OVERVIEW OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MAGIC
Introduction
There are many definitions of Magic. One of the definitions of Magic in The
American Heritage Dictionary is: "The practice of using charms, spells, or
rituals to attempt to produce supernatural events or to control events in
nature."
Another definition from another source is:
"Magic is the attempt to produce a response in the god and to manipulate
him or her for human purposes. Ancients
believed that the gods could be manipulated."
I have defined magic as the following:
"Employing a technique or ritual, to
manipulate or control a natural or spiritual phenomena or event, by
supernatural means."
Using this definition, let us look at what we
call the "Indian Rain Dance".
How does it fit into the term magic?
1) It is a technique or ritual - There is an
actual dance carried out with specific movements, etc.
2) Its purpose is to manipulate or control the
weather, i.e. cause it to rain.
3) It is supposed to work by supernatural
means.
Notice that cloud seeding by airplanes does not
fit the term magic since the manipulation of nature is not by supernatural
means but by science. Using my
definition, something is considered magic only if it meets all 3 criteria.
Egyptian Magic
My definition goes well with the Egyptians use
of the term Magic. The Egyptians used
magic for both practical and religious purposes. They believed magic was a divine creation for
the benefit of humanity. It was
considered a field of knowledge just like architecture, literature, medicine,
etc. It was just another category of
knowledge to be used in coping with their environment and religion.
In our modern society, the word magic does not
convey the force it did in the ancient Egyptian culture. To the Egyptians, magic was a real and potent
force. It was a tangible means of
communicating, manipulating, and controlling their gods. For example, their life depended on
agriculture and thus the weather. Using
magic to control the weather was important for their survival. Also, as we will be exploring, magic was
essential after death for safe passage through the afterlife.
Examples of some important ancient Egyptian
magic rituals concern defense against enemies.
Wax or clay figures of the enemy were ritual destroyed. Also magic was used to keep away spiritual
enemies (i.e. god's that were not favorable towards them or wanted to harm
them). Also personal spells were used
against someone's enemy. For example,
there are spells that invoke evil gods to appear in a person's dreams. Also personal use of magic included the use
of love potions. It usually consisted of
some liquid or food that came with an incantation. To the ancient Egyptians, it would not differ
much from a medical prescription.
Remember, magic was just another field of knowledge like medicine and
was very real to them.
The purpose of the magic was to compel the help
of divine powers. Usually, the person
carrying out the magic was identified by name with a deity to obtain from him
the power of that god. Also the person
might threaten that god with dire consequences if his demands were not met.
Many of the Egyptian gods were invoked using
magic, but the most frequent god invoked was Isis, since she was the protector
of her son (Horus), with whom the person seeking help would be identified with.
Dreams and Prophecy
Magic was also used for the prediction of the
future. One way this was done was by
asking the statue of a god which acted as an oracle. Also prediction of the future could be
obtained through the interpretation of dreams.
The Egyptians viewed dreams as a means in which the gods could make
contract with humans. Another practice,
known as "incubation", involves the sleeping in a temple in order to
receive prophetic dreams from a god.
The following is an example of a dream
interpretation taken from the Chester Beatty III papyrus.
"If
a man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand, good: it
means killing his adversary.
"Eating
crocodile flesh, good: it means acting as an official among his people.
"Submerging
in the river, good: it means purification from all evils.
"Burying
an old man, good: it means flourishing.
"Working
with stone in his house, good: fixing a man in his house.
"Seeing
his face in a mirror, bad: it means another wife.
"Shod
with white sandals, bad: it means roaming the earth.
"Copulating
with a woman, bad: it means mourning.
"Being
bitten by a dog, bad: it means he will be touched by magic.
"His
bed catching fire, bad: it means driving away his wife.
Amulets
Amulets were also used for magical
protection. They were used both by the
living and the dead. Many amulets have
been found in Egyptian tombs. These
amulets are in the shape of gods, goddesses, animals, objects, parts of the
body, etc. and were believed to contain special powers. Many amulets were wrapped up with the
mummy. The mummy of King Tut is a good
example and many such amulets were found wrapped in his mummy. Many different substances were also used in
the making of amulets which included stone, wood, clay, etc. Since certain
substances possessed certain powers, it
was important to choose the right substance for a specific type of amulet. Magic writing was also considered an amulet
and many such types of magical papyrus have been found in tombs. Thus, wearing of amulets during life was the
means of seeking the gods protection and help.
After death a special protection was also needed and we will be
discussing this.
Use of Magic in Medicine
Medicine was practiced both on scientific and
magical levels. Prescriptions also
relied both on pharmacology and sympathetic magic. There were many spells to help cure snake bites. Also spells were used for childbirth,
pregnancy, and conception. Many
incantations have been found for birth, protection of babies, providing of
milk, and defensive against childhood diseases.
Magic for the Dead
In the afterlife, it was important for the
deceased to be equipped with magical spells for their protection. The earliest collection of such spells were
found inscribed inside Old Kingdom royal pyramids. These are called
"Pyramid Texts" since they were inscribed on the walls of the
pyramids. Approximately 800 of these
incantations have been found. Osiris
first appears in these texts as the lord of the dead.
Initially, only the King had the promise of
immortality. During the First
Intermediate period, this promise started to be extended to a wider social
class. Thus during this period there was
an expanded collection of these incantations.
In fact, more than 1100 spells have been found. These spells were now copied onto the
interior surfaces of coffins. Thus these
texts are referred to as "Coffin Texts". Many of these were basically guide books to
the underworld so the spirit would not get lost.
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