|
Sepher Ha-Razim
''Sefer HaRazim'' ( he, ספר הרזים; "Book of Secrets") is a Jewish magical text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history until it ended up in the possession of Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom and purported magical powers. Note that this is not the same work as the ''Sefer Raziel HaMalakh'', which was given to Adam by the same angel, although both works stem from the same tradition, and large parts of ''Sefer HaRazim'' were incorporated into the ''Sefer Raziel'' under its original title. It is thought to be a sourcebook for Jewish magic, calling upon angels rather than God to perform supernatural feats. Discovery The text was rediscovered in the 20th century by Mordecai Margalioth, a Jewish scholar visiting Oxford in 1963, using fragments found in the Cairo Geniza. He hypothesised that several fragments of Jewish magical literature shared a common source and was certain that he could reconstruct this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noah
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baha'i writings. Noah is referenced in various other books of the Bible, including the New Testament, and in associated deuterocanonical books. The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible. In this account, Noah labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood. Afterwards, God made a covenant with Noah and promised never again to destroy all the Earth's creatures with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" and as a drinker of wine. Biblical narrative Tenth and final of the pre-Flood (antediluvian) Patriarchs, son to Lamech and an unnamed mother, Noa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sefer Yetzirah
''Sefer Yetzirah'' ( ''Sēp̄er Yəṣīrā'', ''Book of Formation'', or ''Book of Creation'') is the title of a book on Jewish mysticism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. ''Yetzirah'' is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word ''Briah'' is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Rabbi Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing how the things of our universe came into existence. Conversely, Judah Halevi asserts that the main objective of the book, with its various examples, is to give to man the means by which he is able to understand the unity and omnipotence of God, which are multiform on one side and, yet, uniform on the other. The famous opening words of the book are as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Grimoires
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The people of the Kingdom of Israel and the ethnic and religious group known as the Jewish people that descended from them have been subjected to a number of forced migrations in their history" and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated, "Historically, the religious and ethnic dimensions of Jewish identity have been closely interwoven. In fact, so closely bound are they, that the traditional Jewish lexicon hardly distinguishes between the two concepts. Jewish religious practice, by definition, was observed exclusively by the Jewish people, and notions of Jewish peoplehood, nation, and community were suffused with faith in the Jewish God, the practice of Jewish (religious) la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angels In Judaism
In Judaism, angels ( he, ''mal’āḵ'', plural: ''mal’āḵīm'', literally "messenger") are supernatural beings that appear throughout the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), rabbinic literature, Jewish apocrypha, apocrypha and List of Old Testament pseudepigrapha, pseudepigrapha, and traditional Jewish liturgy as agents of the Yahweh, God of Israel. They are categorized in different Jewish angelic hierarchy, hierarchies. Their essence is often associated with fire. The Talmud describes their very essence as fire. Etymology Hebrew ''mal’akh'' () is the standard word for "messenger", both human and divine, in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), though it is rarely used for human messengers in Modern Hebrew as the latter is usually denoted by the term ''shaliyakh'' (). The noun derives from the verbal Triliteral, consonantal root ''l-’-k'' (), meaning specifically "to send with a message" and with time was substituted with more applicable ''sh-l-h''. In Biblical Hebrew this root is attested ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptahil
In Mandaeism, Ptahil ( myz, ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ) also known as Ptahil-Uthra (uthra = angel or guardian), is the Fourth Life, the third of three emanations from the First Life, Hayyi Rabbi, after Yushamin and Abatur. Ptahil-Uthra alone does not constitute the demiurge but only fills that role since he is viewed as the creator of the material world in the Ginza Rabba, often holding an inherently malicious character. Name Matthias Norberg believed the name Ptahil to be composed of Aramaic and , therefore meaning "God opened", although the verb can also mean "create" in Mandaic, but not in other Aramaic languages. Subsequent scholars have deemed it more probably derived from the Egyptian theonym 'Ptah' and angelic 'il',Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. 2002. ''The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press as originally conjectured by Mark Lidzbarski, although Carl H. Kraeling argued that the influence of Ptah on Mesopotamian syncretic Gnostic traditions is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uthra
An uthra or ʿutra ( myz, ࡏࡅࡕࡓࡀ; plural: ʿutri) is a "divine messenger of the light" in Mandaeism. Charles G. Häberl and James F. McGrath translate it as "excellency". Jorunn J. Buckley defines them as "Lightworld beings, called 'utras (sing.: 'utra 'wealth', but meaning 'angel' or 'guardian')." p8 Aldihisi (2008) compares them to the ''yazata'' of Zoroastrianism. According to Ethel S. Drower, "an 'uthra is an ethereal being, a spirit of light and Life." Uthras are benevolent beings that live in '' škinas'' ( myz, ࡔࡊࡉࡍࡀ, celestial dwellings) in the World of Light (''alma ḏ-nhūra'') and communicate with each other via telepathy. Uthras are also occasionally mentioned as being in ''anana'' ("clouds"; e.g., in '' Right Ginza'' Book 17, Chapter 1), which can also be interpreted as female consorts. Many uthras also serve as guardians (''naṭra''); for instance, Shilmai and Nidbai are the guardians of Piriawis, the Great Jordan (''yardna'') of Life. Etymol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandaean
Mandaeans ( ar, المندائيون ), also known as Mandaean Sabians ( ) or simply as Sabians ( ), are an ethnoreligious group who are followers of Mandaeism. They believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet. They may have been among the earliest religious groups to practice baptism, as well as among the earliest adherents of Gnosticism, a belief system of which they are the last surviving representatives today. The Mandaeans were originally native speakers of Mandaic, an Eastern Aramaic language, before they nearly all switched to Iraqi Arabic or Persian as their main language. After the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies in 2003, the Mandaean community of Iraq, which before the war numbered 60,000-70,000 persons, collapsed due to the rise of Islamic extremism and the absence of protection against it; with most of the community relocating to Iran, Syria and Jordan, or forming diaspora communities beyond the Middle East. Mandea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helios
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") and Phaethon ("the shining"). Helios is often depicted in art with a radiant crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky. He was a guardian of oaths and also the god of sight. Though Helios was a relatively minor deity in Classical Greece, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity thanks to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, particularly Apollo and Sol (Roman mythology), Sol. The Roman Emperor Julian (emperor), Julian made Helios the central divinity of his short-lived revival of Religion in ancient Rome, traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD. Helios figures prominently in several works of Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, in whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asian Witchcraft
Asian witchcraft refers to any or all types of witchcraft practiced in Asia. Middle East Ancient Near East The belief in magic and its practice seem to have been widespread in the past. Both in ancient Egypt and in Babylonia it played a conspicuous part, as existing records plainly show. It will be sufficient to quote a short section from the Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 BC). Torah In the Tanakh, references to witchcraft are frequent, and the strong condemnations of such practices which we read there do not seem to be based so much upon the supposition of fraud as upon the "abomination" of belief in the magic in itself. Verses such as Book of Deuteronomy 18:11-12 and Book of Exodus 22:18 "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" provided scriptural justification for Christian witch-hunters in the early modern period. The word "witch" is a translation of the Hebrew ''kashaf'', "sorcerer". The Hebrew Bible provides some evidence that these commandments were enforced un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sympathetic Magic
Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence. Similarity and contagion James George Frazer coined the term "sympathetic magic" in '' The Golden Bough'' (1889); Richard Andree, however, anticipated Frazer, writing of sympathy-enchantment ( de , Sympathie-Zauber) in his 1878 ''Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche''. Frazer subcategorised sympathetic magic into two varieties: that relying on similarity, and that relying on contact or "contagion": Imitation Imitation involves using effigies, fetishes or poppets to affect the environment of people, or people themselves. Voodoo dolls are an example of fetishes used in this way: the practitioner uses a lock of hair on the doll to create a link (also known as a "taglock") between the doll and the donor of this lock of hair. In this way, that which happens to the doll will also happen to the person. Correspondence Correspondence is based on the idea that one can influ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indiction
An indiction ( la, indictio, impost) was a periodic reassessment of taxation in the Roman Empire which took place every fifteen years. In Late Antiquity, this 15-year cycle began to be used to date documents and it continued to be used for this purpose in Medieval Europe, and can also refer to an individual year in the cycle; for example, "the fourth indiction" came to mean the fourth year of the current indiction. Since the cycles themselves were not numbered, other information is needed to identify the specific year. History Indictions originally referred to the periodic reassessment for an agricultural or land tax in the Roman Empire. There were three different cycles: a 15-year cycle used throughout the empire; a 14-year cycle used in Roman Egypt; and a five year cycle called the ''lustrum'', derived from the Roman Republican census. Changes to the tax system usually took place at the beginning of one of these cycles and at the end of the indiction Emperors often chose to forg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bahir
''Bahir'' or ''Sefer HaBahir'' ( he, סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר, ; "Book of Clarity" or "Book of Illumination") is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st-century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben HaKanah (a contemporary of Yochanan ben Zakai) because it begins with the words, "R. Nehunya ben HaKanah said". It is also known as ''Midrash of Rabbi Nehunya ben HaKanah'' . First mentioned in late 12th century Provencal works, the ''Bahir'' is an early work of esoteric Jewish mysticism that eventually became known as Kabbalah. Title Nahmanides, in his commentary on the Torah, (Genesis 1) is one of the first to quote the work under the title ''Midrash R. Nehunya ben HaKanah.'' ("R. Nehunya ben HaKanah said," the opening sentence) Among medieval Kabbalists it became known as ''Sefer HaBahir'', taken from its opening comment, "One verse says: 'And now men see not the light which is bright (''bahir'') in the skies'" (Job 37:21). Authorship Kabbalists ascribed authorship of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
