The New Encyclopedia of the Occult - Softcover

Greer, John Michael

 
9781567183368: The New Encyclopedia of the Occult
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1567183360 ISBN 13: 9781567183368
Verlag: LLEWELLYN PUB, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

From "Aarab Zereq" to "Zos Kia Cultus," this is the most up-to-date, comprehensive guide to the history, philosophies, and personalities of Western occultism.

Written by an occult scholar and practitioner with the assistance of hundreds of experts in the field, this volume presents the latest in scholarly research and points out errors in previous writings-revealing truths much more interesting and dramatic than the fictional histories that obscured them.

The New Encyclopedia of the Occult is an invaluable reference guide to magic, alchemy, astrology, divination, Tarot, palmistry, and geomancy; magical orders such as the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucians; important occultists; and religions and spiritual traditions associated with occultism such as Wicca, Thelema, Theosophy, and the modern Pagan movement.

Praise:
"This is an important source for libraries to have in their collections to assist anyone seeking information about the many aspects of occult traditions."—Booklist

"Greer delivers a well researched, informative, and unbiased encyclopedia...Highly recommended for all public libraries and where interest merits."—Library Journal

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

One of the most respected writers and teachers in the occult field today, John Michael Greer has written more than fifty books on esoteric traditions, nature spirituality, and the future of industrial society. An initiate in Druidic, Hermetic, and Masonic lineages, he served for twelve years as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA). He lives in Rhode Island, USA with his wife Sara. He can be found online at www.EcoSophia.net.

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A

A... A... SEE ARGENTEUM ASTRUM.

Aarab Tzereq. (Hebrew AaRB ZRQ,“ravens of dispersion”)
In Cabalistic teaching, the Qlippoth or demonic
powers corresponding to Netzach, the seventh Sephirah
of the Tree of Life. Their traditional form is that of
demon-headed ravens emerging from an erupting volcano,
the latter itself a demonic power named Getzphiel.
Their cortex or realm in the Kingdom of Shells is
Theumiel, and their archdemon is Baal Chanan. SEE
QLIPPOTH.

Aatik Yomin. (Hebrew AaThIK IVMIN) “Ancient of
Days,” a title of Kether. SEE KETHER.

Ab. (Hebrew AaB,“darkness, obscurity”) In the Cabala,
the secret name of the world of Atziluth. The numerical
values of its letters add up to seventy-two, which is also
the sum of IVD HIH VIV HIH, the spelling of the
Tetragrammaton in Atziluth. SEE ATZILUTH; TETRAGRAMMATON.

Abaris. According to legends recounted in ancient
Greek sources, a Scythian magician who possessed a
magical arrow that he could ride through the air. He was
said to have lived in the time of Pythagoras, the Greek
mathematician and mystic, and visited the latter at his
school in Crotona, Italy. Writers from the eighteenth
century onward converted Abaris into a Druid, as part of
a claim that Pythagoras had studied with the Druids (or
vice versa). SEE DRUIDS; PYTHAGORAS.

Abba. (Hebrew,“father”) In Cabalistic symbolism, a title
of the Sephirah Chokmah, and also of the first letter of
the Tetragrammaton. SEE CHOKMAH; TETRAGRAMMATON.

Abbadon. (Hebrew ABDVN,“destruction”) The name
of a demon, whose attributes have been variously described,
or of a part or level of hell, defined with equal
variability. In Cabalistic lore, Abbadon is the name of the
sixth hell, which corresponds to the Sephirah Chesed.
SEE HELLS, SEVEN.

Abel. The second son of Adam, according to the Book
of Genesis, slain by his brother Cain. In Gnostic
thought, Abel became the original of the “psychic” class
of humanity, those who had the potential to achieve
gnosis but did not have gnosis innately. SEE GNOSTICISM.

Abracadabra. A traditional word of power, used by
Western magicians from classical times to the present.
Written in the following way, it was used in talismans to
cure fevers and asthma:
ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A
In recent times, Abracadabra has mostly been used by
stage magicians. English mage Aleister Crowley (1875–
1947) altered the spelling to make it fit his new magical
religion of Thelema, and in this new form the word has
been much used in the Thelemite community; SEE
ABRAHADABRA. SEE ALSO BARBAROUS NAMES.

Abrahadabra. Aleister Crowley’s reformulation of the
older magical name Abracadabra, rewritten to place the
name Had—the shorter form of Hadith, the second person
of the Thelemite trinity—at its center. SEE CROWLEY,
ALEISTER; THELEMA.

Abramelin the Mage,The Sacred Magic of. A grimoire
preserved in a single eighteenth-century copy in the Bibliotheque
de l’Arsenal in Paris. Written in French, it
claims to be a translation of a Hebrew original dating
from 1458, although scholars have cast doubt on this
claim.
According to the long preface, it represents the teachings
of a Jewish magician named Abramelin, passed on by
him to his student Abraham, and by the latter to his son
Lamech. These teachings, which Abraham describes as
the only valid magical system in the world, require the
student to devote six months of prayer, repentance, and
ritual to obtain the “Knowledge and Conversation of the
Holy Guardian Angel.” After this accomplishment, the
student gains the power to command evil spirits through
talismans composed of letter combinations.
The Sacred Magic was rediscovered in the late 1890s by
Golden Dawn founder Samuel Mathers (1854–1918), and
Mathers’ English translation was published in 1898. It has
had a major impact on magical thinking ever since, especially
through its influence on Aleister Crowley (1875–
1947), who used it as the template for much of his own
understanding of magic.To this day the idea that magic is
or should be directed toward the knowledge and contemplation
of one’s Holy Guardian Angel—a concept not
found outside this work in older sources—is commonplace
in magical writings.
The book itself, however, developed a sinister reputation
among occultists in the early part of this century.
Dire accidents and mental imbalance were held to have
befallen many of those who owned a copy of the original
printing, or who tried to use the talismans contained in
it. SEE ALSO HOLY GUARDIAN ANGEL. FURTHER READING:
MATHERS 1974.

Abrasax. SEE ABRAXAS.

Abraxas. A popular magical deity in the ancient world,
Abraxas (also called Abrasax) was depicted on classical
amulet gems as a humanlike figure with a rooster’s head
and serpents for feet, wielding a charioteer’s whip. The
letters of his name in Greek add up to 365, the number
of days in a year, which marked him as a solar deity and a
lord of time. SEE GEMATRIA.
In modern times Abraxas has achieved a new popularity
by way of the writings of the psychologist Carl Jung,
who gave him a central place in his Gnostic work The
Seven Sermons to the Dead and elsewhere in his writings.
SEE JUNG, CARL GUSTAV.

Abred. In Druidry, one of the Three Worlds; the realm of
plant and animal life through which souls journey in the
course of their spiritual evolution. Each soul begins its
incarnations in the simplest form of single-celled organism,
and progress step by step, learning the lessons of
every kind of plant and animal life, until they reach the
human level, on the border between Abred and the
higher life of Gwynfydd. SEE DRUIDRY; THREE WORLDS.

Abulafia, Abraham. Jewish Cabalist, 1240–after 1292.
Born in Saragossa in Spain, he studied the Jewish scriptures
and Talmud with his father until the latter’s death in
1258. In 1260 he left Spain for the Holy Land, arriving
in the city of Acre, but the outbreak of war between
Christian Crusaders and Arabs forced him to leave. After
a short stay in Greece, he went to Capua, Italy, where he
encountered a distinguished rabbi, Hillel, who taught
him philosophy, particularly the writings of Moses Maimonides.
His travels took him to Rome and then back to
Spain, and it was in Barcelona, in 1271, that “God awakened
me from my sleep, and I learned the Sepher Yetzirah
and its commentaries,” as he noted in his autobiography.
This occurred under the guidance of Baruch
Togarmi, a Cabalist about whom almost nothing is
known. Abulafia’s spiritual awakening ushered in a period
of intense mystical experience, during which he
wrote several books on the mysteries of the Cabala,
teaching a highly idiosyncratic system of meditation on
combinations of Hebrew...

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Verlag
LLEWELLYN PUB
Erscheinungsdatum
2003
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1567183360
ISBN 13 
9781567183368
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
576
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar