Ceremonial magic
Agrippa's branch involving religious names, rites and spiritual beings; the category is historical and does not describe one uniform modern practice.
Reference · Glossary
Glossary
A guide to the words used across this site and in the texts behind it. Definitions describe historical usage, not proven supernatural effects. A term may mean different things in different traditions; the tradition label tells you which sense is meant here.
Looking for a sign rather than a word? Symbols draws the signs of astrology, alchemy and geomancy and links each to what this study says about it.
342 terms · page 4 of 18
Charm
A spoken formula or small object used with an intended protective or beneficial effect; context determines which sense a source means.
Chasadim
Also: Hasadim
Mercies or kindnesses. The plural of Chesed, used for the expansive or giving forces set against the Gevurot.
Chorography
The description of a region and its places, including which parts of the earth an astrological sign or planet was held to govern.
Christian Cabala
Also: Christian Kabbalah
The Renaissance Christian reading of Kabbalah, begun by Pico and pursued largely to argue Christian doctrine from Jewish sources.
Chrysopoeia
The making of gold: a traditional name for the gold-making ambition within alchemy.
Chymistry
An early modern name for practices that combined what later became chemistry with alchemical theories, medicine, metallurgy and craft.
Cipher
Also: Ciphers
A system for writing something so that only an intended reader can follow it. Magical alphabets are often ciphers of the Latin or Hebrew one rather than scripts in their own right.
Citrinitas
The yellowing named in some four-color alchemical schemes; many other accounts use different stages or images.
Coagulation
Thickening or solidifying a material; one of the operations named in alchemical accounts of transformation.
Codex
Also: Codices
A manuscript in book form, with leaves bound along one edge, as against a scroll.
Collation
Also: Collated
Comparing copies of a text against one another to establish what it says and where they differ.
Compendium
A work gathering material from many sources into one place, rather than arguing a case of its own.
Conjunction
Two chart positions close together in longitude, often treated as an aspect of union or emphasis; the acceptable distance varies by method.
Conjuration
A spoken or written formula addressing a spirit or power, often using sacred names and commands in a grimoire.
Consecration
Also: consecrated
A rite or prayer that sets apart an object or space for a religious or magical purpose.
Corpus
Also: Corpora
A body of writing treated together. The plural is corpora.
Corpus Hermeticum
A collection of Greek philosophical treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, written in the Roman-era Mediterranean rather than by a single primordial author.
Correspondence
A source-specific asserted relation between two things, such as a planet and a material. A table of correspondences records a system's claim rather than proving a physical link.
Cosmology
Also: Cosmological
An account of how the universe is arranged and how it came to be. Most of this material is cosmology before it is anything else.