My fair beauty gone astray
Please come back to me today.
With my yearning heart and wonder
Please come back to me from yonder.
Leave the candle to burn down, or snuff it
out when your pet returns. (—Gillian Kemp)Lesson 6. The Old Speech
You may have noticed by now that a lot of the unusual
words that turn up in the magicae artes (“magickal
arts”) come from Latin (Roman) or Greek roots. This is
because all these ideas and concepts have a long his-
tory, and the original names given to things in one
language are often carried over into the language of
the next dominant culture. This is particularly true in
the field of Wizardry and of science, which grew out of
it. In biology, for instance, all living species of animals
and plants have a Latin “scientific name;” and extinct
species (like dinosaurs) are given Greek names: deino-
sauros means “terrible lizard” in Greek. The original
languages of the first Wizards were many—Egyptian,
Hebrew, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Ara-
bic, Greek, Sanskrit, Chinese, and others. But over sev-
eral thousand years, a succession of large empires
arose, consolidating many cultures under one rule and
imposing on all the language of the rulers, which ev-
eryone needed to learn in order to be able to communi-
cate throughout the Empire. The older languages be-
cause the arcane (“secret”) languages known only to
the scholars who read the old books in which they
were written.
Starting in Greece, by 325 BCE, Alexander the Great
had conquered the entire civilized world from Italy
and Egypt to India, and established the Mace-donian
Empire. Greek became the universal language through-
out the Western world, and Egyptian, Hebrew, Per-
sian, and the others became the arcane languages of
scholars and Wizards. Then in 50 BCE, Julius Caesar
re-conquered Alexander’s old territory, plus all of Eu-
rope clear into Britain, forming the Roman Empire. Latin
became the new universal language, and Greek be-
came arcane.
Rome ruled the Western world for 500 years, until
it was sacked by the Vandals in 445 CE. The Roman
Catholic Church took over, forming the Holy Roman
Empire in the West (in the Eastern part of the old Em-
pire, the Eastern Orthodox Church prevailed after the
Great Schism of 1054). The Church ruled the world for
the next 1,000 years, until the Reformation and Renais-
sance in the 14th-15th Centuries. During all that time,
Latin was the only “official” written language, and
Greek and Hebrew remained arcane.
The British Empire was born during the long reign
of Elizabeth I (1533-1603), and soon expanded into a
worldwide Empire, including North America, Austra-
lia, and India. English became the new universal lan-guage, and Latin became arcane. But early in this new
era, in the 1660s, science (“knowledge”) made an offi-
cial split from Wizardry (“wisdom”). And that’s how
Latin became the arcane language of Catholicism, Wiz-
ardry, and science.
Unfortunately, Latin is a very complicated lan-
guage to use properly, as each word must be spelled
with different endings to indicate its usage, tense, case,
etc. Also, as with all the languages spun off of it (Ro-
mance languages, from Rome—which include French,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian), nouns for inanimate
objects are arbitrarily assigned gender (male, female,
or neuter), which must be taken into account as well.
And the syntax (order) of words in a sentence is dif-
ferent from English as well: in Latin, verbs come be-
fore nouns, and adjectives and adverbs follow the
words they are modifying—sort of the way Yoda talks.
Nonetheless, many ancient spells and words of
power are in Latin, and it can be very useful for a
Wizard to know what these mean and be able to use
them in creating new spells. For, as Ursula LeGuin
said, “magic consists in this, the true naming of a
thing.” So I am including here a few useful Latin words
and phrases. And these will also help you when you
are reading any books in which magick spells are in
Latin. In order to use and pronounce them properly,
however, you will need to take a course in Latin, which
is beyond the scope of what I can offer you here.
Some high schools do offer Latin (Morning Glory and
I both took it)—if yours does, check it out!
Here are some famous Latin phrases and mottos:“Love conquers all.” – Amor omnes vincent.
“Knowledge is power.” – scientia potestas est.
“As above, so below.” – Tam supra, quam subter.
“All is in the magick.” – Omnia in arte magica est.
“Everything is alive, everything is interconnected.”- Omnia vivunt, omnia inter se conexa.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” –
Cum potestate magna rationem reddere
convenit.
“Living well is the best revenge.” – Vivere bene est
vindicata optima. (the Ravenheart family motto)
And here’s a basic Charm of Manifestation that can
be used at the end of any spell or ritual. If you learn
nothing else in Latin, this one will carry you far:By all the powers of Earth and Sea,
Per omnes vires terrae et maris,
By all the might of Moon and Sun,
Per omnes potentias lunae et solis,
As I do will, so mote it be;
Velut volo, ut liceat esse;
Chant the spell and be it done!
Carmen canta et fiat!
Blessed be!
Beata sint!Course Four: Rites 203
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