New Age Dictionary F
Faerie: (archai-Middle English -fairie ,<Old French-faerie<Latin-Fata, the Fates)
1) A fairy. 2) The land or realm of the fairies. 3) Of or like a fairy or fairies. 4) Enchanted; visionary. 
Fairy:
A tiny (usually imaginary) being in human form, depicted as clever, mischievious, and possessing magical powers. An elemental,  
Faith: 
A basic Christian tenet that does not seem to be well understood.  The word translated faith in the New Testament is related to the word translated faithful.  Faith is that which causes someone to be faithful.
Faith Healing:
Fakir:   
A wandering religious mendicant, particularly one who exhibits supernatural powers. Originally applied to Muslim (Sufi) mystics, the term took on its broader usage in India.
Fall, Fall of Man:
Many Christians believe that in the Garden of Eden the first man, Adam, committed a terrible sin (eating of the fruit of  the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) which separated all of creation from the presence of God and doomed Adam and his offspring to eternal separation from God.  They beleive that God killed Jesus on the cross to "redeem" man from the consequences of Adam's "sin".(See Adam and Eve) 
Fallen Angels:
Postbiblical Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legends concerning the rebellion of Satan/Lucifer/Iblis and his band against God, usually prompted by the creation of the first human being in the divine image and the command that the angels give it homage.  In punishment, they are expelled from heaven.
False God:     
A god that is not real, but invented by men or (according to Judea-Christian teaching) inspired by demons to deceive people so they do not believe in the true and living God.  In the Bible any god of another people was considered a false god..
False Prophet:
Generally, any prophet or teacher that is not true. According to Fundamentalist Christianity,  it is a prophet who teaches anything contrary to their beliefs.  Specifically, it is that being referred to in the Book of Revelations. According to this teaching, he is a person who will manifest himself  shortly before the physical return of Christ.  He will be a miracle worker and during the Tribulation period will bring fire down from heaven and command that people worship the image of the Beast 
Familiar
A spirit or guardian who is close to a human being and considered a companion in magick.  The spirit often manifests itself in a sacred object or a pet.   This explains the misconception that all witches have black cats, which is not necessarily true though a cat is a magickal creature and often does become a familiar.
Familiar Spirit:  
A Biblical term meaning 'familiar" which  Christians use to describe a demon which has possessed the body of a human.
Fard, Wallace D: (b., d. unknown)
Known as Master Wali Farrad Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930.
Fascination:
The practice of controlling another through psychic or magickal power..  .
Farrakhan, Louis: (b. Louis Eugene Wolcott, 1933) 
Leader  of the Nation of Islam since 1975, who advocates economic uplift and the original teachings of Wallace Fard and Elijah Muhammad.
Fast, Fasting:      
Abstinence from food for a length of time. A common ascetic practice, it is also a widespread mode of purification with respect to ritual activities or the restoration of health.  In Christianity fasting derives from the example of Jesus, who both fasted and recommended the practice. Partial or total abstinence from food and drink was institutionalized in early Christianity for certain days. Today in Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches there are seasons of fasting before Christmas and Easter and, in some traditions, a day of fasting before participating in the Eucharist.  Muslims in good health must observe a daytime fast (Arab. sawm) during the month of Ramadan by abstaining from food, drink, smoking, and sexual activity. In the evening, a meal is eaten and many attend the mosque for seasonal litanies. A light meal is eaten before daybreak.
Fate:
1) The destined result of life. Kismet, Karma, destiny are other names..2). an event or course of events that must inevitably happen in the future. 
Fate:
The oldest occult, metaphysical magazine in the US. Established in 1948 by Clark Publishing Company,  Co-founded by Ray Palmer, editor of Amazing Stories magazine, and Curtis Fuller. Palmer left in 1955.Fate was sold to Llewellyn Publications in 1988. 
Father Divine: (1878�1965):
Born George Baker, he was the Black minister and founder of the Peace Mission Movement in Sayville, New York, in 1932..  on of ex-slaves, Divine developed a theology comprised of elements of African-American Christianity, Methodism, Catholicism, Pentecostalism, and the power-of-positive-thinking ideology, New Thought. He taught that he was God and encouraged followers to channel his spirit to achieve health, prosperity, and salvation. An integrationist, Divine attracted both blacks and whites and campaigned for Civil Rights. During the Depression, disciples opened businesses offering low-priced goods and services, and Peace Missions provided social assistance to the poor. 
Fatima: (ca. 605-633)
Favorite daughter of Muhammad; wife of fourth Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Imam of the Shia; mother of Imams Hasan and Husayn; ancestor of all of Muhammad's descendants. Distinguished by her piety, poverty, and special purity, and known as "the Radiant One," "the Virgin," and "Chief of Women," she is venerated by Muslims, especially the Shia.
Female Circumcision:
Feng Shui:
Fetish: (derived from a Portuguese word for medals and crucifixes worn by sailors and extended by them to amulets used by Africans; first used as a generic term by Ch. de Brosses in 1760)
1) An article of paraphernalia used in religious practice, or a physical object representative of religious authority. Fetishes commonly are misunderstood to be objects accorded magical or supernatural powers by their users. Objects such as the perfect ear of corn or Corn Mother, important in religious practices of Pueblos (American Southwest), medicine bundles of various North American tribes, and objects that represent the religious authority of clans in Native American communities are often referred to as fetishes. 2) Small carved stone objects and feather arrangements, with no religious significance, manufactured for commercial sale by modern Native American peoples. 3) An object or body part that arouses sexual desire, sometimes to the exclusion of genital attraction.
Filioque:      
The Christian doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds equally from both the Father and the Son.
Findhorn Community
A New Age community located in the North of Scotland, noted for growing giant vegetables as the result of communicating with the elementals..
Firewalking:  
A ritual means of demonstrating an individual's possession of extraordinary powers by appearing unharmed after walking barefoot over a series of fires or across a bed of hot coals. Firewalking serves as a religious ordeal or test.
Feng Shui:
Geomancy, called feng-shui (wind and water) in China, is the art of healthful arrangement of rooms, furniture and buildings to effect spiritual, psychological and physical well-being.
Firmament:
In Mediterranean cosmologies, a dome that separates sky from earth or upper from lower waters.
Findhorn Community
A New Age community located in the North of Scotland. This group became notable through growing gigantic vegetable by communicating with the elementals.
Firewalking:
The activity of walking on hot coals, rocks or cinders without burning the soles of one's feet. In some cultures [e.g., India], firwalking is part of a religious ritual and is associated with mystical powers.  In America, firewalking is a spiritual, self-empowering motivational activity.  Tony Robbins popularized firewalking as an activity for demonstrating it is possible for people to do things which seem impossible to them
Firstborn::      
The first of the mother's offspring. In ancient times it was usually the firstborn son who inherited the family name and property.  Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Christ was created first.
First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine:
Begun in 1988 in Bethelehem, PA: as a marketing ploy/parody by Farndu and Karl Edwards, the church spoofs traditional religions and cults by �worshipping� Elvis Presley in weekly services held on the Internet and the campus chapel of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.  The parody was taken seriously by many.
Fish Symbol:
The two crossed fish of Pisces was adopted early-on as a symbol for Christ and Christianity.  Later the symbol was shortened to just one fish.  The Greek word for fish (ichthys) contains the first letters of the phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" in Greek   Once the Age of Aquarius began this symbol automatically became the symbol for the Devil or evil.
Five-fold Kiss:
A traditional Wiccan salute generally performed between the high priest and the high priestess.  This involves kissing five areas on the body of the priestess with the accompanying magickal words:
"Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways.
Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar.
Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be.
Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty.
Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the sacred names."
Flagellation:
1) In the Christian tradition, self-inflicted whipping as a ritual of purification or penance. 2) In other traditions, being whipped is part of the ordeals associated with rites of passage.
Flotation Tank
A sensory deprivation tank containing skin-temperature water (93.5 degrees) and Epsom salts, in which a person is immersed for relaxation and rehabilitation, often in conjunction with neuromuscular therapy.
Flower Essences
A modality that uses extracts from flowering plants in homeopathic proportions as catalysts for healing. Each liquid potentized preparation carries the imprint of a specific plant which speaks a subtle language that works on the root causes of disease. Originated by Dr. Edward Bach.
Fohat: (Tibetan)
1)In Theosophy, a term used to represent the active (male) potency of the Sakti (female reproductive power) in nature. The essence of cosmic electricity. 2)An occult Tibetan term for Daiviprakriti, primordial light: and in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless destructive and formative power. 3)Esoterically, it is the same, Fohat being the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant."
Font:
1) A receptacle, usually of stone, for the water used in Christian baptism. 2) A basin or tub in which the baptism is performed. 3)A small receptacle (also called a stoup) for holy water found at the entrance of a Roman Catholic Church.
Foot Washing:
1) A mode of ritual purification. 2) Based on a New Testament story (John 13:14-17) the ritual of foot washing is observed on Holy Thursday in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches and more frequently in certain Protestant churches. It bears a range of symbolic referents, from an expression of humility to a gesture of reconciliation or service.
Ford, Arthur:
Noted 20th century medium and psychic.  Founder of Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship.
Fortean:
Strange phenomena. Derived from Charles Fort, "philosopher of strangeness."
Fortunetelling:
A form of divination in which a person attempts to predict the future using alleged paranormal powers
Foundation for Inner Peace:
Organization and publisher for A Course in Miracles.
Four Noble Truths:
The essential teaching of early Buddhism. According to tradition, after attaining enlightenment, the Buddha proclaimed his liberating insight into the nature of existence in his first sermon through the topic of the Four Noble Truths. The first truth (Suffering) declares the nature of all phenomena comprising ordinary unenlightened experience as suffering, impermanent, and lacking in any enduring or substantial self or essence. The second truth (the Origin of Suffering) states that suffering has a cause, namely, craving. Within this truth is subsumed the fundamental doctrine of conditioning, or dependent origination, which operates both generally and in the moral arena of reward and retribution through transmigration. The third truth (the Cessation of Suffering) asserts that despite the fact of universal suffering in a totally conditioned universe proclaimed by the first two truths, there is liberation through the Cessation of Suffering, which is the nirvana, experienced by the Buddha. The fourth truth (the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering) proclaims that this liberation is accessible to all who follow the way set forth by the Buddha. The fourth truth inaugurates Buddhism as a religion and is the legitimation and touchstone for all Buddhist practice.
Fox Sisters:
Margaret, 1836�93, Leah, 1814�90, and Catherine, 1841�92. In 1848, Margaret and Catherine claimed to hear mysterious rappings in their Arcadia, N.Y., home. Claiming the sounds to be communication from spirits, the sisters became the founders and most famous seers of 19th-cent, American spiritualism, which claimed about one million followers by 1855. They moved to Rochester, N.Y., and the rappings followed them. They organized �performances� in theaters to which they charged admission, attracting attention and skepticism. .See Spiritualism.
Fox, Matthew:
Dominican Catholic priest silenced by the Vatican for teaching what he calls �creation-centered spirituality�.
Free and Accepted Masons:  See: Freemasonry
Free Will:
A philosophical and theological notion asserting the individual has the ability to make a choice independent of prior conditioning.. Free will is usually contrasted with determinism.and the laws of cause and effect.
Freemasonry: 
Also known as Speculative Masons, it is the world's largest  and best-known secret society, with its greatest numbers in Britain and North America.  The organization is not a religion but a fraternity. seeking to give philosophical, moral, or spiritual meaning to the lodge, tools, and oaths of the stone cutters.   The first formal organization was the chartering of the Grand Lodge (London) in 1714,  The organization is loosely based on associations or guilds of stone cutters ( masons). Freemasonry claims to have its roots in the builders of Solomon's Temple about 1000 BC. To become a Mason one does not have to be a Christian but must acknowledge belief in a supreme being and in the immortal soul. Masons advance through a complex system of degrees correlated to a symbolic spiritual initiation advancing from darkness to full consciousness.  Since 1738, Roman Catholicism has officially condemned Freemasonry as do some Protestant denominations. It is outlawed in several countries, and anti-Masonic sentiments have played an important role in American religious history.    
Free Will: 
A Christian doctrine which attempts to explain the existence of "evil" in a God-created universe by claiming that God gave his human creations "free will" the power to make a choice outside of any prior programming. Not to be confused with freedom or liberty.   The doctrine runs contrary to the concept of cause and effect.
Freyr:
The Norse god of fertility, brother and husband of Freyja and son of Njordr.
Friar:
A title for a member of one of the Christian mendicant (i.e., begging) orders who are not properly monks because they are not confined to a monastery.
Friends, Society of:
Better known as Quakers, an Anglo-American pacifist sectarian movement originating in the religious confusion of the English Civil War and Commonwealth era (1640-60).  George Fox (1624-91), a "seeker" discontented with both the Church of England and the Puritan and other sectarian alternatives that flourished during the period, attracted a radical group of followers through his prophetic words and deeds. According to one tradition, Fox and his followers became known as Quakers when, refusing to swear oaths or otherwise respect the status of the law courts, they urged magistrates to tremble before God rather than the law. More correctly known as the "Society of Friends [of Truth]," they distinguished themselves theologically from other Christians through their doctrine of the "Inward" or "Inner Light," the manifestation of the divine within each individual that, when recognized and nurtured, inevitably led to religious truth.  Friends in Britain flourished despite adversity. Many were jailed for their pacifist and other nonconforming ways, while others organized their resources to alleviate these sufferings until relief came in the form of the Toleration Act of 1689. Barred from the universities and professions, they benefited from their reputation for honesty and hard work and often were successful in business. Friends rejected hierarchy and churchly authority, organizing instead according to local weekly meetings for worship and progressively less frequent and geographically more encompassing regional meetings for governance. Weekly meetings were not led by ministers, but a clerk was present to record their proceedings. Worship was conducted in silence in a bare meeting house, with individuals speaking only when prompted by the Inner Light.  The "friendly persuasion" was transplanted to the New World in 1682 by William Penn, an aristocratic convert who secured a royal land grant in payment of debts owed his family. The Pennsylvania colony was based on Quaker principles of consensus and fair dealing in its governance; its capital, Philadelphia--"the city of brotherly love"--reflected in its name and spacious layout Penn's hopes for a peaceable society. English demands for support in the French and Indian Wars, however, led to a series of compromises and finally, in 1756, the renunciation of governmental power by the Quakers, who nevertheless continued to constitute a commercial elite in the region.  Quakers in the new American nation continued to cope with the problems engendered by their pacifism, which led to suffering but also proved instrumental in securing governmental recognition of the rights of conscientious objectors. Quakers pursued a peacemaking role by opposing both violence and the injustices that provoked it. Their Inner Light doctrine was incompatible with social inequality, so that women enjoyed equal status to men. Quakers such as John Woolman, Anthony Benezet, and, later, Levi Coffin, were active in the late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century campaign against slavery. Many contemporary British Quakers also became active in reform causes. Their plain speech and dress, modified over time, were also manifestations of this egalitarianism.  Internal divisions manifested themselves early in the nineteenth century in the United States, when social and geographical divisions expressed themselves in theological forms. From 1826 to 1827 followers of Elias Hicks (1748-1830) near Philadelphia rejected the local elite's embracing of evangelical Protestant tenets and symbols, and called for a return to early Quaker practice. Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847), an English Friend, pressed the evangelical cause further, while John Wilbur's (1774-1856) followers tried to combine the two emphases. Richmond, Indiana, emerged, in the first half of the nineteenth century, as a focus of Gurneyite settlement that was later influenced by the Holiness movement. In the twentieth century, the Philadelphia Meeting--part of the larger General Conference--became the center for Friends concerned with philanthropic and peacemaking activity, while the Friends United Meeting (Richmond, Indiana) and Evangelical Friends Alliance (Cleveland, Ohio) represented more evangelical strains.  In the 1990s, Friends in the United States of various affiliations numbered in excess of one hundred thousand; this was somewhat over half of the worldwide membership, with roughly 20 percent of the remainder in Britain.
Fundamentalism: 
1) In its strictest sense, the rejection by a given religious group of the results of historical-critical study of their sacred texts. 2) In a broader sense, the struggle against modernism by religious groups who claim the continued relevancy of earlier time periods for models of truth and value and reject what they perceive as forms of secularism. Such groups are often characterized by a strict authoritarianism that disallows individual variation from the defined (scriptural) norm of faith. 
Fundamentalism: (Christian):
Fundamentalism is a Protestant view that affirms the absolute and unerring authority of the Bible, rules out a scientific or critical study of the scriptures, denies the theory of evolution, and holds that alternate religious views within Christianity or outside are false.   A Bible conference of conservative Protestants at Niagara, New York, in 1895 affirmed five doctrinal points that were later named the "five fundamentals": the verbal inerrancy of scripture, the divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, and Jesus' bodily resurrection and physical return. Although these points do not include all the elements of Protestant fundamentalism, they are regularly present in fundamentalist views.   A series of volumes entitled The Fundamentals by American, Canadian, and British writers (1910-15) carried the discussion further by attacking Catholic doctrine, Christian Science, Mormon teachings, Darwin's theory of evolution, and liberal theology's critical study of the Bible and denial of miracles. In 1920 C. L. Laws used the term fundamentalist in the Baptist Watchman-Examiner to identify these views.   In the North during the 1920s and following, Presbyterians and Baptists, among others, were torn by controversies over fundamentalism. From this struggle came institutions like Westminster Theological Seminary (1929) and new denominations such as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Conservative Baptist Association of America (1947). Interdenominational organizations were also formed, e.g., the American Council of Christian Churches (1941, to offset the National Council of Churches) and the National Association of Evangelicals (1942).   By the 1950s, Neo-Orthodox theology with its emphasis on biblical revelation had changed the theological situation from a standoff between fundamentalists and liberals by developing a middle ground between them. Since the more militant fundamentalist leaders had settled into their own organizations by then, the basis for intragroup fights lessened, and the controversy waned.  With the political swing to the Right in the 1980s fundamentalist voices found new support. Attacks on evolution and liberal scholarship fell into the background as some fundamentalists emphasized more positive themes such as conversion, personal and social morality, and a right-wing political agenda. In other groups, however, attacks on nonfundamentalist scholarship came with new vigor.   Fundamentalism is characteristically evangelistic. Some ministries combine evangelism with healing. Premillennialism, the view that Jesus will return to earth in visible form and establish a thousand-year kingdom, has frequently been an aspect of the fundamentalist movement. Finally, since the Scopes trial (1925) fundamentalism has waged a war against contemporary science, particularly the theory of evolution. Scientific creationism is one form of the attack. In an attempt to harmonize Genesis 1 and certain scientific arguments, this school holds, for example, that the geologic layers of the earth cannot be used to support the vast time sequences of standard earth science because the catastrophic flood of Noah's day was the source of much of the layering.  Core beliefs of the movement are virtually identical with evangelical Christianity. Some fundamentalists, however, later distinguished themselves from evangelicals (or neo-evangelicals) whom they saw as too compromising and ecumenical. The term �fundamentalist� is a synonym for one who is narrow-minded, bigoted, anti-intellectual or divisive.
Fundamentalism: (Islamic): 
In Islam, Fundamentalism is a contemporary category of scholarly comparative analysis referring to those ideologues who advocate a mythic view of Islamic values and seek to restore the timeless fabric of holistic law. They oppose the secular ethos that, in their view, characterizes not only the non-Muslim West but also putatively Muslim nation-states. Islamic fundamentalists are largely drawn from male groups who have experienced colonial rule as disruption and alienation and postcolonial independence as acculturation and hypocrisy. They resent the economic forces that produced urbanization. They protest the absence of divine mandates in the public sphere of sprawling cities. They reject the modernist hegemony, equating pluralism with relativism and atheism. Instead, they uphold radical patriarchy, for which they find sanction in both scripture and history.   Islamic fundamentalists, like other fundamentalists, are modern without being modernist. Whether accepting oil export revenues or using clandestine bank accounts, they benefit from the capitalist-driven world system, despite their official opposition to both capitalism and communism as Western ideologies. They also understand the power of modern technology. They resort to modern media (newspapers, radio, television, cassettes) and, when necessary, they use state-of-the-art weapons (car bombs, Sten guns, plastic explosives) to achieve short-term objectives. Masters of the communications revolution, they often project their message better than do their adversaries.   Yet only a few Islamic fundamentalists are terrorists, and not all Arab terrorists are fundamentalists. It is important to distinguish fundamentalists from other political or social reformers. The late-nineteenth-century activists Jamal ad-din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh used Islamic symbols to mobilize powerful anticolonial movements, yet they did not perceive less fervent fellow Muslims as their enemies.   Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists differ from one another, especially in their attitude toward the state. Neither Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, nor Abul-Ala Mawdudi (1903-79), founder of the Muslim League, believed that the nation-state, itself a truncated residue of colonial rule, could become the vehicle for inscribing Islamic values or pursing Islamic ideals. By contrast, their Shiite counterparts had faith in the state, provided it had adopted an Islamic constitution.   Shiite fundamentalists have openly employed the range of Western worldviews, from Marxism to just-war theory to creation science. Ideology itself has been embraced as voluntary religion. Unlike customary religion, ideology requires collective ideals to be translated into reality through concerted action.   Islamic fundamentalists have captured a major state (Iran in 1979), they have assassinated a bold Muslim statesman (Anwar Sadat in 1981), and they have marshalled sporadic public support in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and, most recently, Jordan. However, they remain a minority viewpoint among all Muslims.
Futhark: 
Runic alphabet used often in divination, its origins are Norse (Germanic). Divided into the elder Futhark and the younger Futhark (which has fewer runes).