HEKA: The Magic Of Ancient Egypt

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Things were often chosen for their colour.

Black, mentioned twenty times in the 'Demotic Magical Papyrus', and white, twelve instances, dominated: milk from a black cow, blood of a black dog, a new white lamp etc.
 
    Great importance was attached to the names of the invoked gods or spirits, names which were hidden from the uninitiated. The very knowledge of their true names as opposed to those more widely known (Sarpot Mui-Sro is my name, Light-scarab-noble (?) is my true name) [9], gave one considerable power over them.

These appellations had to be pronounced properly, in the right sequence and in their entirety:



    '"........ Io, Tabao, Soukhamamon, Akhakhanbou, Sanauani, Ethie, Komto, Kethos, Basaethori,

Thmila, Akhkhou, give me answer as to everything about which I ask here to-day."


 Seven times.

 
The Demotic Magical Papyrus
of London and Leiden



    This invocation was to be repeated seven times. Often a simple two-fold repetition seemed to suffice, but three-, four- and even nine-fold reiterations were also frequent.

In Ani's Book of the Dead, the deceased reaffirms his innocence four times:



                                      "I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure."



Budge
The Book of the Dead,
Chapter 125 [8]



    These magical numbers were also important in other contexts.

A certain love spell required nine apple-pips together with your urine, another a Kesh...-fish of nine digits and black.

For a vessel divination three new bricks were needed; and one was supposed to pour an unsavory concoction of semen, blood and other ingredients into a cup of wine and add three uteh to it of the first-fruits of the vintage.

Other numbers like five, six or eight were rarely used [9].

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 When the life of a patient was in danger because of a snake bite, a sekhmet priest might threaten to cause the solar barque to run aground on a sandbank, describing the dire consequences to the very fabric of the world that would ensue:




"The sun barque is at rest and does not proceed,

The sun is still in the same spot as yesterday.

The nourishment is without ship, the temple is barred,

There the disease will turn back the disturbance

To yesterday's location.

The daemon of darkness is about, the times are not separated.

The shadow's shapes cannot be observed anymore.

The springs are blocked, the plants wither,

Life is taken from the living

Until Horus recovers for his mother Isis,

And until the patient's health is restored as well."



After Jan Assmann:

Ägypten -
Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur, p.85





EBER'S PAPYRUS

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'OPENING OF THE MOUTH'
RITUAL

Tutankhamen's tomb fresco








The need of the deceased for magic was perhaps even greater than that of the living. After dying they were completely helpless until their faculties had been restored by the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth and they had been equipped with the knowledge needed to address gods and daemons by their hidden, true names and the spells necessary to ward off the dangers they would encounter.





    "Homage to thee, O great God, Lord of Maati!

I have come unto thee, O my Lord,

and I have brought myself hither that I may behold thy beauties.

I know thee, I know thy name, I know the names of the Forty-two Gods

who live with thee in this Hall of Maati,

who live by keeping ward over sinners and

who feed upon their blood on the day

when the consciences of men are reckoned up in

the presence of the god Un-Nefer.

In truth thy name is "Rehti-Merti-Nebti-Maati."




The Papyrus of Ani,

translated by E.A.W. Budge

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USHABTI/SHAWABTI








But not all was gloom in the Netherworld. The duties a person had to perform by himself in this world, could be attended to by a stand-in, an ushabti (also called shawabti at times) in the next, if you knew how to make him do it [19]:



    Spell for causing a shawabti to work for its owner in the underworld.

To be recited over the shawabti, which will be made either of tamarisk or thorn wood.

This shall be carved to resemble its owner as he appeared in life, and placed in the tomb.



"Look upon this man, ye gods, transfigured souls and spirits of the dead,

for he has acquired force, seized his moment, taken on royal authority,

he's a pharaoh, ruling mankind, controlling them like cattle.

They were created to serve him. The gods themselves ordained it.

Now, shawabti:

If, in the world of the dead, X is ordered to perform the yearly stint of public work all Egyptians owe

their pharaoh,

be it to move bricks, level off a plot of ground, re-survey land when the Nile-flood recedes or till new-

planted fields,

you will say; "Here I am!" to any functionary who comes looking for X while he is trying to enjoy his

meal of funerary offerings.

Take up your hoe, shawabti, your pick, your demarcation pegs, your basket, just as any slave would

for his master.

O shawabti made for X, if X is called for his obligations to the state you will pipe up: "Here I am!"

whether X is summoned to oversee workers in the new-planted fields, tend to irrigation, move sand

from East to West or vice versa

"Here I am!" you will say and take his place."



Coffin Text 472,
translated by
Jacob Rabinowitz [6]

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SEKHMET








                                               Addressing supernatural powers



                                                      Prayers and offerings





     In dealing with the gods care was required.

They were powerful and, consequently, highly respected:


Mut carried the epithet Great in Magic,

the vulture-headed Heknet was Mistress of Spirits,

the hippo goddess Taweret was called Great of Sorcery and

Sekhmet was the Powerful One.



Their nature was often dual:

Taweret was a protectress against Typhonic powers, carrying an ankh or a burning torch, but she had the form of an extremely dangerous animal [13];

Sekhmet, a ferocious lion goddess, brought death and destruction when she accompanied the pharaoh on his campaigns of war, but was the main support of the healers in their fight against disease. It was best to treat them with reverence.



    Many people today may see practices such as prayers and offerings to gods as distinct from magic, it was not to the Egyptians.

Both the living and the dead went to great lengths to receive the blessing of the gods. Hymns of praise were composed and recited, written down on papyrus and put in the tombs. Offerings of food, real or carved on walls, were supposed to satiate the god's hunger and thirst.


    Just as the statue of the god Amen for instance was the god himself, a magician, by identifying himself with a god, was transformed into him.


 
'I will say: "Come to me Montu, lord of the day!

Come, that you may put N born of N into my hand like

an insect in the mouth of a bird".

I am Montu whom the gods adore.

I will sever your bones and eat your flesh.'



Ostracon found at Deir el Medine
19th dynasty

Ancient Egypt Magazine:
Nine measures of magic [11]

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                                                   Invoking and dismissing





Lesser magical beings like demons, spirits or the deceased did not quite warrant the same amount
of respect. But they were the main agents of magic and could be invoked by simple means:

    Prescription to make them speak: you put a frog's head on the brazier, then they speak.
 
or
 
    Prescription for bringing the gods in by force: you put the bile of a crocodile with pounded frankincense on the brazier. If you wish to make them come in quickly again, you put stalks (?) of anise (?) on the brazier together with the egg-shell as above, then the charm works at once.

The Demotic Magical Papyrus
of London and Leiden



    If they did not obey they (even lamps) could be threatened:


 "I will not give thee oil,

I will not give thee fat.
 
O lamp; verily I will give thee the body of the female cow and

put blood of the male bull into (?)

thee and put thy band to the testicles (?)

of the enemy of Horus."


The Demotic Magical Papyrus
of London and Leiden




    Once one had received their services it was best to send them away as they could be unpredictable
    His dismissal formula:


'Farewell (bis) Anubis,

the good ox-herd, Anubis (bis),

the son of a (?) jackal (and ?) a dog . . .



another volume saith:

"the child of . . . Isis (?) (and ) a dog,

Nabrishoth, the Cherub (?) of Amenti,

king of those of.....'

Say seven times.
 


or
 

    The charm which you pronounce when you dismiss them to their place:

'Good dispatch, joyful dispatch!'



The Demotic Magical Papyrus
of London and Leiden

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                                                              Footnotes:





[1] Theologians belonging to the three monotheistic religions tend to deny this, drawing a clear line between their 'pure' doctrines devoid of superstition and paganism. But there is no real difference in attitude between Christians, Jews and Muslims and followers of other traditions. They all use rituals which only to a believer are not classified as magical. Thus, Jews kiss the mezuzah, a small case attached to the doorpost containing religious texts, Christians cross themselves, and Muslims circle around a stone when performing the hadj. People will claim that it is the thought behind the ritual which counts - which of course is exactly what magic is all about.

[14] apotropaic: averting evil, from Greek apotrepein, turn away

[17] The magic itself was the essence, not the magician. In the Pyramid Texts king Pepi threatened the gods with the withholding of all offerings if they did not assist him in rising to the heavens
It is not this king Pepi who says this against you, it is the charm which says this against you, ye gods.
J.H. Breasted Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 111

[19] If the eagerness of the ushabtis to do their duty was indicative of the work ethics of Egyptian workers we may begin to sympathize with their employers: the tombs ended up by being filled with statuettes, as each was expected to be active for just one day in the year, and there were overseer ushabtis carrying flails.

[20] At least in tales hard study could be avoided, possibly at the price of upsetting one's stomach: Prince Naneferptah
... called for a new piece of papyrus, and wrote on it all that was in the book before him. He dipped it in beer, and washed it off in the liquid; for he knew that if it were washed off, and he drank it, he would know all that there was in the writing.
Princess Ahura: The Magic Book



[21] In his 1914 monograph on amulets Petrie distinguished five classes of amulets [22]:

1. Similars, or Homopoeic, which are for influencing similar parts, or functions, or occurrences, for the wearer

2. Powers or Dynatic, for conferring powers and capacities, especially upon the dead;

3. Property or Ktematic, which are entirely derived from the funeral offerings, and are thus peculiar to Egypt;

4. Protection or Phylactic, such as charms and curative amulets;

5. Gods or Theophoric, connected with the worship of the gods and their functions




[23] The little statuette above is about 8 centimetres tall, dates to the Graeco-Roman period, and bears an inscription invoking the powers the deceased depicted by the statuette was thought to have:



"Rise and bind him whom I look at, to be my lover, (for) I adore his face. "



After Etienne Drioton,
Un charme d'amour égyptien d'époque gréco-romaine,
BIFAO 41 (1942), p.79



It appears that the constraint of being magically bound to do someone's will could be broken by an encounter
with a magician or hearing some auspicious noise like the braying of an ass or the bark of a dog.

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                                                         Bibliography:





Jan Assmann Ägypten - Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur

Jan Assmann, Schöpfungsmythen und Kreativitätskonzepte im alten Ägypten

James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt

James Henry Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt

E.A.W. Budge, The Book of the Dead

E.A.W. Budge, Egyptian Magic

Étienne Drioton, Un charme d'amour égyptien d'époque gréco-romaine, BIFAO 41 (1942), p.79

Adolf Ermann, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion

A.Gardiner, Theban Ostraca

F.Ll. Griffith, The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden

F.Ll. Griffith, Stories of the High Priests of Memphis; The Sethon of Herodotus and The Demotic Tales of Khamuas

Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature

Geraldine Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt

Jacob Rabinowitz, Isle of Fire

Kurt Sethe, Von Zahlen und Zahlworten bei den alten Ägyptern, 1916

Aloisia de Trafford, The Pyramid Texts: some thoughts on their medium and message

Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

The British and Foreign Bible Society The Holy Bible
 
Ancient Egypt Magazine Nine Measures of Magic; Part 3: 'Overthrowing Apophis': Egyptian ritual in practice , Issue Nine - November/December 2001

Urkunden des ägyptischen Altertums, sechste Abteilung, Heft 1, 1929


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Sculpture of an Egyptian priest holding nine-faceted "Wands of Horus".

Photograph taken in the Hermitage,
St Petersburg.
RUSSIA

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HESIRA

circa 2650 BC







The first known image of a Physician Priest?

Wooden relief of Hesira, dating to the Third Dynasty, and found at Saqqara.

Hesira was a scribe, possibly at the time of Djoser,
but is also described as a doctor and dentist.

The panel is now in the Egyptian Museum,
Cairo.
Photo: RP.



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                 The Smoke Eaters at the temple at Thebes used cannabis incense for mortality rituals.


 


The ancient Egyptian goddess Seshat (above in her role as the Goddess who measures) is depicted with a hemp leaf in her head dress.


Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1479 to 1425 B.C.E.) called her Sefkhet-Abwy (She of the seven points).

Hemp was used to make measuring cords.

Seshat was the goddess of libraries, knowledge, and geomancy, among other things.



Spell 10 of the Coffin text states


                                      “Seshat opens the door of heaven for you”.
 



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