Ecstatic Kabbalah
Also: Prophetic Kabbalah, ecstatic
The strand aimed at an experience rather than an explanation, worked through letter permutation, breathing and the divine names. Abulafia is its best-known teacher.
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 6 of 18
Edward Kelley
Dee's principal scryer or medium in many recorded angelic sessions; the diaries distinguish what Kelley reported seeing from Dee's written questions.
Ein Sof
A term used in Jewish mystical writing for the infinite divine beyond ordinary description; how it relates to sefirot varies by author.
Electional astrology
Choosing a time for an action by consulting an astrological chart and its rules.
Elixir
A prepared substance credited in some alchemical writing with restorative or transformative powers; the claimed powers are part of the historical vocabulary.
Emanation
A way of describing how a lower reality proceeds from a higher one without ordinary physical creation; used in several late-antique philosophical and religious systems.
Emanationism
A view in which lower levels of reality proceed from a higher source; the sequence and metaphysical claims differ among schools.
Enochian
The later name for the angelic language and ritual material recorded in John Dee's and Edward Kelley's sessions. It is not a synonym for all Christian angel magic.
Enochian call
A formal utterance in Dee's angelic material, often called a 'key' in later practice; its words and translations require a named textual source.
Ephemeris
Also: Ephemerides
A table of planetary positions for given dates, the reference an astrologer calculates from.
Eschatology
Also: Eschatological
What a tradition says about last things — the end, judgement, restoration.
Esotericism
A scholarly umbrella for traditions that claim hidden or specialized knowledge; it names a field of study rather than one shared doctrine.
Evocation
A rite intended to summon a spirit to appear or respond, often distinguished by practitioners from invocation.
Exegesis
Also: Exegetical
Close interpretation of a text, drawing meaning out of it. Much of this material begins as exegesis of one chapter of scripture.
Expulsion
The expulsions of Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497, which remade the world Kabbalah circulated in.
Festschrift
A volume of essays published in honour of a scholar, usually by colleagues and former students.
Filtration
Separating solids from liquid through a porous medium, one of the practical operations found in alchemical laboratories.
Fire Wand
A ritual tool in Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn's dedicated Fire implement: a scarlet, magnet-cored wand marked in yellow and emerald green and used for work the order classifies as fiery.
Fixation
An operation meant to make a volatile substance stable under heat, described in historical alchemical procedures.
Floruit
Flourished. The period someone is known to have been active, used where birth and death dates are not known.