Magic Words & Symbols Spotted in the Wild

Assist

Hearken, So-and-so, and assist me . . . .
I desire to ask for a little magic.
—a Malay shaman’s spell, Folklore,
Vol. XV (1904), p. 156

Back at Hollywood's Magic Castle, when we were celebrating the premiere of a documentary about magicians’ assistants, “Women in Boxes,” we were reminded that the verb assist is a magic word. Indeed, it figures into the incantations of the Gnostic medics, who used the verb in their secret rites for traveling through the “Airs of Mystery.” After reciting a magic prayer in Latin, these mystic doctors beseeched by saying “Assist me, Genii, assist me” (Samael Aun Weor, Occult Medicine and Practical Magic, 2004, p. 102).

Abba Dabba Dabba, Dabba Dabba Abba

Here's a magic spell from the classic sitcom Bewitched.  Given that the spell is spoken by dotty Aunt Clara, enchanter beware.

An Alpine Tourist's Guide (Death)

Here's Death in the guise of an Alpine tour guide.  From The Tomahawk, September 14, 1867.

Two Alchemical Tarot Decks

Here's our comparison of two alchemical tarot decks.

Xeper

The Egyptian magical word xeper is "pronounced khefer and translated as 'I have come into being.'"  It is associated with the scarab beetle and the dawning sun, and "to know this word is to know that the ultimate responsibility for the evolution of your psyche is in your hands.  It is the Word of freedom, ecstasy, fearful responsibility, and the root of all magic" (Lynne Hume & Nevill Drury, The Varieties of Magical Experience: Indigenous, Medieval, and Modern Magic, 2013).

The Cold(est) Shoulder (of All)

Here's Death as an unkind policeman, giving the cold shoulder to a homeless woman and her baby.  From The Tomahawk, November 2, 1867.

A Book of Spells and Incantations

A book of spells and incantations from Bewitched.

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What a Card Trick Does to a Magician's Fingers

From our Abecedarian blog: what a card trick does to a magician's fingers.

Death Walking the Earth

From The Encyclopedia of Death and Life in the Spirit-World by J. R. Francis, 1906.

The Profoundest Magic in a Classic Sitcom

Did you know that the classic sitcom Bewitched's biggest feat of magic was turning its entire audience into practitioners of modern witchcraft?  We explain the phenomenon here:

http://oneletterwords.com/weblog/?id=8754

Meanwhile, "We’re quicksilver.  A fleeting shadow, a distant sound.  Our home has no boundaries beyond which we cannot pass.  We live in music, in a flash of color.  We live on the wind and the sparkle of a star."