Witchcraft Terms

Question	Answer
Mythology	Study of sacred origin stories Mythos: greek word for poetic language/metaphors
Cosmology	Study of cosmos/world view How you view the world and your part in it Derived from your mythology How you order things
Axiology	Value system Origin word: axiom - statements about how we should act Proverbs/Bumper stickers Sayings that encapsulate world view
Abrahamic Faiths/Peoples of the Book	Jewish, Muslim or Christians
Emic	Think: me How someone in a religion explains their own customs and ceremonies
Etic	Think: it Scholars outside of a religion explaining a religion's customs for study purposes
Witch (Classical, Historical sense)	(In the textbook there are 5 different groups that fall under this word unrelated to this definition) Typically: old, female, evil Disguised themselves as young Derived power from satan Something you're accused of being Women believed to be watery and therefore more vulnerable to satan
Immanent	Believed location of the deity is in the world, among the people Belief that God is embedded in the here and now
Transcendent	Belief that God is located above us Removed from the human experience and outside of human space **Immanent and Transcendednt can be complimentary
Magician/Wizard	Magi = wise Primarily: men, old, considered good Power was derived from knowledge Self-titled, often held court positions Example: Merlin
Sorcerer/ess	Latin word - sorc = fate Someone who tells your fate (or possible fates) Could be either male or female and any age Were neutral (not good or evil) Power comes from inheritance (7th son of the 7th son) or is taught Self-titled OR labelled
Culture	Shared, unified structures between groups of people Unspoken but agreed upon, learned since birth Defines your taboos Culture shock - "we're not in Kansas anymore" Things like: language, religion, clothing, gender roles, food What frames us as individuals
Taboo	"Ah don't do that" A prohibition so deep it illicits physical reaction from us Gut reaction The word itself comes from Polynesian culture NOT biological but taught
Hunter-Gatherers	defined by how many people are in a unit/there lifestyle Used either small animal traps or scientific techniques Smallest unit = 1 family, largest unit = 20 ppl No strict gender roles tbh Not random moving, but moved in ranges according to season Festivals where they could meet others Everything based on year cycles Functionality > art but functional things were made beautiful Egalitarian, respectful of animals No concept of money/ trade systems
Agrarian/Agriculturalist	Growing/Planting Fall: harvesting time Giving away of surplus of fruit and veggies Domestication of animals/Raising of animals to be placid Larger communities that are more stationary Hunting/gathering still happened but there was 1 home base Ceremonies about weather First Gods/Goddesses are weather or harvest ones (specialized deities rise) SUPPLECATION: to beg, ask, entreat
Monotheist	Belief in One God Example: Abrahamic Faiths
Polytheist	Many gods/goddesses Beginning in agricultural societies Religious flexibility, can worship other cultures' gods Gods and goddesses of a particular place would be recognized while on that territory
Pantheist	Belief in the existence of multiple gods/goddesses but would never pray to gods that weren't their own Example: ancient greeks **all pantheists are polytheists but not all polytheists are pantheists
Atheist	No God Not a historical religion
Urban	Larger areas where unrelated people lived close together Historically 5000 people would be a city Typically food not grown WITHIN city walls (farming done on peripheries) Some specialization in religion Language preservation began (priests/priestesses) Specialists of religion started - less connection between the divine and individuals
Linear Time	Movement of time is different by culture Religio-Historic narratives that move in a linear fashion Moves in one direction Gods > The beginning > Life > The end > Second coming *Lead to end of times/ a big change
Cyclical Time	When religious narratives are cyclical Example: Navajo story of emergence (pattern of people moving out from the core every 1000 years when they get further from God) Patterns of events in the world, adjusting customs in accordance Faiths can have cyclical customs despite having linear religio-historic narratives Holiday - holy days and celebrations (2 diff things)
Dark or Middle Ages	When witch craze is often believed to have happened despite this being not true
Reformation/Renaissance	When the witch burning craze kicked off "Glory years of European culture" Giant Catholic/Protestant divide/tension in Europe
Heresy	Following religion that goes against the "correct" Christianity Actions contrary to approved religion, according to that religion Religious groups did the prosecuting
Treason	Actions contrary to the health/safety/well being of the state Potential endangering of the state
Inquisition	Hunted down any act of heresy against the Roman Catholic church long before the witch hunts, but then they got really involved Other victims: Jews, Muslims, LGBT people, Romani people "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith"
Malleus Maleficarium	The textbook used by the Inquisition Used to control and repress Singled out women as susceptible to Satan's charms
Rites of passage	Move people from Stage A to Stage B in their lives Examples: baptisms, circumcisions, getting married, fasting and feasting
Liminality	In between stages of life Example: engagements Not always religious - a hallway is liminal space
High Magic	Primarily done by men in groups Use of logical processes/steps Scientific methods employed Paranormal phenomena Study of energies and forces Primarily done in urban spaces
Low Magic	Example: using herbs for healing Passed on in a community Primarily done by women More nature based and less scientifically motivated Primarily rural spaces
Correspondences	Relationships between two things that appear unrelated Spells are based heavily on the connection between different things Example: Romans would put garnet or amethyst stones in wine vats before parties bc the colour was supposed to suck out some of the alcholic properties High magic specializes this, low magic would just employ it Example: voodoo dolls
Kaballah	Big in Hollywood 20 years ago (Kaballah bracelets) Starts in North Africa Medieval Jewish mysticism (not mainstream) Dense reading based on pre-existing philosophies Key text: Zohar (book of splendour) Done by males over 40 because it was believed dangerous and taxing How God might have done what he did : Animating the inanimate
Golems	Come from the Zohar Figures from Jewish mythology, creatures created from clay and corpses Example: Frankenstein's Monster Not dead but not fully alive (liminal) Attempt at figuring out God's secrets
Alchemy	Philosopher's stone - changing lead into gold Changing 1 thing into another thing (unrelated to each other) Changing the ESSENCE of things Not about making money, still about the key to the universe About transformation (goes back to God making Adam again)
Numerology/Gematria	Trying to know what the future holds base on information left by Allah Essentially code cracking using numbering systems The number 18 = Life in hebrew Numerology attributes letters to numbers and moving these around to find new meanings
Aryan	History: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky joined the circus and got involved with the occult, creates THEOSOPHY Wrote about how we were all descendents from a master race of aliens that landed in Atlantis and then moved to Tibets and were the Aryans Hitler then sends people to Tibet to find this master race Are technically what we'd call Persians Aliens were written to be blonde, blue eyed and tall All the footnotes included in her book were fake (shocker) She was inspired by Darwin and Hitler was inspired by her
Lebonsborn	Eugenics breeding program Program to gave as many babies of pure blood as possible Young German girls were paired with SS studs essentially and these babies were taken and raised by the state Aryan-looking children were kidnapped and placed in Lebonsborn homes
Blood Flag	16 men became martyrs in Hitler's first attempted siege (called 16 immortals) Their blood got on the swastika flags and became the blood flag - a symbol of the movement Hitler's crucifix
Blood Religion	Created by Rosenberg who rewrote Germanic history Nordik myth which replaced Christianity Belief that the blood of the people carried soul of the race Hitler took this religion and expanded it There were ceremonies of the blood religion (run by Goebbels) for the dead martyrs, broadcasts were made of this
Swastika	Originally was a symbol of good luck in various religions (used in China and in Hindu and Buddhist faiths) Hitler co-opted the sign and made it a symbol of the Aryan race
Runes	Sacred alphabet given by Odin to mankind Norse mythology Believed to be mystical tools used for fortune telling The SS used these symbols a lot Members of the SS were given daggers with Runes on it in a ceremony given by Himmler himself
Black Propaganda	Nostradomus prophecies used by Goebbels for propaganda Predictions became part of German mystique Goebbels used the occult for propaganda Allies responded by forging their own black propaganda and smuggling it into Germany to undermine German morale

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