MAGIC WORDS
feminist activist Gloria Steinem embodied the virtues and powers of a cult
of women who were able to use intellectual ability, physical beauty, and financial
savvy to gain dominance in a culture previously ruled by men. These
women gained the popular appellation Superwomen or Wonder women.
Akos Pakos
(see hocus pocus)
Origins: In a fifteenth-century German-Jewish manuscript, a magical formula
of mystical names is spelled out. "One of the incantations in it . . .
contains the names 'Akos Pakos,' the earliest literary occurrence of the terms
which, with slight orthographic variations, have become the hallmark of
pseudo-magic in a dozen European tongues -- our Hocus Pocus."119
Akrakanarba
(see also abracadabra)
Meanings: This ancient magical charm is generally considered to be gib
berish,120 its letters most likely having a numerological significance.
Origins: The word Akrakanarba is found in the magical papyri of Graeco-
Roman ritual magic121 dating from the second century BCE to the fifth century
CE.122
Facts: Like abracadabra, akrakanarba was written and spoken as a "dissolving"-
type spell. "This is followed by an injunction: 'Utter the entire name
. . . in the shape of a wing.' . . . One editor leaped to the conclusion that lege,
'utter' was a mistake for graphe, 'write.' But this is quite mistaken. The spell
is to be uttered 'wing-like,' which refers simultaneously to the graphic form
and to the Homeric cliché for effective speaking, 'winged words.' Unlike
concrete poetry, these shapes are not clever linguistic games but attempts
to change the world. Dismemberment of language produces enigma; but
at the same time a performative act is being brought about. Language is
simultaneously ruined and employed."12
Akrakanarba is one possible origin of the magic word abracadabra.124
119 Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition (19 9)
120 Kieren Barry, The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetical Mysticism and Numerology in the An-
cient World (1999)
121 E.S. Shaffer, Comparative Criticism, Volume 9 (1987)
122 Kieren Barry, The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetical Mysticism and Numerology in the An-
cient World (1999)
12 E.S. Shaffer, Comparative Criticism, Volume 9 (1987)
124 Ibid.