Hi there.

Why start a brand-new newsletter with a history lesson instead of “beginning”, “genesis” and other bullshit. I wanted to test the platform so I could enjoy the reading. 🙂 

Abracadabra

Because Abracadabra is proof that the right word, dropped at the right moment, can literally change the world—or at least make people believe it did.

But…

Nobody “invented” abracadabra out of thin air. The first time the word appeared on paper was in the 2nd century A.D., in a medical handbook by the Roman scholar-physician Quintus Serenus Sammonicus.

Everything that follows, Gnostic amulets, medieval plague charms, stage-magician patter—grew out of that single reference.

So what is the abracadabra?

A 2-thousand-year-old “magic” word that began as a doctor’s fever-banishing charm, was carried into the Middle Ages as a plague talisman, and finally landed on a modern stage as the universal shout for “something amazing just happened!”

200 A.D., Rome. Imperial physician Quintus Serenus Sammonicus jots down a fever remedy in his Liber Medicinalis: write A B R A C A D A B R A in an eleven-line triangle, snip off one letter per row, fold, wear as an amulet—watch the malaria fade.

ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A

The visual “funnel” was thought to drag the illness out of the body—an ancient UX trick.

It’s always Romans. And the Roman prescription that started it all

• Source text: Liber Medicinalis, chap. 52 (c. A.D. 200–220).

• Remedy: Write ABRACADABRA 11 times, removing one letter each line to form an inverted triangle, fold the parchment, hang it on a strip of linen, and wear it until the fever fades.

• Rationale: Ancient doctors believed the dwindling letters would “funnel” the illness out of the body—essentially an apotropaic (evil-averting) graphic spell.

How the charm spread

• Gnostic amulets – Basilidean sect carved variants on Abraxas stones to ward off “air-borne” spirits.

• Middle Ages – Physicians and priests copied the triangle onto parchment against plague and “ague.” Daniel Defoe ridiculed Londoners for pasting it over doorways during the 1665 plague.

• Early 1800s – Comic playwrights and conjurors adopted it as a verbal flourish; the healing claim faded, and the showmanship stuck.

• 20th century esoterica – Aleister Crowley reforms it to ABRAHADABRA for Thelema’s “Word of the New Aeon.

Possible roots

Quick timeline

• c. 200 A.D. – Sammonicus writes abracadabra cure.
  Roman physician Quintus Serenus Sammonicus tells patients to write ABRACADABRA in a shrinking triangle, hang it on their neck, and let the illness drain away.

• 3rd–7th c. – Appears on Gnostic gems and Coptic spells.

• Middle Ages – Standard plague-ward formula across Europe.
  Copied onto parchment strips, sewn into linen, and painted over doorways during plague years. The word’s very shape—diminishing letter by letter—was thought to “pull” the sickness out.

• 1665 – Londoners posted it on doors during the Great Plague.

• 1800s – Enters the stage magic vernacular.
  By the 1800s, magicians had borrowed it for the ta-da moment of a trick; the healing claim faded, but the theatrical sparkle stayed.

• 1904 – Crowley’s Abrahadabra.

• Today – Universal cue for “voilà!”—minus the medical claims.

Why it endures

It sounds like power. 

A word that no one can definitively translate retains its mystique.

Saying it cues the “moment of transformation,” whether you’re trying to banish a fever or make a rabbit vanish.

As language historian Elyse Graham notes, once real medicine took over, the word’s power migrated from hospital wards to theatre stages.

Your Turn

Reply with the one word you rely on to “make the magic happen” in your day-to-day.

I’ll feature the sharpest incantations in the next edition.

Until then, speak it into existence.

🕯️ Post-Credit Scene

WTF, I just read, might be your thoughts. If you’re used to catching these letters on Substack, surprise: I'm testing platforms and wanted to split the different thoughts and newsletters from one to another. Also, grow more audience.

Beehiiv promises smarter segmentation, a slick referral engine, and analytics that read more like a cockpit than a dashboard.

I’m treating this feed as my experimental lab.

Expect the same voice, more interactive newsletters to come, and the occasional behind-the-curtain drops.

Think of it as abracadabra for distribution—say the word, watch reach expand.

Let me know what you love, what breaks, and what makes the spell worth repeating.

For this post-credit scene, you can dive deep into sources and further reading related to this magic with abracadabra.

1. Q. Serenus Sammonicus, Liber Medicinalis 

2. Malaria history & the triangular amulet

3. Defoe on London’s plague superstitions EsoterX andMental Floss

4. Etymology debates (Hebrew/Aramaic/Abraxas)

   1. Wikipedia

   2. National

   3. Geographicaramaicnt.org

5.  Crowley & “Abrahadabra”

(Feel free to click down the rabbit hole—but leave a breadcrumb trail.)

Thanks for reading.

Vlad