E meenie, miney . . . mo!' I pulled on 'mo' and with a grinding screech, the floor began to move." -- D.J. MacHale, The Lost City of Faar (200 ) Egg nina: What [is the] magic word? russ: (whispering). Eggs. -- Arnold Bennett, The Love Match (2004) Mystique: The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas. -- Hermann Hesse, Demian (1925) Ripe with symbolism, the egg has been a favorite prop of magicians throughout the ages, inherited from "magic's connection with fertility rites. Magic celebrates tumescence and erection, fecundity and growth, attraction and breeding, birth and resurrection: . . . eggs are produced one after another from an empty pouch that has been touched by a magic wand . . . Magic reiterates the mystery of regeneration. It serves to remind us of the miraculousness of the creation's continuity."8 But why would egg be used as a magic word? "[T]he very word egg means 'to incite to action,'" explains gynecologist Christiane Northrup, M.D. "The egg literally 'eggs on' new life. . . . Although we've been led to believe that [a mother's] egg merely sits there and waits to be 'acted upon' by the sperm, newer research has shown that the egg is not a passive participant in reproduction. First of all, the egg actually sends out a signal that attracts sperm to it. And it selects the sperm that will enter it. Once fertilized, eggs become the original mothers. They see potential and facilitate it into becoming reality."9 Egg, then, is a perfect magic word, both broadcasting a signal to create as well as facilitating a new reality. Meanings: • Circle of time (as in Druidic culture) -- Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis (188 ) • Consciousness (as in Aztec culture) -- John Mini, The Aztec Virgin (2000) • Fertility, "the renewal of life in the face of death" -- George Robinson, Essential Judaism (2001) 8 Lee Siegel, Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India (1991) 9 Christiane Northrup, Mother-Daughter Wisdom (2005)