Magical References
Alfatofrar – Norse term for elf magick or any influences of enchantment.
Alfheim – Upper world home of the light elves in Norse mythology.
Angels – Angels act as intermediaries between the divine and the mortal, they are heavenly messengers.
Animism – Belief that all things animate or inanimate have a soul or spirit, this goes beyond the physical form and connects the spiritual with the physical.
Archetypes – Within the human experience there are universally recognised themes that are part of the collective unconsciousness, father, brother, sister, lover, child, husband, wife, dreamer. Myths are base upon these themes.
Asgard – The home of the upper world Norse Gods.
Avalon – This is where King Arthur was taken as he lay dying by Morgan, the ruler of nine fairy sisters who guarded the apples of fairyland. Avalon is also known as The British Isle of Apples.
Beltane – This takes place on May 1, and is the faery and elf May Day festival.
Blessing – A ritual used to consecrate by spiritual rite or word, a blessing.
Celts – The Celts settled in modern day Ireland, England and Wales, they were a group of Germanic tribes.
Devas – These are nature spirits who give direction to and work with the elemental energy and embody the essential energy and spirit of the plant species that they are associated with.
Dreamtime – Peculiar to the Aboriginal culture, a symbology similar to faeries and elves, it refers to a time before memory when ancestral spirits walked the earth and formed its natural features.
Earth Mother – Mother goddess who is the embodiment of the earth, representing all the qualities of earth and embodying its combined wisdom.
Eddas – Poems that are stories of the Norse gods and goddesses, and the origin of the world and all that is in it, including elves and dwarves.
Eildon Tree – This is a name given to the hawthorn tree which the sacred tree of elves and faeries.
Elementals – These are beings that spring from the basic elements and are creators of form, they connect creative energy and physical form.
Elements – These are Earth – Air – Fire – Water.
Elvenstar – Seven pointed star known as the faery star.
Elves – Magickal creatures called the white spirits, Elves of Light, the firstborn, the speakers, the elder (eldar) people and folk of the wood, they are blessed with extraordinary powers.
Enchantment – Faery and Elven magick.
Faeries – Creatures who possess magickal and supernatural powers, they revere and embody life and nature.
Faery Circle – This is a connection, a bridge between tying the human and faery world together, usually seen as a ring of flowers, shells, grass or stones.
Faery Garden – This garden is built specifically with faeries in mind, flowers and trees special to faeries and elves are planted to attract these beautiful creatures.
Faery Guardian – These helpful spirits protect the elemental doorway of your natural space, they are known also as the Watchers, their task is to watch and protect the thresholds of the seven directions, holding them in place until you bid farewell.
Faery Kings – Consorts to the faery queen, they are the gods of Irish tribes and defend the Irish clans.
Faery Magick – You experience faery magick when you leave the ordinary world and enter the realm of faeries.
Faery Queens – These goddesses of Irish tribes still guard the Irish clans and families. These magickal faery queens are the source of creation and sovereignty of the land.
Faery Ring – This is known as an energetic ring and can be made using string, flowers, stones, seeds, twigs or leaves, it is made by faeries.
Faery Tale – This is any story which involves all manner of magickal creatures, magickal forces.
Faeryland – This is a land filled with magickal beings going about their everyday lives just as mortals do. The otherworld is a mirror of the mortal world but with extraordinary things taking place, it is where no one ages or gets sick, where there is none of the discomfort experienced by humans.
Findhorn – A place in northern Scotland where people live apart from the rest of the world, living on and tending to the land, growing organic vegetables and working together as a community, embracing spirituality and meditation.
Focals – Items used in ritual and magick to give focus and energy.
Folklore – These are customs, beliefs, traditions and cultures preserved within myths, legends, proverbs, folk stories, faery tales and art.
Gebo – This is the Norse rune symbolising the giving and receiving in life. Written like an X it represents the giver and the taker, is also the coming together of two elements that work together.
Gentry – The way elves and faeries prefer to be referred.
Geomancy – An ancient, holistic, integrated system of natural science and philosophy keeping human activity in harmony with natural geometric patterns of nature.
Glamor – A magickal way elves and faeries create an illusion to hide themselves from humans.
Great Days – These are the names the ancient Celts gave to the times of the year when the Sun and the Earth are aligned in specific positions, in particular the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days, they are known as the Sabbats.
Heirloom Seeds – These seeds are of different varieties and cultivated through generations of plant.
Instant Karma – This result of your actions coming back to you very quickly.
Irish Mythology – Tales of the five invasions of Ireland that happened in different periods of Irish history, most relevant to the faery beings is the Tuatha De Danann.
Jotunheim – In Norse mythology the home of the giants who came into creation with Ymir.
Karma – Everything we do in life accumulates either good or bad karma and the consequences depend on our intentions and actions.
Leprechaun – A faery associated with elves, both have traditional ties to shoemaking.
Living Traditions – Spiritual traditions accepting everything is alive with spirit and continuously evolving, like nature, faery rings and mythology.
Lugnassad – Beginning in August a time that signals the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn. Lughnassad (Lammas) means Lugh’s wedding feast.
Magick – Something mystical, extraordinary, beyond logic, unknown, unseen, enchantment, glamour, altering your perceptions.
Meditation – An altered state of awareness making you receptive to other realms, leading to Divine insights and understanding.
Midgard – The world of mortal humans, Middle Earth.
Midsummer’s Eve (St. John’s Eve) – The eve before the summer solstice, one of the primary elf and faery festival days.
Morphogenic Field – Rupert Sheldrake’s theory that an energetic field of resonance is just beyond the spectrum of normal human perception.
Mother Goddess – All growing things are believed to have come from this sole deity.
Mythology – Collection of myths legends of a particular people, revealing their perception of order and power in the world.
New Age – New age practices include channeling, crystals, organic farming and gardening, meditation, herbology, Bach Flower remedies, oils, reiki, working with the energies of faeries, angels and spirits, spiritual workshops.
Nifelheim – Home of the frost giants in Norse mythology.
Norse – Combination of Germanic tribes who moved northward and settled in Scandinavia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Otherworld – Faeryland an invisible world, where the natural laws of the universe don’t apply, land of immortality.
Peri – Turkish word for faery or beautiful girl.
Perilous Realm – Also known as the faery realm.
Pixie – Similar to a faery.
Pixilated – A term used to describe someone affected by the elves and faeries.
Polarities – Positive, negative, and neutral energies of the universe.
Power Hand – The hand you use to direct energy and power, your dominant hand.
Prophecy – The ability to predict events before they occur, foreseeing the future, prophecies are considered messages from the divine.
Quest – A journey of transformation, body, mind and spirit.
Rath – This is a faery fort or mound usually surrounded by a ditch.
Receiving Hand – If you are right-handed it is your right hand, if you are left-handed it is your left hand.
Ritual – A specific way of doing something, enacting a myth.
Runes – Magickal symbols representing cosmic energies at work in the universe. In the Elder Futhark each of the 24 runes opens a doorway into faeryland.
Sacred Geometry – Known as the language of creation and the language of light, sacred geometry revolving around the idea that energy moves in universal patterns, these patterns influence the form of everything, including our DNA
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Samhain – Halloween is the time when the veil between the mortal and ethereal world is at its thinnest and is easily penetrated.
Second Sight – The ability to perceive things beyond the five senses or any logical understanding, known as clairvoyance.
Shape Shifting – The ability to change form at will.
Sidhe (pronounced shee) – Irish word for faery.
Sleeper Kings – Ancestral kings whose energy and knowledge waits to be summoned by future generations.
Spirit – Energy connecting all elements together, everything has spirit, spirit is considered the fifth element or the union of all other elements, this union forms the divine essence.
Staurolite – Powerful faery stone called the Faery Cross.
Svartalfheim – Norse home of the dwarves in the lower world.
Tir-na-n-Og (country of the young) – Home of the Celtic gods and goddesses, the Land of the Blessed, and the divine land of immortality, age and death have no power there.
Tradition – Information, beliefs and customs passed down from generation to generation, with traditions continually evolving and being reinvented.
Tuatha De Danann – Tribe of the goddess Danu (Anu) that invaded Ireland by coming down from the skies, creating a thick mist on May Day morning.
Vanaheim – This is the world in which the ancient nature gods and goddesses in Norse mythology live.
Wizard – Magician who controls the elements.
Wormhole – A doorway through the time/space continuum, which used the natural folds of space to move great distances at high speed, also avenues to the faery realm.
Wyrrd – Norse spiritual traditon, a magickal energy where everything is interconnected. This is the energy Rune masters use to see into the future.
Y Tywyth Teg – Welsh name for faeries (the fair folk) (family), or y Tylwyth Teg yn y Coed, meaning the fair family in the wood.
Yggdrasil – The World Tree in Norse mythology whose branches held the nine worlds, three worlds above (including the light elf world), three worlds in the middle (including Middle Earth), and three worlds below (including the dark elf world).
Yule – Occurring at the winter solstice, The Great Day or Sabbat, falls around December 21, a time of celebration that is still celebrated during Christmas time.
Witch’s Tools
A Witch uses tools to assist them with their healing and spellcasting, through their tools energy is directed enabling them to invoke deities or wield their magick. As such the tools do not have any power of their own, the Witch transfers power through intention.
Athame – This is a magick knife, it is a dull, double edged knife with a black handle. Black absorbs power, the knife is used to direct energy raised during ritual. Athames are often engraved with magick symbols and absorb energy and power from the Witch’s environment and the Witch. The knife symbolises change and is linked with the element of Fire.
Bell – A bell being rung releases vibrations, the effects vary depending on volume and tone, a bell invites positive energy and can be used to ward off negativity. The Buddhist monks use bells in their ceremonies. A bell can be rung at the beginning and the end of occult practices. The bell is seen as a feminine symbol and is often used to invoke the goddess energy.
Boline – This knife has a white handle and is used to cut herbs, wands, cords and to inscribe symbols on magickal items. It is also used to draw a circle before meditative or magickal practices.
Broom – Witches and Witch’s brooms are thought of as one, they were used in pagan birth and marriage rituals. Hecate’s priestess swept the threshold of a home after a birth removing all evil spirits that may cause a child harm and to ensure the child’s good health. Wedding customs include jumping over a broom, the broom is a symbol of sexual union. The broom was closely identified with non-ecclesiastical marriages, known as marriages by the broom. These marriages were considered non legitimate by the time of the Renaissance which is when the church took over wedding rites.
The broom is sacred to the goddess and god and is used in rituals and spellcasting, it is used as a protection from curses and hexes, and negativity. Before any ritual the area may be swept clean with a broom, the broom is symbolically clearing away all and any negativity ensuring more powerful magick. The broom is used in water spells and is linked with the purifying Water Element.
Censer – The container that holds incense burned during ritual often quite ornate, the censer represents the Air Element.
Cauldron – An ancient vessel with a history of magickal tradition, a focal point of may rituals when not in use may be filled with magickal implements. Witches often use a cauldron for scrying, after being filled with water and a drop of black ink added. The cauldron is a feminine implement a symbol of the goddess exuding femininity and fertility. A symbol also of the Water Element, reincarnation and immortality.
Cup – Made of brass, pottery, silver, stone or any other manner of materials. A symbol of the goddess of fertility and used to hold water or any liquid to be drunk during rituals.
Pentacle – Made of gold, silver, brass, wood, clay, etc. A circle with a pentagram within any object to be consecrated is placed upon the pentacle which represents the Earth Element.
Wand – Used for centuries by Witches and Wizards alike, in magickal and religious ceremonies. With the wand gods and goddesses are invoked, it is also used to direct energy and draw magickal symbols during rituals and religious ceremonies. Also used to stir magickal mixtures in a cauldron.