Roman Magic

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete collegae

Since the topic comes up every so often, perhaps we can give some examples of magical practices that were accepted by the Romans. You will run into them occasionally, as I indicated in my reply to Orcus. When collegae do I wish they would post them under this topic heading. I will begin with the one spell given by Cato in De Agricultura CLX

Luxum ut ex canles: To cure a dislocation by a charm. If any joint is dislocated it will be made well by this incantation. Take a green reed four or five feet long, split it in half and let two men hold the halves at their hips. Begin to sing a charm: MOTAS VAETA DARIES DARDARES ASTATARIES DISSUNA PITER until the halves come together. Keep brandishing a sword over them. When they have come together and one half-reed touches the other, seize them in the hand and cut them off to the right and left, bind them on the dislocation or fracture and it will be cured. However, go through the form of incantation daily over the man who has suffered the dislocation. Or use this form: HUAT, HAUT, HAUT, ISTASIS TARSIS ARDANNABOU DANNAUSTRA.

This last incantation seems to be archaic Latin and may have been HUAT HAUAT HUAT ISTA PISTA SISTA DAMNABO DAMNA USTRA, or in Classical Latin AVET AVET AVET ISTA PESTIS SISTAT DAMNABO DAMNA VESTRA, meaning "I pray, pray, pray, may this trouble cease; I will harm what harms you"

Di deaeque vos semper ament
Valete optime
Moravius Piscinus

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Salvete
The person who studies the art of magic and other occult arts was mostly called a magus (when he studies and practiced magic). A magus could summon Gods, Daemons, Heroes, souls, if they were eager to help or serve the magus by means of his magical knowelegde, technique and experience. When he summoned daemons, heroes and souls- he could either help, heal, destroy and/ or kill.
One of the important concept in magic is sympathy. Not compassion but cosmic sympathy as it means action and reaction in the universe. Even Wiccans know this that when magic is used to create an action, one might always suspect that there will be a reaction coming your way. So the magi protects himself from this reaction. Just as the microcosm reflects and reacts to the macrcosm because both influence one another and share a deep affinity. This was held with variations by pythagoreans, Stoics and Platonists. Another example of sympathy is being described by Tacitus upon the death of the popular emperor Germanicus under mysterious circumstances. When the people found out that magic wasn't excluded as a possible answer to the mysterious death, the people went to the temples, and kicked out the statues of the gods to let their Gods know their pain and to react on it. According to George Luck, this is still done today by Italian fisherman.
Theurgy as it was described by Iamblichus in his work On the mysteries of Egypte as it means "higher magic". He defines it as a activity surpassing the understanding of man , an activity based on the use of silent symbols that are fully known only to the gods but isn't quite understood by the higher magus or theurgist. In fact the Theurgist uses the cosmic sympathy to work through him and allow him to work. The secret lies is "power through sympathy" and "sympathy through power" as G. Luck says. In fact he gives us 4 different positions on the relationship between magic and religion that were argued.
1) Magic becomes religion
2) Religion tries to reconcile personal powers where magic has failed to do so.
3) Magic and religion have common roots.
4) Magic is a degenerate form of religion.
There is a difference between the magi and a religious person. When a religious pray for something and thank the deity in question later on, he does this in a somewhat submissive manner while the magi can do this as well but sometimes he uses threats to compell the Gods to do his bidding. This isn't always the case. The magi can be like the religious person and be submissive and gratefull towards his Gods. the difference between the two lies in how they approach their Gods. One does is through prayers and rituals (which is also kind of magic) to strenghten his request while the magi uses magic to put strength behind his request he wants to make to his Gods. Although there are 4 different fundamental positions mentioned by George Luck in Arcana Mundi, which i did mention here, one thing is certain and i agree with the author that the roots of magic lies in prehistoric times and will survive any religion and civilisation under one form or another. This i'm certain of. I think what i said here also applies to the Hellenic religion concerning magic.
valete optime in pace deorum

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

One reason I posted Cato's spell is to illustrate that it does not have the character of the kind of magic employed by magi or theurgists, nor does it admit to a subserviance that Orcus has posed of religious prayers. Roman prayers are described as contractual because they are often not submissive at all. As part of the contract, too, there is in Roman practice what Orcus mentions, that men could punish gods for not fulfilling their end of the bargain. Approach, as Orcus says, can be used to distinguish between magic and religions, but I do not think Roman practice would fit either definition that he gave, or that George Luck provides.

The first part of Cato's spell uses sympathetic magic, a kind sometimes referred to as natural magic. It does not use symbols, or correspondences in the manner used in theurgy. He mimics an action he hopes will be duplicated in something else; that is, he acts with the natural properties of the reeds in order to effect an action on the injured body.

Cato's prayer or incantation, carmen can mean either, is not a submissive prayer, since it threatens to do harm to whatever is causing the injury, and includes a statement of will, his will for the body to heal, rather than calling upon any god or daemon to effect a cure. There is implied that some supernatural agent is at work, that caused the injury and could heal it, which he threatens. There is implied that he can do harm to whatever the agent of injury is, and that he can do so through a magical power of words. Since the prayer contains an either/or condition, heal or be harmed, it may be said to be contractual. Yet it is not the typical sort of prayer we normally see in the Religio Romana. The implied agent here is probably a lemur, or one of the evil manes; that is, the spirit of a deceased person who delights in mischief by harming others. Cato does not call on some higher daemon or deity to compel the agent of injury, or the lemur, to reverse the harm it has caused, as a magi would. Instead he deals directly with the lemur, in the same way that Ovid describes the rite of Lemuria when he makes an offering to the Manes but also orders them to leave. Cato's prayer does not fall under the kind of rites performed to celestial deities as in the cultus civile. But it does fall into a category of practices in the Religio Romana that deal with the Manes, primarily in the culti geniale, and so there is a religious element in Cato's spell. But the salient feature is Cato's willing the leg to heal. He does not ask. He does not leave it to the gods to decide. He acts in a magical way to affect a natural process.

Valete
Moravius Piscinus

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete collegae

One place where practice in the cultus civile may be considered magical in nature is with all the tabus placed upon the flamen Dialis, as recorded by Aulus Gellius in Attic Nights X.15.1-25. One of those tabus was that "the nail parings of the Dialis and his hair trimmings are buried in earth under a fruitful tree." Elsewhere there is mention of a distinction being made between "fruitful" trees and other trees considered to be evil or cursed. Certain trees were regarded as protective, purifying, or beneficial. The whitethorn was carried in bridal processions as one means to protect the bride from the evil eye of onlookers, and was also hung over the lintel of the grooms house as a means of guarding his house from evil influences. The "Sabine herb" mentioned in marriages rites and purifications was the variety of juniper. Pliny said that its odor, when burned or rubbed on the skin, would repel the approach of serpents (Hist. Nat. 24.36) which is also mentioned by Virgil (Geor. 3.414) Certain religious articles were required to be made from specific trees. The fetiales carried spears made of cornel (Livy I.32.6-14). The fasces were made of elm (Plautus Asinaria 262-4). The lituus of augures was made of a single tree branch, without knots, and having a natural curl, taken from a "fruitful" tree. What were these "fruitful" trees is mentioned by Veranius, Ex Pontificalum Quaestionum Libris, quoted by Macrobius. "The beneficial trees (felices arbores) are thought to be the oak, the forest oak, holm oak, cork tree, beech tree, hazel, service berry tree, white fig, pear tree, apple tree, the vine, the plum tree, cornel (red dogwood), cherry tree, and the Italian lotus (Sat. 3.20.2)." Other trees also bore fruit, were considered beneficial, and had medicinal, protective, or other magical properties, such as the elder and rowan, but were not, in the context of the Religio Romana, especially with the cultus civile, regarded to be among the "fruitful" trees.

Why particular varieties of trees held significance is described by Pliny the Elder. "Trees were the templa of the gods, and, following ancient established rituals, country places even now dedicate an outstandingly tall tree to a god. Even images of shining gold and ivory are worshipped less by us than forests and their silence. Different types of trees are dedicated to their own deities and these relationships are kept for all time. For example, the Italian holm oak is sacred to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus, and the poplar to Hercules. We also believe that the Silvani and Fauni and various goddesses are, as it were, assigned to forests by heaven (Hist. Nat. 12.3)."

Thus there is the idea that trees can hold the numina of a specific god, depending on the kind of tree, or that they are inhabited by or protected by certain di inferi. By bringing parts of these trees into one's house or ritual you also bring the influence of the deity. Rustic shrines we are told had rough cut wooden images of gods, or simply smooth planks, for the same reason. By templum Pliny does not mean an edifice or house of a god, but a holy item associated with a god. By bringing the wood of a particular tree into your shrine you also brought the numen of that deity, whereby a connection was made to the deity himself. In addition to trees, herbs and certain stones were considered in the same way, associated with specific deities and offering certain magical properties. Pliny the Elder is a treasure trove of such associations. Although you might argue, as I have done in the past, that there is some differences to be drawn, this conception of the properties of trees is very close to Hermetic correspondences, and the manner in which they were employed in the Religio Romana would have to be regarded as magical in nature.

Valete optime
Moravius Piscinus

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Salve Piscine

You speak of a supernatural agent that the person threatens when he casts that spell. What kind of supernatural agent are talking of here? Because i have heard that daemons are also considered supernatural agents. In fact, there isn't a really solid definition of a daemon.
In Arcana Mundi, there is a small text in the magic section, dedicated to the magical papyrus that speaks of a binding spell.But my question is kind of silly: what is a binding spell? In what kind of magical work is it used for?
vale
Romulus

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salve Romule Orce

To which selection in Arcana Mundi do you refer? BTW there is another source book with examples of texts, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds by Daniel Ogden. It is practically all Greek though.

The selection you refer to, you said came from the Greek Magical Papyri. Those are Greco-Egyptian texts employing a different kind of magic than did Cato. They do use deamones as supernatural agents. A binding spell generally refers to a kind of love spell, binding another person to you. There is another type of binding spell that inhibits a person from taking certain actions or speaking, but from its nature it is used referred to as a curse or defixio.

The supernatural agents generally used in Roman magic would be the Manes and Di inferi. In later periods, that is, during the imperial era, numina were directly callled upon almost as though they we separate entities so that they might appear to be a supernatural agent in their own right. But a numen is always a power extending from a god or goddess. In Cato's case, there is an assumption that ills are caused by the action of some supernatural being. Plague, in Livy's record, is always viewed as a divine punishment. Illness of an individual, or with Cato an injury, some lesser supernatural being is usually thought to be the cause. This has to do with a bigger question I suppose, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The Romans most often thought such things happened by the action of wicked individuals, either living or dead. Defixiones call upon the deceased to act in a vengeful manner. Brides are covered with protective amulets to prevent the jealous eyes of others to do her harm. Then too is the provision of the XIITabulae against harmful witchcraft. Some actions that could not be attributed to any living person were believed to be the work of the larvae who were simply evil spirited ghosts, but ghosts nontheless. Most, if not all really, magical practices of the Romans is in the nature of protection against evil magic, or in healing which can be viewed as protective magic as well. Elsewhere there is some love magic found, employing natural charms, but most spells of that nature are foreign introductions.

With the Romans the supernatural is populated with greater and lesser gods and goddesses of the heavens, the greater and lesser gods and goddesses of the earth called the Di inferi, then the semi-divine creatures of the earth like the fauni and silvani, and there are the spirits of the dead, the Manes, who may be placed into different categories. There are no other supernatural agents recognized by the Romani. Sokrates' daemon I might equate with one's genius or a woman's juno, but Iamblichus' deamones are unlike anything I can think of in the Religio Romana.

Vale
Piscinus

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Salve Piscine

thanks for the reply.

Sokrates' daemon I might equate with one's genius or a woman's juno, but Iamblichus' deamones are unlike anything I can think of in the Religio Romana.

What do you mean? What is the difference between Iamblichus' deamones and the daemones of the religio romano if there is any?
vale
Romulus

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salve

Orce, we have covered this before, there are no daemones in the Religio Romana!

Iamblichus' daemones are mindless forces of nature, limited to performing a single action. Since they are mindless and have no will of their own, an individual may impose his own will on a daemon to perform or not perform their characteristic action. The magician is therefore seen to be able to control the forces of nature by imposing his own will over them. There is nothing of such a conception in the Religio Romana, and no such forces as Iamblichus' daemones are recognized acting independently of the gods.

Vale
Moravius Piscinus

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Salve Piscine

Sorry to have made that mistake. If you say there are no daemones in the Religio Romana, than you are probably right.
It is said that every philosopher has a different opinion on the nature of daemones.
vale
Romulus

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Salve Piscine

The last several months, i was studying the daemonology of Hellas. Since the word daemon means spirit, i thought that they were also present in the Religio Romana to compare the two. Tell me otherwise if i'm wrong here. Anyway this is what i got so far on the subject.
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Hellenic Daemonology

Introduction:

Hellas had many demons like most cultures. But the origin of demons lies in Mesopotamia. The difference here is that you had good demons as bad demons. The word demon comes from English language and is more or less derived from the Greek Daimone and the Latin Daemon. Both words mean spirit of divine being. Daimonion is a word derived from daimon and is nor male nor female; its both. But the real problem with this word is in what context is stood. The words Daimon and Theos were more or less used interchangeably so the two terms were hard to separate from each other. Because of it, the Hellenes started using it to address mediators between mortals and Gods, kind of like angels, but there is a problem with angels as well. When Christianity came to Hellas, they thought they were worshipping demons due to the misconception.

Daemonology

Hellenic daemonology revolves around spirits, because that is the real meaning of the word: Daimone. The Hellenes thought that there were spirits everywhere. They didn't have any household spirits like the Romans did, but still. The Hellenes believed that if you weren't properly buried, your spirit might come back to haunt to living. Daimone means spirit, but the context where this word is found might differ from what it means. Theos and Daimone were used interchangeably to address minor Gods. Even Homeros uses the term Daimon, but the context is different from what is actually means. Daimon is used to define spirits (good and evil, nature spirits like Satyrs, Nymphs), but it is also used to define minor Gods but also the physical appearances of a deity like that one of Athena in the Odyssey might be one. This means that minor Gods are Daimones, but that the Gods who show up on Earth might be daimones as well as in their physical appearances. Daimones are also considered to be guardian spirits, kind of like the Genii and the Juno in the Religio Romana. They were attached to a person from the moment this person was born and may guide them as well to the Underworld when they die. It was Plato who said that some Daimones where guardians. He also adressed the fact that there were good demons (Agathos Daimones) and bad demons (Caco- Daimones) who were avoided at all times, or were tried to avoid them.
Many of the Daimones who are on Earth where once humans. The use of the coinage in funerals come into Hellenic religion around 5th century B.C., but it said that if you didn't have a coin under your tongue when you came before Kharon, he wouldn't let you cross over the river Styx using his boat. It is said that that spirit had to wait about 100 years or so when Kharon was ready to let him enter his boat. So this person who didn't pay had to wait 100 years or so, but until than he had to live on Earth, to haunt the living. There were many encounters between the living and the dead. In the Illiad as in the Odyssey there is mentioned of the practice of necromancy. It was forbidding to practice this magical arts, because it was believed that this would disturb the spirits of the dead. Here Odysseus calls upon a spirit of the Underworld by sacrificing an animal. The view of the afterlife and the Underworld changes from town to town, city to city and family to family. The Hellenes knew their Gods were dualistic, as did most cultures, as so were the daimones. The Caco- Daimon or Dysdaimon was avoided like the Gods Haides and Thanatos. This attitude is somewhat hypocritical to me. If you honor one side and avoid the other, this will anger the other side. The saying "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" is applicable here. Most daimons were put into groups and to my knowledge there aren't that many Agathos- Daimones or Eudaimones, but there were allot of groups made of Caco- daimones like the Lamiae, etc…
You had the Erinyes, the Alastores. The Erinyes are the embodiment curses, but the Alastores were the embodiment forces of vengeance for bloodshed.
Plato also said that every person who dies for his country is a daimon and should be honored accordingly. In the work of Aeschylos called the Persians we see how the magus (referring tot he priests of the Persian religion) summons the dead king Darius as a daimon. In this context we are to look at the original meaning of the word daimon as in spirit of the dead. It is said that Daimones have the power to see the future and because of it, it is presumed that the Oracles of Delphi and other Oracles contained a Oracle Daimon. During the Theban Cycle, some of the warriors became Oracle daimones like Trophonios. According to Burkert in his book Greek Religion, the belief in daimones is older than any belief in Gods. The belief in demons probably originated in Mesopotamia (George Luck: Arcana Mundi). It is obvious that in there were beings of a higher level and a lower level. A another theology developed by Plato and Xenokrates who were the founders of the current meaning of the word demon. Before they thought that daimones were part of nature.
It was believed that when somebody got ill, they were under attack by a Caco- daimon, but this is however open for interpretation. In the 5th century doctors told people that they sometimes imagined that they were under attack by daimones, while they were just sick. Not all cases of demonic activities can be described to daimones, but to diseases as well. This is also true for the demonic activity during the dark ages. It is believed that a daimon could never posses a human being, but that a deity can only do this. daimones, were considered divine, they were not however Gods. Upon summoning they tend to fool the magician by letting them think they were a God. Only a Theurgist could tell the difference between a spirit and a God. Daimones can assume a corporeal form as a non-corporeal form. Legends tell of this that daimones can have a physical form as well. Kharon could be one example of a daimone who could do this. He was depicted as a grumpy old man who charges money to cross people of the river Styx. He could have done this while he was alive. On the other hand, he is a proof that few mythological figures can survive Christianity and rise in status, because for most farmers he became the God of Death. He became Thanatos.
Daimones

Daimonai: female daimones. In this group all the classes of nymphs can be found here as the many female personifications and abstractions.
Daemones: Spirits/ demons of the Air, Earth, Sea- and Underworld. They could vary from personifications like Elpis (Hope) to spirits of nature like river- daimones and nymphs.
Daemones Argyreoi: the humans of the silver age who were immortalized and became underground beings who watched over the fertility of the Earth.
Daemones Chryseoi/ Khryseoi: the humans of the golden age, who were immortalized and wandered the Earth as 30.000 spirits who guard the human race.
Daemones Chthonioi/ Khthonioi: demon/ spirits of the Underworld.
Daemones Einalioi: spirits/ demons of the sea.
Daemones Nomioi: demons/ spirits of the countryside.
Daemones Ouranoi: spirits/ demons of the air.
Daemones Proseoous: malevolent demons who haunted the dark caves of Rhodes.

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vale optime in pace deorum
Romulus

[Tiberius Dionysius Draco]

Salve Piscine

...magical practices that were accepted by the Romans...

And what about magical practices that were not accepted by the Romans? Was there somekind of Roman inquisition that arrested the practicioners of these forbidden magics? And can you give an example of a magic that was forbidden?

Vale bene,

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Salve Tiberii

I would say that witchcraft and necromancy were forbidden magical practices because it could potentially harm people. I can't remember his name, but the writer of the Golden Ass/ Metamorphoses was charged with practicing witchcraft. Witchcraft was seen as an illegal kind of magic, because it involved bending the will of not only nature, but also one could bend the will of someone to your will, so both Greece as Rome forbade its practice of it. Necromancy was seen as illegal because it desecrated the graves and disturbed the souls of the dead was seen as disrespectfull.
vale
Romulus

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

Something a little magical from Cato

De Agricultura CLX:

To cure a dislocation by a charm: If any joint is dislocated it will be made well by this incantation. Take a green reed four or five feet long, split it in half and let two men hold the halves at their hips. Begin to sing a charm:

MOTAS VAETA DARIES DARDARES ASTATARIES DISSUNAPITER

Sing until the halves come together. Keep tormenting them with a tool of iron. When they have come together, and one half reed touches the other, seize them in the hand and cut them off to the right and left, bind them on the dislocation or fracture, and it will be cured. However, go through the form of incantation daily over the man who has suffered the dislocation. Or else use this form of spell:

HUAT HAUT HAUT ISTASIS TARSIS ARDANNABOU DANNAUSTRA

Or else say:

HUAT, HAUAT, HAUT, ISTA PISTA SISTA DAMNABO DAMNA USTRA

I pray may he be healthy, I pray may this trouble cease; I will harm what harms you.

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

And then from M. Terentius Varro Reatinus

Rerum Rusticarum de Agricultura I 2.27

If your feet hurt: ?I think of you; heal my feet. May Terra restrain plague. May this health remain in my feet.? Nine times must you recite this (charm), touching the earth, and then spit on the ground. This must be recited in due seriousness.

EGO TUI MENINI; MEDERE MEIS PEDIBUS.
TERRA PESTEM TENETO. SALUS HIC MANETO IN MEIS PEDIBUS

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

And for the season, a few defixiones

Appel no. 53: Against bath house thieves:

Proserpina, Goddess who is called Atacina in Turibrigia, through your majesty I ask, I pray, I implore that you vindicate me of each and every theft that is made against me, whosoever has altered my life, violated me, lessened me by taking these things that I have listed below: six tunics, ? two cloaks, on of these being of Indian linen ?I do not know (who took them). May you call down upon him the worst possible death.

Dea Atacina Turibrig(ensis) Proserpina, per tuam maiestatem te rogo oro obsecro, uti vindices, quot mihi furti factum est; quisquis mihi imudavit involavit minusve fecti eas [res], q(wae) i(nfra) s(criptae): tunicas VI ?[pa]enula lintea II, in[dus]ium cuius I c v ?m ignoro ia ? [eum tu pessimo leto adficias (vel simile quid)].

Appel no, 54:
This I put before Your numen, I hand over to You, I consecrate to You, I sacrifice to You this ravenous wolf, this pimp who is called Caucadius, who is the son of Salusties, a bastard of Venus by a whore of Venus, in order that You, raging hot Water, with You Nymphs, who I call upon with whatever name You wish to be addressed, that You may destroy him, You may kill him within a year?s time.

Letinium Lupum qui et vocatur Caucadio, qui est fi[lius] Salusti[es Vene]ries sive Ven[e]rioses, hunc ego put vostrum numen demando devoveo desacrifico, uti vos Aquae ferventes, siv[e v]os Nimfas [si]ve quo alio nomine voltis adpe[l]lari, uti vos eum interematis interficiatis intra annum itsum.

Appel no. 59:
I pray to You who reigns over the infernal regions, to You I commend Julia Faustilla, daughter of Marius, that You may quickly carry her off, abduct her to the nether regions and there may You count her among the spirits of the dead.

Te rogo, qui infernales partes tenes, commendo tibi Iulia Faustilla, Marii filia, ut eam celerius abducas et ibi in numeru tu abias .

Appel no. 56:
Gods of this Earth, to you I commend, if anyone (else) would propose holy rites or seek bonds of marriage with dearest Ticene, no matter what he may propose, may you put an end to all he says. Gods of this Earth, to you I commend these limbs, her complexion, her figure, head, and hair, her shadow, brain, brow, eye lashes, mouth, nose, chin, cheeks, lips, her speech, her breath, her neck, her sense of humor, shoulders, heart, lungs, intestines, stomach, arms, fingers, hands, navel, viscera, female organs, blood, ankles, the top of her feet, down to her toes. Gods of this Earth, if these I see begin to waste away, then a sacrifice I?ll gladly make on the anniversary to you gods of our fathers ?may you waste (her) property.

Di iferi, vobis, comedo, si quiccua sactitates hebetes ac tadro Ticene Carisi, quodquod agat quod imcidant omnia in adversa. Dii inferi, vobis comedo ilius memra, colore figura caput capilla umbra cerebru frute supercilia os nasu mentu bucas labra verbr alitu colu iocur umeros cor fulmones intestinas ventre bracia dititos manus ubblicu visica femena genua crura talos planta titidos. Dii iferi, si vider tabescente, vobis sactu ilud libens ob anuversariu facere dibus parentibus ilius ?ta peculiu tabescas.

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete

But if you're into magical healing there is Marcellus Empiricus

De Medicamentis

14.67
Neither blood nor bile the ant has, chase (him) away from these ovaries, (that) the cancer will not consume you.

Formica sanguinem non habet nec fel, fuge uva, ne cancer te comedat.

15.11
Synanche
(To cure a sore throat)

Come forth! Today Daughter, the One before the Daughter
Today created, before she was created,
This sickness, this disease,
This pain, this swelling, this redness,
This goiter, these tonsils,
This tumor, these little tumors,
This swelling gland, these swelling little glands,
With pious rite I call out, I summon; I entice with songs that You come forth
From these limbs, from these bones, (from this body).

EXI, <SI> HODIE NATA, SI ANTE NATA
SI HODIE CREATA, SI ANTE CREATA;
HANC PESTEM, HANC PESTILENTIAM,
HUNC DOLOREM, HUNC TUMOREM, HUNC RUBOREM,
HAS TOLES, HAS TOSILLAS,
HUNC PANUM, HAS PANUCLAS,
HANC STRUMAM, HANC STRUMELLAM,
HAC RELIGIONE EVOCO DUCO ExCANTO
DE ISTIS MEMBRIS MEDULLIS.

36.70
Chase away, chase away, gout and all the pains of the sinews from my feet and from all my limbs.

Fuge, fuge, podagra et omnis nervorum dolor, de pedibus meis et omnibus membris meis.