Eko Eko Azarak is the opening phrase from a Wicca

Wicca

Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...

n chant, assembled in its current form by Gerald Gardner

Gerald Gardner

Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...

, usually considered as the founder of Wicca as an organized, contemporary religion. In the form given by Gardner, it appears in the ritual for Samhain

Samhain

Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...

, as follows:

Eko, eko, Azarak

Eko, eko, Zomelak

Bazabi lacha bachabe

Lamac cahi achababe

Karrellyos

Lamac lamac Bachalyas

Cabahagy sabalyos

Baryolos

Lagoz atha cabyolas

Samahac atha famolas

Hurrahya!

Gardner also published his version of this chant in his 1954 occult novel, High Magic's Aid. Another variant of the text expands the Eko, eko opening to four lines, using these words to salute various Wiccan deities

Deity

A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....

, typically Cernunnos

Cernunnos

Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the horned god of Celtic polytheism. The name itself is only attested once, on the 1st-century Pillar of the Boatmen, but depictions of a horned or antlered figure, often seated in a "lotus position" and often associated...

 and Aradia

Aradia (goddess)

Aradia is one of the principal figures in the American folklorist Charles Leland’s 1899 work Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which he believed to be a genuine religious text used by a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, a claim that has subsequently been disputed by other folklorists and...

.

Sources

There are two sources for the text Gardner used to make this chant. The opening lines, with their repeated Eko eko refrain, apparently come from an article published in a 1921 edition of the journal Form by J. F. C. Fuller, on "The Black Arts", reprinted in The Occult Review in 1923. Fuller's version goes:

Eko! Eko! Azarak! Eko! Eko! Zomelak!

Zod-ru-koz e Zod-ru-koo

Zod-ru-goz e Goo-ru-moo!

Eko! Eko! Hoo...Hoo...Hoo!

Fuller gives no source for this spell, but the text he gives, with its repeated zod syllables, is reminiscent of the Enochian language of John Dee

John Dee (mathematician)

John Dee was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy....

 and Edward Kelly.

To Fuller's opening lines, Gardner has appended a variant of a text that appears first in the thirteenth century French miracle play, Le Miracle de Théophile

Le Miracle de Théophile

Le Miracle de Théophile is a thirteenth century miracle play written in Langues d'oïl, circa 1261 by the trouvère Rutebeuf....

, by the trouvère

Trouvère

Trouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur , is the Northern French form of the word trobador . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...

 Rutebeuf

Rutebeuf

Rutebeuf , a trouvère, was born in the first half of the 13th century, possibly in Champagne ; he was evidently of humble birth, and he was a Parisian by education and residence. His name is nowhere mentioned by his contemporaries...

. The original text from the French play is given to the character Salatin — apparently a version of Saladin

Saladin

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...

— who in this play is labelled a sorcerer

Magician (fantasy)

A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...

; Salatin uses these words to invoke

Invocation

An invocation may take the form of:*Supplication or prayer.*A form of possession.*Command or conjuration.*Self-identification with certain spirits....

 the Devil

Devil

The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...

:

(Ci conjure Salatins le deable.)

Bagahi laca bachahé,

Lamac cahi achabahé,

Karrelyos.

Lamac lamec bachalyos,

Cabahagi sabalyos,

Baryolas.

Lagozatha cabyolas,

Samahac et famyolas,

Harrahya.

Interpretations

The meaning of the source texts is unclear. Pennethorne Hughes, in his 1952 monograph on Witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

, claimed that the text from Le Miracle de Théophile is a garbled version of a Basque language

Basque language

Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...

 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

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

, feast

Feast

Feast may refer to:* Banquet, a large meal* A Festival or feria* Ramadan, Muslim's holy month* Nineteen Day Feast, a monthly meeting held in Bahá'í communities to worship, consult, and socialize....

ing and drinking, and then washing the dishes. According to Raven Grimassi

Raven Grimassi

Raven Grimassi is the pen name of an Italian-American author, publishing on the topics of Neo-paganism and witchcraft. He is perhaps best known for his popularization of Stregheria, a neopagan revival of "Italian witchcraft"....

, some Wiccans believe that the chant is an invocation of the forces of the four elements.

The Eko Eko Azarak chant is well enough known outside of Wicca proper to provide the title of a manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 and Japanese live-action movie/TV series, , also known by the title Wizard of Darkness. Electric Wizard

Electric Wizard

Electric Wizard are a stoner metal band from Dorset, England that formed in 1993. The band have since recorded seven albums, at least three of which are now considered to be landmarks of their genre: their self-title debut, Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics..., and Dopethrone...

, a doom metal

Doom metal

Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...

 band from England, recorded a song called "Eko Eko Azarak" on their 2004 album We Live

We Live

We Live is the fifth album by the doom metal band Electric Wizard, and the first recorded with the band's second line-up. Due to the addition of second guitarist Liz Buckingham, the songs are more complex than their previous work....

. A variation of the chant was also featured in the 1971 Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

 serial The Daemons.