Ancient Egyptian Book of Spells Deciphered

In the just published, A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power, Australian university professors Malcolm Choat and Iain Gardner, from Macquarie University and the University of Sydney respectively, reveal a significant addition to the body of ancient Egyptian magical texts.

Image: Effy Alexakis, Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre via Live Science.

The 20-page parchment codex is believed to date to the 7th or 8th century and contains a collection of invocations, incantations and ritual instructions that would have been used by the book's owner for a wide range of purposes including bringing success in love and business, countering possession and curing ailments such as "Black Jaundice" (Leptospirosis infection).

Particularly interesting is the amalgam of religious beliefs incorporated. Within the Coptic text are references to Jesus, Seth — 3rd son of Adam & Eve, revered by the Gnostic sect, the Sethians — and the mysterious Baktiotha. Next to nothing is known about Baktiotha but the name appears in another Coptic language spell that was translated in the Ausgewählte koptische Zaubertexte (Angelicus M Kropp, O.P., 1931, German) and the context of that spell may point to the name being a reference to Jesus.

From Live Science:

The ancient book "starts with a lengthy series of invocations that culminate with drawings and words of power," they write. "These are followed by a number of prescriptions or spells to cure possession by spirits and various ailments, or to bring success in love and business."

For instance, to subjugate someone, the codex says you have to say a magical formula over two nails, and then "drive them into his doorpost, one on the right side (and) one on the left.

The first of those invocations refers to Baktiotha and is translated:

I give thanks to you and I call upon you, the Baktiotha: The great one, who is very trustworthy; the one who is lord over the forty and the nine kinds of serpents.

The researchers believe that the invocations were originally separate from 27 of the spells in the codex, but later, the invocations and these spells were combined, to form a "single instrument of ritual power," Choat told Live Science in an email.

The origin of the codex is also a mystery. Macquarie University acquired it in late 1981 from Michael Fackelmann, an antiquities dealer based in Vienna. In "the 70s and early 80s, Macquarie University (like many collections around the world) purchased papyri from Michael Fackelmann," Choat said in the email.

But where Fackelmann got the codex from is unknown. The style of writing suggests that the codex originally came from Upper Egypt.

There are currently two additional sources at Obscuragator.

a reply to: theantediluvian

This source claims codex dates back 1,300 years. That's rather further down the line than the 7th or 8th century.

www.ancient-origins.net...

a reply to: theantediluvian

Wow, this is really exciting....

I would love to see that book and flip through its pages. It sounds like it contains some lost history.

a reply to: andy06shake

The author is drawing from the Live Science article. 1,300 years before present would be 714 AD which is in the 8th century AD. This dating makes sense because the Islamization of Egypt began with the Arab invasion in 641 AD.

NM

a reply to: theantediluvian

That makes sense I suppose. I was just wondering why there was such a vast discrepancy in time periods, thanks for clearing that up.

I like reading about old texts like this. This is newer than most I have studied though, most of what I studied predates the bible.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Ah yes the belief in magic. It is remarkably how nearly every human culture has a belief in magic.

I say nearly as I'm not so thorough a student of anthropology to make the definitive statement that all do but I suspect that is the case.

a reply to: Hanslune

Wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. A lot of research from the past 10+ years points to the human brain being "hardwired" for a belief in the supernatural.

There were red ochre stained bones and funerary objects found in the Qafzeh cave (Israel) burials dated to more than 90,000 years ago. The classification of these remains is still a point of contention but it's just one example of evidence of extremely ancient religious practice in hominids. There's also some suggestion that artifacts including bear bones found in caves are evidence of animal worship, specifically a bear cult, dating even further back into the middle paleolithic (much further).

a reply to: theantediluvian

AND it's remarkable how many seemingly intelligent, educated people have stories about the seeming efficacy of magic... sometimes.

Personally, I keep a very open mind due to personal experiences. I hope it's all bullpucky, though, as vengeful people with even a modicum of...er 'magik' would open many doors better left shut.

originally posted by: Baddogma
a reply to: theantediluvian

AND it's remarkable how many seemingly intelligent, educated people have stories about the seeming efficacy of magic... sometimes.

Personally, I keep a very open mind due to personal experiences. I hope it's all bullpucky, though, as vengeful people with even a modicum of...er 'magik' would open many doors better left shut.

Its one of the most commonly shared delusion of mankind that by saying or doing 9or not doing) 'x' or 'y' the physical laws of the universe will be adjusted and the result of 'z' obtained. The belief in magic takes many forms but its most common format today is known as religion.

originally posted by: Hanslune
The belief in magic takes many forms but its most common format today is known as religion.

I suppose at its core, magic is the belief that "like begets like," and there's a certain truth to that. Same as "as above, so below." Unfortunately, the universe is so complex, and our perceptions are so easily influenced that we're pretty hopeless in our attempts to control massively chaotic systems. It's way too easy to cast a spell thinking it's going to do one thing, with the result ending up being the opposite.

I believe in a monkey's paw world, where you pretty much always get whatever you wish, pray or cast a spell for, but there's always going to be some twist on it to sour it.

a reply to: Hanslune

Yeah, and for many reasons I think religion is the bane of mankind... but, as I said, I've had a few very surprising, seemingly impossible things happen in regards to magik ...and thus have to shake my head and declare a big "maybe" for it.

Blue Shift's "Monkey Paw" analogy holds for the darker stuff, though.

I'd leave you, Hans, with the statement to not totally discount the mind over matter "delusion." As someone with a little anthropology history, I've seen some things... heh.

I've always wondered ;
the Egpytians created amazing temples like the
giant unbelievably difficult pyramids,
So why on Earth would we assume their magic is Hogwash?
Seems like an awful amount of work and reverence for nothing.
"oh yeah the pyramids are magnificent but obviously there is
nothing to the magic"
I don't know about that....

a reply to: UnderKingsPeak

Maybe magic as you mean it is nothing more than an unknown mechanism of technology.

Look at it this way; you take different materials, and dispose them according to a certain predetermined design, and then, you add a programming through chanting, and you activate it, and it has a definite function. Just like an electronic part, or device.

People have spent a great deal of time and effort trying to get magic to work. Some believe that it does however, while in the anecdotal world it does work - sometimes - in the practical world it doesn't, ever.

People continue to believe.

a reply to: Baddogma

From what I understand and the perspective that I've come to hold through the years magic in this day and age is very hard to practice, especially if you're looking for blatant effects. Something about the cyclic ages, this iron age we live in, some postulate that this is tied directly to the etheric environment(the substrate of the physical plane), the level of ambient etheric energy available to harness and direct for purposes such as magic is much lower than in earlier ages. This along with the "goat effect" of the collective skepticism of humanity greatly reduces all manifestations of 'supernatural' power.

You'll be lucky if you find a guru that can manifest a single rice corn out of thin air, and even then that person would most likely have spent decades cultivating himself.

Modern manifestations of psychic powers are for the most part erratic, and seldom under complete control of the person manifesting said powers.

Now I understand that this may sound like a huge copout but if you read between the lines of ancient texts you'll see that this has been the understanding for ages now. In the Indian texts you'll read about how the divine weapons stop working without enough ambient "tejas"(energy) around, it is also pointed out that this too is temporary, and as the world turns such abilities will start appearing once again.

Interestingly, this is what the whole 2012 thing is essentially about, and though I am myself skeptical of such claims - they always seem too good to be true - it would in a sense explain this percieved "awakening" that seems to be happening around the world. Slowly but surely we are entering a new age.

This would also explain the widespread belief in magic in ages past, when contact with supernatural entities were common enough to build and maintain a certain amount of faith. These days, visual contact and other communications are largely relegated to mystics and practicioners, and even then rarely is it that an entity have enough power to actually take semi-physical form or even appear fully, visually, or a person have advanced enough spiritual sight to see such things. Yet back in the days, hundreds or thousands of years ago these things would happen to such a degree that the average Joe could happen upon a nymph in the woods and end up having sex with her. Even the gods themselves would dabble with our world.

These days you'll be lucky if a water nymph tease the hell out of you and then leave you hanging in a dream... Ha... yeah, that happened to me this past night and I gotta tell ya it's just not the same. Don't ask me how I know it wasn't just a figment of my imagination, it's the secredest of secrets.

Make any sense? Not looking to convince any skeptics out there, this is just my personal understanding of the subject.

I get the feel that even with serious occultists a lot of them don't even believe in this type of blatant magic these days.

It is what it is.

originally posted by: NowanKenubi
a reply to: UnderKingsPeak

Maybe magic as you mean it is nothing more than an unknown mechanism of technology.

Look at it this way; you take different materials, and dispose them according to a certain predetermined design, and then, you add a programming through chanting, and you activate it, and it has a definite function. Just like an electronic part, or device.

In other words 'magic' is just a catch all term for our ancestors to both account for and to fill in gaps in knowledge and comprehension of science, natural phenomena and chemical interactions and reactions.

Pretty much where i believe our concepts of deities originate too, whether it stems from an angry 'god' hurling fire from the sky (meteors and comets), angry Earth gods (volcanoes and earthquakes) peeved sea gods (tsunamis, cyclones and floods) and rather fed up gods of the air (hurricanes, tornadoes)...and just about every other happening that couldn't be explained by the primitives.

It's all 'magic'...or rather ignorance.

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

I'm not telling anyone what to believe or what not to believe, just stating the obvious: doesn't it seem awfully convenient that magic just doesn't work anymore? That's like cop out 101. Right up there with "it won't work if you're watching."

a reply to: theantediluvian

How do you know Magic doesn't work "anymore"?