Lexicon of Paganism, Mystery Religions, And Magical Creatures
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Glossary of Terms B - C
Basilisk:
This was an immensely large snake. Legend holds that the Basilisk is the
offspring of a rooster or hen, combined with a snake or toad. The serpent
is portrayed in ancient art with a crown or white spot on its head. The
basilisk was deadly, even from afar, able to break rocks and burn trees
just with its breath on the wind. Some legends describe the Basilisk as
being golden and able to kill with a look. Another version of the basilisk
breathed fire, and a third was like the medusa in Greek mythology, petrifying
victims into stone. Shakespeare mentions a basilisk in Richard III. After
the villain in the play kills his brother, and then compliments his brother's
widow about her beautiful eyes, she replies that she wished they were the
eyes of a basilisk so she could kill him. In legends, certain birds are
fatal to the basilisk, especially the rooster and the phoenix. In the Middle
Ages travelers carried roosters as protection against the basilisk..
Bind Rune: Two or more runes superimposed over one another
to perform magick.
Boggarts: Boggarts are known as bogeys, boogeyman, boggelmann,
and less ominous sounding names like bugaboo or bugbear. They are mistreated
spirits who are malevolent. Bogarts haunt families and will attach themselves
to a family even when it moves. They feed on infuriating and humiliating
a family. The more angry at its mischief one becomes the more powerful the
boggart. Laughing at the boggart can get rid of him. The keys of Solomon
contain talismans of protection from Boggarts.
Broomsticks: Witches were said to ride broomsticks, and
most likely a person riding a broomstick was a woman because the broomstick
is a domestic tool which a man was rarely seen using. Men were more prone
to ride on pitchforks. The legend was that they rubbed the broomstick with
magic oil and then flew up and out of the chimney. This was probably a story
invented because it was customary to push a broomstick up a chimney in order
to let neighbors know no one was home. If people suspected witches were
flying, they rang church bells, which supposedly knocked witches off their
broomsticks.
Cats (Familiar): Cats were considered sacred in Egypt and
India. They have long been linked with magic and are thought to be assistants
to witches. In Egypt, cats were given elaborate funerals. Sacred rituals
in Europe were centered around cats. In Rome, the goddess Diane could shapeshift
into a cat. Freya, the Norse goddess of love, marriage and fertility in
the Scanidnavian legend, traveled in a cart drawn by cats. As Christianity
replace paganism, however, cats became objects of fear. They were hunted
down and killed, especially if they were thought to be a witch’s “familiar,”
which is an assistant to the witch’s evil doings.
Centaurs: The centaur was a creature with a horse's body,
but where the horse's head and neck would normally go, there was a man's
torso and head instead. Centaurs were thought to live in the mountains of
Greece where they had mixed relations with people. Several pieces of Greek
pottery record a battle between humans and centaurs that the centaurs lost
in Greek history. Many centaurs were noble beings, such as Chiron. He was
accomplished in the arts of medicine, music, philosophy and hunting, as
taught to him by Apollo and Artemis. He tutored several heroes of the age
such as Achilles, Theseus, and Odysseus. Chiron had been granted immortality,
but a wound from a poisoned arrow gave him constant pain. Choosing mortality
to relieve his suffering, Chiron was placed in the stars by Zeus as the
constellation Sagittarius. Centaurus is another constellation in the Southern
Celestial Hemisphere. Two of its stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, are two
of the ten brightest stars in the sky. Alpha Centauri is the closest star
to earth, only 4.3 light years away.
Cerberus: Cerberus, in Greek mythology, is a three-headed
dog who guarded Hades, the underworld, where the dead go after life on Earth.
It was Cerberus’ job to eat anyone who tried to leave the underworld
and chase away all living beings who tried to go to Hades before they were
dead. Hercules captured Cerberus in one legend, and Orpheus lulled Cerberus
into such a peaceful state that he was able to sneak by him to rescue his
beloved, Eurydice.
Chimaera: This was an early Greek monster with three heads;
a dragon, a lion and a goat. The Greek Bellerophon slew the Chimaera while
riding the flying horse Pegasus.
Clavicula Solomonis: These are the “keys” of Solomon.
They were Magical texts of an unknown antiquity commonly used to commune
and command the angels of the heavens and the elemental forces that influence
the stars and destiny. Filled with sigils and amulets, this text was a source
for talismanic magic.