Eko, Eko, Azarak!

On the other hand ... I still wonder why we pass things down without explanation or (probably more importantly) translation.  For example, Maxine was describing the witches’ rune or chant, which I’d never heard of.  It was supposedly a method of raising energy in a circle.

“The drumbeat intensified as we chanted the witches’ rune over and over again.
Eko, Eko, Azarak!
Eko, Eko, Zamilak!
Eko, Eko, Karnayna!
Eko, Eko, Aradia!”
Sanders, Maxine, Fire Child, Mandrake of Oxford, 2008 p. 97

She provided no explanation as to what was actually being chanted, which – to my mind anyway – is at best never a good idea, and at worst a possibly dangerous idea.  Who or what are we invoking with this?  Aradia I knew (I’m Italian, after all, and she’s ours thanks to Charles Leland), but who was Azarak, Zamilak and Karnayna?  And what did “Eko, Eko” mean?  “Hail, Hail” or “Come right in, have a spot of tea and take over my body!”?

Frighteningly enough, even Doreen Valiente didn’t know what it meant, and she was one of the witches passing it around!

The mention of Aradia made me think we were veering into Latin or Tuscan with this chant, “ecco” (correct spelling) meaning “Here is”, in the sense that you’re either holding up things and saying, “Here is a wand, here is a knife”, or in the sense that we’re welcoming a being into the circle, as in “Here’s Zeus!”  I could be wrong (and please correct me if I am), but I think the same word, perhaps spelled differently, means much the same thing in Greek.

But translating “eko” as “ecco” is just an educated guess on my part.  And it still didn’t answer the question as to who or what Azarak, Zamilak and Karnayna were.  Not in the Encyclopedia of Spirits, or Dictionary of Demons, but I had packed some of the other spirit resources, naturally.  In any event, I had no wish to raise energy by chanting a list of names or words unknown to me.  The gods alone knew what would happen if I did; I sure had no idea and had no experience yet in banishing things I inadvertently invoked.

Luckily, there’s another version of it, a little less intimidating.  Not sure where this one came from, but at least this one is understandable.  As it fell off-metre during a few lines, I took the liberty of strengthening the beat:

“Darksome night and shining moon,
Hearken to the Witches' rune;
East, then South and West, then North,
Hear ye! Come! I call ye forth.

Powers--earth, air, fire, sea,
Turn now and come forth to me;
Wand and Pentagram and Sword
Hearken ye unto my word.

Candle, Censer, Cup and Knife,
Waken all ye into life;
Powers of the Witches blade,
Come ye as the charm is made.

Queen of Heaven, Earth, and Hell,
Send your aid unto this spell;
Horned Hunter of the night,
Work my will in magick rite.

By the power three times three
As I will, so mote it be.
By the might of Moon and Sun,
As ye will, it shall be it done.”

Naturally the word “hell” comes with a lot of christian baggage and here means “underworld”, as in Demeter and Persephone, not the one falsely recreated in “Constantine”.  (And a gigantic ‘oh, pu-LEEZE’ to that one.)  Imagine the other false one created by Carol Markus and her son in “The Wrath of Khan”, located in a huge underground cave.  Also invented, but closer to my idea of the pagan underworld, anyway.