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Interesting facts

Incantation

Maybe magic isn’t real, but that hasn’t stopped people from cultures all over the world from doing their very best to cast magical spells.

The specialised use of language in the form of incantations is at the heart of most magical practice. An incantation is typically a specific arrangement of words that might be chanted, spoken or sung, often in the context of highly ritualised behaviours.

Specific ‘magical’ words are thought to have special powers; often these are words that would sound nonsensical in another context – think ‘abracadabra’ or ‘shazam’. In cultural contexts in which magic and incantations are taken seriously, these special words may be kept secret from the general population, passed down along formal or family lines to the practitioners of magic.

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