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Albright, Ivan Le Lorraine

(Encyclopedia)Albright, Ivan Le Lorraine ôlˈbrīt [key], 1897–1983, American painter, b. North Harvey, Ill. Allied with the Magic Realist group, Albright developed a style combining American scene painting with...

Amphiaraüs

(Encyclopedia)Amphiaraüs ămˌfēərāˈəs [key], in Greek mythology, a prophet, one of the ill-fated Seven against Thebes. He foresaw the disaster of the expedition, but Polynices bribed his wife, Eriphyle, with...

maya, in Hinduism

(Encyclopedia)maya mäˈyä [key], in Hinduism, term used in the Veda to mean magic or supernatural power. In Mahayana Buddhism it acquires the meaning of illusion or unreality. The term is pivotal in the Vedanta s...

occultism

(Encyclopedia)occultism əkŭlˈtĭzəm [key], belief in supernatural sciences or powers, such as magic, astrology, alchemy, theosophy, and spiritism, either for the purpose of enlarging man's powers, of protecting...

Abano, Pietro d'

(Encyclopedia)Abano, Pietro d' pyāˈtrō däˈbänō [key], 1250?–1316?, Italian physician and philosopher, a professor of medicine in Padua. His famous work Conciliator differentiarum was an attempt to reconcil...

amulet

(Encyclopedia)amulet ămˈyəlĭt [key], object or formula that credulity and superstition have endowed with the power of warding off harmful influences. The use of the amulet to avert danger and to dispel evil has...

Jay, Ricky

(Encyclopedia)Jay, Ricky, 1946–2018, American magician, actor, and writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Richard Jay Potash. The grandson of a fine amateur magician, Jay first performed at age four and as a teenager bega...

Brunhild

(Encyclopedia)Brunhild brĭnˈhĭld [key], mighty female warrior of Germanic mythology and literature. In the Nibelungenlied, a medieval German epic poem (see under Nibelungen), she is the warlike queen of Iceland,...

voodoo

(Encyclopedia)voodoo vo͞oˈdo͞o [key] [from the god Vodun], native W African religious beliefs and practices that also has adherents in the New World. Voodoo believers are most numerous in Haiti, where voodoo was...

Escher, M. C.

(Encyclopedia)Escher, M. C. (Maurits Cornelis Escher) ĕsˈkhər [key], 1898–1972, Dutch artist. Primarily a graphic artist, Escher composed works notable for their irony, often with impossible perspectives rende...