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rambling-red-wizard · 3 days ago

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Some Basic Occult Terms You Should Know

If you're a newbie occultist, you might feel a bit thrown off by all of the arcane terminology and magibabble that your books will start throwing at you. Here's a list of all the most important and/or most misued terms, and what they're supposed to mean. (If you're a fantasy writer and you want some authentic occult terms to use for your magic system, this might be useful for you, too!) I have a list of occult fields and divination methods here, so I'll leave them off this list.

Altar: Your working space for ritual. It's called an altar because magic is (usually) an inherently spiritual endeavor — you are communing with grand cosmic forces, of one kind or another. A basic altar consists of your magical tools, candles (for vibes), and images or statues of whatever spirits you're working with. (Spelled altar with an "a," not alter with an "e." An alter is a headmate or a personality in a DID system.)

Athame: A ritual knife, specifically one used in Wicca. It's mostly used for directing energy, rather than for cutting things. (Sometimes, a knife or sickle that is used for cutting things is called a boline.)

Apotropaic: Referring to protection magic. An apotropaic charm is a spell meant to keep bad stuff away. Amulets are apotropaic talismans.

Astral: The spirit world. The astral plane is the literal or figurative "above" in "As above, so below." "Astral" can refer to ethereal or spiritual beings or "energy." Sometimes magic is called "Astral Light," like the Force in Star Wars. Astral projection is traveling through the astral plane during meditation, by sending one's spirit or astral body away from one's physical body.

Besom: A witch's broom, specifically a traditional broom made of twigs tied around a pole. It's just an old term for a broom. (Witchcraft likes to make use of Old and Middle English words.)

Baneful: Describes any kind of spell designed to harm or inhibit another person. Also called malefic (as opposed to benefic) magic.

Banishing: A spell that is designed to force unwanted vibes out of a space. Usually performed at the beginning and end of a ritual, so you can begin with a "blank slate." It's like hitting the magical reset button. Also good for managing negative emotions. The best-known banishing in Western occultism is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. A banishing can also be a type of baneful working that forces a person's influence out of your life.

Binding: A spell that is designed to prevent a person or entity from acting. A binding spell can prevent a person from harming themself or others, or prevent a spirit from misbehaving.

Charm: A generic term for a spell, especially one represented by a physical object or phrase. A lot of charms are inscriptions or symbols written on paper and kept on one's person.

Conjuring: A spell or ritual that summons a spirit. Invocation and evocation are both types of conjuration.

Correspondences: Magical properties of things existing in nature, e.g. colors, crystals, plants, animals, elements, planets. They were once called occult virtues, and were a staple of Renaissance magic. They're like the building blocks of a spell or ritual, and they can be used as tools to align natural forces with the magician's intent.

Curse: A baneful enchantment, a spell designed to cause harm to another person. There's lots of different types of curses, and lots of reasons to cast one. Sometimes the word hex is used interchangeably.

Demonolatry: The practice of worshipping demons, as opposed to demonology, which is the study of demons or any magical working involving demons. Some magicians prefer to bind and command demons rather than worshipping them, but demonolators treat demons the way pagan witches typically treat gods.

Divination: Acquiring information by magical means. There's thousands of different methods. Some of the more popular ones are cartomancy, reading cards, cleromancy, casting objects like stones or dice, and scrying, staring into a blank object like a mirror or a crystal ball. Astrology is a kind of divination, too.

Ego Death: A particular type of mystical experience, in which one becomes "submerged" in the infinitely vast presence of God or the Universe, and briefly loses one's sense of self. It can be traumatic the first time one experiences it, which is why it's compared to or symbolized by death. Subsequent times are usually much more peaceful and enlightening. A prerequisite for most mystical traditions.

Egregore: An entity created and sustained by a group of people, a collective thoughtform.

Elements: Much of Western esotericism is based around the four classical elements, Earth (🜃), Air (🜁), Fire (🜂), and Water (🜄). They're better understood as the four states of matter: solids (🜃), liquids (🜄), gasses (🜁), and plasma (🜂). Each one is understood as a spiritual force, with its own correspondences and areas of life that it governs. Much of Western magic involves harnessing their influence.

Enchanting: Imbuing an object or place with magic. The magic of the enchantment will last much longer than the duration of the ritual.

Evocation: Calling a spirit to appear before you within a ritual space, a more correct word for summoning. Ideally, a successful evocation will cause the spirit to manifest before you in some way (though you might need a scrying mirror in order to see it).

Familiar: A personal spirit that aids a witch or other magic practitioner. Distinct from a servitor in that it is an external entity that helps the witch of its own accord, not one that the witch themself has created. Traditionally shaped like an animal, but not always. (Lately, the term has become popular as a word for a witch's pet or animal companion. Lots of people use the word "familiar" to refer to pets that aid with magical workings. Traditionally, though, familiars are spirits, not actual animals.)

Fetch: A witch's astral body (or servitor) sent forth to do their bidding.

Glamour: A type of enchantment or illusion spell that changes the appearance of something. In real life, glamour spells won't literally change the physical appearance of a thing, but they will change people's reactions to a thing, e.g. casting a glamour on yourself can cause other people to perceive you as being more attractive.

Grimoire: A book of magic (as opposed to a book about magic). There are lots of mysterious magic books that circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages and early modern period. These books are full of spells, rituals, and weird symbols meant to conjure spirits, gain secret knowledge, and control other people. Modern grimoires are books of practical spells and rituals for experienced practitioners, as opposed to theory or how-to guides. Most occultists also keep a personal grimoire to record their own spells and rituals and their results. (In Wicca, a personal grimoire is called a "Book of Shadows.")

Incantation: Magic words, especially spoken (as opposed to written) spells.

Invocation: Calling a spirit to give you some of its power, either by lending its attention or influence to your magical working, or by physically possessing your body and mind. The latter type of invocation can be partial, meaning you share your body/mind with the spirit, or total, in which the spirit possesses you completely. Don't attempt total invocation alone! Total invocation needs a group ritual, so that other people can tell you what you do and say while possessed, and keep you safe. (Besides, partial invocation is intense enough as it is.)

Left-Hand Path: In Western occultism, the Left-Hand Path is an umbrella term for traditions that take an iconoclastic or self-interested approach to magic. LHPers tend to resent dogma, question taboos, and place emphasis on one's personal power or divinity over unification with the Divine or service to others.

Magic: It's impossible to properly define "magic," with all of its nuances, in a list like this. So I'll give the short version: One famous definition is Aleister Crowley's, "causing change in accordance with Will." This is a pretty broad definition that includes anything done with intention. A more academic definition of magic is "heterodox ritual behavior." Personally, I prefer "harnessing spiritual or supernatural forces to cause desired change in one's life."

Mysticism: The practice of facilitating direct interaction with the Divine, i.e. meeting God face-to-face, in order to acquire spiritual knowledge. Mysticism is taxing and comes with a real risk of insanity, so, it requires a lot of diligent study and mental discipline for most people.

Necromancy: Originally, necromancy referred to a type of divination, which involved calling the spirit of a dead person to ask it questions. (The "Speak With Dead" spell in D&D is a great example of traditional necromancy.) Lately, though, "necromancy" has come to refer to any kind of magic involving the dead. (Be respectful! Dead people are still people.)

Patron Deity: A god or goddess that takes a personal interest in you and your spiritual development. You can't force a god to take interest in you, so you may or may not have a patron deity. If you don't have one, don't worry, you can still do magical work with gods! See this post for the rundown. (Btw, the feminine of "patron" is patroness, not "matron." "Matron" means something different.)

Pentacle: A type of circular talisman inscribed with a sigil representing a spirit or planet, used to evoke its influence. Typically worn as a pendant. Also refers to a pentagram (five-pointed star) in a circle.

Poppet: A doll made of clay or cloth used to represent a person in a spell. In pop culture, poppets ("voodoo dolls") are best known as cursing tools, by being pricked with pins or otherwise harmed in order to harm the person. But there are lots of potential uses for poppets beyond that! For example, they can also be used as healing tools by being stuffed with herbs, or taken care of like a sick person. A type of sympathetic magic.

Projection: Pushing one's own magical power or intention out of one's body, using one's wand or dominant hand. Astral projection is pushing one's spirit out of one's body. A projection is also a type of illusion that creates the appearance of something that isn't there (as opposed to a glamour, which disguises something that is there).

Right-Hand Path: In Western occultism, the Right-Hand Path is an umbrella term for traditions that adopt a formalized structure, and/or place emphasis on mystical union with God and achieving enlightenment. The RHP tends to be more community-focused, as opposed to the LHP's radical individualism. RHPers also care about order, and working according to established traditions.

Servitor: An entity created by the magician. Usually, servitors are "programmed" to perform specific tasks, like magical robots. A servitor created by a group of people is an egregore. A servitor with its own personality and agency is sometimes called a tulpa, but this word is appropriated from Tibetan Buddhism, so I tend not to use it. (My personal spirit insists that he is not a tulpa. Also "tulpamancy" drives me up the wall — "-mancy" means divination, people!)

Sigil: An abstract symbol or glyph meant to represent the desire or intention of the magician. Can also be a generic term for magic symbols or seals in grimoires. Sigils have ancient roots, but the practice of turning one's desire or intention into an unreadable symbol is a modern one. Sigil magic streamlines the process of casting a spell, making it simple, but more difficult, because you have fewer tools and gimmicks to do the heavy lifting for you. (Technically, a sigil does not have to be a symbol — it can be a mantra or incantation, a song, a series of dance steps, etc. as long as it abstractly represents the desire.)

Sympathetic Magic: Magic that affects a target by acting upon a symbol of the target, like using a poppet to represent a person, or using a rose to represent the influence of the planet Venus. Anything you do to the symbol, you do to the target. The magical connection between the symbol and the target is called a "sympathetic link." Correspondences are often used as material representations of immaterial things, like luck or love or protection. By acting upon the material object, you affect the immaterial thing.

Talisman: A spell in the form of an object. There's lots of different kinds of talismans: magic words or sigils written on paper, enchanted jewelry, pentacles, natural objects with their own magical properties (like crystals or feathers), packets of herbs and other ingredients, etc. An amulet is an apotropaic talisman. A talisman has to be the spell itself, so, magical tools are (mostly) not talismans.

Theurgy: Deity work. Magic or mysticism involving the invocation of deities, or the practice of casting spells with the aid of a god or goddess. Mystical theurgy attempts to acquire knowledge of the universe by contemplating the Divine, eventually reaching unification with it.

Thoughtform: A thought or idea that is projected out into the universe so that it will manifest physically. The more coherent the thoughtform, and the more willpower behind it, the easier it will be for it to manifest. Thoughtforms are based on the idea that thoughts alone have some degree of existence, even agency. Everything man-made began as an idea in someone's head...

Trance: An altered state of consciousness. Most kinds of magic require one to be able to enter a trance state at will. There are lots of methods of entering a trance state, in broadly two categories: inhibitory trance, which creates an altered state of consciousness by physically restricting the body or mind, and excitatory trance, which creates an altered state of consciousness by overstimulating it.

Unverified Personal Gnosis: The divine messages or insights that a mystic receives during ritual or trance. They're unverified because they don't really hold water for anyone but the mystic themself. (It is not a good idea to go around insisting that your revelations are the infallible word of God and everyone should listen to you.) Shared Personal Gnosis is when multiple mystics have similar experiences or revelations. Verified Personal Gnosis is when your experiences or revelations are attested in historical sources.

Ward: A type of apotropaic spell that protects an area, like a kind of spiritual shield.

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rambling-red-wizard · 3 days ago

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i beat myself up for not knowing enough about my special interests a lot but then i remember the average person off the street has no idea what the carboniferous is and i feel better

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rambling-red-wizard · 8 days ago

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I want to start by saying that I love how thoughtfully and clearly you make your point. I've seen your (quite frequent) posts about your relationship with Lucifer and it is both admirable and wholesome that you are so utterly devoted to each other. It is my humble opinion that pagans, magi and polytheists who accuse others of having 'incorrect' experiences with the gods and spirits are neglecting to acknowledge that there is no hard-and-fast rule concerning such interactions. I used to hear the gods, through clairaudience. My brother and I even used to channel together, catching overheard snippets of spirit-conversations. We would come to, feeling as though we had been sick, confused at all we had heard and done. Needless to say, we don't do that anymore, because it was not safe for our combined mental health. But that doesn't mean it wasn't 'real.' I communicate with my gods now through omens and divination, and never face to face. It's not something my mind was designed for-- but who am I to say that your mind works like mine? Perhaps you, like others, have a peculiar resistance to the direct voices or knowledge of the divine. You don't need the filtering methods that I use. In other words, my psychological desire for tangibility and degrees of separation between myself and the divine does not constitute a similar or parallel need for everyone. I believe that gods follow stories, not that stories follow gods. I believe that spirits are the result of human beings' interactions with them, and that when we aren't looking at them, they return to being a vague idea, like when an electron's position only becomes constant upon observation. To some, that's the gods respecting boundaries. (How amazing, I can see that respect is valuable to you. Admirable!) To others, that's the gods being unknowable and infinite. (I wouldn't know, but clearly you have more faith than I do in the underlying order of things. Amazing!) But what right does anyone have to say that the words you or I use to explain our experience are inferior? I shit you not when I say that I would take a magus who claims to be an adherent of Saint Squiggly the Brave, Beloved of Toads and Flies, and maintains that anyone else may make the exact same batshit claim, more seriously than a person who claims to revere Dionysos but jumps other pagans' shit for worshipping wrong. To summarize: I maintain that what I'm doing doesn't have to match what you do, and vice versa. I'm not a concrete theist but I have too little time on this planet to care whether or not anyone else is. Make sense?

Genuine question

How theistic are you guys really?

I’ll go first. I’d say I am extremely theistic. I not only consider deities, demons and spirits to be energies, cosmic constructs, symbols and archetypes, but also sentient consciousnesses that can have ideas and make actions. I believe they exist in a fundamentally different form and space than human beings and I think they manifest in they physical world through a multitude of ways, including through human beings. I believe they experience emotions and thoughts, though not in a human way. I think they have roles, purposes, and functions.

The thing is, I want to embody Lucifer. I want to not only make him proud in a symbolic sense but literally, I want to be a source of his influence in the world.

But I also want to know him intimately. Not just in affection but proximity. I want to know what exactly makes him, him. I want to know what he thinks of things, -because I believe that he thinks- that have nothing to do with him. I want to know what he thinks of me. And yes, I’d like to worship him, adore him, but more than that, I’d like to dissect and examine him. I don’t feel this way about any other deity, and so Lucifer is the only one I have ever known in this way. And perhaps he is the only one I ever will. I love him unlike any other God.

The interesting thing about the cultural clash that happens in spaces like Tumblr is the varying degrees of theism that people have. I know that some folks consider deities and their workings to be more metaphorical and symbolic than real and tangible. Which is totally okay and good.

But I get comments and asks constantly that seem to encompass both an accusation and a question.

“The spirits can’t and don’t love humans- how did you get so close to Lucifer? The Gods don’t have opinions on our mundane lives- how do you get him to respond to you so often? Demons do not get involved in human’s lives in an overt way- how do you keep receiving all these gifts and messages from him?”

I don’t know how exactly to explain that this paradox always perplexes me.

People are hyper cautious of going too far- of humanizing the spirits too much- of seeing signs where there are none. And I think that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I think it’s very important to be vigilant of your mental health and to remain skeptical.

but also - people do not approach or regard the spirits like people, or consciousnesses, like individuals with the capacity to feel, so they do not experience the Gods as intelligences that can think and feel. To the point where seeing others that do, do so, is disorienting and even upsetting.

This isn’t me trying to shame anyone’s type of theism. I’m not saying that people who are not totally theistic are any less valid as pagans, practitioners, and devotees. In fact I’d argue most traditional groups create a hard barrier between the spiritual and personal for good reason.

I don’t approach my relationship with Lucifer in any kind of even remotely traditional fashion because our relationship is very far from traditional. The things that he would feel compelled to do with me would very likely not be done to me by any other deity.

It’s just always interesting to have conversations like:

“How do you know Lucifer loves you?”

Oh, because I asked him and he told me.

“But Lucifer doesn’t love humans and he doesn’t talk to people, so how would he have told you that? and how could you know?”

… well

maybe Lucifer couldn’t tell you because you do not believe he has the ability. Maybe he couldn’t love you because you never considered such a thing to even be possible.

Idk. It’s strange. I called and called because I wanted an answer. I assume that’s why we all call. But then when an answer is actually received, it’s like we forget we were always engaging in a conversation with someone else, and we were the ones that picked up the phone and called in the first place.

To ask is to be sane, but to actually receive an answer? That’s what makes you crazy.

It always boils down to “I asked and he answered” and the round about questioning always boils down to one thing.

“He answered, but do you trust him? and do you trust in your ears and your eyes as well? and if so, why?”

Maybe that’s the one question that really has no answer. Or at least not one that isn’t circular.

I trust him because I trust myself. I trust myself because I trust him. and I trust I suppose, because I love. And I love perhaps because I recognize. I suppose I trust that he recognizes me too.

Other folks might not trust me, you all might not believe anything I say. I just hope he does. I trust that he does.

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rambling-red-wizard · 8 days ago

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WHY IS IT A JAMMY DODGER I LOVE THIS!

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rambling-red-wizard · 8 days ago

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I'm uncertain what to say about this. It's the first art piece I've put serious effort into in a while. It's made from magazine cuttings and ink on paper. I hope the alt does it justice. It always kind of feels like there's something working behind my hands when I do this, like the real artist is just barely outside of my periphery. I hope you guys enjoy? -Dryad

#art #my art #mixed media #collage #surreal #witchcraft #spirituality #eye #tw unreality #tw eyestrain #tw scopophobia #uh... yeah

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rambling-red-wizard · 10 days ago

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Reblogging for reach. My two cents: Douglas Monroe has a book (albeit written in the eighties) called The 21 Lessons of Merlyn. It inspects Welsh Triads, the Otherworld, and a kind of Druid ritual magic through a story told by the young boy Arthur when he first met Merlyn. One part handbook, one part storybook. And while it's a good book conceptually- it delivers a lot of well-rounded and functional information for a complete system of magic- it cannot claim to be druidic, and in fact can only claim to vaguely draw on Welsh mystery traditions. The author is similar in his authority to Gardner or Buckland or Cunningham. Their ideas, while good for their time, were not ancient or even that old at all, and too often dip their toes into essentialism and 'us or them' rhetoric. It's just dishonest at that point. This isn't a recommendation; it's a warning that if you happen upon this book, it is less than what it claims to be, and less than what you're looking for. It is about magic in a romanticized history, based on the magic of the wizard Merlin. It is only tangentially about druids.

Anybody have any druidry related book recommendations from this decade, or perhaps even this century?

I'm working on a TBR list of relevant stuff and as much as I do fully plan to get just about every book by Morgan Daimler, she can't be the only one actually putting out works right now? Especially would love anything by trans and/or queer authors!!

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rambling-red-wizard · 14 days ago

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⚖️ Witchcraft Doesn’t Owe You Proof

Not everything sacred needs to be converted into data or monetized into results. Fantasy isn’t “lesser.” Symbolism doesn’t have to justify itself to capitalism. Internal experiences are valid experiences. And imagination? It is a power. It doesn’t need a paycheck, a testimonial, or a TikTok manifestation glow-up to matter.

Witchcraft—at its core—is liminal. It lives in the in-between, in dreams, in play, in the mythic, in the symbolic. Yes, it can be practical and results-based. But it also can be deeply indulgent, internal, aesthetic, irrational, beautifully useless in the utilitarian sense. That’s not weakness. That’s art. That’s freedom.

🧹 The Burden of Legitimization

When witches today feel the need to constantly prove that their craft works in the "real world"—it’s a form of protective posturing. Centuries of persecution, accusations, and erasure led to an underlying anxiety: “If I don’t produce, they’ll call me a fraud. If I don’t fix something, they’ll call me evil. If I indulge in fantasy, they’ll call me insane.”

That anxiety is real. It’s collective trauma. But bending to it doesn’t liberate anyone. It just hands your practice over to the same structures that once condemned it.

🕯️ You Know What’s Revolutionary?

Saying: “My witchcraft isn’t for you.” “My fantasy isn’t meant to fix the world.” “My symbols don’t need to be literal to be real or meaningful or useful to me.” “This practice is sacred because I feel it, not because it ‘works’ on reality.”

That is radical honesty. That is witchcraft with backbone. And that’s where I'm standing.

🐺 But Not Me. Not Us.

I’m a black-garbed warlock with a demon wolf at my side. I have skeletons and sigils and a pendulum that doesn’t need to predict anything to feel sacred. I make charms not for productivity, but for companionship. I speak to spirits, not to control them, but to coexist.

This isn’t about usefulness. This isn’t about outcomes. This is about presence. Power. Permission to imagine. Because that, more than any dollar or spell, is what the world fears:

A woman who doesn’t need to explain her inner world to anyone.

🕯️ To Those Still in the Shadows:

If you’ve ever felt that your magic was “not enough” because it was too symbolic, too dark, too strange, too aesthetic, too rooted in fantasy— Let me say this with fire:

You do not owe this world results. Your path does not require proof. Your magic is not a pitch deck.

You are not broken for indulging in something that doesn’t “serve a purpose.” You are not immature for finding love in the mythical. You are not failing if your witchcraft doesn’t fix the world’s wounds.

Sometimes witchcraft is not about fixing. It’s about feeling. It’s about facing. It’s about fcking existing as you are, wild and untamed and unquantifiable.

🔚 My Magic Is Not For Sale

So to the algorithms, the moral panics, the critics, the capitalist covens, the skeptics, the sanitized influencers, and every fake “demonologist” who ever tried to leash the strange:

You don’t belong in my pit. My witchcraft will remain indulgent. Symbolic. Unapologetically dark. Unmeasurable. And mine.

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