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Jihad: (Arabic: جهاد jihād) An Islamic term, from the Arabic root jhd ("to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle"), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to a political or military struggle to further the Islamic cause. The meaning of "Islamic cause" is of course open ...
This threefold meaning of "mystical" continued in the Middle Ages. [2] According to Dan Merkur, the term unio mystica came into use in the 13th century as a synonym for the "spiritual marriage", the ecstasy, or rapture, that was experienced when prayer was used "to contemplate both God's omnipresence in the world and God in his essence."
The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, [4] [5] in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic, which today are considered pseudosciences.
"Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μύω, meaning "to conceal," [13] and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning "an initiate." In the Hellenistic world, a "mystikos" was an initiate of a mystery religion. "Mystical" referred to secret religious rituals [14] and use of the word lacked any direct references to the transcendental. [15]
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. [1] The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society . [ 2 ]
Vision of Thomas Aquinas in the Vatican Museum. Evelyn Underhill distinguishes and categorizes three types of visions: [3]. Intellectual Visions – The Catholic dictionary defines these as supernatural knowledge in which the mind receives an extraordinary grasp of some revealed truth without the aid of sensible impressions, and mystics describe them as intuitions that leave a deep impression.
Mystical theology is the branch of theology in the Christian tradition that deals with divine encounter [1] and the self-communication of God with the faithful; [2] such as to explain mystical practices and states, as induced by contemplative practices such as contemplative prayer, called theoria from the Greek for contemplation.
Ambelain defined the egregore as "a force generated by a powerful spiritual current and then nourished at regular intervals, according to a rhythm in harmony with the universal life of the cosmos, or to a union of entities united by a common characteristic nature".