If you’ve been doing magick for any length of time, or if you’ve ever seen a movie featuring witches, you may have noticed a funny little detail about spellcasting: It sure does sound a lot like poetry! While spells don’t HAVE to rhyme, necessarily, something about the art of poetry just amps up the magick. There are a few reasons why witches & spellcasters choose to employ rhyming and spoken words to cast spells, and the long rich history behind why… let’s dig in!!
Evidence of ritualistic chants and step-by-step invocations of energies and deities pre-dates written History in nearly every. single. culture. on. Earth. Ancient Egyptians carried amulets with spells and invocations of deities inscribed on them. Greeks & Romans would carry scrolls with spells of love or protection, even giving their babies rattles with prayers of protection written on the outside. The tradition of spoken spells, mostly centered around protection, is deeply, deeply, deeply buried throughout the history of humanity. Every generation of spellcasters look a little different, but the same thread of magick connects them all.
I would also like to take this time to say… LEAVE THE ETSY WITCHES ALONE!!! The “Etsy Witch” has been catching a lot of flack lately, and I think she deserves to be staunchly defended!! Hear me out: People in the ancient world used to call on their local spellcaster to go after people who wronged them, sending curses and revenge. Scorned lovers would beg their local witch for a love spell to bring their beloved back to them. ETSY WITCHES CARRY ON THIS TIME-HONORED TRADITION!! This has been going on for thouuuuuusands of years. The Etsy Witch is our generation’s spellcaster-for-hire. Now, the witch can sit in the comfort of their own home and be paid handsomely without having their clients showing up blubbering on their doorstep. Energy works long-distance, so with the invention of the internet, spellcasters just have more opportunity to work remotely! And this New Age notion that witches shouldn’t charge for energy or spellwork… BAH! But I digress…
What does poetry (specifically rhyming) have to do with spellcasting? Spells are part of ancient ORAL TRADITION (meaning passed down without the use of paper recording; strictly verbal). Ancient magicians and spellcasters (records predate written history) used poetry, music, and any other RHYMING verbal method to help them and their students REMEMBER the spells as they are passed down. Rhyming reduces the amount of misinformation and fucked-up spells because it’s easier to remember. It’s also pleasant to hear, which makes you automatically more drawn into the magick. A pleasant sounding methodical cadence distinguishes RITUAL speech from REGULAR speech, again pulling in that feel of special, of ritual (although regular speech can be just as powerful) Modern poetry is often conversational, with less rhyming structure, but it’s still spoken in a way that distinguishes it from regular speech. Cadence transforms words into art / magick (same thing).
Why is speaking aloud important for spellwork specifically? Reciting your spells aloud directly connects you to that ancient lineage of spellcasters who have used spoken poetry as a form of spellcasting for millennia. It also communicates your intentions into the physical reality via sound waves. When using spellwork, you’re trying to bring something into the physical reality. The easiest way to do this is to speak what you want (your intentions) aloud, that’s step one. To give that non-physical idea more weight, we use PHYSICAL tools to help attract the energy that you want. Pairing your spoken spell with physical items that resonate at the same frequency helps create an energetic frequency “magnet” that draws in what you are calling upon. Those would be your spell ingredients, like herbs, crystals, sigils, etc. The more physical weight you can give your spell, the better.
When you are trying to MANIFEST something into physical reality through spellwork, the magic starts with the INTENTION. It’s helpful to organize that intention into a written spell that you can revisit. You can write your own spell to capture the feeling of what you want. That feeling in your body of “what I want is already mine” IS the magick… If a poem, a song, or an ancient spell evokes that feeling within you, feel free to use that piece as your spell. Writing your own spells is an extremely powerful practice. Here’s an example of how you can structure your spells to ensure they’re SPECIFIC and INTENTIONAL:
EXAMPLE:
- Intention: psychic development
- Specific Details (how you want to FEEL when the spell is accomplished): become more connected to Spirit, tear down any psychic blocks, call in confidence in my craft, open third eye
- The Spell:
Vision of future, present, past
Psychic spirit I do cast
To hear the unheard and see the unseen
Intuitive powers strong and keen
Unbind my spirit & my mind
My vision no longer confined
Now go write your own!! My hope is that you feel empowered to craft your own spells now through the ancient tradition of poetry & spoken word. The magick is within you. There isn’t a right or a wrong way to do magick, it just has to feel right to you. These tips I’ve given are specifically to help you connect to an ancient tradition that can help boost your craft and empower your magick. Blessed be!
SOURCES:
- A Guide to Ancient Magic – Smithsonian Mag, 2024
- Why Do Spells Rhyme? – Tales & Text, 2025
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