OPEN SESAME: meaning of a very strange magic formula

OPEN SESAME: meaning of a very strange magic formula.

On other occasions we have given an account of the history and meaning of some magical words such as ABRACADABRA, OJALÁ, DELAQUEEL, or honeymoon. Today’s, far from repeating those characteristics, is different from all the others.

OPEN SESAME It is essentially an incantation, and one of the strangest in existence.

Its mention almost inevitably refers us to the Arabian Nights, and more precisely to the story of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. Over there, OPEN SESAME It works as a kind of magic formula through which it is possible to open the jaws of the cave in which the bandits hid their treasures.

Now, that literary appearance of the OPEN SESAME it is only given in the first French translation of the Arabian Nights —Sesame, ouvre-toi— made by the orientalist Antoine Galland. It does not appear in the original text. Likewise, there is no evidence, oral or written, that the OPEN SESAME existed before Galland’s translation.

Most researchers assume that SESAME, in reality, refers to sesame seeds, the same ones that Ali Baba’s brother confuses in the story by forgetting the magical power of the phrase. However, and now in the thick terrain of speculation, we can take a different path.

Others claim that SESAME It is a distortion of the cabalistic term šem, which literally means “name.” In fact, in the Talmud it speaks of Sem Same, “name of heaven.” In this context, OPEN SESAME It would be something like a magic formula to open the doors of heaven.

But here we find a new difficulty, given how difficult it is to relate the concept of heaven or paradise with the dark labyrinths of a cave, in short, the place that Ali Baba manages to open by saying OPEN SESAME.

Antoine Galland, creator of the phrase OPEN SESAMEperhaps he was referring to something else: something diametrically opposed to the idea of ​​heaven in religious terms, although similar to what any sinner with common sense could perhaps expect in relation to a space of enjoyment and pleasure.

We know—and Antoine Galland also knew—that in Ancient Babylon there were certain rites related to red magic in which sesame oil was used, perhaps, for lubricating purposes. These rites come from the old Egyptian bacchanals known as SESHEMUwhich we could literally translate as “carnal relationship.”

The curious thing is that the hieroglyphic sign of SESHEMU It is, basically, a phallus about to pierce a circle, symbolic representations of the masculine and feminine principles during physical union, which in most ancient peoples was described as a kind of entrance to heaven.

According to this hypothesis, OPEN SESAME It is, in short, a magical formula to seduce the mountain, a representation of sacred femininity, and thus make it dilate, open, so that Ali Baba and the forty thieves, one after the other, like a long straight column , entered and deposited their treasures inside the cave.

Comparative mythology. I Wiccan diaries.

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