Magical chants
work very much like mantras. They provide for us a device that helps to focus
our mind on the single task at hand – raising power. Just as a burning feeling
builds in a muscle when it is repeatedly used, so the energy of the witch
builds when one uses a chant. When writing magical chants, there are a
few principles to keep in mind to write the kind of chant to which generations
after you will gravitate.
Rhythm
The process of
thinking is a taxing one. The mind puts incredible energy into organizing all
of the many thoughts that it processes. It is designed to seek out order, even
to the point of creating patterns when none exist. This is a by-product of our
mind clinging to the principle of cause and effect. “This happened because that
happened first, right? Doesn’t everything happen for a reason?”
Because the
mind loves patterns, rhythm, which is simply a pattern of sounds and silences,
activates the storage ability of the mind very easily. Adding rhythm to chants
makes them memorable, but it also makes them fun to speak, much like singing a
song or humming a tune.
Rhyme, which
is a manifestation of pattern, isn’t necessary to put in chants, but it does
help the mind to more smoothly experience the patterns that it craves.
There are many
rhythms already present in the world today. In both poetry and music, rhythm is
typically called “beat.” Both poems and songs can provide you with some
interesting rhythms to borrow when building a new chant. Remember how
attractive – almost addictive to the ear –is the rhythm and rhyme in
Poe’s The Raven? There is no reason to reinvent the beat in your
chant from scratch.
Metaphor
Adding
metaphor to chants is a great way of expanding your options when trying to
compose a chant. To create metaphors, you look for associations between
concepts that may be somewhat similar. For example, if someone is a coat-tail
rider, you may also metaphorically refer to them as a flea on a dog. Fire is
symbolic of passion, because the feeling acts as quickly and completely as does
a burning flame. You can make connections between any of the properties or
characteristics of two things to establish some kind of symbolism.
The Germanic
peoples were particularly accomplished at a kind of metaphor called “kenning.”
A kenning is a metaphor in which the description for one well-known thing is
used to create the metaphorical name of something else. For example, if I had a
particular dog that became somewhat famous for chasing the rabbits in the yard,
I might metaphorically refer to all dogs in general as “bunny bullies,” which
is simply a kenning for the word “dog.”
Atmosphere
Many witches
discount a chant’s atmosphere in an effort to score on rhythm and rhyme. Though
you may have a very rhythmic and memorable chant, filled with all kinds of
symbolism, you may still have a chant that doesn’t feel right when the circle
is cast. Atmosphere is the overall feeling that a chant conveys. It creates a
flavor, through the connotations built into the words of our cultures and
languages, helping to paint a thorough picture of the scene in which a chant is
most appropriate to use.
Many nursery
rhymes feel childlike, because they were written to convey an atmosphere that
was appropriate for children. Here is the earliest printed example (1881) of
what we know today as “Ring around the Rosie.”
Ring-a-ring-a roses
A pocket full of posies;
Ashes, Ashes,
We all fall down!
Though this
the rhyme’s connection to the Black Plague is highly contested, it could still
make an excellent representation, through each line, of the symptoms, a
possible ward, more symptoms and then the deadly result of the Plague. Yet its
atmosphere is decidedly childlike.
To change the
atmosphere of this rhyme, one could consult a thesaurus to find words with
similar meaning, but darker connotations. I decided to consider each line and
rewrite the same message using darker verbiage. Here’s how a darker rhyme about
the Plague might look.
Big ole’ blackened bubo,
Posy hurled high and low;
Cinders, cinders
No one sees the dawn.
Though the
atmosphere might still feel a bit childlike, perhaps because most of us cannot
help but hear the original words in our minds when we hear that particular
rhythm, the new rhythm is decidedly darker.
Creating a
darker atmosphere is particularly important for chants that ward or curse, as
these actions require a seriousness in our moods that help to keep us focused
on the particular intent. Here’s a chant I wrote to disturb the thoughts of
anyone who may be opposing you. It isn’t necessarily for cursing, but it can
create a kerfuffle in the mind of someone competing for the same job as you.
Stones and sticks and broken bits,
Wreck and ruin rival wits.
Theme
By leveraging
metaphor and atmosphere together, you ensure that the chant represents the
appropriate theme for your spell. Your spell’s intent should have a picture – a
kind of mental snapshot representing in one mental image everything for which
the spell is cast. That picture should be well represented by your chant.
Certainly, there are chants that are good for general use, because they
represent general pagan concepts or have very little connotations attached to
the words that comprise them. But most chants need to be thematically related
to the spell being cast. For example, the previous chant would not be
appropriate to use as a healing chant.
A witch’s
spell written by children’s book writer, Mary Norton in 1943 and represented in
the Disney film, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, shows lots of rhythm
and the atmosphere is just right. It is a spell for turning any creature into a
white rabbit.
Filigree, Apogee, Pedigree, Perigee
What makes it
thematically correct is that it uses some higher level vocabulary including two
from science (apogee and perigee) and a word relating to animals (pedigree),
yet the words are relatively obscure for common speech, almost to the point of
being esoteric. So the mind could perfectly agree that this chant could be a
valid spell for turning a human into an animal. The key here is that
the mind can agree with the appropriateness of the chant. Since most
people’s minds are a bit flexible, one doesn’t have to be literal, but one
shouldn’t wander too far off target either.
Simplicity
The last
quality that is important in a chant is maintaining some degree of simplicity.
Despite that the mind remembers things rather well when it has the help of
rhythm, chants need to do more than simply stick in the mind. They also need to
be spoken with ease. Unfortunately, our minds move more quickly than do our
mouths.
The sounds we
speak are made by the muscular flexibility and quickness of a variety of
structures, including lips, tongue, jaw, vocal cords and diaphragm. We use all
of these harmoniously, or else we wouldn’t speak with very much precision. We
tend to worry about speaking with precision because no one wants their
communication to be constantly misunderstood. But when we put together sounds
at which we aren’t very practiced at making repeatedly, our bodies can’t move
quickly or precisely enough to form them precisely.
As a witch
gets further into the ecstatic moment – closer to the moment of release - this
precision may become so unimportant that one may be simply muttering nonsense
(rhythmically). But at the start of a chant, we need to minimize the
difficulty. Too much oral difficulty steals focus. We begin to worry, even
unconsciously, that we aren’t speaking correctly. Our brain starts putting more
and more of its focus into the acrobatics of the mouth, which means we are not
giving that focus to the intent of our spell.
Some poetic
devices can be useful for creating the sought-after chant simply, but those
same devices can also work against you. Alliteration puts the same sound at the
beginning of concurrent beats. As in our previous example, “stones and sticks and broken bits,” there are two alliterative
phrases (a repeating “s,” followed by a repeating “b”) that flow easily off the
tongue. But be wary that too many repeating sounds may be too difficult to
speak. A chant should not be a tongue twister. Unfortunately, there are no
rules that apply. You will simply have to try the chant aloud to discover if it
trips up your mouth.
A great chant will check all
the boxes. It will be memorable, easy to speak without tying up the tongue,
metaphorically describe the theme of the spell and convey the atmosphere of the
theme. Often you will unconsciously know that it is a good chant because you
will find that you, as well as others who may use it, will gravitate back to
that chant over again. Well-made chants will seem to take on a life of their
own, making themselves a part of your magickal tradition.
