Musical Cipher
A "cipher" is a method of transforming a text into a secret code. These days this is usually done for cloak-and-dagger purposes, but in olden times witches and magicians used ciphers to create magical inscriptions for talismans or to write their grimoires (books of spells and rituals). In fact, historians trace the origins of the science of cryptography to the 15th-century treatise Steganographia, by
Abbot Trithemius -- the magician who was the mentor and teacher of the most famous magician of all, Agrippa.
For our spells, we sometimes use a cipher that translates letters of the alphabet into musical notes and rhythms. We might encipher a God or Goddess's name, one of our own names, or a word that represents the purpose or focus of the spell (e.g. "safety" or "health"). This gives us a melody that we can make the basis of a chant or of a drum rhythm -- a kind of musical sigil or talisman.
The system we use is adapted from one described by G. Porta, De furtivis literarum notis (On the secret notes of letters), 1602. Porta's method was widely used for secret communications by spies, diplomats, and generals throughout the 18th century.
Porta's system was more limited than ours -- it used only the major mode, omitted K and W, and only went up to the note f'' and back. Our version uses the natural correlation between letters of the scale and letters of the alphabet (the letter A = the note A, the letter B = the note B, etc.), which composers such as Bach and Schumann have used for centuries to create musical themes. Partly for numerological reasons, we use the traditional 24-letter "Latin" alphabet, in which I is the same as J and U is the same as V.
To create a musical talisman:
Write down the letters of the word or phrase you want to encipher above a blank music staff.
On the staff, write the musical note that corresponds to each letter.
On a musical instrument, play the resulting melody.
To improve the melody, you can transpose any of the notes up or down an octave -- in other words, to the note with the same name. (In the example below, you can see that I transposed down the note D that corresponds to "L" in "WEALTH".)
Experiment to find out in what key the melody sounds best. Does an F, for instance, sound better as F-sharp, or a B as B-flat? Bear in mind the appropriate correspondences: Minor modes are more dark, inward, "yin"; major modes are more bright, outward, "yang". (In the examples below, "HECATE" works best in a haunting minor mode, using F-natural, whereas "WEALTH" works best in an expansive major mode, using F-sharp.)
As long as you keep the basic distinction between short notes vs. long notes, you can alter the rhythms slightly to make them more musical -- a quarter note could be an eighth note, for example, or a half note a whole.
You can now set appropriate words to these notes to create a chant, as we have done with HECATE.
Member
Senior Member
Member
Member
Member
