Latin Is Magic

Xander: You can't just go (reads from book) "Librum incinderae" and expect... (the book suddenly bursts into flames)

Giles: Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books.

— Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur. (Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound). Few things are as profound as magic and the supernatural. As such Latin has longstanding association with mysticism in Western culture.

Roman culture and civilization have been subjects of reverence in Europe since the Middle Ages. The works of Roman historians and naturalists were held in high esteem. This associated the language with ancient wisdom and knowledge.

Latin was also the primary language used for scholarly works well into the 19th century. Books likely to be seen as "magical", including texts on demonology, herbology, medicine, natural history, and theology, were written in Latin, or translated to Latin (such as the Christian Gospels, which where originally penned in Greek). Latin was also the language of Catholic services and prayer until the 1960s, and even today Latin serves as a common tongue among the worldwide Catholic clergy. Since religion has always had strong association with the supernatural and the ability to interact with it, this gave the language a further aura of mysticism. In fact, it's theorized that the generic conjurer's "magic words" "hocus pocus" are a parody of the Latin words "hoc est corpus [meum]" ^note "This is [my] body" said by Jesus to his disciples over the Communion bread used during Holy Communion.

In fiction, Latin is thus very strongly associated with magic and wonder-working. At the most basic level, texts discussing or describing magic, whether Spell Books, or mundane manuals of the supernatural, are written in Latin. Just as often, when spells or rituals requires spoken incantations to work, these will specifically be said in Latin. In-universe, this is typically for one of two reasons: one option is that any language might in theory be suitable for magic, but it so happens that most historical magic work was done during Roman times and the Middle Ages and most spells and rituals were thus designed using Latin. The other option is that Latin is magical in itself, making it actively preferable or outright necessary for working magic. Finally, it may be that Latin cannot literally do magic, but a character using it signifies that the said character is magical or "otherworldy" in some way.

Two variations are common. The first is when, in-universe, the magical phrases aren't actually in Latin, but are depicted as such in the work as a form of Translation Convention. In the second, rather than including actual Latin, a writer opts to invent fictional words that simply happen to sound more or less like Latin in order to invoke this trope.

This is a sub-trope of Gratuitous Latin, which covers the many other associations Latin has to the ears of modern audiences, and of Language of Magic. Compare Smart People Know Latin, for when it signifies wisdom and/or high intelligence, and Ominous Latin Chanting.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Black Clover: Most of Fuegoleon's Flame Magic spells are Latin, such as Leo Rugiens, Latin for "roaring lion", and Ignis Columna, Latin for "fire column". His older sister Mereoleona's spells' names include "Calidos Brachium", which is Latin for "fiery arm".
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Most western spells are built around a phrase in Latin, although some of the higher-level ones are done in Ancient Greek.

Comic Books

• Hellblazer: In "All His Engines", this trope gets discussed and justified. When he needs to gather demons John uses a lot of Latin incantations. The language has been in more or less continuous use for millennia and when you're dealing with ancient supernatural creatures like demons it's best to use language they have some familiarity with.

Films — Animation

• The Flight of Dragons has the green wizard Carolinus desperately trying to save a plummeting Peter by boosting the speed of the dragon Gorbash. However, his Latin is rusty, and the desperation pushes Carolinus into a fragmented spell that finishes with a general-purpose "Kala!" The result is that Peter gets fused with Gorbash, becoming a huge dragon with the mind of the human Peter Dickinson.
• The Sword in the Stone: Merlin's spells are always in Latin, some of it real, much of it made up like "Higgitus Figgitus". When he asks Archimedes for a specific spell, he refers to it as "that Latin business."

Films — Live-Action

• The Cabin in the Woods: Reading some shoddy Latin in an old diary raises the dead.
  Mysterious Whisper: Read it...
  Marty: Okay! I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand here: do not read the Latin!
  Mysterious Whisper: Read the Latin... out loud...
• Enchanted: The Big Bad makes all her magical incantations in something Latinesque.
• Godmothered: Eleanor speaks Latin while trying to turn a pumpkin into a carriage and while creating a magic firework.
• Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders: Lampshaded by the asshole critic who, for reasons surpassing understanding, is reviewing a local magic shop and purchases a book of spells as part of the process. He sarcastically observes that the spells are written in Latin, then rhetorically asks why Latin is considered some kind of magical language that possesses the power of the occult. Naturally, magic happens once he (again sarcastically) reads one of the Latin spells out loud.
  Jonathan: Look at this gibberish. Typically in Latin.
  Crow: Dumbass language.
  Jonathan: Who was it that first instilled the belief that words, perhaps in their purest form, could actually command the elements?
  Mike Nelson: Uh, Bob Hope?
• In Les Visiteurs (1993), when the knight Godefroy de Montmirail and his retinue are about to raid a witch's hideout in a dark forest, Godefroy finds a text outside of the house and reads it. The retinue's monk translates it as "May the nosy ones be turned into slugs" and says it's a "mix of Latin and Visigothic language".

Literature

• Discworld: The ridiculous Canis Latinicus spoken in the First Ankh-Morporkian Empire (Latatian) is twice referred to as "wizard talk"; in Mort when Albert mutters "sodomy non sapiens" ("I'm buggered if I know") and in Interesting Times when Rincewind tries to prove he's a wizard by saying "Stercus, stercus, stercus, moriturus sum" ("Shit, shit, shit, I'm going to die"). The implication seems to be less that Latatian is a Language of Magic, and more that, like lawyers and doctors, wizards maintain their professional mystique by saying things in a language most people don't understand.
• The Dresden Files: Harry uses bastardized Latin to cast spells. He's fairly unique in this, as wizards tend to use languages that they're not well-versed in to cast spells in order to more easily dissociate themselves from the literal meaning of the words, and most wizards are very well-versed in Latin due to using it as a common language — Harry just didn't keep up with his studies and so still finds Latin unfamiliar. He'll also use Latin-ish sounding nonsense when he wants to put on a show for the magic-illiterate. Such as the time he pretended he was casting a spell on a street thug by shouting "Intimidatus Dorkus Maximus!"
• The Faraway Paladin: The Words of Creation, which produce magical effects when pronounced properly, are depicted as Latin.
• The Gargoyle: The eccentric sculptress Marianne Engel believes that she is the reincarnation of a Medieval nun from the fourteenth century; she also sees three apparitions nobody else can see, and speaks to them in Latin, believing them to be her "masters". In general, her use of Latin emphasizes her spiritual and otherworldly nature, as opposed to the materialistic and down-to-earth protagonist.
• In The Moon of Gomrath, in the end-notes, author Alan Garner explains that the spells he puts into the mouth of his Witch are genuine ones, extracts taken from mediaeval magical treatises, but that to be on the safe side, the Latin used represents only partial extracts from those source texts.
• Harry Potter: Zig-zagged. Most spells consist of pseudo-Latin phrases, although others are in mangled English or just plain gibberish.
• Magicae Mathematica: The protagonist is transported into a parallel world where both Latin and math are used for magical purposes.
• Mairelon the Magician: At a basic level it doesn't matter what language a spell is cast in, but casting a spell in one's native tongue can cause the spell to be overpowered (since you have to think about what you're saying when speaking in a second language, even if you're fluent, you also have to think how much power you're putting into the spell). As a result, spells written by the Greeks tended to be in Latin, and spells written by the Romans tended to be in Greek, forcing modern magicians to learn both languages (as well as a bit of Hebrew) in order to use magic.
• Mithgar: The spellcasting language of mainstream Mage society is represented as Latin, and the language used for the related-but-distinct rituals of the Black Mages is Ancient Greek. These are not actually meant to be Latin or Greek, but rather Cultural Translations intended to give a feel for how the actual Mage languages sound and relate to each other.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Magic Incantations consist of Latin words, the quantity of which closely correlates with the power of the spell (e.g. it's normally impossible for a fifteen-year-old first-year Kimberly student to cast a spell with two or more words because of the mana expenditure). This escalates up to Pocket Dimension-creating "grand arias", high-level Ritual Magic requiring incantations minutes in length.
• Rivers of London: Magic is written in Latin. A running gag is that Peter finds learning Latin harder than actually learning the magic. In-universe, there isn't anything special about the language itself — it's just that that was the language Isaac Newton used for important works, and nobody's sure what would happen if they started messing around with it.
• The Spirit Ring: In this Historical Fantasy novel by Lois McMaster Bujold (set in an alternate Renaissance Italy where magic works—and is regulated by the Catholic Church) spells often include incantations in Latin. At one point Fiametta (the daughter of a powerful mage, and a mage in training herself) thinks to herself, as she is preparing to cast a powerful spell, that "the substance of the spell was not in the Latin" and wonders if the insistence by mages on the use of the Latin is merely "a device to keep power from the ignorant". She winds up impulsively completing the spell with a couple of "blunt and plain" words (which presumably she actually says in whatever dialect of Italian everyone in the book is really speaking). This momentarily horrifies her—she thinks she has spoiled the spell—but it works.

Live-Action TV

• Angel: Holland Manners tells Lindsey and Lilah "You never want to be on time for a dark ritual. The chanting. The blood rites. It goes on forever." When they finally do arrive, he says "Ugh, they haven't even gotten to the Latin yet."
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Magic spells tend to simply be a description of the spell's effects in an ancient language, which is usually Latin. Apparently, in writing the scripts, writers would write a simple command, such as "open the door", and then mark it with "In Latin". However, Latin does not appear to be vital to spellcasting; a sufficiently powerful witch can skip it.

Tabletop Games

• Ars Magica: Justified by the Order of Hermes. As the standard scholarly language across medieval Europe, the Order used Latin to codify its magical practices since its founding, entrenching it as the main European Language of Magic for incantations and Spell Books. Other organizations use different languages.
• Res Arcana ("Arcane Things") is an Alchemy Is Magic-themed game that uses its Latin title to evoke magic. Its Expansion Packs Lux et Tenebrae ("Light and Darkness") and Perlae Imperii ("Pearls of Power") have Latin titles as well.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: In the final confrontation, after Sigrid has gathered enough focus on her Reality Warper power to boost its capabilities, she cites a Magical Incantation entirely in Latin to create a conjured effect to fully weaken C and have his draconic form expelled from his body.
• Baldur's Gate: Spellcasters will chant Terse Talker style phrases in Latin while casting spells. The phrase varies between school or category. "Vita! Mortis! Careo!" is the chant for healing and necromancy spells.
• Dawn Of Magic: Evil player characters end up fighting a "holy hero" in the first chapter. During the fight, the hero spouts random Latin phrases such as "Sic transit gloria mundi" to represent spellcasting.
• TearRing Saga: Fan translations represent the Magical Incantation spoken to cast spells with Latinized and shortened phrases from the Bible. The Japanese script uses more generic incantation, with basic spells merely calling out their name.
  Incantation of Starlight: Numera stellas si pote...^note Roughly translate as "number the stars if you can...," which is based on Genesis 15:5.

Web Animation

• Spooky Month: The cult that resides in the house on the hill are heavily associated with the Latin language, from the vaguely-Latin chanting when John and Jack come across them in the Newgrounds ending of "Unwanted Guest" to the post-episode ARGs containing things related to them that need to be translated from Latin, which itself are related to the concepts of fear, the end, and the cult obtaining "everything".

Web Comics

• El Goonish Shive: Invoked when Tedd builds a set of Magic Wands. He can pick anything to be their activation phrase, but he specifically chooses (poorly-translated) Latin because it's easy to remember, it's not something you'd say by accident, and it sounds cool.

Western Animation

• The Dragon Prince: Ancient Draconic, the language used for magic incantations, is represented using Latin. Phrases used include "Regina Draconis" (to send a message to the Dragon Queen), "Aspiro" ("I breathe", to blow a gust of wind), and "Fulminis" (to generate lightning). However, some loose-and-fast translations lead to some spells not meaning quite what the writers likely intended them to. A freezing breath spell, Aspiro Frigis, seems to mean something like "cold wind" — but frigis is actually the second-person singular form of frigere, "to fry".
• Gargoyles: Most spells are spoken in Latin, although some are in Hebrew and one is cast in English. Word of God says that the book containing most of those spells was written by a magus working for Emperor Augustus; naturally, Latin was his first language.
• Gravity Falls: In "Dreamscaperers", Gideon's spell to summon Bill Cypher is in Latin, as is the spell Dipper uses to enter Grunkle Stan's mind (except the "Inceptus Nolanus Overratus" part).
• In He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021), Evelyn is a "word witch" who speaks Latin to cast her magic. When transformed into Evil-Lyn she can cast her magic with a thought, but often prefers to use her words still because, in her own words, she loves the sound of her own voice.
• LoliRock: Ephedian magic, primarily based on Gemstone Assault, uses Latin as the basis for invoking magic spells. Examples include Aterodere, Crystal Colidum, Crystempactus, Crystal Luxtra, Morbullo, etc.
• South Park: In "Sons a Witches", when Chip brings a witch's spell book to the witch party, it is written and read in Latin and the spell he reads ends up turning him into a witch.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man: Mysterio uses Latin to make his Evil Sorcerer guise seem more dramatic and arcane. Many of his phrases are quite funny if you translate them.
  Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere!^Translation I believe Elvis is alive!
  Denique diatem efficacem inveni!^Translation I have finally found an effective diet!
  Nullae satisfactionis potiri non possum!^Translation I can't get no satisfaction!''

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