Misplaced Pages

#640359

94-590: Since at least the late 19th century, it has been attributed with a supernatural ability to heal those who drink from it and traditionally believed to be fashioned from a piece of the True Cross . By the early 20th century, it had become a candidate – one of at least 200 in Europe – for the Holy Grail . Juliette Wood , a folklorist specialising in medieval folklore and Celtic mythology , has stated that there

188-592: A deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Some religions have religious texts which they view as divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired. For instance, Orthodox Jews , Christians and Muslims believe that the Torah was received from Yahweh on biblical Mount Sinai . Most Christians believe that both the Old Testament and the New Testament were inspired by God. Muslims believe

282-490: A non-physical entity ; such as a ghost , fairy , jinn or angel . The concepts of a person's spirit and soul , often also overlap, as both are either contrasted with or given ontological priority over the body and both are believed to survive bodily death in some religions, and "spirit" can also have the sense of " ghost ", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person. In English Bibles , "the Spirit" (with

376-720: A polytheistic religion)", or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness , beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life." A male deity is a god , while a female deity is a goddess . Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as God), polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as equivalent aspects of

470-455: A semi-deity or other strange kind of being, such as this discourse examines the notion of. And besides these more absolute acceptions, if I may so call them, of the word nature , it has divers others (more relative), as nature is wont to be set or in opposition or contradistinction to other things, as when we say of a stone when it falls downwards that it does it by a natural motion , but that if it be thrown upwards its motion that way

564-449: A body, especially a living one, as when physicians say that nature is strong or weak or spent, or that in such or such diseases nature left to herself will do the cure . Sometimes we take nature for the universe , or system of the corporeal works of God , as when it is said of a phoenix , or a chimera , that there is no such thing in nature , i.e. in the world. And sometimes too, and that most commonly, we would express by nature

658-421: A by-product of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo . In process thought, there is no such thing as a realm of the natural in contrast to that which is supernatural. On the other hand, if "the natural" is defined more neutrally as "what is in the nature of things," then process metaphysics characterizes the natural as the creative activity of actual entities. In Whitehead's words, "It lies in the nature of things that

752-632: A capital "S"), specifically denotes the Holy Spirit . Spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality . Historically, it was also used to refer to a "subtle" as opposed to "gross" material substance, as in the famous last paragraph of Sir Isaac Newton 's Principia Mathematica . A demon (from Koine Greek δαιμόνιον daimónion ) is a supernatural and often malevolent being prevalent in religion , occultism , literature , fiction , mythology and folklore . In Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in

846-466: A cup or bowl as a relic or that it was previously connected with Glastonbury, but both these elements became part of the Nanteos Cup legend. Barber states that "the story of the flight from Glastonbury seems to have been deliberately invented using antiquarian accounts of the dissolution of the monasteries." Noting that "no historical evidence has ever been offered for the story" he also asserts that

940-704: A few days to ensure a complete cure. The introduction of a connection with "certain cases of female disorder" coincided with the introduction of sexualized imagery in Wagner's Parsifal , which for the first time associated the Holy Grail directly with the womb and female fertility. The revival of interest in the Arthurian legends and the Grail had been bolstered by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson who retold

1034-446: A medieval scholastic of the 12th century, explored causes beyond nature, questioning how certain phenomena could be attributed solely to God. In his writings, he used the term praeter naturam to describe these occurrences. In the scholastic period, Thomas Aquinas classified miracles into three categories: "above nature", "beyond nature" and "against nature". In doing so, he sharpened the distinction between nature and miracles more than

SECTION 10

#1732772137641

1128-641: A meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Society . Powell was the son of Colonel William Powell (1815–1878), from whom he inherited the Nanteos estate in 1878. The minutes of the meeting at which the cup was first exhibited record that George Powell introduced the object and gave an account of it being "preserved for many years past at Nanteos", having formerly been in the possession of the abbey at Strata Florida ( Welsh : Ystrad Fflur , "Vale of Flowers"). The minutes also state: It

1222-400: A more social character, usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine . Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion. Divination is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being superstition . In the 2nd century, Lucian devoted a witty essay to

1316-404: A physical system by a subject without any known intermediate energy or instrumentation" (1945:305). Views on the "supernatural" vary, for example it may be seen as: Anthropological studies across cultures indicate that people do not hold or use natural and supernatural explanations in a mutually exclusive or dichotomous fashion. Instead, the reconciliation of natural and supernatural explanations

1410-560: A portion of the True Cross. I think there can be little doubt that so much of its pedigree is true as traces it to the possession of the Cistercians at Strata Florida. Nothing is more probable than that it was preserved in their church as a relic to which thaumaturgic powers were ascribed. The veneration accorded to it in the neighbourhood, and, still more decidedly, a regard for their own health and that of their families, would prompt

1504-445: A querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens , or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency. Divination can be seen as a systematic method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed, random facets of existence such that they provide insight into a problem at hand. If a distinction is to be made between divination and fortune-telling , divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains

1598-557: A relic at Nanteos [was] lacking" and that it had not appeared in Samuel Rush Meyrick 's survey, published as The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardiganshire , in 1809. Wood also noted that Worthington G. Smith had made sketches of archaeological excavations at Strata Florida Abbey and suggested that the cup may actually have been found during those excavations. Powell was known to have had repairs carried out to make

1692-407: A spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals , symbols , actions, gestures , or language with the aim of utilizing supernatural forces. Belief in and practice of magic has been present since the earliest human cultures and continues to have an important spiritual, religious and medicinal role in many cultures today. The term magic has

1786-450: A stone let fall in the air is by nature carried towards the centre of the earth , and, on the contrary, that fire or flame does naturally move upwards toward firmament . Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day , nature hath made respiration necessary to the life of men. Sometimes we take nature for an aggregate of powers belonging to

1880-404: A supernatural entity reported as being present during the event is called a vision . Direct conversations between the recipient and the supernatural entity, or physical marks such as stigmata , have been reported. In rare cases, such as that of Saint Juan Diego , physical artifacts accompany the revelation. The Roman Catholic concept of interior locution includes just an inner voice heard by

1974-540: A variation of this story in which the cup is taken by seven monks from Glastonbury to Strata Florida during the Dissolution and entrusted by the last survivor to the Stedman family. The Stedman family, however, originated from Staffordshire and "cannot be associated with the area before the seventeenth century." Similarly, the first Powell to live at Nanteos was William Powell (1658–1738) in 1705. The Dissolution of

SECTION 20

#1732772137641

2068-438: A variety of meanings, and there is no widely agreed upon definition of what it is. Scholars of religion have defined magic in different ways. One approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer , suggests that magic and science are opposites. An alternative approach, associated with the sociologists Marcel Mauss and Emile Durkheim , argues that magic takes place in private, while religion

2162-503: A variety of ways – masculine, feminine, androgynous and gender neutral. Historically, many ancient cultures – such as Ancient India , Ancient Iraq , Ancient Egyptian , Ancient Greek , Ancient Roman , Nordic and Asian culture – personified natural phenomena , variously as either their conscious causes or simply their effects, respectively. Some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions , deities have been envisioned as manifesting within

2256-469: Is hypernymic to religion . Religions are standardized supernaturalist worldviews, or at least more complete than single supernaturalist views. Supernaturalism is the adherence to the supernatural (beliefs, and not violations of causality and the physical laws). Occurring as both an adjective and a noun , antecedents of the modern English compound supernatural enter the language from two sources: via Middle French ( supernaturel ) and directly from

2350-453: Is violent . So chemists distinguish vitriol into natural and fictitious , or made by art, i.e. by the intervention of human power or skill; so it is said that water , kept suspended in a sucking pump, is not in its natural place, as that is which is stagnant in the well. We say also that wicked men are still in the state of nature , but the regenerate in a state of grace ; that cures wrought by medicines are natural operations; but

2444-531: Is "no credible reference" to the cup prior to the end of the 19th century and "no mention of possible connections to the Grail until 1905." In 1977, the cup was displayed at the National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, as part of the "Aberystwyth 1277–1977" celebrations marking the 700th anniversary of the granting of the town's charter by Edward I . Specialists from the Royal Commission on

2538-433: Is a combination of extensive evidence of something not occurring , combined with an underlying scientific theory , very successful in making predictions, whose assumptions lead logically to the conclusion that something is impossible. While an impossibility assertion in natural science can never be absolutely proved, it could be refuted by the observation of a single counterexample . Such a counterexample would require that

2632-491: Is a communal and organised activity. Many scholars of religion have rejected the utility of the term magic and it has become increasingly unpopular within scholarship since the 1990s. The term magic comes from the Old Persian magu , a word that applied to a form of religious functionary about which little is known. During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC, this term was adopted into Ancient Greek , where it

2726-407: Is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) and further developed by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000). It is not possible, in process metaphysics, to conceive divine activity as a "supernatural" intervention into the "natural" order of events. Process theists usually regard the distinction between the supernatural and the natural as

2820-500: Is defined in the Journal of Parapsychology as "personal factors or processes in nature which transcend accepted laws" (1948: 311) and "which are non-physical in nature" (1962:310), and it is used to cover both extrasensory perception (ESP), an "awareness of or response to an external event or influence not apprehended by sensory means" (1962:309) or inferred from sensory knowledge, and psychokinesis (PK), "the direct influence exerted on

2914-489: Is found in many ancient cultures, and a belief in rebirth/ metempsychosis was held by Greek historic figures, such as Pythagoras , Socrates and Plato . It is also a common belief of various ancient and modern religions such as Spiritism , Theosophy and Eckankar and as an esoteric belief in many streams of Orthodox Judaism . It is found as well in many tribal societies around the world, in places such as Australia , East Asia , Siberia and South America . Although

Nanteos Cup - Misplaced Pages Continue

3008-414: Is known as " angelology ". In fine art , angels are usually depicted as having the shape of human beings of extraordinary beauty; they are often identified using the symbols of bird wings , halos and light . Prophecy involves a process in which messages are communicated by a god to a prophet . Such messages typically involve inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of divine will concerning

3102-515: Is natural or ordinary; unnaturally or extraordinarily great; abnormal, extraordinary". Obsolete uses include "of, relating to, or dealing with metaphysics ". As a noun, the term can mean "a supernatural being", with a particularly strong history of employment in relation to entities from the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas . The ancient world had no word that resembled "supernatural". Dialogues from Neoplatonic philosophy in

3196-471: Is normal and pervasive across cultures. Cross cultural studies indicate that there is coexistence of natural and supernatural explanations in both adults and children for explaining numerous things about the world, such as illness, death, and origins. Context and cultural input play a large role in determining when and how individuals incorporate natural and supernatural explanations. The coexistence of natural and supernatural explanations in individuals may be

3290-402: Is possible within the boundaries of the laws of physics. Epistemologically , the relationship between the supernatural and the natural is indistinct in terms of natural phenomena that, ex hypothesi, violate the laws of nature, in so far as such laws are realistically accountable . Parapsychologists use the term psi to refer to an assumed unitary force underlying the phenomena they study. Psi

3384-473: Is that there is disagreement about the definition of "natural" and the limits of naturalism . Concepts in the supernatural domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality and occultism or spiritualism . For sometimes we use the word nature for that Author of nature whom the schoolmen , harshly enough, call natura naturans , as when it is said that nature hath made man partly corporeal and partly immaterial . Sometimes we mean by

3478-470: Is the philosophical or religious concept that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death . It is also called rebirth or transmigration , and is a part of the Saṃsāra doctrine of cyclic existence. It is a central tenet of all major Indian religions , namely Jainism , Hinduism , Buddhism and Sikhism . The idea of reincarnation

3572-458: The Abrahamic traditions , including ancient and medieval Christian demonology , a demon is considered a harmful spiritual entity, below the heavenly planes which may cause demonic possession , calling for an exorcism . In Western occultism and Renaissance magic , which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic , Jewish Aggadah and Christian demonology , a demon is believed to be

3666-552: The Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad word by word through the angel Gabriel ( Jibril ). In Hinduism , some Vedas are considered apauruṣeya , "not human compositions", and are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti , "what is heard". Aleister Crowley stated that The Book of the Law had been revealed to him through a higher being that called itself Aiwass . A revelation communicated by

3760-621: The Roman era as well as the Indian religions, have been the subject of recent scholarly research. Unity Church and its founder Charles Fillmore teaches reincarnation. In recent decades, many Europeans and North Americans have developed an interest in reincarnation, and many contemporary works mention it. Karma ( / ˈ k ɑːr m ə / ; Sanskrit : कर्म , romanized :  karma , IPA: [ˈkɐɽmɐ] ; Pali : kamma ) means action, work or deed; it also refers to

3854-489: The afterlife , or in exceptional cases enter heaven alive . Heaven is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, a Paradise , in contrast to hell or the Underworld or the "low places" and universally or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity , goodness , piety , faith , or other virtues or right beliefs or simply the will of God . Some believe in

Nanteos Cup - Misplaced Pages Continue

3948-503: The miraculous ones wrought by Christ and his apostles were supernatural . Nomological possibility is possibility under the actual laws of nature . Most philosophers since David Hume have held that the laws of nature are metaphysically contingent—that there could have been different natural laws than the ones that actually obtain. If so, then it would not be logically or metaphysically impossible, for example, for you to travel to Alpha Centauri in one day; it would just have to be

4042-433: The nature of a thing the essence , or that which the schoolmen scruple not to call the quiddity of a thing, namely, the attribute or attributes on whose score it is what it is, whether the thing be corporeal or not, as when we attempt to define the nature of an angle , or of a triangle , or of a fluid body, as such. Sometimes we take nature for an internal principle of motion , as when we say that

4136-442: The "reputation" of the cup grew simply "by being repeatedly asserted." Jenkins said that Amery had been "doubtless inspired by... [George Eyre] Evans's zeal" during her visit to Nanteos, that Evans' "enthusiasm for such unique objects 'had never been known to evaporate'" and that he "clearly delighted in publicizing the remarkable properties and historical significance of the healing cup... and its association with Strata Florida." In

4230-519: The Abbey ('The Westminster of Wales')", which was attended by 350 people despite heavy rain. The event consisted largely of "lengthy addresses" by Rev. J. Francis Lloyd, Evans and Edmund Tyrrell Green but the main attraction was the cup. Jenkins reports: [T]he mood lightened considerably when the legendary Nanteos cup worked its magic once more. Evans had persuaded the Powell family of Nanteos to exhibit

4324-625: The Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales used the opportunity to examine the cup and concluded that it dated from the Late Middle Ages and was carved from wych elm . In July 2014, it was reported that the cup had been stolen from a house in Weston under Penyard while the occupant to whom it had been loaned was in hospital. It was recovered in June 2015. Following the recovery of the cup,

4418-551: The Cup at the event and, to great astonishment and delight, when it was removed from its case and laid on a table in full public view a brilliant ray of sunshine broke through the clouds and the rain stopped. Gerald Morgan describes a claim made in the 1960s guide to the Nanteos Mansion that German composer Richard Wagner stayed at Nanteos and was said to have been intrigued by the legend, which eventually inspired him to compose

4512-571: The Grail opera Parsifal . However, although the artistic dilettante George Powell probably met Wagner, there is no record of him visiting Nanteos. The cup was included in the documentary The Search for the Holy Grail: The True Story , broadcast by Channel 5 . In the programme they concluded that the wood the cup is made from dates from at least 1400 years after the crucifixion . The Commissioner for Monuments in Wales examined

4606-529: The Holy Grail, but police are investigating the burglary." Following intelligence that the cup had been sighted, police raided the Crown Inn pub at Lea , Herefordshire. The only item found that vaguely resembled the Nanteos Cup was a salad bowl. A £2000 reward was offered for the safe return of the cup. It was recovered on 19 June 2015 – as part of Operation Icarus – following an appeal on BBC One 's Crimewatch Roadshow . West Mercia Police gave few details of

4700-513: The House of Nant-Eos in safety, and deposited the treasure they had suffered so much to save. One by one the old monks died, and when the last one was at the point of death he entrusted the treasure to the owner of the house that had sheltered them, until the Church should once more claim its own. But the Church has not yet claimed it, and it is that treasure of the monks which you now see. Wood reports

4794-614: The Middle Ages, although in the early modern period Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural magic . Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western culture over the following centuries, with the former largely influencing early academic usages of the word. Throughout history, there have been examples of individuals who practiced magic and referred to themselves as magicians. This trend has proliferated in

SECTION 50

#1732772137641

4888-709: The Middle French's term's ancestor, post- Classical Latin ( supernaturalis ). Post-classical Latin supernaturalis first occurs in the 6th century, composed of the Latin prefix super- and nātūrālis (see nature ). The earliest known appearance of the word in the English language occurs in a Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena 's Dialogue ( orcherd of Syon , around 1425; Þei haue not þanne þe supernaturel lyȝt ne þe liȝt of kunnynge, bycause þei vndirstoden it not ). The semantic value of

4982-666: The Monasteries by Henry VIII had taken place between 1536 and 1541, over a century before the establishment of the Nanteos estate by Colonel John Jones, a Royalist during the English Civil War and High Sheriff of Cardiganshire for 1665. Strata Florida was dissolved in February 1539 and the site and most of its estates were passed to Sir Richard Devereux and his father Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford . Medieval records do not record that Strata Florida ever held

5076-511: The Stedman family, who owned the Strata Florida estate, when Richard Stedman died in 1746: At this time, no doubt, the Powell family came into possession of what is now known as "The Tregaron Healing Cup", or "The Nanteos Healing Cup". Sir S. R. Meyrick does not mention it in his Hist of Cardiganshire (1810), nor, as far as I am aware, do any of the innumerable English tourists, but extraordinary tales have been told (since about 1836) of

5170-479: The assumptions underlying the theory that implied the impossibility be re-examined. Some philosophers, such as Sydney Shoemaker , have argued that the laws of nature are in fact necessary, not contingent; if so, then nomological possibility is equivalent to metaphysical possibility. The term supernatural is often used interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural —the latter typically limited to an adjective for describing abilities which appear to exceed what

5264-425: The case that you could travel faster than the speed of light. But of course there is an important sense in which this is not nomologically possible; given that the laws of nature are what they are. In the philosophy of natural science , impossibility assertions come to be widely accepted as overwhelmingly probable rather than considered proved to the point of being unchallengeable. The basis for this strong acceptance

5358-426: The centre of the inside, and there is no evidence that one has been removed or lost due to damage. It is fashioned from hardwood, most likely wych elm, with no visible decorations. A groove which may previously have held a metal rim runs around the lip. The cup was first exhibited by George Powell (1842–1882) in 1878 at St David's College, Lampeter (now a campus of University of Wales, Trinity Saint David ), during

5452-439: The concept of the soul of the deceased making its own journey to the underworld, with the dead needing to be taken across a defining obstacle such as a lake or a river to reach this destination. Imagery of such journeys can be found in both ancient and modern art. The descent to the underworld has been described as "the single most important myth for Modernist authors". A spirit is a supernatural being, often but not exclusively

5546-725: The corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanings since the ancient world, the term "supernatural" emerged in the Middle Ages and did not exist in the ancient world. The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal . The term is attributed to non-physical entities , such as angels , demons , gods and spirits . It also includes claimed abilities embodied in or provided by such beings, including magic , telekinesis , levitation , precognition and extrasensory perception . The supernatural

5640-401: The country-people to bring some pressure to bear on those who would otherwise have destroyed it, to secure this valuable relic. Probably the new lords of Strata Florida had some belief in its efficacy. If this account of the matter is true, the relic is extremely interesting, as an example of the survival of medieval belief, and even of medieval practice, down to our own day, in a country in which

5734-522: The creatures cannot do, in traditional theism, in comparison to what they can do in process metaphysics (that is, to be part creators of the world with God). Heaven , or the heavens , is a common religious, cosmological , or transcendent place where beings such as gods , angels , spirits, saints , or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned , or live. According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to Earth or incarnate , and earthly beings can ascend to heaven in

SECTION 60

#1732772137641

5828-405: The cup to be the Holy Grail and published a pamphlet announcing this, Sought and Found: A story of the Holy Grail , in 1905. In it she relates the story of the cup's origins, allegedly as told to her by her "hostess" at Nanteos (who at this time would have been either a very elderly Anna Maria Powell, wife of William Powell, or her daughter-in-law Margaret Powell): Many years ago, when Henry VIII

5922-517: The cup's current owner, Fiona Mirylees, and examined the cup. In July 2014, the cup became the object of renewed media interest after it was reported stolen from a house in Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire . The cup had been loaned to "a seriously ill woman with connections to the family [that owned it]", and was believed to have been stolen while the woman was in hospital. A spokeswoman for West Mercia Police said: "I don't want to say we are hunting

6016-576: The cup's legend, and the Western Mail reported: The cup is of wood, traditionally supposed to have been formed from a piece of the true Cross. Who made it is not known, or how it came into the possession of the ancient family of Nanteos – the Powells. Its healing virtues in certain cases of female disorder were in great repute, and when all hopes from doctors had been given up the sufferer had only to take all nourishment, wet and dry, out of it for

6110-409: The early Church Fathers had done. As a result, he had created a dichotomy of sorts of the natural and supernatural. Though the phrase "supra naturam" was used since the 4th century AD, it was in the 1200s that Thomas Aquinas used the term "supernaturalis". Despite this, the term had to wait until the end of the medieval period before it became more popularly used. The discussions on "nature" from

6204-646: The healing powers supposed to be possessed by this fragment of what is probably an ancient Mazer Bowl. Wood points out that there is no record of the cup in any will or inventory of the Stedman or Powell families. The cup received wider attention over the following two decades. In 1890, the North Wales Chronicle newspaper mentioned the cup on its Notices page, reproducing the same details that had been reported in Archaeologia Cambrensis in 1878. By 1895, more details had been added to

6298-425: The idea of rebirth in many schools of Indian religions (particularly Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism and Sikhism ) as well as Taoism . In these schools, karma in the present affects one's future in the current life, as well as the nature and quality of future lives – one's saṃsāra . In Catholic theology , the supernatural order is, according to New Advent , defined as "the ensemble of effects exceeding

6392-519: The legends in the Idylls of the King , published between 1856 and 1885. This was followed by J. M. Dent's illustrated edition of Sir Thomas Malory 's Le Morte d'Arthur , issued in 12 parts between 1893 and 1894. By 1901, George Eyre Evans, a local historian and antiquarian, had become concerned about the preservation of the ruins at Strata Florida. He set out to promote and "raise the public profile" of

6486-671: The majority of denominations within Christianity and Islam do not believe that individuals reincarnate, particular groups within these religions do refer to reincarnation; these groups include the mainstream historical and contemporary followers of Cathars , Alawites , the Druze and the Rosicrucians . The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs about reincarnation that were characteristic of Neoplatonism , Orphism , Hermeticism , Manicheanism and Gnosticism of

6580-429: The many enter into complex unity" (Whitehead 1978, 21). It is tempting to emphasize process theism's denial of the supernatural and thereby highlight that the processed God cannot do in comparison what the traditional God could do (that is, to bring something from nothing). In fairness, however, equal stress should be placed on process theism's denial of the natural (as traditionally conceived) so that one may highlight what

6674-521: The modern period, with a growing number of magicians appearing within the esoteric milieu. British esotericist Aleister Crowley described magic as the art of effecting change in accordance with will. Divination (from Latin divinare "to foresee, to be inspired by a god", related to divinus , divine ) is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic , standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how

6768-478: The outcomes two distinct cognitive domains: one concerned with the physical-mechanical relations and another with social relations. Studies on indigenous groups have allowed for insights on how such coexistence of explanations may function. A deity ( / ˈ d iː ə t i / or / ˈ d eɪ . ə t i / ) is a supernatural being considered divine or sacred . The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as "a god or goddess (in

6862-519: The owners placed it in the care of the National Library of Wales, where it went on permanent public display in June 2016. The vessel is a shallow, hardwood bowl without handles, with a broad flat foot. Originally it would have stood 10 cm in height, with a diameter of 12 cm, although it has been extensively damaged over the years and slightly less than half of the bowl remains. Unlike other examples of mazers, it has no boss or knob in

6956-505: The piece and said it was exactly the right size and shape to be a mazer bowl, a type of medieval vessel, that it was wych elm and was from the 14th century. Similarly, in a 1998 BBC / TLC / Time-Life Television documentary Juliette Wood of the Folklore Society confirmed that the cup was a wych elm mazer or food bowl, and not made of olive wood. For a BBC Four documentary The Making of King Arthur , Simon Armitage interviewed

7050-465: The popular religious sentiments are certainly not tinged with medievalism. The cup was correctly identified and subsequently catalogued by the Society as a wooden mazer dating from the Middle Ages. A drawing made around the same time by Worthington George Smith shows the cup in the same damaged condition as it exists today, held together with 2 metal staples. Wood found that prior to 1878 "evidence for

7144-493: The possibility of a heaven on Earth in a world to come . Another belief is in an axis mundi or world tree which connects the heavens, the terrestrial world and the underworld . In Indian religions , heaven is considered as Svarga loka , and the soul is again subjected to rebirth in different living forms according to its karma . This cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana . Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, outside

7238-404: The powers of the created universe and gratuitously produced by God for the purpose of raising the rational creature above its native sphere to a God-like life and destiny." The Modern Catholic Dictionary defines it as "the sum total of heavenly destiny and all the divinely established means of reaching that destiny, which surpass the mere powers and capacities of human nature." Process theology

7332-436: The prophet's social world and events to come (compare divine knowledge ). Prophecy is not limited to any one culture. It is a common property to all known ancient societies around the world, some more than others. Many systems and rules about prophecy have been proposed over several millennia. In religion and theology , revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with

7426-488: The recipient. In the Abrahamic religions , the term is used to refer to the process by which God reveals knowledge of himself, his will and his divine providence to the world of human beings. In secondary usage, revelation refers to the resulting human knowledge about God, prophecy and other divine things. Revelation from a supernatural source plays a less important role in some other religious traditions such as Buddhism , Confucianism and Taoism . Reincarnation

7520-484: The recovery except to say that they were contacted by an anonymous source and the cup was subsequently "handed to officers 'on neutral ground' in a pre-arranged meeting". No arrests were made. Bibliography Notes Supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature . The term is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis , from Latin super- (above, beyond, or outside of) + natura (nature). Although

7614-560: The same divine principle; and nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity but accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and are reborn just like any other being. Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God . A deity need not be omnipotent , omnipresent , omniscient , omnibenevolent or eternal , The monotheistic God, however, does have these attributes . Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in

7708-435: The scholastic period were diverse and unsettled with some postulating that even miracles are natural and that natural magic was a natural part of the world. The metaphysical considerations of the existence of the supernatural can be difficult to approach as an exercise in philosophy or theology because any dependencies on its antithesis, the natural , will ultimately have to be inverted or rejected. One complicating factor

7802-582: The site and organised a number of tours. In the summer of 1901 Evans led a guided tour of Strata Florida for the Chautauqua movement's summer assembly "where he spoke enchantingly on the rise, glory and fall of the abbey." He then arranged for the Chautauquans to visit Nanteos "to see the celebrated wooden healing cup." Ethelwyn Mary Amery, a member of the Chautauqua movement, subsequently declared

7896-406: The spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and future suffering. With origins in ancient India 's Vedic civilization , the philosophy of karma is closely associated with

7990-475: The tangible world (Heaven, Hell, or other) is referred to as otherworld . The underworld is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. The concept of an underworld is found in almost every civilization and "may be as old as humanity itself". Common features of underworld myths are accounts of living people making journeys to

8084-1135: The temple of every living being's body, as sensory organs and mind. Deities have also been envisioned as a form of existence ( Saṃsāra ) after rebirth , for human beings who gain merit through an ethical life, where they become guardian deities and live blissfully in heaven , but are also subject to death when their merit runs out. An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies . In Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism , angels are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God or Heaven and Earth . Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings and carrying out God's tasks. Within Abrahamic religions, angels are often organized into hierarchies , although such rankings may vary between sects in each religion, and are given specific names or titles, such as Gabriel or " Destroying angel ." The term "angel" has also been expanded to various notions of spirits or figures found in other religious traditions. The theological study of angels

8178-423: The term has shifted over the history of its use. Originally the term referred exclusively to Christian understandings of the world. For example, as an adjective, the term can mean "belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly beings; attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; occult, paranormal" or "more than what

8272-460: The third century AD influenced the development of the concept of the supernatural, which later evolved through Christian theology . The term nature had existed since antiquity, with Latin authors like Augustine using the word and its cognates at least 600 times in City of God . In the medieval period, "nature" had ten different meanings and "natural" had eleven different meanings. Peter Lombard ,

8366-448: The underworld , often for some heroic purpose. Other myths reinforce traditions that entrance of souls to the underworld requires a proper observation of ceremony, such as the ancient Greek story of the recently dead Patroclus haunting Achilles until his body could be properly buried for this purpose. Persons having social status were dressed and equipped in order to better navigate the underworld. A number of mythologies incorporate

8460-477: The unstable abbey ruins safe and the appearance of the Nanteos Cup "coincided quite closely" with these repairs. Richard Barber , a historian specialising in Arthurian legends , has also proposed that the cup was probably discovered at the site of the abbey in the 19th century. John Thomas Evans, in his The Church Plate of Cardiganshire (1914), suggested that the cup may have been passed to the Powell family from

8554-432: The years following the publication of Sought and Found , Evans "increasingly wielded a powerful influence over developments at Strata Florida" and the cup and its association with the Grail played an important part in generating the public interest necessary to ensure the remains of the abbey were "properly preserved and excavated more intensively." On 23 June 1909, Evans held an event at Strata Florida advertised as "A Day at

8648-406: Was destroying the Monasteries, his servants came into Wales, and, hearing of an ancient Monastery among the hills, where only seven old monks remained to guard their treasure, determined to destroy the Abbey and seize their goods. But the monks were warned by friendly neighbours, and fled by night, bearing their treasure with them. Their journey was long and dangerous for such old men, but they reached

8742-432: Was supposed to possess healing power, which could only be called miraculous. It was sent for to the house of a sick man, and some valuable object was left as a pledge to ensure its safe return. The patient had to drink wine or some liquor out of it. Not content with this, he sometimes nibbled a piece from its edge: hence its present unshapely condition. The source of its alleged virtues were supposed to lie in its having formed

8836-409: Was used with negative connotations, to apply to religious rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional and dangerous. This meaning of the term was then adopted by Latin in the first century BC. The concept was then incorporated into Christian theology during the first century AD, where magic was associated with demons and thus defined against religion. This concept was pervasive throughout

#640359