#chant

Traditionally, in occult practices, a spell that is purely vocal or the vocal portion of a multi-component spell, is called an incantation. For some reason “Internet Witches” (the occult equivalent of Mall Goths) have flooded pages and discussion groups with subtly adjusted language so that it has become very common to find incantations now retitled as “Chants.” It is true that chant and incantation have the same root word but culturally they deviated quite a bit. A few decades ago it was quite common to call it “chanting” if you called “Let’s go, Yankees! Let’s go!” at a ball game. You never heard it called incanting. This is because the term incantation became enveloped within occultism as a magical term while chant was mostly still mundane. It is for this reason that I find it disheartening that so many practitioners call a vocal spell by “chant” now. To me it doesn’t feel right. It de-magicks it. And it feels like it diminishes the idea that vocal spells even are true spells. It’s diminishing in its use as a term. It’s true you can practice magick any way you want and use whatever terms you want. And yes, it’s true that no one is forcing me to not call it an incantation and perhaps I’m just a bit old fashioned but, personally, I miss the term incantation and hope it makes a comeback.

I sincerely hate how internet witches have collectively replaced the word incantation with chant. Yes, the root word is the same but you don't Incant the team name at a sports game. The Word "chant" seems to suck the magick out of it. And before anyone gives an annoying "Well, you can call it whatever you want" that's not my point. My point is why did we drop the word "incantation" For a word that is used mostly for non-magical reasons? You don't incant "Let's go, Yankies! Let's go!" So why swap incantation for chant?

chant - hadestown