum or stick to find the actual location of a person, place, thing, or element.

Drawing Down the Moon: A ritual performed during the Full Moon by witches to empower themselves and unite their essence with a particular deity, usually the Goddess.

Drawing Down the Sun: Lesser-known and lesser-used companion ritual to Drawing Down the Moon in which the essence of the Sun God is drawn into the body of a male witch.

Duality: The opposite of polarity. When used as a religious term, it separates two opposites such as good and evil and places those characteristics into two completely separate God-forms.

Earth Magick: The energy that exists within stones, herbs, flames, wind, and other natural objects.

Earth Plane: Metaphor for your normal waking consciousness, or for the everyday, solid world we live in.

Elements: Usually: Earth, air, fire, water. The building blocks of the universe. Everything that exists contains one or more of these energies. Some include a fifth element- spirit or Akasha.

Elementals: Archetypical spirit beings associated with one of the four elements. Elementals are sometimes called Faeries.

Eleven: Secretive tradition of the craft which works closely with elemental beings.

Enchantment: A magickal object that must be kept absolutely secret and hidden from all human eyes and affects a hidden aura. They must be charmed first. Gems and magickal writing are good items to use.

Eostre's Eggs: Colored, decorated eggs of Ostara; named for the Teutonic Goddess Eostre.

Esbat: A ritual usually occurring on the Full Moon and dedicated to the Goddess in her lunar aspect.

Evocation: To call something out from within.

Faerie: See Elemental

Faerie Burgh: Mound of earth which covers a faerie colony's underground home.

Familiar: An animal that has a spiritual bone with a witch; many times a family witch. Familiars can also be entities that dwell on the astral plane.

Fascination: A mental effort to control another animal or person's mind. Also known as "mind-bending". Often considered unethical.

Folklore: Traditional sayings, cures, faerie tales, and folk wisdom of a particular locale which is separate from their mythology.

Folk Magick: The Practice of projecting personal power, as well as the energies within natural objects such as herbs, and crystals, to bring about needed changes.

Gaea/Gaia: Mother Earth.

God: Masculine aspect of deity.

Goddess: Feminine aspect of deity.

Grain Dolly: Figure usually woven at Imbolc from dried sheaves of grain collected at the previous harvest. The dolly is traditionally burned at Yule and a new one made the following Imbolc.

Great Rite: Symbolic sexual union (also sacred marriage) of the Goddess and God that is enacted at Beltane in many traditions, and other Sabbats in other traditions. It symbolizes the primal act of creation from which all life comes.

Green Man: Another name for the God

Grimorie: A magickal workbook containing ritual information, formulae, magickal properties of natural objects and preparation of ritual equipment. Often used interchangeably with Book of Shadows.

Grounding: To disperse excess energy generated during magickal work by sending it into the earth. It also means the process of centering one's self in the physical world both before and after any ritual or astral experience.

Grove: Synonymous with coven.

Guardians: Ceremonial magicians use the Guardians of the Watchtowers or Four Quarters. Some witches use them, too.

Hand Fasting: A Pagan wedding.

Herbalism: Art of using herbs to facilitate human needs both magickally and medicinally.

Higher Self: That part of us which connects our corporeal minds to the Collective Unconscious and with the divine knowledge of the universe.

Hiving Off: This term is used for a small coven which splits off from a larger one. Sometimes this is done to keep the gatherings of a manageable size, other times covens split over philosophical differences.

Horned God: One of the most prevalent God-images in Paganism. NOT Satan or the Devil!!!

Initiation: A process whereby an individual is introduced or admitted into a coven. Usually a ritual occasion. Not to be confused with dedication.

Incense: Ritual burning of herbs, oils, or other aromatic items to scent the air during acts of magick and ritual, and to better help the witch attune to the goal of the working.

Invocation: To bring something in from without.

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