Zzzz

We've always been enchanted by vowelless words (and have even dedicated an entire dictionary to them). For the new edition of our collection of magic words, we unearthed some interesting facts about the expression ZZZZ, electrical zap of pure, focused energy.

In Tantric practice, “The ZZZZ sound brings the energy up to the pituitary/pineal area.”* A “simple humming of the voiced zzzzzzzzz formula” is also practiced by the German rune magicians.† Such a whirring, whistling sound is associated with the rune Elhaz, “the power of human life and ‘spirit.’”†

Seven Z’s appear in the text of a late 6th or early 7th century healing amulet, to help reduce episodes of fever typical of Malaria. The amulet was excavated “on the Golan Heights of the Horvat Kanaf synagogue, which was erected in the Byzantine Era.”‡

As we noted in the first edition of our Magic Words dictionary, the evil magician in Doug Henning’s musical The Magic Show (1981) uses the magic trigger word zzzz over and over again during his act.

* Jonathan Goldman, Tantra of Sound (2005)
† Edred Thorsson, Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic (1984)
‡ Peter Schäfer, Jewish Studies Between the Disciplines (2003)

(Image courtesy Rigmarole.)