Dust of Bones

Don't miss our interview over at The Tarot Channel, all about Magic Words: A Dictionary.

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We were surprised to discover the following magic spell in a modern book of science magic tricks:

"Dust of bones and witch's attire, I command you to draw some fire."

The spell is recommended for setting a sugar cube alight with "genuine witch's dust ... made from the scraping from the bottom of her kettle after she made her brew ... The witches use it to draw fire—lightning—from the sky to start their fires." (Nathan Shalit, Science Magic Tricks, 1998).

This spell harks back to an era when science and the occult overlapped. As Henry Adams noted in his autobiography, "Science has proved that forces, sensible and occult, physical and metaphysical, simple and complex, surround, traverse, vibrate, rotate, repel, attract, without stop; that man's senses are conscious of few, and only in a partial degree; but that, from the beginning of organic existence his consciousness has been induced, expanded, trained in the lines of sensitiveness; and that the rise of his faculties from a lower power to a higher, or from a narrower to a wider field, may be due to the function of assimilating and storing outside force or forces. There is nothing unscientific in the idea that, beyond the lines of force felt by the senses, the universe may be—as it has always been—either a supersensuous chaos or a divine unity, which irresistibly attracts, and is either life or death to penetrate. Thus far, religion, philosophy, and science seem to go hand in hand."

Anazapta

This musical word has an exotic ring to it, with a sizzling zap in the middle and a plosive ta to mark the impact at the end. The word has been traced back to Europe in the 1300s, in talismanic parchments containing exotic-sounding divine names and guaranteeing longevity.

Shingon

In the mystical Shingon sect of Buddhism, the name Shingon is known as the “True Word” or “Magic Word.” Shingon is the Japanese translation of the Sanskrit word mantra.

Noctar Raiban

These antiquated magic words for mind reading are from an Egyptian book of magical talismans. They were believed to compel even “the most discreet man ... to unveil his utterly secret thoughts.”

Darkness, Light, Earth, Air, Sun, Truth

The magical incantation "Darkness, Light, Earth, Air, Sun, Truth," explained by the Pythagorean Androcydes, was discovered in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.* It was used for banishing disease.

*Hugo Magnus, Superstition in Medicine (1905)

Resurgam

It was the voice of that magic harp at the bottom of the sea, . . . the voice of hidden music that had cried ‘Resurgam’ through the wood.
—Richard Le Gallienne, The Worshipper of the Image (1900).

A breath of new life, "the magic Latin word resurgam"* means “I shall rise again” or "I shall return."

*Herbert David Croly, The New Republic, 1941

Ridas Talimol

Used by magicians to control fire or water, ridas talimol is an antiquated magic phrase for “commanding the elements,” from an Egyptian book of magical talismans.