Magical Words drenched in mystical and sacred wisdom are known since antiquity.
Mostly words without profound meaning, chanted aloud with passion or whispered in secret, these magical words are usually just occult sounds which were believed to possess arcane power.
In history of mankind there have been many examples of sacred and/or magical words. Some of them are words associated with deities (like the names of the Gods / Goddesses and Angels), some which are associated with other kind of entities (fairies, elves and other spirits of nature, Saints or holy spirits, spirits of the Dead, demons or other maleficent spirits) and some magical words whose roots are extremely difficult to track as their history are blurred by ambiguous sources.
Magic words were used for several purposes. Most usually were used as a method of Conjuring divine or higher spirits / deities / powerful entities. Several sacred texts, books of shadows and grimoires propose magic words to communicated and conjure Deities, Spirits, Angels or Demons, Fairies and Elves etc. The most famous magic words were used as a disease repellant. This comes from the fact that many religions believed (and some still believe) that illness is not a natural phenomenon which affects the material body, but they regarded it mostly as the impact of an entity (usually a maleficent one, although in some cases good spirits for several reasons – for example a good spirit brings an illness to someone in order to protect him/her from a greater disaster or as a punishment for some unethical deed). In jewish tradition the Name of God possessed tremendous power therefore only the High Priest knew the name. No written text ever dared to pronounce the Name of God.
Christians too, believed (and some still believe) in Sacred Words and used the following magic phrase / mantra to banish diseases: “malignus obligavit; Angelus curavit; Dominus salvavit = the evil one is bound, the Angel has cured me, God saved me”.
Other Magic Words were used to summon the forces of nature or perform other kinds of miracles. In other words, this type of Magic is as old as Witchcraft itself, and in these series we are going to shed some light in this very interesting matter.
We could only start with the most famous Magic Word in mankind. “ABRA CADABRA”.
There are many who tried to decipher the meaning by tracing the roots of the most famous Magical Word. We will try to shed some light…
The first evidence of the use of ABRACADABRA comes from the 3rd century's AD book “Liber Medicinalis” written by a mysterious physician known as Quintus Serenus Sammonicus tutor to the Roman Emperor Caracalla. Allegedly the word was spoken aloud to cure malaria and/or banish fever.
But this Magical word may come from older sources and most scholars believe that it derived from the ancient Aramaic Language “אברא כדברא” which actually means “I create as the Word” or maybe “I am creating as I speak”. Both famous writers Dan Brow and J.K Rowling seem to agree. Moreover, in the famous fictional world of Harry Potter, the scary unforgivable curse, AVADA KEDAVRA has also magical power as it is the exact opposite for ABRA CADABRA. J.K. Rowling, quoted at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2004: “Does anyone know where ‘Avada Kedavra’ came from? It is an ancient spell in Aramaic, and it is the original of abracadabra, which means ‘let the thing be destroyed.’
Another source corresponds the famous magic word with the Hebrew language: Ha Brakha Dabra which actually means “blessing as I speak”.
Important Note
When you cast a spell, focus on your intention and shout out loud “ I AM CREATING AS I SPEAK “. The Spell is Done!
A different source relates ABRACADABRA with the triple Christian God as an abbreviation from the hebrew language: Av (the Father), Ben (the Son) and Ruach Ha Codesch (the Holy Spirit).
A completely different approach correlated this Magic Word with a Gnostic Entity named “Abraxas”. Supreme God for the Gnostics and fallen demon for the Catholics (J. Collin de Plancy, Infernal Dictionary)
What AVADA KEDAVRA means from Harry Potter
Confused? Well the truth is that we would be surprised if you were not! We have to admit that this Magic Word has such a rich history of diverse uses (from treating diseases, performing miracles, invoking an entity) which is left to decide what we, as Good Wizards and Witches should do. I think that the answer is simple. Better safe than sorry, right?
We will try to focus on what really matters. Let’s take the meaning we prefer “I am Creating as I speak” and use this translated phrase, and not the Aramaic one – which we cannot be sure of its exact meaning. In this way, we are sure we are not invoking an entity whose intentions are not clear. After all, the most powerful magic comes from us. Thus, cast a spell, focus on your intention and shout out loud “ I AM CREATING AS I SPEAK “. The spell is done!
