This is the last installment of our Witches Dictionary. Be sure to copy it for your BOS.
Sabbat: A witch's festival.
Scourge: A small device made from leather or hemp which resembles a whip that is used in flagellation rites within some traditions.
Scrying: A method of divination. The gazing at or into an object (a quartz crystal sphere, a pool of water, reflections, a candle flame, crystal ball, mirror) to still the conscious mind in order to contact the psychic mind. Scrying allows the scryer to become aware of events prior to their actual occurrence, as well as to perceive past or present events through other than the five senses.
Shaman: A person (man or woman) who has obtained the knowledge of the more subtile dimensions of the Earth. This is commonly done through periods of alternate states of consciousness. Various types of rituals allow the shaman to pierce the veil of the physical world and to experience the realm of energies. This knowledge lends the shaman the power to change his or her world through magick.
Shamanism: The practice of shamans, usually ritualistic or magickal in nature, and also sometimes religious.
Shillelagh: A magickal tool corresponding to the staff in other traditions. Usually made from blackthorn wood.
Sigil: A magically oriented seal, sign, glyph, or other device used in a magickal working. Those you create yourself are the most effective. Sigils can be used on letters, packages, clothing, etc. Use your imagination.
Simple Feast: A ritual meal shared with the Goddess and God.
Sky Father: Shamanistic in origin, it assigns deification to the sky as a male entity.
Skyclad: The act of celebrating or performing magickal works in the nude. Considered deeply spiritual, NOT sexual.
Solitary Practitioner: Pagan or Witch who works and worships alone.
Spell: A magickal ritual, usually non-religious in nature but not always so, and most often accompanied by spoken words. It should be clear, concise, focused and emotional. Need must be present.
Spiral: A symbol to reperesent coming into being.
Staff: A ritual tool which corresponds to the wand or athame.
Stang: A ritual tool from Pagan Rome which resembles a two-pronged trident. Most often used in place of the wand or circle.
Subconscious Mind: A part of the mind which functions below the levels we are able to access in the course of a normal working day. This area stores symbolic knowledge, dreams, the most minute details of every experience ever had by a person.
Summerland: The Pagan Land of the Dead.
Sympathetic Magick: The concept of likes attract. The most common way spells are worked.
Talisman: An object charged with personal power to attract a specific force or energy to its bearer. These can be very powerful.
Tarot Cards: A set of 78 cards which feature pictures and symbols used to connect the diviner with the collective unconscious.
Tarologist: One adept at the art and science of handling the Tarot.
Threefold Law: THE Karmic principle that energy that is released is returned three times over.
Tradition: A branch of paganism followed by any individual Pagan or coven.
Trilithon: A stone arch made from two upright slabs with one lying atop these. This is what is found at Stonehenge.
Triple Goddess: One Goddess in all of her three aspects: Maiden, Mother, Crone.
Virgin: The youngest aspect of the Triple Goddess. She is also know as the Maiden. Represented by the waxing moon, her colors white and blue. Her Sabbats are Imbolc and Ostara.
Vision Quest: Using astral projection, bi-location, or dream time to accomplish a specific goal. Also called path working.
Visualization: The process of forming mental images. Magickal visualization consists of forming images of needed goals during rituals. It is also used to direct personal power and natural energies for various purposes during magick, including the charging and forming of the magick circle.
Wand: A ritual tool brought to the craft from ritual magick.
Warlock: An antiquated term misused in reference to a male Witch. It means oath-breaker or Liar. Most Pagans and Witch's find the term offensive. Speaking with someone who uses the term gives you clear insight as to their knowledge....or lack thereof.
Web Weaving: Networking with other magickal people via conversation, writing, e-mail, to gather information which will mutually assist each party.
Wheel of the Year: One full cycle of the seasonal year.
Wicca: The oldest known religion. The term meaning WISE ONE. A modern Pagan religion with spiritual roots in the earliest expressions of reverence for nature. Some major identifying motifs are: reverence for both the Goddess and God; acceptance of reincarnation and magick; ritual observance of astronomical and agricultural phenomena; and the use of magickal circles for ritual purposes.
Wicce: Synonymous with Wicca. In some circles, Wicce is used for women and Wicca is used for men.
Widdershins: The counter-clockwise motion, usually used for negative magickal purposes, or for dispersing negative energies or conditions such as disease.
Witch: A practitioner of folk magick, particularly that kind relating to herbs, stones, colors, wells, rivers, etc. It is used by some Wiccans to describe themselves. This term has nothing to do with Satanism.
Witchcraft: The craft of the witch- magick, especially magick utilizing personal power in conjunction with the energies within stones, herbs, colors, and other natural objects. This belief system also has nothing to do with Satanism.
Yggdrasil: One of the best known Tree of Life symbols. It unites all existence from the Underworld, to the Physical world.
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