Incantation: “The saying of words believed to have a magical effect when spoken or sung” (Cambridge Dictionary) or “a written or recited formula of words designed to produce a particular effect” (Merriam-Webster). From the Latin “incantare” (literally, “in-” [in, on, onto] + “cantare” [to sing], from the Proto-Indo-European “en” + “kan” according to etymology.com).
It is Friday night as I write this & the last call to prayer has recently fallen silent from the mosque next door. Here, far far from the peninsula that birthed the prophet they honor, they still sing the verses from the Qur’an five times a day in the original Arabic even though very few can understand what they hear. But they believe words have power, & these are the divine words so what power must they hold?
I believe words have power. I believe that the universe was spoken into existence & that the very Son of God is Himself the Word. Though I don’t really understand how it all works ontologically, I spend hours every day reading His words, memorizing His words, & praying with my own words back to Him.
Words have power in the so-called “mundane” world as well. That’s why, even though I’m here to do engineering, I’m devoting the first 6 months of my 2-year commitment almost entirely to learning one of the local languages. I’m a huge language nerd (if you couldn’t tell) so for me it’s just awesome that my prime directive right now is to partake in one of my favourite hobbies, but that’s beside the point.
Five times a day (sometimes more) the entire city erupts with chanting in every direction like the bleating of a million sheep being led astray. Souls crying out in yearning—I believe earnest pleading—for god, with the belief that they are participating in the affectation of change through the powerful proclamation of their god’s words.
What would it look like if we took our words as seriously as they take theirs? If we really believe that we have the true Word of the true God, why do we so often leave it on the proverbial shelf? By that I mean that, even when we take it off the physical shelf to read we are not sufficiently over-awed by the sheer power of what we’re holding—they’re just words, after all.
In the end, that’s true. They are “just words”. That’s why we tend to reject mere incantations in favour of translations that we can actually study & understand. As I said before, I don’t understand how it all works ontologically, but I do know that the true power is not in the specific vibrations of air produced by our mouths.
The true power is in the God who has devised such a profoundly simple yet mind-bogglingly complex system wherein we can envision a concept in our mind & produce vibrations which are then detected by another being, translated into electro-chemical signals that travel to the other being’s mind & are finally interpreted as a concept hopefully similar to the one we originally envisioned.
Moreover, He has transferred to us, through this system (& it’s closely-related cousin that does the same thing except with patterns of light that we see instead of sounds that we hear) the concept of His incomprehensible love & supremely powerful Gospel, & entrusted us with transmitting this knowledge to yet more others.
What more incentive can I have, except perhaps the fact that “incentive” comes from the Latin “incentivum”, which originally meant “that which stirs one’s passions like music to the heart”, which, incidentally, comes from the roots “in-” [see above] + “canere” [to make music] ultimately from the very same ancient en + kan?