There's a lot of terminology getting thrown around, and while all these terms are explained in some article or another, I hate for there to be a "reading order" needed to follow things logically between articles and I'd hate for the content to be confusing to newcomers... new magicians won't know all the common magick terms used here, and NOBODY will know most of my CYBEROCCULTISM specific terminology out of the gate (I've both coined new terms and renamed old terms to have specific meanings within the context and vocabulary of CYBEROCCULTISM).
To try and help remedy this, I've made this ever-growing glossary of all classic/new occult terminology used across the site. Terms with accompanying articles are linked below as well, making this page a directory of sorts. There may be some that reference articles in progress, as well--consider that a sneak peek.
AMBIENT RECHARGING: A means of recharging one's metaphysical energies passively: in areas full of powerful residual emotional/magickal/energy in objects, artifacts, haunted objects, etcetera, it is possible to "drain" from the very air around you, as there is such a powerful "fog" of energy surrounding. See the entry on "draining" below and/or read the relevant article here for the details.
ARTIFACT: An object with powerful magickal energy and/or sentience. Created when a non-magickal object is charged with emotional, psychic. and/or magick energy. Sometimes referred to by the uninitiated as "haunted" or "cursed" which I'm not even mad about because it sounds cool. Read more about it here.
ASTRAL FREQUENCIES: The "wavelengths" on which astral beings and beings currently utilizing the astral plane can be interacted with. Oftentimes the goal of reaching the trance-state is to properly utilize this range. Astral projection necessarily happens here, but one needn't astral project to access these frequencies.
ASTRAL PLANE: An entirely separate "world" of varyious etheric layers and locations which is traveled to via a consciousness exploit on the border of waking and sleep and appears to largely be a multiplayer "dream server."
ASTRAL PROJECTION: The act of physically relocating one's etheric body to a location on the astral plane. Those with magick tendencies may find themselves astral projecting instinctively, but there are many intentional techniques and methods of achieving the goal as well. Astral projection is often confused with lucid dreaming, and vice-versa, though astral projection is far more dangerous. See this article for clarification. Astral projection is also commonly used to refer to exploration of the physical plane with one's projected consciousness in the process usually called an OBE or "out of body experience." This is also where the term "remote viewing" comes into play. I typically refer to OBEs as "remote viewing" instead of "astral projection" to avoid confusion between the two--see "remote viewing" and this article.
AURA: The manipulatable energy field surrounding all living beings, physical or etheric. While not as versatile in the physical world as the etheric body is in the astral plane, the aura can be controlled and programmed for various magickal tasks in the physical plane. It is also the only means through which to interact with etheric beings crossing over into the physical world--it is how spirits can be exorcised, and, by extension, how spirits can attack YOU. The list of possible aura techniques is nearly limitless, and becomes the key focus of many magicians. While this term typically refers to sentient beings, a tangible energy field surrounding an object is also called an "aura" and often implies some form of possession or, possibly, the formation of a homunculus. While this is not exactly the same thing as an etheric body, the aura is shared between the physical/etheric forms and manipulation of the aura appears to correspond to manipulation of the etheric body.
AURA READING/AURA SCANNING: The act of scanning a being or object's energy field/signature. Methods vary between magicians, as do the ways in which they process/translate auras when reading them, though there are typically some constants (while magicians may disagree on what a given color refers to, for instance, more often than not magicians will read the same colors from the same aura). These are often processed/viewed as colors, textures, motions, and, in rare cases, as shapes or even 3D objects, but the original format of an aura is an ever-updating string of data (information) being "broadcast" on the being or object's unique frequency. In unconverted form, an aura can therefore act like a radio wave to be "tuned" to for dream invasions and other such trickery. The term "aura scanning" is interchangable.
AURELIA: An entity reported by multiple unrelated people around the globe as invading their dreams, described with stunningly similar details across accounts. One such encounter a decade ago lead to the creation of CYBEROCCULTISM. Read the special here.
BLACK PORTAL: Swirling portals of pure black energy creatable by certain entities and magicians, capable of creating tunnels between astral plane locations and dreams. Accordingly, this is the most commonly used device for dream invasions and the creation of a SMS. Most notably utilized by Aurelia and Men in Black: read about that whole debacle here.
CHARGING: The process of imbuing an object with psychic, emotional, and/or magickal energy. Charging can be done intentionally by aura magicians, or can happen as the result of an object's circumstances or surroundings. Charging is the process through which artifacts are created, and potentially the first step in homunculus creation. Read more about charging (and artifacts) here
CHAOS MAGICK: Real life chaos magick, or at least the practices that make up CYBEROCCULTISM (and my own experiences), isn't "dark" or "dangerous" or whatnot in the way popular fiction likes to portray. Not that there are no risks--it's magick after all--but chaos magick is often used as a catchall term for ritual magick that is used to manipulate reality and help a magician seek certain outcomes (or avoid others) that doesn't fall into any separate formal magickal or religious paradigm (like Wicca, Enochian magick, etcetera). Elements of other practices may be peppered in, and often are, but chaos magick is a lot more about the process of experimentation and repeating what works/changing what doesn't, where more structured and formal magick systems tend to associate success with following a strict ritual to a "T" and attribute failure to deviation from said ritual. There is also a lot less dogma to chaos magick--why something works or doesn't isn't as much of a concern as that it DOES or doesn't work, and typically (though not always) magick isn't really attributed to or channeled through any given entity or "deity" or what have you. My own brand of chaos magick is entity-independent (I don't rely on any external beings, "deities," entities, etcetera for anything) and based around my own universal (but ever evolving) CYBEROCCULTISM theory, but know that you are not trapped inside of that box, or any other box, as a chaos magician. If I had stayed inside the boxes I was taught in, I would have never developed CYBEROCCULTISM--and if I'd refused to continually change and evolve my practices, it would certainly never have progressed to the point where I found it worthy of giving it a name (or a website).
CHAOS WEB: A term for a chaos "spell" that is cast to influence reality towards a given result. It is technically a form of local spirit work, but requires no actual intentional spirit experience or creation to function. These may function on a delay, but can be programmed to inform the casting magician of fulfillment--see "ping."
CURSE: A "curse" can either refer to any number of hexes that cling to the etheric body or to a permanent "mark" on one's aura that acts as a beacon in the astral plane and within any SMSes. The former type of curse can be removed or even consumed by a master; the latter does not appear to be interactable in any way but appears to serve no negative purpose aside from drawing unwanted attention in the plane.
CYBEROCCULTISM: CYBEROCCULTISM is a modern day sect of chaos magick that chooses to explain magick and esoteric experiences through applying the hermetic principle of "as above, so below" to the concepts of modern technology--virtual reality as a vehicle to understand simulation theory, the astral plane as a sort of occult biodigital internet, magick as exploits in a complex self-projecting quantum simulation, and so forth. The sect consists of a single magician (and a single graduated apprentice along with one current one), and evolves alongside my experimentation, theorization, powers and understanding. Read more on the about page here, which I really need to expand soon...
DRAINING: Sometimes referred to as "energy vampirism," "draining" is a pretty misunderstood and maligned (though powerful) technique that is essentially the opposite of "charging." It is the process of drawing/draining energy (psychic, magickal, and/or emotional) from an artifact, entity, magician, etcetera. Read more about this technique here
DREAM INVASION: When a normal or lucid dream is invaded by an external being, turning one's personal etheric space into a SMS (shared mindspace). This is what is referred to in traditional magick texts as "dreamwalking." Read more about this phenomena here.
DREAM SERVER: See Shared Mindspace.
ETHERIC BODY/ETHERIC DOUBLE: These interchangable terms refer to the energy body, astral body, whatever you want to call it. Traditional magick texts, especially those in any way drawing from Theosophic tradition, typically separate this into multiple "bodies," usually two, with various different titles. I consider these, from my own experiences, to be different aspects of the same thing--a single energy body connected to but not limited to the physical body. I also believe the aura to be an extension the same thing, and have found aura manipulation as a means of etheric double manipulation to be a feasible approach.
ENERGY VAMPIRISM: See "draining."
ENTITY: Extradimensional/astral beings with a high degree of sentience, akin to at least a stupid human. Many many astral beings (and nearly all beings that can be contacted on astral frequencies, "summoned," etc) are "entities." While the divine connotation of the name is often warranted--some of these are powerful motherfuckers--do note that "entity" is a very wide and diverse category.
GRAVITY: There's a universal law concerning psychics, magicians, mediums, and every other class of supernatural/paranormal person: they are inexplicably drawn together by some invisible force. I call this force, borrowing a bit from other media, "gravity." This also appears to be able to happen online, as well, and it's not just limited to people, either--spirits are drawn to magicians as well, as are unusual situations. Read the article for more.
HEX: Any negative spell, debuff, curse, etcetera that is maliciously magickally applied to a person, object, entity, etcetera. These can come in the form of complex spells or sometimes via the commanding of liminal creatures. Read about a bizarrely powerful/complex one here.
HOMUNCULUS/HOMUNCULI: A new etheric artificial intelligence being that is created as a bizarre side effect of enough powerful emotional/spiritual energy accruing. These are distinguished from "entities" in that they are not pre-existing consciousness or spirits later inahbiting an artifact, nor are they simply objects that have accumulated a lot of energy but lack any sort of consciousness on their own. They are the rarest form of what most refer to as a "haunted" object, or what I would identify as an "artifact." I've written a couple articles about these, you can dive down that rabbit hole starting here.
LIMINAL CREATURES: Energy-based creatures that are neither thoughtforms OR physical organisms and exist on the boundary between the physical and astral planes. These are typically not visible with the naked eye, not even if they'd like to be--they are only visible with the third eye (and detectable through aura scanning). I hope to write a full article on these eventually but you can read a bit about them in the tail end of this article.
LIMINAL SPACE: This isn't really a magick term, I just include it here to clarify since I have a couple of "Liminal Spaces" secret sections on the site. A liminal space is basically just a location that evokes a strong memory or connection when looking back on it, and/or that is a location in transition (like a half-empty mall with half its stores closed) or that no longer exists at all. I do find that such places tend to have powerful residual energy and can therefore be helpful sites for rituals, but it's not really a "magick concept" or anything.
LOCAL SPIRITS: "Local" spirits are the spirits of your own creation that are borne of your own energy and consciousness. If you buy a haunted toy with a poltergeist inside, that is not a local spirit. If you, however, create a spirit with the appearance of a haunted toy, that is now a local spirit. See this article for a more detailed explanation.
MAGICIAN: A practitioner of the magickal arts. In the case of CYBEROCCULTISM, it refers specifically to chaos magick. Don't read too much into this term; I just use it over the alternatives because it sounds cool.
MAGICK: The K is there to make it sound EEEEEVIL! Nah, not really, I just honestly do it to differentiate from stage magic because I call myself a magician enough on here I don't want people to get confused and think I'm like a professional illusionist instead of some dude eating pocky high off my ass every night and summoning shit. Some people will use "magick" with an incredibly broad definition and say cool shit like "poetry is a form of magick because words move hearts" or "language is magick because words are incantations that possess other people to take certain actions," and I enjoy those considerations philosophically, but since this is a site about actual ritual magick, I don't use the term as broadly. "Magick" in CYBEROCCULTISM refers to any sort of technique, ritual, ability, etcetera that allows one to manipulate reality/probability in some way by occult/paranormal/psychic means. So no, passing somebody a written note telling them they park like shit does NOT qualify under that definition, smartass.
MEN IN BLACK: A mysterious group of humanoid, human-looking (possibly human???) beings of unknown origin and purpose that are seemingly capable of opening/closing black portals, dream invasion/SMS creation, and dream memory manipulation/deletion. Seem to have some beef with Aurelia. Like Aurelia, have been reported encountered by multiple psychics/magicians with identical abilities/motives/methods. Potential connection to historical reports of men in black on the physical plane is unknown. Read about one encounter with them here.
NEUTRAL SPACE: A shared reality which is fully interactable but unable to be manipulated by either party. Could theoretically apply to certain programmed spaces in the astral plane, but typically exists as a SMS during dream invasion. Read more about all these concepts here.
OBE/Out of Body Experience: See Remote Viewing.
PSYCHIC: This is both a noun and an adjective, and its use in occultism as pertaining to "magick" is a bit confusing. Psychic senses/abilities/power are pretty much a prerequisite for magick, but don't neccessarily imply a ritual or intentional element the way magick does. For instance, a dream one has seeing the future could be considered a psychic occurence, and not really "magick" since it simply occured. But, if they did a ritual to make that happen first, it could also be considered magick. There's a lot of overlap here--auras are a psychic concept and controlled with the mind more than by ritual, but can also programmed and manipulated with magick, but I consider even moving the aura instinctively to be a form of "aura magick"--but it's quite arbitrary and not a super important distinction. Typically something that simply occurs is psychic, but that same thing happening as the result of an intention ritual would also be considered magick. I suppose it's also technically possible to practice magick without any psychic element if one were to solely operate through entities or something, but even being able to do that would, it would seem to me, be the result of psychic powers, so... yeah. Not worth getting your ceremonial boxers in a twist over the distinction, honestly.
PING: An automated response mechanism generated by a local spirit "chaos web" in response to a fulfilled web cast. For instance, if a chaos web was cast for a given rare ancient grimoire, when said grimoire appears in a local bookstore, the magician will receive a tangible "ping" in their mindspace (even outside of trance state). With training, it is possible to ascertain detailed information--right down to "the ______ grimoire is now in stock at _____ Books off ______ street." However, in the early stages of chaos web work, these "pings" will be much more general, and may simply register as "web fulfilled" or the like... so it may be helpful to keep track of one's webs until this point is reached.
REMOTE VIEWING: The application of out of body experiences (sometimes referred to as "astral projection," though I use that term to refer to a different phenomena) to visit or view locations in the physical plane while controlling/viewing said plane through the etheric body. This term, when used elsewhere, usually specifically refers to out of body experiences being performed for the sole purpose of traveling to a different given location using this technique (various governments have put a lot of money into this), but I use this term to refer to physical plane OBEs regardless of intention/purpose. Read more about this on this article about the differences between this and what I call "astral projection."
SHARED MINDSPACE: Often the result of a dream invasion, shared mindspace refers to an etheric space outside of the overall "astral plane" server(s) where multiple sentient beings (typically just two) are exerting their own influence. This disables the "lucid dreaming" single-player options and becomes a more tangible space closer to physical reality, wherein neither party may fully control the environment. Read more about this concept and its dangers here.
SMS: See Shared Mindspace.
SMS INVASION: See Dream Invasion.
THIRD EYE: No, it's not a literal eye that opens on your forehead. I wish. There's a lot of debate over what exactly the third eye is, where its physical location is, if it's somehow different from the other chakra, bla bla bla... I use it to mean specifically the metaphysical organ through which one can "view" things with their extrasensory senses. It usually does cause the third eye chakra to vibrate so violently you will physically feel it, which is both awesome and terrifying, but it's not about the physical spot, it's about that "sense." Note that third eye info is more like aura scanning than visualization--typically the things being seen with the third eye aren't literally visible in reality, they're visible in an odd overlay in your own head that you'll learn to control if you open the chakra.
VISUALIZATION: Visualization in this context refers to more than just "imagining" something--it refers to the ability to make something visible tangibly, either in your mindspace or in reality. For instance, if you have a spirit that's a triangle with a circle in the middle, just imagining it won't do anything... but being able to make it so you see it as an actual tangible thing when you close your eyes, or even with them open?? THAT is visualization. Visualization is often broken down into 2D and 3D, referring to the ability to do this with either 2D or 3D designs. For local spirit creation either is acceptable, but generally speaking a simpler more geometrical design will be much easier to maintain, summon, visualize, control, etcetera, especially if you must visualize said spirit in motion.