A barbarous name () is a meaningless (or seemingly meaningless) word used in magic

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

s. The term ''barbarous'' comes from the Greek (), meaning one to whom a pure Greek dialect is not native; one who is not a proper Greek, (

barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

s). Often these names were derived from foreign sources and acquired their "barbarous" nature from the magician's lack of understanding of that language.The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, by John Michael Greer, Llewellyn, 2005, p. 58-59The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy, by

Rosemary Ellen Guiley Rosemary Ellen Guiley (July 8, 1950 - July 18, 2019) was an American writer on topics related to spirituality, the occult, and the paranormal. She was also a radio show host, a certified hypnotist, a board director of the "National Museum of My ...

, Facts on File (

Infobase Publishing Infobase is an American publisher of databases, reference book titles and textbooks geared towards the North American library, secondary school, and university-level curriculum markets. Infobase operates a number of prominent imprints, including ...

), 2006, p.31 Many ancient barbarous names were of

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

origin, though there were plenty of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Persian name A Persian name, or an Iranian name, consists of a given name (Persian language, Persian: نام ''Nâm''), sometimes more than one, and a surname (نام‌ خانوادگی). Given names Since the Muslim conquest of Persia, some names in Iran h ...

s that were corrupted by transcription into

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. They appear throughout the Greek Magical Papyri, a notable example being "ablanathanalba".

Iamblichus Iamblichus ( ; ; ; ) was a Neoplatonist philosopher who determined a direction later taken by Neoplatonism. Iamblichus was also the biographer of the Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician Pythagoras. In addition to his philosophical co ...

discusses barbarous names, warning magicians not to translate them even if their original meaning is discovered, due to the belief that the power of the names resided in their sound, not their meaning. The term also appears in the

Chaldean Oracles The ''Chaldean Oracles'' are a set of spiritual and philosophical texts widely used by Neoplatonist philosophers from the 3rd to the 6th century CE. While the original texts have been lost, they have survived in the form of fragments consisting m ...

."Plethon, Georgios Gemistos" by Brigette Tambrun, in ''Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Occultism'', ed.

Wouter Hanegraaff Wouter Jacobus Hanegraaff (born 10 April 1961) is professor of the History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. He served as the first president of the European Society for the Study of West ...

Brill publishers Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and Bibliographic database, databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South ...

, 2006, p.961 By the medieval period most were from Greek and Hebrew sources, such as "anexhexeton".

Gemistus Pletho Georgios Gemistos Plethon (; /1360 – 1452/1454), commonly known as Gemistos Plethon, was a Greek scholar and one of the most renowned philosophers of the Late Byzantine era. He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Weste ...

censored references to barbarous names (as well as Christianity) in

Michael Psellos Michael Psellos or Psellus (, ) was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek monk, savant, writer, philosopher, imperial courtier, historian and music theorist. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to have died in 1078, although it has also b ...

's copy of the ''

''. The Enochian language of

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, ...

and

Edward Kelley Sir Edward Kelley or Kelly, also known as Edward Talbot (; 1 August 1555 – 1597/8), was an English Renaissance occultist and scryer. He is known for working with John Dee in his magical investigations. Besides the professed ability to se ...

introduced a variety of barbarous names to modern magical practice. In the modern era,

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

, like Iamblichus before him, argued that the supposed effectiveness of barbarous names rested in their utterance, not their meaning.Chapter IX: Of Silence and Secrecy: And of the Barbarous Names of Evocation
from

's Magick in Theory and Practice, hosted at the

Internet Sacred Text Archive The Internet Sacred Text Archive (ISTA) is a Santa Cruz, California-based website dedicated to the preservation of electronic public domain religious texts. History The website was first opened to the public on March 9, 1999, by John Bruno Hare ...

References

{{reflist Barbarians Ceremonial magic Magic words

See also

References