Things happen to me in threes. Well, not all the time, but sometimes. Like this time.

I love the word Abracadabra. Always have. Silas and I made a greeting card for our 2009 inspirational line with Tree Free Greetings, and the card reads "Amen Abracadabra Amen." Kind of intended to be a nod at JoAnn Harris's book Chocolat, but also a tipping of the hat to all the people of the world who mix magic and miracles, faith and fairy tales.

A few months later I'm sitting in Susan Wooldrige's poetry class. We're all calling out words to put on the blackboard, words we'll later use in poetry exercises. I call out one of my favorite words "abracadabra" and Susan, while writing it on the board, says "Did you know that the original meaning of this word represents true magic, not hocus pocus?" I sit up straighter in my chair. "It's original meaning is 'I will create, as I say.' " Wow.

The very next day, ruminating on my new insight into the enchanted word, I am walking the streets of Port Townsend, Washington, and turn into one of my favorite gift stores. I'd never noticed the name before, and later realized it was because they had never put signs out. This the owner told me, as she noticed me snapping up all these pictures. "My husband finally decided to make our logo sign," she said. "And he went a little overboard." And now of course I have to write about ABRACADABRA because I've had a sign. Or three.

What knocks my socks off here is that ABRACADABRA has, like so many other original, empowered words, been diminished in stature and relegated to Bugs Bunny cartoons and newspaper comic strips. Yet the original meaning far surpasses hocus pocus and speaks of the essence of human power, our ability to create with our thoughts and words.

From Wikipedia: The term originated from the Aramaic. The original Aramaic phrase was used with a Hebrew prefix Alef rather than the latter version with an Ayin. The difference was that the original meaning was "I will create, as I say," while the latter was "What was said has been done."

Like the word ABRACADABRA, the notion that we create as we think is an ancient one. Sacred texts, such as the bible, knew this: "As a man thinketh, so is he." And the emerald tablet, predating Christianity, states "The formation of the microcosm (mind) is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm (matter)" inferring that what we create in our thoughts translates to the manifestations of form around us.

Do you realize what this means?

We are now tying our notions of magic, of creating something out of nothing or transmuting it through command, to our intentions and words. Law of Attraction teachers have been telling us this for years and spiritual mystics have been trying to clarify this truth since time out of mind. The magic wands, genie bottles and puffs of smoke and can stay in the Bugs Bunny world, but the creating of reality through our words and deeds? That's tangible magic and was never intended to be cartoon fare. It's meant for our realm and it's designed to empower us as creators.

I dunno 'bout you, but I tend to forget how inherently magical I am. I forget that the power is mine to create my reality and to allow my dreams to come true. I intend on turning ABRACADABRA into a mantra, to remind myself that my will is the genie in the bottle, and my word is its command. Next time we find ourselves in need of change, hoping to create something more joyous or liberating or healthy, let's remember Dorothy. The shoes and the power were with her all along. So it is with the will and the word.

As we think, so we live. As we say, so it becomes.

Abracadabra.
Amen.