The Glossary

An ancient tradition of philosophy and proto-chemistry, practiced from Hellenistic Egypt through the Islamic world and Renaissance Europe, that sought to transform base metals into gold, produce an elixir of life, and — in its spiritual reading — perfect the practitioner's soul.

In the dictionary: The Philosopher's Stone Glyph, The Tria Prima, The Rebis, The Squared Circle See also: The Great Work (Magnum Opus), Hermeticism

A symbolic narrative in which characters, events, or objects stand for abstract ideas, moral qualities, or hidden meanings, so the story can be read on more than one level. Esoteric traditions routinely claim that myths and scriptures encode deeper teachings beneath their surface.

See also: Esoteric / Exoteric, Archetype

The religious or cultural avoidance of images depicting living creatures or the divine, found notably in Jewish, Islamic, and Byzantine traditions. It ranges from mild discouragement to strict prohibition; when enforced through physical destruction of images, it becomes iconoclasm.

See also: Iconoclasm

In Carl Jung's analytical psychology, the unconscious contrasexual aspect of the psyche: the anima is the feminine side within a man and the animus the masculine side within a woman. Jung considered them archetypes that mediate between the conscious mind and the collective unconscious.

See also: Archetype, Collective unconscious

A primordial image, character, or pattern that recurs across myths, stories, and dreams consistently enough to seem universal. The term was popularized by Carl Jung, who linked archetypes to a collective unconscious shared by all humans.

See also: Collective unconscious, Anima / Animus, Allegory

A widely quoted Hermetic axiom, paraphrasing a line from the Emerald Tablet, expressing the idea that the patterns of the higher cosmic realm are mirrored in the lower material realm and in the human being. It underpins the esoteric belief in correspondences between different levels of reality.

In the dictionary: As Above, So Below See also: Correspondences (doctrine of), Hermeticism

A practice of divination that interprets the positions and movements of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars as influencing or signaling earthly and human events. Practiced across many cultures since antiquity, astrology forms one of the oldest continuous symbolic systems in human civilization.

In the dictionary: The Zodiac Wheel, The Solar Cross See also: Astrotheology

The study of how the Sun, Moon, stars, and other celestial bodies shaped religious myths and symbols across ancient cultures. Some esoteric writers use astrotheology to argue that major world religions are coded star-myths whose central narratives trace the movements of the solar year.

In the dictionary: The Zodiac Wheel, The Solar Cross, Sol Invictus / The Halo-Nimbus, The Winged Sun Disk Figures: Jordan Maxwell, Santos Bonacci, Michael Tsarion See also: Astrology

The world axis or cosmic center: a point or structure imagined as connecting heaven and earth, where the cardinal directions meet. It appears across many cultures as a sacred mountain, pillar, ladder, or world tree, marking the place where vertical and horizontal dimensions of existence converge.

In the dictionary: The Obelisk, The Washington Monument, The Capitol Dome and the Apotheosis of Washington See also: Esotericism (Western esotericism)

The staff of the Greek god Hermes (Roman Mercury), depicted as a winged rod entwined by two serpents, symbolizing commerce, negotiation, and the crossing of boundaries. Because it resembles the single-snake Rod of Asclepius, it is sometimes used — especially in the United States — as a medical emblem.

In the dictionary: The Caduceus, The Rod of Asclepius, The Serpent / Kundalini See also: Hermeticism

Carl Jung's term for a layer of the unconscious shared by all humanity, distinct from the personal unconscious and said to contain the archetypes — universal images and patterns. It is a central concept for psychological readings of myth and symbol across cultures and centuries.

See also: Archetype, Anima / Animus

The esoteric idea that different planes of existence are systematically linked, so that things in the material world symbolically reflect and connect to higher spiritual realities. Elaborated by the theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, the doctrine is foundational to Western occult and Hermetic thought.

See also: "As above, so below", Hermeticism

From the Greek word for craftsman, a creator figure who fashions the physical universe. In Plato's philosophy the Demiurge is a benevolent shaper of the cosmos; in many Gnostic systems it is reinterpreted as an ignorant or malevolent being who traps spirit in matter.

See also: Gnosis / Gnosticism, Logos

A term in Western esotericism for a non-physical thoughtform or collective group-mind said to arise from and be sustained by the shared thoughts and emotions of a group. Popularized by 19th-century French occultists, notably Éliphas Lévi, it names the invisible entity that a sufficiently focused community generates.

Figures: Éliphas Lévi See also: Esotericism (Western esotericism)

A phrase coined by Edward Bernays, who defined it in his 1947 essay as the use of an engineering approach — action based on thorough knowledge and scientific principles — to get people to support ideas and programs. A foundational concept in the study of propaganda, persuasion, and how symbols function in media and advertising.

Figures: Mark Passio

A paired distinction: esoteric knowledge is inner, hidden, or reserved for initiates, while exoteric knowledge is outer, public, and accessible to everyone. Many religious and philosophical traditions are said to have both an outward popular form and an inner secret teaching.

See also: Esotericism (Western esotericism), Initiation, Gnosis / Gnosticism

An umbrella term for a range of Western traditions — including Hermeticism, alchemy, astrology, Kabbalah, and occultism — that deal with hidden knowledge and were suppressed or excluded by dominant religious and scientific institutions. The field encompasses living systems of initiation, practice, and cosmological insight that have persisted across centuries precisely because they carry genuine meaning.

See also: Esoteric / Exoteric, Hermeticism, Gnosis / Gnosticism

A symbol of an eye, often within a triangle and surrounded by rays of light, representing the watchful eye of God or divine providence. Originating in Christian Trinitarian iconography, it later became associated with Freemasonry and appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States.

In the dictionary: The All-Seeing Eye, The Eye of Horus, The Great Seal of the United States Figures: Jordan Maxwell, Manly P. Hall See also: Freemasonry

A geometric figure of multiple evenly spaced, overlapping circles arranged in a sixfold symmetrical pattern, treated in the modern sacred geometry tradition as a symbol of creation and the interconnectedness of life. The motif appears decoratively in several ancient cultures across the world.

In the dictionary: The Flower of Life, The Vesica Piscis, Metatron's Cube See also: The Great Work (Magnum Opus)

The world's largest fraternal society, which evolved from medieval stonemasons' guilds into symbolic lodges, with the first Grand Lodge founded in London in 1717. It uses the tools and imagery of stonemasonry as allegories for moral and ethical instruction; members advance through ceremonial degrees.

In the dictionary: The Square and Compasses, The All-Seeing Eye, The Checkerboard Floor, The Blazing Star, The Pillars Jachin and Boaz, The Letter G Figures: Manly P. Hall, Jordan Maxwell, William Cooper See also: Initiation, Esoteric / Exoteric, Eye of Providence (All-Seeing Eye)

A traditional method, especially in Kabbalah, of substituting numbers for the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and drawing interpretive connections between words whose letters add up to the same value. It is used to uncover the hidden meanings encoded in sacred texts and to perceive relationships invisible to ordinary reading.

See also: Kabbalah (Qabalah)

Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge, specifically a saving, revealed insight into the divine. Gnosticism labels diverse religious movements of the early centuries CE that taught that a divine spark is trapped in the material world and can be freed through gnosis; many distinguished a flawed creator from a higher true God.

Figures: Michael Tsarion, Mark Passio See also: Demiurge, Hermeticism, Esotericism (Western esotericism)

An irrational number, φ ≈ 1.618, which arises when a line is divided so that the whole is to the larger part as the larger part is to the smaller. It appears in geometry — most notably the pentagram — and has long been associated with aesthetic harmony, natural growth patterns, and divine proportion.

In the dictionary: The Golden Ratio / Fibonacci Spiral, The Flower of Life, The Vesica Piscis See also: Flower of Life

In alchemy, the full process of creating the philosopher's stone, often described through a sequence of color stages: blackening, whitening, yellowing, and reddening. It is read both literally as a laboratory operation and symbolically as the spiritual transformation of the practitioner.

In the dictionary: The Philosopher's Stone Glyph, The Tria Prima, The Rebis, The Squared Circle Figures: Manly P. Hall, Mark Passio See also: Alchemy, Hermeticism, Initiation

A philosophical and religious tradition based on writings attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus, produced in Greco-Roman Egypt. It teaches the unity of the cosmos and the possibility of spiritual ascent through hidden knowledge, and has deeply influenced Western esotericism, alchemy, and astrology.

In the dictionary: The Caduceus, The Ouroboros Figures: Manly P. Hall, Michael Tsarion See also: Gnosis / Gnosticism, Alchemy, "As above, so below", Esotericism (Western esotericism)

A six-pointed star formed by two interlaced equilateral triangles. Widely known as the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, it was historically called the Seal of Solomon and is used in Kabbalistic and occult traditions, where the interlocking triangles symbolize the union of opposites.

In the dictionary: The Hexagram Figures: Manly P. Hall See also: Kabbalah (Qabalah), Freemasonry

Literally 'one who displays sacred things'; originally the chief priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries who revealed the holy symbols during the rites. By extension it means any interpreter of sacred mysteries, and it is also the name of a card in the Tarot's Major Arcana.

See also: Initiation, Esoteric / Exoteric

The deliberate destruction of images or monuments, usually for religious or political reasons, often out of the belief that images are idolatrous or illegitimate. The most famous episodes occurred in the Byzantine Empire and during the Protestant Reformation.

See also: Aniconism

A ritual marking a person's transition into a new status or admission into a group, frequently structured around symbolic ordeals and themes of death and rebirth. In esoteric traditions, initiation grants access to hidden teachings reserved for members who have undergone the process.

In the dictionary: The Checkerboard Floor, The Pillars Jachin and Boaz Figures: Manly P. Hall, Mark Passio See also: Esoteric / Exoteric, Hierophant, Freemasonry

The principal tradition of Jewish mysticism, especially as developed from the 12th century onward, concerned with the nature of God (Ein Sof), creation, and the soul, centered on the ten Sefirot and the Tree of Life. From the Renaissance onward, Christian and Hermetic adaptations fed into Western occultism.

Figures: Manly P. Hall, Éliphas Lévi See also: Gematria, Esotericism (Western esotericism), Hermeticism

A Greek term meaning word, reason, or underlying order. In Greek and Neoplatonic philosophy it denotes the rational ordering principle of the cosmos; in Christian theology it identifies Christ as the divine Word, pre-existent and co-eternal with God.

In the dictionary: The IHS Monogram, The Cross, The Fish / Ichthys See also: Demiurge, Gnosis / Gnosticism

A symbolic geometric diagram, used in Hindu and Buddhist traditions to represent the universe and serve as a focus for meditation and ritual. Carl Jung studied mandalas as spontaneous symbols of psychological wholeness, linking them to the universal archetype of the Self.

In the dictionary: The Sri Yantra, The Flower of Life, Metatron's Cube See also: Sacred geometry, Axis mundi, Archetype, Microcosm / Macrocosm

A philosophical schema in which the human being is a 'little world' (microcosm) that mirrors the universe or 'great world' (macrocosm). Rooted in ancient Greek thought, it was developed by Neoplatonists, Gnostics, Kabbalists, and Renaissance thinkers as the structural basis of esoteric correspondence.

In the dictionary: As Above, So Below, The Flower of Life, The Sri Yantra See also: "As above, so below", Correspondences (doctrine of), Axis mundi, Sacred geometry

A Greek term for imitation or representation, central to ancient theories of art. Plato distrusted mimesis as a mere copy of reality; Aristotle saw it as a natural and instructive human activity. The concept matters for symbolism because it directly concerns how images represent — or distort — what is real.

See also: Semiotics, Allegory, Archetype, The Engineering of Consent

A secret religious institution of the ancient Greco-Roman world — most famously the Eleusinian Mysteries — in which initiates underwent staged ritual experiences to gain esoteric knowledge unavailable to outsiders. Mystery schools are widely cited as organizational ancestors of later secret societies and fraternal orders.

Figures: Manly P. Hall, William Cooper See also: Initiation, Hierophant, Esoteric / Exoteric, Freemasonry, Mysticism

A constellation of practices and experiences aimed at direct union with, or experience of, ultimate reality or the divine. The word derives from the Greek mystes, an initiate of a mystery cult, marking mysticism's deep kinship with the esoteric initiatory traditions of antiquity.

See also: Gnosis / Gnosticism, Esotericism (Western esotericism), Mystery school, Theosophy

A philosophical system developed from the 3rd century CE by Plotinus and his successors, holding that all reality emanates from a single ineffable source — the One — through levels including divine Mind (Nous) and Soul. It profoundly shaped Christian, Gnostic, Hermetic, and later esoteric thought across fifteen centuries.

See also: Demiurge, Logos, Gnosis / Gnosticism, Theurgy, Hermeticism

The belief that numbers carry hidden meaning and can reveal character or foretell the future, often by assigning numerical values to the letters of a name or to a birth date. It draws on the Pythagorean idea that reality is ultimately structured by numbers, a principle shared by gematria and sacred geometry.

In the dictionary: The Golden Ratio / Fibonacci Spiral See also: Gematria, Sacred geometry, Golden ratio (phi)

Occult derives from the Latin for 'hidden' and refers to hidden forces or secret knowledge. Occultism names the esoteric movements emerging mainly in 19th-century Europe — associated with figures such as Éliphas Lévi and Helena Blavatsky — that sought to integrate older traditions including magic, astrology, alchemy, Kabbalah, and tarot.

In the dictionary: Baphomet, The Pentagram, The Inverted Pentagram, The All-Seeing Eye Figures: Mark Passio, Manly P. Hall, Éliphas Lévi See also: Esotericism (Western esotericism), Theosophy, Hermeticism, Egregore

An ancient emblem of a serpent or dragon devouring its own tail, expressing eternal cycles of destruction and renewal and the unity of all things. It appears persistently in Gnostic and alchemical imagery as the prima materia enclosing itself — the beginning that is indistinguishable from the end.

In the dictionary: The Ouroboros, The Serpent / Kundalini See also: Alchemy, The Great Work (Magnum Opus), Gnosis / Gnosticism

A five-pointed star drawn in a single continuous line, used historically as a symbol of protection, the human figure, and the classical elements. When enclosed in a circle it is called a pentacle and is especially associated with ceremonial magic and modern Neo-Pagan religions such as Wicca.

In the dictionary: The Pentagram, The Inverted Pentagram, Baphomet See also: Hexagram, Sacred geometry, Golden ratio (phi), Occult / Occultism

The legendary substance sought by alchemists, believed able to transmute base metals into gold and, in some accounts, to cure disease and extend life indefinitely. It simultaneously symbolized spiritual perfection and illumination; its pursuit was the central project of the Great Work.

In the dictionary: The Philosopher's Stone Glyph, The Squared Circle, The Tria Prima, The Rebis See also: Alchemy, The Great Work (Magnum Opus), Hermeticism

The five three-dimensional shapes whose faces are all identical regular polygons: the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. In Plato's Timaeus they were assigned to the classical elements and the heavens; they remain foundational to sacred geometry and to any system linking mathematical form to cosmic order.

In the dictionary: Metatron's Cube, The Flower of Life See also: Sacred geometry, Golden ratio (phi), Flower of Life, Microcosm / Macrocosm

The slow cyclical wobble of Earth's axis of rotation — completing one full circuit in approximately 25,772 years — first observed by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus around 129 BCE. It causes the zodiac signs to drift from their original constellations and features prominently in astrotheological and astrological systems of cyclical time.

In the dictionary: The Zodiac Wheel See also: Zodiac, Astrology, Astrotheology, Solstice / Equinox

A spiritual movement that emerged in early-17th-century Europe through anonymous manifestos claiming access to ancient esoteric wisdom, symbolized by a rose on a cross. It blends Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Christian mysticism and centers on a likely fictional founder, Christian Rosenkreuz, as the keeper of recovered universal knowledge.

In the dictionary: The Cross, The Blazing Star, The Square and Compasses See also: Hermeticism, Freemasonry, Occult / Occultism, Esotericism (Western esotericism)

The belief that certain shapes and proportions carry spiritual or symbolic meaning and reflect the underlying order of the universe. Drawing on genuine mathematics — including the golden ratio and the Platonic solids — it holds that the same geometric principles govern everything from the structure of a cell to the layout of a cathedral.

In the dictionary: The Flower of Life, The Vesica Piscis, Metatron's Cube, The Golden Ratio / Fibonacci Spiral, The Sri Yantra See also: Golden ratio (phi), Platonic solids, Flower of Life, Vesica piscis, Mandala

The study of signs and symbols and how they convey meaning. Founded by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce, it analyzes how something — a word, image, or object — can stand for something else, and is widely applied to media, art, advertising, and culture to decode the layers of meaning embedded in representation.

See also: Mimesis, The Engineering of Consent, Allegory, Aniconism

A symbol believed to hold magical power; traditionally a 'seal' representing a spirit in medieval grimoires, and in modern chaos magic a glyph created by condensing the letters of a desired intention into a single abstract mark. Sigils operate on the premise that concentrated symbolic form can direct will and influence reality.

In the dictionary: Baphomet, The Inverted Pentagram Figures: Éliphas Lévi See also: Talisman, Occult / Occultism, Correspondences (doctrine of)

The solstices are the two moments each year when the Sun reaches its farthest point north or south, producing the longest and shortest days (around June 21 and December 21). The equinoxes mark when day and night are equal (around March 21 and September 23). Both result from Earth's axial tilt and have been honored in religious and symbolic calendars worldwide since antiquity.

In the dictionary: The Solar Cross, The Zodiac Wheel, Sol Invictus / The Halo-Nimbus, The Winged Sun Disk See also: Precession of the equinoxes, Zodiac, Astrology, Astrotheology

A Greek word for 'wisdom,' personified in Gnostic and Neoplatonic thought as a divine feminine figure embodying creative intelligence. In many Gnostic myths, Sophia's descent or 'fall' leads to the creation of the material world and the emergence of the Demiurge, making her the pivotal figure between the transcendent realm and manifest existence.

See also: Gnosis / Gnosticism, Demiurge, Logos, Theosophy

The blending or fusion of different religious or philosophical beliefs and practices into a new combined system. Especially prominent in the Hellenistic world, syncretism is central to understanding how esoteric symbols migrate across traditions — the same solar deity appearing under a dozen different names across cultures being a key example.

In the dictionary: The Solar Cross, Sol Invictus / The Halo-Nimbus, The Ankh, The Winged Sun Disk Figures: Santos Bonacci See also: Hermeticism, Gnosis / Gnosticism, Astrotheology, Theosophy

An object, often engraved with a symbol or character, believed to attract good fortune or protective power to its bearer. Closely related to the amulet — which is usually described as warding off harm rather than drawing benefit — the talisman is a material anchor for a specific magical intention, its symbolic charge locked into physical form.

See also: Sigil, Correspondences (doctrine of), Occult / Occultism

A deck of 78 cards — 22 Major Arcana trumps plus four suited suits — that functions as a complete symbolic system encoding cosmological, psychological, and esoteric principles. Used for divination and self-knowledge, each card carries layered symbolic imagery connecting Kabbalah, astrology, numerology, and Hermetic philosophy into a single portable compendium.

Figures: Éliphas Lévi, Manly P. Hall See also: Hierophant, Occult / Occultism, Numerology, Archetype

The four-letter Hebrew name of God (YHWH or Yod-He-Vav-He), considered too sacred to pronounce aloud in Judaism. Its letters and their numerical values are central to Kabbalistic interpretation and feature extensively in Western ceremonial magic, where the Name is treated as a fundamental key to the structure of reality.

See also: Kabbalah (Qabalah), Gematria, Occult / Occultism

In its modern sense, a religious movement founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky and others, drawing on Neoplatonism, Hinduism, and Buddhism to articulate an 'ancient wisdom' underlying all religions. Theosophy strongly shaped 20th-century occult and New Age movements and reintroduced Eastern esoteric concepts to the Western world.

In the dictionary: The Ouroboros, The Swastika, The Hexagram, The Ankh See also: Occult / Occultism, Esotericism (Western esotericism), Kabbalah (Qabalah), Mysticism

From the Greek for 'divine working,' a set of ritual practices used by Neoplatonist philosophers — especially Iamblichus — to invoke the active presence of the gods and elevate the soul toward the divine. Theurgy holds that ritual action, not only contemplation, can effect genuine spiritual ascent and transformation.

Figures: Éliphas Lévi See also: Neoplatonism, Mysticism, Occult / Occultism, Initiation

A lens- or almond-shaped figure formed where two equal circles overlap, each passing through the other's center. It is a foundational form in sacred geometry, associated with creation and the union of dualities, and serves as the geometric seed from which the Flower of Life and many other sacred forms unfold.

In the dictionary: The Vesica Piscis, The Fish / Ichthys, The Flower of Life See also: Sacred geometry, Flower of Life, Golden ratio (phi), Platonic solids

A mythological cosmic tree whose trunk stands at the center of the universe and whose branches and roots connect all realms of existence; the Norse Yggdrasil is the best-known example. It is closely related to the tree of life motif and the axis mundi, expressing the same principle: a single vertical axis threading the cosmos together.

In the dictionary: The Triple Spiral / Triskele See also: Axis mundi, Microcosm / Macrocosm, Kabbalah (Qabalah)

A band of twelve constellations through which the Sun, Moon, and planets appear to move, divided by the Babylonians into twelve 30-degree signs forming the basis of astrological interpretation. Though precession has shifted the signs from their original constellations, the zodiac endures as both a practical astronomical framework and a symbolic map of time and human nature.

In the dictionary: The Zodiac Wheel, The Solar Cross See also: Astrology, Precession of the equinoxes, Solstice / Equinox, Astrotheology