altar: The focal point of most Witch rituals, and where a great deal of spellwork is performed. At its simplest, an altar is simply where Witches put their stuff.
asperge: The process of sprinkling blessed and consecrated (salted) water around the circle for purification purposes. If an object other than the fingers is used to sprinkle the water (such as a mini broom or a feather), the object is called an asperger.
athame: A ceremonial knife or dagger used to project magickal energy. Athames are most commonly used to cast magick circles and for the rites of cakes and ale and the Great Rite. Traditionally the athame is a double-sided steel blade about five inches long, with a wooden handle. Athames are rarely used for physical cutting.
Beltane: A holiday celebrating the fullness of life, generally celebrated on May 1.
besom: A fancy name for a ritual broom. Besoms in ritual are generally used to sweep away negative energy.
boline: A knife exclusively used to tend to a Witch’s magickal garden. Bolines are used to harvest vegetables, fruits, and herbs. The boline is often confused with the white-handled knife, and for that reason it often has a white handle. The blade of a boline can be either straight or curved like a sickle.
Book of Shadows: A book containing the spellwork, rituals, thoughts, and dreams of a Witch. If it’s sacred and important to you, it can go into a Book of Shadows (BoS). The earliest version of the BoS was reserved exclusively for Witch ritual and instruction. Since then, many Witches have begun keeping their own personal Book of Shadows.
chalice (or cup): A cup or wine glass reserved for Witchcraft ritual. The chalice is generally used during the ceremonies of cakes and ale and the (symbolic) Great Rite.
charge: To “charge” an item is to infuse it with your own magickal energy. In ritual, a charge is a firsthand written revelation from deity itself (such as the Charge of the Goddess). The term charge in this context is originally Masonic and indicated a set of instructions.
circle: A Witch’s working space, generally created with personal and natural energies. A circle exists between the mundane world and that of higher powers. Circles can be cast anywhere. The term circle often indicates an open ritual group that performs Witch rites. The term circled is used by many Witches to indicate the people they practice ritual with. (“I circled with Phoenix and Gwion.”)
coven: A Witch ritual group that acts in perfect love and perfect trust. Some Traditional Witch groups use the term cuveen as an alternative.
covenstead: The territory of a Witch coven. A coven’s convenstead is their base of operations.
cowan: A term for a non-Witch. This word was originally Masonic and referred to non-Masons.
(the) Craft: An abbreviation of the word Witchcraft. The term the Craft originally referred to Freemasonry.
creative visualization: A mental picture used in magickal work in order to apply intent to energy. Creative visualization (or CV) is one of the building blocks of magickal practice.
degree: A symbol of rank and/or accomplishment in many initiatory Witchcraft traditions.
deosil: To walk or move clockwise. Clockwise is the default direction that energy moves in and is how most Witches operate in sacred space.
downline: The initiates of an initiated Witch.
drawing down: The willful surrendering of consciousness to a higher power (generally a deity) so that higher power can interact with the people around them.
elements: The powers of air, fire, water, and earth. Most substances on earth can be broken down into these four broad categories, and contain attributes generally associated with one of these powers.
esbat: A Witch ritual performed on or near a full or new moon. Alternatively, the word esbat might be used as shorthand for “Witch ritual not connected to a sabbat.”
fey: A name used for the unseen folk who share this world with us, sometimes also known as the fair folk, fairy folk, or fairies. Despite Disney’s claims to the contrary, the fey aren’t always nice.
Great Rite: The ritual celebration of union and the consequences of it. The Great Rite is often performed alongside cakes and ale.
greater sabbats: Shorthand for the cross-quarter holidays of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas. The first Modern Witches celebrated only these four holidays, with the lesser sabbats celebrated at the equinoxes and solstices coming later. These are perhaps called “greater” because they were the first sabbats celebrated by Modern Witches and were the holidays celebrated by the Celts of Ireland.
initiation: A ritual designed to bring a Witch into a specific tradition, coven, or practice.
intent: The specific, desired outcome in a magickal working.
invoke: An invitation to a higher power to be present at a ritual or magickal working. In some instances, invoke is used as a synonym for drawing down the moon.
Lammas: Another name for Lughnasadh, originally used by Anglo-Saxon pagans and later by Christians.
lesser sabbats: The four sabbats celebrated at the solstices and equinoxes: Yule, Ostara, Midsummer, and Mabon.
Like attracts like: A magickal philosophy that encourages the use of items and ideas that are similar to the magician’s end goal. For instance, to attract love, you’d want to use ideas and items associated with love instead of the opposite. It also suggests that Witches will attract and find Witches similar to them because “like attracts like.”
lineage: The family tree of an initiated Witch. Most lineages can be traced to the specific founder of a Witchcraft tradition.
Lughnasadh: The celebration of the first harvest, generally observed between July 31 and August 2. Spellings of Lughnasadh will vary, and the sabbat is also called Lammas by some Witches.
Mabon: The name used by many Witches to indicate the Autumn Equinox sabbat. The term Mabon was first used by American Witch Aidan Kelly in the early 1970s and means “son of the mother.” It’s essentially a Modern Witch holiday. There were no ancient Mabon celebrations, though harvest celebrations were common enough.
magick: Energy that is given a specific intention. Many Witches spell magick with a k to differentiate it from stage magic.
Midsummer: A sabbat celebrating the Summer Solstice, usually around June 21. Some Witches also call this sabbat Litha, which was first suggested by American Witch Aidan Kelly in the early 1970s.
(the) Mighty Ones: A phrase used to indicate divine beings, generally deities. Some Witches also use the term Mighty Ones to indicate the watchtowers who are invoked at the quarters.
Pagan: Someone who practices a spiritual tradition that emphasizes the sacredness of the earth and calls upon pre-Christian deities. Because most Pagan traditions today utilize both modern and ancient ideas, practitioners are sometimes called Neo-Pagans.
pentacle: A round disc inscribed with a magickal symbol traditionally used to invoke spirits, angels, or demons. In most Modern Witchcraft traditions, the pentacle is viewed as a tool of earth and inscribed with a pentagram. It’s generally used to bless the elements and serves as a gateway for both deity and magickal energy.
pentagram: A five-pointed star. The pentagram is most often depicted with one point facing upward, which represents the triumph of the spiritual over the material. Many left-hand-path traditions use the star with two points facing upward. In certain Wiccan traditions, the upside-down pentagram (with two points facing upward) is used to indicate the second degree.
perfect love and perfect trust: The ideal coven is said to operate in a state of perfect love and perfect trust. Because of this, perfect love and perfect trust is often used as a password in Witchcraft rituals.
sabbat: A Witch holiday. The sabbats are most often associated with the solstices and equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days that occur between them.
sacred space: The interior of a magick circle. Alternatively, a room set aside specifically for ritual or magickal workings or an extremely powerful place in the natural world.
Samhain: A sabbat celebrated on October 31 commemorating the year’s final harvest. Many Witches celebrate Samhain as the Witches’ New Year. The modern Halloween is a descendent of the Samhain celebrations of the Irish-Celts.
stang: A wooden stick, pole, or pitchfork used in many rituals by Traditional Witches. Stangs often function as the focal point of ritual, acting much like an altar, and can be decorated to represent the change of the seasons.
Summerlands: A place where souls go after death before reincarnating in this world. The term Summerlands comes to us via the Theosophical Society.
sword: The tool that is generally used to cast the magick circle. Anything one can do with a sword they can also do with an athame, and vice versa (though using a sword to bless cakes and ale can be challenging due to its size!). Swords are often shared by a coven, while athames almost always belong to the individual Witch.
tradition: A specific Witchcraft subgroup that generally requires an initiation for membership. Traditions often have their own Book of Shadows, and members can trace their lineage to a specific individual, such as Gerald Gardner (Gardnerian Wicca) or Cora Anderson (Feri Tradition).
Traditional Witchcraft: A Modern Witchcraft tradition most often focused on ideas found in magickal traditions such as cunning-craft. Any Witch group not related to Wiccan-Witchcraft is often included in this category.
upline: A Witch’s upline consists of those who initiated the individual Witch, along with the initiators of their initiators. When thought of like a family tree, it’s all the Witches above the initiate going all the way back to the tradition’s source.
(the) watchtowers: Four powers that are invoked at the compass points of east, south, west, and north. The watchtowers are generally associated with the elemental energies of air (east), fire (south), water (west), and earth (north). In the grimoire tradition, the term watchtowers referred to the angels Raphael (east), Michael (south), Gabriel (west), and Uriel (north). The energy provided by the watchtowers is generally thought to be protective.
white-handled knife: A knife with a white handle generally used for cutting or inscribing candles while in ritual space. It’s sometimes known as a kirfane or kerfan. The traditional white-handled knife is often confused with the boline.
Wicca: A Modern Witchcraft tradition that generally utilizes some form of the ritual structure first revealed by Gerald Gardner in the early 1950s. Wicca is probably best defined by its ritual structure and not by theological ideas.
widdershins: To walk or move counterclockwise. Widdershins energy is most often used for banishing or aggressive magickal workings.
Yule: The name for the holiday celebrated at the winter solstice. Many Christmas traditions actually stem from ancient pagan holidays celebrated near the winter solstice. Some Pagans call the holiday Midwinter, as it falls between Samhain and Imbolc (seen by some as the start dates of winter and spring, respectively).