GLOSSARY OF TERMS
GLOSSARY OF SPIRITUALISM TERMS
Spiritualism is a movement and philosophy based on the belief that human consciousness survives physical death and that the living can communicate with spirits, usually through trained individuals called Mediums. Its core idea: death is a transition, not an end.
Apport
The appearance of an object relocating from another location or an unknown location, without apparent or visible means.
Astral Plane
The astral plane is a non-physical realm of consciousness associated with the spirit world, where individual spirits retain identity, interact through thought and intention, and experience forms shaped by mental and emotional states rather than physical matter.
Aura
The aura is the subtle spiritual emanation surrounding every living being, arising from the spirit and reflecting mental, emotional, and spiritual conditions. It is not visible to the physical eye but may be perceived by some as a coloured or luminous field.
Automatic Writing
Automatic writing is a practice in which a person writes words, symbols, or messages without conscious thought, often believed to come from the subconscious mind or spiritual entities. Practitioners enter a relaxed or meditative state to allow guidance from spirits, spirit guides, or higher intuition to flow through them onto the page. This technique is used for receiving messages, gaining insight, or exploring inner thoughts that may not be accessible through ordinary conscious effort. It is considered both a spiritual and psychological tool for communication and self-discovery.
Clairaudience
Clairaudience is defined as one’s inner voice, translated, it means ‘clear hearing.’ It is the psychic ability to hear sounds, words, or messages from the spiritual realm that are not perceivable through normal hearing. Those with this gift may receive guidance, warnings, or insights in the form of voices, tones, or inner auditory impressions. It is often used to communicate with spirits, spirit guides, or other non-physical entities. Clairaudience allows individuals to access information intuitively, helping them make decisions or gain understanding beyond ordinary perception.
Clairsentience
Clairsentience means ‘clear knowing’ or ‘clear thinking,’ and is the psychic ability to sense or feel the emotions, energies, or physical sensations of people, places, or situations.
Clairsentience Unlike clairvoyance, which involves “seeing,” clairsentience involves “feeling” intuitively, often as bodily sensations, emotional impressions, or subtle energetic shifts. Practitioners use this ability to gain insight, understand others’ experiences, or detect unseen influences. It is often considered a form of empathetic perception that connects the intuitive mind with the surrounding energy of the world.
Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance is the ability to gain information about people, objects, or events through extrasensory perception, described as “seeing” beyond the normal senses. It is a psychic skill that allows individuals to perceive visions, symbols, or images that provide insight or guidance. While often associated with predicting the future, clairvoyance can also offer understanding of hidden truths, past events, or the energies surrounding a situation.
Discarnate
Being without a physical body.
Empath
An empath is a person especially sensitive to the emotions or mental states of others. They tune in on an intuitive or psychic level to the emotions, moods and attitudes of a person, group of people or animals. In Spiritualist contexts, this sensitivity may be understood as a form of psychic perception rather than a distinct spiritual role.
Incarnate
Being within a physical body.
Logos
Logos refers to the universal divine intelligence or rational principle that orders both the physical and spirit worlds. It is understood not as a personal deity, but as an intelligent natural law through which existence, consciousness, and moral progress unfold. Spiritual phenomena such as mediumship and spirit communication are seen as lawful expressions of this underlying order rather than supernatural interruptions. Human reason and spiritual insight are viewed as participations in the Logos, allowing understanding and communication across planes of being. Through Logos, Spiritualism affirms that spiritual truth is discoverable through experience, reason, and ongoing spiritual development rather than blind faith.
Masters
In Spiritualism, the term Masters refers to highly evolved spirit beings who have advanced through extensive moral, intellectual, and spiritual development. They are understood not as objects of worship, but as teachers or guides who work in harmony with divine law to assist humanity’s progress. Masters are believed to have transcended the need for physical incarnation and to operate primarily from higher spiritual planes. Their influence is expressed through inspiration, guidance, and the transmission of wisdom rather than authority or command.
Meditation
Meditation is a practice that involves focusing the mind and calming mental activity to achieve greater awareness, relaxation, and inner peace. It often includes techniques such as mindful breathing, visualization, or repeating a mantra to center attention and reduce stress. Meditation can help cultivate emotional balance, clarity of thought, and a deeper connection to oneself. Over time, regular practice is believed to enhance mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Medium
A medium is a person who acts as an intermediary between the living and spirits of the deceased. They are able to receive messages, impressions, or guidance from the spirit world, often communicating these insights to those seeking connection with departed loved ones. Mediums may use various methods such as clairvoyance, automatic writing, or trance states to facilitate communication. Their role is seen as providing comfort, closure, and spiritual understanding, helping people navigate grief and gain perspective from the unseen realm.
Mediumship
Mediumship is the practice of acting as a medium often to provide messages or evidence of survival after death to living individuals. It is also considered a healing practice.
Monad
In Spiritualism, the Monad refers to the fundamental spiritual essence or divine spark from which individual consciousness originates. It represents the unified source of being that differentiates into spirit, mind, and eventually embodied personality through progressive development. The Monad is not the personality itself but the enduring core that survives physical death and continues its evolution across states of existence. Through experience in both material and spirit realms, the Monad unfolds its latent intelligence and moral capacity, gradually expressing higher harmony with universal law.
Psychic
A psychic is someone who possesses heightened intuitive or extrasensory abilities that allow them to draw knowledge from the aura/energy of a person. They may receive insights about the past, present, or future, or sense the emotions, thoughts, or energies of others. Psychics often use tools like tarot, clairvoyance, or meditation to access this information. Their abilities are typically seen as a way to provide guidance, understanding, or clarity.
Spirit Guides
Spirit guides are non-physical beings that offer guidance, support, and wisdom to individuals on their life journey. They are often thought to be souls, angels, or other spiritual entities that help people navigate challenges, make decisions, and grow spiritually. Many traditions teach that spirit guides communicate through intuition, dreams, signs, or subtle impressions rather than direct speech. Their presence is seen as a source of comfort, protection, and insight, helping individuals align with their higher purpose. Many Mediums utilize the help of spirit guides in their readings.
Soul
The soul is often understood as the immaterial essence of a person that encompasses consciousness, identity, and inner life. Across spiritual, religious, and philosophical traditions, it is believed to transcend the physical body and live on past physical death. The soul is commonly associated with moral awareness, emotional depth, and a sense of purpose or connection to something greater than oneself. Our being consists of the spirit, the soul and the physical body.
Spirit
God is Spirit, the Creator, the Source, Infinite Spirit, Divine Creator of all that is. Spirit is also the eternal spark of the Divine that resides within each of us.
Spiritual Healing
Spiritual Healing is a principle of Spiritualism just as mediumship. It is through Infinite Source, God or Creator that all healing flows. The Healer is a conduit or channel for this healing energy. Spiritual Healing is a natural process that brings about harmony, health and well-being to humanity. The healing is from Spirit, through spirit, to spirit. Spiritual healing is considered to be the highest form of mediumship.
Trance
An altered state of consciousness.
Universal Consciousness
Universal Consciousness is the concept that all individual minds and experiences are connected to a greater, all-encompassing awareness that permeates the universe. It suggests that consciousness is not limited to individual beings but is a shared, collective intelligence that underlies reality itself. Many spiritual and philosophical traditions view it as the source of intuition, creativity, and interconnectedness among all life. Through practices like meditation, contemplation, or spiritual insight, individuals may tap into this universal awareness to gain clarity, guidance, or a sense of unity with the cosmos. It emphasizes the idea that personal consciousness is both part of and influenced by a larger, infinite whole.
Vibration
Vibrational energy refers to the concept that all matter, thoughts and emotions consist of energy oscillating at different frequencies, with higher frequencies corresponding to positive states (love, joy) and lower frequencies to negative ones (fear, anger).
ESOTERIC GLOSSARY
The term esoteric refers to knowledge or practices understood through inner perception, spiritual sensitivity, or specialized study rather than through the physical senses alone. Such knowledge is often accessible to those with developed psychic or spiritual faculties.
Astrologer
An astrologer is a practitioner of astrology who interprets planetary positions to gain insight into personality traits, life patterns, and spiritual influences. While not a core Spiritualist practice, astrology is often regarded as a related esoteric system.
Astrology
Astrology includes the study of celestial bodies and planetary cycles and how their respective energies influence human life on earth. Astrology studies the harmony of the universe and relates it to the possibilities of human behaviour and experience.
Birth Chart
A birth chart is a diagram used in astrology that maps the positions of celestial bodies at the time of a person’s birth. It is regarded as an interpretive tool.
Chakra
Chakras are energy centers in the body, originating from ancient Indian spiritual traditions, that regulate physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. There are seven main chakras, each associated with specific areas of the body, colors, and qualities, such as grounding, creativity, or intuition. Balanced chakras promote health and harmony, while blocked or misaligned chakras can lead to physical or emotional issues. Chakras are assigned a color, which is displayed in a person’s aura, and can help to reveal a person’s spiritual and physical health, as well as ones karma. Practices like meditation, yoga, or energy healing are often used to cleanse and align the chakras.
Divination
Divination is the ancient practice of seeking insight, knowledge or guidance of the past, present and future through communicating with the Divine. It can be used to gain insight for self-reflection or unlocking subconscious knowledge. Traditionally practiced by Shamans, Oracles, Priests, Prophets, and Psychics using symbolic interpretation through various methods such as Tarot, Astrology, Ouija Boards, Scrying, Runes, Reading Tea Leaves, etc.
Dream Interpretation
Dream interpretation is the process of interpreting the universal symbols and archetypes seen in your dreams in order to gain insight into mental, emotional, or spiritual conditions.
Etheric
A spiritual energy within all things including the physical world as well as the spiritual world.
Esoteric
Esoteric knowledge refers to the specialized, hidden or profound wisdom of the inner realms. It explores the inner, symbolic or spiritual meanings behind rituals and beliefs and is often associated with mysticism and ancient philosophical traditions.
Feng Shui
Feng shui is a traditional or cultural system concerned with harmonizing physical environments through spatial arrangement and symbolic principles. It uses all of the elements – earth, wind, fire and water as well as compass points to achieve a sense of peace and tranquility.
I Ching
The 3,000-year-old I Ching has 64 hexagram configurations that comprise an entire philosophy based on the Yin and Yang principles. The aim is to achieve and maintain balance in your life via a messaging system, which involves tossing coins in sets of six. The male, or active energy of Yang, encourages actions and ideas. The female, or receptive energy, enables adaptation and flexibility. It is typically seen as an external divinatory system.
Intuition
Intuition is the ability to understand or know something immediately, without conscious reasoning or deliberate analysis. It often arises from patterns and experiences stored in the subconscious mind, allowing people to make quick judgments or insights that feel instinctive rather than logical.
Kabbalah
Kabbalah is a mystical tradition within Judaism focused on the nature of the divine and the structure of spiritual reality. Spiritualists generally view it as a separate esoteric system with symbolic parallels to Spiritualist cosmology. Traditional Kabbalah was passed down orally and is an esoteric belief that every accent, letter, word and number in the Torah contains keys to understanding the nature of the human soul, and by extension, the universe.
Karma
Karma is the principle that actions influence future experiences through moral or spiritual causation. The idea is often understood in terms of spiritual responsibility and progression rather than as a fixed cosmic law. The explanation of Karma varies slightly per tradition or philosophy, but the basic principle remains the same: “You reap what you sow” … “what goes around, comes around.” Karmic philosophy may have its roots in religion and spirituality, but even the most scientific mind cannot dispute that, “every action causes an equal and opposite reaction” – in other words, the purpose of Karma is actually to restore balance.
Mantra
A mantra is a sacred word or phrase traditionally used for meditation or spiritual focus in order to achieve a deep state of relaxation. This method is used in Transcendental Meditation and it has been shown to be a very effective technique. According to the teachings of Transcendental Meditation, thinking a mantra helps you focus your attention inwardly.
Near Death Experience
A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound psychological event reported by some individuals who come close to death or are temporarily clinically dead. It often includes vivid sensations such as feeling detached from the body, moving through a tunnel, encountering a bright light, or experiencing intense peace or insight. Many have recounted stories of seeing their physical body beneath them and traveling toward a white light or tunnel where they are greeted by friends and relatives.
Numerology
Like Astrology or the Tarot, Numerology is a means of divination. It is a belief system that assigns symbolic meaning to numbers and their influence on human life and events. It is based on the idea that numbers carry vibrational qualities that can offer insight into personality traits, life paths, and future possibilities.
Pendulum
A pendulum is considered a tool suspended freely from a string or chain and used to access intuition or subtle energies for guidance and insight. Practitioners believe its movements reflect subconscious knowledge, energetic responses, or spiritual influence rather than conscious control. It is often used in practices like divination, energy work, or decision-making rituals.
Runes
Runes are ancient symbols originating from early Germanic alphabets that were used for writing, ritual, and divination. They generally consist of clay tiles or coins with an inscription from the Runic alphabet. In spiritual traditions, each rune is believed to carry specific meanings and energies, offering insight, guidance, or reflection when drawn or interpreted.
Shaman
A shaman is a spiritual practitioner who serves as a bridge between the physical world and the spiritual realm. Traditionally found in many Indigenous cultures, shamans enter altered states of consciousness to gain insight, healing, or guidance for individuals and communities. They often work with rituals, drumming, chanting, plant medicines, or spirit allies. The role of a shaman is deeply rooted in cultural tradition and communal responsibility.
Scrying
Scrying is a spiritual or divinatory practice used to gain insight by gazing into a reflective or symbolic surface, such as a crystal ball, water, mirrors, or flames. Practitioners believe that altered states of awareness during scrying allow intuitive images, messages, or impressions to emerge.
Synchronicity
The belief that everything and everyone in the universe is connected by a universal force and therefore there is no coincidence. Or, in other words, synchronicity refers to meaningful coincidences that occur without a clear causal connection yet feel deeply significant to the person experiencing them. The concept suggests that inner states of mind and external events can align in ways that offer insight, guidance, or a sense of connection beyond chance.
Tarot
Tarot is a system of 78 cards used for divination, self-reflection, and spiritual guidance. Each card carries symbolic imagery and meanings that can provide insight into a person’s emotions, life situations, and potential outcomes. Practitioners interpret spreads of cards to explore questions, uncover hidden influences, or gain clarity on personal and spiritual matters. Beyond prediction, tarot is often seen as a tool for introspection and connecting with intuition.
Yoga
Yoga refers to a range of physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines for achieving a state of perfect insight and tranquility through focused concentration, meditation, postures and controlled breathing. It is acknowledged for its meditative or health benefits. The liberation from suffering through enlightenment is a common goal of all branches.