The most common shape of tree-topper is a common figure in what family of religions?
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Tree-topper A tree-topper or treetopper is a decorative ornament placed on the top (or "crown") of a Christmas tree or Hanukkah bush. Tree-toppers can take any form, but the most common shape is that of an Angel (a "Christmas angel"); tree-toppers shaped as stars (representing the "Christmas star" or the Star of David) or finials are also common. Other less common tree-toppers include paper rosettes, ribbon bows, Father Christmases or Santa Clauses, Christian crosses, owls, and sunbursts.
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Angel An angel, especially according to Abrahamic religions, is a spiritual being superior to humans in power and intelligence. Angels are typically described as benevolent, dreadful, and endowed with wisdom and knowledge of earthly events, but not infallible; for they strive with each other, and God has to make peace between them. Most of them serve either as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, or as guardian spirits.
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Ogu na Ofo The Ofo is a sacred symbol of worship of the Igbo people. Vernantius Emeka Ndukaihe wrote in "Achievement as Value in the Igbo/African Identity: The Ethics", section "The 'Ofo' as a sacred symbol of worship": "The most important 'Ofo' is the lineage 'Ofo', believed to have been acquired by the founder of the 'Umunna' (family lineage group), as head. At the death of such a head, the next 'Okpara' (first male child) inherits it. So it goes, handed from generation to generation. There are also personal 'Ofo'. A young man acquires his first 'Ofo' when he is initiated into his first 'Ozo' (a sacred institution reserved for the honourable elders of the community) title. As one advances into the more senior 'Ozo', one acquires the corresponding 'Ofo'. Thus, to possess 'Ofo' is a symbol of great social, religious and moral achievement. The individual 'Ofo' of the 'Ozo' titled man can only be inherited by his eldest son after all the burial rites have been completed. It is regarded a calamity when a dead father has no son to inherit his 'Ofo'". The Igbo cultural and religious worldview is further explained with great detail in this book.
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Triquetra Triquetra ( ; Latin "tri-" "three" and "quetrus" "cornered") originally meant "triangle" and was used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. It has come to refer exclusively to a particular more complicated shape formed of three "vesicae piscis" (the leaf-like shape in between two equal diameter circles when both centers are on the circumference of the other circle), sometimes with an added circle in or around the three lobes. Also known as a "trinity knot" when parallel doubled-lines are in the graph, the design is used as a religious symbol adapted from ancient Pagan Celtic images by Christianity, as is common in Christianity. It is similar to Odin's symbol, the valknut.
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Idolatry Idolatry literally means the worship of an "idol", also known as a cult image, in the form of a physical image, such as a statue or icon. In Abrahamic religions, namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism, idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than God as if it were God. In these and several other monotheistic religions, idolatry has been considered as the "worship of false gods" and is forbidden. In many Indian religions, such as theistic and non-theistic forms of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, idols ("murti") are considered as symbolism for the absolute but not the absolute, or icons of spiritual ideas, or the embodiment of the divine. They are a means to focus one's religious pursuits and worship ("bhakti"). In the traditional religions of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Africa, Asia, the Americas and elsewhere, the reverence of an image or statue has been a common practice, and cult images have carried different meanings and significance.
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Religious symbolism Religious symbolism provides an additional means to communicate the underlying message of a religion via symbols, apart from communication by words. Jesus in Mathew 13:13 says, "The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand." Symbolism, like parables, clarifies a message to make its meaning more accessible to the mind. It is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork, events, or natural phenomena, by a religion. Religions view religious texts, rituals, and works of art as symbols of compelling ideas or ideals.
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Native American religion Native American religions are the spiritual practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. This article focuses on Native North Americans. Traditional Native American ceremonial ways can vary widely, and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual tribes, clans and bands. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or some combination thereof. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the forms of oral histories, stories, allegories and principles, and rely on face to face teaching in one's family and community.
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Jewish Buddhist A Jewish Buddhist (also Jewbu, Jew-Bu, Jewboo, Jubu, Buju, etc.) is a person with a Jewish background who practices forms of Buddhist meditation and spirituality. The term "Jubu" was first brought into wide circulation with the publication of "The Jew in the Lotus" (1994) by Rodger Kamenetz. In some cases, the term can refer to individuals who practice both traditions; in other cases, Jewish is an ethnic designation where the person's main religious practice is Buddhism. In yet other cases, a Jubu is simply a Jew with an interest in Buddhism or meditation. A large demographic of Jewish Buddhists, constituting its majority, still maintain religious practices and beliefs in Judaism coupled with Buddhist practices and perhaps beliefs.
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Ceremonial pole A ceremonial pole symbolizes a variety of concepts in several different cultures. For example, in the Miao culture in Yunnan China. In "The Evolution of the Idea of God", Grant Allen notes that Samoyeds of Siberia, and Damara of South Africa plant stakes at the graves of ancestors. According to Zelia Nuttall in "The Fundamental Principles Of Old and New World Civilizations", tree and pole reverence to Anu in ancient Babylonia-Assyria may have evolved from the fire-drill and beam of the oil press, stating that it was extremely probable that the primitive employment of a fire-stick by the priesthood, for the production of "celestial fire," may have played an important role in causing the stick, and thence the pole and tree, to become the symbol of Anu.
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Salah (biblical figure) Salah (שלח, "Shelach", "Šelḥ" ) is an ancestor of the Israelites according to the Table of Nations in . He is thus one of the table's “seventy names.” He is called Shelah in and Sala () in the Septuagint and .
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Ghagiel Ghagiel (variously Chaigidel, Chaigidiel, or Oghiel), in the belief system of Kabbalah, is the name of the Qliphah corresponding to the Sephirah Chokmah in the Tree of Life. They are demons, the Hinderers, described as black evil giants with serpents entwined around them, and they are attached to lying and material appearances, in opposition to those of reality and wisdom.
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Katsuogi Katsuogi (鰹木, 堅魚木, 勝男木, 葛緒木 ) or Kasoegi (斗木 ) are short, decorative logs found on Japanese and Shinto architecture. They are placed at a right angle along the ridge of roofs, and are usually featured in religious or imperial architecture. "Katsuogi" predate Buddhist influence and is an architectural element endemic to Japan. They are often placed on the roof with "chigi", a forked ornamentation used on Shinto shrines. Today, "katsuogi" and "chigi" are used exclusively on Shinto buildings and can be used to distinguish them from other religious structures, such as Buddhist temples in Japan.
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Adi Dharam Adi Dharam or ādi dharam ( आदि धरम, আদি ধারাম, આદિ ધરમ, ଆଦି ଧର୍ମ, ఆది ధారణ, ஆடி தரம், ആദി താരം, ಆದಿ ಧರಮ್) (literal meaning the ancient or the root "(Ādi)" religion ("Dharam") ) refers to the tribal religion or the traditional religion or the indigenous religion or the Adivasi (Hindi for original settlers) religion of the indigenous peoples of India. It is an umbrella term used to denote the religion of indigenous peoples of India. The term 'Adi Dharam' was made popular by the tribal scholar and philosopher Ram Dayal Munda when he sought to unite the ancestral beliefs of the all the indigenous people of India
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Hindu–Islamic relations Hinduism is a diversity-filled socio-religious way of life of the Hindu people of the Indian subcontinent, their diaspora, and some other regions which had Hindu influence in the ancient and medieval times. In Hinduism God can be worshiped in the name one believes or in the form one believes and allows idol worship, hence Hinduism's concept of God does not contradict the concept of Allah, the Islamic God. Islam is a monotheistic religion in which the supreme deity is Allah (Arabic: الله‎ ‎ "the God" : see God in Islam), the last Islamic prophet being Muhammad, whom Muslims believe delivered the Islamic scripture, the Qur'an. Hinduism mostly shares common terms with the "dhārmic" religions, including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Islam shares common terms with the Abrahamic religions–those religions claiming descent from Abraham–being, from oldest to youngest, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha'i Faith.
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Middleworld In ancient Maya cosmology, Middleworld is the Earth, or the world of men. "In ancient Maya thought, the universe was suffused with sacredness that resonated from the presence of deities. The ancestors, spirits and deities not only resided in the Upperworld and the Underworld (sometimes called Xibalba), but also shared the Middleworld, or Earth with its human and animal populations." All three were joined by the World Tree, a giant ceiba tree which served as the central pole holding the worlds together. The nine levels of the Underworld were represented by the roots, Middleworld by the trunk, and the thirteen heavens of the Skyworld by the branches. This concept is similar to the beliefs held by many ancient cultures, including the Norse, who thought that they inhabited a middle-earth. The Maya also believed that their pyramid temples were sites at which these worlds could be transversed. Maya kings, by undergoing ritual and trance, could open portals which would allow the gods - inhabitants of the sky and under worlds, to communicate with Middleworld.
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Cherub A cherub ( ; also pl. cherubim; Hebrew: כְּרוּב‎ ‎ "kərūv", pl. , "kərūvîm"; Latin "cherub", pl. "cherubin, cherubim"; Syriac ܟܪܘܒܐ) is one of the unearthly beings who directly attend to God according to Abrahamic religions. The numerous depictions of cherubim assign to them many different roles; their original duty having been the protection of the Garden of Eden. Angelic status is not attributed to cherubim in the Old Testament (at least not explicitly); only in later sources such as "De Coelesti Hierarchia" are they identified as a hierarchical rank of angels.
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Common tree frog Polypedates leucomystax is a species in the shrub frog family Rhacophoridae. It is known under numerous common names, including common tree frog, four-lined tree frog, golden tree frog or striped tree frog. Many past authors have united it with the common Indian tree frog in "P. maculatus" (or "Rhacophorus maculatus", as was common in older times), but today they are generally considered distinct species. In its native range, it is also called "white-lipped tree frog", but this name is otherwise applied to a species of true tree frogs (family Hylidae).
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Sabellianism In Christianity, Sabellianism in the Eastern church or Patripassianism in the Western church (also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism) is the nontrinitarian or anti-Trinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son, and Holy Spirit are three different "modes" or "aspects" of one monadic God, as perceived by "the believer", rather than three distinct persons within "the Godhead"—that there are no real or substantial differences among the three, such that there is no substantial identity for the Spirit or the Son. Modalistic monarchianism has been generally understood to have arisen during the second and third centuries, and to have been regarded as heresy after the fourth, although this is disputed by some. The term "Sabellianism" comes from Sabellius, who was a theologian and priest from the 3rd century. Historic Sabellianism taught that God the Father was the only true existence of the Godhead, a belief known as Monarchianism. One author has described Sabellius' teaching thus: "The true question, therefore, turns on this, viz., what is it which constitutes what we name ‘person’ in the Godhead? Is it original, substantial, essential to divinity itself? Or does it belong to and arise from the exhibitions and developments which the divine Being has made of himself to his creatures? The former Sabellius denied; the latter he fully admitted."
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Lontiok House Rumah Lontiok (meaning Lontiok House) is a traditional house of Kampar, Riau Province. "Lontiok" ("lentik" in Bahasa Indonesia) means arched or curved. "Lontiok" term corresponds to the form of roof ridge which is arched upward as a symbol to honor the God Allah. Another terms used for "Rumah Lontiok" is "Rumah Pencalang" or "Rumah Lancang" (traditional sailing wooden ship). It is based on the similarities between the base of front and back of wooden wall with "Lancang" (the wooden sailing ship), the similarities between the form of the outer leaning of wooden wall of "Lontiok" House with "lancang" which is leaning outward , and the similarities between "Lontiok" House with traditional wooden sailing ship house (magon) made by the community living onto the river and sea .
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False god In some monotheistic religious denominations, the deities of pagan religions -- as well as other competing entities or objects to which particular importance is attributed -- are often called false gods. Conversely, polytheistic pagans may regard the gods of various monotheistic religions as "false gods" because they do not believe that any real deity possesses the properties ascribed by monotheists to their sole deity. Atheists, who do not believe in any deities, do not usually use the term "false god" even though that would encompass all deities from the atheist viewpoint. Usage of this term is generally limited to theists, who believe in some deity or deities, but not in others.
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Altar An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes, and by extension the 'Holy table' of post-reformation Anglican churches. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship. Today they are used particularly in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, as well as in Freemasonry. Also seen in Neopaganism and Ceremonial Magic. Judaism used such a structure until the destruction of the Second Temple. Many historical faiths also made use of them, including Greek and Norse religion.
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Cajeput tree Cajeput tree is a common name used for certain classification of tree that has a white spongy bark that is flexible and can easily flake off the trunk. The Cajeput tree is of the genus "Melaleuca", native to Australia and is commonly known in North America as the Tea Tree. The name "Cajeput tree" is primarily used for the species "M. cajuputi", "M. leucadendra", "M. linariifolia", "M. viridiflora" and "M. quinquenervia". Other names for these trees are the paperbark tree, punk tree, or the white bottle brush tree. Similar subtropical trees from the eucalyptus family are evergreens with pointed leaves and white, red or green flowers. Aborigines of Australia often used the cajeput tree bark for shields, canoes, roofing material and timber.