 | ||
Eko Eko Azarak is the opening phrase from a Wiccan chant. It is also known as the "Witch's chant", or the "Eko Eko chant". The following form was used by Gerald Gardner, considered as the founder of Wicca as an organized, contemporary religion.
Contents
The Eko Eko chant appeared in the ritual for November Eve or Samhain, as follows:
Eko, eko, AzarakEko, eko, ZomelakBazabi lacha bachabeLamac cahi achababeKarrellyosLamac lamac BachalyasCabahagy sabalyosBaryolosLagoz atha cabyolasSamahac atha famolasHurrahya!Gardner also published his version of this chant in his 1954 occult novel, High Magic's Aid.
Another variant of the chant expanded the Eko, eko opening to four lines, using these words to salute various Wiccan deities, typically Cernunnos and Aradia. Other combinations include Karnayna and Aradia, Hern and Hecate, Osiris and Isis, and Kernunnos and Arida.
By the mid-1980s, there were many versions of the Eko Eko chant used by Wiccans, some with alternate spellings for Azarak and Zomelak
Eko eko azarak
Interpretations
The meaning of the source texts is unclear. Pennethorne Hughes, in his 1952 monograph on Witchcraft, claimed that the text from Le Miracle de Théophile is a garbled version of a Basque language original. Michael Harrison, in The Roots of Witchcraft, attempted to give a more specific interpretation of the entire chant in Basque; his translation has the chant speak of flying through the air, sacrifice, feasting and drinking, and then washing the dishes. Victor Anderson, the blind poet and founder of the Feri Tradition, claimed that Eko is Basque, meaning "here is". According to Raven Grimassi, some Wiccans believe that the chant is an invocation of the forces of the four elements.
Popular culture
The Eko Eko chant is well enough known outside of Wicca proper to provide the title of a manga, also adapted into a TV series and several live-action films, Eko Eko Azarak (エコエコアザラク), also known by the title Wizard of Darkness. Electric Wizard, a doom metal band from England, recorded a song called "Eko Eko Azarak" on their 2004 album We Live. A variation of the chant was also featured in the 1971 Doctor Who serial The Dæmons, and Shelley Winters' character, Mrs. Erica Hunter, uses the phrase "Eko Eko Azarak" in a ceremony in the 1978 TV movie The Initiation of Sarah. It is also used in the 1985 movie Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. British band Cloven Hoof used the phrase in the lyrics of their eponymous song "Cloven Hoof."