ABRACADABRA

How many of us have grown up seeing this word used in a cartoon, movie, or even a live performance where the stage magician pulls a rabbit out of the hat and bellows this incantation in a flair of skillful whimsy?

The meaning of “abracadabra” has deeper roots. While it is difficult to pin down a specific etymology of the word, early findings of it go as far back as the 2nd century AD to a Roman nobleman, Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, who wrote Liber Medicinalis (Book of Medicine). In the book, he arranged the word on a piece of parchment paper in an upside-down triangle, making the word shorter as the triangle narrowed, until only one letter remained. This was intended to be a remedy for illness or hardship. It was written that as the letters disappeared, so did the problem (Barrett, 2001).

Other historical findings of the word include the Aramaic phrase "avra k'davra" (עַבְרָא כְּדַבְרָא), which translates to "I will create as I speak" or "what was said has come to pass" (Davies, 2009). Hebrew words, such as "ebrah k'dabri" (אברא כדברי), mean "I will create as I speak." In Gnosticism, the Egyptian teacher Basilides of Egypt wrote about a supreme deity called Abraxas who was the source of divine emanations, the ruler of all the heavens and circles of creation (Mead, 1900/2020). Carl Jung wrote about Abraxas as a “god above gods.” In alchemical terms, Jung described Abraxas as a hermaphroditic (both and yet neither masculine nor feminine) entity representing the fullness of opposites: both light and dark; creation and destruction; terrible and essential (Jung, 2009). You might get the idea that this has correlates with the famous occult phrase, “as above, so below” (Hall, 1928/2003).

“The union (or maybe sometimes just holding the tension) of opposites” is a state of alchemical work. The image of Abraxas can be interpreted, psychologically and symbolically, as a means of coming into the fullest sense of the self and achieving alchemical change by creating a new reality for oneself. This is part of psychological work when clients enter into the therapeutic relationship. I frequently discuss with my clients that speaking about their life and experiences creates the capacity to manifest new realities. There is power in the vocalization of one’s truth, and therefore a resonance that is generated and builds previously unknown capacities in the human psyche (Hillman, 1975). As clients enter into psychological alchemical change in the therapy room, suddenly, what they speak becomes manifest. Development of a will to change by speaking about their life, their traumas, and their desires from the deepest parts of their soul is what makes the potential for healing become real, possible, and accessible. It is a privilege to bear witness to the magic of therapy in this way, and to that I say, “ABRACADABRA!”

References

Barrett, D. V. (2001). The secret societies handbook. Sterling Publishing.

Davies, O. (2009). Grimoires: A history of magic books. Oxford University Press.

Hall, M. P. (2003). The secret teachings of all ages (Original work published 1928). TarcherPerigee.

Hillman, J. (1975). Re-visioning psychology. Harper Perennial.

Jung, C. G. (2009). The Red Book (S. Shamdasani, Ed., M. Kyburz, J. Peck, & S. Shamdasani, Trans.). W. W. Norton & Company.

Mead, G. R. S. (2020). Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: Some short sketches among the Gnostics, mainly of the first two centuries (Original work published 1900). Independently published.

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