Goetic spirit
One of the named spirits in the Ars Goetia catalogue. Descriptions, ranks and seals are claims of that text and can vary in manuscript witnesses.
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.
243 terms · page 6 of 13
Grimoire
A book of magical instructions, often gathering prayers, diagrams, names and procedures. The label says what sort of book it is, not who truly wrote it.
Hermes Trismegistus
The legendary 'thrice-great' sage named as teacher or author in Hermetic writings; not a single historically identifiable writer of the whole corpus.
Hermeticism
A family of ancient and later writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The philosophical treatises of late antiquity are distinct from many later magical works bearing his name.
Hexagonal Figure of Solomon
A ritual tool in Ars Goetia. A parchment hexagram worn at the skirt of the white vestment and uncovered before an appearing spirit.
Holy Lamp
A ritual tool in Crowley, Book 4. The unattainable light above the altar: a deliberately paradoxical lamp said to burn without wick or oil and to require no maker's approval.
Holy oil
A ritual tool in Crowley, Book 4. A golden consecrating oil that Book 4 interprets as aspiration descending from above rather than personal ambition reaching upward.
Holy Table
A ritual table described in Dee's angelic sessions with specified letters and arrangement; later reproductions are not always identical to the diary directions.
Horary astrology
A practice of casting and judging a chart for the time a particular question is posed or understood.
Horoscope
Historically, a chart or judgment based on celestial positions; in modern speech, often a much shorter sign-based prediction.
House
One of the chart's divisions anchored to time and place. Houses describe areas of life in astrological reading; they are not identical to the twelve zodiac signs.
House cusp
The boundary or starting point of a chart house; its longitude depends on the house system and the chart's time and place.
Hylic
In some Gnostic schemes, a category described as material or matter-oriented. It is a claim within those systems, not a label to apply to people.
Hyssop and water
A ritual tool in Key of Solomon. Consecrated spring water, salt, and an herbal sprinkler used throughout the Key's preparations.
Ialdabaoth
Also: Yaldabaoth, Jaldabaoth
A name used for the lower creator or ruler in some Gnostic narratives; spellings and narrative roles vary.
Imum Coeli
Also: IC
The lower angle opposite the Midheaven, often abbreviated IC; house systems differ in how it relates to a cusp.
Incense
A ritual tool in Key of Solomon. Prepared aromatic material used to perfume instruments and space, offered in the censer after blessing and sprinkling.
Invocation
A rite that calls upon or appeals to a named power, deity or spirit; not every text uses the word in exactly the same way.
Iron pen
A ritual tool in Key of Solomon. A metal stylus for incising the names, characters, and candle marks required by Book II.
John Dee
An English mathematician, scholar and royal adviser whose diaries record the angelic sessions behind what later came to be called Enochian material.