The Magician's Dictionary

X, XTIAN

"Christ," "Christian." "Xtian" is HPB's usage, as in "The impious Xtians." There are two Christs. There is the "historical" Christ of the Church, which is a composite of John the Baptist, St. Paul and a symbolic "carpenter" (i.e., church-builder) of the mythical village, Nazareth. Belief in the existence of this unreal person is all that is required for obtaining physical immortality. The other Christ is a consciousness-raising state of mind, practiced by occultists who call themselves, not "Christians," but Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and the like.

X-FACTOR

Colin Wilson's term for the special energy or force beyond the four natural forces (electromagnetism, gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces). Various authorities call this occult power by different names; Mesmer's animal magnetism, Bulwer-Lytton's Vril, Crowley's Will, Freud's Libido, Jung's synchronicity, Reich's Orgone, etc.

XANADU

Name of a project proposed by Ted Nelson. Its goal is a worldwide computer-based information network using "Hypertext linked in many directions rather than in one- dimensional sequence".

XAPHAN

The demon who tends the infernal fires. God of arsonists.

XIBALBA

The Quiché Mayan equivalent of Hell or the world of the dead.

XUL

Sumerian for "evil." Xul is also the 6th Mayan month (see MAYAN CALENDAR.)