[New-Poetry] Magic Spells (word squares)

[Skip Fox]

Have you ever tried this? Here's a beautiful one from mid-19th cent.:

CIRCLE
ICARUS
RAREST
CREATE
LUSTER
ESTEEM

I've not done any with six letters, but here's a 5-letter spell that erases
itself:

ERASE
RARER
ARENA
SENDS
ERASE

(erase around all sides)

Some groupings are rather interesting:

mind
idea
nest
data

Story goes that many of these were done in Latin with religious
terms/ideas/elements and used by Romans and others for luck and fortune by
placing the "spell" 9n a notable place like outside their front gate.