Armageddon
Place-name based on Megiddo, ancient fortified city in northern Palestine; derived probably from Hebrew for "mountain of Megiddo"; modern usage usually refers to site of battle at the end of world history between forces of good and evil, as well as of God's final judgment, believed by some Christians to be foretold in biblical prophecy; biblical reference cited is the Apocalypse, Revelation 16:16.

An endlessly preached notion that life as we know is about to be over with, by the means of some worldwide or even universal cataclysmic event.

Mythmakers equally tried to explain the end of life and the world. The flood legends were one way of telling how the Earth was once destroyed — at least all life forms with the exception of a few survivors. In some American Indian myths the end of the world recurred in a cycle, followed by a new creation. According to ancient Aztec tradition, there had already been four destructions of the world, and a fifth was expected. Each world was ruled by a sun whose vanishing marked each ending. Some mythologies blamed such catastrophic ends of the world on human wickedness.

In the Biblical story of Noah the flood opened the way for regeneration of the world and a new humanity. Because wickedness persisted, however, another cataclysm became inevitable. Nearly all-modern religions have taken up this kind of mythology, looking forward to an end of the world, a new creation, and a judgment on humanity for its deeds.

Myths of the end of the universe are incorporated with beliefs about death and the fate of humanity afterward. In many mythologies the dead may be rewarded or punished. It was inconceivable to most ancient peoples that humans would not survive in some form after death. Egyptian kings made elaborate preparations for the afterlife.

For Judaism the coming of the Messiah will announce the end of the present world and the restoration of paradise. For Christianity the end will precede the second coming of Jesus and the last judgment. After these events the whole universe will be renewed and made perfect. All evil and misfortune will be abolished. Many Christian groups that have made the doctrine central to their faith have interposed a 1,000-year period, called the millennium, between the second coming and the end of the world. During this time only the saints will dwell on Earth. Then Satan will be unleashed to stir up a period of terrible persecution, after that Satan will rule the world forever.

Abracadabra
An ancient magical word from Arabia. Its origins lie with the below mentioned Abraxas and it was believed that speaking this word would grant power over spirits.

Alchemy
Medieval precursor of modern chemistry. Alchemists were chiefly concerned with the purification of materials through a semi mythical substance referred to as the philosopher's stone. It was believed that upon creating this stone it would become possible to transmute more basic metals such as lead into gold and silver (based on the premise that gold and silver were the purest form of metal and that by removing impurities in other metals they would revert to this state), creating artificial life referred to as a homocolous, and ultimately the refinement and purification of the human soul. While the practice has largely died off it's some of its theories and practices were incorporated into the modern science of chemistry.

Antichrist
Generally seen as the son of the devil the antichrist is seen as a major political leader during the last seven years of human history. While he comes under the guise of a man of peace he will unite the world under his sole leadership using force when necessary. At the midpoint of the tribulation he will be assassinated only to be resurrected by Satan himself who will possess his body for the remaining three and a half years.

Archangel
A Higher Powered Angel that is given Power Over all the other Angels. One of the seven principal Archangels In Jewish and Islamic lore is Azrael the angel of death.

Automatic Writing
Writing or Speaking that is done without the person having any knowledge of it. This is usually related to the Trance like state of a Medium (In a Séance) where it is kept pretties much under control of the spirits of the dead.

Bell, Book and Candle
After ceremonial excommunication in the Catholic Church, the officiating ecclesiastic closes the book, throws the candle to the ground (thus extinguishing it in earth), and has the bell tolled as though for one who has died.

It is said that the book symbolizes the book of life, the candle symbolizes the (lost) soul, and the bell is technically the passing bell, representative in this case of the spiritual death.

Cathar Heresy
A heretical medieval Christian sect that believed that the god of the old testament was in fact evil while the God of the new Testament was good. While the god of goddess created the spiritual world, the physical world was created by Rex Mundi (The King of the World). They believed that the church should renounce their material wealth entirely and did not accept the crucifixion because they believed Jesus was a spirit not a physical man and as such unable to die. This sect was located in Southern France until the Albergenian crusade largely stamped it out.

Channeling
The process by which a medium can communicate information from nonphysical beings, such as spirits, deities, demons or aliens through entering a state of trance or some other form of altered consciousness.

Channeling has existed in all cultures throughout history. In primitive societies a designated person a priest, shaman, oracle or similar individual had the responsibility of communicating with the unwordly beings. The priestly caste of ancient Egypt communicated with the gods through trance; the ancient Greeks revered their oracles; the prophets and saints of Judaism, Christianity and Islam received the will of God in a form of channeling.

Demon
The term 'demon' is derived ultimately from the Sanskrit root div ('to shine'), through the Greek daimon ('divine power'). To the Greeks daimons were intermediary spirits between humans and the Gods. In Western religion and occult lore, demons are classified into various elaborate systems, and hierarchies of hell, and have ascribed to them various characters, forms, attributes and duties. The most complex hierarchy was devised by Johann Weyer, who estimated that there were 7,405,926 demons serving under seventy-two princes.

In Christianity, demons are associated only with evil. They include those demons that were cast out of heaven together with Lucifer, as well as pagan deities branded as demons by the church. Demons devote themselves to tormenting human beings, assaulting them, sexually abusing them, and possessing them. The possibility of sex with demons was denied before the twelfth century, but by the later Middle Ages belief in sexually voracious demons in alluring male or female form that preyed on sleeping men and women become widely accepted. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe witches were regularly accused of having sex with demons. It was held that demons could be expelled or kept at bay by the ritual of exorcism, or by the use of certain prayers, or a special charm, or by wearing an amulet or talisman.

Demonocracy
The Office or Government of Demons. Those who worship Devils.

Demonography
The Description and History of Demons.

Demonologist
One who studies and practices the art of Demonology; An Individual who specializes in the removal of Evil or Demonic Forces from a given environment using the art of Demonology; One who brings Demonic Forces out of their slumber to be cast away; Someone who uses the art of Demonology to incantate Demons for ones use in battling them. One who studies demons; One who Studies and Catalogs Demons.

Devil
This word was taken from the Greek word Diabolis that means The Slanderer. Higher order Spirits working for Lucifer. Ranked over and above Demons. The order of Dark Spirits that reside to Destroy all of Mans accomplishments and image.

Devil's Mark
The name given originally to a scar, birthmark or other blemish on the skin, said by witch-hunters and demonologists to have been imprinted by the Devil as a mark or seal of his possession of the person.

In some early reports the Devil's mark (the stigmata diaboli) was sometimes confused with the witch-mark, which was properly speaking a protuberance on the body, such as a wart or a mole, regarded by witch-hunters as a supplementary teat at which familiars and demons might suck.

The finding of such demon imprints as Devil's marks or witch-marks became an important business of the expert pricking which preceded many witch persecutions. Devil's marks and witch-marks were said to be insensitive to pain, and the pricking of pins into such areas was supposed to draw no blood.

Elysian Fields
In classical mythology, a place of blessedness and peace where everything was delightful, with soft green meadows, lovely groves, a delicious life-giving air and sunlight that glowed softly purple. There dwelt the great and good dead heroes, poets, priests, and all who had made men remember them by helping others.

Eye of Horus
The highly stylized eye of the falcon-headed solar and sky god Horus (the Latin version of Her), which is associated with regeneration, health, and prosperity. It was very common as an amulet in ancient Egypt.

Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis was called 'Horus who rules with two eyes'. His right eye was white and represented the sun; his left eye was black and represented the moon. According to myth Horus lost his left eye to his evil brother, Seth, whom he fought to avenge Seth's murder of Osiris. Seth tore out the eye but lost the fight. The eye was reassembled by magic by Thoth, the god of' writing, the moon, and magic. Horus presented his eye to Osiris, who experienced rebirth in the underworld.

As an amulet, the Eye of Horus has three versions: a left eye, a right eye, and two eyes. The eye is constructed in fractional parts, with 1/64 missing, a piece Thoth added by magic. The Egyptians used the eye as a funerary amulet for protection against evil and rebirth in the underworld, and decorated mummies, coffins, and tombs with it. The Book of the Dead instructs that funerary eye amulets be made out of lapis lazuli or a stone called mak. Some were gold-plated. Worn as jewelry fashioned of gold, silver, lapis, wood, porcelain, or carnelian, the eye served to ensure safety, preserve health, and live the wearer wisdom and prosperity.

Exorcism
The expulsion of troublesome evil spirits, ghosts or demons by special rites. These rites exist in many cultures and societies where spirits are believed to interfere with the mental, physical and spiritual health of human beings. Exorcisms are normally performed by an appropriate official trained in the necessary skills, such as priests, or an occult adept.

The magical arts of exorcism involved ceremonial magic, and the official exorcism rites of Christianity are in many ways similar. Ritual techniques include the use of adjuration, prayers, invective, incense, foul odors and the use of holy substances such as sacred herbs, blessed water, or salt. In Roman Catholic rituals, exorcism is treated as a tug-of-war with the possessing devil for the victim's soul. Certain symptoms of possession are supposed to manifest before the exorcism can take place, such as levitation, superhuman strength, speaking in tongues or clairvoyance.

Once exorcism commences, the victim suffers a violent sequence of fits, painful contortions, vomiting and swearing. Among Protestant churches, the Pentacostalists, Charismatic and 'televangelists' often use the laying on of hands to 'drive out devils' and allegedly cure illnesses.

Extreme Unction
Last rites said over persons near death in the Roman Catholic Church.

Fatae
Also Fates. Greek and Roman mythologies include three spiritual beings called in Greek the Moirai, in Latin Parcae or Fatae, who were supposed to control the destiny of a person. They were named (probably after Hesiod) Clothe (or Clotho), who held a distaff on which was the material of life; Lachesis, who spun the thread from this material and, by doing so, assigned the individual his lot or fate ; and Atropos (literately "the one that cannot be restrained"), who made that final cut of the thread which ended life.

The Fates were conceived as old women, who were present at every birth, ready to spin the new born's fate, according to the will of the gods.

Sometimes the three are called the Harsh Spinners, even though they do not all spin. Their 'spinning' was said to take place at birth, and in some periods also at marriage, when a new life or fate was made. The general word moirai means 'share' or 'apportioned lot'. Lachesis means approximately 'obtaining by lot' and atropos 'irresistible'.

The three witches in Macbeth have been linked with these three spinners, from the old English term weird, which means approximately 'destiny'; the three 'weird sisters' were the Fates who control destiny.

Fallen Angels
One third the angels of God who chose to side with Satan in the rebellion. Their exact location is unclear but is implied that they are cast down onto the earth at some point during the tribulation.

False Prophet
Also known as the whore of babalon this person is a religious leader who will encourage idolatry, self-gratification and ultimately the worship of the Antichrist during the seven-year tribulation. At the end of this time he and the Antichrist are cast into the lake.

Goetic
Pertaining to that magic involving the evocation and binding of evil spirits to the service of humans. The Göetia is the first of four parts of the Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon, a medieval manuscript regarding the invocation of the hierarchies of the abyss by legions and millions. It contains forms of conjuration for seventy-two demons with an account of their powers and offices.

Grand Grimoire
The name given to a collection of invocations, spells and elementary magic, supposedly from the pen of King Solomon, but almost certainly no older than the sixteenth century.

Grimoires
A general name given to a variety of texts setting out the names of demons, along with instructions for raising them to do the bidding of the magician or 'operator'. The Grimoirium Verum lists seventeen of the names and characters of such spirits, each with its own particular field of interest: for example, Glauneck, who has power over riches and hidden treasures; Bechard, who has power over winds and tempests, and so on.

The Lesser Key of Solomon gives the names and symbols for seventy-two spirits. For example, Agares is a duke who rides a crocodile and carries a goshawk on his wrist; his main function is to stop runaways, teach languages, destroy spiritual and temporal dignities, and to cause earthquakes. Behemoth is a demon concerned with the pleasures of the belly. Sytry is a great prince with a leopard's head; his function is to procure sex or love for the magician. Bune is a powerful duke with the heads of dog, griffin and man; his function is to change the place of burials and to answer all questions put to him by the magician. Astaroth is a powerful duke, appearing in the guise of an angel or a dragon, with a viper in his right hand. The magician must not permit him to approach because of the stench of his breath, and must protect himself with a special magical ring. Astaroth will answer truthfully about all manner of past, present and future questions. Similar grimoires are the grand grimoire, the heptameron, the Enchiridium, the Grimorium Verum, the Grimoire of Honorius, the Galdrabok and the Key of Solomon. See necromancy.

Haunting
Mysterious happenings attributed to the presence of ghosts or spirits. Phenomena include apparitions, noises, smells, tactile sensations, extremes in temperature, movement of objects, and the like.

Despite much scientific inquiry since the late nineteenth century, very little is known about the nature of hauntings and why they happen. The term 'haunt' is derived from the same root as 'home', and refers to the occupation of homes by the spirits of deceased people and animals who lived there. Other haunted sites seem to be places merely frequented or liked by the deceased, or places where violent death has occurred.

Most hauntings have no clear reason or purpose. Some are continual and others are active only on certain dates that correspond to the deaths or major events in the lives of the deceased. Some hauntings are brief, lasting only a few weeks, months, or years, while others continue for centuries. Haunted places often are pervaded by an oppressive atmosphere.

Not everyone who goes to a haunted place experiences paranormal phenomena. The theory is that only individuals with certain psychic attunements or emotional states are receptive. Few hauntings involve seeing apparitions. In those that do, a ghost may be seen by a single individual or collectively by several people present at the same time.

Thousands of hauntings have been investigated by psychical researchers and parapsychologists over the last hundred years or so. Numerous theories have been advanced, all inconclusive. Some early psychic researchers thought that ghosts were meaningless fragments of energy left behind in death. Others have theorized that hauntings are a form of psychometry, vibrations of events and emotions imbued into a house, site, or object. One popular spiritualist theory holds that hauntings occur when the spirit of the dead person or animal is trapped on the earth plane for various reasons, doesn't know it is dead, or is reluctant to leave. Gentle exorcisms will send the spirit on to the after-world.

Researchers employ three basic techniques to investigate a haunting: 1. Description - involves taking eyewitness accounts. 2. Experimentation - involves bringing a psychic to the site to corroborate the eyewitness accounts or provide new information. 3. Detection - involves the observation or recording of phenomena using a ghost-hunter's kit, including camcorders, infrared cameras and tape recorders, as well as heat sensors and Geiger counters to measure changes in the atmosphere. Such methods are at best imprecise and interpretation of results is often subjective. Critics say ghost investigation is imprecise and not a true science because it is heavily reliant upon eyewitness testimony.

Holy Grail
Vessel used to hold the blood of Christ. In the earliest Arthurian legends it was a plate used to hold fish although it has also been seen as a cup or a bloodline from marriage to Mary of Magdaline.

Inquisition
In the middle ages the Roman Catholic church created a branch to contend with the growing heresy they saw in Europe. The Inquisition's original purpose was to destroy heresies that existed with in the catholic church although it was later further expanded into a hunt against pagans, witches, and others who did not conform with catholic rule. Although commonly associated with it Torture was not originally a practice of the inquisition but was incorporated by a Pal pal bull from one of the Pop Innocents.

Lilith
First wife of Adam who refused to submit to him. Upon leaving Eden she became the devour of children and mother to multitudes of demons. Reference to her can be found in Psalms as the night hag and its believed she is one of the wives of Satan.

Loa
Voodoo doesn't worship gods in the traditional sense of the word. Instead they worship a large family of spirits some of which are tied to nature or to magick (like Demballah the serpent, Ogun Badagris the lord of destruction, Baron Samedi lord of the grave yard and the underworld), and humans who have passed on (a tribe will typically worship great priests and chiefs from there history).

Numerology
A system of divination and occult practice based on the idea that the universe is mathematically constructed, and all things can be expressed in numbers, which correspond to vibrations. Because all letters, words, names, birth-dates and so on can be expressed in numbers, which in turn are ascribed complex religious and mystical meanings, a person's life, personality and destiny can be determined.

Occult numerology began with Pythagoras who, from certain observations in music, mathematics, and astronomy, believed that all relations could be reduced to number relations ('all things are numbers'). This formed the basis of a mystical system expanded upon by later Greek philosophers. Jewish Kabbalah mysticism (see Gematria), ancient near Eastern religions (especially in Babylon and Egypt), and the Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese faiths have all erected elaborate divinatory systems based on mystical numerological correspondences.

In most occult systems only the numbers 1 to 9, together with 0, are considered in any depth, for all numbers greater than 9 can be reduced to a single digit by adding the digits together. This reductionism is the main tool of numerological divination. Consider the number 642 which can be reduced to (6 + 4 + 2 = 12), and then (1 + 2 = 3). The number 642 is therefore equivalent to the symbolic number 3. Each number has its own characteristics and values (male/female, strong/passive, harmony/disharmony and so on) and also corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. Various formulae can be applied to a person's name, birthday and birthplace to determine a person's character and destiny. Numerology is also used to determine propitious days for certain activities, such as selecting marriage partners or choosing a baby's name.

Old Soul
A person whose soul has passed through multiple physical lives.

Oracle
A person or place that serves as a line of communication to the divine.

Order of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar, or Templars, was a military and religious order founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades. The founders were Hugh de Payns and Geoffrey de Saint-Omer, French knights who in 1118 established a religious community on the ancient site of the Temple of Solomon (hence Templars), which was dedicated to protecting pilgrims in the Holy Land. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, head of the Cistercian order of monks, drew up the order's rules, but in 1128 Pope Honorious II officially recognized the templars as a separate order, conferring on them an unprecedented degree of autonomy: they were responsible only to the pope and not to secular rulers, were exempt from local taxes and judicial authority, and were solely responsible for clerical appointments.

The Templars were divided into knights, chaplains, sergeants, and craftsmen, organized under a Grand Master and general council. Wearing a white cloak with a red eight-pointed cross on the left shoulder, they attracted many nobles and soon became an expert military force, which bravery in the field was unquestionable, and also a powerful and wealthy order, with branches throughout Europe.

The Templars seal showed two knights on one horse, the story being that the first Master was so poor that he had to share a horse with one of his followers, but after the fall of the Acre in 1291, when the crusading forces were driven from Palestine, the Templars' main activity became money-lending, and their enormous land-holdings and financial strength aroused great hostility and jealousy among rulers and clergy alike. It was rumored that they had abandoned Christianity, that they worshipped a demon called Baphomet, and indulged in a variety of perverted orgiastic and cannibalistic rituals. In 1307 Philip IV of France, in debt to the order, charged the Templars with heresy and immorality. They were arrested and put on trial, and confessions were extracted by torture. Similar attacks were mounted against the order in Spain and England, and Pope Clement V, after initially opposing the trials, suppressed the Knights Templar by papal bull at the Council of Vienne in 1312. When the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, and other leaders of the Templars retracted their forced confessions and declared their innocence and the innocence of the order, Philip had them burned at the stake at Paris in 1314. The Templars' holdings were dispersed, some going to the Knights Hospitalers and some to secular rulers, although Philip received none. It has been suggested that some leading Templars escaped and founded the Freemasons; another tradition is that Templar survivors founded the Rosicrucians

Pentacle
A five pointed star with the main point facing up. It's a symbol of white magic and good luck.

Pentagram
A five pointed star with two points facing up. This is generally (although not always) a symbol of evil and black magical corruption of the pagan symbol just as the inverted cross is a corruption of the Christian symbol.

Phantomania
An occurrence in which the victim is held paralyzed while being subjected to preternatural attack.

Psychic Cold
An intense drop in temperature that generally is felt but undetectable through scientific means.

Psychic Photograph
Photographs that register a form of psychic or spiritual manifestation. Examples exist as far back as the 1800's and have been achieved with a variety of different cameras.

Quadrivium
The collective name given by the schoolmen of the Middle Ages to the four liberal arts, arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy.

The Quadrivium was the 'fourfold way' to knowledge, while the Trivium was the 'threefold way' to eloquence. Together they were regarded as the seven liberal arts.

Quedbaschmod
This word refers to the Sigils that represent the Alphabet of Demons.

Relic
An object that is closely associated with some one whom was in life extremely holy and usually a saint. Such objects take a variety of forms including bones, hair, articles of clothing, and others.

Religion
A series of beliefs, rituals, and practices oriented towards the contemplation of a being or concept greater than ones self. Examples include Christianity, Taoism, Judaism, Hinduism, Wicca and others.

Remote Viewing
The ability to see distant people and places through extraordinary means.

Rex Mundi
God of evil and lord of the physical world in Cathar tradition. The name means King of the World.

Ritual
An organized set of practices for the purpose of veneration of a deity or for the practice of magic.

Ritual Magic
Magic that uses standardized rituals.

Rituale Romanum
This is one of the first mass produced books of exorcism published in 1744 that was bound by black calfskin over wooden boards. This book also contains all the rituals associated with the catholic faith, i.e., baptism, marriage, and excommunication, extreme uncition (last rites). Of particular interest is the inclusion of the Exorcism ritual (The Rituale Romanum), which is thirty pages long. Recently for the first time in 500 years the Roman Catholic church to accommodate modern day psychological and medical techniques when dealing with diabolical possession has altered the ritual. Do not confuse the fact that the Rituale Romanum is only used for people of the diabolically possessed state and is not to be used on houses or objects.

Sabbath
Also Sabbat. The witches' Sabbat was supposed to be a weekly midnight convention of witches, warlocks and demons, a combination of cannibalistic feast, sexual orgy and blasphemous Satan worship. It was believed that Lucifer appeared in the form of a black goat to preside over the hellish proceedings, and coupled with all or some of those present.

According to witchcraft confessions (most extracted by torture) the Sabbat started with the lighting of a fire from which the witches lit torches or black candles. Lucifer would then appear, and one by one the participants would make some form of obeisance to their master; usually this took the form of the osculum obscenum, kissing the Devil's anus.

The central feature of the Sabbat was always a feast followed by an indiscriminate sexual orgy, between demons and witches, witches and warlocks and warlocks and demons. The pleasure in these occasions cannot have been high, however: in confessions the food and wine is often described as vile smelling and tasting, and sex with demons icy and painful. If such occasions ever took place, it was only as elaborate fantasies in the minds of the theologians, demonologists and witch-hunters themselves.

Sam hein
the modern holiday of Halloween has its roots in the Celtic new year. Dating back at least as far as 500 BC Samh hein was(and still is in many pagan traditions) both a celebration of the new year and a time for remembrance of those who have died. It was believed that spirits of all sorts both good and evil walked the earth on this night and both the practice of lighting bon fires and jack o lanterns began as a way to ward off malevolent spirits. It was also from this that the tradition of wearing costumes originated. People would go about at night dressed as ghosts, demons and the like to confuse and ward off real spirits the phrase trick or treat comes out of the idea that giving the spirits small gifts or food could prevent them from causing you mischief.

Satanism
The worship of Satan, using rites, which travesty Christian rites. If involves black magic, sorcery, and the invocation of demons and the forces of darkness, who are propitiated by blood sacrifices and similar rites.

In Christian cultures these ceremonies include the black mass, a mockery of the Christian rite. Medieval Christian writers tended to label any dualist sect (such as the Bogomils and Albigensians) as Satanist. From the later Middle Ages, Satanism and Witchcraft were considered synonymous.

There was a Satanist revival in the late nineteenth century, and evidence exists that the cult persists. Satanists, or Luciferians, believe that Satan is the power behind the processes of nature. What is natural is acceptable. Sin is only what is unpleasant. Unlike the Christian God — stern and moralistic, repressive and chastening — Satan is the leader of a liberated people who are free and actually encouraged to indulge in the good things of life, including uninhibited sexual activity.

Stigmata
Bleeding marks resembling the wounds suffered by Jesus Christ when he was crucified. They are manifested on the hands, on the feet, near the heart, and on the head and shoulders. The stigmata are not usual bodily lacerations (the blood appears to discharge through the unbroken skin), do not deteriorate in the usual fashion of wounds, and are not sus ceptible to medical treatment. Francis of Assisi (later Saint Francis) was the first and best-known stigmatic, in September 1224 he reportedly began to bleed from his palms and feet after meditating on the crucifixion of Christ. More than 330 cases are known of Christians who have been stigmatized.

Stigmatics are deeply pious, and the stigmata often appear after lengthy meditations on the crucifixion or contemplation of a sacred image or object. Bleeding is also likely to occur during the traditional times of commemoration of Christ's passion — Fridays, Lent, and especially Good Friday. In many cases stigmatization can be explained by natural causes such as the physical and psychic conditions of the person, along with a strong interest in and devotion to the sufferings of Christ. In a number of cases, however, stigmatization has been accepted by the Roman Catholic church as attributable only to supernatural causes; 60 stigmatics whose lives have been marked by great holiness and mystical experiences have been either canonized or beatified.

Tetragrammaton
A word of four letters (from the Greek word tetra, 'four', and gramma, 'letter'), especially the Jewish name of God, JHVH (or YHVH), which the Jews never pronounced but substituted the word Adonai instead (usually rendered in the Bible as 'Lord'). Its probable pronunciation was YAHWEY and from the 16th century it was corrupted into JEHOVAH by combining the vowels of Adonai with JHVH.

The unspeakable personal name of God: YHVH (Yahweh or Jehovah), the Tetragrammaton.

Transcendence
Reaching a point where the mind is beyond needs and thoughts and in direct contact with the universe as a whole.

Trivium
The collective name given in the Middle Ages to the three roads to learning (Latin, 'place where three ways meet', from tres, 'three', and via, 'road'), i.e. grammar, rethoric and logic, forming the lower division of the seven liberal arts. See Quadrivium.

Voodoo
Also Vodou, or Vodoun. A religious system with followers predominantly in Haiti in the West Indies, and in other countries to which Haitians have immigrated. Developed by African slaves brought to Haiti by the French between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, it combines features of African religion with the Roman Catholicism of the European settlers.

Voodoo is similar in many ways to other Afro-American cults, such as Santeria in Cuba and Macumba in Brazil. The term voodoo is thought to be derived from the word for 'spirit' in the Fon language of Dahomey, now part of Nigeria. The voodoo religion involves belief in a supreme god (bon dieu) and a host of spirits called loa. Most voodoo practices involve the loa, which are often identified with Catholic saints. These spirits are closely related to African gods and may represent natural phenomena — such as fire, water, or wind — or dead persons, including eminent ancestors. They consist of two main groups: the rada, often mild and helping, and the petro, which may be dangerous and harmful.

Voodoo rites include special ceremonies in which the loa have the power to make their presence known. These are characterized by music and dancing that leads the participants into a trancelike state in which they are possessed by the loa. The spirit temporarily displaces the astral body of the possessed person and occupies his or her physical body. The individual thus possessed is said to be mounted by the loa and behaves and acts as the loa directs, usually in a man ner characteristic of the loa itself. Priests called houngans or priestesses known as mambos preside over these ceremonies.

Other voodoo practices include animal sacrifices and pilgrimages. The focal point of a pilgrimage is usually a Christian church identified with a particular voodoo spirit. The most important of these pilgrimages take place in July and honor Ogou (Saint James) and Ezili Danto (Our Lady of Mount Carmel). Another aspect of voodoo is called 'work of the left hand', which includes belief in zombies

Zen
A Japanese term meaning "meditation." It is a major school of Japanese Buddhism that claims to transmit the spirit of Buddhism, or the total enlightenment as achieved by the founder of the religion, the Buddha.

Zen has its basis in the conviction that the world and its components are not many things. They are, rather, one reality. The one is part of a larger wholeness to which some people assign the name of God. Reason, by analyzing the diversity of the world, obscures this oneness. It can be apprehended by the nonrational part of the mind — the intuition. Enlightenment about the nature of reality comes not by rational examination but through meditation.

Zoroastrianism
A religion founded in Persia by Zoroaster in the 6th century BC and set forth in the Zend-Avesta, teaching the worship of Ormazd in the context of a universal struggle between the forces of light and darkness.

Zoroastrian is a practitioner of Zoroastrianism, or have or relating to Zoroastrianism

~666~
Referred to in the Book of Revelations as the mark of the beast this number will appear on the for head or the right hand. According to the bible once the Antichrist has come to power he will require all people to take this mark under penalty of death and it will become impossible to buy or sell with out it.

~777~
In the old testament 7 or 777 is the number of the divine. In revelations the various judgments loosed upon mankind come in three sets of seven.

~3~
A number that a variety of religions associate with God and the divine in general such as the holy Trinity of Christianity and the Wiccan Rule of 3 among other examples. Because of this demonic and diabolical spirits take great delight in acting in 3s as a form of blasphemy. Typically cases will occur in blocks of 3, all of which will be related to each other, and the final usually will be the worst. Also evil spirits tend to be most active at 3 am or 3:33 am for the same reasons.