Glossary

It is assumed that the reader will already be familiar with most of the terms customarily found in Occult and Magical literature. However, some terms that the Fellowship has used are somewhat more specialised, or they are relatively common terms but used in a specific way by the Fellowship that may deviate from conventional usage.
This Glossary explains such of those terms as have been used on this website, and throughout the Fellowship's publications.

Altar
Relatively conventional usage, with the following qualification: in times past the Fellowship has used such terms as "High Altar", "Altar of Offerings", etc. Most of these terms were employed at the time that the Fellowship's first Temple was being prepared and during its subsequent use, and they actually referred to different items of Temple furniture.
Nowadays neither the items or the terms are used, "Altar" being the remaining and accepted usage.

Born-again Christians
A derogatory term describing persons (usually Christian fundamentalists) that have made a commitment to "orthodox" Christianity at a specific point in their adult life and are usually representative of extremist views, often based on literal interpretations of the Bible.

Chalice
Attributed to Water. Usage of the word "Chalice" provides a link to Grail, a concept that has over the years evolved to become associated predominantly with a cup, chalice, or goblet. It can also be represented as a cauldron, a cornucopia ("Horn of Plenty"), and even the womb.
It generally refers to the realm of the Psyche, the subconscious, psychic abilities, and the emotions. It is representative of the formative influence; that which gives shape to all we perceive. It contrasts a deep-rooted and abiding Wisdom and Vision to the sudden and spontaneous Insight of the Staff. It is the pre-eminent symbol of the Goddess. The Fellowship, in our perception of the Cup as Grail, has developed its attributes extensively, such that the Chalice, Cup, or Grail is now the central motif of our work, and inspires all else.
The Grail, Cauldron, or Cornucopia are all mystical symbols representing a spiritual truth that, even when not clearly recognised as such, resides at the very heart of many religions, and mystical and magical traditions.
At another level can be found therein an equivalence to the Philosopher's Stone of the spiritual alchemists' tradition, and one as elusive. Indeed, they may even be one and the same thing.
The Grail is arguably, of all spiritual mysteries, the hardest to penetrate and discern the full richness of its meaning yet, at the same time, it is also the simplest. Nor does it readily lend itself to being revealed or explained by another. The understanding thereof represents a journey that the Seeker themself must undertake, for it is in the journeying that the veils may eventually be drawn aside.
As Cauldron it is a key symbol in much ancient Celtic mythology. With the embracing of Christianity in the British Isles by the Celtic Druids, giving birth to the movement known as the Culdees, a vast body of Celtic mythology was translated into a "Christianised" form that can be easily recognised in, for example, the entire Arthurian mythos, from which springs the notion of the Quest of the Holy Grail.

Concensus Reality
A more specific term used to indicate the sum of everything normally considered to constitute "reality", which is commonly regarded as being the physical universe and the observed "natural laws" through which is functions, but also embraces the subjective perceptions (including the moral codes and conventions that arise therefrom) of the majority in any given society that manifest as one's total physical/mental/emotional environment in a social context.

Connections (context sensitive)
The sudden recognition of hitherto unidentified links between ideas, concepts, events etc., leading either to new knowledge or a new/different perception. The process is often initiated in conversations where the participants begin to communicate at an almost telepathic level and in these circumstances is accompanied by a distinctive "feel", as in a sense of excitement, an increase in mental output, an energising of thought processes.

Cthulhu Mythos, The
A cycle of supposedly fictional works penned by H.P.Lovecraft in the 1920s. Although Lovecraft maintained that the themes for his stories were derived from dreams, it has been theorised that he was actually "picking up" on the same forces with which the Enochian System is said to deal, and merely clothed them in a framework that was the product of his own conditioning. Other authors have subsequently added to the Mythos but their inspiration is in many cases suspect.
See also:
Wikipedia: Necronomicon
About: The Necronomicon
The Necronomicon and Ontological Pressure
Lovecraft's Necronomicon
FAQ - The Necronomicon Anti-FAQ
"A guide to the historical provenance of the Necronomicon."

Current, The (context sensitive)
The driving force behind the events described in (principally) Volume One of the "History of the Fellowship of the Dragon", and suspected to be Enochian in nature. Whilst it might at times appear to be synonymous with the "Goddess-force" there is in fact a difference insofar as the latter appears to possess an independent existence to the Current (although it may well be modified by the Current) whereas the Current itself seems to have as the focus of its manifestation certain specific individuals.

Enochian System, The
A system of ritual magic developed principally by the Order of the Golden Dawn and subsequently by the Order of the Cubic Stone amongst others, originally derived from a series of "angelic communications" received (via the use of a shew stone) by Dr John Dee and Edward Kelley in the late 1500s.
See also Enochian Resources.