Looking For Good Language Book, Help with choosing a magickal language Options

Hello again, folks.

So I decided to start over in the whole scheme of things from scratch, seeing as how my pre-assumptions have become too messy for me to deal with.

I wanted to start from the bottom up, so on that note, I thought that maybe what I was missing out on was an actual mindset that I would set aside solely for magickal workings. Then, I thought to myself, "But how can I manage my thinking process from drifting away from the tasks at hand if I really want to do anything?" at that point, after a good intellectual meditation, I realized that there may be a connection to the language I "Think" in and the language I "speak." Then, it struck me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lightning.gif)

Ok, maybe not like that, maybe more like this (IMG:style_emoticons/default/Lighten.gif)

"Why not study a language to be used for magickal purposes? Such as chanting and incantation? And only use that language for all magickal workings?"

It made sense. There would be a clear division in my mind, as a returning novice, between magickal thinking and mundane thinking, both separated by allocating different language functions of my brain to each respective situation. A magick language.

Then I sat down and started thinking. The thought train was running at full steam.

Latin? Maybe if I wanted to invoke energies of Law, Judgment,and Judeo-Christian-type energy. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_popeanim.gif) I made the correlations by remembering that many old decrees and law terminologies come from Latin. That, and for a long time, masses were held in Latin, so there is alot of invested thoughtform energy there through that linguistic conduit.

Greek? Definitely a good choice. Good for invoking energies of Science, Logic, Philosophy, and Math. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_bookread.gif) Most scholarly fields have their terms and thought styles rooted in Greek language.

English, my own language? I already speak it. Nothing too magickal that I can see, as I use it profanely all the time, especially in matters of Bureaucracy, Business, and Commerce. English is starting to become the dominant business language of the world, and this is the feeling I get from my own language when I meditated upon it's energies.

Sumerian? Arabic? Old Egyptian tongue? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/Laie_58.gif) Good choices, but it may polarize my spirit to be biased in compatibility towards the energies of these cultures. The same idea may go for Apache, Cherokee, and other Native American tongues.

I wanted a language that is almost dead. Something arcane. Something reserved for spiritual matters. Something that has a reputation for being very unorthodox, something considered weird when it's writings are looked upon. Something nearly alien. Something so old, it is nearly forgotten by the mainstream. I put these factors together, and one language stood out from the rest: Brahmi.

I want to learn to read, write, and speak Brahmi. I want to know where is a good source to learn this language. I did a little digging, myself, and found that the only sources I could find for this were college books ranging from $230-$510 USD!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yikes.gif) Seeing as how I can't really afford the time or money to plan a trip to Goa and explore this on my own, I was wondering if the international community of SM could direct me to a good resource(s) to learn such an interesting language!

Plus, aesthetically speaking, it looks like it was written by aliens! How cool is that!? It sorta adds to the whole "mysterious" effect.

~Xenomancer

PS: If all else fails, I could settle for old-style Gaelic.

An old language certainly adds something to a magical ritual, both the time invested in learning the language and the time and dedication spent developing the proper dialect and tone to speak it with confidence as well.

There is another aspect to arcane language, however, that can also tie into the classical magical edict of secrecy. It's more complicated, but have you considered developing a personal magical language?

At first it seems daunting, and of course the language itself doesn't have the tie to any particular culture or, by proxy, the presence that culture ultimately represents in the universal subconscious, etc. However what it does hold is the crystallized intention to do magic, and of course this intention is pure rather than possibly influenced by those same factors you had mentioned before - greek as related to science, logic; latin as related to regulation and law, etc.

A great deal of time and care must go into creating a personal language, especially in constructing something which is internally consistent, and then in actually learning the language. Other template grammar and syntax languages can be adapted fairly easily, however, granting a certain intentional connection between the final construct and those which were annexed into it.

Initially only those invocations or magical phrases used need be translated on an as need basis, and slowly a dictionary and grammar begin to develop, you simply keep with the rules as you go along and allow the language to develop organically. The pinnacle, of course, is to keep a journal in that language and be able to read it fluently later on.

Other benefits are the freedom to create words which reflect concepts that are ultimately in your own mind but not found elsewhere as externalized concepts - words - thus opening a doorway which may possibly not be found elsewhere to speak those unique memes into existence in your magic. It is a language that ultimately expresses you better than even your own native tongue possibly can, and you will be the only one to ever speak it fluently with the comprehension of the maker - even if another were to learn this language, they will never fully apprehend the concepts that some of the unique untranslatable words will convey for you.

It is worthwhile to consider just what exactly is the role that spoken word does or will hold in your magic. Is it simply a device to take on the right mindset? Is a spoken word the expression of crystallized knowledge, intention, etc., or a kind of trigger for brain changes? How important is it that a magical language have a cultural basis already established on earth?

In a way, the work itself becomes a meta-sigil for an incredibly broad system of changes and idealized expressions of unique internal conditions; conditions you may not be able to express in your own language, much less a language learned outside of its native culture. That is to say, a language is deeply tied to its culture - a foreign speaker may ultimately gain some poetic mastery of a language if it is still alive, but for a 'dead' language, there is virtually no possibility of this, and only the known contextual usage of any given word can be known by a modern speaker. Without that full scope of context, the original meme held by the word can never be totally complete, and what we end up with are fragments that may be attached (on the deeper less physical level, that akashic element of the word) to other elements we do not want to include through the use of that word. This is less a concern when the internal language matches the external, because we can express our intentions clearly in our native language, or a language we are able to learn and use within its cultural context. When that is not a possibility, it would seem that we can only ever adapt a superficial use which may not adequately draw that connection from internal to external, and may even hinder the translation of internal intention into external change.

In any case, it is something to consider. I can tell you first hand, from Gemini to Gemini, it is certainly a lot of fun! And the research into languages to learn about construction will likely inspire some exciting paradigm development regarding the nature of the spoken word as the externalization of the human psyche, even the human spirit.

Ah, as far as books on Brahmi, or any other obscure dead language, well, unfortunately they are almost always pretty expensive, and college level textbooks are often all you can find unless its quite popular (there are a few on egyptian for instance, although there is a lot of contention over much of the ancient egyptian language, and this is likely the case with Brahmi as well).

peace