Results for “spiritual practice”

Initiation

Entry into a religious or esoteric path through ceremony, instruction, recognition, and lived development.

Key of Solomon

The Key of Solomon is a transmitted family of magical texts concerning preparation, ritual, and ceremonial instruments. It should be distinguished from the five-part Lesser Key of Solomon.

Astrology in Western esotericism

Astrology has supplied language and organizing systems to Western esoteric texts. Its historical role should be distinguished from demonstrated predictive effectiveness.

Fallen angels

Fallen angels are heavenly beings portrayed as losing their place or proper condition through transgression. Enochic descent, Satan’s refusal to honor Adam, and the war in Revelation are distinct accounts that later interpretation can bring together.

Faust

Faust is the scholar or magician at the center of a European legend about bargaining with the Devil. The 1587 Faust book, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and Goethe’s Faust give the story different treatments of knowledge, desire, damnation, and human striving.

Modern Paganism

An introduction to contemporary Pagan traditions, including Wicca, Druidry, and Heathenry, and their different uses of older sources.

Halloween

The public holiday of 31 October, including lanterns, visiting customs, disguise, and its Celtic and Christian histories.

Salem witch trials

The Massachusetts prosecutions of 1692-1693, the spread of accusations, spectral evidence, and the surviving court archive.

Black Mass

A term for ritual inversion of Christian worship, with Huysmans's literary portrayal and a modern distinction from Satanic Mass.

Satanic holidays

The different holiday calendars published by the Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple, with dates and organizational meanings.

Church of Satan

The Church of Satan is the organization founded by Anton LaVey in 1966. Its official account describes Satanism as atheistic and gives Satan a symbolic role.

The Satanic Bible

Anton LaVey’s 1969 book of Satanic philosophy and ritual, foundational to the Church of Satan.

Emerald Tablet

A brief Hermetic text whose images of above and below, sun and moon, and transformation influenced alchemical writing.

Kenneth Grant

A British occult writer associated with the Typhonian current, Thelema, and the work of Austin Osman Spare.

Baphomet

Baphomet is an occult figure whose history connects the medieval trial of the Knights Templar, nineteenth-century ceremonial symbolism, twentieth-century Satanic iconography, and the modern public imagery of The Satanic Temple. The familiar goat-headed, winged, androgynous figure is not a medieval portrait of a secret Templar god. It was created in the nineteenth century by the French occultist Éliphas…

Acausal (David Myatt)

Watchers

The Watchers are heavenly beings whose descent, teachings, and punishment are narrated in 1 Enoch. Their literary identity must be distinguished from later religious interpretations.

Belial

Belial appears in biblical religious language and later spirit catalogues. These uses should be distinguished rather than treated as one unchanged biography.

Polytheism

Polytheism involves belief in multiple deities. The existence of several gods does not by itself settle their relationships, moral authority, or the forms of devotion directed toward them.

Myth and literal belief

A religious myth can organize meaning while also receiving literal belief. Literary form, personal interpretation, and historical evidence should be discussed as related but distinct questions.