Mysteries and the Unexplained in Credo: The Occult

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The use of magic with the intention of harming or destroying others, or for personal gain.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A form of magic which involves highly elaborate rituals guided by a complex set of correspondences.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A postmodern form of occultism which strives to reduce ritual magic to those techniques common to all magical systems; practitioners are encouraged to adopt any belief or method which allows them to attain the altered state of consciousness necessary to bring about the desired magical effect.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
An organization formed in 1966, which promotes Satanism as defined by its founder, Anton LaVey, in his Satanic Bible.

A religious movement characterized by a belief in gnosis, through which the spiritual element in man could be released from its bondage in matter: regarded as a heresy by the Christian Church. Dualistic religious and philosophical movement of the late Hellenistic and early Christian eras. The term designates a wide assortment of sects, numerous by the 2nd century C.E.; they all promised salvation through an occult knowledge that they claimed was revealed to them alone.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A highly complex and disciplined form of magic in which power is said to be derived from the divine through the successful control of spirits, principally demons and angels; its ultimate aim is to advance the practitioners’ spiritual enlightenment and to bring them into communication with their ‘higher self’.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The word ‘occult’ comes from the Latin occultus, meaning hidden, secret or unknown, and occultism may be defined as the doctrine or study of mysterious or hidden things. The term ‘occult’ is commonly used to refer to knowledge meant only for certain people, or knowledge that must be kept hidden, but is often misused as being almost synonymous with ‘evil’ or ‘satanic’.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
fl. 1st cent. A.D., Greek philosopher, b. Tyana, Cappadocia. A philosopher of the Neo-Pythagorean school, he traveled widely and became famous for his wisdom and reputed magical powers. He was accused of treason by both Nero and Domitian, but escaped by supposedly magical means.

Russian theosophist and occultist.

Italian philosopher, b. Nola. The son of a professional soldier, he entered the Dominican order early in his youth and was ordained a priest in 1572, but was accused of heresy and fled (c.1576) to take up a career of study and travel. Bruno was the first to enunciate what is now called the cosmic theory, he pictured the world as composed of individual elements of being, governed by fixed laws of relationship. These elements, called monads, were in constant motion, ultimate, and irreducible and were based on a pantheistic infinite principle, or cause, or Deity, manifest in us and in all the world.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1743–95, Italian adventurer, magician, and alchemist, whose real name was Giuseppe Balsamo. He claimed the secret of the philosopher's stone and of miraculous philters and potions.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
English writer and magician, the most notorious occultist of his generation.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The greatest scientific and occult mind of the Elizabethan era.

1574–1637, English mystic philosopher. Strongly influenced by the mystical doctrines of Paracelsus, he attempted to reconcile these speculations with the new science of the 17th cent.

Dion Fortune, the author of the occult classic Psychic Self-Defense, defines the “psychic parasitism” and “psychic vampirism” that can result from any relationship in which one of the partners “feeds” upon the energy of the other.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The feared and respected ‘Voodoo Queen’ of New Orleans.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
French author on occultism and magic.

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Catalan Christian mystic and missionary.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
German philosopher, theologian and alchemist, often described as the most influential scientist of the Middle Ages.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Leading English occultist and co-founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
French physician and astrologer, also known as Michel de Nostredame. His enigmatic predictions, written in rhymed quatrains, have established him as one of the most famous prophets in history.

Russian "holy man" and courtier. Rasputin was a notorious figure at the court of Czar Nicholas II.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
English-born esoteric writer who preserved and revealed the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Swedish scientist, religious teacher, and mystic. His religious system, sometimes called Swedenborgianism, is largely incorporated in the Church of the New Jerusalem, founded some years after his death.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Important writer on Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, kabbalah and the tarot.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Also known as Zarathustra. Iranian religious reformer and prophet, founder of Zoroastrianism and Parsiism. Zoroaster was a priest in his tribal religion, with which he eventually became disillusioned. Having received a vision, he began teaching that Ahura Mazdā was the highest god and alone was worthy of worship, a concept that went against the polytheism of Iranian religion.

One of several collections of texts in various cultures which are intended to prepare and guide the recently deceased in their passage through the afterlife; the best known of these are the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Ritual observances involved in worship of, or communication with, the supernatural or its symbolic representations.

Ceremonies in honour of the Greek deities Demeter, goddess of corn, and her daughter Persephone, queen of the underworld, celebrated in the precincts of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis, in the territory of Athens. They formed the basis of a secret cult, requiring initiation for entrance. The rituals were agrarian in origin and had a strong chthonic (pertaining to the underworld) aspect, dealing with the cycle of growth and decay represented by Persephone's half-yearly absence from her mother.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A book of spells; specifically, one of several books of magical knowledge written between the late medieval period and the 18th century.

From Milestone Documents of World Religions
The Key of Solomon the King (in Latin, Clavis Salomonis or Clavicula Salomonis) is a grimoire, a handbook for how to carry out various magical rituals through summoning demons.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
In ceremonial magic, neopaganism and Wicca, a circle drawn or visualized as enclosing the space within which a ritual or other magical work is performed.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Magic formulae performed by a witch, wizard or magician, and said to have tangible outcomes.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A meeting of psychical researchers or spiritualists for the purpose of trying to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

Study of the relative position of the planets and stars in the belief that they influence events on Earth. A strongly held belief in ancient Babylon, astrology spread to the Mediterranean world, and was widely used by the Greeks and Romans. Also an umbrella term denoting any one of several systems of divination that attempt to uncover information that is otherwise hidden or difficult to access by examining the position and motion of various heavenly bodies.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
An ancient form of divination. It was held that those who had the gift, by gazing fixedly and deeply into a polished crystal ball, could see what would happen in the future or what was actually happening elsewhere.

Divination is an attempt to connect to a supernatural power in order to retrieve information. It is intended to allow participants to learn about the future or secret, hidden matters.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The foretelling of a person’s future by reading their palms, gazing into a crystal ball, or by other supernatural means.

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
.Magic healing and control, especially in African-based folk medicine in the United States and the Caribbean. Also called conjure.

The belief in and practice of magic is probably as old as human history. Magic may be defined as the influencing of events and physical phenomena by humans using mystical, paranormal or supernatural means.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The art or practice of revealing future events by calling up and questioning the spirits of the dead; also, another name for sorcery or black magic.

Divination by numbers. The basis of numerology is the belief that numbers connect the world of humans to the structure of the universe. A superstitious fear of the number 13 is its most common expression in the West.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Divination by gazing into a reflective surface, such as a crystal ball, mirror or bowl of water.

From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Europeans and North Americans often regard the belief in witchcraft as unique to the witch persecutions of the Inquisition and Reformation.

A form of sorcery, or the magical manipulation of nature for self-aggrandizement, or for the benefit or harm of a client. This manipulation often involves the use of spirit-helpers, or familiars. As the practice or the production of malign or beneficial magic, witchcraft has an enduring place in the western, and in much of the non-western, imagination of the dynamics of esoteric and exotic powers.