The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated September 10, 2026 Last updated: September 10, 2026. Who Were the Fox Sisters and Why Do They Matter? The Fox sisters were three siblings from rural New York whose claimed spirit communications in March 1848 launched modern Spiritualism. Maggie and Kate Fox, then teenagers, reported […]
The Threefold Law in Wiccan Belief
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated September 10, 2026 Last updated: September 10, 2026. What Is the Threefold Law in Wiccan Belief? The Threefold Law, also called the Rule of Three or the Law of Return, is the Wiccan ethical principle that whatever energy a practitioner sends into the world, whether […]
The Salem Witch Trials: Profiles and Stories
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated September 10, 2026 Last updated: September 10, 2026. What Were the Salem Witch Trials? The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft. Nineteen were […]
Shamanic Journeying: Soul’s Flight to Other Worlds
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated May 13, 2026 Last reviewed: May 5, 2026. What Is Shamanic Journeying? Shamanic journeying is a controlled trance practice in which a practitioner sends consciousness, often described as the soul, to non-ordinary worlds in search of healing, knowledge, or contact with helping spirits. The technique […]
The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot: Decoding the Imagery
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated September 10, 2026 Last updated: September 10, 2026. What Is the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot? The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot is a 78-card deck published in London in 1909, designed by occultist Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by artist Pamela Colman Smith. It was the first widely circulated deck […]
Natal Chart Interpretation: The Sky at Birth
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated May 13, 2026 Last reviewed: May 5, 2026. What Is a Natal Chart? A natal chart, also called a birth chart or horoscope, is a two-dimensional diagram of the sky drawn for the exact moment, date, and place of a person’s birth. It plots the […]
The Pentagram: A Star with Many Stories
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated September 10, 2026 Last updated: September 10, 2026. What the Pentagram Actually Is The pentagram is a five-pointed star drawn with one continuous line of five straight segments. Its name comes from the Greek pentagrammon, meaning “having five lines.” Across more than five thousand years […]
Gnosis: Direct Knowledge of the Divine
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated May 13, 2026 Last reviewed: May 5, 2026. What Is Gnosis? Direct Knowledge of the Divine, Defined Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge, but in religious and philosophical contexts it names a specific kind: direct, experiential knowing of the divine, the self, and the […]
Freemasonry Secrets and Their Lost Symbolisms
By Emilia Wellesley · Published May 5, 2026 · Updated May 13, 2026 Last reviewed: May 5, 2026. What Are the Secrets of Freemasonry, and Which Symbolisms Have Been Lost? Freemasonry‘s secrets are not hidden doctrines but modes of recognition: the grips, words, and signs that identify a brother across lodges. Its symbolisms come from […]