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For the Australian Aboriginal religion, they are the supernatural beings (or deities) who emerged and roamed the earth, they gave shape to the landscape and created various forms of life. When it is lowercased, it refers to the deceased who can assist the living while requiring religious devotion.
Ancestors
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Common to many religions, an entity such as a mountain, tree or pole that is believed to connect the heavens and the earth, and is sometimes regarded as the center of the world
Axis mundi
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The use of various techniques, such as throwing bones or shells and then interpreting the pattern in which they fall, for gaining knowledge about an individual’s future or about the cause of a personal problem; important among many religions worldwide.
Divination
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The mythic time of Australian Aboriginal religion when the Ancestors inhabited the earth
The Dreaming
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The hundreds of various Yoruba deities, who are the main objects of ritual attention, including Orisha-ia
Orishas
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Mesoamerican creator god worshiped at Teotihuacan and by the Toltecs; believed by the Aztecs to have presided over a golden age.
Quetzalcoatl
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Ritual of the Lakota and other tribes of the North American Plains that celebrates the new year and prepares the tribe for the annual buffalo hunt; performed in the late spring or early summer in a specially constructed lodge.
Sun Dance
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A system of social ordering that dictates that specific objects and activities, owing to their sacred nature, are set aside for specific groups and are strictly forbidden to others; common to many primal peoples.
Taboo
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Capital city of the Aztec empire, believed to be the center of the world. Home to the Great Temple, or Serpent Mountain. Site of present-day Mexico City.
Tenochtitlan
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A natural entity, such as an animal or a feature of the landscape, that symbolizes an individual or group and that has special significance for the religious life of that individual or group; a common motif among Australian Aborigines and other primal peoples.
Totem
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A type of supernatural being who tends to disrupt the normal course of life, found among many primal peoples
Trickster figure
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A means of seeking spiritual power through an encounter with a guardian spirit or other medium, usually in the form of an animal or other natural entity, following a period of fasting and other forms of self-denial; common to many primal peoples, including the Lakota and other tribes of the North American Plains
Vision quest
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Wakan Tanka
Lakota name for the supreme reality, often referring collectively to sixteen separate deities
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