The invocation of the 'Father' reminds us of the opening words of the Lord's Prayer, repeated millions of times a day all over the Christian world. In the mouth of Jesus, the opening words, 'My (our) father who art in heaven' is used frequently as a surrogate for God. The very fullness of the phrase has seemed curious where one might have expected a simple 'God' or 'Father' or the like. The explanation lies in the mushroom title AB-BA-TAB-BA-RI-GI, a rather fuller version of the one cited above and underlying 'Abba, father.' The cryptographers have teased out the Sumerian into an Aramaic 'abba' debareqi'a', 'O my (our) father who art in heaven!' \r\n \r\nHaving now penetrated the disguise and laid bare the original Sumerian and Aramaic phrase made from it, we can now recognize it as a phrase we have all known from our childhood story-books for a long time: 'abracadabra.' Originally it had a far more serious intent, and is first found in the writings of one Q. Serenus Sammonicus of the second-third century AD, a physician of the sect we know as Gnostics. This author left precise instructions for the use of this cabbalistic phrase, which was believed to invoke beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. The magic word had to be stitched in the form of a cross and worn as an amulet in the bosom for nine days, and finally thrown backwards before sunrise into a stream running eastwards.

• invocation
• etymology
• cryptography
• language
• magick
• ritual
• history
• lord"s prayer