monkhood

en-noun

monkhood (usually uncountable, plural monkhoods)

Do these two images represent the two competing monkhoods: the village dwelling monks and the forest mendicants?

2014, Geok Goh, The Wheel-Turner and His House: Kingship in a Buddhist Ecumene, page 116:


Xanatos

(Greek mythology) Alternative spelling of Thanatos


ontological argument

ontological argument (plural ontological arguments)

(philosophy, theology) A type of argument which maintains that the existence of God can be deduced from an analysis of the concept of God.


argument from design

argument from design (plural arguments from design)

teleological argument
teleological argument


teleological argument

teleological argument (plural teleological arguments)

(philosophy, theology) A type of argument for the existence of God, stating that orderliness of nature is evidence of design, therefore also of a designer.


first cause

(theology, philosophy, sometimes capitalized) An initial cause from which all other causes and effects follow.


ephah

From Hebrew אֵיפָה (eifá), from Egyptian jpt (“oipe, a dry measure of volume about 19.2 liters”). Doublet of oipe.

der

Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 45:10–11:

(historical units of measure) A former Hebrew unit of dry volume (about 23 L).


Tribulation

(Christian eschatology) (A period of) persecution before the Second Coming, lasting seven years, which Christians will experience worldwide which will purify and strengthen them.


papal infallibility

Before examining specific interpretations of papal infallibility, we will first give a general introduction to the doctrine. This chapter begins with an overview of the pontificate of Pius IX and the historical setting of Vatican I. This overview is ...

2009, Mark E. Powell, Papal Infallibility: A Protestant Evaluation of an Ecumenical Issue, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, →ISBN, page 20:

(Roman Catholicism) The concept that the Pope, under certain circumstance (when making a statement on faith or morals, etc.) is protected by the Holy Spirit from being able to make a mistake.


sawm

From Arabic صَوْم (ṣawm, “fasting; abstaining from food, drink, and sex”), probably borrowed from Classical Syriac ܨܘܡܐ (ṣawmāʾ).

(Islam) fasting, abstention, abstinence; the third of the five pillars of Islam


second coming

When the time of Christ's second coming is at hand, there will be but a very little faith in the world. And the Lord knows that there be many, who are now as high as Lucifer, that at that day, for want of faith, will be thrown down to the sides of the pit; even in the very belly of hell.

a. 1689 (date written), John Bunyan, “ Some Gospel Truths Opened”, in Henry Stebbing, editor, The Entire Works of John Bunyan, […], volume I, London: James S[prent] Virtue, […], published 1863, →OCLC, page 75:

When Malone next looked round he was gone. "He is one of these Second-coming fanatics," he whispered to Enid. There are a lot of them—Christadelphians, Russellites, Bible Students and what-not.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes an Evening in Strange Company”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(Christianity) The prophesied return of Jesus Christ.


Discordianism

A minor modern religion with absurdist elements, often seen as a parody, based on the worship of Eris, the Greek goddess of discord and confusion.

diskordianismi

parodic religion based on the worship of Eris


samsara

en-noun

samsara (countable and uncountable, plural samsaras)

Until we are released from the law of karma and reach moksha or deliverance, we will be in samsara or the time process.

1957, S. Radhakrishnan, C. A. Moore, editors, A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, Princeton Univ. Press, page 38:

(philosophy, religion) In Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and some other eastern religions, the ongoing cycle of birth, death, and rebirth endured by human beings and all other mortal beings, and from which release is obtained by achieving the highest enlightenment.


Wahhabism

From Wahhab + -ism. Named after Islam theologian Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

named-after

(Islam) A Sunni Islamic fundamentalist reform movement based on the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (c. 1703–1792), followed primarily in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.


momentary god

Calque of German Augenblicksgott, coined by Hermann Usener in his Götternamen in 1896.

Concentrating his attention on the conception of lightning, Usener discovers a transition in the way lightning is conceived: initially experienced as an exclamation in response to a "momentary god"—Zeus originally meant "he who thunders"—[…]

2018 August 6, Karen Lang, Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 96:

A specific phenomenon, such as a lightning bolt, interpreted and experienced as a deity.


canonized

Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church

(Christianity) In the Roman Catholic Church, officially declared a saint.

canonizat

Roman Catholic Church: officially declared a saint


shamanism

en-noun

shamanism (countable and uncountable, plural shamanisms)

/ˈʃɑːmənɪzəm/

Any of a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world.


Discordia

(Roman mythology) The goddess of discord, confusion, and strife.


dobby

dobby (countable and uncountable, plural dobbies)

(chiefly Nottingham) The children's game of tag.


Baraita

Aramaic baraita, an extraneous teaching. The word appears in the feminine (baraita rather than bara'ah), because it is actually short for matnita baraita, external Mishnah or teaching (and matnita is feminine).

(Judaism) Any of various Jewish traditions that are not included in the Mishnah.


chesed

From Hebrew חסד (ḥeseḏ, “grace, kindness, love”).

der

Through ḥesed one deals faithfully or keeps faith with another.

2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 66:

The Jewish attribute of grace, kindness or love; one of the sephiroth


Lokean

(Germanic paganism) One who honours Loki as their primary god.


Purana

Borrowed from Sanskrit पुराण (purāṇá, literally “old, ancient”).

bor

(Hinduism) A text that is part of an ancient Indian genre of Hindu or Jain written literature, concerning various topics, including cosmogony and mythology.


primum mobile

en-noun

primum mobile (plural primum mobiles or prima mobilia)

primum mobiles (plural)
prima mobilia (plural)

From Middle English primum mobile (“outermost celestial sphere causing other spheres to move”), borrowed from Medieval Latin prīmum mōbile (literally “first mover”), a calque of Arabic مُحَرِّك أَوَّل (muḥarrik ʔawwal, “first mover”), which is itself a calque of Ancient Greek τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν (tò prôton kinêsan, “prime mover”).

ref

From Petrus Apianus, Gemma Frisius (1539) Petri Apiani cosmographia, per Gemmam Phrysium, apud Louanienses medicum ac mathematicum insignem, restituta: additis de adem re ipsius Gemmae Phry. libellis, ut sequens pagina docet, Antwerp: In pingui gallina Arnoldo Berckma[n]no [Arnold Birckmann], →OCLC.

calque

مُحَرِّك أَوَّل

der

τὸ πρῶτον κινῆσαν

Have we got among our primum mobiles the force of such elastic vapours as be generated for the purpose out of nonelastic substances, and are not incondensible? A good magazine of vitr[iolic] acid and powder'd marble would not only save the expence of air in feeding fire, but generate heat.

1779 January 20–22, Jeremy Bentham, “302: To Samuel Bentham: 20–22 January 1779 (Aet 30)”, in Timothy L[auro] S[quire] Sprigge, editor, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham), volumes 2 (1777–80), London: UCL Press, published 2017, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 219–220:

[M]otion is transferred and modified; by none of them produced:—in all of them motion finds a channel; in none of them [...] a source. [...] [W]hat are the several sources of motion, and what are the corresponding prime movers, or primum mobiles?

1815, [Jeremy Bentham], “Table 1. I.—Notes to the Advantages.”, in Chrestomathia: Being a Collection of Papers, Explanatory of the Design of an Institution, Proposed to be Set on Foot, under the Name of the Chrestomathic Day School, or Chrestomathic School, […], London: Printed for Messrs. Payne and Foss, […], and J. Ridgway, […]; by J. M‘Creery, […], →OCLC, pages 24–25:

The Universal Goddess, the World Mother, is among the oldest, "longest-winded," of the great supporting divinities known to the myths of the world. [...] For just because she is the Great Mother, so was she there before anything else. She is the primum mobile, the first beginning, the material matrix out of which all came forth.

1956, Heinrich Zimmer, “On the Siprā Shore”, in Joseph Campbell, editor, The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul’s Conquest of Evil (Bollingen Series; XI), 2nd edition, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 1993 (10th printing), →ISBN, part II (Four Episodes from the Romance of the Goddess), page 311:

(chiefly philosophy, theology) The prime mover or first cause (“an initial cause from which all other causes and effects follow”).

起因

prime mover or first cause — see also prime mover


partialism

en-noun

partialism (countable and uncountable, plural partialisms)

(Christianity, theology) The doctrine that the three persons of the Trinity are each three parts of God; in other words, each one thirds of God.

(Christianity, theology) The doctrine that Christ's atonement was made for only a part of humanity.


psychographer

(spiritualism) A medium able to psychograph (to have one's body possessed by spirits in order to let them write texts in the physical world).


sampradaya

Borrowed from Sanskrit सम्प्रदाय (sampradāya).

bor+

(Hinduism) Any of several Hindu sects or denominations


tawaf

en-noun

tawaf (countable and uncountable, plural tawafs)

(Islam) The ritual of circumambulating the Kaaba seven times as part of the hajj in Mecca.


psychograph

In this article he deals with the still more remarkable impressions, known as "psychographs," which they have obtained on photographic plates without exposing them at all, and which Mr. Lethem claims could only be produced by "spirit" agency.

A remarkably clear psychograph — a thought-picture — was taken, or impressed, upon a plate in Hope's home without the plate being exposed to light.

1938, True Mystic Science - Volumes 1-2, page 21:

Such a psychograph - and I believe the normal psychic photograph is such - is independent of the laws of light, so that one can imagine how utterly at sea a photographic critic would be who judged its authenticity by shadows or any such tests.

1986, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Michael Gibson, Richard Lancelyn Green, Letters to the press: the unknown Conan Doyle, page 295:

Seven years after he began organising regular séances with Miss Poole, Dr. Hamilton managed to obtain his first so-called psychograph or spirit photograph.

2012, Fabrice Bourland, The Baker Street Phantom, →ISBN:

In 1915, for example, the British photographer William Hope made a "psychograph" that contained handwritten messages from two disembodied spirits, and Coates confirmed that the "writing attributed to the late Archdeacon Colley and Mr. William Walker is identical with their own handscript while they were in life."

2013, Kristen Lacefield, The Scary Screen: Media Anxiety in The Ring, →ISBN, page 36:

(spiritualism) A photographic image having a supposed supernatural or spiritual origin

A psychograph or a planchette is an apparatus used in spiritistic circles as an instrument for receiving written messages from the spirits of the dead.

1971, Kurt E. Koch, Occult Practices and Beliefs, →ISBN, page 94:

ln a very well-known utterance, the novelist said of Effi Briest (with that curious pellucidity which has no grain of vanity in it): "Perhaps I have been so successful with it because l wrote the whole novel in a dream-like state, almost as if with a psychograph" - a psychograph being the pen-like implement used in spiritualistic ghost-writing.

2001, Patricia Howe, Helen Chambers, Theodor Fontane and the European Context, →ISBN:

Yet more surprising are the results if recourse be had to the table, for rapping, or to the psychograph, requiring, it is true, longer practice than the divinging rod.

2012, Eduard von Hartmann, C. C. Massey, Spiritism, →ISBN, page 66:

(spiritualism) Any of various devices used for automatic writing.


skandha

Borrowing from Sanskrit स्कन्ध (skandhá, “mass, heap”).

(Buddhism) Any of the five attributes that constitute the sentient being; aggregate

ခန္ဓာ

any of the five aspects constituting the sentient being in Buddhism


constat

(law, religion, sciences) It is clearly evident; It is certain, without a doubt.


Utraquism

From Latin utraque (“both”) (from their demanding the cup as well as the bread for the laity), + -ism.

(historical, Christianity) The moderate Hussite ideology that the faithful, specifically including laity, should receive Communion under both kinds (sub utraque specie), that is to say, receive both bread and wine during the Eucharist; moderate Hussitism.


suchness

suchness (usually uncountable, plural suchnesses)

From English dialect, from Middle English swichnesse (“the quality or nature of a thing”), from Old English swilċnes (“quality”), equivalent to such + -ness. Reinforced also as a calque of Sanskrit तथाता (tathātā).

inh

ca. 1928, Hans Driesch, "Philosophy of Nature", in, 1928, Edward Leroy Schaub, ed., Philosophy Today: Essays on Recent Developments in the Field of Philosophy, page 431,
The same relation may prevail between the suchness of willing in men and the realization of that willing.

1955, J. D. Salinger, "Franny", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 22,
Without any apparent regard for the suchness of her environment, she sat down.

Rather than give an answer, you have to section the tangerine and invite the questioner to have a taste. Doing this, you allow him or her to enter the suchness of the tangerine without any verbal or conceptual description.

1988, Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation, Parallax Press, →ISBN, page 94:

(philosophy, chiefly Buddhism) Existence per se.


mudra

The Kechari Mudra is accomplished by thrusting the tongue into the gullet, by turning it over itself, and keeping the eyesight in the middle.

1915 [14th century], Pancham Sinh., Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translation of original by Swami Swatmarama:

(Hinduism) Any of the formal body positions and postures used in yoga and meditation.


apparitional

en-adj

apparitional (comparative more apparitional, superlative most apparitional)

more apparitional (comparative)
most apparitional (superlative)

People enough, first and last, had been in terror of apparitions, but who had ever before so turned the tables and become himself, in the apparitional world, an incalculable terror?

1908, Henry James, chapter 2, in The Jolly Corner:

Since the people of this period carved innumerable vulvas on the walls of the caves, it is natural to assume that the monthly rhythms of the vulva were closely attended to, and that ovulation was no invisible event but was a subtle tidal pulse that seemed to be drawn by the apparitional light of the full moon.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 105:

(religion, forteana) Of or pertaining to an apparition or apparitions

aparicional

of or pertaining to an apparition or apparitions


misotheism

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μισόθεος (misótheos, “hating the gods”), from μίσος (mísos, “hatred”) + θεός (theós, “god”). The Greek compound is found in Aeschylus (Agamemnon 1090; compare dystheism). The English word appears as a nonce-coinage, used by T. De Quincey in 1846.


sanskara

From Sanskrit संस्कार (saṃskāra, “impression”).

uder

(Hinduism) The imprints left on the mind by past experiences (often in past lives) that then condition future responses and behavior


trad

en-noun

trad (countable and uncountable, plural trads)

(informal, Catholicism) A traditionalist.


Judean

(biblical) A member of the tribe of Judah.


Jesus Prayer

The old monk tells him that the one prayer acceptable to God at all times, and 'desired' by God, is the Jesus Prayer—'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.' […]

1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 111

(Christianity) A short formulaic prayer entreating mercy from Jesus Christ.


Acts of the Apostles

Calque of Latin Āctūs Apostolōrum, itself a calque of Ancient Greek Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων (Práxeis Apostólōn).

der

Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων

(biblical) The fifth book in the New Testament of the Bible.

ܣܘܼܪ̈ܵܢܹܐ ܕܫܠܝܼܚܹ̈ܐ

suʿrānē d-šlīḥē


say grace

en-verb

say grace (third-person singular simple present says grace, present participle saying grace, simple past and past participle said grace)

says grace (present singular third-person)
saying grace (participle present)
said grace (participle past)
said grace (past)

(idiomatic) To recite a prayer of invocation or thanksgiving at meal time.


Bel and the Dragon

(biblical) A deuterocanonical, apocryphal book of the Bible.


deuterocanonical

(biblical) Being of the second canon of the Old Testament of the Bible, and not accepted by some Christians. Part of the Apocrypha.

Baruch

Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament include


titanides

(Greek mythology) The daughters of Uranus and Gaia; the female titans.


Canticle of Canticles

A calque of Latin Canticum Canticorum (“Song of Songs”).

der

(biblical) Synonym of Song of Songs, a canonical book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.


transtheistic

en-adj

transtheistic (comparative more transtheistic, superlative most transtheistic)

more transtheistic (comparative)
most transtheistic (superlative)

From trans- + theistic, coined by philosopher Paul Tillich and Indologist Heinrich Zimmer; see quotations below.

1952, Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be, Yale University Press,
Stoicism in this sense is a basic religious attitude, whether it appears in theistic, atheistic, or transtheistic forms.

1953, Heinrich Robert Zimmer (auth.), Joseph Campbell (ed.), Philosophies of India, page 182,
[…] the Tirthankaras have passed beyond the godly governors of the natural order. Jainism, that is to say, is not atheistic; it is transtheistic.

(of a belief system) Transcending theism.

Heinrich Zimmer
Paul Tillich
transtheistic


byname

From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.

(Germanic paganism) A ritual title for a god or goddess used in Heathenry.


Christofascism

(derogatory, offensive, politics) Christian fanaticism or fundamentalism.


Christofascist

From Christo- + fascist, analyzable as Christ + -o- + fascist.

The anti-balaka movement consists largely of Christofascists.

(derogatory, politics) A Christofascist person; a Christian fanatic or fundamentalist.


2 Chronicles

(biblical) The second of the two Books of Chronicles and the fourteenth book of the Old Testament of the Bible.


1 Chronicles

(biblical) The first of the two Books of Chronicles and the thirteenth book of the Old Testament of the Bible.


Song of Songs

A calque of Latin Canticum Canticorum (“Song of Songs”), variant of earlier Canticle of Canticles.

(biblical) The twenty-second book of the Christian Old Testament and the seventeenth book of the Hebrew Bible.


2 Corinthians

(biblical) The second book of Corinthians and the eighth book in the New Testament of the Bible, an epistle to the people of Corinth attributed to Paul the Apostle and Timothy.


1 Corinthians

(biblical) The first book of Corinthians and the seventh book in the New Testament of the Bible, an epistle to the people of Corinth attributed to Paul the Apostle and Sosthenes.

Céad Litir Naomh Pól chuig na Corantaigh


Ben Sira

(biblical) Ecclesiasticus, a book of the Bible.


Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach

the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach (canonical)


Ecclesiasticus

A book of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, considered apocryphal by Protestants.


Salafism

(Islam) A movement comparing itself to Sunni Islam, claiming to taking the pious ancestors, the salaf of the patristic period of early Islam, as exemplary models.


Salafi

Many Salafis are not violent; most are actually apolitical.

2016 November, David Patrikarakos, “Progression through Regression”, in Literary Review:


judgment call

So stood I, by an atmosphere beguiled
Of glad surprise, when first thy lips let fall
The name I lightly carried when a child,
That I shall rise to at the judgment call.

1894, Gilbert Parker, “Recognition,”, in A Lover's Diary:

(Christianity) The summons which will call the spirits of the deceased to their heavenly reward at the time of Final Judgment.


Lord of Lords

1611, King James Version of the Bible, Revelation, 17:14
: These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.


Prince of Peace

* 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Isaiah, 9:6
*: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.


antinomianism

en-noun

antinomianism (countable and uncountable, plural antinomianisms)

From antinomian + -ism, coined by Martin Luther, notably used in his Against the Antinomians (1539).

Always containing seeds of antinomianism, mysticism inevitably undermined that authority, but because the church's hegemony rested on mystery, mysticism could not altogether be prohibited. The common will to reach God was too strong, and the church was political before it was anything else.

1989, Greil Marcus, “The Assault on Notre-Dame”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

In the 1970s, [Daniel] Bell saw antinomianism all around him, and his thesis struck a chord with many. Well, antinomianism never hit many places in America, like the evangelical Christian communities.

1997 September 15, David Brooks, “The Rise of the Latte Town”, in Washington Examiner:

(Christianity) The belief or teaching that because only the spiritual "law of faith" (Romans 3:27) is essential for salvation, obedience to any practical or moral law has no role to play, even as a guide to conduct or as a test of the genuineness of faith.

Antinomismus

a belief or teaching that the spiritual law of faith renders any practical or moral law irrelevant


Decalogue

Borrowed from Middle French Décalogue, from Latin decalogus, from Ancient Greek δεκάλογος (dekálogos, from δέκα (déka, “ten”) + λόγος (lógos, “statement”)).


Judg.

Iūd.

abbreviation of the equivalent of Judges


4 Kings

(biblical) A book of the Old Testament of Bible, and of the Tanakh.


Maccabees

(biblical) One of two books of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, considered apocryphal by Protestants.


1 Kings

(biblical) The eleventh book of the Old Testament of Bible, and of the Tanakh.


2 Kings

(biblical) The twelfth book of the Old Testament of Bible, and of the Tanakh.


1 Samuel

(biblical) The ninth book of the Old Testament of the Bible, and of the Tanakh.

撒母耳记上卷

Sat-bó͘-ní Kì Siōng-koàn, Sat-bó͘-jí Kì Siōng-koàn

撒母耳记上

Sat-bó͘-ní Kì Siōng, Sat-bó͘-jí Kì Siōng


2 Samuel

(biblical) The tenth book of the Old Testament of Bible, and of the Tanakh.

撒母耳记下卷

Sat-bó͘-ní Kì Hā-koàn, Sat-bó͘-jí Kì Hā-koàn


pre-Christian

(Christianity) A person who is not yet a Christian, regarded as a potential convert.


bus ministry

(religion) An outreach program of a religious institution that regularly uses buses or jitneys to transport people, typically children, to a site of religious practice.


katsu

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-katsu.wav

(Zen Buddhism): A word shouted out in Zen Buddhism (as well as other sects of Buddhism), and in East Asian martial arts schools, used to help focus the energy (気 (ki)), and thereby induce an enlightened state.


Missourian

en-adj

Missourian (comparative more Missourian, superlative most Missourian)

more Missourian (comparative)
most Missourian (superlative)

Missouran

used especially by those who pronounce the state's name /məˈzɝə/ rather than /mɨˈzɝi/

(Christianity) Of or relating to the Missouri Synod, a Lutheran denomination.


Missourian

(Christianity) A supporter of the Missouri Synod.


apodictic

apodictic (comparative more apodictic, superlative most apodictic)

more apodictic (comparative)
most apodictic (superlative)

From the Latin apodīcticus (“proving clearly”, “demonstrative”), from the Ancient Greek ἀποδεικτικός (apodeiktikós, “affording proof”, “demonstrative”), from ἀποδείκνυμι (apodeíknumi, “I demonstrate”). In turn, from ἀπο- (apo-, “separate, without”), and δεικτικός (deiktikós, “capable of proof”).

uder

ἀποδεικτικός

(Biblical studies, theology) Absolute and without explanation, as in a command from God like "Thou shalt not kill!"


Prayer of Manasseh

(biblical) A book of the Apocrypha of the Bible.


Song of the Three Holy Children

(biblical) A book of the Apocrypha, now included in the passage Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children.


2 Peter

(biblical) The second epistle of Peter, the twenty-second book of the New Testament of the Bible.


1 Peter

(biblical) The first epistle of Peter, the twenty-first book of the New Testament of the Bible.


convalidation

en-noun

convalidation (countable and uncountable, plural convalidations)

(Christianity) In Roman Catholic canon law, the making of a putative marriage valid following the removal of some impediment.


structurality

structurality (countable and uncountable, plural structuralities)

(philosophy, theology) The qualities or types of the structure or structures an object possesses.


for ever and ever

Arising in the King James Bible, an approximate translation from Ancient Greek εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων (eis toùs aiônas tôn aiṓnōn, “to the aeons of the aeons”) and Hebrew לעולם ועד (“forever and until”), as well as Latin in saecula saeculorum and per omnia saecula saeculorum (themselves from the Greek).

der

εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων

(biblical, Christian liturgy) Eternally; timelessly; with no beginning and no end.


beatified

(Roman Catholicism) Having been recognized and declared, by the church, that a deceased has entered heaven; having attained this step in the process of canonization.

zalig

declared that a deceased has entered heaven


atman

From Sanskrit आत्मन् (ātmán, “soul; self; ego; essence”). Doublet of edder (“blood vessel”) and cognate with Old English ǣþm (“breath”).

bor

However, we have been led beyond this to a threefold analysis which in its western version is body-soul-spirit and in its eastern version body-mind-atman.

1994, John Hick, Death and Eternal Life, page 450:

Atman is the manifestation of brahman in the human body. The central theme of the Upanishads is that in the liberated state the atman is identical with brahman.[…]The word atman is generally translated as soul, self or spirit. However, in view of the Western definition of the soul, atman and soul are not the same.[…]In the Western view, the soul is created by God. In the Hindu view, the atman, being eternal, is not created by God. It is a part of God.

2005, Bansi Pandit, Explore Hinduism, page 63:

The human being in Hindu thought comprises Atman (or Punisha) and Maya (or Prakriti). The Hindu doctrine of Atman concerns one's deepest identity.

2006, Donald Goergen, Fire of Love: Encountering the Holy Spirit, page 151:

The priests who were immersed in the ritual science of the Brahmanas began to speculate on the nature of the self, and gradually the word "atman" came to refer to the essential and eternal core of the human person, which made him or her unique.

2006, Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation, Atlantic Books, published 2007, page 84:

The Brahmanic tradition that Buddhism is both connected to and a reaction against was, according to almost every scholar, over the top as regards atman. So, not only were individuals possessed of an immutable, indestructible atman. Some, perhaps many Brahmins were asserting that they were ATMAN.

2011, Owen Flanagan, The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized, page 124:

(Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Vedanta) The true self of an individual beyond identification with worldly phenomena, the essence of an individual, an infinitesimal part of Brahman.


clergyperson

en-noun

clergyperson (plural clergypersons or clergypeople)

clergypersons (plural)
clergypeople (plural)

Holonym: clergy

A cleric; especially, an ordained (male or female) Christian minister.

свяшчэннаслужы́цель

ordained (male or female) Christian minister, male or female member of the clergy


ustav

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic оуставъ (ustavŭ). Cognate of устав in modern Bulgarian and modern Russian.

While most of the service books are employed only in the conduct of public devotion, the psalter and the ustav are widely read works that are found in every household. —David Scheffel, In the Shadow of Antichrist: The Old Believers of Alberta

(Eastern Orthodoxy) A church statute prescribing daily prayer, feast days, and fasts.


motherhouse

The Cistercian order is named after its motherhouse Cîteaux in Burgundy, where abbot St. Bernard initiated in 1113 the reform of their branch of the Benedictine order, which has its motherhouse at Monte Cassino.

The monastery from which the other 'houses' of a religious order or congregation were (directly or indirectly) founded, often eponymous.

moederhuis

religious monastery from which the other houses were founded

The convent which is the seat (and often the above original foundation) of the superior of an order or congregation, and/or on which lower ranking houses (such as priories under an abbot) depend.


2 Thessalonians

(biblical) The fourteenth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the second epistle to the Thessalonians.


1 Thessalonians

(biblical) The thirteenth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the first epistle to the Thessalonians.


nativity scene

In 1958, it was reported that for "the fourth year in succession, staff of four South London stations have combined to decorate the booking hall at Peckham Rye station". They installed a nativity scene, models of Father Christmas, and a sleigh driven by huskies, and Christmas trees were placed around the station.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 29:

(Christianity) A depiction—which may be pictorial, dramatic, or by means of figurines—of the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger, as described in the New Testament account.


2 Timothy

(biblical) The sixteenth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the second epistle to Timothy.


Obed

From Hebrew אובד or עוֹבֵד (Oved, “servant”).

A male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.


1 Timothy

(biblical) The fifteenth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the first epistle to Timothy.


1 John

(biblical) The twenty-third book of the New Testament of the Bible, the first epistle of John.


2 John

(biblical) The twenty-fourth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the second epistle of John.


Wisdom of Solomon

A book of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament, considered apocryphal by Protestants.


3 John

(biblical) The antepenultimate book of the New Testament of the Bible, the third epistle of John.


religieux

Borrowed from French religieux. Doublet of religious.

(historical) A man bound by monastic vows; a monk.


Abraham's bosom

From Middle English Abraham bosom, abraham bosum, Abrahames boseme, Abrahames bosum, Abrahams bosum, Abrahamys bosum, from translation of Late Latin sinus Ābrahae, from translation of Ancient Greek κόλπος Ἀβραάμ (kólpos Abraám).

der

κόλπος Ἀβραάμ

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Abraham's bosom.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

(Christianity) The waiting place for the faithful dead between the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ; paradise.


apikoros

From Hebrew אֶפִּיקוֹרוֹס ('epikóros, “heretic”), from Ancient Greek Ἐπίκουρος (Epíkouros, “Epicurus”), but later associated with Aramaic אַפְקֵר (ʾap̄ḳēr, “to abandon”).

bor

אֶפִּיקוֹרוֹס

der

And these are they that have no portion in the world to come: He who says that the revivification of the dead cannot be proved from the Law, and that the Law is not from heaven, and an Apikoros (that is, one that does not fully believe in the Law).

1882, Paul Isaac Hershon (tr.), Treasures of the Talmud, page 48:

A persistent fear worried the Jews of the early Diasporas and of Hellenistic times: the fear that a child of theirs might grow up to be an am-haaretz—a peasant, ignorant of Torah; or, even worse, an apikoros—a sophisticated unbeliever who abandons Jewish faith to indulge in rationalistic speculation about the meaning of existence.

1961, Daniel Bell, “Reflections on Jewish Identity”, in Commentary Magazine:

“How can you do that if you don't believe in God?” “I believe in God. I never said I didn't believe in God.” “You don't sound like a Hasid, though,” I told him. “What do I sound like?” “Like a—an apikoros.”

Others prefer cherry, apricot, or apple, but even these innovations are rejected by the modern apikoros, the child raised in America who sees chocolate as the only possible substance that should be stuffed inside the hamantash.

2005, Ruth Fredman Cernea, editor, The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate, page 203:


allotheistic

en-adj

allotheistic (comparative more allotheistic, superlative most allotheistic)

more allotheistic (comparative)
most allotheistic (superlative)

And he inveighed against Candle-mas as an allotheistic thing, a burning of tapers to Februa; and he indicted the vanity of Shrove-tide, with its cock-scaling in honor not of Christ but Themistocles...

1977, John B. Sanford, View from This Wilderness: American Literature As History, page 45:

Wearers of sheets prepared for a migration across the river. Down into the river they went, allotheistic teens, shawls wrapped snugly around them, to ford the river called Tokeneke, rock by rock.

2000, Rick Moody, Demonology: Stories, page 221:


stigmatized

stigmatized (comparative more stigmatized, superlative most stigmatized)

more stigmatized (comparative)
most stigmatized (superlative)

This gift of the Lord is not confined to past centuries. It still exists in full strength in our days. Catherine Emmerich, who died in 1824, is an example of it, and a stigmatized Saint still nearer to our times, for she did not die until 1885, Catherine Putigny, the sister of the Visitation, was seen in two parts of Metz at one and the same time.

1923, Joris-Karl Huysmans, translated by Agnes Hastings, Saint Lydwine of Schiedam, page 126:


pandemonism

At all events, it is interesting to learn, from this work, with greater accuracy, an old religious system of the East, in which are to he found, with Pandemonism and the metempsychosis, the elements of the worship of the stars, of astrology, the theurgy, the doctrine of amulets, as well as the elements of the Hindoo religion, particularly the system of castes.

1833, Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary: Containing Definitions of All Religious and Ecclesiastical Terms, page 291:

Every object, animate or inanimate, every idea, abstract or concrete, became endowed with a spirit of its own. The religion of Rome was a pandaemonism, a belief, not in one god, pervading all nature and identified with nature, but in millions of gods, a god for every object, every act.

1910, Samuel Fallows, Andrew Constantinides Zenos, Herbert Lockwood Willett, The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopædia and Scriptural Dictionary, page 1481:

But he was scarcely right in attempting to derive all primitive religious concepts from an undifferentiated "dim pandemonism."

1974, Stephen Porter Dunn, Introduction to Soviet Ethnography, page 491:

The dignity and calm of Isiac faith had something to impress anxious or fickle pagans who were beguiled by the murky occultism of the sects or the pandemonism of the magicians.

1996, Robert Turcan, The Cults of the Roman Empire, page 121:

This peculiar anthropological docetism, or pandemonism, is not compatible with the Christian faith.

2004, Boris Jakim, The Comforter, page 226:

Belief that every object (animate or inanimate), idea (abstract or concrete), and action is inhabited by its own independent supernatural spirit; worship of such spirits.


missionary-linguist

although we do not meet among the missionary linguists that marvellous variety of languages which excites our wonder, yet we find in them abundant evidences of a solid and practical scholarship

1858, C. W. Russell, The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, page 29:

While he had fulfilled what was expected of him as a missionary linguist, his eagerness for the welfare of the Africans led him to occupy himself with other plans

1881, John Ebenezer Honeyman Thomson, Memoir of George Thomson, Cameroon Mountains, West Africa, by one of his nephews, page 20:

the valuable work of the excellent and indefatigable missionary-linguist, the late Father Marcoux, on the Iroquois language, is about to be published by the Bureau of ethnology.

1883, H. Hale, “The Iroquois institutions and language”, in Science, volume 2, number 36, page 497:

Even the famous missionary-linguist J.G. Christaller could not break away from the spell of this 'priestcraft'-theory.

1979, J.G. Platvoet, “The Akan Believer and his Religions”, in Official and Popular Religion: Analysis of a Theme for Religious Studies, page 595:

Many missionary-linguists leave the familiarity of their home and their social network to go spend many years (often decades) in local communities, learning the local language and local customs and beliefs.

2006, Lenore A. Grenoble, Lindsay J. Whaley, Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization, page 196:

A missionary who seeks to study a people's language in order to facilitate religious conversion.


Zarathustrian

(uncommon) Relating to or characteristic of Zarathustrianism (also known as Zoroastrianism).


Zarathustrian

(uncommon) A follower of Zarathustra (also known as Zoroaster).


Zoroaster

/ˌzɒɹoʊˈæstəɹ/

/ˈzɒɹoʊˌæstəɹ/

Learned borrowing from Latin Zōroastrēs, from Ancient Greek Ζωροάστρης (Zōroástrēs), from Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬚𐬎𐬱𐬙𐬭𐬀 (zaraθuštra). Doublet of Zarathustra.

Pseudepigraphic name used by various Ancient Greek and Latin authors of late antiquity to lend weight to their opinions.


suburbicarian

(Roman Catholicism) Describing any of the six dioceses surrounding Rome, which are always headed by Cardinals of the highest rank.

suburbicari

describing any of the six dioceses surrounding Rome


psychomancy

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-psychomancy.wav

Divination involving communication with spirits; necromancy.


Timotheus

Then he came to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek.

Timothy, a companion of Paul. (biblical character)


tzitzit

en-noun

tzitzit (plural tzitziot or tzitzis or tzitzith)

tzitziot (plural)
tzitzis (plural)
tzitzith (plural)

uder

Hebrew צִיצִית


Kingdom of Heaven

Inherited from Middle English kingdom of hevene, kingdom of hevenes, a calque of Ancient Greek Βασιλεία τῶν Οὐρανῶν (Basileía tôn Ouranôn), from the Gospel of Matthew.

calque

Βασιλεία τῶν Οὐρανῶν

(Christianity) A concept of heaven as a hierarchical dominion with God at the top and a court of saints, archangels and angels.


Macaulayism

From Macaulay + -ism, from the name of Thomas Babington Macaulay, who was instrumental in introducing English as a medium of instruction for higher education in India.

(India, derogatory) The act of westernization of upper class Indians using educational reform.


Apollyon

From Ancient Greek Ἀπολλύων (Apollúōn, “Apollyon, the destroyer”), from ἀπόλλυμι (apóllumi, “utterly destroy”) via phono-semantic matching with Biblical Hebrew אֲבַדּוֹן (ʾaḇaddôn, “destruction, ruin”).

der

A great black bird, Apollyon's bosom-friend, / Sailed past, nor beat his wide wing dragon-penned / That brushed my cap—perchance the guide I sought.

1855, Robert Browning, chapter 27, in “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”:

(Christianity) The destroying angel of the abyss, the undoer or disintegrator.


desacralization

en-noun

desacralization (countable and uncountable, plural desacralizations)

(religion) The reverse of sacralization, and occurs when a formerly dedicated religious structure such as a church or religious school is given over for another purpose outside of the particular religious organization which dedicated it for a sacred purpose.


tropology

tropology (countable and uncountable, plural tropologies)

From Late Latin tropologia, from Late Greek τροπολογία (tropología), equivalent to trope + -ology.

Where the syntax of propositions is broken, we see a very general principle of tropology that grants a priori that things like texts are replacements of things like authors.

1993, Miguel Tamen, Manners of Interpretation: The Ends of Argument in Literary Studies, page 58:

He must distinguish the historical information from the allegory, divide the allegory from the tropology, and separate the tropology from the anagogy.

2009, Geoffrey Grossus, The Life of Blessed Bernard of Tiron, page 58:

A similar story can be told for White's tropology. Tropology also is something that “the mind brings” to (past) reality and that is not part of the past itself.

2009, Frank Ankersmit, “2: White's "New Neo-Kantianism": Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics”, in Frank Ankersmit, Ewa Domanska, Hans Kellner, editors, Re-Figuring Hayden White, page 37:

(theology, philosophy) The interpretation of scripture or other work in order to educe moral or figurative meaning; a treatise of such interpretation.


ayah

Borrowed from Arabic آيَة (ʔāya, “sign, token”).


reactive mind

(Scientology) A portion of the brain akin to the subconscious where painful memories, or engrams, are stored.


Dianetics

Coined by author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard from Ancient Greek διά (diá, “through”) + νοῦς (noûs, “mind”); an alteration of dianoetic. Literally means "through the soul".

coined

In psychology, Dianetics drops into line without disturbing anything concerned with staffs or research or teaching posts, for psychology is simply the study of the psyche and now that there exists a science of the psyche it can go ahead with a will. Thus, Dianetics is the enemy of none, and Dianetics falls utterly outside all existing legislation, none of which anticipated or made any provision for a science of mind.

1950, L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics, New Era Publications, published 1999, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 220:

A self-help system designed by L. Ron Hubbard, today chiefly employed in Scientology.

dianetik

self-help system now used in Scientology


Christingle

Uncertain; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, possibly from dialectal German Christkindl, Christkindle (“the Christ child, believed to deliver presents to children on Christmas Eve; the presents so brought”), from Christ (“Christ”) + Kindl, Kindle (dialectal diminutive of Kind (“child”)). The -ingle portion of the word may be a corruption of Kris Kringle (“Santa Claus”) (also derived from German Christkindl, Christ Kinde) among the German community in the United States.

I lit the three Christingles, / I lit them one by one, / On the merry, merry Christmas Eve, / When all the work was done. / I lit the three Christingles, / And they burned with a joyous ray, / But the faces that bent above them / Were fuller of light than they.

1869 January 23, “Christingles”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume VII, number 160, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., successors to Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 127, column 2:

A Christingle is an orange with a red ribbon around it. A small candle is set in the top. Four sticks, usually cocktail sticks, are placed in the orange. Pieces of fruit or small sweets are placed on the sticks. A Christingle is full of symbolism. The orange represents the world. The red ribbon is the blood of Jesus shed for everyone at his crucifixion. The candle represents Jesus, the Light of the World. The four sticks are either the four seasons or the four corners of the world. The fruit and sweets represent the food that God provides.

2002, Gordon Geddes, Jane Griffiths, “The Christmas Cycle of Festivals”, in Christian Belief and Practice: The Roman Catholic Tradition (GCSE Religious Studies for AQA), Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, →ISBN, page 92:

The Christingle service has its origins in the Moravian Church and dates back to 20th December 1747 in Mairenborn, Germany. The language used to describe a Christingle has changed over time but fundamentally a Christingle is a candle set into an orange, respectively representing the world and Jesus. A red ribbon is tied around the orange, representing the blood of Christ. Fruit and sweets on four cocktail sticks are also set in the orange, representing the four seasons and God's love in providing the fruits of the earth. […] This service was performed in local churches all over Moravia when families would gather together at Christmas time. In the first service, the children were encouraged to take their Christingle home to re-light and place in their cottage to show the light of Christ to passers by.

2015 November 25, Rachel Stevenson, “268 Years of Christingle”, in The Children's Society, archived from the original on 2015-09-05:

(Christianity) A small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical modern Christingle is made of an orange with sweets skewered into it, a candle inserted into the top, and a red ribbon wrapped round it.

The Christingle service always attracts lots of people so the giving out of the oranges has to be limited little children; otherwise, some big children (i.e., teenagers) have been known to try their luck and line up for an orange too! I always used to take my two daughters, Victoria and Alexandra, to the Christingle.

2016, Victoria Williams, quoting Rosemary Williams, “Christingle, United Kingdom”, in Celebrating Life Customs around the World: From Baby Showers to Funerals, volumes 1 (Birth and Childhood), Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 96:

(Christianity) A church service for children incorporating Christingles, usually held during Advent.


tone scale

(Scientology) A subjective appraisal of a person's spiritual aliveness, usually given by an auditor, ranging from 'total failure' to 'serenity of beingness'.


Pontus

From Latin Pontus, from Ancient Greek Πόντος (Póntos, “Black Sea, Pontus”), from πόντος (póntos, “sea”), from Mycenaean Greek 𐀡𐀵 (po-to). Doublet of pons.

Pont

a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea

(Greek mythology) A sea god, particularly of the Black Sea.


autocephaly

en-noun

autocephaly (countable and uncountable, plural autocephalies)

/ˌɔːtəˈsɛfəli/

(Christianity) The condition where a church's leaders have severed ties to a larger body and thus no longer report to a higher authority.

outokefalie

the organisational independence of a church


Gideon

Borrowed from Hebrew גִּדְעוֹן (gid'ón, “Gideon”) ("feller", "hewer", "mighty warrior").

And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 7:7:

(biblical) A warrior judge of Israel mentioned in the book of Judges.


Gideon

(Christianity) A member of Gideons International, an evangelical Christian association, founded in 1899, that distributes free copies of the Bible.


bija

(Hinduism, Buddhism) The origin or cause of things.


Greek Orthodox Church

A group of Eastern Orthodox churches comprising the churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Cyprus and Greece.


Govinda

From Sanskrit गोविन्द (Govinda, “finder of cows”).


Maitreya

Transliteration of Sanskrit मैत्रेय (maitreya, “friendly, benevolent”).

translit

(Buddhism) A bodhisattva who is considered to be a future Buddha.

ဢရီႉမိတ်ႈတေႇယႃႉ

ʼǎ rḭ̂i mīt tèe yâ̰a


bottomless pit

1769, The Bible, King James Version, Oxford Standard Text, Revelation, 9:11,
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.


mutat

Borrowed from Arabic مُتْعَة (mutʕa). Doublet of mut'ah.

Relying on Qur'an, Sura II, verse 236, Nasir (1990a, p. 144; 1990b, pp. 96-98) shows that the amount of mutat is a matter of goodwill and of custom.

1998, David Pearl, Werner Menski, Muslim family law, →ISBN, page 184:

Once it has had three steers, the new owner can 'cut the linkage' (mutat) by giving back an ox and six goats or so, depending on the practice in a particular area, and the original owner will give away the ox in exchange for another calf, which will create a new cattle lineage.

2007, David J. Ndegwah, Biblical Hermeneutics as a Tool for Inculturation in Africa, page 121:

This is a ruling agreed upon by the Shi’ahs with the reservation that if the husband should die before consummation, without having specified a dower, nor set any portion for his wife in the contract, then nothing is due to her by way of dower or gift (mutat) (Ref. Al-Hilli, p. 21).

2009, Jamal J. Ahmad Nasir (editor), The Status of Women under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation (third edition), BRILL, chapter thirteen: “The Dower”, § 5: ‘Entitlement to the Dower’, page 95

This argument confirms that in traditional Muslim jurisprudence the concept of some kind of compensation for the divorced Muslim wife, in the form of mata or mutat, was not unknown.

2013, Werner Menski, Modern Indian Family Law, →ISBN, page 284:

(Islam) A compensation gift given to a woman when divorced or repudiated by her husband.


Zacharias

From Ancient Greek Ζαχαρίας (Zakharías), the New Testament form of the figure's name in the Old Testament, Hebrew זְכַרְיָה (Zəḵaryā, “Yahweh has remembered”). Compare Zachariah and Zechariah.


Helatrobus

(Scientology) An "interplanetary nation" which existed trillions of years ago, the reasons for the demise of which are uncertain.


white Christmas

en-noun

white Christmas (plural white Christmases)

“It′s like frozen thistle-down!” she cried. “I hope it will snow all day and all night until everything is covered. I never saw a white Christmas.”

1905, Annie Fellows Johnston, chapter 8, in The Little Colonel′s Christmas Vacation:

In New York City 10,000 men struggled to clear away the heavy snow which promised New Yorkers their first white Christmas in 15 years,[…].

1945 December 31, “The Big Snow”, in Life, page 23:

At Environment Canada, senior climatologist David Phillips′ standard for a white Christmas calls for at least two centimeters of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. . . . “In England, if a weather guy sees a snowflake, they call it a white Christmas.”

2008 December 18, David Bruser, “Thanks to more storms, Christmas may be white”, in Toronto Star, page A2:

A Christmas Day or Christmas Eve on which there is a ground covering of snow or snowfall.


Xenu

From the works of L. Ron Hubbard, of unknown origin. Richard Abanes notes that a Journey into Mystery science fiction comic story featuring an alien warlord titled “Xemnu the Titan” (1961) was reprinted in 1967, the year that Hubbard composed the Xenu narrative.

He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal volcanoes (Incident 2) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic Area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged." His name was Xenu. He used renegades.Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. were placed in the implants.

1968, L. Ron Hubbard, OT III: Wall of Fire, archived from the original on 2013-01-12:

The documents Scott took are a refinement of Hubbard’s account of Xemu, assertedly an evil tyrant who planted the seeds of aberrant behavior in people 75 million years ago. ¶ According to documents obtained previously by The Times in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hubbard contends that Xemu trapped people in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol and deposited them in 10 volcanoes. Xemu then dropped nuclear bombs on the volcanoes, according to Hubbard, destroying the people but freeing their spirits, which clustered together and were brainwashed by Xemu.

1985 November 23, Robert Welkos, Joel Sappell, “Scientologists Win Major Court Victory Over Defectors, Documents”, in Los Angeles Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-07-12:

Seventy-five million years ago there was a galactic confederation consisting of seventy-six planets which had an over-population problem. The head of the confederation was named Xenu and he resolved that he would entice the entire population of the confederacy to Earth (called Teegeeach) and blow them up. […] Contacting the BTs is done telepathically and they are then guided back down the time-track to the moment seventy-five million years ago when Xenu vaporized them, which is known as Incident 2.

1986, Stewart Lamont, Religion Inc.: The Church of Scientology, London: Harrap, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 50:

"Trapped" made merciless fun of Mr. Cruise and Scientology, but stuck mostly to the church's actual beliefs, including such notions as frozen aliens and a Lord Xenu who ruled a galactic federation of planets.

2006 March 24, Alessandra Stanley, “A 'South Park' Character's Return Becomes an Opportunity for Revenge”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-03-14, Television:

At the heart of Scientology’s belief system is the story of a galactic dictator called Xenu who, 76 million years ago, imprisoned the billions of people of the 75 planets of the Galactic Federation in volcanoes on Earth and dropped H-bombs on them. This traumatic event separated the thetans from their bodies. These deeply troubled thetans attach themselves in their millions to humans today; and are responsible for illness, perversion and many of the other problems of the human race. Advanced levels of auditing can help Scientologists to rid themselves of these ‘body thetans’.

2007, Una McGovern, Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained, Chambers, →ISBN, page 607:

That incident, the story of Xenu, is an extremely important incident theologically, because it explains why everyone is infested with body thetans here on earth. It is a serious event considered to have happened.

2008, Michael Streeter, Behind Closed Doors: The Power and Influence of Secret Societies, New Holland Publishers, page 219:

More than a few Scientologists read the Xenu story as “a bizarre science fiction story,” as one former member described it. But fearing they'd be denounced for doubting Hubbard's teachings—to do so would be a thought crime — they held their tongue.

2011, Janet Reitman, Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, Houghton Mifflin, page 100:

A more elaborate version of the Xenu/Xemu story appears in a lecture attributed to Hubbard from September 1968, also now widely available online.

2011, Hugh B. Urban, The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion, Princeton University Press, page 103:

(Scientology) An extraterrestrial galactic leader said to have transported aliens to Earth 75 million years ago and murdered them with hydrogen bombs at sites of volcanoes, turning them into thetans.

Journey into Mystery
L. Ron Hubbard
Richard Abanes
Xenu


Ganga

Transliteration of Hindi गंगा (gaṅgā) or Sanskrit गङ्गा (gaṅgā). Doublet of Ganges.

The river Ganges, especially as a deity.


khula

(Islam) A form of divorce initiated by the wife.


seva

Giving loving service to God and human beings is known as seva. According to Hindu scriptures it is the highest form of dharma. Some seva can produce good karma, which enables the atman to proceed towards moksha where it will be united with God. There are many ways Hindus can perform seva—for example, by worshipping regularly or by giving time and money to noble causes.

2002, Lynne Gibson, Hinduism, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 56:

(Hinduism, Sikhism) Selfless service that is performed without any expectation of reward for performing it.


restimulate

en-verb

restimulate (third-person singular simple present restimulates, present participle restimulating, simple past and past participle restimulated)

restimulates (present singular third-person)
restimulating (participle present)
restimulated (participle past)
restimulated (past)

The sound of firecrackers restimulated the war veteran, and he felt tired for several days after.

(Scientology) To "awaken" a previously lost or hidden memory (engram) from the past, in (a person).


Srimati

From Sanskrit श्रीमत् (śrīmat, “beautiful, charming, lovely, pleasant, splendid, glorious”).


Galaxia

(mythology) In new age mythology, the mother goddess corresponding to Gaia, but on a higher, galactic, level


Lares

en-noun

Lares pl (normally plural, singular Lar)

From Latin Lares, plural form of lār, from Etruscan [Term?].

Coordinate term: lemures

(Roman mythology) The household deities watching over one's family and tutelary deities watching over some public places.


ascesis

ascesis (countable and uncountable, plural asceses)

Learned borrowing from Late Latin ascesis, or directly from its etymon, Ancient Greek ἄσκησις (áskēsis, “exercise, training”), from ἀσκέω (askéō, “to exercise, practise, train”) + -σῐς (-sis, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, result or process).

bor

And this we do find in the Basilican, the Byzantine, and the Romanesque architectures, each more perfect than another, and each lacking in an ever diminishing degree much of the perfect holiness of the Saint of "the most high,"—they came and passed away like different periods in the askesis of a holy soul aiming after the perfection of the spiritual life, and truly therefore they are Christian.

1845 March, “On the Nomenclature of Christian Architecture”, in The Ecclesiologist, volume I (New Series; volume IV overall), number II, Cambridge: John Thomas Walters […]; London: F[rancis] & J[ohn] Rivington […], →OCLC, page 50:

Saint Anthony the Great described a process of purifying the nous by eliminating the disturbances aroused in it by thoughts, feelings, images, imitative movements—all the things that have been unconsciously taken in and remembered by the personality. [...] To achieve this illumination and separation requires a special kind of effort, and this is the real nature of ascesis, noetic ascesis for the enlightening of the nous.

1995, Robin Amis, “The Eye of the Soul”, in A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN; republished Chicago, Ill., South Brent, Devon: Praxis Institute Press, 2003, →ISBN, page 184:

The virtues to be attained through ascesis are Christ’s virtues, not our own, and theosis is always granted, never achieved by the individual. This connects the ascetic life essentially with the eucharistic ethos: we offer to God only what we receive from him; […]

2006, John D. Zizioulas, “On Being Other: Towards an Ontology of Otherness”, in Paul McPartlan, editor, Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church, London, New York, N.Y.: T&T Clark, published 2009, →ISBN, section V.3.e (Otherness and the Ascetic Ethos), page 84:

(Christianity, chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism, specifically) The praxis or "exercise" of asceticism and self-denial of impulses or passions for the sake of piety, theosis, and connection with God.

ascesi

(rigorous) self-discipline — see also asceticism

aszkézis

praxis or “exercise” of asceticism and self-denial of impulses or passions


Hussite

A follower of the teachings of the Christian reformer Jan Hus.


physicotheology

en-noun

physicotheology (countable and uncountable, plural physicotheologies)

What else can be concluded, but that all was made with magnificent Design, and that all the whole Structure is the Work of some intelligent Being; some Artist, of Power and Skill equivalent to such a Work?

1713, William Derham, Physico-Theology, or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation, 5th ed. (1720), London, book I, p. 36

We have been rather severe in the foregoing observations on Dr. Büchner's work, because it belongs to a school of physico-theology, which, whether on the affirmative or negative side, we hold to be equally opposed to the true interests of science.

1865, “Büchner's Force and Matter”, in Anthropological Review, volume 3, number 8, page 28:

Indeed, Creation, like a number of passages in The Seasons, furnishes excellent examples of physicotheology, helpfully defined by Harry Solomon as "the use of the scientific examination of nature to establish and raise admiration for the existence and providence of God."

1989, Thomas B. Gilmore, “Implicit Criticism of Thomson's 'Seasons' in Johnson's 'Dictionary'”, in Modern Philology, volume 86, number 3, page 269:

Some claim that Kant's discussion amounts to a refutation of physicotheology and thus does not result in an argument from design.

2002, “Abstracts of Colloquium Papers: 'On Kant's Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God' by Martin Schönfeld”, in Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, volume 75, number 3, page 127:

(philosophy, theology, dated) The view that evidence and sound arguments for God's existence can be derived from a study of the natural world; a study of the natural world intended to provide such evidence.


Twixmas

Blend of twixt (“betwixt, between”) + Christmas.

blend

Christmas / Twixmas and New Year

1998 December 9, dear..., “Super Savings - UK Hotels for Xmas”, in alt.travel (Usenet), retrieved 2023-12-27:

Twelve Days of Christmas
Twelve Days of Christmas

(slang) The period in between Christmas Day and New Year, typically December 27th–30th where Boxing Day is observed, and December 26th–30th elsewhere (i.e. the first six of the Twelve Days of Christmas).

romjul

the period between Christmas and New Year


haroseth

From Hebrew חֲרֽוֹסֶת, from חרס (cheres, “clay”).

bor

Hebrew חֲרֽוֹסֶת

Then the chief rabbi again took bread and brake it and gave it to all that were withhim, and dipped it into the dish with the haroseth and the lettuce.

1887, The Living Age, volume 173, page 320:

She had never heard of matzo, never tasted the bitter herb, never waited, impatiently, for the moment when she could eat the charoset.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 235:

Unleavened bread and a fruit spread called haroseth are still served today at Passover feasts to remind God's people to be ready to go for God when he calls!

2001, Susan Lingo, A to Z Object Talks That Teach about the Old Testament, page 40:

On each table was a platter containing the symbols of Passover—matzoh (unleavened bread), marror (bitter herbs), haroseth (a paste made of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine), the shank bone of a lamb, a roasted egg, and parsley.

2005, Marilyn Sachs, A Pocket Full of Seeds, page 91:

(Judaism) A paste made of fruits and nuts eaten at Passover, representing the mortar mixed by the Israelites during their slavery in Egypt.


apocryphalist

(Christianity) A member of the group who supported the inclusion of the Apocrypha in the Bible


Temple in Jerusalem

(Judaism) A particular building complex once in Jerusalem, then a center of Jewish religious life.


Jesus fish

en-noun

Jesus fish (plural Jesus fish or Jesus fishes)

Jesus fish (plural)
Jesus fishes (plural)

(colloquial) The ichthys, a symbol of a fish made from two intersecting curved lines, representing Christianity.


Brethren

Specific use of brethren as a semantic loan from German Brüder.

(Protestantism) Members of any congregation in the Anabaptist tradition of the Schwarzenau Brethren, practicing credobaptism and committed to nonresistance and nonviolence, some of whom may wear plain dress and shun modern technology.


milchig

From Yiddish מילכיק (milkhik) with the spelling influenced by German, or else borrowed directly from German milchig (“milky”). Doublet of milky.

(Judaism, of food) Dairy, containing anything derived from milk.

(Judaism, of kitchenware) Designated for use with dairy products or having been contaminated by dairy products.


milchig

milchig (countable and uncountable, plural milchigs)

(Judaism) Food containing anything derived from milk.


fleischig

From Yiddish פֿליישיק (fleyshik, “meaty”). Spelling influenced by German fleischig (“meaty”). Doublet of fleshy.

(Judaism, of food) Meaty, containing meat.

(Judaism, of kitchenware) Designated for use with meat or having been contaminated by meat.

(Judaism, of a person) Having recently eaten meat and therefore unable to eat milchig food.


fleischig

fleischig (countable and uncountable, plural fleischigs)


kolpik

From Turkish kalpak. Doublet of calpack.

A type of traditional headgear worn in families of many Hasidic rabbis, by unmarried children on Shabbat and by rabbis on special occasions. It is a made from brown fur (as opposed to a spodik, worn by Polish Hasidic dynasties, which is fashioned out of black fur).


ifrit

→ Japanese: イフリート (ifurīto)

(Islam) A kind of djinn mentioned in the Qur'an.


Apostolicship

(rare, Catholicism) The office of a Pope


Sif

From Old Norse, from sif (“kindred, kinswoman”), from Proto-Germanic *sibjō; see also Old English sibb (“kinship”) (whence Middle English sib (“having kinship; kinsmen”), whence English sib, sibling), German Sippe (“tribe”).

cog

As already stated, Thor was, according to the Edda, married to Sibil, that is to say, the Sibylla, and the Edda adds that this Sibil is called Sif in the North. In the Teutonic mythology Thor's wife is the goddess Sif.

1889, Viktor Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology, page 60:

For some contemporary Heathens, Lammas is sacred to Sif and Thunor (see Our Troth online Chapter LIII). In Snorri's Skaldskaparmal (see Faulkes 1998 [1987]: 96), Loki cropped Sif’s (presumably blonde or flaxen) hair, seemingly out of spite, a cropping which compares to the harvesting of corn.[…]Sif’s golden hair is a contemporary kenning for the cornfield as it is caressed by the breeze and makes gentle waves.

2005, Nathan J. Johnson, Robert J. Wallis, Galdrbok: Practical Heathen Runecraft, Shamanism and Magic, page 309:

(Norse mythology) A golden-haired goddess associated with earth, mother of Ullr and wife of Thor.


upanayana

/uːpəˈnɑːjənə/

An Aryan boy had to undergo the upanayana that initiated him into the study of the Veda and the sacrificial procedure, or he would never be able to build a fully realized atman.

2006, Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation, Atlantic Books, published 2007, page 83:

(Hinduism) An initiation ceremony undergone by Hindu boys over the age of seven belonging to the highest three castes, marking the start of their formal education.


witchy

en-adj

witchy (comparative witchier, superlative witchiest)

witchier (comparative)
witchiest (superlative)

The children are scared to go near the witchy old woman's house at night.

Bernadette was a small wiry girl with a lot of long witchy black hair, and on the first day of school she wore only one sock.

1967, Beverly Cleary, Mitch and Amy, New York: Dell, published 1980, →ISBN, →OL, page 92:

Sabrina and the three sisters in Charmed have a myriad of witchy powers.

2006 August 8, Sharon Lamb with Lyn Mikel Brown, Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes, New York: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 96:

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of witches; witchlike.


EE

Evangelism Explosion
w:Evangelism Explosion

(Christianity) Initialism of Evangelism Explosion.


Tlaxcala

/tlɑːʃˈkɑːlə/

Borrowed from Spanish Tlaxcala, from Classical Nahuatl Tlaxcallān.

Aguascalientes · Baja California · Baja California Sur · Campeche · Chiapas · Chihuahua · Coahuila · Colima · Durango · Guanajuato · Guerrero · Hidalgo · Jalisco · Mexico · Michoacán · Morelos · Nayarit · Nuevo León · Oaxaca · Puebla · Querétaro · Quintana Roo · San Luis Potosí · Sinaloa · Sonora · Tabasco · Tamaulipas · Tlaxcala · Veracruz · Yucatán · Zacatecas

The Biſhopricke of Tlaſcala, which by another name is called de los Angeles, between the Archbiſhopricke of Mexico, and the Biſhopricke of Guaxaca, if of 100. leagues, and more in length, from the Coaſt of the South to that of the North, and betwixt the confines of the Archbiſhopricke, and of Guaxaca 80. and as many in breadth, by the Coaſt of the North sea, and no more then 18. or 20. by that of the South.

1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, volume 3, London: William Stansby, page 872:

On information received from Julian Garces, Bishop of Tlascala, of the Order of Friars Preachers, Pope Paul III. issued in 1537 bulls vindicating the liberty of the Indians and their dignity as human beings.

1885, Heinrich Brueck, History of the Catholic Church for Use in Seminaries and Colleges, volume II, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Einsideln: Benziger Brothers, page 143:

Puebla de los Ángeles
Puebla de los Ángeles

(Catholicism, history) Until 1903, a Roman Catholic diocese; now the archdiocese of Puebla de los Ángeles.

(Catholicism) A Roman Catholic diocese erected in 1959.


Reformer

(Christianity, historical) Alternative letter-case form of reformer (“one involved in the Reformation”)


POEE

Initialism of Paratheo-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric.


Shani

(Hinduism) The Hindu god associated with the planet Saturn


COM

(Anglicanism) Initialism of commission on ministry.


Asura

Transliteration of Sanskrit असुर (asura). Doublet of Ahura. Compare English Æsir.

translit

(Hinduism) Power-seeking deities involved in constant conflict with the more benevolent Devas.

(Buddhism) The lowest class of deities and demigods of the Kāmadhātu.


concision

en-noun

concision (countable and uncountable, plural concisions)

Borrowed from French concision, from Latin concisiō.

Coordinate term: circumcision

(Christianity) penile mutilation, emasculation (used as a polemical term in Paul's epistles)


Vasuki

(Hinduism) The goddess of snakes in Hindu mythology.


Vayu

(Hinduism) The god of wind in Hindu and Vedic religion. A primary deity, father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Lord Hanuman.


Balarama

Borrowed from Sanskrit बलराम (balarāma).

(Hinduism) Balarama, son of Vasudeva, and Rohini, brother of Subhadra, and Krishna, who uses a plough as his weapon.


Mahabharata

/mə.ɦɑːˈbʱɑː.ɾə.t̪ə/

Transliteration of Sanskrit महाभारत (mahābhārata).

translit

(Hinduism, mythology) An ancient Sanskrit epic concerning some text of the Bhagavad Gita, including elaborations on theology and morality.


religious order

en-noun

religious order (plural religious orders)

(religion) An organized community of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of the founder's religious practice.

náboženský řád

organized community of people following a specific religious devotion


Ascension

(religion) Entry into heaven while still alive.

(Christianity, specifically) The believed entry of Jesus Christ into heaven after his resurrection.

(Christianity) A holiday celebrating the Ascension of Jesus, 40 days after Easter.

Ascension Island
Ascension Island#English


house of worship

house of worship (plural houses of worship)

(religion) A religious edifice; a mosque, church, synagogue, temple, or similar place where believers go to practice their faith.


bardo

Borrowed from Tibetan བར་དོ (bar do), from བར (bar, “interval”) + དོ (do, “two”), in the sense of an interval between two states.

According to the belief of the Tibetans, that is considered an untimely death, which, in opposition to the ordinary course of nature, is accelerated by evil spirits, such as Sringan, Dechad, Jungpo, and others. As a consequence of premature decease, the "Bardo," is prolongated. This is the middle state between the death and the new re-birth, which does not follow immediately, but there exists an interval, which is shorter for the good than for the bad. The prolongation of this intermediate state is considered as a punishment caused by evil spirits who have only power over sinful men.

1863, Emil Schlagintweit, “Details Characteristic of the Religion of the People”, in Buddhism in Tibet: Illustrated by Literary Documents and Objects of Religious Worship. With an Account of the Buddhist Systems Preceding It in India. … With a Folio Atlas of Twenty Plates and Twenty Tables of Native Print in the Text, Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus; London: Trübner & Co., →OCLC, page 109:

The soul's gradual progress to God in terms of a spiralling pathway up the side of the cosmic mountain, from one spiritual station to the next, is an image common to almost all of the world's mystical systems; but few mention the direct path from the base of the mountain straight up to the summit. Even the Bardo Thodol mentions the direct path only once, and then glancingly, confining itself solely to a description of the soul's circuitous afterlife journey through the heaven-worlds. The shortcut for heroes that bypasses the heaven-worlds or bardos and takes them straight to the divine world—in one lifetime, so it is said—is so well guarded in religious literature that the relevant Tibetan Buddhist texts are written in the "twilight language," a cipher that can be understood only with the help of revelation.

1996, Victoria LePage, “The Perfection of the Shortest Path”, in Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth behind the Myth of Shangri-La, 1st Quest edition, Wheaton, Ill.: The Theosophical Publishing House, →ISBN, page 95:

The bardo in Tibetan means an intermediate state, most specifically the one after death when your soul wanders through the heavens and hell, trying to avoid rebirth into samsara—the realm of the material—and achieve nirvana or Buddhahood. […] Like everything the bardo journey takes place both inside you and outside. Like everything it's both a metaphor and not. I was born in the fifties in a nation suspended in the bardo state between a war a decade over and the hellsmoke light of a new war pulling in the East.

1998, Susanne Paolo, “Prologue”, in Bardo (The Brittingham Prize in Poetry), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page xiii:

Some writers have suggested the near-death experience expresses the stages of the dissolution process in the bardo of dying. It is premature, I feel, to try to link the near-death experience too precisely with the bardo descriptions, […]

2013, Sogyal Rinpoche, “The Near-Death Experience”, in Lee W. Bailey, Jenny Yates, editors, The Near-Death Experience: A Reader, Routledge, →ISBN, page 173:

Possessing both omniprescence and omniscience, they now stared beyond the abyss of astral space—beyond the six bardos of Tibetan Buddhism—spreading their karmic seeds across the infinite coordinates of the cosmological Minkowski continuum.

2014, C. J. Cala, “Babble On”, in Four Different Faces, [s.l.]: C. J. Cala, →ISBN, page 151:

"Bardo," as noted, means in-between state. So whenever we're in between two states, no matter what the scale, we're in a bardo state. These two states could be living and dying or being awake and being asleep, but they could also be the just-past moment of thought and the moment to come. Thus "bardo" includes the gap between the cessation of one moment of thought and the arising of the next moment.

2015, Evan Thompson, “Dying: What Happens when We Die?”, in Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 292:

For internees the war was experienced in exile. The Buddhists in Crystal City understood it as a bardo state—a provisional period between the lives before their confinement, and the dream of freedom after the war.

2015 January, Jan Jarboe Russell, “The All-American Camp”, in The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America’s only Family Internment Camp during World War II, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 233:

(Tibetan Buddhism) The state of existence between death and subsequent reincarnation.


Vidar

From Old Norse Víðarr, from víðr (“wide”) + herr (“army”).


civilist

From Medieval Latin civilista, from Latin cīvīlis (“civil (law)”), on the pattern of Medieval Latin canonista (“canonist”), from Latin canōn (“rule”).

(obsolete, theology) One who rejects the moral authority of Christ but who nevertheless adheres to a moral code in line with “civil righteousness” and “good citizenship”.


lay speaker

(religion) A person who is not ordained but is appointed to lead Church services.

Lay reader in the Anglican and Episcopal Churches

Local preacher in the UK Methodist Church and the Uniting Church in Australia


lay preacher

(religion)A person who is not ordained but is appointed to lead Church services in a religious denomination.

Lay speaker in the United Methodist Church


lay reader

The Sabbath with us was literally a day of rest. The doctor, who was a licensed lay reader, read the service, and we managed to form a choir, composed of my sister and those of the staff who cared to join it.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 80:


local preacher

(religion) A person who is not ordained but is appointed to lead Church services in some religious denominations.


MMA

MMA (countable and uncountable, plural MMAs)

(Islamic finance, law) Initialism of master murabaha agreement.


Lemuel

From Hebrew לְמוּאֵל (l'mu'él), literally meaning “dedicated to God” or “devoted to God”.

(Mormonism) A character in the Book of Mormon, the younger brother of Laman and the elder brother of Nephi, Sam, Jacob, and Joseph.


Yule tree

1993 The Rites of Odin, Ed Fitch, Llewellyn, →ISBN, page 135.
Modern Yule Tree decorations are acceptable for this season, of course, though parents may wish to decorate the Yule tree so that it reflects Yggdrasill, the mythic World-Tree.

1997 Thunder issue 2 (Heathen Journal), The Folk's Noisy Friend, Garman Lord.
Then again; what about those Indian shamans whose idea of a quick sure fire way to do a vision quest is to go stand on a mountain outcrop where lightning is about to strike, until they light up like Yule trees with static electricity, jumping off the rock to safety (hopefully) at the last possible moment?

2000 Ratatosk Volume 4 issue 4 (Heathen Journal) Yule not Xmas, Red Raven.
Those without an outdoor tree can hang gifts indoors on the Yule tree, or go for a walk to the local woods.

(chiefly paganism) A yuletide decoration comprising a potted tree decorated with ribbons and religious symbols.


ajiva

ajiva (countable and uncountable, plural ajivas)


jiva

Borrowed from Sanskrit जीव (jīva). Doublet of quick.

1886, Nandalal Dhole (translator), Mādhava [Mādhavācharya], A Hand Book of Hindu Pantheism: The Panchadasi, Heeralal Dhole, page 209,
Though in the Panchadasi, Vidyarana Swami mentions Jiva to be a reflection in the internal organ, and as that internal organ is not present in the profound slumbering condition, consequently, then, there should be no Jiva also; but as Prajna, almost ignorant—a form of Jiva—continues in dramless profound slumber, therefore what the Swami purports to mean is, the particle of ignorance modified or changed into the form of internal organ, and intelligence reflected therein is called Jiva, and that ignorance is never wanting in prfound slumber, consequently Prajna also is not wanting then.

Some followers of Vācaspati Miśra consider jīva to be limited by the inner sense organ. Being limited, jīva is in this case, distinct from the substratum consciousness of objects which is the all-pervasive consciousness sākṣī. According to this view, jīva is not the material cause of the universe either.

2006, Sanjukta Gupta, Advaita Vedanta and Vāiṣṇavism: The Philosophy of Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, Routledge, page 50:

(Jainism, Hinduism) All living beings; the essence or soul of such beings.


faith healer

One who uses spiritual means (such as prayer or laying on of hands) in an attempt to heal others.


Son of Man

From Middle English Sone of man, sone of man (also Mannes sone, Monnes Sune, man sone, man sun, etc.), meaning "mortal man, human being; the Messiah, the Christ", a reanalysis of Old English Mannes sunu (literally “man's son”), equivalent to Son + of + Man. Calque of Ancient Greek υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (huiòs toû anthrṓpou), itself a calque of Aramaic בַּר אֱנָשׁ (human being, “bar ʾĕnāš”, literally “Son of man”), used in Daniel 7:13 for an apocalyptic figure.

clq

υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου

der

(Christianity) A Christian title of Jesus Christ, referring to his status as a celestial being who presides as an eschatological judge.


Night

"In this prayer, Sigdrifa calls upon powers of Nature - Day, Night, Earth - and the gods and goddesses as a group.

1993, Our Troth, Ring of Troth and other True Folk, Ring of Troth, page 383

Hail to Night and her daughters.

1993, Teutonic Religion, Kveldulf Gundarsson, Llewellyn Publications, page 316

In another story, the Allfather, the original sky god from early Wyrd culture, took Night and her son Day, and gave to each of them a horse and chariot and put them in the sky, so that they should ride around the world every twenty-four hours.

1996, The Wisdom of the Wyrd, Brian Bates, Rider, page 48

(Germanic paganism) The goddess of the night in Heathenry.


omnisentience

In professional training programs, our strivings for omniscience, omnipotence, and omnisentience are stimulated, reinforced, and rewarded by the programs' faculties.

1972, Horace G. Whittington, Clinical Practice in Community Mental Health Centers, page 119:

(religion) Sensory awareness of all things.

Similar difficulties arise concerning the genesis of consciousness for the individual […] To escape these perplexities, the notion of omnisentience or panpsychism has often been put forward.

1974, Richard Spilsbury, Providence Lost: A Critique of Darwinism, page 65:

(religion, philosophy) The presence of sensory awareness in all things, or the doctrine that sensory awareness is universal.


pedale

(Christianity) A foot-cloth in front of an altar.

(Christianity) A collection of canons of general councils in the Greek Orthodox Church.


antitheist

An active opponent of the belief in the existence of a god or gods.

Antitheist

an active opponent of the belief in the existence of a god or gods


antitheistic

en-adj

antitheistic (comparative more antitheistic, superlative most antitheistic)

more antitheistic (comparative)
most antitheistic (superlative)

Of, pertaining to or espousing antitheism.

antiteísta

of, pertaining to or espousing antitheism


amrita

From Sanskrit अमृत (amṛta, “immortal, immortality”). Compare also Ancient Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosía, “ambrosia”).

cog

(Hinduism) The water of life; the drink of the Hindu gods.


dogmatics

(theology) The systematic study of dogmata.


Anglicanism

en-noun

Anglicanism (usually uncountable, plural Anglicanisms)

"What do you want? Nineteenth-century rationalism, Voltairian deism? We're living in a religious age, you know. I suppose Anglicanism might be a solution."

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 448:

The beliefs and practices of the Anglican Church.


Yule wreath

1989 A Book of Troth, Eldred Thorsson, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 175.
The harrow, which must be made of stone and set up outside or in an outdoor room with a chimney or smoke hole, is fitted out with a horn, a vessel of beer or ale, a single (red) candle and the Yule-wreath in its center.

1993 Our Troth, the Ring of Troth and other true folk, →ISBN, page 554.
In Scandinavia, the centre of he Yule festivities (especially before the German tree was adopted) was the Yule wreath; many families have wrought-iron candleholder wreaths as family heirlooms, and these are also woven with evergreen branches.

2000 Ratatosk Volume 4 issue 4 (Heathen Journal) Yule not Xmas, Red Raven.
Over the Yule period write wishes on strips of paper and thread them onto the Yule wreath.

(chiefly paganism) A yuletide decoration comprising a ring of greenery decorated with ribbons.


wortcraft

They were the keepers of starcraft, runecraft, lorecraft and wortcraft and they guided many through the darkness of the future and healed bodies and minds.

1994, Tony Linsell, Anglo-Saxon Mythology, Migration & Magic, →ISBN, page 16:

(chiefly historical, but also used in some modern forms of paganism) (Knowledge of) the medical usage of worts, of herbal remedies (and related magic); herblore.


Perez

(biblical) The father of Hezron and the son of Judah; the grandson of Jacob.


Ebionite

From Ancient Greek Ἐβιωναῖοι (Ebiōnaîoi), from Hebrew אביונים (Ebyonim, “the Poor Ones”), plural of Hebrew אֶבְיוֹן (ʾeḇyōn, “needy, poor”), itself likely a borrowing from Coptic ⲉⲃⲓⲏⲛ (ebiēn, “poor”).

der

And if the pious bishop and martyr, St. Irenaeus, happen to drop any thing pointed against the Doctor's progenitors, the ancient Ebionites, of heretical memory, he gently passes it over as though no such passages occurred in that learned and venerable Father's writings.

1798, David Simpson, An Apology for the Doctrine of the Trinity, page 504:

EBION, the author of the heresy of the Ebionites, was a disciple of Cerinthus and his successor.

The passage was so taken by the Jewish or Ebionite translators, Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus.

1896, Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, page 52:

* Jesus teaches vegetarianism. Epiphanius describes the Ebionites as vegetarians, and in the Recognitions and Homilies vegetarianism is strongly connected to the rejection of animal sacrifice and is required of all the followers of Jesus. When Epiphanius questions a Jewish Christian as to why he was a vegetarian, the Jewish Christian responds simply: “Christ revealed it to me” (Panarion 30.18.9).

2000, Keith Akers, chapter 2, in The lost religion of Jesus: simple living and nonviolence in early Christianity, New York, NY: Lantern Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 27:

(historical) A member of an early Jewish Christian sect that lived in and around Judea and Palestine from the 1st to the 4th century.


Thor's beard

Sempervivum tectorum
Sempervivum tectorum#Translingual

(Germanic paganism) The plant houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum), as used in Heathenry.


Thor's hammer

(Norse mythology, Germanic paganism) Mjöllnir (Mjollnir), the distinctively T-shaped war-hammer of the Norse thunder god Thor, or a representation thereof, now used as a symbol by various pagan religious groups.


Sky Father

(Germanic paganism) Title for any of the highest gods of Heathenry, but especially Tiw/Tyr.


world-ash

Ash is a strongly runic tree by implication, the world-ash Yggdrasil being the tree from which Odin hung in order to obatin the runes.

1993, Bernard King, The elements of the Runes, Thorsons Element, →ISBN, page 95:

This eventuality would not be surprising if the world ash was, at the time, a small young tree.

1988, David A. White, The turning wheel: a study of contracts and oaths in Wagner's ring, page 108:

(Norse mythology and Germanic paganism) Yggdrasil.


Silvanus

From Latin Silvanus, a Latin cognomen, from silva (“forest”). The name Silas, from the early Christian apostle, was Latinised as Silvanus by Paul.

(biblical) A companion of Paul, also called Silas.


baptismal font

(Christianity) A large basin used for baptism in or near a church.


EF

Extraordinary Form
Extraordinary Form#English

(Roman Catholicism) Initialism of Extraordinary Form.


spae-craft

Twelfth Night is particularly a time fo fore-tellings; if there is a skilled rune-reader or someone with spae-craft in the group, this is when they should cast or speak for the year ahead.

1993, Our Troth: History and Lore, →ISBN, page 570:

The greatest tools of spae-craft seem to have been the staff and the hooded cloak.

1994, Kveldúlf Hagan Gundarsson, Teutonic Magic: The Magical & Spiritual Practices of the Germanic Peoples, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 216:

I have the privilege of having a very wise and kind idis, Ealgitha, who teaches me spaecraft and other things.

1997, Elmindreda Pukwdugie, Winifred Hodge, Lina (Heathen Journal), volume 3, number 1:

(Germanic paganism) The magical art of foretelling the future, used especially in Heathenry.


Kama Sutra

Little is known about the Kama Sutra’s author, Vatsyayana, who claimed to be a celibate monk who had compiled all of the accumulated sexual knowledge from several previous authors as a form of his own meditation and contemplation of the deity.

2018, Scott Christianson, Colin Salter, 100 Books that Changed the World, Batsford Books, →ISBN:

A Sanskrit treatise (sutra) setting forth rules for sensuous and sensual pleasure, love, and marriage in accordance with Hindu law.


cabalist

(Judaism) A student of the Jewish Kabballah.


Clarisse

Borrowed from French Clarisse, from Italian Clarissa, from Medieval Latin Clarissa (“Poor Clare”); see there for more. Doublet of Clarissa and Clarice.

Clara... withdrew herself... to the Church of St. Damian, and there gave beginning to the poor Maids, called from her name Clarisses...

1693, Gabriel d'Emillianne, translated by Antonio Gavin, A Short History of Monastical Orders, page 253:

(Catholicism) Synonym of Poor Clare: a nun of the Order of Saint Clare, sometimes particularly such a nun who followed the original rules of Saint Clare of Assisi.


Tabernacles

A particular Jewish holiday, coming each autumn.


ephod

1769, Oxford Standard text, Bible (King James): Exodus, 28, vi-viii,
And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.
It shall have the two shoulderpieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together.
And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

1769, Oxford Standard text, Bible (King James): Hosea, 3, iv,
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

From this it appears that at least towards the close of the Exile, the Urim and Thummim were considered as something distinct from the ephod of the high priest and the gems with which it was adorned.

1913, “Urim and Thummim”, in Catholic Encyclopedia:

(biblical, Judaism) A priestly apron, or breastplate, described in the Bible in Exodus 28: vi–xxx, which only the chief priest of ancient Israel was allowed to wear.

éphod

apron worn by chief priest of ancient Israel


Laetitia

(Roman mythology) The goddess of gaiety.


oath-ring

(Germanic paganism) A ring (particularly an arm ring) on which oaths are sworn.


nuptial act

(Catholicism) Vaginal intercourse between a married couple.


Otherworld

(paganism) The other realms of existence beyond the world of mankind, especially the realms of the dead or the fairy folk.


Redbeard

Redbeard!

1989, Eldred Thorsson, A Book of Troth, Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 146:

The radiant goddess, wise in womans wisdom, foresaw a future as secure as the oak pillars of redbeards hall, and knew true hearts gladness as the sacred vows were made.

1999, Thunder, issue 10, How Sif Got Her Golden Hair (Thorskegga Thorn)

(Norse mythology, sagas and Germanic paganism) The god Thor.


rainbow bridge

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rainbow bridge.wav

1993 The Rites of Odin, Ed Fitch, Llewellyn, →ISBN, page 273.
O High Ones of the Rainbow Bridge, Thou hast heard that which is my need And my desire.

1998 Heartland, Volume 1, Issue 3 (Heathen Journal), I Believe, Joanne Fletcher - Holloway.
With nature I give and feel her pain, In Freyja's arms I'm at peace again, And in all I've heard, And in all I've read, My life is anew, like the eagle that flew, Across the Rainbow Bridge, Myself to myself, I give to you.

2004 The Book of Seithr, Runic John, Capall Bann Publishing, →ISBN, page 82.
Asgard stands perched on the highest branches of the tree, where it is reached by crossing Bifrost, the rainbow bridge.

(Germanic paganism) The road between the realm of the gods and the realm of men in Heathenry which appears in the form of a rainbow; Bifrost.


aett

1984 Fortune -Telling By Runes, David & Julia Line, The Aquarian Press, →ISBN page 15.
Known as aettir, these basic divisions were sometimes named after Norse deities: Freya's eight, Hagal's eight and Tiu's eight.

1993 The Elements of The Runes, Bernard King, Element, →ISBN, page 110.
When we examined runic divination, we related, in passing, the phases of the moon to the three ættir of the Common Germanic Futhark.

The runic futhark is usually divided into three aetts.

1998, The Norse Tradition a beginners guide, Pete Jennings, Headway, →ISBN, page 36:

Each aett is named after the rune that begins it, which may be regarded as the patriarch of the family it heads. This trine of families was so important that it survived the increase of the runes in England and the decrease in their number […]

2009, Donald Tyson, Runic Astrology: Chart Interpretation Through the Runes, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN:

Each Aett contains certain runes that cover similar concepts. For example each has a rune for light, as in Kanauz the torch, Sowelo the sun, and Dagaz the day. The light becomes greater in power as we progress through the Aettir.

2016, Kim Farnell, Runes, Plain & Simple: The Only Book You'll Ever Need, Hampton Roads Publishing, →ISBN, page 38:

(sometimes paganism) A division of the runic alphabet containing eight runes.


Norse Tradition

1997 Pagan Dawn issue 125 (Pagan magazine), Call us Heathens, Arlea Anschutz and Steven Hunt.
Norse Tradition is another similar term, but instead of being too broad, it[']s too narrow.

1998 The Norse Tradition a beginners guide, Pete Jennings, Headway, →ISBN, page 1.
The Norse Tradition, sometimes known as Odinism (after its chief god Odin), sometimes called Northern Tradition (as in Northern Europe) or Asatru (from the words meaning 'a faith in the Gods') is attractive today for many of the reasons for which it was followed long ago.

2001 Goddess of the North, Lynda C. Welch, Weisser Books, →ISBN, page 226.
While an entire book could be written about the spiritual symbols of the Norse Tradition, the purpose here is to give a brief description, without compromising the reader's own intuition concerning the symbols.

(Germanic paganism) The religion of Heathenry, a modern faith inspired by the ancient pagan beliefs of the Germanic tribes, Anglo-Saxons and Norse peoples.


need-fire

In Silesia, also, need-fires were often employed for the purpose of curing a murrain or preventing its spread.

1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 10, page 278:

Fire - divided into need-fire (kindled by friction - discussed under 'Waluburg's Night') and 'struck fire' (sparked by flint and steel - discussion under Thonar).

I built up the kindling in various stages in the base of the stove as I prepared to make my need-fire.

1998, Darien Hamilton, “Kindling in the Yuletide”, in Heathen Journal, volume 2, number 3:

When great pestilence is upon the land, old folklore tells of using a bow drill to make the need-fire, which is then used to cure cattle of their illness.

2003, Brian Froud, Ari Berk, The Runes of Elfland, page 51:

(paganism) A ritual fire created by friction.


virtualist

(Christianity) One who supports the doctrine of virtualism.


Stations of the Cross

(Christianity) Collectively, the series of icons or statues, (normally 14) in a church which depict the last days of Jesus and his crucifixion.


kirpan

Borrowed from Punjabi ਕਿਰਪਾਨ (kirpān), from Sanskrit कृपाण (kṛpāṇa, “sword, dagger, sacrificial knife”), from कल्पयति (kalpáyati, “he orders, apportions, cuts, trims”).

(Sikhism) A ceremonial sword that must be worn at all times by baptized Sikhs, and one of the five Ks.


Christmastime

en-noun

Christmastime (countable and uncountable, plural Christmastimes)

Christmas season; Christmastide; yuletide


allocution

allocution (countable and uncountable, plural allocutions)

The recent papal allocution To the International Congress on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas has been the occasion for much discussion concerning the use of artificial feeding tubes for nutrition and hydration.

2004, Thomas Shannon, James Walter, “Implications of the Papal Allocution on Feeding Tubes,”, in The Hastings Center Report, volume 34, number 4, page 18:

(Roman Catholicism) A pronouncement by a pope to an assembly of church officials concerning a matter of church policy.


Methodism

Methodism (usually uncountable, plural Methodisms)

From method + -ism. Fellow students at the University of Oxford called Wesley and his followers "methodists" because they lived and practiced their faith methodically; Wesley adopted the designation.

Far more Yankees shifted to Methodism, an eighteenth-century splinter from the Anglican Church with an emphasis on effecting social change[.]

2011, Colin Woodard, chapter 15, in American nations, New York: Penguin, →ISBN:

The Methodist Christian movement founded by John Wesley in 18th-century England.


Winter Finding

1985 The Wisdom of the Runes, Michael Howard, Rider & Company, →ISBN, page 133.
Winter Finding.

1998 The Norse Tradition a beginners guide, Pete Jennings, Headway, →ISBN, page 70.
Asatru: Sheddingmoon Bede: Halegmonath Roman Date: Sept 23 Festival: Winter-Finding Theme: Harvest end.

2006 Everything you need to know about Paganism, Selene Silverwind, David & Charles, →ISBN, page 106.
Winter Finding; is also referred to as Harvest.

(Germanic paganism) A festival celebrated in Heathenry which marks the beginning of fall, held on the autumn equinox.