Nag Hammadi library
A group of Coptic codices found near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, preserving many previously little-known early Christian and related writings.
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.
8 terms · page 1 of 1
Natal chart
Also: Birth chart, nativity
A map of calculated celestial positions for a person's birth time and place, interpreted by astrologers through planets, signs, houses and aspects. It is an astrological practice, not a scientific personality test.
Natural magic
The branch of Agrippa's scheme concerned with properties of natural things such as plants, stones and animals. Its historical claims should not be confused with experimentally demonstrated effects.
Neoplatonism
A family of late-antique philosophies developing Plato's ideas of a supreme principle, intellect, soul and the ordered cosmos; later esoteric writers drew on it selectively.
Nicolas Flamel
A historical Parisian scribe later recast in legend as an alchemist. The legend is not evidence that he made the philosopher's stone.
Niece figure
A geomantic figure derived by adding two preceding figures line by line and reducing the result to odd or even marks.
Nigredo
The blackening named in some alchemical descriptions of a work's changing colors. It is not a universal first step in every historical recipe.
Nous
Greek for intellect or mind; in the philosophical Hermetica it can name divine intellect rather than everyday reasoning.