Krax Pex Phax

The magic phrase "krax pex phax" is used to recover a lost hedgehog in the novel Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass by Erica Kirov (2009). Like abracadabra, the phrase means "I create as I speak" (p. 63).

All Shall Be Well and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well

Magic as the Embryo of Music

"The magic incantation is, in short, 'the oldest fact in the history of civilization.' Although the magician chants without thought of aesthetic form or an artistically appreciative audience, yet his spell contains in embryo all that later constitutes the art of music."
—Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science

Reading vs. Referring

Thanks to Ed Raube for giving our Magic Words: A Dictionary a 5-star review at Amazon:

"As much as the book is listed as 'a dictionary', it is more of type of a book that you would sit down and read for pleasure, not necessarily to be used as a reference book that sits on a shelf and used only when needed."

Poetry, Magic, and the Omnipotence of Thought

"Poetry and magic ... are based on a belief that thought can create its own reality—which Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough called the theory of 'the omnipotence of thought' and which Freud, in his comment on Frazer's anthropological investigations in Totem and Taboo, traced back to the child's power, with an outcry of desire, to make the missing mother mysteriously appear again and offer the all-providing breast. It is no accident, then, that so many poems, from the Odyssey right up to Joyce's great prose-poem, Finnegans Wake, contain magical 'invocations' summoning the goddess to appear at once."
—Robert Anton Wilson, Decadance

Grow, Grow

"Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'" —The Talmud. (Today, listen to your Angels)
—Cory Booker

On This Day ...

On this day in 1828, Noah Webster changed the American spelling of colour to color and honour to honor and magick to magic.
—Robert Ebert

Dreaming Incomprehensible Words

"He claimed that he dreamt incomprehensible words whose meanings were transparent to him. He spoke like a mystic and wrote foreign phrases and said that those were the words of the future."
—Ricardo Piglia, The Absent City

Flip Flop Hippety-Hop

Jade

"The word jade is magical in itself. It calls up first a narrow, curving street in Singapore."
—Helen Bartlett Bridgman, Gems (1916)

Strange Land

The soldier looked at him reflectively. "A strange land," he said. "Barbarians and magicians, dirt and poetry. A strange land, yours."
-- Susan Cooper, Silver on the Tree

Arousing Marvel and Admiration

Thanks to magician Mark David for praising our Magic Words: A Dictionary as "fascinating resource material that arouses marvel and admiration." See his entire review here.

Spirit

"Spirit is a magical word that has myriad meanings I've discovered while investigating and writing about becoming word-savvy."
—Max Brand, Word Savvy, 2004

Witchcraft Always Has a Hard Time, Until it Becomes Established and Changes its Name

"Most likely when [inventor of the electroscope] Dr. [William] Gilbert rubbed a rod and made bits of paper jump on a table, the opposition to his magic was directed not so much against what he was doing as against what it might lead to. Witchcraft always has a hard time, until it becomes established and changes its name."
—Charles Fort, Lo!

Magic Words in 3D

Courtesy of Google Books, read our Magic Words in 3D! Just click the "View in 3D" button at the top of this link.