Shamanic terms.

Living conversation partners in another layer of reality. In traditional cultures recognised as a category of spiritual beings in their own right — not "the deceased" in the Western sense.

An energetic anchor in space. More than decoration: a place where the unseen is regularly welcomed.

The Japanese sun deity. In myth she emerged from the eye of the creator-kami Izanagi during the Misogi in the river.

The jackal-headed god of embalming, guide of the dead, weigher of hearts in the judgement hall. Guardian of the threshold.

The capacity for words to become real. The efficacy of an act, a prayer, a gesture. The African counterpart to Ki, Qi or Sekhem.

"Eight-trigram palm." Daoist spirit practice walked in a circle. The circle is cosmic geometry, not decoration.

Lord of the Cemetery. Threshold-warrior, the one who laughs in the face of death. Top hat, dark sunglasses, rum and tobacco.

The "Eight Immortals" of Daoism. Historical or legendary figures who reached immortality through practice.

The white creator serpent. Oldest and highest Loa of the Haitian pantheon. His consort is Ayida Wedo, the rainbow.

The energetic centre in the body, usually two fingers below the navel. Where Qi gathers in qigong, taichi and Neidan.

"Place of the way." Training hall in the Japanese martial arts. Dr. Hosak leads the Tengu Akasho Dōjō as an independent institution.

Filipino martial art with sticks, knives and machetes. In its traditional form rooted in an animist world with ancestor connection and Anting-Anting amulets.

Black mother-warrior. Protects what is entrusted to her with a fierceness pushed to the edge of the bearable.

The mythic wolf of the Nordic tradition. Read shamanically: the untamed wolf energy that breaks the existing order.

Daoist talismans · red cinnabar signs on yellow paper. Protection, banishing, invitation · script that acts.

"The immovable shining king." Central protector of Japanese esoteric Buddhism. Sword in the right hand, rope in the left, surrounded by flames.

Family of Loa who work with death, cemetery and threshold. Led by Baron Samedi and Maman Brigitte. Loud, obscene, witty · and deep.

Identified by a 2015 DNA study as the African wolf (Canis lupaster). The African strand of the Great Wolf.

Cow-deity of love, music and joy. Gentle sister-aspect to the wrathful Sekhmet · in some traditions the same deity in two faces.

Magical force in the Egyptian sense. A deity in his own right and at the same time the faculty of the ritual practitioner. The Egyptian counterpart to Ashe or Mana.

The falcon. Son of Isis and Osiris. Avenges his father, fights Seth for Ma'at. Warrior archetype of the Egyptian tradition.

Male priest in Haitian voodoo. Female counterpart: Mambo.

Kami of rice, harvest and success. More than 30,000 shrines in Japan. The Kitsune fox spirits are her messengers.

The great mother deity and sorceress. Reassembled the dismembered Osiris. In the Hellenistic world venerated as a universal goddess.

Essence · the densest, most embodied of the basic forces. First of the Three Treasures (San Bao) in Daoist inner alchemy.

The spiritual beings of Shinto. Inhabit mountains, trees, rivers, stones, places, ancestors. Not "gods" in the Western sense · a category of their own.

Energetic residue that accumulates in life. Not a moral concept · something that asks to be cleansed. Through Misogi or Oharae.

Breath, steam, life-air. The fine layer through which body and spirit cohere. Japanese counterpart to Chinese Qi.

Fox spirits. Shape-shifters. Messengers of Inari. According to old tradition they can take human form, especially after a long life.

"Word-soul." The power of the spoken word in Japanese thought. Words are not neutral · they bring about what they name.

Animal ally with its own will. Not your favourite animal · the animal that shows itself. Encountered in the trance journey.

"Nine-syllable cuts." Nine ritual syllables with hand seals · Rin-Pyo-To-Sha-Kai-Jin-Retsu-Zai-Zen. Originally from the Daoist Baopuzi, later in Shugendo and Ninjutsu. Yes — what you saw in Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen; here is the actual text it came from.

Sovereign beings of the Haitian voodoo pantheon. Not gods, not saints, not merely ancestors · their own category. Concrete, with preferences, colours, rhythms.

Wolf spirit in the West African Vodun of the Ivory Coast (not Caribbean voodoo). Guardian of the threshold.

Cosmic order, justice, truth. Personified as a deity bearing an ostrich feather. In the hall of judgement every heart is weighed against her feather.

Consort of Baron Samedi. Mistress of the gravestones. Sharp, fiery presence · one of the few white Loa in the Afro-Caribbean pantheon.

Fire warrior of the Petro family. Linked to the Haitian revolution. Not gentle · called when something stuck must break open.

The Wolf Shaman Master Path · the multi-year shamanic apprenticeship with Dr. Mark Hosak and Eileen Wiesmann, across all five strands.

"Secret transmission." Japanese esoteric Buddhism · the Shingon and Tendai schools. Works with mantras, mudras and mandalas.

Ritual water purification, often beneath a waterfall (Takigyō). Core practice of Shinto and Shugendo.

"Inner elixir" · inner alchemy. Transformation of the three treasures Jing, Qi, Shen. Core practice of the Daoist tradition.

The Japanese tradition of the Ninja · in its roots closely tied to Shugendo and Mikkyō. On shamanic-worlds.com: the shamanic dimension. On tengu-akasha-dojo.de: the technical lineage of Taguchi.

Iron Loa · smith, warrior, force of decision and the clean cut. Patron of the freed slaves in the Haitian revolution.

The "great purification." Collective ritual at the half-year turning, removing the Kegare of the community.

狼 wolf or 大神 Great Spirit · the homophony is the theological ground of Japanese wolf veneration. Central kami of the Mitsumine and Musashi-Mitake shrines.

The Japanese "Way of Yin and Yang." Court magic of the Heian period · astrology, divination, banishing rituals. Abe no Seimei is its most famous practitioner.

Murdered and put back together · humanity's oldest resurrection myth. Lord of the realm of the dead (Duat).

Consecrated paper or wooden tablets. Bring the presence of a kami into the home; guard it as a wolf guards its territory.

Lord of the crossroads. Old man with cane and straw hat. No voodoo ceremony can begin without his invocation.

"Hot" Loa family of Haitian voodoo. Born in Haiti from the experience of slavery and resistance. Sharp, fast, fiery.

Life force · the moving, circulating energy in the body. In Neidan the second of the three treasures, between Jing and Shen.

"Working with Qi." Understood Daoist-shamanically: the methodology of the warrior body · breath, posture, intention.

Sun god who draws the sun across the sky. Highest deity in many dynastic phases. Father of Sekhmet.

"Cool" Loa family of Haitian voodoo. Oldest stratum · predominantly of West African origin (Fon, Yoruba). The classical ritual order.

The "three treasures" · Jing, Qi, Shen. The three layers of Daoist energy-body theory.

Authoritative presence, power. Egyptian counterpart to Qi or Ashe. Same root as "Sekhmet."

Lion-headed warrior. Daughter of Ra, born from his wrath. Embodies the empowered force (Sekhem) in wrathful form.

Spirit · the energy nearest to consciousness. Third of the three treasures, the finest form of Daoist energy transformation.

Servant spirits of the Onmyōji. Ritually summoned and bound to a task · carry messages, keep watch.

"Way of the kami." The oldest and most nature-rooted strand of Japanese spirituality.

"Way of cultivating power through experience." The Japanese tradition of the mountain ascetics (Yamabushi). A fusion of Shinto, Mikkyō and Daoism.

Freshwater Loa. Lord of springs, rivers, rainbows. Intermediary of magic, "the goldsmith among the Loa."

"Fist of the supreme ultimate." Daoist movement meditation · the slow form as meditation in motion.

Waterfall practice. The Yamabushi stands under a waterfall and recites mantras or sutras. Core form of Misogi.

Dr. Mark Hosak's independent martial arts school. Where the physical Ninjutsu transmission lives. Website: tengu-akasha-dojo.de

Ibis-headed god of writing, wisdom and magic. Scribe of the judgement hall. God of effective speech.

An altered state of consciousness in which shamanic work becomes possible. Not unconsciousness · a wakeful, focused other mode of perception.

The eye of Horus. Symbol of vigilance, restoration and protection. Worn in Egyptian symbolism as an amulet.

Ritual line-composition drawn on the ground that invites a Loa. Each Loa has its own veve.

Afro-Caribbean religion with West African origins. In Haiti Vodou, in West Africa Vodun, often Voodoo in English. A living tradition.

The central power-animal archetype at Shamanic Worlds. Not confined to one culture · appearing in East Asia as Ōkami, in Africa as the golden jackal, in Northern Europe as Fenrir.

Icelandic protective amulet showing a wolf biting through Thor's hammer. Read shamanically: wolf energy that breaks the prevailing image.

The oldest shamans of China. The character 巫 shows two figures along a vertical axis · sky and earth. Logo-kanji of Shamanic Worlds.

"Those who lie down in the mountains." Practitioners of Shugendō. Mountain ascetics working with mantras, fire and waterfalls.

The polar groundwork of Daoist cosmology. Every Yin contains a seed of Yang, every Yang a seed of Yin.

"Standing like a post." Static posture practice that gathers Qi. Foundation drill in Bagua, Taichi and Qigong.