PALINDROMES

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You are...: a master
Number of Spirits: 0
Spelled Number: 0
Your favorite spirit to work with: Everyone
If I could be anything, I would be...: Myself.
My magical/paranormal name...: KITTY!!!!!!!!
Zodiac:

Why do we call them Mom and Dad? Because palindromes are powerful protection. The idea was that negative spirits and entities and energies would get lost inside the letter chains, bound within them, repeating themselves inside the trap, forever. Da releases the trapped energy, which is why it sounds so explosive when you say it. Dad protects your father from negative energies, and Mom or Mum protects your mother. This was a way for family to protect family, the neediest protecting the strongest so that the strongest could protect the neediest. Mum or Dad is usually the first word a child speaks, thus strengthening the power.

How's that for a bit of amazing trivia.

Here's more on palindromes. I suggest you keep researching on your own... This is a fascinating magickal technique, as powerful as sigils.

Bright blessings..
Lemon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome
Palindrome
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Palindromes" redirects here. For the film, see Palindromes (film).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)
A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of symbols or elements, whose meaning may be interpreted the same way in either forward or reverse direction.[1]
Composing literature in palindromes is an example of constrained writing. The word "palindrome" was coined from the Greek roots palin (πάλιν; "again") and dromos (δρóμος; "way, direction") by the English writer Ben Jonson in the 17th century. The Greek phrase to describe the phenomenon is karkinikê epigrafê (καρκινικὴ επιγραφή; "crab inscription"), or simply karkinoi (καρκίνοι; "crabs"), alluding to the movement of crabs, such as an inscription that may be read backwards.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Types
3 Long palindromes
4 Biological structures
5 Computation theory
6 Semordnilap
7 Non-English palindromes
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
[edit]History



The Sator Square.
Palindromes date back at least to 79 AD, as a palindrome was found as a graffito at Herculaneum, a city buried by ash in that year. This palindrome, called the Sator Square, consists of an sentence written in Latin: "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" ("The sower Arepo holds works wheels"). It is remarkable for the fact that the first letters of each word form the first word, the second letters form the second word, and so forth. Hence, it can be arranged into a word square that reads in four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left.
A palindrome with the same property is the Hebrew palindrome, "We explained the glutton who is in the honey was burned and incinerated", (פרשנו רעבתן שבדבש נתבער ונשרף; PRShNW R`BTN ShBDBSh NTB`R WNShRP or parasnu ra`abhtan shebad'vash nitba'er venisraf), by Abraham ibn Ezra, referring to the halachic question as to whether a fly landing in honey makes the honey treif (non-kosher).
פ ר ש נ ו
ר ע ב ת ן
ש ב ד ב ש
נ ת ב ע ר
ו נ ש ר ף
Another Latin palindrome, "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" ("We go wandering at night and are consumed by fire", in which "In girum ire" is translated as "go wandering" instead of the literal "go in a circle", cf. Italian "andare in giro", "go strolling or wandering around"), was said to describe the behavior of moths. It is likely that this palindrome is from medieval rather than ancient times.
Byzantine Greeks often inscribed the palindrome, "Wash [the] sins, not only [the] face" ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ ("Nīpson anomēmata mē mōnan ōpsin", engraving "ps" with the single Greek letter Ψ, psi), on baptismal fonts. This practice was continued in many English churches. Examples include the font at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham and also the font in the basilica of St. Sophia, Constantinople, the font of St. Stephen d'Egres, Paris; at St. Menin's Abbey, Orléans; at Dulwich College; and at the following churches: Worlingworth (Suffolk), Harlow (Essex), Knapton (Norfolk), St Martin, Ludgate (London), and Hadleigh (Suffolk).
[edit]Palindromes in The Quran
1 - ..and Magnify your Master – [Muddathir 74:3]. ر ب ك ف ك ب ر [wa Rabaka Fa Kabir] (focus on the consonants only in the Arabic language) And your Lord (Allah) magnify! [so magnify your Lord] 2 - They all float -each- in an Orbit.. [Yasin 36:40]
NOTE: See the letters Orbitting/floating around the letter ‘Ya’ In this ayah God is speaking about how the sun and the moon are in orbit. Look at the letters in red, brown and green; they are all floating around the letter in orange. The next word begins with the letter ya [YaSbah], which is referring to Floating (TaSbeeh is from the same root); the letters are Floating around one another, since the concept being discussed is Orbit.
[2]
[edit]Palindromes in ancient Sanskrit
Palindromes of considerable complexity were experimented with in Sanskrit poetry.[3] Complex palindromes appear in the 19th canto of the 8th-century epic poem Śiśupāla-vadha by Magha. It yields the same text if read forward, backward, down, up, or diagonally:
sa- ka- ra- na- na- ra- ka- sa-
kā- ya- sā- da- da- sā- ya- kā
ra- sā- ha- vā vā- ha- sā- ra-
nā- da- vā- da- da- vā- da- nā.
(nā da vā da da vā da nā
ra sā ha vā vā ha sā ra
kā ya sā da da sā ya kā
sa kā ra nā nā ra kā sa)
(Note: a hyphen indicates a continuation of same word.) The last four lines are an inversion of the first four and are not part of the verse. They are included here only so that its properties may be more easily discerned, as the up-and-down reading depends on re-reading the text back up again in each column.
The stanza translates as:
[That army], which relished battle (rasāhavā), contained allies who brought low the bodes and gaits of their various striving enemies (sakāranānārakāsakāyasādadasāyakā), and in it the cries of the best of mounts contended with musical instruments (vāhasāranādavādadavādanā).
The same work (Śiśupāla-vadha) also contains stanzas in which each line is a palindrome, and stanzas that may be read backward to give a new stanza (semordnilaps). Such stanzas are also found in the earlier work Kirātārjunīya.
This Sanskrit poem was written by "nandi-ghanta kavis" in kanda style.
सारस नयना घन जघ
नारचित रतार कलिक हर सार रसा
सार रसारह कलिकर
तारत चिरनाघ जनघ नायनसरसा |
[edit]Palindromes in Tamil poetry
Palindromes are referred to in Tamil as "Maalai Maatru" (மாலை மாற்று). The earliest known palindromic verses (11 couplets) occur in the devotional poetry of the Shaivism saint Sambandhar who lived around the 7th Century C.E.
The first of these eleven verses runs thus:
யாமாமாநீ யாமாமா யாழீகாமா காணாகா
காணாகாமா காழீயா மாமாயாநீ மாமாயா
It refers to Shiva as the incomparable God, the one who plays the Veena, the beautiful one adorned with snakes, the one who destroyed Kama, whose abode is Sirkazhi, who also appears as Vishnu, and beseeches him (Shiva) to rid the devotee of impurities.
Palindromic verses are also to be found in Madhava Shivagnana Yogi's Kanchi Puranam (மாதவச்சிவஞானயோகிகள் காஞ்சிப் புராணம்) and in Mahavidvaan Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai's Thirunaagaik Kaaronap Puranam (மகாவித்துவான் மீனாட்சிசுந்தரம் பிள்ளை திருநாகைக் காரோணப் புராணம்).[4]
[edit]Types

[edit]Character, word, or line unit
The most familiar palindromes, in English at least, are character-by-character: The written characters read the same backward as forward. Some examples of common palindromic words: civic, radar, level, rotor, kayak, reviver, racecar, redder, madam, malayalam, and refer. There are also palindromes where the unit of reversal is the word ("So patient a doctor to doctor a patient so") or line (as in the poem "Doppelganger" by J.A. Lindon). These are referred to as "word-unit palindromes" and "line-unit palindromes" respectively.[5] Word-unit palindromes were popularized in the recreational linguistics community by J.A. Lindon in the 1960s, but occasional examples in English are found from at least the 19th century, and several in French and Latin date to the Middle Ages.[6]
[edit]Phrases
Palindromes often consist of a phrase or sentence, e.g.: "Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?", "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm", "Was it a car or a cat I saw?", "A nut for a jar of tuna", "Do geese see God?", "Ma is as selfless as I am", "On a clover, if alive erupts a vast pure evil, a fire volcano." "Dammit, I'm mad!", "A Toyota's a Toyota", "Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog", and "A Santa lived as a devil at NASA". Punctuation, capitalization, and spacing are usually ignored, although some, such as "Rats live on no evil star" and "Step on no pets", include the spacing.
[edit]Famous English palindromes
Some well-known English palindromes are, "Able was I ere I saw Elba",[7] "A man, a plan, a canal - Panama!",[8] "Madam, I'm Adam" or "Madam in Eden, I'm Adam", "Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod"[9] and "Never odd or even". "Rise to vote, sir" was featured in an episode of The Simpsons.
[edit]Names
Some people have names that are palindromes. Included are given names (Ada, Anna, Bob, Aviva), surnames (Harrah, Renner, Salas) or both (Eve, Hannah, Maham, Otto). Lon Nol (1913–1985) was Prime Minister of Cambodia. Nisio Isin is a Japanese novelist and manga writer, whose real name (西尾 維新, Nishio Ishin) is a palindrome when romanized using the Kunrei-shiki or the Nihon-shiki systems. (It is often written as NisiOisiN to emphasize this). Some persons have changed their name in order to make of it a palindrome (one example is actor Robert Trebor), while others were given a palindromic name at birth (such as the philologist Revilo P. Oliver).
Palindromic names are very common in Finland. Examples include Olavi Valo, Emma Lamme, Sanna Rannas, Anni Linna and Asko Oksa.
There are also palindromic names in fictional media. "Stanley Yelnats" is the name of a character in Holes, a 1998 novel and 2003 film. Four of the fictional Pokémon species have palindromic names in English (Eevee, Girafarig, Ho-Oh, and Alomomola).
[edit]Molecular biology
Main article: Palindromic sequence
Restriction enzymes recognize a specific sequence of nucleotides and produce a double-stranded cut in the DNA. While recognition sequences vary widely, with lengths of between 4 and 8 nucleotides, many of them are palindromic, which correspond to nitrogenous base sequences between complementary strands, which, when read from the 5' to 3' direction, are identical sequences.
[edit]Numbers
Main article: Palindromic number
A palindromic number is a number whose digits, with decimal representation usually assumed, are the same read backward, for example, 5885. They are studied in recreational mathematics where palindromic numbers with special properties are sought. A palindromic prime is a palindromic number that is a prime number, for example, 191 and 313.
The continued fraction of is a repeating palindrome when is an integer.
[edit]Acoustics
A palindrome in which a recorded phrase of speech sounds the same when it is played backward was discovered by composer John Oswald in 1974 while he was working on audio tape versions of the cut-up technique using recorded readings by William S. Burroughs. Oswald discovered in repeated instances of Burroughs speaking the phrase "I got" that the recordings still sound like "I got" when played backward.[10][11]
In France, a more complex example has been identified with[citation needed] "Une slave valse nue" (a Slavic girl waltzes naked).
[edit]Music
[edit]Classical music
Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 47 in G is nicknamed "the Palindrome". The third movement, minuet and trio is a musical palindrome. The second half of the piece is the same as the first but backwards.
The interlude from Alban Berg's opera Lulu is a palindrome, as are sections and pieces, in arch form, by many other composers, including James Tenney, and most famously Béla Bartók. George Crumb also used musical palindrome to text paint the Federico García Lorca poem "¿Por qué nací?", the first movement of three in his fourth book of Madrigals. Igor Stravinsky's final composition, The Owl and the female parts Cat, is a palindrome.[citation needed]
The first movement from Constant Lambert's ballet Horoscope (1938) is entitled "Palindromic Prelude". Lambert claimed that the theme was dictated to him by the ghost of Bernard van Dieren, who had died in 1936.[12]
British composer Robert Simpson also composed music in the palindrome or based on palindromic themes; the slow movement of his Symphony No. 2 is a palindrome, as is the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 1. His hour-long String Quartet No. 9 consists of thirty-two variations and a fugue on a palindromic theme of Haydn (from the minuet of his Symphony No. 47). All of Simpson's thirty-two variations are themselves palindromic.
The music of Anton Webern is often palindromic. Webern, who had studied the music of the Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac, was extremely interested in symmetries in music, be they horizontal or vertical. An example of horizontal or linear symmetry in Webern's music is the first phrase in the second movement of the symphony, Op. 21. A striking example of vertical symmetry is the second movement of the Piano Variations, Op. 27, in which Webern arranges every pitch of this dodecaphonic work around the central pitch axis of A4. From this, each downward reaching interval is replicated exactly in the opposite direction. For example, a G♯3—13 half-steps down from A4 is replicated as a B♭5—13 half-steps above.
Just as the letters of a verbal palindrome are not reversed, so are the elements of a musical palindrome usually presented in the same form in both halves. Although these elements are usually single notes, palindromes may be made using more complex elements. For example, Karlheinz Stockhausen's composition Mixtur, originally written in 1964, consists of twenty sections, called "moments", which may be permuted in several different ways, including retrograde presentation, and two versions may be made in a single program. When the composer revised the work in 2003, he prescribed such a palindromic performance, with the twenty moments first played in a "forwards" version, and then "backwards". Each moment, however, is a complex musical unit, and is played in the same direction in each half of the program.[13] By contrast, Karel Goeyvaerts's 1953 electronic composition, Nummer 5 (met zuivere tonen) is an exact palindrome: not only does each event in the second half of the piece occur according to an axis of symmetry at the centre of the work, but each event itself is reversed, so that the note attacks in the first half become note decays in the second, and vice-versa. It is a perfect example of Goeyvaerts's aesthetics, the perfect example of the imperfection of perfection.[14]
In classical music, a crab canon is a canon in which one line of the melody is reversed in time and pitch from the other. A large-scale musical palindrome covering more than one movement is called "chiasic", referring to the cross-shaped Greek letter "χ" (pronounced /ˈkaɪ/.) This is usually a form of reference to the crucifixion; for example, the "crucifixus" section of the Bach B-minor Mass. The purpose of such palindromic balancing is to focus the listener on the central movement, much as one would focus on the center of the cross in the crucifixion. Other examples are found in Bach's Cantata BWV 4, "Christ lag in Todesbanden", Handel's Messiah and the Fauré Requiem.[15]
A table canon is a rectangular piece of sheet music intended to be played by two musicians facing each other across a table with the music between them, with one musician viewing the music upside down compared to the other. The result is somewhat like two speakers simultaneously reading the Sator square from opposite sides, except that it is typically in two-part polyphony rather than in unison.
[edit]Popular music
[edit]Musical content
Hüsker Dü's concept album Zen Arcade contains the songs, "Reoccurring Dreams" and "Dreams Reoccurring", the latter of which appears earlier on the album, but is actually the intro of the former song played in reverse. In a similar manner, The Stone Roses' first album contains the songs "Waterfall" and "Don't Stop", the latter of which is, in essence, the former performed backward. The 12" and CD formats of their single Elephant Stone feature the B-side "Full Fathom Five", which is an alternate mix of the title track played in reverse.
The title track of the 1992 album entitled UFO Tofu by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is said by its composer to be a musical palindrome.
In 2003, the city of San Diego, California commissioned sculptor Roman DeSalvo and composer Joseph Waters to create a public artwork in the form of a safety railing on the 25th Street overpass at F and 25th Streets. The result, Crab Carillon, is a set of 488 tuned chimes that may be played by pedestrians as they cross the overpass. Each chime is tuned to the note of a melody, composed by Waters. The melody is in the form of a palindrome, to accommodate walking in either direction.[16]
The strings part in "Starálfur", from the album Ágætis byrjun by Sigur Rós, is a palindrome.
The song "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon features a palindromic bass run performed by Bakithi Kumalo.
[edit]Lyrics
The song, "I Palindrome I", by They Might Be Giants, features palindromic lyrics and imagery. The 27-word bridge is word-symmetrical.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's song, "Bob", from his 2003 album Poodle Hat, consists of rhyming palindromes and is a style parody the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues". There is an accompanying video for the song which also parodies Dylan's video. Yankovic shows all of the palindromes on cue cards as they are being sung.
Baby Gramps is known for songs where the lyrics are made up of palindromes.
[edit]Names and titles
In 1975, the Swedish pop group ABBA had a hit single entitled, "SOS", a unique occasion in which a song's title and the name of its recording artist are both palindromes.
The Grateful Dead's 1969 album Aoxomoxoa is a notable early use of a palindrome in the title of a popular music album.
In 1992, the grunge band Soundgarden released an EP called Satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas or SOMMS; the title is a palindrome and puns on the supposed connection between the Devil and heavy metal music.
On Boris and Sunn O)))'s collaborative album "Altar", the vinyl version included a full disc, double-sided bonus track entitled "Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas" (in reference to the Soundgarden EP of the same name), in which the various instruments (mainly guitars) are introduced one at a time on side one, and then fade out in reverse order on side two. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden appears on this track.
The Fall of Troy made a song with the famous palindrome "A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama" as the title.
The first and last tracks on Andrew Bird's album Noble Beast form a palindrome ("Oh No" and "On Ho!") and the seventh track is a palindrome in itself: "Ouo". He has also mentioned palindromes in earlier music, giving his songs names such as "11:11", "T'N'T", and "Fake Palindromes" (although the last title is not a palindrome itself). He also mentions palindromes in the lyrics of the song "I" and the "I" redux "Imitosis".
"racEcar" by Vitamin Party features a repeating chorus of "A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama" (the title itself is palindromic).
"Never Odd or Even", which was to be the title of the first album by Aleka's Attic, the band formed by the late River Phoenix, is a palindrome.[17]
"If I Had a Hi-Fi", a 2010 cover album by American alternative rock band Nada Surf, is a palindrome.
Miles Davis and Black Sabbath both had albums called Live Evil. Inversely, Lynch Mob and Diamond Head had albums called Evil Live.
D.R.U.G.S. has two songs that are palindromes on the self-titled debut album, "Mr. Owl Ate My Metal Worm" and "Laminated E.T. Animal".
The Asian-American teenage Riot Grrrl band Emily's Sassy Lime's name is palindromic.
In 2012, the American band Liars released an LP called WIXIW.
The German electronic trio To Rococo Rot is also a palindrome.
[edit]Comics
Watchmen #5, "Fearful Symmetry", the first page mirrors the last (in terms of frame disposition), with the following pages mirroring each other before the center-spread is (broadly) symmetrical in layout.
"NogegoN", Volume 3 of Les Terres creuses, by Luc et François Schuiten, Les Humanoïdes Associés, (1990) : each frame has its mirror image.
[edit]Television
Disney's Phineas and Ferb frequently alludes to palendromes, including the once-mentioned character Professor Ross E. Forp. Danville, the setting locale is also said to have a "Palendrome Road".
[edit]Long palindromes

The longest palindromic word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the onomatopoeic tattarrattat, coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) for a knock on the door. The Guinness Book of Records gives the title to detartrated, the preterite and past participle of detartrate, a chemical term meaning to remove tartrates. Rotavator, a trademarked name for an agricultural machine, is often listed in dictionaries. The term redivider is used by some writers, but appears to be an invented or derived term—only redivide and redivision appear in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Malayalam, an Indian language, is of equal length.
In English, two palindromic novels have been published: Satire: Veritas by David Stephens (1980, 58,795 letters), and Dr Awkward & Olson in Oslo by Lawrence Levine (1986, 31,954 words).[18] In French, Oulipo writer George Perec's "Grand Palindrome" (1969) is 5,556 letters in length.[19][20] In Hebrew, Noam Dovev wrote a 666-word palindromic story called, "Name sold, I'd lose man".[21][22]
[edit]Biological structures

Main article: Palindromic sequence


Palindrome of DNA structure
A: Palindrome, B: Loop, C: Stem
In most genomes or sets of genetic instructions, palindromic motifs are found. The meaning of palindrome in the context of genetics is slightly different, however, from the definition used for words and sentences. Since the DNA is formed by two paired strands of nucleotides, and the nucleotides always pair in the same way (Adenine (A) with Thymine (T), Cytosine (C) with Guanine (G)), a (single-stranded) sequence of DNA is said to be a palindrome if it is equal to its complementary sequence read backward. For example, the sequence ACCTAGGT is palindromic because its complement is TGGATCCA, which is equal to the original sequence in reverse complement.
A palindromic DNA sequence may form a hairpin. Palindromic motifs are made by the order of the nucleotides that specify the complex chemicals (proteins) that, as a result of those genetic instructions, the cell is to produce. They have been specially researched in bacterial chromosomes and in the so-called Bacterial Interspersed Mosaic Elements (BIMEs) scattered over them. Recently[when?] a research genome sequencing project discovered that many of the bases on the Y-chromosome are arranged as palindromes.[citation needed] A palindrome structure allows the Y-chromosome to repair itself by bending over at the middle if one side is damaged.
It is believed that palindromes frequently are also found in proteins,[23][24] but their role in the protein function is not clearly known. It has recently[25] been suggested that the prevalence existence of palindromes in peptides might be related to the prevalence of low-complexity regions in proteins, as palindromes frequently are associated with low-complexity sequences. Their prevalence might also be related to an alpha helical formation propensity of these sequences,[25] or in formation of proteins/protein complexes.[26]
[edit]Computation theory

In the automata theory, a set of all palindromes in a given alphabet is a typical example of a language that is context-free, but not regular. This means that it is, in theory, impossible for a computer with a finite amount of memory to reliably test for palindromes. (For practical purposes with modern computers, this limitation would apply only to incredibly long letter-sequences.)
In addition, the set of palindromes may not be reliably tested by a deterministic pushdown automaton which also means that they are not LR(k)-parsable or LL(k)-parsable. When reading a palindrome from left-to-right, it is, in essence, impossible to locate the "middle" until the entire word has been read completely.
It is possible to find the longest palindromic substring of a given input string in linear time.[27][28]
The palindromic density of an infinite word w over an alphabet A is defined to be zero if only finitely many prefixes are palindromes; otherwise, letting the palindromic prefixes be of lengths nk for k=1,2,... we define the density to be

Among aperiodic words, the largest possible palindromic density is achieved by the Fibonacci word, which has density 1/φ, where φ is the Golden ratio.[29]
A palstar is a composition of palindromic strings.[27]
[edit]Semordnilap

Semordnilap is a name coined for a word or phrase that spells a different word or phrase backward. "semordnilap" is itself "palindromes" spelled backward. According to logologist Dmitri A. Borgmann,[30] the word was coined by Martin Gardner in Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature.[31] Semordnilaps are also known as volvograms,[32] heteropalindromes, semi-palindromes, half-palindromes, reversgrams, mynoretehs, reversible anagrams,[33] word reversals, or anadromes.[34] They have also sometimes been called antigrams,[34] though now, this term usually refers to anagrams with opposing meanings.
These words are very useful in constructing palindromic texts; together, each pair forms a palindrome, and they may be added on either side of a shorter palindrome in order to extend it.
The longest single-word English examples contain eight letters:
stressed / desserts
samaroid (resembling a samara) / dioramas
rewarder / redrawer
animal / lamina
departer / retraped (construction based on the fact that verb trape is recorded as an alternative spelling of traipse)[35]
reporter / retroper (construction based on the fact that trope is recorded as a verb, meaning "to furnish with tropes")[35]
Other examples include:
was / saw
god / dog
gateman / nametag
tap / pat
deliver / reviled
straw / warts
star / rats
lived / devil
live / evil
diaper / repaid
smart / trams
spit / tips
stop / pots
bats / stab
swap / paws
The poem Lost Generation is a line-unit semordnilap. When the lines are read in reverse order, it becomes new poem with the opposite meaning. Though the popular YouTube video shows the poem read in both directions, the poem ends with the words "unless you reverse it" inviting the reader to do so in his or her mind.
[edit]Non-English palindromes

According to Guinness World Records, the Finnish word saippuakivikauppias (soapstone vendor), a 19-letter word, is claimed to be the world's longest palindromic word in everyday use. A meaningful derivative from it is saippuakalasalakauppias (soapfish bootlegger). An even longer effort is saippuakuppinippukauppias (soap dish wholesale vendor). Almost equally long is the Estonian word kuulilennuteetunneliluuk (the hatch a bullet flies out of when exiting a tunnel).
The longest palindrome in the Dutch language, according to the Dutch Guinness Book of World Records, is koortsmeetsysteemstrook, which translates into English as thermometer (for measuring fevers).


"She’s all the unsung heroes who... never quit." ― R. A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series
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moonstone
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You are...: in the learning process
Number of Spirits: 15
Spelled Number: 100
Your favorite spirit to work with: Masheba
If I could be anything, I would be...: Shapeshifter
My super power would be...: Read other's minds
My magical/paranormal name...: Fawn Moonstone Clover
Zodiac:

Wonderful post and great information!


Moonstone

In western lands beneath the Sun the flowers may rise in Spring, the trees may bud, the waters run, the merry finches sing. Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night and swaying beeches bear the Elven-stars as jewels white amid their branching hair. Though here at journey's end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep, above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the day is done nor bid the stars farewell. ROTK
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Dragon Gal
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WOW! Awesome info! Thanks!
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May you find inspiration in the big picture, and may you find love in the detail- ? forgot where I heard this from
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Lots of interesting information, thanks.


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http://www.magic-squares.net/palindromes.htm A fantastic treatise on mathematical palindromes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sator_Square
Sator Square
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Square in Oppède, France.


Square in St. Peter ad Oratorium.
The Sator Square or Rotas Square is a word square containing a Latin palindrome featuring the words SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS written in a square so that they may be read top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, left-to-right, and right-to-left. The earliest datable square was found in the ruins of Pompeii which was buried in the ash of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Examples may be carved on stone tablets, or engraved into clay before firing as pottery. The exact translation, and its meaning, have been the subject of speculation with no clear consensus for either.
Contents [hide]
1 Translation
2 Appearances
3 Christian associations
4 Magical uses
5 See also
6 References
6.1 Footnotes
7 External links
[edit]Translation

Sator
Sower, planter; founder, progenitor (usually divine); originator
Arepo
(arrepo) (I) creep/move stealthily towards, also trust, or likely an invented proper name; its similarity with arrepo, from ad repo, 'I creep towards', may be coincidental
Tenet
holds, keeps; comprehends; possesses; masters; preserves
Opera
(a) work, care; aid, service, (an) effort/trouble
Rotas
(rota) wheel, rotate; (roto) (I) whirl around, revolve rotate; used in the Vulgate Psalms as a synonym for whirlwind and in Ezekiel as plain old wheels.
One likely translation is "The farmer Arepo has [as] works wheels [a plough]"; that is, the farmer uses his plough as his form of work. Although not a significant sentence, it is grammatical; it can be read up and down, backwards and forwards. C. W. Ceram also reads the square boustrophedon (in alternating directions). But since word order is very free in Latin, the translation is the same. If the Sator Square is read boustrophedon, with a reverse in direction, then the words become SATOR OPERA TENET, with the sequence reversed.[1]
The word arepo is a hapax legomenon, appearing nowhere else in Latin literature. Most of those who have studied the Sator Square agree that it is a proper name, either an adaptation of a non-Latin word or most likely a name invented specifically for this sentence. Jerome Carcopino thought that it came from a Celtic, specifically Gaulish, word for plough. David Daube argued that it represented a Hebrew or Aramaic rendition of the Greek Αλφα ω, or "Alpha-Omega" (cf. Revelation 1:8) by early Christians. J. Gwyn Griffiths contended that it came, via Alexandria, from the attested Egyptian name Ḥr-Ḥp, which he took to mean "the face of Apis". (For more on these arguments see Griffiths, 1971 passim.) In Cappadocia, in the time of Constantine VII, Porphyrogenitus (913-959), the shepherds of the Nativity story are called SATOR, AREPON, and TENETON, while a Byzantine bible of an earlier period conjures out of the square the baptismal names of the three Magi, ATOR, SATOR, and PERATORAS.
If "arepo" is taken to be in the second declension, the "-o" ending could put the word in the ablative case, giving it a meaning of "by means of [arepus]." Thus, "The sower holds the works and wheels by means of water."
[edit]Appearances



Square in Cirencester.


Anagram formed by the letters of the sator square
The oldest datable representation of the Sator Square was found in the ruins of Pompeii. Others were found in excavations at Corinium (modern Cirencester in England) and Dura-Europos (in modern Syria). The Corinium example is actually a Rotas Square; its inscription reads ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR.
Other Sator Squares are on the wall of the Duomo of Siena and on a memorial.[2]
An example of the Sator Square found in Manchester dating to the 2nd century is considered by some authorities to be one of the earliest pieces of evidence of Christianity in Britain.[3] Like the Corinium square, the Manchester square reads ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR. A further example is found in a group of stones located in the grounds of Rivington Church and reads SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS, the stone is one of a group thought to have come from a local private chapel in Anderton, Lancashire.[4]
An example is found inserted in a wall of the old district of Oppède, in France's Luberon.
There is a Sator Square in the museum at Conimbriga (near Coimbra in Portugal), excavated on the site.
The Benedictine Abbey of St Peter ad Oratorium, near Capestrano, in Abruzzo, Italy, has a marble square inscription of the Sator Square. An example discovered at the Valvisciolo Abbey, also in central Italy, has the letters forming five concentric rings, each one divided into five sectors.
There is one known occurrence of the phrase on the rune stone Nä Fv1979;234 from Närke, Sweden, dated to the 14th century. It reads "sator arepo tenet" (untranscribed: "sator ¶ ar(æ)po ¶ tænæt).[5] It also occurs in two inscriptions from Gotland (G 145 M and G 149 M), in both of which the whole palindrome is written.[6]
[edit]Christian associations

Around the central Latin letter Ν (en,) a Greek cross can be made that reads both vertically and horizontally the first two words of the 'Pater Noster' (Pater Noster translates as "Our Father", the first words of the Lord's Prayer), each line is surrounded with A and O which represents the Alpha and Omega.[7] The associations indicate the square may have been a safe, hidden way for early Christians to signal their presence to each other in a city without exposing themselves to persecution. The Sator Square uncovered in Manchester has been interpreted as early evidence for the arrival of Christianity in Britain.[citation needed]
The 'Prayer of the Virgin in Bartos' says that Christ was crucified with five nails, which were named Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera and Rotas.[8]
Other authorities believe the Sator Square was Mithraic or Jewish in origin because it is not likely that Pompeii had a large Christian population in 79 A.D and the symbolism inferred as Christian and the use of Latin in Christianity is not attested to until later.[9]
[edit]Magical uses

The Sator Square is a four-times palindrome, and some people have attributed magical properties to it, considering it one of the broadest magical formulas in the Occident. An article on the square from The Saint Louis Medical and Surgical Journal vol. 76, reports that palindromes were viewed as being immune to tampering by the devil, who would become confused by the repetition of the letters, and hence their popularity in magical use.
The square has reportedly been used in folk magic for various purposes, including putting out fires (the spell is "TO EXTINGUISH FIRE WITHOUT WATER" in John George Hohman's Long Lost Friend), removing jinxes and fevers,[citation needed] to protect cattle from witchcraft,[10] and against fatigue when traveling.[11] It is sometimes claimed it must be written upon a certain material, or else with a certain type of ink to achieve its magical effect.
http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol8/mare.htm Palindromes to protect against disease:
PALINDROMES AND LETTER FORMULAE: SOME RECONSIDERATIONS

Mare Kõiva
The article is based on the collection of incantations in the Estonian Folklore Archives and it aims to provide a description of an old and less-known type of incantations in Estonia. The term «letter formulae» will hereafter be used to designate incantations based on letters or letter combinations, palindromes, other formulae connected with letter mythology, and also names which function as spells. In general it can be said that this originally old type of incantations has reached this cultural area relatively late. A majority of the formulae are more or less directly connected with cabalism, the connection is genetic and the formulae spread through the mediation of cabalism. The formulae reached Estonia through secondary manuscripts and it is not likely that at that time any Estonian folk doctors/healers would have been familiar with the cabala; neither were proper names attributed meanings and values characteristic of occult sciences.

Letter formulae and independent incantations have been distinguished as a separate subgroup of spells. Karlis Straubergs has referred to letter formulae as cabalistic texts (Straubergs 1939: 270 ff.). Generically scholars have used the name of one of the most wide-spread incantations abrakadabra (Astakhova 1928: 50 ff.; Poznanski 1917, 58 ff.; Peskov 1977, 38; Gagulashvili 1983, 104 ff.). In standard language the word has gradually taken on the meaning of the unknown and the unintelligible.

Alongside with incantations directly based on letter magic some researchers have included into this subgroup incantations which at the first glance seem semantically and logically incomprehensible. Examples of such formulae are «The dog is white, the cat is gray - all one family of snakes» (Peskov 1977: 38) and incantations employing foreign words in original or distorted shapes (Gagulashvili 1983: 105).

Here the notion of letter formula will cover but the above-mentioned phenomena. Incantations containing distorted word forms and wholly foreign-language incantations are classifiable by other formal criteria and will not be discussed at this point.

Main types of letter formulae

As indicated above, most letter formulae are the so-called letter quadrates consisting of vowels, consonants or letters which may but need not make up meaningful words. The group also comprises letter abbreviations derived from prayers, incantations composed of special meaningless spells and sacral names. A pervasive characteristic of all these formulae is the fact that in addition to a linear representation there were frequent attempts at graphic design of the text, it was mostly laid out in circles, quadrangles, labyrinths, the image of the Sun, etc. and the text was complemented with magic signs, loops or surrounded, for example, with circles.

In principle the quadrangles are palindromes, a closed circle where every single letter and word may have a specific meaning. Mostly just one palindrome was used during incantation, but occasionally palindromes have been mirrored horizontally or vertically due to various magical considerations and in order to increase the power of the incantation.

The most oldest and best-known palindrome in Estonia is sator (* Map 1). Sator has been interpreted as a formula based on a game with sacred names (Seligman 1910: 300), as a magic alphabetic quadrangle (Dornseiff 1985), and as a Latin maxim(Eisen 1934). The sator formula has been found in Coptic scrolls, in the Middle Ages it has been used by Muslims and cabalists (Dornseiff 1985: 79). The formula has comfortably established itself in the European tradition of incantation, and due to its impressive form and significant function it has been repeatedly published in various esoteric manuscripts. In the 18th century at the apogee of the use of the formula, the incantation was attached to planks, clay tablets or plates that were put up on the walls of houses or outhouses. At times of war and extensive fires such incantations were burnt in order to prevent fire.

The Estonian language in general does not favour palindromes, which is why only a few original palindromes could be found in Estonian, for example aias sadas saia ('it rained white bread in the garden'). Except for incantations even the folk tradition lacks of palindromes based on word combinations or abbreviations.

In Estonian, sator-words were commonly written in quadrangles and capital letters, the latter were separated by punctuation:

S.A.T.O.R
A.R.E.P.O
T.E.N.E.T
O.P.E.R.A
R.O.T.A.S

Alongside with the latter also small-letter quadrangles and quadrangles combining small letters with capitals were used either intermittently or at random (Eisen 1934: 89). Most commonly only one formula was written for the healing rite. However, in some cases two formulae were written side by side, one mirroring the other beside or opposite it. The mirroring of formulae has mostly been connected with an indirect attempt to influence the disease demon and force it to leave or revert itself (Dornseiff 1985: 56).

SADOR RODAS
ARPOT DORPA
TENET TENET
OPRAT TARPO
ROTAS SATOR
(E 9175 (19) < Vil 1894)

Such an incantation in the form of a magic quadrangle could be on all four sides surrounded by either specific meaningless magic words or other palindromes, for instance, a version of the rosa pilla formula. The result was an image roughly resemblant of a cross - one of the early ways of representing letter formulae. A similar way was used to write INRI, the abbreviation for the name of Christ and other formulae. Besides the use of the cross-shape there is the early tradition used already in ancient Greece and Rome of writing the formula in the form of a circle or encircling it. Alternatively the formula could be written simply as a sequence of letters (H I 7, 265 < Vil 1895).

In European tradition the sator-formula was mostly used as a protection against fire; in Estonia it was the best-known incantation against erysipelas, also used against rabies and less frequently against fire. There are single accounts about its use in hunting magic, as words against the wrath of the landlord, bone-ache, snakebite, swelling, toothache, and to stop bleeding. Such multifunctionality is an advantage of certain early incantations which have either been of universal use or have gradually enlarged their area of use.

It seems that early incantations are distinguished by their ability to append other incantations, thus forming longer and more complex new units. In most cases the sator-formula was used alone but could also be appended with other spells, even those of quite different form. A complete incantation was made up of either combined letter formulae (LF); legend incantations (ILeg) combined with letter formulae; letter formulae and short formulae of biblical background (FBibSht); extracts from psalms or prayers (Ps/Pr) and letter formulae; letter formulae and short incantations (ISht); and extremely rarely also letter formulae combined with spells in the form of runo song (Reg). Two to four independent incantations could contaminate usually taking on parts serving as commencement or reinforcement incantations; e.g.: «Maks, Paks» + «Sator» + «Mene, tekel» (LF+LF+LF); «Three sisters putting out a fire» + «Sator» (ILeg+LF); «Sator» + «Mene, tekel» + «When Jesus was crucified» + «All dear blessing of the soul» (LF+LF+ILeg+Ps/Pr); «Sator» + «Off with you, pain» (LF+FBibSht/ISht); «Sator» + «In the name of the Holy Trinity» + «Sator» + «Rosa pilla» (LF+FBibSht/ISht+LF+LF); «Sator» + «Master the man, lady the woman» (LF+R); «Sator» + «Rosa pilla» (LF+LF). A compound incantation is usually composed of written incantations («Mene, tekel», «Rosa pilla»), or both read and written incantations were appended to the written part. This phenomenon will receive closer attention in the section dealing with ways of performing. Variants of the formula differ by letter omissions and replacements but it is likely that the need to retain a palindrome worked against the development of larger deviations.

Another wide-spread palindrome is rosa pilla with the full name of rosabillaallibasor (* Map 2). The way of writing and graphical shape of the formula are more varied than in the case of sator. Written sequentially it is a pure palindrome, but actually the formula was often written in two-word sets (thus again as a quadrangle) beneath one another in two, three or four rows, in the form of a circle, or in a sextuple or octuple interdigitation, whereas the text was encircled with one or more circles. These are some basic ways of writing magic texts used already in early Coptic manuscripts. There are rare cases where the so-called hyphenated formula consisting of two plus two words has been repeated thrice, one part under another, forming a quadrangle. The formula was contaminated with a couple other letter formulae, first of all sator and sieht stiets and was used for treating erysipelas. Variations in the text seem to be a result of an attempt to adapt incomprehensible foreign words to the mother tongue and to make them possibly more understandable. There are cases where the rhythm of a newer song has influenced the formula; in some instances there has been a simple change of letters. The following example serves to illustrate the range of variations of one formula: roosaprilla; roosa lilla alli karva; roosa prilla, hallipea sorr; roosa prilla aabassoora; roosa palla, vaasa alla; roos pill alla; roos pill ja alla; rõssa, pella, pastor; ai lilla, roosapilla; aali roosa, roosa piire aita sina; roosa alla; roosa pilla, alla roosa; rossi lilla alli passo vatta; roosavilla allivasoor; roos ramp; roosa pilla, alla passa; alepasuur; TALPZOR ROSZPLAT.

Besides letter formulae (LF+LF) the main formula could be appended by popular short incantations of exorcism (LF+ISht). For example:
Get lost as an old moon from the sky; Go to where you came from! Get out! In the name of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, alla rosa, amen; you help, I shall not help.

But there are also longer extracts close to epic incantations (LF+ E). For example:

Meie issand Jeesus Kristus.
Mine välja!
Mine välja lõuna ajal kolmapäeval
Liisa Antoni seest!
Aamen!
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Go out!
Go out of Liisa Anton
at noon on Wednesday!
Amen!
(RKM II 362, 22 (20) < Trv 1981)


Similarly were appended revile formulae and short incantations, for example Rubbish, rubbish roosipila! I shall shut you up! In the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost or even runo song like exorcisms originally meant against swelling and dermatological diseases (LF+R). For example:

/---/
Kui haige, siis alane,
kui paiste, siis parane!
Alt juureta, pealt ladvata
kes ihu peale puhtaks.
/---/
If sick, decline,
if swollen, get well!
With no root below, with no top above
your skin gets clean.
(E 59165 < Kod 1921)


In Estonia were also used palindromic amor-words with parallels known only in the Baltics, though probably once known in a wider area (* Map 3).

A+M+O+R
M+I+L+O
O+L+I+M
R+O+M+A
(E 9174 (17) < Vil)

The formula has been recorded in a narrow area in South Estonian counties (Tartu and Viljandi counties) and it was used against rabies, according to single accounts also against erysipelas, bone-ache and in love magic. It is possible that the latter area of use was influenced by the literal meaning of the word amor. On Latvian territory the word has been used to treat erysipelas (Straubergs 1939: 274). Amor-milo was not appended with other incantation types.

Other letter combinations were also used: consonant clusters or quadrangles made up of consonants such as t:b:t:f to heal erysipelas and use at childbirth, and XXX for use in stock-raising. The following is an example of such erysipelas words:

t : b: t: f:
t: d: t: t: t:
Tr: t: b: t: g:
T: z: t: t: Tr:
t: b: t: d: t:
A: f: M: t:
(SKS, Niemi II No. 1103 < Kär 1893)

Estonian and Baltic-Finnic traditions do not employ extending quadrangles; of contracting quadrangles or incantations, where the number of letters was decreased in every successive link, only abrakadabra was known in Estonian area (* Map 4). It is first mentioned by Quintus Serenus Sammonicus in 200 A.D. This incantation has been interpreted as a formula derived from the holy name of God (the seven-letter word Abraxas, the constituent letters of which sum up as 365 or the number of days in a year) (Wuttke 1925: 181; Seligmann 1910, 299). Many nations have used Abraxas as an independent incantation. Another explanation for the formula derives from the Hebraic expression «Father, Son and the Holy Ghost» (ab - father, ben - son, ruach - ghost) and the expression «Take away» (Hndb I 1698), which allegedly refers to the gradual deletion of letters in the quadrangle.

In times of limited literacy knowing of the whole alphabet was a privilege of selected few, and the alphabet itself was seen as having magical powers. This is why F. Dornseiff has interpreted abrakadabra as a magical alphabet (1985: 64). Other better-known connections include the interpretation of writing of the seven-letter (the planets) amulet connected, through the mediation of Abraxas, with Hellenic witchcraft formulae and Tetragramaton, with the quadruple figure as a game denoting God.

In Europe, abrakadabra was used against fever and toothache, to heal wounds, and also in making butter. In Estonia it has been used as a healing incantation against rabies, malaria, and according to one account also to heal nari (inflammation of wrist joint). The words were used in a relatively small area (Tartu, Viljandi and Pärnu counties); in the same area differences in texts and graphical representations have been recorded: abrakadabra is found as abrakadabra, ababatabrb, abrankobo, abmatater, abravilabra, also as abra vilabra, apra vilabra, abra sadabra. Contracting quadrangles are based on the image of the disease withering and subsiding, and there were diverse ways to represent it graphically. One way of representing a letter quadrangle is with two formulae side by side with the number of letters decreasing on the left and increasing on the right. The result was a balanced incantation. Then again, sometimes «re-mirroring» was applied, whereby the formula could be reversely developed back into a whole after it had been dwindled to one letter. In such cases the result was also a balanced incantation based on an image of reversed sickness. The word abrakadabra could have been divided into two equal groups, whereas the right-hand group could include fewer letters. In Estonia, if the word was divided in two, both parts decreased uniformly, or alternatively the left-hand part was retained and the right-hand part dwindled. When the right-hand part reached its conclusion, the dwindling of the left-hand part started. Without exceptions dwindling started from the right-hand part. As a comparison it should be pointed out that in Latvian and Russian tradition the dwindling started on the left; if it started on the right, text was represented as a reversed pyramid (Straubergs 1939: 272 ff.). The formula was written on paper or bread and fed to the patient.

Words against malaria.
Abra Catabra
Abra Catabr
Abra Catab
Abra Cata
Abra Cat
Abra Ca
Abrac
Abra
Abr
Ab
A

These words are to be written on a blue or erysipelas-coloured post-office paper and given in so that the person who it is given in to would not know of it. (E 49728 (32) < Võn 1915)

Typical shapes of abrakadabra:




Since the Middle Ages, European incantations have been partly transcripts of gospels and parts of prayer texts (this will not be dealt with here at greater length), and canonical biblical expressions in foreign languages, mostly in Latin, Greek or Hebraic. Alongside with full-scale transcripts letter abbreviations of prayers were used. These were mostly letter formulae composed of initial letters of words and carried along as amulets. Occasionally the formulae were supplemented with magic signs whereby letters were separated from one another by a cross, reversed cross or other signs.

The use of complete prayer texts, and later the use of celestial letters for healing and protection magic is an ancient and generally applied custom in the whole Europe. Prayer texts and transcripts of gospels were carried along since the late antiquities. Hand-written copies of celestial letters were carried along by many soldiers in WW I (Hndb IV 21 ff., VII 1385). The continuum of belief accounts and stories about celestial letters in Estonian tradition include all more widely spread motifs. There is an array of tradition accounts from the beginning of the 20th century about the practical use of the formulae and numerous stories about experimental trials of the «anti-bullet» power of the writing: it was attached to the chest of a conscript or tied to the tail of a cat who was then shot. The tradition holds that the bullet missed. The latest data about celestial letters employed for easing childbirth originate from the year 1986. Today this is a sign not of the decline and death of the tradition, which was marginaly by that time, but an indication of the situation of data that has reached the Estonian folklore archives. In the 1990s the Estonians resettled in Russia and Caucasus have contributed reminiscences about protection letters that saved them from bullets and death in WW II; similar letters circulated also among members of free congregations.

The Gospel of St. John as one of the most frequently used parts of the Bible was carried along by deported or conscripted Estonians as a hand-written copy or pocket-edition. The use of this gospel as an avertive formula is a custom several centuries old. More often than not archive texts do not allow determing the exact text in the Bible or the Psalms used in the healing rite, as records are fairly vague, leaving everything but the general title of the source unidentified: /---/ He took the Book of Psalms, chose one psalm and pressed it to me for three times, it immediately removed the pain. (KKI 9, 115 (7) < Vil 1948)

Most prayer texts and letter formulae spread from hand to hand as handwritten copies; they were also used for healing in written form. Records of attempts to read incantations on the ill place are extremely rare. This could obviously be done only if the letters yielded something readable and when the legible was also pronounceable.

The use of complete foreign-language incantations, expressions and shortened prayers as spells was not very common in Estonia. Rather it can be seen as an exception from the general way of using incantations. Thus «Mene, mene tekel» (Daniel 5: 26-28) was used as an independent incantation against erysipelas, but it became contaminated by other spells (e.g. sator). The abbreviation for the Agatha prayer MSSHDEPL or Mens Sanctra Spontaneus Honor Dei Et Patriae Liberatio spread in Europe in the 15th century as protection against fire, etc. (Hndb I, 211). It was similarly used in Estonia.

It is singular that shortened prayers and canonical foreign-language expressions used as incantations were multifunctional and used against various diseases. In Estonia some more widely known such incantations were Bin Kristus (* Map 5.), Aurora musa, Sieht stiets, Idese bis tridese. There is a considerable number of variants of such incantations: some of the changes and mistakes were due to transcribers not understanding the foreign language or archaic and complex letters and signs; again, words were adapted to the mother tongue. Some representations of Bin Kristus can serve as an example: Bin x Kristus x Pehrtuls x Nomen x Sebusa x Novent x Souus x Maria x Joosepa x (ERA II 70, 121 < Kul 1933) or Rein, Kristus, Rohituli, Noomen, Neebuskat, Navent, Jeesus, Maarja (E 34310 < Hel 1897) or

Beia Kristus Behetul
Nommen Sebuskat
Vahnet Jeesus Maria
Joosept See Jumala, isa
See Jumala poja, see jumala
See Püha Vaimu nimel.
(ERA II 23, 147/8 (6) < Elva < Trv 1926)


In the latter case it has been attempted to represent the incantation as a quadrangle. Despite the distortions the incantation is still Latin-sounding. The Bin Kristus incantation was used to treat erysipelas, bleeding, wounds and other unidentified ailments. It was contaminated with the spell BxDxJ (the latter occurs frequently in celestial letters); one modification has a reinforcement formula appended to it. In addition to the above letter formulae incantations append with other formulae. In the following example it has the function of a reinforcement formula.

Jeesusel on tervisesõnad,
Maarjal on Maarja sõnad.
Veresooned kinni ja muud sooned lahti!
Sinu raud, sinu maja, sinu rooste,
sinu valu minu taskude.
Poeg Kristus Rohi tuli Amen.
Jebuska naven, Jeesus nagelt.
Amen.
Jesus has the words of health,
Mary has Mary's words.
Shut the veins and open other vessels!
Your metal, your house, your rust,
your pain into my pocket.
Son Christ Remedy came Amen.
Jebuska naven, Jesus nagelt.
Amen.
(RKM II 322, 29 (7) < Pst 1976)


Accounts originate mostly from Pärnumaa and Harjumaa counties and coastal parishes of Lake Peipus.

In Estonian tradition Idese bis tridese was used against snakebite and lumbago. The words are spread in West Estonia and the island of Saaremaa and there is one modification originating from Northwest Estonia (Harju county). This incantation is known also in Latvia (Straubergs 1939: 272).

The ancient origin of Cyrie eleison is indicated by their inclusion in the minutes of witch trials, in the 19th and 20th century the formula was no longer independently used. In its present shape Cyrie eleison is a remnant of past Catholic influences.

HEREH
SELES
TENET
SELAS
KÜRJE
ELEISON.
(RKM II 135, 208 < Har 1962)



Special meaningless spells were used as independent incantations; such words were originally created for incantations and were used only there. Variants of the central word were created by vowel change, initial change or adding letters. Groups of such words were used to create new incantations or added to the usual formulae. Probably the best known example of this in Estonia is maks and the incantation type based on transforming it: maks, paks was used against erysipelas and rabies. In Latvia the respective incantation had two forms mast, past and maks, paks (Straubergs 1939: 275). Maks occurs independently, though sometimes appended to sator, etc. Changes in the representation of the formula may amount to shapes like Paes maes, mi paes (H I 7, 382 (7) < Vil 1895); cf. Handb III 1586). Sometimes the unknown word was tried to be relocated into semantically comprehensible environment, as is the case in texts recorded in Vändra and Häädemeeste parishes:

Veri seisab kui üks maks
Oh jumal tee teda kõvaks
Oh jumal kinnita teda.
Blood stands solid (3 times)
Oh God make it hard (3 times)
Oh God make it strong. (3 times)


Words to stop bleeding. To be read for nine times with one breath. Helps for a wound. Or if milk is red, it is read on vodka and given to cattle. It cannot be read on a human, its blood may become solid then. (E, Stk 14, 144 (2) < Vän 1922)

Verd kinni panna.
Sinu veri mingu kops kõvaks,
maks paksuks nii kui Jeesuse maks.
Amen, amen, amen.
To stop blood.
Let your blood be hard now kops!,
maks! as fat as that of Jesus, maks!
Amen, amen, amen.
(RKM II 166, 189 (32) < Hää 1963)



Besides meaningless spells, there are incomprehensible foreign words traditionally used in incantations. The tradition has a tripartite grounding: (1) texts of old incantation manuscripts; (2) the belief that some cultures, in comparison to their own resources, possess limited but powerful supplies of foreign or alien wisdom; (3) the belief about the supernatural origin of magic formulae, the language of which would not be comprehensible to an ordinary mortal. As mentioned above, in incantations used in German cultural area, Latin, Greek, and Hebraic words and expressions were used alongside with the so-called specific magic formulae. Throughout Estonia also German words have been used; in North-East Estonia, South-East Estonia and the island of Saaremaa there are records of Russian words, and in Harju and Viru counties of Finnish words for a mystic and incomprehensible effect. One such word is used in the incantation 'Türna' birch [or bleeding birch] employed to stop bleeding :

Tüü, tüü türna kaske,
sinista sirisemasta,
punasta purisemasta!
Türna jookseb haavikusse
/---/
Run, run, bleeding birch,
Do not trickle blue,
Do not ooze red!
Türna will run into aspen grove
/---/
(E 57976/7 (4) <Kuu 1926)



In Karelian dialect türna means bleeding, in Estonian this word has no meaning. In different versions the informant looks for possible interpretations of kask [birch], sometimes changed to kosk [waterfall]. Türnakosk present in texts could here also be understood as verekosk [blood(y) waterfall].

The amount of incomprehensible words used in incantations is increased by using distorted foreign words, e.g. the case of rosa pilla, and through the use of archaic dialect as in the case of türna kask.

In Estonia there are also cases of deliberate invention of incantations and incomprehensible incantation formulae. For instance, there are magic formulae created by Fr. R. Kreutzwald: tollaholla, pilla villa (the German translation goes as Tollaholla, steure Wolle!), or Orra-porra, põrgo händ (in German translation Orraporra, Höllenscheif). These formulae have no counterparts in genuine folk tradition. The author has commented that Tollaholla wahrscheinlich Name ist dem Zauberer dienstbaren Geistes, Orraporra der Name eines Drachen ist (Kreutzwald and Neus 1854: 77). It is noteworthy that Kreutzwald's magic formulae comprise extensive improvisational parts and many of the texts in his collection of incantations are his own creation. Interestingly enough a couple of such incantations have been reprinted in folklore publications and have from there passed into popular usage; this is especially true about incantations for curing snakebite.

Occasionally sacral names were used as magic formulae. Letter formulae are originally connected with sacral, mythical and biblical names. For example, thus in Estonia Elochim was used against cramps, Adonai to treat epilepsy, Iisrael, Iisak was used against rabies.

The use of names in incantations is a separate and intriguing topic. In healing incantations it was possible to include in the text the first name of the subject at whom the incantation was directed. For some reason or another this tradition was longer retained in incantations of clear foreign origin aimed at children. A number of incantations list the names of three, seven or nine persons who are seen as possible causes of evil, e.g. words to exorcise a spell, to disrupt hiccups and in other healing words. If the selection included the correct name, the disease would retreat. All formulae listing different natural forces, kinds of wind, snakes of different colours, young men and women with different eye and hair colours can be indirectly subsumed under the same category; however, general or euphemistic names are used instead of real.

Tere, tere maavihake,
tere, mullavihake,
tere, tulevihake,
tere, tukivihake,
tere, vinguvihake,
tere, auruvihake,
tere, koldevihake!
Tere, maa-alused isandad,
tere, maa-alused emandad,
tere, maa-alused noored neitsikesed,
tere, maa-aluste kuningas!
Kust olete tulnud,
kas maast või mullast,
kas kullast või hõbedast,
kas rauast või vasest,
kas tinast või terasest,
kas rukkist või odrast,
kas nisust või kaerast,
sinna te üheksamal viisil
tagasi minge!
Saa terveks, saa terveks
kui (N), kui (N)!
Hello, hello earth anger,
hello soil anger,
hello fire anger,
hello brand anger,
hello smoke anger,
hello steam anger,
hello hearth anger!
Hello underground masters,
hello underground ladies,
hello young underground maidens,
hello the king of the underground!
Where have you come from,
of earth or soil,
of gold or silver,
of iron or copper,
of tin or steel,
of rye or barley,
of wheat or oates
in nine ways
go back there!
Get well, get well
as (N), well as (N)!
(ERA II 40, 246 < KJn 1924/5)



In Slavonic incantations the name of the person who carries out the incantation or the name of the subject is included in canonised addressing verses. Guessing or calling the name is the basis for various exorcist incantations against mythological creatures and diseases, and also against animals. Mentioning the name also served as an impairment incantation.
Estonian folk belief and phenomena related to letter formulae

Besides letter mysticism, letter formulae are genetically connected with several older forms of belief and magic. Being connected with various areas of religion and belief, letter mysticism spread in many cultural and language domains. It was most probably mediated to Estonia by Germans, though sign symbolism was known before. In our tradition letter mysticism is closely connected with the use of runes, family signs, and so-called magic signs, but also in pictorial magic.

Originally runes were used for writing incantations (Vries 1956: 307). The oldest known Karelian writing on birch bark is a thunder incantation. Tradition concerning Old Germanic runic script points to the existence of a developed letter mysticism which was intertwined with number magic. The cultural tradition in question was familiar with vowel and consonant mysticism and other types of letter mysticism. In later tradition a part of beliefs connected with runes was transferred to the tradition that concerned witchcraft. An example here could be a story of an unskilled craftsman who unleashes a disease through cutting wrong runes into the bark of a tree (Vries 1956: 309) which is comparable to an international motif about an unskilled user of a magic book, also stories about apprentices, servants or other profanes who, in the absence of the owner, read spiritual beings or a disease «out» of the book, or who by mistake disturbed the dead and summoned them (similar Estonian motifs can be found in Eisen 1896). The scope of the usage of runes on Estonian territory is by no means unambiguously clear. In view of cultural contacts and linguistic borrowings at different times (Ränk 1949: 17;ff.) it is likely that runes were used for magic purposes. The runic calendars spread in coastal areas were filled in with Scandinavian or so-called Swedish runes and some dates have been designated with interesting additional signs. An account of the oldest printed runic calendar originates from the 17th century and bears traces of coastal Swedish influence (Ränk 1949: 180). Estonia has had consistent coastal Swedish settlement since the 13th century, whereas Scandinavian influences on material culture and folk belief are traceable back to the Bronze Age (EE 1982: 161 ff.).

Family signs occasionally coincided with general witchcraft signs, but had initially, alongside with their use for designation and distinguishing movable and immovable property, had the meaning of a sign of protection. Family signs and isolated runic signs have also been added to written spells. Signs made of bent grass or branches were used to designate property in the forest, field or at seaside; the signs were also used for designating property washed ashore. The signs were scratched or drawn on objects belonging to the family, first and foremost on border stones. In 1970s I was personally quite surprised when I observed older heads of households in the village of Kahtla in Saaremaa making family signs on all kinds of objects that had been washed ashore, and similarly on property left in the forest or field which was too cumbersome to be taken along right away, but which had to be protected from being taken by someone else.

In the 19th century magic signs were an integral part of the system of daily customs. The custom to make crosses upon flour, bread, other staples, hay, unfinished work and threshold when leaving home, etc. is sporadically observable also today. It can be said that the custom is followed not so much because of a deeper conviction, but rather because of a need to go by the ancient custom giving continuance to something rooted in the family in the course of many years. Drawing magic signs before incantation, during or after it in order to conclude and confirm the message, to put a stop to the progress of a disease or finish a ritual has been generic and common even in the 20th century. Magic signs were made during the ritual and while reading incantations. However, a larger number and greater variety of signs are connected with written spells, first and foremost letter formulae, legend incantations, and words based on number magic - this aspect will be dealt with at greater length under performance customs.

Incantations were also related to so-called pictorial magic; it was mostly used in love and hunting magic and less in impairment magic (Eisen 1926: 310; Hämäläinen 1944, 50) where someone's figure was scratched onto wood or birch bark. The latter procedure was mostly accompanied with short formulae.

The spread of letter formulae

In the Balto-Finnic area letter formulae, in comparison to the previouosly discussed phenomena, form a relatively new layer of borrowed spells spread mostly through magic books and manuscripts (in German), celestial letters and manuscripts of words of magic.

In oral tradition incantations and magic recipes tend to be connected with the Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses. According to this tradition the Bible initially included six or seven books, whereas the two last books, alongside with magic recipes, contained powerful words. The motif of a handbook by Moses pro Jewish, Egyptian, etc. witchcraft is wide-spread (Anderson 1929: 203) and known since the first centuries A.D. Indeed, manuscripts and later printed documents allegedly containing ancient Jewish, Egyptian and Greek words of wisdom circulated at that time. The tradition holds that the texts used by Moses for releasing his people from Egyptian serfdom were a part of these manuscripts. Some of the popular editions circulating in mediaeval Europe were brought to the Baltic region by German colonists.

The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, popular and also feared in folklore and tradition, were used by folk healers to bolster their authority and incantations. They claimed using the given extremely rare manuscript to find healing words and therapeutic methods. It is not easy to determine which source was actually used, but it is true that the popular edition of the Book of Moses has been applied in the healing rite alongside with bulkier publications, including editions of the Bible in foreign languages and the first Bible in Estonian. Tradition has evaluated the latter as especially powerful, as it contained seven books instead of five - the two missing books being removed and thereafter destroyed at the order of landlords or priests for fear of witchcraft. The tradition held that single copies of the Bible containing the secret wisdom were hidden and thus stayed with the people. At some places the existence of a powerful book of witchcraft is still believed today.

The spread of magic books has been observed in Germany, but not in Estonia. Thus all generalisations are to be based on accounts recorded from mediators, folk healers, and the few copies that have been archived or discovered in the course of fieldwork. Popular wide-spread editions of magic books in Estonia were Sechstes und siebentes Buch der Mosis, Das wahrhaftige feuerige Drache, Romanus-Büchlein, Geheime Kunst-Schule magischer Wunder-Kräfte, etc.; many copies show signs of heavy use, i.e. underlinings and exclamation marks in the margins, etc. The first books in the list can be considered to have been mediations of cabalist wisdom. Besides beliefs and magic instruction the magic books usually included spells in general and letter formulae in particular. Such publications have mediated data in several different periods. For instance, the sator-formula was first printed in Estonia by O. W. Masing at the beginning of the 19th century (Põldmäe 1938: 114) with the purpose of denigrating the custom. Later the incantation was published in «The Seventh Book of Moses» printed in Estonia for three times (1872, 1912, 1997); the incantation has found its way into tradition through these publications. (A survey of the tradition concerning the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses can be found in a collection of texts compiled by M. J. Eisen (Eisen 1896)). I have pointed out that such publications have been actual sources of beliefs and actually applied magic rituals. For example, healer Tiitsu Seiu from the island of Saaremaa had enthusiastically tested several recipes of popular editions and had found there the crucial part of her healing rite - the sator-words (Kõiva 1989: 94).

Letter formulae were also spread through celestial letters. These Christian pseudographies, initially meant as propaganda for celebrating Saturday, were later appended by the dream of Virgin Mary, the list of ill days and protective spells against fire, bleeding, thunder, wounds from sword and bullet. It was recommended to carry celestial letters along at the time of childbirth. The spread of the manuscript was facilitated by the requirement to pass it on in written form. Rudolf Põldmäe argued that celestial letters in Estonian and Latvian were spread in the Baltic area through the mediation of Baltic Germans at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1822-1825 the press and the clergy put up an angry fight against the spread of celestial letters; the full text of a celestial letter published by O. W. Masing gave boost to the spread of similar letters among peasantry (Põldmäe 1938: 104). Initially only hymns and trivial notes, later also spells, were written into notebooks (see for example, RKM AK 163 < Ridala 1976).

(Features typical of protection letters can be found in some chain letters, especially in string letters of clerical content of which, in order to achieve protection, a certain number of copies was to be made and forwarded to acquaintances. Promises to reward the spreading of the letter by success, money or happiness and threats of disease or mishap if the chain is disrupted are common also in the case of ordinary chain letters (Anderson 1937: 5, Kõiva 1994: 13 ff.)).

Some observations on the use of letter formulae

The domain and ways of application of letter formulae were certainly limited. They were mostly used as healing words and, as the incantations were known only to mediators with special skills, only in cases when it was possible to wait for medical assistance, when the treatment involved immediate influencing of the ill place, or when it was not possible to treat the disease without professional help. Letter formulae were used to heal or alleviate erysipelas, malaria, rabies, lumbago, shock, cramps and epilepsy, toothache, fever, labour pains, bleeding, wounds, swelling, inflamed finger, sprains, bone-ache, snakebite, stroke, and cows' bladder diseases with blood in stale. In other cases incantations have been used against fire, to improve spoilt milk, against the wrath of landlord, in hunting and love magic, and as protection against various disasters; however, accounts of such uses are relatively scarce.

Letter formulae differ from other incantations not only in their religious background and origin but also in the specific complex way they were used. As compared to other words written incantations are connected with magic signs. In fact, drawing signs and their significance as one of the pivotal points of the ritual is in the case of letter formulae much clearer than in association with other types of incantations. In healing and protective rites magic signs have actually replaced incantations, as signs of witchcraft and letter formulae are to an extent identifiable with each other and occasionally their function is comparable to that of mandala.

You have to draw seven triangles on blue paper, just about like this. Then, reading out the Lord's Prayer, you have to paint all triangles black with a pencil and put them on the erysipelas. At that time you have to recite Lord's Prayer backwards for three times. (E 82488 (1) < Vän 1933)

The religious and ethnographic material and records on folk belief include seven prevalent magic signs (Kurfeldt-Hanko 1938: 366 ff.). The sign of the cross has been used in nearly all types of situations, for both negative and positive purposes: healing, protection, promotion, and impairment magic. Cross, pentagram, loop quadrangle (or any other loop polygon), and less frequently octagon and sexagon was used for healing without adding spells. The healing rite might have included incantation, but not necessarily, depending on the skills of the healer, the healing situation and the method chosen for the rite. Cross, pentagram, triangle and some of the loops were most frequently used for the treatment of dermatological diseases (erysipelas, scabs, warts, herpes, furuncles, moth (nahakoi), eczema, «the disease of the underground people» (maalised), etc.) but also for treating sprains, snakebite and other traumas ans as was mentioned above, the words could be omitted altogether, since the sign itself had the necessary influence. To bring just one example: When it is desirable that a hunter should miss the target, without his seeing it, a pentagram is drawn on the target with earwax. (H III 18, 373 (7) < Vig 1894)

Magic signs, again with or without accompanying magic formulae, were also used in transition and crises rites and in daily customs. During critical times, especially when starting or finishing different works, they were drawn on the doors of houses, barns and cattle sheds, on dishes (Eisen 1931: 35 ff.), and on specially stored sheaves, etc. in order to protect ritual and daily food. The Christmas pork serving as a ritual bread was covered with signs (Eisen 1931: 36). Magic signs were a part of the tradition associated with the beginning and end of the period of tending grazing cattle, the starting and finishing of harvest, etc. The use of cross (or pentagram) was a part of this tradition and accompanied the incantation. At the beginning of the 20th century swastika was used together with impairment words (Kurfeldt-Hanko 1938: 377).

In incantation, healing rites, and at different works, circles, pentagrams, loops and other magic signs were drawn while reading out the words. However, this was done at different phases of performing an incantation: before the incantation, after a certain part of the formula and at the end of the incantation, after reading certain parts of the incantation and at the very end, or only at the end of the incantation. The signs and encircling could be made for a certain number of times - for exactly as many times as the incantation was repeated - thus always before repeating the text. If only the accompanying activity was altered and not the text, the signs were made before proceeding with the new activity.

Looking at the healing ritual as a whole, in the case of letter formulae the signs are also repeated before the beginning of the rite, during the rite at the beginning of a new accompanying activity or a portion of text and at the end of the rite. They could be drawn after certain units of text in order to separate letters, words, verses, sentences or different incantations. An incantation became effective only in combination with signs.

B x D x I x W x K x J x B x Oo x K x
(ERA II 70, 105 < Kul 1933)


Magama panemise sõnad.
Uni sind toitku +
Uni sind täitku +,
Uni sind kaitsku kurja eest +
maga nii kaua kui +
The words for lulling to sleep.
Let the sleep feed you +
Let the sleep fill you +
Let the sleep protect you from evil +
sleep as long as +


Here the performer of witchcraft says the oath how he could be waken up again. /---/
(EKS 4°5, 33 (49) < Krj 1888)


Especially frequent was the use of signs, mostly the sign of cross, to separate the reinforcement formula from the rest of the text.

In the name of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, the servant of Jehovah of Israel is the golden crown man of king. The moon is the spirit of kukrun (the Morning Star). Amen +++ The moon extinguishes, the day shines, the dawn clarifies. The God of Israel, send us help +. (H III 1, 1/2 (7) < Krl 1895)

As mentioned above, in drawing the signs, reading the words, and accompanying customs repetition for a certain number of times was important: just as texts (or their parts) were read a certain number of times (three, seven, or nine), it was important to draw a correct number of magic signs and to locate them in the correct part of the ritual. Triple repetitions dominate but signs were also drawn for seven or nine times. Signs were made with graphite, coal, pencil or paint, often fingers or sharp metal objects were used. The following are some examples of such activities:

The healing instruments were an ordinary (not indelible) pencil, it had to be blue, and a cover of an ordinary school notebook. On this paper the informant wrote four or five lines and then crossed them out so thoroughly that not a single word was legible. This paper was then put upon the ailing part with the writing facing downwards and usually tied up with a scarf or some thicker cloth. /---/ Those who had come from more distant regions got the paper with them for the fear of its (erysipelas) reoccurrence and they were told to burn the paper later. Sometimes the healer made no use of paper, but neared his mouth to erysipelas and the movement of his lips made it possible to conclude that he read something - doing it so quietly that even the patient could not hear anything. (RKM II 106, 132/4 (11) < Vi, Kohtla-Järve 1960)
/---/ with erysipelas the blisters were covered with blue paper, a pentagram was scribbled on it and words were read and then silk of nine colours was tied around it. (RKM I 18, 106 (VI) < Iis 1981)
All kinds of strange spirals and crosses were drawn on it. (RKM II 351, 437 < Jür 1981)
The magic place was also encircled, with words and symbols scribbled on it. (RKM II 354, 414 (6) < Trv 1958/9)
He brought white paper and drew pentagrams on it with a black pencil, he scribbled all the time so that the paper was filled with pentagrams, so that it was all done with the same pencil. (RKM II 359, 27 (24) < Plt 1981)
Nine circles are drawn with a pencil on blue paper . On the circles three crosses are made with the pencil. (RKM II 279, 451/2 (267b) < Trt 1969)

Less frequently also other types of incantation had fixed patterns of graphic representation. The words were written as quadrangles, triangles, spirals, labyrinths, loop polygons, circles and in various other shapes.

Letter formulae were contaminated by incantations of very different origin and structure, oral incantations as well as others. Thus a healing ritual could make use of a mixture of written or «applied» incantations and oral incantations. Usually contaminations involved 2-5 separate incantations. Most often a letter formula was written just once, whereas other incantations might have been read for three and more times in accordance with the requirements of the healing rite. Letter formulae could be carried along under clothes, fastened on living premises, trees, or written on tables, plates and elsewhere as was pointed out in the case of sator and abbreviations derived from prayers.

Earlier the words were written first and foremost on blue paper (the so-called sugar-loaf paper) and hermetically sealed onto the ailing organ. The paper carrying the formula could also be burnt in which case the patient was to take in the ashes. When the letter formula was written on a bread (or sandwich) or on the so-called magnetised water (vodka), then it was usually given to the patient to drink and less frequently used for the external treatment of the ailing part.

Conclusion

Letter formulae are based on ancient religious images and are connected with some of them (protection and witchcraft signs, pictorial magic) up to the present day. The origin of letter formulae is associated with the perception of letters as mysterious and mystical phenomena which was a view supported by the teaching of cabalists. Letter formulae are closely connected with gnosticism and cabalism. In the European cultural area evidence on the early spread of letter formulae could be found; however, similarly to other incantations they spread in greater numbers during the Middle Ages, mostly in the 14th and 15th centuries, when esoteric knowledge became increasingly diluted and simplified. It is likely that the spread and establishment of incantations well-known in Europe was fairly slow in Estonian tradition as the first references to them are found as late as in the 18th century. The spread of the formulae was facilitated by printed sources and religious movement, notably the pietist movements. There is a significant proportion of incantations similar to Latin, Greek and Hebraic, the contents of which probably was not accessible to most performers and mediators of the tradition. Such incantations were rather performed like ancient sacred formulae or mantras.

In the case of letter formulae we are dealing with an esoteric group-bound folk tradition which did not form a part of daily universally accessible repertoire. Letter formulae were used for the treatment of more serious diseases (rabies, cramps, epilepsy, erysipelas, bleeding and wounds). These formulae were not part of the skills of every folk healer and some of them were in handwritten form passed from hand to hand by people involved in the pietist movement. This is a point of connection between healing words in the sense of incantation and healing words understood as a prayer or holy text of Christian origin.

The spread of incantations in writing is connected with the use of written incantations. Letter formulae are neither long nor complicated, but their foreign quality contributes to a higher-than-average variability of the texts. The degree of variability and contamination is increased by attempts to find meanings closer to the mother tongue for texts in a foreign language or with an archaic ring. Older and better-established types of incantations have intermingled or become contaminated by different types of spells of different origin yielding new complete incantations of motley form and content. The spread of specific types of incantations is different and individual; generally higher concentrations can be observed in West-Estonia and Saaremaa.


"She’s all the unsung heroes who... never quit." ― R. A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series
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Good stuff there. Thank you.


If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~Cicero
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http://www.farragoswainscot.com/2007/magicsquares.html
The Magic Square Palindrome

—Michael Constantine McConnell—






The Magic Square Palindrome, like the normal palindrome, boasts two aspects. First, the verse must be structured ad literam in reverse order, and secondly, for the verse to be "literary," it must bear grammatical implication. It has to be spelled the same backward and forward, and it has to make some type of sense. Though both forms are essentially palindromes, the Magic Square Palindrome differs from the ordinary palindrome in that when the twenty five letters of a Magic Square are arranged on a 5x5 table, they form a pattern such that the same palindromic sequence of letters appears in four different directions.
Magic Squares date back to at least 14 A.D., as many bearing the following message have been found above door thresholds in the excavated ruins of Pompeii: SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS. The SATOR square has experienced many translations ranging roughly from "The worker cultivates with help of the wheel" to "The savior holds the sphere." The translations share one common thread: the idea of roundness, cyclicity, and recursion. The form seems to mimic the meaning, and theories abound as to whether the SATOR squares found above thresholds were meant as charms or whether they represented early Christian sects as evinced by the anagram PATER NOSTER or whether they were two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects—square spheres.
Regardless, even though my following Magic Square Palindromes aren't as self-referential and "mystical" as the SATOR square, I present them in the spirit of the ancient poetic formalism I most admire, cruciverbalism, the crossing of letters, both the bane and the blessing of the puzzler, the puzzling, and the puzzled.

____________________



5x5 Word Square


Muse sun, Eve's e[y]es even use sum.

[ 7 words/25 letters ]









5x5 Word Square


Eros, erode sod. dosed ore sore.

[ 7 words/25 letters ]









5x5 Word Square


Trap: a rat spat a tap's tar apart.

[ 8 words/25 letters ]









5x5 Word Square


At ads timid, am mad? I'm its data!

[ 9 words/25 letters ]

—first published in LEAD magazine—









9x9 Word Square



God, a sin is on my gong. I'd mar on Ann Ayr. Al, a 'no' is gol[d] logs. Ion, Al: a Ryan nanoram. Dig no gym. No sin is a dog.

[ 31 words/81 letters ]



Keep on trucking... and watch for palindromes!
Blessings..
Lemon


"She’s all the unsung heroes who... never quit." ― R. A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambigram
Ambigram
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


An animation of a rotationally symmetric ambigram for the word "ambigram".


Another ambigram for the word "ambigram" with different letter transformations from the ambigram above.


Early published ambigram by Mitchell T. Lavin in The Strand Magazine, June 1908
An ambigram is a word, art form or other symbolic representation, whose elements retain meaning when viewed or interpreted from a different direction, perspective, or orientation.
The meaning of the ambigram may either change, or remain the same, when viewed or interpreted from different perspectives.
Douglas R. Hofstadter describes an ambigram as a "calligraphic design that manages to squeeze two different readings into the selfsame set of curves." Different ambigram artists (sometimes called ambigramists) may create completely different ambigrams from the same word or words, differing in both style and form.

Ambigrams have also been called, among other things:
vertical palindromes (1965)[1]
designatures (1979)[2]
inversions (1980)[3]
FlipScript (2008)[4]
[edit]Discovery and popularity

The earliest known non-natural ambigram dates to 1893 by artist Peter Newell. Although better known for his children's books and illustrations for Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, he published two books of invertible illustrations, in which the picture turns into a different image entirely when turned upside down. The last page in his book, Topsys & Turvys contains the phrase THE END, which, when inverted, reads PUZZLE. In Topsys & Turvys Number 2 (1902), Newell ended with a variation on the ambigram in which THE END changes into PUZZLE 2.
From June to September, 1908, the British monthly The Strand published a series of ambigrams by different people in its "Curiosities" column.[5][6][7] Of particular interest is the fact that all four of the people submitting ambigrams believed them to be a rare property of particular words. Mitchell T. Lavin, whose "chump" was published in June wrote "I think it is in the only word in the English language which has this peculiarity," while Clarence Williams wrote, about his "Bet" ambigram, "Possibly B is the only letter of the alphabet that will produce such an interesting anomaly."
In 1969, Raymond Loewy designed the rotational NEW MAN ambigram logo, which is still in use today.[8][9] The mirror ambigram DeLorean Motor Company logo was first used in 1975.[10]
John Langdon and Scott Kim also each believed that they had invented ambigrams in the 1970s.[11] Langdon and Kim are probably the two artists who have been most responsible for the popularization of ambigrams. John Langdon produced the first mirror image logo "Starship" in 1975. Robert Petrick, who designed the invertible Angel logo in 1976, was also an early influencer of ambigrams.
The earliest known published reference to the term "ambigram" was by Hofstadter, who attributed the origin of the word to conversations among a small group of friends during 1983–1984.[12] The original 1979 edition of Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach featured two 3-D ambigrams on the cover.
Ambigrams became more popular as a result of Dan Brown incorporating John Langdon's designs into the plot of his bestseller, Angels & Demons, and the DVD release of the Angels & Demons movie contains a bonus chapter called "This is an Ambigram". Langdon also produced the ambigram that was used for some versions of the book's cover.[11] Brown used the name Robert Langdon for the hero in his novels as an homage to John Langdon.[13]
In music, the Grateful Dead have used ambigrams several times, including on their albums Aoxomoxoa and American Beauty.
In the first series of the British show Trick or Treat, the shows host and creator Derren Brown uses cards with rotational ambigrams. These cards can read either 'Trick' or 'Treat'.
Although the words spelled by most ambigrams are relatively short in length, one DVD cover for The Princess Bride movie creates a rotational ambigram out of two words: "Princess Bride," whether right side up or 180 degrees.
[edit]Ambigram types

Ambigrams are exercises in graphic design that play with optical illusions, symmetry and visual perception. Some ambigrams feature a relationship between their form and their content. Ambigrams usually fall into one of several categories:
Rotational
A design that presents several instances of words when rotated through a fixed angle. This is usually 180 degrees, but rotational ambigrams of other angles exist, for example 90 or 45 degrees. The word spelled out from the alternative direction(s) is often the same, but may be a different word to the initially presented form. A simple example is the lower-case abbreviation for "Down", dn, which looks like the lower-case word up when rotated 180 degrees.
Mirror-image
A design that can be read when reflected in a mirror, usually as the same word or phrase both ways. Ambigrams that form different words when viewed in the mirror are also known as glass door ambigrams, because they can be printed on a glass door to be read differently when entering or exiting.
Figure-ground
A design in which the spaces between the letters of one word form another word.
Chain
A design where a word (or sometimes words) are interlinked, forming a repeating chain. Letters are usually overlapped meaning that a word will start partway through another word. Sometimes chain ambigrams are presented in the form of a circle.
Space-filling
Similar to chain ambigrams, but tile to fill the 2-dimensional plane.
Spinonym
An ambigram in which all the letters are made of the same glyph, possibly rotated and/or inverted. WEB is an example of a word that can easily be made into a spinonym. Previously called rotoglyphs or rotaglyphs.[14]
Fractal
A version of space-filling ambigrams where the tiled word branches from itself and then shrinks in a self-similar manner, forming a fractal. See Scott Kim's fractal of the word TREE for an animated example.
3-dimensional
A design where an object is presented that will appear to read several letters or words when viewed from different angles. Such designs can be generated using constructive solid geometry.
Perceptual shift (also called an oscillation)
A design with no symmetry but can be read as two different words depending on how the curves of the letters are interpreted.
Natural
A natural ambigram is a word that possesses one or more of the above symmetries when written in its natural state, requiring no typographic styling. For example, the words "dollop", "suns" and "pod" form natural rotational ambigrams. In some fonts, the word "swims" forms a natural rotational ambigram. The word "bud" forms a natural mirror ambigram when reflected over a vertical axis. The words "CHOICE" and "OXIDE", in all capitals, form natural mirror ambigrams when reflected over a horizontal axis. The word "TOOTH", in all capitals, forms a natural mirror ambigram when its letters are stacked vertically and reflected over a vertical axis. See the article transformation of text for a discussion of letter symmetry.
Symbiotogram[citation needed]
An ambigram that, when rotated 180 degrees, can be read as a different word to the original, e.g., swoop and dooms.
Multi-lingual
An ambigram that can be read one way in one language and another way in a different language. Multi-lingual ambigrams can exist in all of the various styles of ambigrams, with multi-lingual perceptual shift ambigrams being particularly striking.

Rotational ambigram, Vegas



Mirror-image ambigram, Wiki



Three-dimensional ambigram, ABC



Perceptual shift ambigram, Wave and Particle



Spinonym, neun (German for nine)



A corporate logo with 4-fold rotational symmetry

[edit]Creating ambigrams

There are no universal guidelines for creating ambigrams, and there are different ways of approaching problems. A number of books suggest methods for creation (including WordPlay[15] and Eye Twisters[16]).
Computerized methods to automatically create ambigrams have been developed. The earliest, the 'Ambimatic' created in 1996,[17] was letter-based and used a database of 351 letter glyphs in which each letter was mapped to another.[18] This generator could only map a word to itself or to another word that was the same length: because of this, most of the generated ambigrams were of poor quality.[18] In 2007, software developer Mark Hunter developed the ambigram generator at FlipScript.com (and licensed to other companies).[17] It uses a more complex method of creating ambigrams,[4] with a database containing more than 5 million curves,[19] and multiple lettering styles.


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Ashino Tsume roshi
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You are...: a master
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Spelled Number: 200
Your favorite spirit to work with: Human
If I could be anything, I would be...: A Galactic Executive
My super power would be...: X-Ray Vision
My magical/paranormal name...: Durga Suta Putra
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A Lot of good work. Where or what is your Conclusion? Caiyros


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You are...: a master
Male/Female: Male
Number of Spirits: 1000
Spelled Number: 200
Your favorite spirit to work with: Human
If I could be anything, I would be...: A Galactic Executive
My super power would be...: X-Ray Vision
My magical/paranormal name...: Durga Suta Putra
Zodiac:

A lot of Good Work. Do you intend to conclude further? N.B. The Abramelin magickal system has several "tiers" of "knowledge motion" thus while the Sator square is a very high form of protection, especially when a number of symbolic forms are added....and the other squares have a complex system of "additions" & susbtractions" that create various, mental, physical, dimensional, & time effects.

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