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New Age Directory

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Fairy: A form or spirit resembling a small person or according to theory, fairies are either earthbound unbaptised souls / guardians of the souls of the dead / ghosts of venerated ancestors/ fallen angels condemned to remain on earth / Nature Spirits / or small human beings. Fairies are said to have magical powers and to consort with witches and other humans with supernatural powers. They have many different names and come in all shapes and sizes.They are invisible and can only be seen by people with psychic sight - clairvvoyants or when they make themselves visible.

Fairy is the name given to a wide variety of supernatural beings that either help or hinder mankind.Fairies beliefs are strongest in the Celtic lore of Britain, Ireland and Europe.The word is derived from the Latin 'fata - fate, which refers to the mythological Fates, three women who spin and control the threads of life

Fakir: In India, a type of holy man, generally called a Sadhu, who lives by begging and is supposedly capable of various magical & miraculous feats. Many of these tricks are produced using sleight-of-hand and cleverly designed props. Some of the more spectacular feats, such as lying on a bed of nails, immersing the limbs in hot ash and being 'buried alive' require Yogic training involving breath control and meditation to induce trance-like states that suppress normal physical responses. The erm Fakir is from the Arabic word for 'poor'. In Islamic cultures the Fakir renounces the material world and follows Allah as a beggar

Familiar: According to English witchcraft handbooks of the early 17th century (familiars do not appear in Continental witchcraft trials and literature) , the name given to spirits attendant upon witches or magicians. Usually familiars are visible to ordinary sight, as, e.g. in the form of dogs or cats, but in some cases it was claimed that witches were followed by a swarm of invisible familiars.The woerd is from the Latin 'familiares', but alternative Roman names were 'magistelli and martinelli', while the Greeks called them 'paredrii'.It was held that the familiar, usually in the form of a small domestic animal, was given to the witch could be used to perform malicious errands, including murder and other feats of black magic

Fantasy Role Play (FRP): It is a phenomenon which has made fantasy role play of particular interest to some in the New Age Movement. Dololres Ashcroft-Nowicki , once described FRP as a cross between Pathworkding and ludo.While not meant altogether seriously, the similarity between FRP gaming and New Age techniques like pathworking and creative imagination is striking

Fascinate: A term derived from the Latin 'fascinare' - to enchant and used as a general term for the act of casting spells or - in particular- or throw in the 'evil eye' on another person. In late-Medieval literature a person 'fascinated' was usually under the spell of a magician or witch

Fatae / Fates: Greek & Roman mythologies include three Spiritual beings called in Greek 'the Moirai', in Latin 'Parcae or Fatae' who were supposed to control the destiny of a person. They were named Clotho, who held a distaff on which was the material of life, Lachesis, who spun the thread from this material and Atropos, who made that final cut of the thread which ended life. Sometimes the three are called the Harsh Spinners, even though they do not all spin.Their 'spinning' was said to take place at birth, and in some periods also at marriage, when a new life or fate was made. The general word 'moirai' means - share, or - apportioned lot. Lachesis means approximately - obtaining by lot and 'atropos' - irresistible.The three witches in Macbeth have been linked with these three spinners, from the old English term 'weird' which means approximately 'destiny' the three 'weird sisters' were the Fates who control destiny

Feldenkreis Method: A school of bodywork devised by Moshe Feldendreis, which attempts to correct faulty posture and pormote coordination and flexibility through body movement and therapeutic touch. Whilst obviously of great value to dancers, actors and athletes, it is also for serious disability patients

Feng Shui: Literally translated as Wind & Water and sometimes as Geomancy.Chinese art of locating and creating suitable places in and around your living & working spaces. The ancient Chinese occult study of the hidden energy currents and forces that cover the surface of the earth. The direction and spiritual qualities of these forces are of paramount importance in determining the suitability of locations for living, burial and religious centres. Those who practise the discipline of Feng-Shui have an intimate knowledge of the workings of the magnetic Kung-lei (dragon paths), which trace out the powerful earth currents and which appear to be the equivalent of the Ley Lines

Feng Shui was first written down in the 9th century by Yang Yun-sung, and other versions followed. Feng Shui holds that Nature and the Earth are living entities and is convinced that humanitiy must integrate itself properly into Nature if happiness is to be achieved. In order to do so, Feng Shui, recognizes that the surface of the Earth is a mirror, albeit a dim one - of Astrological influences in the heavens. Because of this it is possible for experts to recognize or calculate those terrestrial features which carry benevolent or malevolent currents.Positive forces are, e.g. associated with crooked, meandering lines - like a river, while straight lines tend to generate or reflect negative influences

The art of Feng Shui was by no means died out.It is evident even in the highly practical and bustling business environment of present-day Hong Kong where corporatations will typicall commission a Feng Shui Geomancer at the same time as an architect, when a new building is planned. Where Western, or Westernized executives do not themselves believe in the principles of Geng Shui, they realize an incorectly-sited building will attract immediate trouble from a labour force which does

Fern Seeds: Once said to be a recipe for gaining invisibility, a prized aim of occultists.Some kinds of fern seed are so tiny as to be almost invisible and it was believed that plants could pass their own qualities on to those who carried them

Fetish: An object representing Spirits that is used to create a bond between the human an supernatural world. Fetishes are dolls, carved images, stones, or animal teeth, claws or bones. They are often worn on the body to impart their magical powers, such as for protection, luck, love, curing, warding off evil, money, good hunting, gambling or curses on enemies. The term 'fetish' may derive from the Latin 'factitius' - made by art, or the Portuguese 'feitico' - charm or sorcery. Other terms associated with fetishes are 'juju' and 'gris-gris' both of which may have derived from a West African term, 'grou-grou' for sacred objects

Early European traders commonly called the 'grou-grou' they encountered 'juju, meaning dolls or playthings.The 'gris-gris' evolved cout of the African-American slave culture in the American South and refers to charm bags filled with magical powders, herbs, spices, roots, bones, stones, feathers, and so on. Today the term is popularly used to refer to an object or idea that receives superstitious or unquestioning trust or reverence. It is used in psychiatry to refer to the inordinate or pathological fascination a person may have for an inanimate object

Ficino, Marsilio: A Florentine philosopher and doctor employed by Cosimo de Medici to translate the Hermetica, the work supposedly of the Egyptian sage, Hermes Trismegistus. In 1489, Marsilio Ficino published a fascinationg theory linking medicine, astrology and creative imagination in what was essentially a brand new therapeurtic system. According to Ficino, the favourable astrologcial influences of a particular planet could be attracted by meditating on images characteristic of that plant's nature.When patients did so, he claimed, healing quickly followed

Findhorn: An experimental Spiritual community founded in 1962, and located in northern Scotland, and the site of a garden seemingly endowed with special powers. At its peak in the late 1960's and early 1970's, Findhorn yielded 18kg cabbages and other plants and flowers that sometimes grew to twice their normal size despite the fact that the soil was nothing more than sand and gravel and the bitter climate of the North Sea made for abysmal growing conditions

Findhorn residents claimed that they received the directions for planting, cultivating and managing their gardens from Spirits that inhabit the natural world. The Findhorn experiment has come to be viewed as a demonstration of the power and potential of human beings adn the natural world living and working together in harmony

Peter Caddy and co-worker Dorothy Maclean, who established the first garden on the site, claimed to have established contact with the Spirit of the plant kingdom,called a 'Deva', said to hol the archetypal pattern for each individual plant species.The devas provided specific information about every aspect of the garden, how far apart to plant seeds, how often to water, and how to remedy problems. Within a year Findhorn, had been transformed, with the gardens overflowing with life. As word of the garden spread, it became a model community for proponents of the New Age Movement.By the early 1970's more than three hundred people lived, worked and studied in Finhorn.Residents viewed themselves as the vanguard of a new society based on the principles of cooperation between people and the kingdom of nature.By the 1980's, the plants, fruits and vegetables had returned to normal sizes, and none of the present gardeners claims direct contact with the natural world.Nevertheless, newer members of the community preserve the original spirit and ideas of the founders.Findhorn has a democratic government, a garden school an a company to help small businesses within the community

Firewalking: It is the practise of walking bare feet through a trench filled with hot coals without the risk of getting burned.Firewalking is not confined to India. The traveller Rosita Forbes described a traditional fire dance in Dutch Guiana where men were able to walk through waist-high flames, embrace blazing boughs and chew glowing embers while a virgin priestess remained in trance. Once she emerged from trance to signal that the ceremony was over, they had to leap hurriedly from the fire to avoid being burned

On the tiny Fijian island of Mbengga, there is an annual religious ceremony involving firewalking.The natives dig a pit 6 feet deep , 25 feet long, and 10 feet wide, which they line with large stones. Then they layer logs, brush, more stones and more logs until the pit is nearly full. A fire is then lit and allowed to burn all night while prayers are offerd to Tui Namoliwai, the Water God.The following mornin, barefoot worshippers are led in a complete circle over the entire length of the burning pit.It is held that if they are propertly prepared mentally and spiritually they will come to no harm.Thefact that harm can come is borne by an incident in 1940 - when one man was so badly burned that he had to have obth legs amputated In an attempt to discover how the firewalk is carried out, the scientist Harry B. Wright interviewed the man who led the worshippers.He proved perfectly willing to disclose the secret. The Water God, he said sent hundreds of water babies to lie on the coals and themen simply walked across the cool backs of the water babies

The US physicist Jearl Walker, had a different explanation. He believed the safety of firewalkers relied on nothing more mysteries that hte Leidenfrost Effect. The same thing that keeps water droplets skeetering about on the top of a hot stove, levitating on aprotective layer of vapour.It is an interesting observation, but one which fails to explain the cases in which firewlkers keep their socks (and sometimes) shoes on. Nor does it explain the safety of the sheet music used by the maharaja's bandsmen

Nevertheless, it does seem likely that an explanation for firewalking will soon be found, if only because the occupation has been spreading. Since 1980, thousands of ordianry people in the US, Europe, Australia and South Africa, caught up in the human potential movement, have walked unharmed through 4-meter beds of red-hot coals after attending seminares which taugh them how to utilize personal resurces more efficiently

Fisher King: In the legend of the Holy Grail, the Fisher or Fisherman King, uncle of the Round Table knight Sir Percival, was the lord of the Castle of the Holy Grail

Five Elements: In Chinese divination, these elemments or forces are seen to underlie the human presence in thelandscape.They are Wood-related to Spring, Sunrise, East, the colour Green and tall, slender shapes, Fire-related to Summer,midday,South,the colour Red and triangular shapes, Earth-related to no season or compass point,but to flat shapes and the colour ochre, Metal-related to Autumn, The West,the colour White, and round shapes, Water-related to Winter,night,the colour Black, and to all that is transient and irregular

Fludd, Robert: (1574-1960) One of the most visual of the Elizabethan Qubalists, Robert Fludd published a number of esoteric works noted for their detailed diagrams of occult Cosmology and symbolic Mandalas.He was an accomplised musician as well as an Astrologer and Rosicrucian, who expressed considerable interest in Cosmic harmony and mystic Hierarchies reflecting into the mundane world in accordance with the Ancient Esoteric maxim 'As above, so below'

Focusing: A technique developed in the 1960s by Eugene Gendlin and other psychological researchers at the University of Chicago.After analysing thousands of sessions between therapists and clients, they came to the conclusion that if able to be in direct contact with their felt experience, clients stood a far better chance of benefiting from therapy.Gendlin went on to discover the essential steps for helping individuals to contact their felt experience in a way which led to growth.The essence of Focusing is to be aware from the inside of our actual experience as it is occuring in the present moment, particularly when dealing with a problem or important life issue

Formative Causation: The Cambridge plant physiologist noted for his theories of formative causation and its extension Morphic Resonance. In formulating his ideas on formative causation, Sheldrake suggested that the form and pattern of things depends not so much on physical laws as on habit. In other words, it is easier to do something that has already been done. Sheldrake extended the concept to include what he called 'morphogenetic fields, independent of space and time. A developing embryo would thus take its final shape not only in accordance with DNA programming, but also in relation to the 'morphogenetic fields' in which it found itself - it would, in other words, follow the physical example of other members of its species sharing that field

Forseti (Norse - Deity): Also known as Forete.The Norse god of justice, fairness, arbitration, and reconciliation, Forseti, whose name means 'pending one' , stills all strife, in other words, he's the ultimate peacemaker.He's an arbitrator in Heaven, listening to both points of view in arguments, and creating win-win solutions.He resolves differences with love so that everyone involved in the original dispute is persuded to reconcile.He helps with resolving Arguments & Legal Matters & helps with Fairness,Peace,Truth Issues & gives protection-especially legal in nature

Fortean Phenomena: Any paranormal or strange phenomenon that appears to defy natural explanation,such as rains of frogs,fish,stones,dead birds,flesh and snakes, mystifying rreligious experiences, such as stigmata, floating balls of light in the night sky, spontaneous human combustion, UFO's Poltergeist activity and monstrous creatures

Fortean phenomena are named after Charles Fort (1874-1932) an American Journalist.He devoted the rest of his life to collecting and cataloging thousands of odd phenomena that had no explanation, which he found by poring through seientific and popular journals in the British Museum and New York Public Library. He never attempted to explain these phenomena, but used these examples to point out the limitations of scientific knowledge and the danger of dogmatic acceptance of natural laws, which the phenomena seemed to contravene. Fort compiled his research into four books, The book of the Damned-1919, New Lands-1923, Lo!-1931, and Wild Talents-1932.In the Book of the Damned, which lists over one thousand such incidents, Fort challenged the scientific method of accepting a phenomenon as geniune only if it could be proved. To Fort thefact that a phenomenon had occured and been reported was proof enough - the reason why was less important

Of major interest to modern Forteans are UFO's and related phenomena.Long before the term UFO was conceived, Fort uncovered reports of sky oddities dating back to 1779

Fortune,Dion: Born in 1891.The pseudonym used by the Freudian psychoanalyst Violet Firth (later Penry-Evans) who has had a more profound influence on New Age occultism than almost any other figure in the twentieth century. She spent her formative years in a Christian Science household and showed signs of early psychism which was to shape so much of her later life. An incident in her personal life when she was 20 years old triggered her interest in the human mind and led to her study of Freudian analysis, on which she eventually published several books. But she never believed Freud provided the total answer to her unpleasant experience or indeed to the continuing mystery of her own psychism.She turned to a sturdy of the occult and was eventually drawn to join the Order of the Golden Age.By this time the Order was in decline, but she stayed kept her head down and studied magic . She found her own Order in the 1920's - the Fraternity of the Inner Light, an organization which survives, quietly, to the present day and has profoundly influenced the development of the Western Esoteric Tradition

Fortune-Telling: A low-level form of prediction practised at fairs by 'gypsies' using palmistry, card-reading, and crystal gazing primarily. It is not a term used by more serious practitioners

Freemasonry: The secret and fraternal organisations believed to have evolved from the medieval guilds of the stonemasons.Membership is open to men only, requires no allegiance to a single faith or religion, although belief in God is necessary and aims to enable members to meet in harmony, to promote friendship and to be charitable. The orders provide a network for busines, professional and social success and advancement. The basic unit of Freemasonry is the lodge, which exists under a charter issued by a grand lodge excercising administrative powers. The lodges are linked together informally by a system of mutual recognition between lodges that meet the Masonic requirements

The lodge confers three degrees, Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. Additional degrees are conferred by two groups of advanced freemasonry: The York Rite, which awards twelve degrees and the Scottish Rite, which awards thirty higher degrees

Many legendary theories exist concerning the origin of Freemasonry, but it is generally linked to the development of medieval craft guilds of stonemasons. Small numbers of skilled stonemasons would travel between towns to build churches and cathedrals commissioned by the clergy.To protect their knowledge they organised themselves into guilds, complete with passwords, rules of procedure, payment and religious devotion

Freemasonry's present organisational form began on 24 June 1717, when a grand lodge was formed in London.Since that time lodges have spread all over the world with local grand lodges fromed whenever enough lodges exist in an area

At various times and places freemasonry has met religious and political oppositon. Religious opponents, especially the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churces have traditionally claimed that Freemasonry is a religion and is a secret organisation. A papal ban on Roman Catholic member ship in Masonic lodges was rescinded in 1983.Freemasons hold that the organisation is religious, but not a religion, and that it is not a secret organisation since it works openly in the community. Many notable men in history have been Freemasons including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christopher Wren, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, George Washington and various other American presidents

The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge has always been held by one of noble or royal birth.The present Grand Master is the Duke of Kent

Friar Bungay: A fourteenth-century magician and necromancer, said to have aided Edward IV at the Battle of Barnet by raising mists and vapour

Frith: A form of augury known in the west of Scotland, practised by those endowd with second sight. The seer would fast before the first Monday of the quarter, then stand barefoot, bare-headed and blind-folded on the doorstep at sunrise. Placing a hand on each doorstop, and uttering as short invocation, the seer would remove the blindfold and make a prediction based on the first thing he or she saw

Fuller, Buckminster: A brilliant, if eccentric, contemporary futurist philosopher concerned with humanity's place in the ecological scheme of things, whose architectural and engineering background enabled him to produce some remarkable inventions, of which the best known is the geodesic dome

Futharc: The first six letters of the Runic alphabet (th is a single letter in the old Germanic languages), which were endowed with a magic significance. Whailst runic writing was sometiems used for ordinary communication, its most frequent use was for ceremonial purposes