Chymical Wedding

Here are a few of my definitions of some occult terms that may perhaps aid in reading my blog. Note that these are only intended to define my own personal use of these terms, and not to be universally applicable. I have tried, when possible, to provide corresponding more common terms for the same ideas for comparison. I’ll post more here and there as they come to me.

Akasha: Otherwise known as the Etheric Principle or Chaos, this is the force that many religions worship as God (and not unreasonably). Akasha is the Archetypal World or ha-Olam Atziluth of Kabbalah, and is often called Spirit by Western sources (though my terminology is different; see Spirit below). It is the Void out of which all things were created, and the realm of karma. In the individual, Akasha is one’s personal meaning.

Ceremony: Magically, a ritual which has great historical and cultural inertia; a ritual which has become cemented in form and function.

Chaos: See Akasha above.

Contemplation: The mental discipline of intense concentration on a single idea or train of thought.

Divine Law: Divine law does not mean that there is no Chaos, or that Chaos is evil or “anti-Divine”. Instead, it means that even Chaos is a creation and aspect of the Divine, and is subject itself to the Will and useage of the One Mind. Another important aspect of this Hermetic doctrine is that there is no such thing as a “miracle”; the Divine set up laws in Creation corresponding to the workings of Its own Mind and does not break Its own laws. All “miraculous” events are simply natural phenomena the laws of which have not yet been discovered or codified by human intellects.

Emenationism: The belief, feeling and idea that the universe, on every plane, is a manifestation of the Divine, created by and from the Divine. Every plane is itself a “condensation” or definition of some Divine concept, sacred force, or aspect of God.

Energy: In scientific terminology, energy is “the capacity for doing work”. That about sums it up magically, too, but an explanation may help. Magically and scientifically, energy is just what we call any force of which we don’t have a complete intellectual understanding. Electricity is as little understood as Reiki in the end; we know that electricity is a flow of electrons, but what is an electron? Etc.

Evocation: The external manifestation or projection of an entity or energy. A “ritual of evocation” is generally concerned with evoking a particular spiritual entity at an Astral or physical condensation.

God: The Divine. Sometimes manifests as specifically masculine or feminine, but not essentially either. See also Akasha.

Hermetic Philosophy: A panentheistic, emanationist philosophy founded primarily upon the concept of Divine, universal, and natural law.

Hermetics: The putting into practice of Hermetic philosophy via magical and mystical techniques. Hermetics is, in other words, the technical or practical side of Hermetic philosophy.

Hermeticism: Hermetic philosophy itself, as a way of thinking and feeling. The paradigm behind Hermetics.

Invocation: The magical act of manifesting the Divine or some aspect thereof, or some specific being or entity, within the individual magician’s own consciousness. This can take the form of overshadowing (a sharing of consciousness), as in the case of the assumption of Godforms in the Golden Dawn system, or full possession.

Magic: Magic is the development of Inner mastery through both Inner and Outer works. It is a means of realizing one’s unity with All. Even magicians who focus on material achievements are invariably shaping their Inner cosmoi in the process.

Mass: A magical or religious ritual intended to draw upon the power of the Divine or some aspect thereof, or some specific being or entity, without invocation or evocation. The Catholic Mass is, of course, a good example of intent.

Meditation: The mental discipline of producing, at will, a state of mental vacuity or No-mind.

Mysticism: Any method of developing Inner mastery and realizing one’s unity with All. Magic is automatically also mysticism, though not all mystics are magicians.

Panentheism: The belief, feeling and idea that the Divine is simultaneously immanent (“here” or “Inside”) and transcendent (“there” or “Outside”). All that exists is Divine, but so is all that does not exist. You are God, I am God, that is God, and yet God is not limited to any such manifestations.

Plane: Also called “plane of existence”. The planes are interwoven and consubstantial states of being, much like the dimensions of physics though on an even greater scale.

Ritual: Magically speaking, a symbolic act intended to activate and direct certain Inner powers and forces.

Soul: The “personality” of an individual, corresponding in the individual to the Kabbalistic ha-Olam Yetzirah or World of Formation. The Astral body.

Spirit: The Mind and Consciousness of a human being. The part of an individual corresponding to the Kabbalistic ha-Olam Briah or World of Creation; in other words, the Kabbalistic Ruach. That which comprises a person’s true individuality, but also their unity with All.