Before Common Era. Dating system used by scholars and pagans without any biased religious connotations
Bacchus :
The Roman God of Wine. The Greeks called him "Dionysus".
Balefire:
A fire lit for magickal purposes, usually at Yule, Beltane, and Midsummer. Traditionally using sage as
part of the fuel.
Balor:
A God of the Sun.
Banba:
A Goddess representing Ireland.
Bane:
Anything destructive, poisonous or evil; also anything that causes death, ruin or harm. Wolf's Bane is an
example of a poisonous herb used in various recipes.
Bard:
A poet, musician, story-teller (historian) of the pagans. The term is most commonly used to denote the
priestly historians of Druidic myth.
Barley Moon:
The ninth full moon of the year. Also called the "Harvest Moon".
Belenus - Also "Bel", "Belanos":
In Scottish it means 'May Day' (Beltane). A solar God of life, truth, inspiration, music, and health. He
represents Fire of Fire and his magickal symbols are the sun disc, a golden harp, a golden curved sword, and spear.
Belisama:
A Goddess of fire, the maiden aspect of the Goddess Bridget. Her name means "like unto flame" or "bright and shining one". Her magickal symbol it the rising sun.
Belisana:
An aspect of Belisama, but more earthly. A Goddess of laughter, healing, and the forest.
Belle Indifference:
Lack of interest or concern on the part of a “hysteric” or RSPKer towards unusual events occurring in or around him or her.
Beltane:
Celtic fire festival beginning the summer half of the year; starts at sunset on May 4th and is also known
as Bealtaine, Galan- Mai, Roodmas, Walpurgistag, St. Pierre’s Day, Red Square Day, etc. Celebrated by most Neopagans and many Marxists as a major religious holiday. "The Festival of Flowering" Is the beginning of the 'Light Half' of the year, The Goddess (in her feminine aspect as maiden) assumes the 'mantle' and worship shifts slightly more towards Her.
Besom:
A magickal broom often used for ritual cleansing of sacred ground. No, witches do not fly upon them
as superstition has claimed. That myth came from early on during the persecutions of the pagans by the Christians. The Christians claimed they were flying on their brooms, surely the work of the Devil, when what they actually saw was an old pagan fertility ritual. Witches would ride their brooms and leap into the sky as high as they could to show the crops how tall to grow. This form of sympathetic magick got a rather pathetic rap.
Bibliomancy:
Divination through the random selection of words or phrases taken from books, as with the Bible.
Binding:
The action to magickally restrain someone or something.
Biocurrents:
Electrochemical energy currents generated by living cells.
Biological Radio:
Russian term for telepathy.
Biophysics:
The physics of biological phenomena.
Black Magic:
A racist, sexist, creedist and classist term used to refer to magic being done for “evil” purposes or by people of whom the user of the term disapproves.
Blessed Be
A term derived from the ritual of the Five-fold Kiss, it is simple a blessing commonly used by Wiccans and pagans as a greeting or a goodbye. Abbreviated as BB or B*B.
Blessing:
The use of magic to benefit an object or being.
Blood Moon:
The eleventh full moon of the year.
Bloodstone:
A magickal stone whose qualities are that of creativity, vitality, energy, and knowledge.
Boann - Also "Boi", "Boanna":
A river Goddess, she is the mother of the herds. Her magickal symbol is a silver
salmon.
Bodb the Red:
A Son of Dagda. Virile and athletic, this God represents the male energy.
Bolline:
The Athame's white handled companion or counterpart. It is most often used to cut herbs and may not be a knife, but a small curved blade such as that of a sickle or scythe.
Bon:
The native Tibetan religion that later merged with Buddhism and Tantrism.
Bonding Control:
A PK talent involving the creation and/or alteration of bonding patterns on the intermolecular, interatomic and subatomic levels; thus causing disintegration or cohesion. See Geller Effect.
Book of Shadows:
(acronym: B.O.S.) A book used by pagans to record significant events, such as dreams and visions, path and ritual work, spells and other lore. This varies from what are known as traditional "Grimoires" and "Tomes", in that a B.O.S. is also, in part, a journal of sorts to the practitioner. Entire covens or groups keep a B.O.S. - in addition to each individual's book - for all things listed previous in addition to coven laws, member degrees, initiation and banishment ceremonies, etc.
Boomerang Curse:
Spell designed to make an attacker suffer the effects of whatever hostile magic they may have launched at the user; a variation of the “mirror effect,” probably operates through reddopsi.
Boon Moon:
A High Moon, the sixth full moon after Yule. Also called the "Dyad Moon".
Borvo - Also "Bormo" and "Bormanus":
A Celtic "Apollo" and God of healing. Represents Fire of Water; such as hot springs and mineral waters. A God of the unseen truth and inspiration through dreams. His magickal symbols are the same as those of "Belenus" with the addition of a flute and hot springs.
Bran - Also "Bron":
A protector of poets and bards. He is an excellent singer and his magickal symbol is the bard's harp.
Branwen:
A Welsh Goddess of love, sometimes known as "the White-Bosomed One" and "the Venus of the Northern Sea". Her magickal symbol is a white crow.
Bridget:
A sun and fire Goddess, representing Fire of Fire. She is the Goddess of the hearth and home and
represents the sacred fire. She is a Goddess of smithcraft, healing, medicine, poetry, and inspiration. Her magickal symbols are the spindle and distaff, the sacred flame or balefire, the cauldron, and her brass shoe.
Brigantia:
A powerful Celtic British nature Goddess, very similar to Bridget. Her name is an ancient name for
Britain, representing the rivers and curves of the countryside.
Bright One:
The "bright" aspects of the Goddess or All Mother representing light and life. See also "Dark
One".
Broom Closet
Not meant literally, this is a term used to describe someone who is "in the broom closet", or in other words, who is not public with their pagan practices.
Buckland , Raymond:
The man credited for the modern Craft movement in America, which he began in the 1960's and 70's. He studied with Gardner and has written many books on Witchcraft and Magick. He also founded the Tradition known as "Seax-Wica" - taken from Anglo-Saxon Witchcraft. Buckland and his wife were brought into the Craft by the same High Priestess as Gerald Gardner. See also "Gardner, Dr. Gerald B."
Buddhism
A variety of religions founded by a man named Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha (“Enlightened One”). An outgrowth of Vedic Paleopagan mysticism, rooted in the “Four Noble Truths:”
(1) Existence is suffering,
(2) Suffering is caused by desire,
(3) Desire can be overcome,
(4) by following the Eightfold Path (right belief, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation).
Burning Times
This is a word used to describe the execution of the witches during their persecution from the middle Ages onwards. Most executions were in fact by hanging, not burning. While it is claimed that thousands and even millions were killed. Many were heretics or Christians accused of witchcraft by those who disliked them.