Psychic, Occult and Mystical Definitions

Letter: T

Specially prepared objects — of stone, metal, wood, parchment and so on — inscribed with magical signs, characters or drawings. Once endowed with magical properties, the object is believed to bring the owner good luck, success, health and virility. The power of a talisman can derive from nature, directly from God, or from a magical ritual, such as those described in the grimoires, textbooks of ceremonial magic.

Talisman

Tages

In Etruscan mythology a mysterious boy with the wisdom of an old man who was ploughed up, or who sprang from the ground, at Tarquinii.

A Polynesian word signifying that which is banned, the prohibition of the use of certain persons, animals or things, or the utterance of certain names and words. Thus a temple is taboo, and so is he who violates a temple and everyone and everything connected with what is taboo becomes taboo also. The idea of taboo is not, of course, peculiar to the Polynesians and is found among the ancient Egyptians, Jews and others. Hence a person who is ostracized or an action or custom that is altogether forbidden by society, is said to be taboo or tabooed.

Taboo

Tabernacle

The portable shrine instituted by Moses during the wanderings of the Jews in the wilderness. It was divided by a veil or hanging, behind which, in the Holy of Holies, was the ark of the covenant. The outer division was called the Holy Place. When set up in camp, the whole was surrounded by an enclosure. In Roman Catholic churches the tabernacle is the ornamental receptacle on the high altar, in which the vessels containing the Blessed Sacrament are reserved. The name derives from the application of the word 'tabernaculum' in church ornamentation to a variety of canopied forms.