“The mouth is the beginning of all speech,
a support to wisdom and a comfort to the wise,
and a prosperity and trust to every earl.”
~ Old English Rune Poem. ᚨ

In many cultures it is a shared perspective that all is symbol, an expression and reflection of principles which exist above it in a Law of Correspondence, ‘As Above so Below’ as the often cited Hermetic adage goes. Word, Breath and Language aren’t exempt from this law, and each are of the same cloth. As is Sound and its corresponding element Aether.

For us, words represent things both tangible and intangible, and language is a medium of communication and connection, a spread of ideas. Our ideas become words, our words, sometimes, become action. These things reflect the Sacred ‘Word’, the instrument of the Divine Intelligence, Will and Action in Creation, and with language in particular, through invocation, it is elevated to a direct means of communication, remembrance and union between the Person and the Divine.

Creation, which includes the world of gods (or angels), the lower worlds, our ‘middle’ world and Life itself is consequence of the Divine Word and ‘Breath’, writ like a great book, sung like a supreme song, all sustained and permeated by it like a great thread. Our own ‘breath’, or Spirit is an emanating Self and reflection of this All-Father, and is also one’s medium of direct Knowledge with that Highest.

In Chinese thought the order of the universe is controlled by Ming, that is, correct nomenclature. The Cheng Ming, taught by Confucius, is the essential nature of this correct nomenclature. While at surface value the reason behind the Confucian doctrine isn’t for any metaphysical or ‘otherworldly’ purpose, it still reflects the spiritual order of things, the power of word, form and idea in the order of the universe.

For the Greeks, Logos (a term we’re familiar with as ‘Word’) not only means word, phrase and speech, but also Reason, the Intellect, Idea, the depths of a beings meaning, and Divine Thought itself. With the Neoplatonists we can find common ground with the Vedantists of Hinduism, another Indo-European tradition. The ‘Word’ derives itself from the ‘One’, Unconditioned Reality, and is the very basis of the Universal Intellect, or in other words, Eternal Necessary Truths and Forms, through which in turn the Creative Agent arises. This same relationship is expressed in the Vedic Tradition through Purusha (the One), Buddhi (Universal Intellect/Ideas) and Manas (Universal Soul).

It is of course also necessary to mention here the biblical phrase;
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
~ John 1:1.
In Christology, the Logos, or Word, is identified with Jesus Christ, the pre-existing second person of the Trinity. The metaphysics of the Trinity can be mutually understood between both the Neoplatonic and Vedantic examples above.

Returning to Hindu cosmology, this time downscaling more microcosmically; it also explains that in the beginning of creation proper was Brahmā, the initial deity of the Trimurti (akin to the Greek Demiurge), and with him was Vāc, the creative Word who is the bride of Prajāpati and above all is Brahmā’s Shakti. Often enough Brahmā is identified with Prajāpati, as is Vāc with Sarasvatī. Vāc is also the breath of the Shiva-Maheshvara as well as being the cosmic breath, Vāyu, the Thread (sūtra) which joins the worlds together. So too is the Ātman related, a Sanskrit word which refers to “essence, breath”.  It is the true ‘Self’ or Person which is absolutely distinct from Ego (Ahamkara). Like the Word, we as Ātman are an emanation of the ‘One’, ‘Brahman’ (not to be confused with Brahmā), the Supreme Person. This term is echoed even as far as modern German through the terms Atmen “to breathe” and Atem “respiration, breath”. Vāc too, or Sarasvatī, is hailed as Mother of the Vedas, the sacred texts of Hinduism. 

There is great importance tied to the languages of certain revelation, like of the Vedas and Quran. The words are reflections of their subject, the very fibre of the books themselves. Their sacred language comes closest to the Forms and Knowledge they express. In Islam the Word is referred to as Kalimat Allāh, ‘the Word of God’ or ‘the Word which Establishes.’ Creation too being described as a book. The language concerned is ‘Syriac’, or ‘Solar’, expressing the ‘light’ drawn into the primeval spiritual center, so too is it noted that the language of Paradise was understood by animals. 

Across many cultures the acquisition of the language of animals is a symbol of the return to the paradisal state. The greatest example is in the expression of the ‘language of birds’, its symbolism is that of a heavenly or angelic language, it can only be understood by somebody who has risen to certain spiritual levels.

Practically speaking what we arrive at when it comes to divine words, is that many traditions share the practices of invocation, prayer, mantra, etc with emphasis on meditative focus, or even musical recitation. With this too is the simple idea that words and names come with them a power, so much so that, for example, in Egypt it was believed that to know the true name of a god was to posses the very power of that god, as Isis did with Ra, whom she passed his name onto Horus.
Words and names with either sacred or magical character, passed from master to disciple, are a bridge to the Higher Principles they represent or power to set in motion their corresponding influences. It allows the one who uses it to become part of the songs which comprise the universe, or ultimately to give devotion, practice remembrance or achieve union with its very Heart via one’s own as with the recitation of the names and praises of the All-Highest, in which case the name and the object named are non-different, and are thus a direct means of Knowing that Absolute, beyond empirical and inferential knowledge.

Not all paths are the same, nor do they all lead to the same end. It’s up to the speaker to decide.