To send into the ground any excess energy left over after a spell or
ritual. To relax and center oneself. See ground and center.
ECSTASY-- To have broken the bonds of the everyday world and to have
entered into another state of being through joy and pleasure. In Wicca achieving contact
with the Goddess through the Eight Paths to Power.
EDWARD III, KING-- ( c 14th century) King of England in the 14th century
and a friend of Wicca he has three major accomplishments.
- 1) When Dame Alice Kytler was accused of Witchcraft and forced to leave
Ireland, she was protected by Edward III who took her in.
- 2) When the Countess of Salisbury lost her Witches garter at a ball in 1344,
Edward protected her by taking the garter and declaring "Evil to those who think evil of
it".
- 3) In honor of the countess, Edward created the Order of the Garter, Englands
most important order of knighthood.
EGREGORE-- A powerful thoughtform created by a group or nation which
takes on a life of it's own. It may be created by accident. Possibly an explanation for
mob behavior.
EIDOLON-- A thoughtform in semi-human shape.
EIGHT SPOKED WHEEL-- The symbol of the Eight Sabbats.
ELDER-- A Witch of sufficient rank (usually of the Second or Third Degree)
who is a member of the governing council of the Coven. They have power and authority
over only their own Coven or the Covens that give then that authority. Some covens
require you to be the leader of a coven for nine years before you can be considered to be
an elder. If the HP or HPS steps down, they become an Elder.
ELEMENT-- See elements.
ELEMENTAL-- The living nature spirits that are formed of only one element
such as: Gnomes are Solid (earth); Undines are liquid (water), Slyphs are gas (air) and
Salamanders are energy (fire). Each of these has its own personality, level of intelligence
and 'biology' and can be contacted by the proper training. However it should be made
known that Elementals have no souls and so they associate with people mainly because
they have to (by the laws of magick) or because they want to learn how to get a soul for
themselves. They can be mischevious, aloof, flighty or down right dangerous to us,
though we should not judge them by our standards. If an Undine drowns you in the
desert, it is probably because you screwed up and angered them or simply didn't know
what you were doing.
ELEMENTARIES-- Thoughtforms created of one element by a person to
perform a specific purpose.
ELEMENTS-- One of the five states of matter. In magick, one of the five
forms in which matter manifests. The Five Elements are: Earth (solid), Water (liquid),
Air (gas), Fire (energy) and Akasha (spirit).
ELF FIRE-- A fire produced by psychic means.
ELF LIGHTS-- A small hollow cairn of loosly piled stones so designed so that
the light from a votive candle placed within shines through the spaces in the stones.
They were designed by Patti M. of Campsite Coven in Tucson.
ELF SHOT-- (Gardnerian) 1) Stone arrowheads, possibly prehistoric but
probably made by the Fairy Folk of Europe before, during and after the Celtic invasions
of the Bronze Age..
2) To secretly poison someone with hellebore (helleborus spp.) by means of a
thrown tool.
When I studied ninjitsu I was struck with the similarities between the ninja and
the Witch. Both were persecuted by the ruling religion (ninja were persecuted by the
Buddhists) and had to learn to hide. Both used magick (most ninja had 5 elements in
contrast to the Wiccan 4 but some actually followed the European system), both believed
in living with nature, and both had a form of throwing weapon. The ninja had the
shuriken made famous by the movies and the Witch had the elf-shot. In both cases, it
was impossible to throw the missle hard enough by hand to kill so they were poisoned or
left in a manure pile before being used. Thus, they were feared more for infection
(dangerous in a world that didn't have antibiotics or tetanus shots) than for the damage
caused by the missle.
These stone arrowheads were often poisoned by the witch because the roughness
of the stone held the poison better than a smooth steel arrow head. There was a way to
fling them with your hand so that they struck the victim point first barely deep enough to
give a wound but capable of giving a dose of the poison. I suspect that considering the
shallowness of the injury and the limited amount of poison injected, death took the form
of infection and so being struck by an elf-shot was perceived by the cowan as being
cursed to death with a wasting sickness.
ELIZABETH SAWYER-- See Sawyer, Elizabeth.
ELL-- See Aln. See also measurements.
ELPHAME-- The Sidhe or Land of Faerie.
ELVES-- Beings which are near-human whose appearance is dependant on
their type. They once may have ruled Europe before modern man arrived and drove them
away.
EMPOWER-- To give to yourself or others personal control over their own
lives. Wicca and other forms of Paganism are empowering religions because they insist
that you are good and can control your own lives and because they state that your path to
Divinity is equal to ours. Thus Pagan religions encourage men and women to become
Priest/ess' and give them that opportunity. Christianity is an anti-empowering religion
because they state that people are evil and can only be saved through the agency of
another person, and because they encourage the idea that only the priest (almost always a
white male ) can intercede between a person and divinity.
One night at an art gallery opening (I was hung in the gallery, both figuratively
and euphamestically) I heard an excellent example of empowering a person. A friend of
mine was going through a rough divorce and negotiated a deal where their 14 year-old
daughtor could see her father whenever SHE, and not the courts and parents, wanted.
This gave power to the kid, unusual in a society strives to take that power away.
ENCHANT-- A declaration of magickal intent. To cast a spell upon
someone.
ENDOR, WITCH OF-- (Judiasm) A fortune teller described in the old
testament, I samuel 28. She was consulted by King Saul who wanted infromation about
an upcoming battle. The woman raised the spirit of King Samuel for Saul, an act which
was illegal in Israel and carried the death penalty. This unnamed woman has been called
a 'witch' but in reality she was actually a necromancer and was probably a loyal Israelite
and Jew. It was King James who ordered her referred to as a "Witch" in his version of
the bible.
ENERGY-- The force that is used by the Witch to accomplish magick. It may
be innate (raised by the Witch from their own bodies) or Accumulated (saved by the
coven for later usage) or external (tapped by the Witch from the gods or nature).
EOSTARA-- See Ostara.
EPHEMERIS-- A book used by astrologers and astronomers which lists the
positions of the stars and planets at any time in history. In astrology this information is
vital to predicting future influences on a person.
Because of the detail contained within, it is possible to use this information to
locate where any star or planet will be at any time in the past or future and even to
predict the mass and position of undiscovered planets. Pluto was discovered because
Uranus wasn't where the emhemeris said it would be on a certain date. The astronomer
simply calculated where it should be as compared to where it was and figured out what
size of planet would do that to Uranus and where that unknown body must be. When
they looked there, they found Pluto.
Modern Astronomers are embarassed by two facts: 1) that Galeleo was such a
famous astrologer who kept such a good ephemeris that Copernicus kissed his ass to get
to his records and 2) modern astronomers will never be invited to parties as exciting as
the ones that Galeleo threw.
EPHESUS-- A city in Asia where a major shrine to the Goddess Diana was
built in 550 b.c.e. It was destroyed by christians in 400 c.e.
EQUINOX-- Literally, 'equal night', it refers to the two times of the year when
the daylight and nightime hours are exactly the same length. These are around March 21
and September 21. Most pagan religions consider them to be holy days.
ERIS-- (Greek) The Goddess of chaos and random behaviour. She is
worshipped today in the Erisian religion which makes a great deal of the chaotic nature
of life and the universe.
ESBAT-- A Witches religious festival dedicated to the Goddess and performed
on or near the Full Moon. Magick is done at them. It appears to be derived from the
French word 'Esbatarre' which means 'to frolic'. It may ultimately be derived through the
word Sabbat from the Hebrew word 'Sabbath".
ESOTERIC-- That part of religion and magick which is hidden from non-
initiates.
ESP, E.S.P.-- Extra sensory projection. A passive ability of collecting
information through the past, present or future by a means not completely understood but
probably related to very long radio waves.
ETHERIC-- Composed of Astral or Akashic substance.
EVIL EYE-- The ability to cause evil to occur simply by looking at the target.
Not normally used in Wicca.
EVOCATION-- The calling of a non-material entity that is not a god.
Compare with invocation.
EXORCISE-- To ritually remove or banish unwanted entities from a
person, place or thing. The noun is exorcism.
The roman catholic chrch still retains a number of professional exorcists and the
official manual includes the admonation that the exorcist wear a Pentagram as spirits that
are unafected by the cross or crucifix will be controlled by the Pentagram.
EXORCISM-- The ritual that removes unwanted energies or entities.
EYE GOUGE-- A tool resembling an old buttonhook or a fishhook on an ice
pick. It was thrust into the eyesocket between the eyeball and bone, then twisted around
so that the hook looped around the optic nerve. The eys gouge as then removed, pulling
the eyeball out of the socket and tearing the muscles and nerves apart.
It was used by the christian inquisition to force Witches to confess to crimes that
they never committed.
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