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The accompanying narrative is intended to make the exercise more comprehensible. It may be read to students to help them understand the practice when guiding them through it at first. For self-instruction, it should be read through several times before attempting the exercise, so that it can be performed without reading. All that needs to be memorized are the visualizations and the "intonations" (epôidai, incantations).
Greek words and voces magicae are given in (approximate) Roman transcription and in Beta Code {surrounded by braces}, which is a more exact Roman representation of the Greek alphabet. In Beta Code, accents follow the vowel or diphthong to which they apply, except they precede capital vowels. The accent "/" means a rising tone, "\" a falling tone, and "=" a rising-then-falling tone; the sign "(" means the vowel or diphthong is preceded by an h sound, and ")" means it isn't. For purposes of toning, make the change of tone a full fifth (e.g. do to so). The vowels are pronounced: a {a} = o (as in "not"), e {e} = ay (as in "ray"), ê {h} = (long) eh, i {i} = ee, o {o} = oh, u {u} = ü (German umlauted u, as in für, or Spanish y grec), ô {w} = (long) aw (as in "awe"). The consonants th, ph, kh {q, f, x} are pronounced as aspirated t, p, k, that is, with an extra puff of breath. (Compare Italian c with Scottish or German ch.) Finally, nk {gk} is pronounced ngk, ng {gg} is pronounced ngg and ou {ou} is pronounced oo as in "boot." (See A Brief Guide to Ancient Greek Pronunciation for additional pronunciation suggestions.) Here is some advice from the Greek Magical Papyri on pronouncing the vowels in voces magicae: a {a} "with an open mouth, undulating like a wave"; e {e} "with enjoyment, aspirating it"; ê {h} "like a baboon"; i {i} no advice; o {o} "succinctly, as a breathed threat"; u {u} "like a shepherd, drawing out the pronunciation"; ô {w} no advice.
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