GEOMANTIC GLOSSARY A-L
This will go through constant updates as a working glossary for geomantic topics that I can edit as needed.
"Thales, the first philosopher, is supposed to have said, 'Of all things that are, the most ancient is God, for he is uncreated. The most beautiful is the cosmos, for it is God's workmanship. The greatest is place, for it holds all things" (Walter 1988: 121).
A
Acoustics: Sound is an important but overlooked element of geomancy. (Pennick 2000: 8-10).
ad triangulum
ad quadratum
Alf: Elf
Alf-blot: Offering to the elves of a place or genius loci (Pennick 1989: 259)
Alfreka: Destroyed; condition of having the spirit [alf; elves] driven from the land (see gast). When spiritual beings of land are driven away, complete desaacralization, anima loci destroyed.
Can result from too-powerful on-lay maintained over long period; ultimatre result of on-lay in direct conflict with anima loci.
Also can result from physical destruction, as if holy hill bulldozed away, hole for metro station excavated where once was holy place, then actual locus no more and no anima; common in cities where natural ground level abolished
If place rendered alfreka, does not destroy önd present there. The önd then becomes subject to whatever other influences are there.
Since there can be an on-lay put upon an alfreka site, can be the means to do geomantic remedial work at alfreka places
If not alfreka, then human actions can accelerate return of full influence of anima loci. To do this:
remove deteriorating on-lay remnants
replace with harmonious artifacts and activities
neutral remains should stay as witness to the orlog of place
orlog will aways be present but dwindling of effects can be accelerated and obliterated, then anima loci can shine through again
Aluna
Ang kuktota (Hopi): “around Whiteriver as Pavanqatsi because the region’s grasslands, rivers, and forests are a paradise for qatsi (life). Hopi and Zuni advisors agreed that the rich soils, abundant water, diverse biota, and beauty of the White Mountain lands attracted and briefly sustained their ancestors, who built and occupied pit house and above-ground pueblo settlements near the rich alluvial terraces that they farmed along White River and its tributaries…Ben Nuvamsa…observed that life at Sakwtala was ‘too easy’ for his ancestors, who had committed themselves to finding the place where spiritual unity would make possible a materially difficult village farming lifeway… Because this area was not the center of the universe that Zuni and Hopi ancestors sought on the basis of divine mandate, they were bound to continue their migrations. For Hopis, this mandate included ang kuktota (along there, make footprints). Hopi ancestors were instructed to live in one place for a while, to grow corn and other food, to have families, and then to continue their migration. ‘Footprints’ include the ruins of former pit house and pueblo village settlements, and the pottery, stone tools, petroglyphs, and other artifacts left behind as offerings. …For Zunis and Hopis, such footprints are tangible evidence of waypoints along routes of ancestral migrations, as well as indicators of ongoing landscape connections and stewardship obligations…” (Welch 2009: 106).
Anima loci
Animatism: "Animatism is a term coined by British anthropologist Robert Marett to refer to "a belief in a generalized, impersonal power over which people have some measure of control". Marett argues that certain cultures believe "people, animals, plants, and inanimate objects were endowed with certain powers, which were both impersonal and supernatural." Mana [a Polynesian concept], Marett states, is a concentrated form of animatistic force found within any of these objects that confer power, strength, and success. To various cultures, animatism and mana are visible through the successes and failures of these various objects. Success equals a high amount of animatism, or mana, whereas failure is the result of animatism, or mana, being lost" (Wikipedia: Animatism).
Animism: "Animism (from Latin anima "soul, life") refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle. Animism encompasses the beliefs that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical (or material) world, and souls or spirits exist, not only in humans, but also in all other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment. Animism may further attribute souls to abstract concepts such as words, true names, or metaphors in mythology. Examples of Animism can be found in forms of Shinto, Serer, Hinduism, Buddhism, Pantheism, Paganism, and Neopaganism" "Animism is not the same as Pantheism, although the two are sometimes confused. Some faiths and religions are even both pantheistic and animistic. One of the main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), the way pantheists do. As a result, animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul. In Pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits and/or souls." (Wikipedia: Animism).
Anima loci: (Latin) the place soul that is the quality of harmony of any location; spirit of place (soul that animates the land) [spirit that animates the house itself; personality of site ensouled]; compare to genius loci and anima mundi.
Through human activity the qualities of Anima Loci are sanctified (see), altered (see on-lay)
Apophenia: Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the 'unmotivated seeing of connections' accompanied by a 'specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness', but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random nature in general, as with gambling, paranormal phenomena, religion, and even attempts at scientific observation. ...Regardless of whether some "paranormal" phenomena are real, even the most devout believers concede that at least a small portion of such events are probably apophenia, including some photographs of ghosts, some Unidentified Flying Objects, some cryptozoology, et cetera." (Wikipedia: apophenia). Seeing/constructing patterns in/out of things one sees, hears, or otherwise senses, based on one's cultural or personal expectations/narratives (observer's bias). One of the most common examples is identifying insects, moisture or dust motes illuminated against a dark background as "orbs" or spirits while ghost hunting -LF. (see pareidolia, as a type of apophenia)
The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad,[1] who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness", but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random nature in general, as with gambling, paranormal phenomena, religion, and even attempts at scientific observation.
Archaeoastronomy: "Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used phenomena in the sky, and what role the sky played in their cultures. ...Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape archaeology and cognitive archaeology. Material evidence and its connection to the sky can reveal how a wider landscape can be integrated into beliefs about the cycles of nature, such as Mayan astronomy and its relationship with agriculture. [Marking solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial phenomena, for example. -LF] Other examples which have brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order embedded in the roads of settlements" (Wikipedia: Archaeoastronomy). Chaco Canyon (esp. the Sun Dagger site), Stonehenge, etc. are all associated with archaeoastronomy.
Archaeology: Study of the material remains of past peoples, societies, and cultures. Geomancy and earth mysteries are generally considered pseudoscience or fringe practices by scientific/academic archaeologists. Cognitive Archaeology.
Asta Kosala Kosali: traditional Balinese system of architecture and geomancy; the practitioner is called an undagi. Their space clearing ritual is Nyepi (Kingston 1997).
Axis mundi. World tree. Mayan: Wacah Chan ("raised up sky") (Fagan 1998: 329).
B
Big Place: Australian aboriginal term for a sacred place along a dreaming track (aka songline). At such places were hidden ritual objects made of stone or wood/bark, called tjurunga, which depicted the site's story (Devereaux 2003: 22). Such places are charged with djang (numinous power) (ibid.: 23).
Biomimicry: "Biomimicry or biomimetics is the examination of Nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems.[citation needed] The term biomimicry and biomimetics come from the Greek words bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate. Other terms used are bionics, bio-inspiration, and biognosis" (Wikipedia: Biomimicry).
Biophilia: "The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as 'the urge to affiliate with other forms of life'" (Wikipedia: Biophilia Hypothesis).
Bioregionalism: "Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and ecological system or set of views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determination of a bioregion is also a cultural phenomenon, and emphasizes local populations, knowledge, and solutions. Bioregionalism is a concept that goes beyond national boundaries-an example is the concept of Cascadia, a region that is sometimes considered to consist of most of Oregon and Washington, the Alaska Panhandle, the far north of California and the West Coast of Canada, sometimes also including some or all of Idaho and western Montana. [I have some disagreements with including some of western Montana; you can read about it by selecting the keyword "bioregionalism" for this blog. -LF] Another example of a bioregion, which does not cross national boundaries, but does overlap state lines, is the Ozarks, a bioregion also referred to as the Ozarks Plateau, which consists of southern Missouri, northwest Arkansas, the northeast corner of Oklahoma, southeast corner of Kansas" (Wikipedia: Bioregionalism).
Black stream: an underground vein or stream of water which produces harmful effects in human beings; underground streams that are considered black streams tend to be that way if they cross underground (not above ground), even if at significantly different depths (Thurnell-Read 1995: 27).
C
Cacotope: "A bad place" (Walter 1988: 215). From Greek, kakos (bad/foul/evil) + topos (place). (ibid.: 24).
Cairn: An artificial mound of stones; often constructed as an aid to navigation, as a memorial, or to mark the location of a grave.
Chora: Oldest Greek word for place, appearing in Homer and Hesiod. Ptolemy held chora as the "quality" of place, and in different contexts, region, country, and space. In antiquity, a writer would speak of chorophilia for love of place, never topophilia. "The older word, chora-- or sometimes choros-- retained subjctive meanings in the classical period. It appeared in emotional statements about places, and writers were inclined to call a sacred place a chora instead of a topos. Plato saw place as a matrix of energies, and focused on chora in most instances. Aristotle rejected the expressive aspects, using topos for the inert container or inner surface of a container, and the chora as the room or capacity of the container. During the time of Hellenistic Greek, when the Greek translations of the Old Testament, and the Greek Christians, used the term topos/topoi for sacred places. Ptolemy continued using choros for the emotional/spiritual aspects of place. (Walter 1988: 120-121). (MORE ON CHORA LATER!)
Chorography: Ptolemy held that "chorography, by contrast [to geography], set off a part of the world, exhibiting it separately, representing exactly and in minute detail nearly everything contained in it. For precise description, chorography depended on correct drawings, and no one could practice chorography, in Ptolemy's words, unless he were an artist" (Walter 1988: 116). Drawings might also extend to the spirit of a place (Walter 1988: 118). See drawings of spirit of place by Blake for example.
Chorophilia: "Love of place" (Walter 1988: 215) (see also topophilia)
Chthonic: " /ˈkθɒnɪk/, from Greek χθόνιος - chthonios, "in, under, or beneath the earth", from χθών - chthōn "earth"; pertaining to the Earth; earthy; subterranean) designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land (as Gaia or Ge does) or the land as territory (as khora (χώρα) does). It evokes at once abundance and the grave....While terms such as "Earth deity" or Earth mother have rather sweeping implications in English, the words khthonie and khthonios had a more precise and technical meaning in Greek, referring primarily to the manner of offering sacrifices to the deity in question. Some chthonic cults practised ritual sacrifice, which often happened at night time. When the sacrifice was a living creature, the animal was placed in a bothros ("pit") or megaron ("sunken chamber"). In some Greek chthonic cults, the animal was sacrificed on a raised bomos ("altar"). Offerings usually were burned whole or buried rather than being cooked and shared among the worshippers. Not all chthonic cults were Greek, nor did all cults practice ritual sacrifice; some performed sacrifices in effigy or burnt vegetable offerings. ...The pronunciation is somewhat awkward for English speakers. Most dictionaries, such as the OED, state that the first two letters should be pronounced as [k], /ˈkθɒnɪk/; others, such as the AHD, record these letters as silent, /ˈθɒnɪk/. The modern pronunciation of the Greek word "χθόνιος" is [xθoɲos], although the Classical Greek pronunciation would have been something similar to [kʰtʰonios]" (Wikipedia: Chthonic).
Cloud island.
Corpse lights: Small lights that are associated with the spirits of the dead; compare Earth lights and Will-o-the-Wisp (see each)
Corpse road: Mostly medieval feature (a few later), a route that allowed walking or packhorse funerals that connect churches to burial of the corpses at cemeteries. Sometimes the same as the church road/church way, but not always. Resting places along the path, often marked by crosses or rough-hewn coffin stones. At the boundary of the churchyard is a lych-gate or corpse-gate, with roof and sometimes a wooden plinth to set the coffin on. Some corpse roads survived as footpaths or larger roads. (Britain) bier road, burial road, coffin line, funeral road, lyke/lich/lych way (Old English: liches: corpse). Saxon: deada waeg; Dutch: Doodwegen ("deathroads"). Germany and Netherlands: kirchweg, kirkweg. Ireland: Mass road. (Devereux 2003: 25).
Correspondences: Cultural systems of symbolic connections among and between categories and phenomena like elements, colors, animals, directions, etc.
Cosmic axis: See Axis mundi; omphalos
Crop circles: Large scale, generally geometric designs, created in fields and visible from the air/above. Various theories propose the creators are aliens, earth energies, etc. Some have proven to have been made by hoaxers. (Devereux 2000: 45-47).
Cupped stone: Boulder with cup-markings, round-carved hollows, usually found at precontact sites.
Curry Lines/Curry Grid: global grid of lines naturally charged, about 3 m apart, which run diagonally to the poles, NE-SW and NW-SE. Lines alternate as positive and negative -charged lines. Problems occur at location where positive lines cross positive lines; some researchers connect these locations with an increase in cancer (Thurnell-Read 1995: 27-28).
Cursus: "Cursus (plural 'cursūs' or 'cursuses') was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, hence the Latin name cursus, meaning "course". Cursus monuments are now understood to be Neolithic structures and represent some of the oldest prehistoric monumental structures of the British Isles; cursus may have been of ceremonial function" (Wikipedia: Cursus monument). They range in length from 50 metres to almost 10 kilometres and the distance between the parallel earthworks can be up to 100 metres. Banks at the terminal ends enclose the cursus.
D
death roads. also called dodweg, etc.
Deep ecology: "Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the biosphere. It provides a foundation for the environmental, ecology and green movements and has fostered a new system of environmental ethics. Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that, like humanity, the living environment as a whole has the same right to live and flourish. Deep ecology describes itself as 'deep' because it looks more deeply into the actual reality of humanity's relationship with the natural world and arrives at philosophically more profound conclusions than that of the prevailing view of ecology as a branch of Darwinian biological science. Deep Ecology does not subscribe to anthropocentric environmentalism which is concerned with conservation of the environment only for exploitation by and for human purposes since this is grounded in a quite different set of philosophical assumptions. Deep ecology takes a more holistic view of the world human beings live in and seeks to apply to life the understanding that the separate parts of the ecosystem (including humans) function as a whole. Deep ecology advocates wilderness preservation, human population control and simple living" (Wikipedia: Deep ecology).
Deva. Term used to denote land spirits, fairies, etc. by the community at Findhorn, based on the system from India.
"The Devil's Offering" aka Gudeman's Croft, Clootie's Croft etc. "In any place I rent or have anything to do with, I always leave a part alone to itself, no matter how small the property. I choose it by instinct and feel. I do not weed it or anything. the only thing I will do is at times put a little house made of ceramic or wood in it. I will leave food there at times. But I don't go in unless I am putting food in it. I avoid it and leave it to itself. You can sometimes tell by the plants. There is a spot in a place I mow where there grows henbane and deadly nightshade. I do not mow it. I leave it be. From my Sleeping Giant blog (this blog): "In Scotland, this area of wild land is called "Clootie's Croft," "Black Faulie," "Devil's Croft," and "the Goodman's Field." These were generally parts of the BEST land, up to four acres, and often had old ruins or sites on it. Even in the face of threats by the clergy, these places were left uncultivated. Pan told the founders of Findhorn that "in any garden, no matter the size, where the full cooperation of the nature spirits is desired a part should be left where, as far as possible, man does not enter. The nature spirits use this place as a focal point for their activity, a center from which to work." Humans were not to enter it, not even for ritual; it was dedicated for the spirits' own use. In some small gardens, even a little tangled place of wild things should be left alone. Some cultures, such as in Bali, do the same thing, and they build little "spirit houses" for the spirits there."
The moss is soft on Clootie's croft
And bonny's the sod o' the Goodman's toft;
But if ye bide there till the sun is set,
The Goodman will catch you in his net.
Divination: Foretelling the future or finding deeper answers to what is occurring or what/where something is located, in the present or past, through various means (Devereux 2000: 55). See also Dowsing; Simulacra.
Dobbie stone: "A cup-stone used for offerings and in wind-magic" (Pennick 1989: 260)
Domus: a dwelling occupied by one family (Walter 1988: 39).=> domicile, domesticate
Dowsing: "Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation (Ley lines), without the use of scientific apparatus. Dowsing is also known as divining (especially in reference to interpretation of results), doodlebugging (particularly in the United States, in searching for petroleum) or (when searching specifically for water) water finding, water witching or water dowsing. There is no accepted scientific rationale behind dowsing, and there is no scientific evidence that it is effective. [However field engineers and others trying to find underground pipes and other infrastructure frequently use and depend on it, with much anecdotal evidence.-LF] A Y- or L-shaped twig or rod, called a dowsing rod, divining rod (Latin: virgula divina or baculus divinatorius) or witching rod is sometimes used during dowsing, although some dowsers use other equipment or no equipment at all. Dowsing appears to have arisen in the context of Renaissance magic in Germany, and it remains popular among believers in Forteana or radiesthesia" (Wikipedia: Dowsing).
Dragon: Symbol of the Land and its power (see Telluric current as well). In Europe, where the innate preChristian powers were seen as demonic after Christianization, the Dragon was demonized and seen as evil, in opposition. Thus the legend of St. George and other dragonslayers; but compare Merlin and Arthur, and their concepts of the Dragon (the red and white dragons, etc.) In Asia where the older concepts of the Dragon as Land power, etc. persisted, the Dragon is seen as powerful but benevolent, and linked to dragon lines, etc.
Lung-mei in China: Dragon lines: veins and arteries; fractals may hacve significance here. (LF) (See red arteries and black veins.) (Devereux 2000: 58)
Dragon Project: (Devereux 2000: 58-59)
Dreamtime: Australian aboriginal term, the "concept of a magical primordial era that is also perennial, like another dimension to everyday reality. Aborigines themselves call this mythic, timeless time tjukuba, altjurunga, altjira, and dzjugur among numerous other terms depending on the tribal language" (Devereux 2003: 21).
E
Earthlights: Anomalous light phenomena associated with faults and tectonic activity, and other locations; related to Earthquake lights and ball lightning (Devereux 2000: 62)
Earth mysteries
Ecological restoration/landscape restoration
Ecology
Ecopsychology: "Ecopsychology studies the relationship between human beings and the natural world through ecological and psychological principles.The field seeks to develop and understand ways of expanding the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world, thereby assisting individuals with developing sustainable lifestyles and remedying alienation from nature. ...Other names used to refer to ecopsychology include, Gaia psychology, psychoecology, ecotherapy, environmental psychology, green psychology, global therapy, green therapy, Earth-centered therapy, reearthing, nature-based psychotherapy, shamanic counselling, ecosophy and sylvan therapy" (Wikipedia: Ecopsychology). The main premise of ecopsychology is that while today the human mind is shaped by the modern social world, it is adapted to the natural environment in which it evolved.
Ecosystem
Electromagnetic fields
Ella: weather, world, universe (Yup'ik)
Ella maliggluku: Following the direction of the universe (Yup'ik)
Empiricism
Energies (Earth energies): (Devereux 2000: 65)
Entheogen: “An entheogen ("generating the divine within") is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. With the advent of organic chemistry, there now exist many synthetic substances with similar psychoactive properties, many derived from these plants. Entheogens can supplement many diverse practices for healing, transcendence, and revelation, including: meditation, psychonautics, art projects, and psychedelic; Wikipedia.org: “Entheogen”)
Entopic imagery/patterns. (Devereux 2000: 69-70)
Ethnogeography: Cultural models of geography (ex: sacred sites, landscapes), such as feng shui
Expressive space: "A specific milieu laden with emotional and symbolic features of experience; a place that contains feelings and meanings, which may be expressed through objects, structures, forms, surfaces, images, stories, myths, memories, and dreams" (Walter 1998: 215).
F
Fairies, fairy rings, fairy stones, fairy trees, raths/fairy forts (Devereux 2000: 72-76)
Fault/fault lines.
Feng Shui: "Feng shui. Chinese: 風水. A Chinese system of geomancy believed to use the laws of both Heaven (Chinese astronomy) and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi.The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu (simplified Chinese: 堪舆; traditional Chinese: 堪輿; pinyin: kānyú; literally: Tao of heaven and earth). The term feng shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English." There are three basic schools of feng shui that most recognize as traditional: Ti Li (Form School), Liiqi Pai (Compass School), and combined/with additions (e.g. Flying Star, based on Chinese astrology). Then there is a New Age form called Black Sect Tantric Buddhism Feng Shui (BTB) (Wikipedia: "Feng Shui)
The four guardian landforms (hills) are the Black Tortoise, Green Dragon, White Tiger, and Red Raven; it depends on whether one is siting a residence for the living (Yang domain) or a tomb (residence for the dead- Yin domain) as to the directions and site location. (Wong 2001)
Fibonacci.
Focus: from Latin "hearth"
Folklore (Devereux 2000: 81-83)
Frithsplot: Sacred ground; frith: sanctuary (Pennick 1989: 260)
G
Gaia/Gaia hypothesis: Lovelock (Devereux 2000: 84-85)
Gast: barren land, from which the earth spirit has been driven (east Anglian: Pennick)
Geis/geas: sacred prohibition (like kapu)
genii
Genius Loci: Latin: "spirit of place" describing the subtle qualities of a site, perhaps conceived as a conscious supernatural being;spirit of place (somehow spirit inhabiting/separable from place) [spirit that inhabites land/site as a type of house]
A Genius Loci is of course, the particular spirit/intelligence (genius) of a place, that resides or animates that location/land/site (loci). (Patterson, et al)
Geoglyph: "A geoglyph is a large design or motif (generally greater than 4 meters) produced on the ground and typically formed by clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the geography, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geogplyph is formed by the arrangement and alignment of materials on the ground in a manner akin to petroforms, while a negative geoglyph is formed by removing patinated clasts to expose unpatinated ground in a manner akin to petroglyphs." Examples include the Nazca lines (Peru), as well as modern land art examples like "Spiral Jetty" by Smithson (Wikipedia: Geoglyph).
Geography: Ptolemy held that "geography pictorially represented the earth as a whole, describing its nature, position, and general features. It showed the world through the perspective of unity and continuity, and this special task required mathematics"; compare to chorography (Walter 1988: 116).
Geolocation: placement of a building, etc. in landscape with regards to the features of that landscape
Geomagnetism and radiation, EMF (hauntings).
Geomancy: The term "geomancy" is used in two different basic ways.
1) A form of divination originating in North Africa which uses figures drawn in earth; this form was later diffused to Europe, and later became part of the program of the Golden Dawn magical tradition.
2) A way to read the landscape, respond to it, and influence its subtle aspects and energies. Different cultures had different systems. The Chinese practice of feng shui is the most famous of these.
The theoretical and practical means of achieving earth harmony; a method of earth divination. (Pennick)
Geomantic act: the fixing of energies in the earth in one place by means of a stake, rod or spike; symbolized in legend by St. George impaling dragon with lance
Geometry/Sacred Geometry (Devereux 2000:86-87).
Geopaths: Negative entities at a location are called by some “geopaths.” (also see Negs)
Geopathic stress: interference (esp. to health) caused by living at a place known to have harmful influences such as underground, such as black streams, Curry lines, or Hartmann lines (Thurnell-Read 1995).
Geopathic zone: an area of harmful influence for humans in which an above-average incidence of non-viral or bacterial disease occurs
Ghost: "The English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North and East Germanic (the equivalent word in Gothic is ahma, Old Norse has andi m., önd f.). The pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger" reflected in Old Norse geisa "to rage". The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare óðr). In Germanic paganism, "Germanic Mercury", and the later Odin, was at the same time the conductor of the dead and the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt. Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin spiritus also in the meaning of "breath" or "blast" from the earliest attestations (9th century). It could also denote any good or evil spirit, i.e. angels and demons; the Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclæna gast. Also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the "Holy Ghost". The now prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form" only emerges in Middle English (14th century). The modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of application, extending on one hand to "soul", "spirit", "vital principle", "mind" or "psyche", the seat of feeling, thought and moral judgement; on the other hand used figuratively of any shadowy outline, fuzzy or unsubstantial image, in optics, photography and cinematography especially a flare, secondary image or spurious signal. The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via the United States in the 19th century. Alternative words in modern usage include spectre (from Latin spectrum), the Scottish wraith (of obscure origin), phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma, compare fantasy) and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra, in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects. Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost", "spectre" or "apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent" or "omen". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy literature. Bogie is an Ulster Scots term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish poet John Mayne's Hallowe'en in 1780. A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. Also related is the concept of a fetch, the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive" (Wikipedia: Ghost).
Goddess stone (Devereux 2000: 82)
Golden Mean.
Guardianship (see Land guardianship; Sleeper)
H
Hamlet: group of houses/buildings, smaller than a village
Hartmann Lines/Net: a grid of naturally occurring charged lines, running N-S and E-W. Alternate lines said to alternate positive and negative charges. Where positively charged N-S and E-W lines cross are places of concern. (Thurnell-Read 1995: 28-29)
Heiau: (Hawaiian) "Pre-Christian place of worship, shrine; some heiau were elaborately constructed stone platforms, others simple earth terraces. Many are preserved today. Several types are listed below. In Isa. 15.2, heiau is a high place of worship. See hei 5. Hale heiau, house of worship. (PPN fai.)"
"Heiau (for various kinds, see Haw.-Eng. entries and entries that follow). Also: eweʻai, haiau, hale heiau, hale poki, hale ʻopeʻope, hale hau, hale laʻa, hale lau, hale lama, hale pipipi, hale o Papa, hale o Lono, ipu-o-Lono, unu, alaō, kūkoaʻe, koleamoku, kūpalaha, lonopūhā, loulu, luakini, māpele, waihau, waikaua; puʻuhonua (place of refuge); kūʻula, koʻa (fishing shrines); mua (menʻs eating house). See altar, oracle tower, prayer, shrine. Parts of heiau: paehumu, pā (enclosure); kahua (area within enclosure); kīpapa (pavement); papahola (outside pavement); ahu, kuahu, lele (altar); lananuʻu, kapaʻau (place for images and offerings); nanahua (posts); luapaʻū, lua unu (refuse pit); hale pahu, hale puʻuone, hale umu, hāwai, mana, oeoe, pālima, wai ea (houses or booths within heiau). To direct, as heiau ceremonies, kuhikuhi. Circuit of the island by a chief to build heiaus, palaloa. To build heiaus, kūkulu heiau. Place where dignitaries stood near heiaus, kālewa." (Ulukau)
May come from hei (net, snare, entangle) or as variation of hai (to sacrifice) + au (Current; to flow, as a current. Au kanaiʻi, strong current; fig., a strong warrior. Au kō malalo, undertow. (PPN ʻau.)) or au (to set a net).
[LF Note: heiau often are thought of or defined as a structure, the temple or temple-platform, by archaeologists, but there are also heiau that are totally natural sites and have never been built upon (confirmed both by the literature and by Native Hawaiian practitioners during my time in Hawai'i. This leads me to consider that it is the land at the site itself which is selected as the power place, and the built portion just enhances or uses the power of the land itself (the power perhaps the au, the current, and the structure the hei, the net that fixes the power there).]
Henge: Neolithic feature, a circular area defined by a ditch and outer bank (ex: Stonehenge, Woodhenge) (Dvereux 2000: 96)
Heterotopia: “Heterotopia is a concept in human geography elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe places and spaces that function in non-hegemonic conditions. These are spaces of otherness, which are neither here nor there, that are simultaneously physical and mental, such as the space of a phone call or the moment when you see yourself in the mirror.
A utopia is an idea or an image that is not real but represents a perfected version of society, such as Thomas More’s book or Le Corbusier’s drawings. Foucault uses the term heterotopia to describe spaces that have more layers of meaning or relationships to other places than immediately meet the eye. In general, a heterotopia is a physical representation or approximation of a utopia, or a parallel space that contains undesirable bodies to make a real utopian space possible (like a prison).
Foucault uses the idea of a mirror as a metaphor for the duality and contradictions, the reality and the unreality of utopian projects. A mirror is metaphor for utopia because the image that you see in it does not exist, but it is also a heterotopia because the mirror is a real object that shapes the way you relate to your own image.
Foucault articulates several possible types of heterotopia or spaces that exhibit dual meanings:
1. A ‘crisis heterotopia’ is a separate space like a boarding school or a motel room where activities like coming of age or a honeymoon take place out of sight.
2. ‘Heterotopias of deviation’ are institutions where we place individuals whose behavior is outside the norm (hospitals, asylums, prisons, rest homes, cemetery).
3. Heterotopia can be a single real place that juxtaposes several spaces. A garden is a heterotopia because it is a real space meant to be a microcosm of different environments with plants from around the world.
4. 'Heterotopias of time' such as museums enclose in one place objects from all times and styles. They exist in time but also exist outside of time because they are built and preserved to be physically insusceptible to time’s ravages.
5. 'Heterotopias of ritual or purification' are spaces that are isolated and penetrable yet not freely accessible like a public place. To get in one must have permission and make certain gestures such as in a sauna or a hammin.
6. 'Heterotopias has a function in relation to all of the remaining spaces. The two functions are: heterotopia of illusion creates a space of illusion that exposes every real space, and the heterotopia of compensation is to create a real space--a space that is other.
Human geographers often connected to the postmodernist school have been using the term (and the author's propositions) to help understand the contemporary emergence of (cultural, social, political, economic) difference and identity as a central issue in larger multicultural cities. The idea of place (more often related to ethnicity and gender and less often to the social class issue) as a heterotopic entity has been gaining attention in the current context of postmodern, post-structuralist theoretical discussion (and political practice) in Geography and other spatial social sciences. There is an extensive debate with theorists, such as David Harvey, that remain focused on the matter of class domination as the central determinant of social heteronomy.
Foucault's elaborations on heterotopias were published in an article entitled Des espaces autres (Of Other Spaces). The philosopher calls for a society with many heterotopias, not only as a space with several places of/for the affirmation of difference, but also as a means of escape from authoritarianism and repression, stating metaphorically that if we take the ship as the utmost heterotopia, a society without ships is inherently a repressive one, in a clear reference to Stalinism.” (Wikipedia.org: Heterotopia_(space)) (also in Preucel and Matero 2009)
Hierophany: A supernatural occurrence, a breakthrough between the material and spiritual words, usually in a sacred place (Devereux 2000: 151).
High places (Biblical term)
Hill Figure (Devereux 2000: 97)
Historic sites are generally either memorialized as sanctified, designated (simply noted), or obliterated, depending on its place in the narrative chosen by the state, especially for those sites that are contested or conflicted.
Landscapes of Contested Histories: Sanctification, Designation, and Obliteration.
I. Sanctification: “The process of turning a historic event into a monument or place conveying some ‘lasting positive meaning’ -a sacred place-whether it be an abstract cultural ideology or a specific act of heroism. Sanctified sites share five characteristics (Foote 2003:7):
1. They are clearly bounded and marker as to what happened there.
2. They are carefully maintained for long periods of time.
3. There is typically a change in ownership from private to public.
4. There are periodic ritual commemorations.
5. They often attract additional, even unrelated, monuments and memorials.
II. Designation: “…The marking of a place to note that something or someone important ‘happened’ here. From a listing in the National Register of Historic Places to a local municipality’s historical marker program, this category gives national, state, or local sanction, often without comment or reflection on larger issues, creating the simplest of modern monuments on the landscape. Distinct from sanctified places, designated places are not clearly marked off from their surrounding environment, are not publicly owned, and are not considered consecrated space. While there is usually some community agreement, and state or local sanction, as to the significance of such a place, that is not always the case: ‘Erecting a sign, or building a marker are ways of designating a site, but such a site gains litle long-term attention and is rarely the focus of regular commemorative rituals’ (Foote 2003:18). If this seems dismissive and insignificant, Foote’s historical overview of American hierarchical and changing treatment of historic monuments and landscapes of violence bears noting: ‘Along the continuum running from sanctification to obliteration, designation lies squarely between active veneration and direct effacement. This is a pivotal position and designation is sometimes best viewed as a transitional phase in the history of a tragedy site. The meaning and marking of a designated site may change through time, either toward rectification [sanctification] or obliteration (Foote 2003: 18)”
III. Obliteration: “…Those places where people lived and events took place that are perceived by the boards and committees with the power to designate as ‘shameful.’”
(see also Hantman 2009: 219, 224-225)
Hollow earth (Devereux 2000: 98)
Hollow road/sunken road: road sunk between pronounced earthen banks; in Europe generally dating to medieval period
Horgr: pagan place of worship, an altar covered by a tent/canopy, aka traef (Pennick 1989: 261).
Human geography: “…One of the two major sub-fields of the discipline of geography. Human geography is a branch of the social sciences that studies the world, its people, communities, and cultures[1] with an emphasis on relations of and across space and place. Human geography differs from physical geography mainly in that it has a greater focus on studying human activities and is more receptive to qualitative research methodologies. As a discipline, Human geography is particularly diverse with respect to its methods and theoretical approaches to study” (Wikipedia.org: Human geography)
I
Imprint: Aka Place Memory (see). "Every place on the earth carries the energetic imprint of what has happened in that location. The earth holds the stories of everything that has ever happened in its soils, in the waters and in the air. There are stories of love, violence, dreams and hopes. Stories of the ancestors who lived there or passed through. Stories of murder and stories of ceremonial sites with great power used hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago. Although we have long forgotten these stories, the earth still holds them....An imprint in the land will recreate cycles or patterns in the area that replicate aspects of the original trauma. This is similar to how trauma affects humans. A spiritually wounded person repeats patterns throughout their life that recreate the original trauma until healing of the trauma has taken place. For example, a woman who was physically abused as a child may in her adult life repeatedly choose partners who abuse her. In Chernobyl the imprint created an imbalance of the element of fire. Without any healing or intervention for the land, building a nuclear reactor on top this place literally added fire to fire....Here are some examples of how imprints manifest and show up as patterns in the landscape. There is an imprint when:
A specific place on a highway or at an intersection repeatedly has one fatal accident after another.
A building or home has an unusual, chronic history of fire or lightning strike.
A neighborhood in a city collapses under a repetitive cycle of crime and violence.
A region has been at war or under siege for decades or centuries and no peace seems to come.
A house has been used for ritual abuse or violent acts and anyone subsequently living in or passing through the house feels emotionally ill or angry.
Human activity on the land leaves not only a physical imprint but an energetic imprint as well. Human activity (both physical and energetic) done in harmony with the land maintains the sacred balance of place and can actually raise the vitality and carrying capacity of the land. The earth has an innate intelligence and is a complex living organism woven with an energetic matrix of vortexes, ley lines, energy fields and multiple dimensions which all work in harmony to support and nourish life." (www.thehollowbone.com/article_earthHeal.html)
Inerquun (pl. inerquutet): cautionary rule (Yup'ik)
Infestation: Terminology used in Catholic exorcism for a haunted house or other site. Occupation of a site by a spirit is infestation; when it comes to human beings, the terms are oppression, obsession, possession, and perfect possession (Amorth, Martin, et al).
Inscribed landscapes.
Interrupter: an object such as a rod or spike used to carry out the geomantic act, used specifically to divert or block a Black Stream
Ionization (as applied to place)
Ircenrraq (pl. ircenrraat): extraordinary beings (Yup'ik)
K
Kapu kai - ceremonial sea bath for purification, purification by sea water as after contact with a corpse or by women after menstruation. [We also did it before and after restoring the stolen burial items to the burial cave. -LF]
Kapu - taboo, prohibition, special privilege, sacredness, consecrated
Kai - sea, sea water, seaward, brackish water
Pukui, Mary Kawena, Samuel H. Elbert. Hawaiian Dictionary. UH Press, Honolulu. 1986.
The following description of kapu kai is taken from; Nana I Ke Kumu vol. I pg.122
“Kapu kai - is the ceremonial bath taken in the sea or in other salt water. This was done to purify oneself after evil or defilement, physical or spiritual, and to remove the kapu (taboo) under which the person usually came because of this defilement. The kapu kai was done in privacy and with prayers. Women took this kapu kai after each menstrual period because menstrual blood was considered defiling. The bath might be taken after contact with a corpse, also considered a defiling object. Kapu kai was a precautionary measure to insure purification if evil or defilement existed.
Individuals, even today, sometimes take kapu kai. The belief is that the ceremonial bath is most beneficial when it is done for five consecutive days. Kapu kai is sometimes taken periodically for general improvement of physical or spiritual health, even if there is no feeling of having been defiled or made kapu.
A child or seriously ill person could be given the ceremonial bath by someone else. A present day example of this came to attention when a woman was hospitalized and her father came early every morning to bathe her. The father not only believed his daughter’s life was endangered by some evil that kapu kai could remove, but he invested that bath with a second significance. He felt that he might, at the same time, offer his life as a substitute for his daughters.”
http://hawaii.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/KHaili/hookupu.htm
Kiva (Devereux 2000: 105)
L
Labyrinth (Devereux 2000: 107-108)
land
Land ethic: "A land ethic (or land ethics) is a philosophy that guides your actions when you utilize or make changes to the land. This specific term was first coined by Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) in his book A Sand County Almanac (1949). While strictly speaking any ethic can range in its conception and expression from complete self-interest to altruism, Leopold's land ethic was based more on the value of being ethical in a beneficial sense to the land as one should be ethical to human beings: "Leopold argues that the next step in the evolution of ethics is the expansion of ethics to include nonhuman members of the biotic community, collectively referred to as 'the land.' Leopold states the basic principle of his land ethic as, 'A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.' He also describes it in this way: 'The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land...[A] land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such' " (Wikipedia: Land ethic).
Land guardianship: "Land guardianship is the physical and spiritual stewardship of wild or cultivated land -the caretaking of its plants, animals, waters, and spirits. It is a path and a practice largely based in animism; the belief that all animal, plants, elemental forces, and land features have souls and sentience and deserve ethical treatment. Land guardians are intermediaries between nature and humankind. Guardianship is not magical environmentalism, but environmentalism can be a part of land stewardship. One can be chosen by the land to become a guardian or one can make a conscious decision to become one. It is better to be chosen and to always have permission. The land must always be willing as guardianship is a life-long commitment; a symbiotic marriage of souls. If you would not force yourself upon another person, than you should not do so to forest, field, and fen. In speaking their oaths to the land a guardian can choose the level of their involvement from that of a simple caretaker cleaning up garbage and invasive plants to the role of a Green King or Divine King who is completely one with the land serving as a full-time intermediary between nature and man and who continues to serve it even after death....Traces of cultivated land guardianship in the British Isles remain in the form of beating the bounds, the rites of blessing and protecting of crops and livestock, the carving of protective designs on fence posts, sacrificing portions of livestock and other foods to the fairies or the devil, and giving up a piece of the land to be left wild -known in Scotland as the Gudeman’s Croft. The husbandman’s duties to their land are many. This person is responsible for saining the entire property at the cross quarter festivals with torches lit from a sacred bonfire. The husbandman is responsible for the health, protection, and blessing of the livestock and crops. He/she is responsible for ensuring the happiness of the land’s spirits; the trees, hedges, and waters, as well as the spirits dwelling in any ancestral mounds or more recent burial sites on the property. All souls dwelling up the steward’s land must be acknowledged and appeased" (Lawless 2011).
landscape
landscape archaeology
landscape ecology
Landtaking: “Three themes appear repeatedly: 1) bringing significant objects from the old home to the new; 2) claiming the new property by marking its boundaries; and 3) hallowing the new land or dedicating it to a particular god. There are also suggestions that certain sites on the land were perceived as inherently holy. Each of these ideas is discussed below. Unless otherwise stated, the lore cited comes from Pállson and Edwards' translation of Landnámabók.” 1) Besides the pillars, “it may also be that taking earth and
timbers from an old hof was the usual custom.” 2) “The Icelandic settlers often marked their land-claims by putting up boundary markers. There were many ways to do this; Landnámabók mentions a "tall pole", "a freshly-cut birch pole", an arrow-shot, and a cairn.” 3) “The story of Vestmann and Vemund combines claiming the land with hallowing it.
They used a cross, but the usual heathen method was to hallow the land with fire,…He built fires at every estuary to hallow his land claim….Thorolf
Mostur-beard "carried fire round the land he claimed," where he later built his hof.” “Several of the settlers in Landnámabók are said to have "held sacred" certain natural
features on their land and to have named their farms for these holy sites.” Ex: grove, waterfall, particular boulders, a mountain. “The most famous example is again Thorolf Mostur-Beard, who held sacred an entire mountain (Helgafell, "holy mountain") (15):
He held the mountain on that headland so sacred that he called it Helgafell and no
one was allowed even to look at it unless he'd washed himself first. So holy was
the mountain, no living creature there, man or beast, could be harmed until they left
of their own accord. Thorolf and his kinsmen all believed that they would go into
the mountain when they died.” It seems that here, people were not hallowing the land or making it sacred; rather, they recognized and honored holiness when they encountered it. Moreover, this was not a vague or passive reverence; the verb translated by Pállson and Edwards as "hold sacred" is blotadhi, defined in Cleasby-Vigfusson (16) as "to worship with sacrifices." That is, people offered blots to the sacred places on their land.” (Sheffield 1997).
landvaettir: Guardian land spirits (compare genius loci) (Pennick: 261)
landwight
Ley/leyline: conceptual straight alignment connecting ancient places of power, e.g. churches, holy wells.
"Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. Their existence was suggested in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track ...Watkins later developed theories that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line of sight navigation during neolithic times and had persisted in the landscape over millennia. In more recent times, the term ley lines has come to be associated with spiritual and mystical theories about land forms, including Chinese feng shui. ...In 1969, the British author John Michell, who had previously written on the subject of UFOs, published The View Over Atlantis, in which he revived Watkins' ley line theories and linked them with the Chinese concept of feng shui. The book, published by Sago Press, proved popular and was reprinted in Great Britain by Garnstone Press in 1972 and Abacus in 1973, and in the United States by Ballantine Books in 1972. Gary Lachman states that The View Over Atlantis "put Glastonbury on the countercultural map." Ronald Hutton describes it as "almost the founding document of the modern earth mysteries movement". ...Michell's mingling Watkins' amateur archaeology with Chinese spiritual concepts of land-forms led in the 1972 to many new theories about the alignments of monuments and natural landscape features. Writers made use of Watkins' terminology in service of concepts related to dowsing and New Age beliefs, including the ideas that ley lines have spiritual power or resonate a special psychic or mystical energy. Ascribing such characteristics to ley lines has led to the term being classified as pseudoscience.
In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote:
'Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today' " (Wikipedia: Ley_line).
Ley tunnel: "Ley tunnels are a common element of the local folklore tradition in the United Kingdom and they also occur on the European continent. In Norwegian a ley tunnel-like passage is called a "lønngang" (lønn = "hidden / secret", and gang = passage) and in Swedish a "lönngång". Ley tunnels are said to physically link prominent places such as country houses, castles, churches, ancient monuments and other, often medieval, buildings. Legends about the existence of ley tunnels usually involve improbably long subterranean passages, sometimes running under major obstacles such as rivers and lakes to reach their destinations. Religious buildings, monks and the landed gentry are particularly common elements in many ley tunnel stories. It is unlikely that many of the recorded ley tunnels exist physically, for this is a characteristic of their very nature; their significance lies in why so many similar legends of ley tunnels have arisen and in connection with the more esoteric notions of channels or paths of earth energy, and such" "...It has been suggested that an ancient ley line system once existed and was very nearly lost from folk memory, saved through legends of ley tunnels, and the origin of place names. Ley lines may therefore be perpetuated in the legends and rumours of secret passages or ley tunnels running for considerable and unlikely distances underneath the British countryside between prominent features of the landscape. Alfred Watkins, in The Old Straight Track, suggests that they might be connected with leys" "Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and others had various psychological interpretations of the symbolic meanings of tunnels and these clearly have a part to play in the origins of ley tunnel myths" (Wikipedia: Ley_tunnel).
liminal sink: a location where liminal behaviors "drain to", such as sexual behavior, drugs, drinking, unpermitted dumping of refuse
Liminality: Betweixt and between, the threshold, here nor there, the veil. Cave: underground-aboveground; mountain: earth-sky; twilight, doorways and stairways, crossroads (Devereux 2000: 113-114)
lung mei (dragon line)
[GEOMANTIC GLOSSARY M-Z + Sources here]
"Thales, the first philosopher, is supposed to have said, 'Of all things that are, the most ancient is God, for he is uncreated. The most beautiful is the cosmos, for it is God's workmanship. The greatest is place, for it holds all things" (Walter 1988: 121).
A
Acoustics: Sound is an important but overlooked element of geomancy. (Pennick 2000: 8-10).
ad triangulum
ad quadratum
Alf: Elf
Alf-blot: Offering to the elves of a place or genius loci (Pennick 1989: 259)
Alfreka: Destroyed; condition of having the spirit [alf; elves] driven from the land (see gast). When spiritual beings of land are driven away, complete desaacralization, anima loci destroyed.
Can result from too-powerful on-lay maintained over long period; ultimatre result of on-lay in direct conflict with anima loci.
Also can result from physical destruction, as if holy hill bulldozed away, hole for metro station excavated where once was holy place, then actual locus no more and no anima; common in cities where natural ground level abolished
If place rendered alfreka, does not destroy önd present there. The önd then becomes subject to whatever other influences are there.
Since there can be an on-lay put upon an alfreka site, can be the means to do geomantic remedial work at alfreka places
If not alfreka, then human actions can accelerate return of full influence of anima loci. To do this:
remove deteriorating on-lay remnants
replace with harmonious artifacts and activities
neutral remains should stay as witness to the orlog of place
orlog will aways be present but dwindling of effects can be accelerated and obliterated, then anima loci can shine through again
Aluna
Ang kuktota (Hopi): “around Whiteriver as Pavanqatsi because the region’s grasslands, rivers, and forests are a paradise for qatsi (life). Hopi and Zuni advisors agreed that the rich soils, abundant water, diverse biota, and beauty of the White Mountain lands attracted and briefly sustained their ancestors, who built and occupied pit house and above-ground pueblo settlements near the rich alluvial terraces that they farmed along White River and its tributaries…Ben Nuvamsa…observed that life at Sakwtala was ‘too easy’ for his ancestors, who had committed themselves to finding the place where spiritual unity would make possible a materially difficult village farming lifeway… Because this area was not the center of the universe that Zuni and Hopi ancestors sought on the basis of divine mandate, they were bound to continue their migrations. For Hopis, this mandate included ang kuktota (along there, make footprints). Hopi ancestors were instructed to live in one place for a while, to grow corn and other food, to have families, and then to continue their migration. ‘Footprints’ include the ruins of former pit house and pueblo village settlements, and the pottery, stone tools, petroglyphs, and other artifacts left behind as offerings. …For Zunis and Hopis, such footprints are tangible evidence of waypoints along routes of ancestral migrations, as well as indicators of ongoing landscape connections and stewardship obligations…” (Welch 2009: 106).
Anima loci
Animatism: "Animatism is a term coined by British anthropologist Robert Marett to refer to "a belief in a generalized, impersonal power over which people have some measure of control". Marett argues that certain cultures believe "people, animals, plants, and inanimate objects were endowed with certain powers, which were both impersonal and supernatural." Mana [a Polynesian concept], Marett states, is a concentrated form of animatistic force found within any of these objects that confer power, strength, and success. To various cultures, animatism and mana are visible through the successes and failures of these various objects. Success equals a high amount of animatism, or mana, whereas failure is the result of animatism, or mana, being lost" (Wikipedia: Animatism).
Animism: "Animism (from Latin anima "soul, life") refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle. Animism encompasses the beliefs that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical (or material) world, and souls or spirits exist, not only in humans, but also in all other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment. Animism may further attribute souls to abstract concepts such as words, true names, or metaphors in mythology. Examples of Animism can be found in forms of Shinto, Serer, Hinduism, Buddhism, Pantheism, Paganism, and Neopaganism" "Animism is not the same as Pantheism, although the two are sometimes confused. Some faiths and religions are even both pantheistic and animistic. One of the main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), the way pantheists do. As a result, animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul. In Pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits and/or souls." (Wikipedia: Animism).
Anima loci: (Latin) the place soul that is the quality of harmony of any location; spirit of place (soul that animates the land) [spirit that animates the house itself; personality of site ensouled]; compare to genius loci and anima mundi.
Through human activity the qualities of Anima Loci are sanctified (see), altered (see on-lay)
Apophenia: Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the 'unmotivated seeing of connections' accompanied by a 'specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness', but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random nature in general, as with gambling, paranormal phenomena, religion, and even attempts at scientific observation. ...Regardless of whether some "paranormal" phenomena are real, even the most devout believers concede that at least a small portion of such events are probably apophenia, including some photographs of ghosts, some Unidentified Flying Objects, some cryptozoology, et cetera." (Wikipedia: apophenia). Seeing/constructing patterns in/out of things one sees, hears, or otherwise senses, based on one's cultural or personal expectations/narratives (observer's bias). One of the most common examples is identifying insects, moisture or dust motes illuminated against a dark background as "orbs" or spirits while ghost hunting -LF. (see pareidolia, as a type of apophenia)
The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad,[1] who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness", but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random nature in general, as with gambling, paranormal phenomena, religion, and even attempts at scientific observation.
Archaeoastronomy: "Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used phenomena in the sky, and what role the sky played in their cultures. ...Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape archaeology and cognitive archaeology. Material evidence and its connection to the sky can reveal how a wider landscape can be integrated into beliefs about the cycles of nature, such as Mayan astronomy and its relationship with agriculture. [Marking solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial phenomena, for example. -LF] Other examples which have brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order embedded in the roads of settlements" (Wikipedia: Archaeoastronomy). Chaco Canyon (esp. the Sun Dagger site), Stonehenge, etc. are all associated with archaeoastronomy.
Archaeology: Study of the material remains of past peoples, societies, and cultures. Geomancy and earth mysteries are generally considered pseudoscience or fringe practices by scientific/academic archaeologists. Cognitive Archaeology.
Asta Kosala Kosali: traditional Balinese system of architecture and geomancy; the practitioner is called an undagi. Their space clearing ritual is Nyepi (Kingston 1997).
Axis mundi. World tree. Mayan: Wacah Chan ("raised up sky") (Fagan 1998: 329).
B
Big Place: Australian aboriginal term for a sacred place along a dreaming track (aka songline). At such places were hidden ritual objects made of stone or wood/bark, called tjurunga, which depicted the site's story (Devereaux 2003: 22). Such places are charged with djang (numinous power) (ibid.: 23).
Biomimicry: "Biomimicry or biomimetics is the examination of Nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems.[citation needed] The term biomimicry and biomimetics come from the Greek words bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate. Other terms used are bionics, bio-inspiration, and biognosis" (Wikipedia: Biomimicry).
Biophilia: "The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as 'the urge to affiliate with other forms of life'" (Wikipedia: Biophilia Hypothesis).
Bioregionalism: "Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and ecological system or set of views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determination of a bioregion is also a cultural phenomenon, and emphasizes local populations, knowledge, and solutions. Bioregionalism is a concept that goes beyond national boundaries-an example is the concept of Cascadia, a region that is sometimes considered to consist of most of Oregon and Washington, the Alaska Panhandle, the far north of California and the West Coast of Canada, sometimes also including some or all of Idaho and western Montana. [I have some disagreements with including some of western Montana; you can read about it by selecting the keyword "bioregionalism" for this blog. -LF] Another example of a bioregion, which does not cross national boundaries, but does overlap state lines, is the Ozarks, a bioregion also referred to as the Ozarks Plateau, which consists of southern Missouri, northwest Arkansas, the northeast corner of Oklahoma, southeast corner of Kansas" (Wikipedia: Bioregionalism).
Black stream: an underground vein or stream of water which produces harmful effects in human beings; underground streams that are considered black streams tend to be that way if they cross underground (not above ground), even if at significantly different depths (Thurnell-Read 1995: 27).
C
Cacotope: "A bad place" (Walter 1988: 215). From Greek, kakos (bad/foul/evil) + topos (place). (ibid.: 24).
Cairn: An artificial mound of stones; often constructed as an aid to navigation, as a memorial, or to mark the location of a grave.
Chora: Oldest Greek word for place, appearing in Homer and Hesiod. Ptolemy held chora as the "quality" of place, and in different contexts, region, country, and space. In antiquity, a writer would speak of chorophilia for love of place, never topophilia. "The older word, chora-- or sometimes choros-- retained subjctive meanings in the classical period. It appeared in emotional statements about places, and writers were inclined to call a sacred place a chora instead of a topos. Plato saw place as a matrix of energies, and focused on chora in most instances. Aristotle rejected the expressive aspects, using topos for the inert container or inner surface of a container, and the chora as the room or capacity of the container. During the time of Hellenistic Greek, when the Greek translations of the Old Testament, and the Greek Christians, used the term topos/topoi for sacred places. Ptolemy continued using choros for the emotional/spiritual aspects of place. (Walter 1988: 120-121). (MORE ON CHORA LATER!)
Chorography: Ptolemy held that "chorography, by contrast [to geography], set off a part of the world, exhibiting it separately, representing exactly and in minute detail nearly everything contained in it. For precise description, chorography depended on correct drawings, and no one could practice chorography, in Ptolemy's words, unless he were an artist" (Walter 1988: 116). Drawings might also extend to the spirit of a place (Walter 1988: 118). See drawings of spirit of place by Blake for example.
Chorophilia: "Love of place" (Walter 1988: 215) (see also topophilia)
Chthonic: " /ˈkθɒnɪk/, from Greek χθόνιος - chthonios, "in, under, or beneath the earth", from χθών - chthōn "earth"; pertaining to the Earth; earthy; subterranean) designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land (as Gaia or Ge does) or the land as territory (as khora (χώρα) does). It evokes at once abundance and the grave....While terms such as "Earth deity" or Earth mother have rather sweeping implications in English, the words khthonie and khthonios had a more precise and technical meaning in Greek, referring primarily to the manner of offering sacrifices to the deity in question. Some chthonic cults practised ritual sacrifice, which often happened at night time. When the sacrifice was a living creature, the animal was placed in a bothros ("pit") or megaron ("sunken chamber"). In some Greek chthonic cults, the animal was sacrificed on a raised bomos ("altar"). Offerings usually were burned whole or buried rather than being cooked and shared among the worshippers. Not all chthonic cults were Greek, nor did all cults practice ritual sacrifice; some performed sacrifices in effigy or burnt vegetable offerings. ...The pronunciation is somewhat awkward for English speakers. Most dictionaries, such as the OED, state that the first two letters should be pronounced as [k], /ˈkθɒnɪk/; others, such as the AHD, record these letters as silent, /ˈθɒnɪk/. The modern pronunciation of the Greek word "χθόνιος" is [xθoɲos], although the Classical Greek pronunciation would have been something similar to [kʰtʰonios]" (Wikipedia: Chthonic).
Cloud island.
Corpse lights: Small lights that are associated with the spirits of the dead; compare Earth lights and Will-o-the-Wisp (see each)
Corpse road: Mostly medieval feature (a few later), a route that allowed walking or packhorse funerals that connect churches to burial of the corpses at cemeteries. Sometimes the same as the church road/church way, but not always. Resting places along the path, often marked by crosses or rough-hewn coffin stones. At the boundary of the churchyard is a lych-gate or corpse-gate, with roof and sometimes a wooden plinth to set the coffin on. Some corpse roads survived as footpaths or larger roads. (Britain) bier road, burial road, coffin line, funeral road, lyke/lich/lych way (Old English: liches: corpse). Saxon: deada waeg; Dutch: Doodwegen ("deathroads"). Germany and Netherlands: kirchweg, kirkweg. Ireland: Mass road. (Devereux 2003: 25).
Correspondences: Cultural systems of symbolic connections among and between categories and phenomena like elements, colors, animals, directions, etc.
Cosmic axis: See Axis mundi; omphalos
Crop circles: Large scale, generally geometric designs, created in fields and visible from the air/above. Various theories propose the creators are aliens, earth energies, etc. Some have proven to have been made by hoaxers. (Devereux 2000: 45-47).
Cupped stone: Boulder with cup-markings, round-carved hollows, usually found at precontact sites.
Curry Lines/Curry Grid: global grid of lines naturally charged, about 3 m apart, which run diagonally to the poles, NE-SW and NW-SE. Lines alternate as positive and negative -charged lines. Problems occur at location where positive lines cross positive lines; some researchers connect these locations with an increase in cancer (Thurnell-Read 1995: 27-28).
Cursus: "Cursus (plural 'cursūs' or 'cursuses') was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, hence the Latin name cursus, meaning "course". Cursus monuments are now understood to be Neolithic structures and represent some of the oldest prehistoric monumental structures of the British Isles; cursus may have been of ceremonial function" (Wikipedia: Cursus monument). They range in length from 50 metres to almost 10 kilometres and the distance between the parallel earthworks can be up to 100 metres. Banks at the terminal ends enclose the cursus.
D
death roads. also called dodweg, etc.
Deep ecology: "Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the biosphere. It provides a foundation for the environmental, ecology and green movements and has fostered a new system of environmental ethics. Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that, like humanity, the living environment as a whole has the same right to live and flourish. Deep ecology describes itself as 'deep' because it looks more deeply into the actual reality of humanity's relationship with the natural world and arrives at philosophically more profound conclusions than that of the prevailing view of ecology as a branch of Darwinian biological science. Deep Ecology does not subscribe to anthropocentric environmentalism which is concerned with conservation of the environment only for exploitation by and for human purposes since this is grounded in a quite different set of philosophical assumptions. Deep ecology takes a more holistic view of the world human beings live in and seeks to apply to life the understanding that the separate parts of the ecosystem (including humans) function as a whole. Deep ecology advocates wilderness preservation, human population control and simple living" (Wikipedia: Deep ecology).
Deva. Term used to denote land spirits, fairies, etc. by the community at Findhorn, based on the system from India.
"The Devil's Offering" aka Gudeman's Croft, Clootie's Croft etc. "In any place I rent or have anything to do with, I always leave a part alone to itself, no matter how small the property. I choose it by instinct and feel. I do not weed it or anything. the only thing I will do is at times put a little house made of ceramic or wood in it. I will leave food there at times. But I don't go in unless I am putting food in it. I avoid it and leave it to itself. You can sometimes tell by the plants. There is a spot in a place I mow where there grows henbane and deadly nightshade. I do not mow it. I leave it be. From my Sleeping Giant blog (this blog): "In Scotland, this area of wild land is called "Clootie's Croft," "Black Faulie," "Devil's Croft," and "the Goodman's Field." These were generally parts of the BEST land, up to four acres, and often had old ruins or sites on it. Even in the face of threats by the clergy, these places were left uncultivated. Pan told the founders of Findhorn that "in any garden, no matter the size, where the full cooperation of the nature spirits is desired a part should be left where, as far as possible, man does not enter. The nature spirits use this place as a focal point for their activity, a center from which to work." Humans were not to enter it, not even for ritual; it was dedicated for the spirits' own use. In some small gardens, even a little tangled place of wild things should be left alone. Some cultures, such as in Bali, do the same thing, and they build little "spirit houses" for the spirits there."
The moss is soft on Clootie's croft
And bonny's the sod o' the Goodman's toft;
But if ye bide there till the sun is set,
The Goodman will catch you in his net.
Divination: Foretelling the future or finding deeper answers to what is occurring or what/where something is located, in the present or past, through various means (Devereux 2000: 55). See also Dowsing; Simulacra.
Dobbie stone: "A cup-stone used for offerings and in wind-magic" (Pennick 1989: 260)
Domus: a dwelling occupied by one family (Walter 1988: 39).=> domicile, domesticate
Dowsing: "Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation (Ley lines), without the use of scientific apparatus. Dowsing is also known as divining (especially in reference to interpretation of results), doodlebugging (particularly in the United States, in searching for petroleum) or (when searching specifically for water) water finding, water witching or water dowsing. There is no accepted scientific rationale behind dowsing, and there is no scientific evidence that it is effective. [However field engineers and others trying to find underground pipes and other infrastructure frequently use and depend on it, with much anecdotal evidence.-LF] A Y- or L-shaped twig or rod, called a dowsing rod, divining rod (Latin: virgula divina or baculus divinatorius) or witching rod is sometimes used during dowsing, although some dowsers use other equipment or no equipment at all. Dowsing appears to have arisen in the context of Renaissance magic in Germany, and it remains popular among believers in Forteana or radiesthesia" (Wikipedia: Dowsing).
Dragon: Symbol of the Land and its power (see Telluric current as well). In Europe, where the innate preChristian powers were seen as demonic after Christianization, the Dragon was demonized and seen as evil, in opposition. Thus the legend of St. George and other dragonslayers; but compare Merlin and Arthur, and their concepts of the Dragon (the red and white dragons, etc.) In Asia where the older concepts of the Dragon as Land power, etc. persisted, the Dragon is seen as powerful but benevolent, and linked to dragon lines, etc.
Lung-mei in China: Dragon lines: veins and arteries; fractals may hacve significance here. (LF) (See red arteries and black veins.) (Devereux 2000: 58)
Dragon Project: (Devereux 2000: 58-59)
Dreamtime: Australian aboriginal term, the "concept of a magical primordial era that is also perennial, like another dimension to everyday reality. Aborigines themselves call this mythic, timeless time tjukuba, altjurunga, altjira, and dzjugur among numerous other terms depending on the tribal language" (Devereux 2003: 21).
E
Earthlights: Anomalous light phenomena associated with faults and tectonic activity, and other locations; related to Earthquake lights and ball lightning (Devereux 2000: 62)
Earth mysteries
Ecological restoration/landscape restoration
Ecology
Ecopsychology: "Ecopsychology studies the relationship between human beings and the natural world through ecological and psychological principles.The field seeks to develop and understand ways of expanding the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world, thereby assisting individuals with developing sustainable lifestyles and remedying alienation from nature. ...Other names used to refer to ecopsychology include, Gaia psychology, psychoecology, ecotherapy, environmental psychology, green psychology, global therapy, green therapy, Earth-centered therapy, reearthing, nature-based psychotherapy, shamanic counselling, ecosophy and sylvan therapy" (Wikipedia: Ecopsychology). The main premise of ecopsychology is that while today the human mind is shaped by the modern social world, it is adapted to the natural environment in which it evolved.
Ecosystem
Electromagnetic fields
Ella: weather, world, universe (Yup'ik)
Ella maliggluku: Following the direction of the universe (Yup'ik)
Empiricism
Energies (Earth energies): (Devereux 2000: 65)
Entheogen: “An entheogen ("generating the divine within") is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. With the advent of organic chemistry, there now exist many synthetic substances with similar psychoactive properties, many derived from these plants. Entheogens can supplement many diverse practices for healing, transcendence, and revelation, including: meditation, psychonautics, art projects, and psychedelic; Wikipedia.org: “Entheogen”)
Entopic imagery/patterns. (Devereux 2000: 69-70)
Ethnogeography: Cultural models of geography (ex: sacred sites, landscapes), such as feng shui
Expressive space: "A specific milieu laden with emotional and symbolic features of experience; a place that contains feelings and meanings, which may be expressed through objects, structures, forms, surfaces, images, stories, myths, memories, and dreams" (Walter 1998: 215).
F
Fairies, fairy rings, fairy stones, fairy trees, raths/fairy forts (Devereux 2000: 72-76)
Fault/fault lines.
Feng Shui: "Feng shui. Chinese: 風水. A Chinese system of geomancy believed to use the laws of both Heaven (Chinese astronomy) and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi.The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu (simplified Chinese: 堪舆; traditional Chinese: 堪輿; pinyin: kānyú; literally: Tao of heaven and earth). The term feng shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English." There are three basic schools of feng shui that most recognize as traditional: Ti Li (Form School), Liiqi Pai (Compass School), and combined/with additions (e.g. Flying Star, based on Chinese astrology). Then there is a New Age form called Black Sect Tantric Buddhism Feng Shui (BTB) (Wikipedia: "Feng Shui)
The four guardian landforms (hills) are the Black Tortoise, Green Dragon, White Tiger, and Red Raven; it depends on whether one is siting a residence for the living (Yang domain) or a tomb (residence for the dead- Yin domain) as to the directions and site location. (Wong 2001)
Fibonacci.
Focus: from Latin "hearth"
Folklore (Devereux 2000: 81-83)
Frithsplot: Sacred ground; frith: sanctuary (Pennick 1989: 260)
G
Gaia/Gaia hypothesis: Lovelock (Devereux 2000: 84-85)
Gast: barren land, from which the earth spirit has been driven (east Anglian: Pennick)
Geis/geas: sacred prohibition (like kapu)
genii
Genius Loci: Latin: "spirit of place" describing the subtle qualities of a site, perhaps conceived as a conscious supernatural being;spirit of place (somehow spirit inhabiting/separable from place) [spirit that inhabites land/site as a type of house]
A Genius Loci is of course, the particular spirit/intelligence (genius) of a place, that resides or animates that location/land/site (loci). (Patterson, et al)
Geoglyph: "A geoglyph is a large design or motif (generally greater than 4 meters) produced on the ground and typically formed by clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the geography, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geogplyph is formed by the arrangement and alignment of materials on the ground in a manner akin to petroforms, while a negative geoglyph is formed by removing patinated clasts to expose unpatinated ground in a manner akin to petroglyphs." Examples include the Nazca lines (Peru), as well as modern land art examples like "Spiral Jetty" by Smithson (Wikipedia: Geoglyph).
Geography: Ptolemy held that "geography pictorially represented the earth as a whole, describing its nature, position, and general features. It showed the world through the perspective of unity and continuity, and this special task required mathematics"; compare to chorography (Walter 1988: 116).
Geolocation: placement of a building, etc. in landscape with regards to the features of that landscape
Geomagnetism and radiation, EMF (hauntings).
Geomancy: The term "geomancy" is used in two different basic ways.
1) A form of divination originating in North Africa which uses figures drawn in earth; this form was later diffused to Europe, and later became part of the program of the Golden Dawn magical tradition.
2) A way to read the landscape, respond to it, and influence its subtle aspects and energies. Different cultures had different systems. The Chinese practice of feng shui is the most famous of these.
The theoretical and practical means of achieving earth harmony; a method of earth divination. (Pennick)
Geomantic act: the fixing of energies in the earth in one place by means of a stake, rod or spike; symbolized in legend by St. George impaling dragon with lance
Geometry/Sacred Geometry (Devereux 2000:86-87).
Geopaths: Negative entities at a location are called by some “geopaths.” (also see Negs)
Geopathic stress: interference (esp. to health) caused by living at a place known to have harmful influences such as underground, such as black streams, Curry lines, or Hartmann lines (Thurnell-Read 1995).
Geopathic zone: an area of harmful influence for humans in which an above-average incidence of non-viral or bacterial disease occurs
Ghost: "The English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North and East Germanic (the equivalent word in Gothic is ahma, Old Norse has andi m., önd f.). The pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting "fury, anger" reflected in Old Norse geisa "to rage". The Germanic word is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare óðr). In Germanic paganism, "Germanic Mercury", and the later Odin, was at the same time the conductor of the dead and the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt. Besides denoting the human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin spiritus also in the meaning of "breath" or "blast" from the earliest attestations (9th century). It could also denote any good or evil spirit, i.e. angels and demons; the Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclæna gast. Also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the "Holy Ghost". The now prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form" only emerges in Middle English (14th century). The modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of application, extending on one hand to "soul", "spirit", "vital principle", "mind" or "psyche", the seat of feeling, thought and moral judgement; on the other hand used figuratively of any shadowy outline, fuzzy or unsubstantial image, in optics, photography and cinematography especially a flare, secondary image or spurious signal. The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via the United States in the 19th century. Alternative words in modern usage include spectre (from Latin spectrum), the Scottish wraith (of obscure origin), phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma, compare fantasy) and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra, in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. "Haint" is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the "haint tale" is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects. Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost", "spectre" or "apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent" or "omen". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy literature. Bogie is an Ulster Scots term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish poet John Mayne's Hallowe'en in 1780. A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated ("undead") corpse. Also related is the concept of a fetch, the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive" (Wikipedia: Ghost).
Goddess stone (Devereux 2000: 82)
Golden Mean.
Guardianship (see Land guardianship; Sleeper)
H
Hamlet: group of houses/buildings, smaller than a village
Hartmann Lines/Net: a grid of naturally occurring charged lines, running N-S and E-W. Alternate lines said to alternate positive and negative charges. Where positively charged N-S and E-W lines cross are places of concern. (Thurnell-Read 1995: 28-29)
Heiau: (Hawaiian) "Pre-Christian place of worship, shrine; some heiau were elaborately constructed stone platforms, others simple earth terraces. Many are preserved today. Several types are listed below. In Isa. 15.2, heiau is a high place of worship. See hei 5. Hale heiau, house of worship. (PPN fai.)"
"Heiau (for various kinds, see Haw.-Eng. entries and entries that follow). Also: eweʻai, haiau, hale heiau, hale poki, hale ʻopeʻope, hale hau, hale laʻa, hale lau, hale lama, hale pipipi, hale o Papa, hale o Lono, ipu-o-Lono, unu, alaō, kūkoaʻe, koleamoku, kūpalaha, lonopūhā, loulu, luakini, māpele, waihau, waikaua; puʻuhonua (place of refuge); kūʻula, koʻa (fishing shrines); mua (menʻs eating house). See altar, oracle tower, prayer, shrine. Parts of heiau: paehumu, pā (enclosure); kahua (area within enclosure); kīpapa (pavement); papahola (outside pavement); ahu, kuahu, lele (altar); lananuʻu, kapaʻau (place for images and offerings); nanahua (posts); luapaʻū, lua unu (refuse pit); hale pahu, hale puʻuone, hale umu, hāwai, mana, oeoe, pālima, wai ea (houses or booths within heiau). To direct, as heiau ceremonies, kuhikuhi. Circuit of the island by a chief to build heiaus, palaloa. To build heiaus, kūkulu heiau. Place where dignitaries stood near heiaus, kālewa." (Ulukau)
May come from hei (net, snare, entangle) or as variation of hai (to sacrifice) + au (Current; to flow, as a current. Au kanaiʻi, strong current; fig., a strong warrior. Au kō malalo, undertow. (PPN ʻau.)) or au (to set a net).
[LF Note: heiau often are thought of or defined as a structure, the temple or temple-platform, by archaeologists, but there are also heiau that are totally natural sites and have never been built upon (confirmed both by the literature and by Native Hawaiian practitioners during my time in Hawai'i. This leads me to consider that it is the land at the site itself which is selected as the power place, and the built portion just enhances or uses the power of the land itself (the power perhaps the au, the current, and the structure the hei, the net that fixes the power there).]
Henge: Neolithic feature, a circular area defined by a ditch and outer bank (ex: Stonehenge, Woodhenge) (Dvereux 2000: 96)
Heterotopia: “Heterotopia is a concept in human geography elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe places and spaces that function in non-hegemonic conditions. These are spaces of otherness, which are neither here nor there, that are simultaneously physical and mental, such as the space of a phone call or the moment when you see yourself in the mirror.
A utopia is an idea or an image that is not real but represents a perfected version of society, such as Thomas More’s book or Le Corbusier’s drawings. Foucault uses the term heterotopia to describe spaces that have more layers of meaning or relationships to other places than immediately meet the eye. In general, a heterotopia is a physical representation or approximation of a utopia, or a parallel space that contains undesirable bodies to make a real utopian space possible (like a prison).
Foucault uses the idea of a mirror as a metaphor for the duality and contradictions, the reality and the unreality of utopian projects. A mirror is metaphor for utopia because the image that you see in it does not exist, but it is also a heterotopia because the mirror is a real object that shapes the way you relate to your own image.
Foucault articulates several possible types of heterotopia or spaces that exhibit dual meanings:
1. A ‘crisis heterotopia’ is a separate space like a boarding school or a motel room where activities like coming of age or a honeymoon take place out of sight.
2. ‘Heterotopias of deviation’ are institutions where we place individuals whose behavior is outside the norm (hospitals, asylums, prisons, rest homes, cemetery).
3. Heterotopia can be a single real place that juxtaposes several spaces. A garden is a heterotopia because it is a real space meant to be a microcosm of different environments with plants from around the world.
4. 'Heterotopias of time' such as museums enclose in one place objects from all times and styles. They exist in time but also exist outside of time because they are built and preserved to be physically insusceptible to time’s ravages.
5. 'Heterotopias of ritual or purification' are spaces that are isolated and penetrable yet not freely accessible like a public place. To get in one must have permission and make certain gestures such as in a sauna or a hammin.
6. 'Heterotopias has a function in relation to all of the remaining spaces. The two functions are: heterotopia of illusion creates a space of illusion that exposes every real space, and the heterotopia of compensation is to create a real space--a space that is other.
Human geographers often connected to the postmodernist school have been using the term (and the author's propositions) to help understand the contemporary emergence of (cultural, social, political, economic) difference and identity as a central issue in larger multicultural cities. The idea of place (more often related to ethnicity and gender and less often to the social class issue) as a heterotopic entity has been gaining attention in the current context of postmodern, post-structuralist theoretical discussion (and political practice) in Geography and other spatial social sciences. There is an extensive debate with theorists, such as David Harvey, that remain focused on the matter of class domination as the central determinant of social heteronomy.
Foucault's elaborations on heterotopias were published in an article entitled Des espaces autres (Of Other Spaces). The philosopher calls for a society with many heterotopias, not only as a space with several places of/for the affirmation of difference, but also as a means of escape from authoritarianism and repression, stating metaphorically that if we take the ship as the utmost heterotopia, a society without ships is inherently a repressive one, in a clear reference to Stalinism.” (Wikipedia.org: Heterotopia_(space)) (also in Preucel and Matero 2009)
Hierophany: A supernatural occurrence, a breakthrough between the material and spiritual words, usually in a sacred place (Devereux 2000: 151).
High places (Biblical term)
Hill Figure (Devereux 2000: 97)
Historic sites are generally either memorialized as sanctified, designated (simply noted), or obliterated, depending on its place in the narrative chosen by the state, especially for those sites that are contested or conflicted.
Landscapes of Contested Histories: Sanctification, Designation, and Obliteration.
I. Sanctification: “The process of turning a historic event into a monument or place conveying some ‘lasting positive meaning’ -a sacred place-whether it be an abstract cultural ideology or a specific act of heroism. Sanctified sites share five characteristics (Foote 2003:7):
1. They are clearly bounded and marker as to what happened there.
2. They are carefully maintained for long periods of time.
3. There is typically a change in ownership from private to public.
4. There are periodic ritual commemorations.
5. They often attract additional, even unrelated, monuments and memorials.
II. Designation: “…The marking of a place to note that something or someone important ‘happened’ here. From a listing in the National Register of Historic Places to a local municipality’s historical marker program, this category gives national, state, or local sanction, often without comment or reflection on larger issues, creating the simplest of modern monuments on the landscape. Distinct from sanctified places, designated places are not clearly marked off from their surrounding environment, are not publicly owned, and are not considered consecrated space. While there is usually some community agreement, and state or local sanction, as to the significance of such a place, that is not always the case: ‘Erecting a sign, or building a marker are ways of designating a site, but such a site gains litle long-term attention and is rarely the focus of regular commemorative rituals’ (Foote 2003:18). If this seems dismissive and insignificant, Foote’s historical overview of American hierarchical and changing treatment of historic monuments and landscapes of violence bears noting: ‘Along the continuum running from sanctification to obliteration, designation lies squarely between active veneration and direct effacement. This is a pivotal position and designation is sometimes best viewed as a transitional phase in the history of a tragedy site. The meaning and marking of a designated site may change through time, either toward rectification [sanctification] or obliteration (Foote 2003: 18)”
III. Obliteration: “…Those places where people lived and events took place that are perceived by the boards and committees with the power to designate as ‘shameful.’”
(see also Hantman 2009: 219, 224-225)
Hollow earth (Devereux 2000: 98)
Hollow road/sunken road: road sunk between pronounced earthen banks; in Europe generally dating to medieval period
Horgr: pagan place of worship, an altar covered by a tent/canopy, aka traef (Pennick 1989: 261).
Human geography: “…One of the two major sub-fields of the discipline of geography. Human geography is a branch of the social sciences that studies the world, its people, communities, and cultures[1] with an emphasis on relations of and across space and place. Human geography differs from physical geography mainly in that it has a greater focus on studying human activities and is more receptive to qualitative research methodologies. As a discipline, Human geography is particularly diverse with respect to its methods and theoretical approaches to study” (Wikipedia.org: Human geography)
I
Imprint: Aka Place Memory (see). "Every place on the earth carries the energetic imprint of what has happened in that location. The earth holds the stories of everything that has ever happened in its soils, in the waters and in the air. There are stories of love, violence, dreams and hopes. Stories of the ancestors who lived there or passed through. Stories of murder and stories of ceremonial sites with great power used hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago. Although we have long forgotten these stories, the earth still holds them....An imprint in the land will recreate cycles or patterns in the area that replicate aspects of the original trauma. This is similar to how trauma affects humans. A spiritually wounded person repeats patterns throughout their life that recreate the original trauma until healing of the trauma has taken place. For example, a woman who was physically abused as a child may in her adult life repeatedly choose partners who abuse her. In Chernobyl the imprint created an imbalance of the element of fire. Without any healing or intervention for the land, building a nuclear reactor on top this place literally added fire to fire....Here are some examples of how imprints manifest and show up as patterns in the landscape. There is an imprint when:
A specific place on a highway or at an intersection repeatedly has one fatal accident after another.
A building or home has an unusual, chronic history of fire or lightning strike.
A neighborhood in a city collapses under a repetitive cycle of crime and violence.
A region has been at war or under siege for decades or centuries and no peace seems to come.
A house has been used for ritual abuse or violent acts and anyone subsequently living in or passing through the house feels emotionally ill or angry.
Human activity on the land leaves not only a physical imprint but an energetic imprint as well. Human activity (both physical and energetic) done in harmony with the land maintains the sacred balance of place and can actually raise the vitality and carrying capacity of the land. The earth has an innate intelligence and is a complex living organism woven with an energetic matrix of vortexes, ley lines, energy fields and multiple dimensions which all work in harmony to support and nourish life." (www.thehollowbone.com/article_earthHeal.html)
Inerquun (pl. inerquutet): cautionary rule (Yup'ik)
Infestation: Terminology used in Catholic exorcism for a haunted house or other site. Occupation of a site by a spirit is infestation; when it comes to human beings, the terms are oppression, obsession, possession, and perfect possession (Amorth, Martin, et al).
Inscribed landscapes.
Interrupter: an object such as a rod or spike used to carry out the geomantic act, used specifically to divert or block a Black Stream
Ionization (as applied to place)
Ircenrraq (pl. ircenrraat): extraordinary beings (Yup'ik)
K
Kapu kai - ceremonial sea bath for purification, purification by sea water as after contact with a corpse or by women after menstruation. [We also did it before and after restoring the stolen burial items to the burial cave. -LF]
Kapu - taboo, prohibition, special privilege, sacredness, consecrated
Kai - sea, sea water, seaward, brackish water
Pukui, Mary Kawena, Samuel H. Elbert. Hawaiian Dictionary. UH Press, Honolulu. 1986.
The following description of kapu kai is taken from; Nana I Ke Kumu vol. I pg.122
“Kapu kai - is the ceremonial bath taken in the sea or in other salt water. This was done to purify oneself after evil or defilement, physical or spiritual, and to remove the kapu (taboo) under which the person usually came because of this defilement. The kapu kai was done in privacy and with prayers. Women took this kapu kai after each menstrual period because menstrual blood was considered defiling. The bath might be taken after contact with a corpse, also considered a defiling object. Kapu kai was a precautionary measure to insure purification if evil or defilement existed.
Individuals, even today, sometimes take kapu kai. The belief is that the ceremonial bath is most beneficial when it is done for five consecutive days. Kapu kai is sometimes taken periodically for general improvement of physical or spiritual health, even if there is no feeling of having been defiled or made kapu.
A child or seriously ill person could be given the ceremonial bath by someone else. A present day example of this came to attention when a woman was hospitalized and her father came early every morning to bathe her. The father not only believed his daughter’s life was endangered by some evil that kapu kai could remove, but he invested that bath with a second significance. He felt that he might, at the same time, offer his life as a substitute for his daughters.”
http://hawaii.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/KHaili/hookupu.htm
Kiva (Devereux 2000: 105)
L
Labyrinth (Devereux 2000: 107-108)
land
Land ethic: "A land ethic (or land ethics) is a philosophy that guides your actions when you utilize or make changes to the land. This specific term was first coined by Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) in his book A Sand County Almanac (1949). While strictly speaking any ethic can range in its conception and expression from complete self-interest to altruism, Leopold's land ethic was based more on the value of being ethical in a beneficial sense to the land as one should be ethical to human beings: "Leopold argues that the next step in the evolution of ethics is the expansion of ethics to include nonhuman members of the biotic community, collectively referred to as 'the land.' Leopold states the basic principle of his land ethic as, 'A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.' He also describes it in this way: 'The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land...[A] land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such' " (Wikipedia: Land ethic).
Land guardianship: "Land guardianship is the physical and spiritual stewardship of wild or cultivated land -the caretaking of its plants, animals, waters, and spirits. It is a path and a practice largely based in animism; the belief that all animal, plants, elemental forces, and land features have souls and sentience and deserve ethical treatment. Land guardians are intermediaries between nature and humankind. Guardianship is not magical environmentalism, but environmentalism can be a part of land stewardship. One can be chosen by the land to become a guardian or one can make a conscious decision to become one. It is better to be chosen and to always have permission. The land must always be willing as guardianship is a life-long commitment; a symbiotic marriage of souls. If you would not force yourself upon another person, than you should not do so to forest, field, and fen. In speaking their oaths to the land a guardian can choose the level of their involvement from that of a simple caretaker cleaning up garbage and invasive plants to the role of a Green King or Divine King who is completely one with the land serving as a full-time intermediary between nature and man and who continues to serve it even after death....Traces of cultivated land guardianship in the British Isles remain in the form of beating the bounds, the rites of blessing and protecting of crops and livestock, the carving of protective designs on fence posts, sacrificing portions of livestock and other foods to the fairies or the devil, and giving up a piece of the land to be left wild -known in Scotland as the Gudeman’s Croft. The husbandman’s duties to their land are many. This person is responsible for saining the entire property at the cross quarter festivals with torches lit from a sacred bonfire. The husbandman is responsible for the health, protection, and blessing of the livestock and crops. He/she is responsible for ensuring the happiness of the land’s spirits; the trees, hedges, and waters, as well as the spirits dwelling in any ancestral mounds or more recent burial sites on the property. All souls dwelling up the steward’s land must be acknowledged and appeased" (Lawless 2011).
landscape
landscape archaeology
landscape ecology
Landtaking: “Three themes appear repeatedly: 1) bringing significant objects from the old home to the new; 2) claiming the new property by marking its boundaries; and 3) hallowing the new land or dedicating it to a particular god. There are also suggestions that certain sites on the land were perceived as inherently holy. Each of these ideas is discussed below. Unless otherwise stated, the lore cited comes from Pállson and Edwards' translation of Landnámabók.” 1) Besides the pillars, “it may also be that taking earth and
timbers from an old hof was the usual custom.” 2) “The Icelandic settlers often marked their land-claims by putting up boundary markers. There were many ways to do this; Landnámabók mentions a "tall pole", "a freshly-cut birch pole", an arrow-shot, and a cairn.” 3) “The story of Vestmann and Vemund combines claiming the land with hallowing it.
They used a cross, but the usual heathen method was to hallow the land with fire,…He built fires at every estuary to hallow his land claim….Thorolf
Mostur-beard "carried fire round the land he claimed," where he later built his hof.” “Several of the settlers in Landnámabók are said to have "held sacred" certain natural
features on their land and to have named their farms for these holy sites.” Ex: grove, waterfall, particular boulders, a mountain. “The most famous example is again Thorolf Mostur-Beard, who held sacred an entire mountain (Helgafell, "holy mountain") (15):
He held the mountain on that headland so sacred that he called it Helgafell and no
one was allowed even to look at it unless he'd washed himself first. So holy was
the mountain, no living creature there, man or beast, could be harmed until they left
of their own accord. Thorolf and his kinsmen all believed that they would go into
the mountain when they died.” It seems that here, people were not hallowing the land or making it sacred; rather, they recognized and honored holiness when they encountered it. Moreover, this was not a vague or passive reverence; the verb translated by Pállson and Edwards as "hold sacred" is blotadhi, defined in Cleasby-Vigfusson (16) as "to worship with sacrifices." That is, people offered blots to the sacred places on their land.” (Sheffield 1997).
landvaettir: Guardian land spirits (compare genius loci) (Pennick: 261)
landwight
Ley/leyline: conceptual straight alignment connecting ancient places of power, e.g. churches, holy wells.
"Ley lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords. Their existence was suggested in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track ...Watkins later developed theories that these alignments were created for ease of overland trekking by line of sight navigation during neolithic times and had persisted in the landscape over millennia. In more recent times, the term ley lines has come to be associated with spiritual and mystical theories about land forms, including Chinese feng shui. ...In 1969, the British author John Michell, who had previously written on the subject of UFOs, published The View Over Atlantis, in which he revived Watkins' ley line theories and linked them with the Chinese concept of feng shui. The book, published by Sago Press, proved popular and was reprinted in Great Britain by Garnstone Press in 1972 and Abacus in 1973, and in the United States by Ballantine Books in 1972. Gary Lachman states that The View Over Atlantis "put Glastonbury on the countercultural map." Ronald Hutton describes it as "almost the founding document of the modern earth mysteries movement". ...Michell's mingling Watkins' amateur archaeology with Chinese spiritual concepts of land-forms led in the 1972 to many new theories about the alignments of monuments and natural landscape features. Writers made use of Watkins' terminology in service of concepts related to dowsing and New Age beliefs, including the ideas that ley lines have spiritual power or resonate a special psychic or mystical energy. Ascribing such characteristics to ley lines has led to the term being classified as pseudoscience.
In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote:
'Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today' " (Wikipedia: Ley_line).
Ley tunnel: "Ley tunnels are a common element of the local folklore tradition in the United Kingdom and they also occur on the European continent. In Norwegian a ley tunnel-like passage is called a "lønngang" (lønn = "hidden / secret", and gang = passage) and in Swedish a "lönngång". Ley tunnels are said to physically link prominent places such as country houses, castles, churches, ancient monuments and other, often medieval, buildings. Legends about the existence of ley tunnels usually involve improbably long subterranean passages, sometimes running under major obstacles such as rivers and lakes to reach their destinations. Religious buildings, monks and the landed gentry are particularly common elements in many ley tunnel stories. It is unlikely that many of the recorded ley tunnels exist physically, for this is a characteristic of their very nature; their significance lies in why so many similar legends of ley tunnels have arisen and in connection with the more esoteric notions of channels or paths of earth energy, and such" "...It has been suggested that an ancient ley line system once existed and was very nearly lost from folk memory, saved through legends of ley tunnels, and the origin of place names. Ley lines may therefore be perpetuated in the legends and rumours of secret passages or ley tunnels running for considerable and unlikely distances underneath the British countryside between prominent features of the landscape. Alfred Watkins, in The Old Straight Track, suggests that they might be connected with leys" "Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and others had various psychological interpretations of the symbolic meanings of tunnels and these clearly have a part to play in the origins of ley tunnel myths" (Wikipedia: Ley_tunnel).
liminal sink: a location where liminal behaviors "drain to", such as sexual behavior, drugs, drinking, unpermitted dumping of refuse
Liminality: Betweixt and between, the threshold, here nor there, the veil. Cave: underground-aboveground; mountain: earth-sky; twilight, doorways and stairways, crossroads (Devereux 2000: 113-114)
lung mei (dragon line)
[GEOMANTIC GLOSSARY M-Z + Sources here]