Palindromary: Words

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Enquire Within Upon Everything

Palindrome, from the Greek palin-dromos, running back again. This is a word, sentence, or verse that reads the same both forwards and backwards - as: madam,level,reviver;live on no evil; love your treasure and treasure your love;you provoked Harry before Harry provoked you;servants respect masters when masters respect servants. Numerous examples of Palindrome or reciprocal word-twisting exist in Latin...

Abracadabra, ab-ra-ka-dab′ra, n. a cabbalistic word, written in successive lines, each shorter by a letter than the one above it, till the last letter A formed the apex of a triangle.It was worn as a charm for the cure of diseases.Now used generally for a spell or conjuring word: mere gibberish. [First found in 2d-cent. poem (Præcepta de Medicina) by Q. Serenus Sammonicus; further origin unknown.]Thomas Davidson, Chambers's...

The first mention of the famous charm Abracadabra, which so often appears engraved on Gnostic gems, occurs in a Latin medical poem written by Serenus Sammonicus who lived in the third century and is said to have bequeathed his library consisting of sixty-two thousand volumes to the Emperor Gordian the Younger.The poem recommends this mystic word, or name, as a sovereign remedy for the “demitertian” fever, if...

John Melton, in his "Astrologaster" (1620), says it is vulgarly believed that "toothaches, agues, cramps, and fevers, and many other diseases may be healed by mumbling a few strange words over the head of the diseased."Written charms in prose or verse-or neither, being nonsensical combinations of words, letters, or signs-were in great favor then, as before and since.The unmeaning word „abracadabra“ was much...

The Romans believed that the magical power of prayers was enhanced if they were uttered with a loud voice.Hence a saying attributed to Seneca: "So speak to God as though all men heard your prayers." Of great repute among the healing-spells of antiquity was the cabalistic word „Abracadabra“, which occurs first in a medical treatise entitled "Præcepta de Medicina," by the Roman writer Quintus Serenus Samonicus,...

The superstitious notions and practices of the Jews in the middle ages, concerning the names of God, were singular.Of these they reckoned 72, from which, by different arrangements in sevens, they produced 720. The principal of these was אגלא, agla, which they disposed of in two triangles intersecting each other. This they called the "Shield of David," and pretended that it was a security against wounds,...

Abracadabra, a mysterious word, to which the superstitious in former times attributed a magical power to expel diseases, especially the tertian-ague, worn about their neck in this manner.Some think, that Basilides, the inventor, intends the name of GOD by it. The method of the cure was prescribed in these verses. "Inscribes Chartae quod dicitur Abracadabra Saepius, & subter repetes,...

Abracadabra was the most famous of the ancient charms or talismans employed in medicine.Its mystic meaning has been the subject of much ingenious investigation, but even its derivation has not been agreed upon. The first mention of the term is found in the poem “De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima,” by Quintus Serenus Samonicus. Samonicus was a noted physician in Rome in the second and third centuries. He...

Reversible Names and Words (Vol. viii., p. 244.).I cannot call to mind any such propria mascula: but I think I can cast a doubt on your correspondent's crotchet. Surely our civic authorities (not even excepting the Mayor) are veritable males, though sometimes deserving the sobriquet of "old women." Surveyors, builders, carpenters, and bricklayers are the only persons who use the level. On board...

All this is, of course, of the nature of sympathetic magic, and we can observe from it how often the spoken word can partake of the character of proto-science.But even in the case of the spoken word we have a cleavage between the two systems, for we find that it may consist, as in these last examples, of sympathetic allusion to an incident in the life of a god, or else of mere gibberish, which certainly constitutes...

Poetical ConundrumsThere’s a word composed of three letters alone,Which reads backwards and forwards the same;It expresses the sentiments warm from the heart,And to beauty lays principal claim.(Eye)Your initials begin with an A,You’ve an A at the end of your name,The whole of your name is an A,And its backward and forward the same.(Anna!)Dean Rivers, Conundrums,Riddles and Puzzles (Containing one...

The Popes’ Covetousness The covetousness of the Popes has exceeded all others’, therefore, said Luther, the devil made choice of Rome to be his habitation; for which cause the ancients have said, “Rome is a den of covetousness, a root of all wickedness.” I have also read in a very old book this verse following: Versus Amor, Mundi Caput est, et Bestia Terræ. That is (when the word Amor is turned and...

One of the earliest values found in rings was doubtless magic.This worked in many ways, according to the beliefs of different times and peoples. Simply to put a ring on another person’s finger was to bind that person to you—an early magical belief which has endured as a symbol in the engagement and the wedding ring. To protect the wearer against the powers of evil in the world, rings are adorned with potent...

The associations of the names and the fact that pseudo-literature forms so large a part of the early literature of alchemy suggest its close connection at that time with magic.Whereas Vitruvius, although not personally inhospitable to occult theory, showed us the art of architecture free from magic, and Hero told how to perform apparent magic by means of mechanical devices and deceits, the Greek alchemists...

Enquire Within Upon Everything

Word analogous to Abraxas

The first mention of Abracadabra

The unmeaning word „abracadabra“

Præcepta de Medicina

Jewish Superstitions

A mysterious word

The Abracadabra Mystery

Reversible Names and Words

The Gibberish of Magic

Poetical Conundrums

Versus Amor-Roma

The Magic Ring

Close association of Greek alchemy with magic

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