Egyptian Magic

Egyptian magic dates from the time when the predynastic and
prehistoric dwellers in Egypt believed that the earth, and

it may, it is quite certain that magic and religion
developed and flourished side by side in Egypt throughout

the underworld, and the air, and the sky were peopled with
countless beings, visible and invisible, which were held to

all periods of her history, and that any investigation which
we may make of the one necessarily includes an examination

be friendly or unfriendly to man according as the operations
of nature, which they were supposed to direct, were

of the other.

favourable or unfavourable to him. In -nature and attributes
these beings were thought by primitive man to closely

From the religious books of ancient Egypt we learn that the
power possessed by a priest or man who was skilled in the

resemble himself and to possess all human passions, and
emotions, and weaknesses, and defects; and the chief object

knowledge and working of magic was believed to be almost
boundless. By pronouncing certain words or names of power in

of magic was to give man the pre-eminence over such beings.
The favour of the beings who were placable and friendly to

the proper manner and in the proper tone of voice he could
heal the sick, and cast out the evil spirits which caused

man might be obtained by means of gifts and offerings, but
the cessation of hostilities on the part of those that were

pain and suffering in those who were diseased, and restore
the dead to life, and bestow upon the dead man the power to

implacable and unfriendly could only be obtained by
wheedling, and cajolery, and flattery, or by making use of

transform the corruptible into an incorruptible body,
wherein the soul might live to all eternity. His words

an amulet, or secret name, or magical formula, or figure, or
picture which had the effect of bringing to the aid of the

enabled human beings to assume divers forms at will, and to
project their souls into animals and other creatures; and in

mortal who possessed it the power of a being that was
mightier than the foe who threatened to do evil to him.

obedience to his commands, inanimate figures and pictures
became living beings and things which hastened to perform

The magic of most early nations aimed at causing the

his behests. The powers of nature acknowledged his might,
and wind and rain, storm and tempest, river and sea, and

transference of power from a supernatural being to man,
whereby he was to be enabled to obtain superhuman results

disease and death worked evil and ruin upon his foes, and
upon the enemies of those who were provided with the

and to become for a time as mighty as the original possessor
of the power; but the object of Egyptian magic was to endow

knowledge of the words which he had wrested from the gods of
heaven, and earth, and the underworld.

man with the means of compelling both friendly and hostile
powers, nay, at a later time, even God Himself, to do what

Inanimate nature likewise obeyed such words of power, and

he wished, whether the were willing or not. The belief in
magic, the word being used in its best sense, is older in

even the world itself came into existence through the
utterance of a word by Thoth; by their means the earth could

Egypt than the belief in God, and it is certain that a very
large number of the Egyptian religious ceremonies, which

be rent asunder, and the waters forsaking their nature could
be piled up in a heap, and even the sun's course in the

were performed in later times as an integral part of a
highly spiritual worship, had their origin in superstitious

heavens could be stayed by a word. No god, or spirit, or
devil, or fiend, could resist words of power, and the

customs which date from a period when God, under any name or
in any form, was unconceived in the minds of the Egyptians.

Egyptians invoked their aid in the smallest as well as in
the greatest events of their lives. To him that was versed

Indeed it is probable that even the use of the sign which
represents an axe, and which stands the hieroglyphic

in the lore contained in the books of the "double house of
life" the future was as well known as the past, and neither

character both for God and "god," indicates that this weapon
and. tool was employed in the performance of some ceremony

time nor distance could limit the operations of his power;
the mysteries of life and death were laid bare before him,

connected with religious magic in prehistoric, or at any
rate in predynastic times, when it in some mysterious way

and he could draw aside the veil which hid the secrets of
fate and destiny from the knowledge of ordinary mortals.