The Magician's Hidden Library Magic Words: A Dictionary

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MAGIC WORDS Magicians, who can be thought of as a tribe of flashy philosophers, constantly demonstrate metaphysical and related dynamics -- from the creation and destruction of matter (silk handkerchiefs or whatnot), to the concept of separation (cut ropes and sawed ladies), to the idea of harnessing limitless power through proper language and skillful handiwork. Magic words, written upon anything from a mystic-looking parchment scroll to an ordinary playing card, emblazoned on a t-shirt or appearing on skin rubbed with ash, can serve to represent and even embody the cosmic laws of energy -- laws proclaimed and encoded within the very lines, curves, and arrangements of the letters. The Impact a Single Word Can Make Words can be magic. -- Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within (1998) There's one last step. We have to say the magic words. Does anyone here know magic words? -- D.K. Smith, Nothing Disappears (2004) Professional magician John W. LeBlanc notes that there are "untold numbers of anecdotes told by professional performers who found that just changing one, single word made an enormous difference in the response of the audience to a performance piece. One word. That's magic."68 As in the fables of old, "It's in the words that the magic is -- 'Abracadabra,' 'Open Sesame,' and the rest -- but the magic words in one story aren't magical in the next. It seems . . . that the real magic is to understand which words work, and when, and for what."69 Hence this dictionary. There is an early Germanic word, lekjaz, which means "an enchanter, speaking magic words."70 May every storyteller be a true lekjaz, enchanting his audience with that one magic word that makes all the difference -- master storyteller Gustave Flaubert's mot juste, or "right word." May every one of us find and use the magic of words to enhance and increase the power and mystery in our own lives.71 Mr. Magic (a.k.a. Jeff Russ) encourages us to "Say the magic words, and the magic will work every single time, I promise." 68 "NLP -- Neuro-Linguistic Prodding," Escamoteurettes.com (2004) 69 John Barth, The Tidewater Tales (1987) 70 Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher (1995) 71 "Perhaps Word is the magic stone," suggests Mary Caroline Richards. "Lapis. The philosopher's stone, the transforming agent in a daily alchemy" (Centering in Pot- tery, Poetry, and the Person [1962]).
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