The Power of Words

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A picture of a yellow-brown young frog amidst foliage

A lot of my friends have experiences with the supernatural. Whether it's because of their family histories dealing with and being involved in brujeria/vodou/obeah, they have countless stories of being visited by grandparents in their dreams or of grandmothers cursing their husbands. They're an endless well of supernatural histories and I wish I had as many stories to tell as they do, but I don't.

David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous had me thinking about the importance of words and what I would consider magic. One of my friends, whose aunt is very involved in brujeria and has a family history of magic in Puerto Rico, taught me how to curse someone. Well, she didn't really teach me how to do it, more so explained to me how she was taught. You write down on a slip of paper the name of the person who you want to curse and you put it in your shoe. The name becomes the representation of that person, in a way. Every time you step on the ground, you're stepping on that person, giving them horrible luck. 

My experiences with magic are limited to what I learned when reading Macbeth and all the superstitious things my mother did when my sister and I were growing up. When a kid hurts themself, there's a little song you sing while rubbing their injury: sana, sana, colita de rana, si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana. It literally translates to 'heal, heal, frog tail, if you don't heal today, you'll heal tomorrow.' Growing up, I didn't really think anything of it. It was a cute song, and it made me feel better. Then when I got to high school and read Macbeth, it became kind of interesting to see how similar that little song was to a spell. I think that there's a little bit of something magical in things like that, whether they're healing or they're damning, I think it's interesting to see the impact of language. Someone's name could easily be used to curse them (whether it's my friend's curse or it's the fae of Ireland/Scotland stealing your name) and a frog's tail can be used as a healing potion for crying children. 

Comments

  1. Karina NovaisMay 12, 2022 at 4:17 PM

    I really liked you connecting this to the "sana, sana..." expression. I have a friend of mine who every time i tell him about how i may have hurt myself he says this line to me, every single time without fail. I love the concept that healing energy can overcome physical pain.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hana MemisevicMay 13, 2022 at 1:42 PM

      My best friend does this to me every time I fall or get hurt (which is so much) and it feels healing to me. I love the energy that is presented and exchanged in this action, and also appreciate when she does it for things beyond physical pain

      Delete
  2. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausMay 12, 2022 at 6:45 PM

    I love this exchange!

    ReplyDelete

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