Soteriology
An account of salvation: what one needs liberation from, and how liberation is thought to happen.
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.
30 terms · page 2 of 2
Spirit rank
A title such as king, duke, marquis or president assigned to a spirit in the Goetia catalogue. It organizes the text's entries, not a verified hierarchy outside it.
Square aspect
An approximate 90-degree relationship between chart positions; unrelated to the numbered planetary magic squares.
Staff
A ritual tool in Key of Solomon. An elder- or cane-rod paired with the wand in some Key of Solomon manuscripts, but omitted altogether in others.
Sublimation
A laboratory operation in which heated material rises as vapor and is collected after cooling. Alchemists also used the word metaphorically for refinement.
Succedent house
A house following an angular house in the chart's order, a traditional structural class distinct from cadent houses.
Suffumigation
A historical word for perfuming or treating an object or place with ritual smoke; often used in grimoire directions.
Sulfur in alchemy
A combustible material and, in some alchemical theories, a name for a principle involved in how metals behave. It is not always literal sulfur.
Sun
A classical astrology planet. The Sun marks the chart’s centre of gravity: the part of a life that seeks coherence, visibility and purposeful expression.
Syncretism
The combining or reinterpretation of ideas and practices from different religious or philosophical sources; it does not imply that the originals said the same thing.