The Witches Alphabet

 The Witches Alphabet

The Theban alphabet, also known as the Witches Alphabet, is a letter for letter substitution cipher that exchanges Theban symbols for letters in the old Latin alphabet.

This alphabet was first published in 1518 in a book by German Abbot, Johannes Trithemius (b.1462) called Polygraphic. Considered to be the father of cryptography, Trithemius was a lexicographer, cryptographer and an occultist. His student, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) included this alphabet in his book, De Occulta Philosophia in 1533.

Old Latin did not have the letters J and U. (Jesus was originally Iesus in Latin), the ciphers for the letters I and V did double duty. There was also no cipher for the letter W.

The actual origin of the cipher is unknown, although it was attributed to Honorius of Thebes but there is no written proof of this claim and some believe that he is a mythical character from the Medieval age.

In the 19^th century, Wiccans adopted the alphabet to use in carvings, writing of names and in their Book of Shadows. Witches continue to use it today for spell work although many have switched to using Germanic runes.

I plan to use the Theban Alphabet in my next book, THE NIGHT WITCH, which will come out in 2027. Meanwhile, check out my witchy series, The Midsummer Women, available on KU! Find it here: The Midsummer Women .