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.
Wiccan
A practitioner of contemporary Witchcraft.
Witch
A practitioner of traditional Witchcraft.
Witchcraft, Contemporary (Wicca)
A body of practises with an alleged religious and historic basis
embracing Traditional Witchcraft and indiscriminate borrowings
from the Magical Tradition.
There is a school of thought that presents a compelling argument
that Contemporary Witchcraft (or Wicca) derives from a partnership
between Gerald
Gardner and Aleister
Crowley in which they deliberately contrived to establish
a new Pagan movement.
Whether that was the case or not there is much internal evidence
(in the form of many of its practises, rites and texts) that suggest
Wicca is a relatively modern (within the last 60 years or so)
"movement" and is largely an artificial construct.
This is not to say that it is therefore any the less effective,
but it gives the lie to those that would claim an unbroken "tradition"
stretching back centuries.
Witchcraft, Traditional
A body of practises embracing folklore, herb lore, healing, prophecy
and divination etc (as employed by the "village wise woman" in
the Dark/Middle Ages. There is little concrete evidence (despite
the attempts of some scholars to establish otherwise) that Traditional
Witchcraft represented a coherent body of religious beliefs, although
it may have been a highly corrupted derivative of such a body.
Work, The (context sensitive)
Perceived as the specific task set the Fellowship by the Goddess,
i.e., the reason for the Fellowship's continued existence.
Workings (context sensitive)
Formal or semi-formal ritual work of all types.
