Psychic, Occult and Mystical Definitions

Letter: F

Also Fates. Greek and 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 (probably after Hesiod) Clothe (or Clotho), who held a distaff on which was the material of life; Lachesis, who spun the thread from this material and, by doing so, assigned the individual his lot or fate ; and Atropos ( literately "the one that cannot be restrained"), who made that final cut of the thread which ended life. The Fates were conceived as old women, who were present at every birth, ready to spin the new born's fate, according to the will of the gods. 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.

Fatae

Fascinate

To compel delighted interest in others upon oneself; to hold someone as if under a spell by the means of oneself's looks or manners; to paralyze by ocular hypnosis. Fascination is a charm, a spell or enchantment, usually cast by looking at the subject, either by the power of the eyes or by the power of the caster's looks and/or manners. In late-medieval literature a person 'fascinated' was usually under the spell of a magician or witch.

According to English witchcraft handbooks of the early seventeenth 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, for example, 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 word 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 by the Devil as companion, helper and adviser, which could be used to perform malicious errands, including murder, and other feats of black magic.

Familiars

Fakir

In India, a type of holy man, generally called a sadhu, who lives by begging and is supposedly capable of various magical and 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 yogi training involving breath control and meditation to induce trance-like states which suppress normal physical responses. The term fakir is from the Arabic word for 'poor man'. In Islamic cultures the fakir renounces the material world and follows Allah as a beggar.

The name given to a wide variety of supernatural beings that either help or hinder mankind. Fairy beliefs are strongest in the Celtic lore of Britain, Ireland and Europe, but nearly every culture possesses myths and legends concerning miniature biped creatures. The word is derived from the Latin fata, ‘fate', which refers to the mythical Fates, three women who spin and control the threads of life. According to theory, fairies are either: earthbound unbaptized 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. They 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 clairvoyants or when they make themselves visible.

Fairy