Magical Words and Phrases Used in Witchcraft

Magic words and phrases have been used in spells, charms, prayers, rituals, and other forms of magical practice for centuries. Some, like abracadabra, have histories that go all the way back to the ancient world.

Like witchcraft symbols, some popular magical phrases, including So Mote It Be and Wicca’s Blessed Be, are closely associated with modern witchcraft. While others come from Hermeticism, ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, and folk traditions.

Medieval grimoires and ancient magical texts like the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) contain magical names and seemingly unintelligible strings of letters. Spoken words have been part of magical practice for thousands of years.

You see them in movies about witches and sorcerers and read about them in books about magic. But, how much power do words have? A lot, in fact. Will your spell work without them? Maybe. Honestly, when it comes to the older grimoires and ancient texts, I wouldn’t cast those spells without using the phrases. Your mileage may vary.

In the meantime, here’s your guide to some of the most common magical words and phrases. And, if you’re just getting started with witchcraft, make sure to check out my Beginner’s Guide to Witchcraft.

Abracadabra

Today, abracadabra is probably the most famous magic word in the English-speaking world. It’s also so closely associated with stage magicians that it can be surprising to discover that the word has actual magical origins.

One of the earliest surviving appearances of abracadabra comes from De medicina praecepta saluberrima, a Roman medical poem attributed to the writer and imperial tutor Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, probably dating to the 2nd or 3rd century CE.

Originally, abracadabra was prescribed as part of a charm for banishing a recurring fever.

He wrote: “Ad hunc nimirum modum & figuram chartae inscribes Abracadabra, & collo annectes, dextim ordine retrogrado minuens,” which roughly translates to “You are to write Abracadabra on the paper in this manner and form, and fasten it to the neck, diminishing it line by line in reverse order from the right.”

This creates a triangle shape. Similar diminishing-word charms were used for other illnesses and threats. The magical logic appears to have been that as the disease, dangerous being, or magically charged name was progressively reduced in writing or speech, its power would also diminish.

ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A

You’ll often see claims online that abracadabra comes from an Aramaic phrase meaning something like “I create as I speak.” That is a compelling explanation for a magic word, but there isn’t solid historical evidence establishing it as the word’s actual origin.

So Mote It Be

So mote it be is one of the phrases most strongly associated with modern witchcraft. It essentially means “so may it be,” “so must it be,” or “let it be so,” and some witches may say it at the end of a spell, prayer, intention, or ritual. Other witches use And So It Is. Or Amen. Or thank you. Or whatever is part of their practice.

The phrase So Mote It Be is much older than modern Wicca or witchcraft. A form of it appears on line 655 in the Regius Manuscript, a 15th century English poem associated with the history of Freemasonry:

But when y schal hennus wende
Grante me the blysse withoute ende;
Amen! amen! so mot hyt be!
Now, swete lady, pray for me.

So Mote It Be remained part of Masonic ritual language and was later adopted into modern occult and Wiccan practice. By the 1950s, it appears explicitly in Gardnerian material, including in his Book of Shadows where it is tied to the practitioner’s stated will: “What is my will – so mote it be.”

From Gardnerian Wicca, the phrase spread widely through modern Pagan and witchcraft communities. Within witchcraft, so mote it be functions as a statement of completion and affirmation. You have stated what you intend to accomplish through the working and the phrase brings that declaration to a close. In ritual work, it is sometimes repeated back by the coven in a call and response fashion to the witch speaking it.

As Above, So Below

As above, so below is one of the most recognizable phrases in Western occultism. In modern witchcraft, it is commonly understood to describe the connnection between different levels of existence.

In Western esoteric traditions, it is especially associated with the relationship between the macrocosm and microcosm: the greater universe and the smaller world of the individual and how they reflect one another.

It comes from the Emerald Tablet, a short Hermetic alchemical text attributed traditionally to Hermes Trismegistus. The earliest surviving versions of the Tablet appear in Arabic works from around the 8th or 9th century.

The earliest writing we have of the phrase As Above So Below is “إن الأعلى من الأسفل والأسفل من الأعلى” which translated means “indeed, the uppermost is from the lowermost and the lowermost is from the uppermost” or “The above comes from the below, and the below comes from the above.”

Medieval Latin translated it to “That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above.” And then in 1877, the co-founder of the Theosophical Society, Helena Blavatsky used “as above, so below” as a standalone Hermetic axiom in her book Isis Unveiled and the phrase became increasingly familiar through Theosophical and other occult writing in the decades that followed.

The phrase is sometimes expanded into: As Above, So Below. As Within, So Without. As The Universe, So The Soul. Those phrases don’t come from the Emerald Tablet. They developed later as occult writers expanded the Hermetic idea into related formulas.

IAO

IAO is one of the oldest genuinely magical words on this list. It appears repeatedly in the Greek Magical Papyri, a collection of magical texts from Greco-Roman Egypt and is probably much older than that. The name occurs in spells, invocations, prayers, and strings of magical words used to call on divine power.

IAO is generally understood as a Greek rendering of, or magical form related to, the Hebrew divine name YHWH.

In the highly syncretic magical world of Roman, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, and other divine names were frequently combined, sometimes alongside words whose meanings have not yet been recovered. IAO is considered a sacred name believed to carry power in itself.

The name eventually became part of modern ceremonial magic during the 19th-century occult revival, when scholars began publishing ancient magical papyri recovered from Egypt. It was taken up again by modern ceremonial magicians, including Aleister Crowley. Crowley gave it a new symbolic interpretation as Isis, Apophis, Osiris: a sequence of life, destruction, and restoration that he treated as a formula of magical transformation.

Blessed Be

Blessed be is commonly used today as a Wiccan blessing, greeting, or farewell. The words themselves are obviously much older than Wicca and a variation of it occurs in many religious texts.

But, in terms of how it’s used in Wicca and broader pagan communities, it comes from Gerald Gardner’s Fivefold Kiss, a blessing used during rituals such as Drawing Down the Moon. The High Priest or High Priestess blesses five parts of the other person’s body with lines beginning Blessed be thy feet…, Blessed be thy knees…, and so on.

Over time, Blessed be has been adopted as a general Wiccan blessing and salutation. As Wicca spread beyond its original Gardnerian setting, the expression traveled with it and became increasingly common. It can now mean something close to “may you be blessed,” while also functioning simply as a friendly greeting or farewell.

Merry Meet and Merry Part

Merry meet and merry part are commonly used today as pagan and Wiccan greetings and farewells, often expanded into the phrase “merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.” It’s sometimes used in closing a circle of protection and I noticed it’s above the door to one of my favorite witchy establishments, the Witch’s Cottage.

The magical phrase has a documented association with witchcraft going back at least to 1664. It appears in the Saducismus triumphatus, a record connected with the Somerset witchcraft examinations. Joseph Glanvill later published testimony attributed to accused women including Alice Duke and Elizabeth Style, describing alleged gatherings at which the participants danced, ate, and drank before separating. According to Duke’s examination, “at their parting they use to say, Merry meet merry part.”

The phrase received another important witch association in the 19th century when Irish poet John Anster, translating Goethe’s Faust between 1820 and 1835, inserted the line “Merry meet-merry part” into the chorus of witches gathering. The wording is Anster’s addition rather than a direct translation of Goethe’s German. It is not included in later translations.

Chorus of Witches:
On to the Brocken the witches are flocking-
Merry meet-merry part-how they gallop and drive,
Yellow stubble and stalk are rocking,
And young green corn is merry alive,
With the shapes and shadows swimming by.

The expression later appears in explicitly Wiccan writing. Lady Gwen Thompson’s Rede of the Wiccae, published in 1975 and attributed by Thompson to her grandmother Adriana Porter. It includes the line “Merry meet and merry part, bright the cheeks and warm the heart.”

During the later twentieth century, writers including Doreen Valiente and Raymond Buckland helped normalize merry meet as part of modern witchcraft vocabulary, and it eventually became a familiar greeting.

And So It Is

And so it is is commonly used today to close spells and other ritual work, with a meaning close to “it is done.”
However, unlike so mote it be, which comes from Freemasonry, this magical phrase appears to come primarily from New Thought.

New Thought writers taught that prayer should state the desired spiritual reality as already true, rather than ask for something to happen in the future and by the 1950s you see “and so it is” showing up in those prayers.

You might not have heard of New Thought, but it eventually inspired much of modern positive-thinking, vibrational alignment, and manifestation culture that’s so popular today. It influenced writers and teachers ranging from Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich) to Louise Hay, Neville Goddard, and, eventually, The Secret.

The phrase later became widespread in New Age and self-help spirituality, including the affirmations of Louise Hay, whose work grew out of the Religious Science tradition that was part of the New Thought movement. From there, it appears to have entered eclectic witchcraft and manifestation practice as an alternative to older ritual closings such as so mote it be.

Sources and Further Reading

De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima
Regius Manuscript
Gardnerian Book of Shadows
Isis Unveiled
Greek Magical Papyri
Saducismus triumphatus
Goethe’s Faust