# A Guide to Ancient Magic From Mesopotamia to Celtic Britain

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 4 Oct 2026, 1 h 02 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75551759/a_guide_to_ancient_magic_from_mesopotamia_to_celtic_britain_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3

Journey across the ancient world and explore how people from Mesopotamia to Celtic Britain understood magic, spirits, curses, healing, divination, and the mysterious forces believed to influence human life. Long before the modern concept of the occult existed, ancient communities developed rituals and traditions designed to protect themselves, understand the future, heal illness, and communicate with the supernatural. Begin in ancient Mesopotamia, where magic was deeply connected with religion, medicine, and the authority of specialized priests. Discover the role of exorcists, diviners, healers, and ritual experts who used incantations, protective objects, purification ceremonies, and elaborate systems of omens. Explore how Babylonians and Assyrians interpreted dreams, celestial events, unusual illnesses, and supernatural signs. Travel to ancient Egypt, where magical practices were closely intertwined with everyday life. Explore protective amulets, healing spells, funerary rituals, magical papyri, and the invocation of powerful gods. Discover why Egyptians believed that spoken words, written symbols, images, and ritual actions could influence both physical and supernatural forces. Continue into the Greek and Roman worlds, where magical traditions became remarkably diverse. Explore curse tablets, love spells, protective charms, dream interpretation, astrology, necromantic traditions, and ritual texts. Discover how ordinary people, physicians, priests, philosophers, and professional practitioners interacted with supernatural beliefs, while examining the complicated boundary between accepted religion and practices considered suspicious or forbidden. The journey then moves north and west into the Celtic world, including Iron Age Britain. Explore what archaeology, Roman accounts, inscriptions, ritual objects, sacred sites, and later traditions can tell us about Celtic religious practices. Examine the role of sacred landscapes, ritual specialists, healing traditions, offerings, divination, and beliefs surrounding nature and the supernatural, while recognizing the limits of the surviving evidence. Throughout the episode, discover how ancient people understood the relationship between religion, medicine, magic, and everyday life. Drawing on cuneiform tablets, Egyptian papyri, Greek and Roman magical texts, archaeological discoveries, inscriptions, curse tablets, ancient literature, and modern scholarship, this episode separates historical evidence from later occult traditions and romanticized ideas about ancient magic. Narrated with a calm, human voice, this immersive journey is perfect for history enthusiasts, ancient history lovers, archaeology fans, mythology and occult history listeners, documentary audiences, relaxation, or listening before sleep. Travel across thousands of years of human history and discover how ancient civilizations attempted to understand, control, and protect themselves from the unseen wor

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Cast an image into your mind. Oil lamps in a
[0:05] Speaker 1: Babylonian temple gently flickering as a priest whispers forbidden words
[0:11] Speaker 1: to ward off a demon. An Egyptian magician drawing protective
[0:16] Speaker 1: symbols in the sand while invoking the old gods. Think
[0:21] Speaker 1: of a Greek traveller braving the fumes of Delphi for
[0:26] Speaker 1: a cryptic prophecy. Or a Roman farmer fearing a neighbour's
[0:31] Speaker 1: curse on his crops. Across the ancient world, from Mesopotamia's
[0:37] Speaker 1: fertile valleys to Egypt's Nile, the Greek city-states to the
[0:41] Speaker 1: Roman Republic, and even in the misty groves of Celtic Europe,
[0:46] Speaker 1: magic and witchcraft were woven into the fabric of life.
[0:52] Speaker 1: In our time together today, we'll go on a journey
[0:56] Speaker 1: through those mysterious realms of ancient magic, Witchcraft and magic
[1:01] Speaker 1: in antiquity were not mere superstition. They were complex phenomena,
[1:07] Speaker 1: viewed through religious, legal and practical lenses. We'll talk about
[1:13] Speaker 1: how ancient cultures revered or even reviled magical practices, often
[1:19] Speaker 1: blurring the line between rituals and sorcery. We'll hear it
[1:25] Speaker 1: straight from the voices of antiquity, through the actual spells
[1:29] Speaker 1: and incantations preserved in cuneiform tablets, papyri and inscriptions. And
[1:35] Speaker 1: we'll even meet the famed figures of magic lore, the
[1:39] Speaker 1: Persian magi, who gave us the very word magic, the
[1:44] Speaker 1: enigmatic Oracle of Delphi, dispensing Apollo's oracles, and the mystic Pythagoreans,
[1:51] Speaker 1: who sought the truth through numbers. Along the way, I'll
[1:57] Speaker 1: give you a few lesser-known anecdotes and surprising facts that
[2:01] Speaker 1: will show just how deeply magic pervaded everyday life and death.
[2:07] Speaker 1: This exploration is grounded in primary source and historical evidence.
[2:12] Speaker 1: We're not going to make anything up. We're just going
[2:14] Speaker 1: to give it to you how it is. So suspend
[2:18] Speaker 1: your disbelief a little bit. Step back in time. From
[2:22] Speaker 1: spells of protection and curses of vengeance to laws condemning
[2:26] Speaker 1: sorcery The ancient world's approach to magic was rich and multifaceted. So,
[2:33] Speaker 1: I invite you to close your eyes, dive in, and
[2:37] Speaker 1: discover what witchcraft and magic meant to the peoples of
[2:42] Speaker 1: the ancient world. But I'll first welcome you. To anyone
[2:48] Speaker 1: new to the channel, thank you for coming. And those returning,
[2:52] Speaker 1: thanks for coming back. Supporters on the Patreon and those
[2:56] Speaker 1: who visited the merch store You have my thanks. Now,
[3:01] Speaker 1: let's begin. With a click of the like and subscribe,
[3:05] Speaker 1: we take off on our journey. What is magic? Is
[3:13] Speaker 1: it sacred? Is it sinister? Perhaps we walk a blurred line.
[3:19] Speaker 1: In the ancient world, magic often walked hand in hand
[3:23] Speaker 1: with religion. Many practisers that today might be called magic,
[3:29] Speaker 1: were then part of official worship or healing rites. In
[3:34] Speaker 1: ancient Egypt, for example, magic, called Heka, was regarded as
[3:39] Speaker 1: a fundamental force of the universe, a gift from the
[3:43] Speaker 1: created God to humanity. Egyptian priests were thus trained as magicians.
[3:52] Speaker 1: The very word for priest, heri-heb, could denote a ritualist,
[3:56] Speaker 1: who knew powerful spells. But far from being heretical, using
[4:02] Speaker 1: magic was a dutiful way to enlist divine help, no
[4:07] Speaker 1: different to a prayer. An Egyptian funerary text like the
[4:13] Speaker 1: Book of the Dead is essentially a spellbook for the afterlife,
[4:17] Speaker 1: full of incantations to secure the soul's safe passage. One
[4:23] Speaker 1: such spell implores, O you, who open the ways and
[4:28] Speaker 1: govern the roads, I am come to be glorious, aiming
[4:32] Speaker 1: to grant the deceased authority when they face the next world.
[4:38] Speaker 1: And Mesopotamia, too, the land between the two rivers, the
[4:42] Speaker 1: Tigris and the Euphrates, temple priests doubled as exorcists and healers.
[4:48] Speaker 1: Babylonians and Assyrians didn't see a clear divide between religious
[4:53] Speaker 1: ritual and magical incantation. In fact, It was all in
[4:58] Speaker 1: the same thing. If a person fell ill or sensed
[5:02] Speaker 1: an evil omen, they turned to specialists. The Asipu, exorcist priest,
[5:10] Speaker 1: would recite sacred formulas to banish the demons, while the
[5:13] Speaker 1: Asu physician might mix herbs and spells together. These incantations
[5:20] Speaker 1: invoked the gods by name to combat witchcraft. The classic
[5:25] Speaker 1: Mesopotamian ritual text The Akkadian series, Maklu, or Burning, reveals
[5:32] Speaker 1: an exorcist praying to the sun god Shamash to destroy
[5:36] Speaker 1: a witch's spell. One Maklu tablet adheres the fire. Burn,
[5:44] Speaker 1: set alight, incinerate my witch. May my warlocks' and a
[5:50] Speaker 1: witch's life swiftly, quickly come to an end. Words such
[5:57] Speaker 1: as this were chanted as effigies if the suspected sorcerer
[6:01] Speaker 1: were burned, symbolically destroying the evil influence. And by contrast,
[6:08] Speaker 1: the Greeks and the Romans tended to draw a line
[6:11] Speaker 1: between sanctioned religious rites and illicit magia in Greek and
[6:17] Speaker 1: magica in Latin, practices like sacrifice, prayer and divination, where
[6:23] Speaker 1: they were just part of the state religion. but they
[6:27] Speaker 1: drew the line at secret love charms or curse tablets. They,
[6:34] Speaker 1: on the other hand, were viewed with suspicion. But this
[6:38] Speaker 1: was a boundary, sure, albeit a porous one. At the
[6:42] Speaker 1: famous Oracle of Delphi, a priestess, the Pythia, went into
[6:47] Speaker 1: a trance and delivered prophecies from Apollo, an act that
[6:52] Speaker 1: outsiders might label as magical. But the Greeks didn't see
[6:57] Speaker 1: it this way. It was more divine inspiration than anything else.
[7:02] Speaker 1: This oracle held immense authority. Even kings sought its counsel.
[7:08] Speaker 1: Legend says that King Croesus of Lydia asked if he
[7:11] Speaker 1: should attack Persia, to which Delphi answered that he would
[7:16] Speaker 1: destroy a great empire. Croesus took this as his divine
[7:22] Speaker 1: approval and went to war but he only realized too
[7:27] Speaker 1: late that while the prophecy was true, they actually meant
[7:32] Speaker 1: that his own empire would be destroyed. Prophecy was an
[7:37] Speaker 1: acceptable form of supernatural insight, distinct from the maligned image
[7:43] Speaker 1: of sorcerers performing graveyard rituals at midnight. It was a clean,
[7:51] Speaker 1: more socially acceptable form of magic. but by anyone's real definition,
[7:57] Speaker 1: it certainly seems like magic and sorcery nonetheless. Still, Greek
[8:03] Speaker 1: literature is filled with witches who straddle that line between
[8:06] Speaker 1: religion and sorcery. Homer's epics describe the enchantress Circe turning
[8:13] Speaker 1: men into swine, and the witch Medea calling upon Hecate
[8:19] Speaker 1: while concocting deadly potions. These figures, though mythical, reflect quite
[8:25] Speaker 1: a lot of Greek anxieties, but also fascinations with witchcraft.
[8:30] Speaker 1: Some Greeks sought out magical help despite social disapproval, especially
[8:35] Speaker 1: in desperate times. In tragedy and folklore, a lovestruck youth
[8:41] Speaker 1: might secretly buy a love spell, or a farmer curse
[8:46] Speaker 1: the neighbor who he believes blighted his olive trees. Officially, however,
[8:52] Speaker 1: City laws could treat harmful magic as a crime of impiety.
[8:59] Speaker 1: And then, of course, we have the Celts. Magic was
[9:03] Speaker 1: deeply embedded in religion throughout the revered class of Druids,
[9:07] Speaker 1: albeit they are extremely mysterious. Classical authors portrayed the Druids
[9:14] Speaker 1: as priest mages of Gaul and Britain, conducting complex rituals
[9:20] Speaker 1: and teaching doctrines of the soul. According to Julius Caesar,
[9:25] Speaker 1: who is, well, let's say, a little bit biased, the
[9:29] Speaker 1: Druids taught belief in the immortal soul and engaged in
[9:32] Speaker 1: observing the stars and natural world, but they also performed
[9:37] Speaker 1: sacrifices to the gods, some of them human sacrifices, that
[9:42] Speaker 1: shocked the Greco-Roman sensibilities. The Druids were said to divine
[9:48] Speaker 1: the future by watching the death throes of sacrificial victims,
[9:53] Speaker 1: a grim practice, that to the Celts was not dark sorcery,
[9:57] Speaker 1: but a sacred rite. In Celtic myth, magic and religion
[10:03] Speaker 1: were one and the same. The gods themselves worked magic,
[10:07] Speaker 1: and the poets and seers called Fili used incantations to
[10:13] Speaker 1: shape reality. There is one legendary druid, Amrgin, He is
[10:20] Speaker 1: depicted calming a storm at the founding of Ireland by
[10:23] Speaker 1: chanting a powerful invocation. I am the wind on the sea.
[10:29] Speaker 1: I am the wave of the sea. I am the
[10:31] Speaker 1: stag of seven battles. Such incantatory poems show the sacred
[10:38] Speaker 1: nature of Celtic magic, invoking forces of nature and deities
[10:43] Speaker 1: as an integrated whole. No. We take a bit of
[10:48] Speaker 1: warning when we talk about Druids. First of all, Druids
[10:53] Speaker 1: did not keep any written traditions. It was all passed
[10:56] Speaker 1: down orally. And then, of course, the only information that
[11:01] Speaker 1: we do have about them comes from the Romans, who
[11:05] Speaker 1: were not very kind in their assessments. So we do
[11:10] Speaker 1: take it with a grain of salt. But I'm only
[11:14] Speaker 1: going to say it once, as we talk about them later, too.
[11:19] Speaker 1: So in sum, magic, if we use the term loosely
[11:23] Speaker 1: in antiquity, could be viewed as kind of a divine
[11:27] Speaker 1: or demonic thing. It all depends on the context. An
[11:32] Speaker 1: Egyptian priest healing a snake bite with a spell, a
[11:36] Speaker 1: Babylonian exorcist burning a wax figurine of a witch, a
[11:40] Speaker 1: Greek oracle channeling Apollo, or a druid reading the future
[11:43] Speaker 1: in entrails— were all engaging in acts that their societies
[11:48] Speaker 1: deemed meaningful and sacred, if sometimes fearsome. Yet the very
[11:54] Speaker 1: same cultures also had to recognize that magic could certainly
[11:59] Speaker 1: be twisted towards harmful means. And this duality is what
[12:05] Speaker 1: sets the sage for our next section, the laws and
[12:08] Speaker 1: the moral codes, to draw a boundary, albeit a hazy one.
[12:13] Speaker 1: magic in service of the gods and community, well, that
[12:17] Speaker 1: was often tolerated or embraced. But magic for malice or
[12:21] Speaker 1: personal gain, well, that was very much viewed unkindly. Law
[12:32] Speaker 1: and Order Dun-dun Even as ancient people resorted to magic
[12:40] Speaker 1: for help, Of course they were pretty wary of its misuse.
[12:45] Speaker 1: After all, it's all pretty mysterious. Many civilizations developed laws
[12:51] Speaker 1: against harmful witchcraft, revealing a legal perspective that treated certain
[12:56] Speaker 1: types of magic as an offense worth of punishment. One
[13:00] Speaker 1: of the earliest legal records of this subject comes from Mesopotamia.
[13:05] Speaker 1: Of course, it's the Code of Hammurabi. It actually opens...
[13:09] Speaker 1: with statutes about sorcery. We're talking 1750 BC, so this
[13:15] Speaker 1: goes back a fair while. It decrees that if someone
[13:19] Speaker 1: is accused of casting a death spell on another, but
[13:23] Speaker 1: the accusation cannot be proven, the one who accused shall
[13:28] Speaker 1: be executed. Which is kind of ironic. Hmm. Conversely, the
[13:37] Speaker 1: accused must undergo the ordeal by water plunging into the
[13:41] Speaker 1: sacred river. If the accused sorcerer drowns, it is taken
[13:45] Speaker 1: as proof of guilt, as the river had conquered him,
[13:49] Speaker 1: as the code says. But if he survives, he is vindicated,
[13:55] Speaker 1: and rather the accuser is the one who faces death.
[14:00] Speaker 1: I don't know how they came up. with that lore,
[14:03] Speaker 1: but it's just the way they did it back then.
[14:08] Speaker 1: Either way, it's pretty remarkable. They tried to handle witchcraft
[14:13] Speaker 1: accusation through divine judgment, effectively saying, only God knows who
[14:19] Speaker 1: truly cast the spell. A false accusation was severely punished,
[14:24] Speaker 1: indicating how serious an allegation of witchcraft could be in Babylonia.
[14:30] Speaker 1: Later Mesopotamian laws grew even stricter. Assyrian records indicate a
[14:36] Speaker 1: practicing of witchcraft should carry the death penalty. Paralleling the
[14:40] Speaker 1: famous biblical injunction, you shall not permit a sorceress to live.
[14:45] Speaker 1: I'm sure we're all familiar with that one. Similarly, the
[14:50] Speaker 1: Hittites of Anatolia allowed beneficial magic for healing, but cursed
[14:56] Speaker 1: those who used magic to harm others. Ancient lawmakers thus
[15:01] Speaker 1: walked a pretty fine line, acknowledging some magic as legitimate,
[15:06] Speaker 1: while outlawing others as the malicious variety. All a matter
[15:11] Speaker 1: of perspective, I suppose. But what about the Greek city-states? Well,
[15:17] Speaker 1: they didn't have formal witchcraft acts, as in later European law.
[15:23] Speaker 1: But they did prosecute harmful magic under existing statutes, like
[15:28] Speaker 1: Poisoning or impiety. The line between a pharmacist and a poisoner.
[15:36] Speaker 1: By the way, the word pharmakon meant both drug and
[15:40] Speaker 1: spell in Greek, so that's interesting. Well, it's a very
[15:43] Speaker 1: thin line between the two of them. A vivid example
[15:49] Speaker 1: is the case of Theodorus of Lemnos, a woman in
[15:52] Speaker 1: the 4th century BC, Athens, who was known as a
[15:55] Speaker 1: folk healer. Well, to some she was known as a folk-healer,
[16:00] Speaker 1: to some she was known as a witch. She and
[16:03] Speaker 1: her family were tried, and it did not go their way.
[16:07] Speaker 1: They were executed, ostensibly for distributing potions and incantations. Believe
[16:15] Speaker 1: it or not, we have a surviving court record. An
[16:18] Speaker 1: orator reminds the jurors about Theorus, that filthy sorceress whom
[16:23] Speaker 1: you executed. her and all her family for her crimes.
[16:29] Speaker 1: Theodosius' case suggests that Athens considered harmful enchantments as a
[16:33] Speaker 1: capital offence, especially if they were seen as subverting religion
[16:37] Speaker 1: or morality. Likewise, anyone accused of using spells to damage crops,
[16:42] Speaker 1: beguile citizens or curse someone could be charged with impiety
[16:46] Speaker 1: or asebeia, as they called it, or even homicide if
[16:50] Speaker 1: deaths were involved. Now, in the Roman Republic, Laws explicitly
[16:57] Speaker 1: forbade malevolent magic. They were very serious about it. Early
[17:01] Speaker 1: evidence comes from the Twelve Tables of the 5th century BC,
[17:06] Speaker 1: Rome's foundational legal code. One provision outlawed the use of
[17:10] Speaker 1: spells to steal another's crops. Go like this. Whoever uses
[17:15] Speaker 1: incantations or magic acts to prevent another's grain from growing
[17:19] Speaker 1: shall be put to death, i.e. sacrificed to Ceres. This
[17:26] Speaker 1: law hints at an agrarian concern. Romans feared that a
[17:29] Speaker 1: sorcerer could blight fields or charm away the harvest. Another
[17:34] Speaker 1: part of the Twelve Tablets forbade malum carmen, an evil
[17:38] Speaker 1: chant or curse against others. But we see here that
[17:43] Speaker 1: the idea that words themselves could be weapons deserving punishment
[17:48] Speaker 1: is certainly one that existed in ancient Rome too. And
[17:53] Speaker 1: so has Rome expanded, as did their laws. And as
[17:57] Speaker 1: the laws expanded, so did those on magic. By the
[18:01] Speaker 1: late Republic, the first century BC, accusations of beneficium, a
[18:06] Speaker 1: term covering poisoning and sorcery, were not uncommon. In 81 BC,
[18:12] Speaker 1: the dictator Sulla passed a law that targeted assassins and poisoners,
[18:18] Speaker 1: which also encompassed harmful magicians. Under this law, Those who
[18:25] Speaker 1: used enchantments or brewed deadly potions could face either exile
[18:30] Speaker 1: or execution. The Romans, as practical as ever, lumped witchcraft
[18:35] Speaker 1: with murder. If you killed or harmed someone by occult means,
[18:39] Speaker 1: you were as guilty as if you had just walked
[18:42] Speaker 1: up and stabbed them in the head. But interestingly, the
[18:47] Speaker 1: Roman Republic's fear of magic sometimes left to mass hysteria.
[18:52] Speaker 1: Libby relates episodes in 331 BC and 184 BC, where
[18:58] Speaker 1: hundreds of people, mostly women, by the way, were executed
[19:03] Speaker 1: or punished for allegedly poisoning or bewitching other citizens during
[19:07] Speaker 1: times of plague. These events resemble witch hunts, sure, though
[19:14] Speaker 1: couched in terms of rooting out the poisoners. It shows
[19:18] Speaker 1: that although in crises, Romans readily suspected supernatural foul play.
[19:25] Speaker 1: The Celtic societies, well, they didn't leave written law codes,
[19:30] Speaker 1: rather unfortunate, just like the Druids not leaving their records.
[19:34] Speaker 1: But Roman reports, when they encountered them, implied that the
[19:38] Speaker 1: Druids had authority to judge and punish within their tribes,
[19:43] Speaker 1: perhaps including cases of harmful sorcery. But ironically, It was
[19:48] Speaker 1: the Romans themselves. who eventually criminalized druidic practices. During the
[19:54] Speaker 1: early empire, emperors like Tiberius and Claudius simply banned the druids,
[20:01] Speaker 1: partly because of their use of human sacrifice and the
[20:04] Speaker 1: perceived magical influence over the people. While this occurred after
[20:10] Speaker 1: the Republican era, it does give us a pattern. The
[20:14] Speaker 1: ruling powers often outlawed rival religious magical practitioners to consolidate authority.
[20:19] Speaker 1: For the Celts, under their own rule, magic was not
[20:23] Speaker 1: so much a crime, just a sacred duty of the priesthood.
[20:28] Speaker 1: Unless it was used treacherously, of course. That's where we
[20:31] Speaker 1: draw the line between self-interested magic and Irish mythic lore.
[20:37] Speaker 1: and I say mythic lore, we hear of druid curses
[20:42] Speaker 1: laid upon oath-breakers, suggesting that using magic against one's community
[20:48] Speaker 1: was condemned. So across these cultures, then, don't you see
[20:54] Speaker 1: a common thread? Magic became illegal when it threatened lives
[20:59] Speaker 1: or social order. As far as divinatory or protective magic,
[21:05] Speaker 1: that might be tolerated. But if someone was suspected of
[21:09] Speaker 1: cursing neighbours, murdering by spells, or undermining state religion, the
[21:16] Speaker 1: law would come down with a heavy hand. These ancient
[21:20] Speaker 1: anti-witchcraft measures remind us that the fear of dark magic
[21:26] Speaker 1: and the impulse to prosecute it is far from a
[21:29] Speaker 1: modern invention, deeply rooted in our ancient past. So, who
[21:39] Speaker 1: really had control? The witches? The priests? Or the magicians?
[21:47] Speaker 1: Who were the practitioners of magic and witchcraft in the
[21:50] Speaker 1: ancient world? That's far from a single stereotype. They ranged
[21:55] Speaker 1: from respected temple priests to wandering charm sellers, and even
[22:00] Speaker 1: on the extreme end, feared sorceresses. Each culture had its
[22:06] Speaker 1: own terminology and hierarchy of magical workers. In Mesopotamia, the
[22:11] Speaker 1: chief practitioners were professional classes often affiliated with the temples themselves.
[22:17] Speaker 1: The Asipu, which we've mentioned, were essentially a wizard-priest dual class,
[22:24] Speaker 1: educated in ritual texts to diagnose spiritual afflictions and perform
[22:30] Speaker 1: exorcisms of demons. If a Babylonian, heaven forbid, had a
[22:35] Speaker 1: nightmare of a demon, an Asipu would be summoned to
[22:38] Speaker 1: recite the appropriate incantation and burn offerings to banish the
[22:43] Speaker 1: evil away. But on the other hand, we have the Baru, diviners,
[22:50] Speaker 1: who inspected animal livers or watched celestial omens to predict
[22:53] Speaker 1: the future. A pretty accepted science of the time. And
[22:59] Speaker 1: then there were the unnamed witchers, In Akkadian, though, we
[23:02] Speaker 1: have the word kishbu, who are believed to cause illness
[23:07] Speaker 1: and misfortune by secret spells. Ironically, no texts from Mesopotamia
[23:13] Speaker 1: claim to be written by a self-identified witch. Which survives?
[23:18] Speaker 1: What does survive are the counter spells by the exorcists,
[23:21] Speaker 1: which is still pretty awesome that we have that anyway,
[23:24] Speaker 1: especially so long ago. Just take a moment to appreciate that.
[23:30] Speaker 1: But this tells us that the official magicians saw themselves
[23:32] Speaker 1: as combating an illicit counterpart. Of course, that means that
[23:37] Speaker 1: that counterpart must have existed. The Maklu ritual mentioned earlier
[23:43] Speaker 1: even concludes the burning of clay or wax figurines to
[23:46] Speaker 1: represent the sorcerer, indicating how real the threat of witches
[23:51] Speaker 1: was to Mesopotamians. In Egypt, on the other hand, the
[23:56] Speaker 1: line between the priest and the magician was extremely thin.
[24:02] Speaker 1: Egyptian priests in charge of temple rituals also compiled and
[24:06] Speaker 1: copied magical texts for broader use. For instance, just one example,
[24:11] Speaker 1: the priesthood of Heliopolis Heliopolis meaning City of the Sun,
[24:15] Speaker 1: by the way, produced guides for warding off dangers like
[24:19] Speaker 1: snake bites and miscarriages, invoking gods such as Doth and Dysus.
[24:25] Speaker 1: Egyptians also had lay magicians, often learned scribes who could
[24:29] Speaker 1: be hired to produce spells for clients. The Westgar Papyrus,
[24:34] Speaker 1: an Egyptian story collection, recounts how a magician named Deddy
[24:40] Speaker 1: entertained the Pharaoh Khufu by beheading and restoring alive goons.
[24:46] Speaker 1: An example of wonder-working at the royal court. I'm sure
[24:50] Speaker 1: that would have been very entertaining. Another tale speaks of
[24:54] Speaker 1: Prince Kamwaset, the historical son of Ramesses II, later mythologized,
[25:00] Speaker 1: who combats a powerful sorcerer to protect the pharaoh. These
[25:05] Speaker 1: stories mirror societal roles. They were called magicians, healer magicians,
[25:13] Speaker 1: and likely a wise woman, or local witch figures as well. Indeed,
[25:21] Speaker 1: Egyptian language has terms like Heka Netjer, God's magic, for
[25:26] Speaker 1: sanctioned power, and Akkaru, for malevolent sorcerer or supernatural being.
[25:33] Speaker 1: So we know that there is a distinction. The fact
[25:36] Speaker 1: that pharaohs themselves were considered to embody magic, they were
[25:39] Speaker 1: called Hekau, masters of magic, meant that in Egypt, magic
[25:45] Speaker 1: was often top-down. A pharaoh might have magicians on staff,
[25:51] Speaker 1: just as he had physicians, gardeners, cooks, and everything else.
[25:56] Speaker 1: If a conspiracy arose, as with the Harem conspiracy against
[26:00] Speaker 1: Rameses III, even those plotters sought out magicians. The Pyre
[26:05] Speaker 1: from the trial revealed that they included magical spells and
[26:09] Speaker 1: wax figurines, a pretty common trend. They used these to
[26:13] Speaker 1: incapacitate guards and aid their treason. Thus in Egypt, One
[26:19] Speaker 1: finds magic in the highest and lowest orders of society,
[26:23] Speaker 1: from divine ruler to scheming assassin, all employing the same
[26:29] Speaker 1: occult forces. But the Greco-Roman world, they distinguish between religious
[26:35] Speaker 1: experts and sorcerers. Though sometimes the same person could wear
[26:40] Speaker 1: both hats, the most esteemed magical practitioners in Greek society
[26:45] Speaker 1: were the oracles and seers. We've already heard about the
[26:48] Speaker 1: Oracle of Delphi. She's a prime example. The Pythia was
[26:53] Speaker 1: not viewed as a witch, so to speak, but more
[26:56] Speaker 1: of a holy mouthpiece for Apollo. Similarly, the seers, Mantaeus,
[27:04] Speaker 1: accompanied armies to read omens from bird flags or sacrificial entrails.
[27:09] Speaker 1: These diviners held honoured positions. Another respected group with a
[27:14] Speaker 1: mystical aura were the philosophers like Pythagoras and his followers.
[27:19] Speaker 1: The Pythagoreans engaged in plenty of esoteric practices, observing strict
[27:24] Speaker 1: purification rites, studying numerical mysticism and believing in the transmigration
[27:30] Speaker 1: of souls. While they pursued what we'd call philosophy and science,
[27:36] Speaker 1: ancient writers also ascribed miracles to Pythagoras himself. Aristotle, for example,
[27:43] Speaker 1: called Pythagoras a wonder-worker, noting legends that he had a
[27:48] Speaker 1: golden thigh, and he could show up in two places
[27:52] Speaker 1: at once. Later stories claim Pythagoras tamed a deadly bear
[27:58] Speaker 1: with a whisper, and was even greeted as a divine
[28:03] Speaker 1: being by a river. Such tales, well, maybe they were
[28:09] Speaker 1: a little fanciful. But they show that Pythagoras was remembered
[28:13] Speaker 1: not just as a mathematician, but as a semi-magical sage.
[28:19] Speaker 1: Perhaps he was a mathemagician, new word coined on this channel. Well,
[28:27] Speaker 1: the Pythagoreans as a group kept their teachings pretty secret,
[28:30] Speaker 1: prompting some contemporaries to view them with suspicion, akin to
[28:34] Speaker 1: a cult wielding magical power. And we all know how
[28:37] Speaker 1: we have to deal with cults. scary people. Another famous
[28:43] Speaker 1: category of practitioner was the magi of Persia. In fact,
[28:48] Speaker 1: the very word magic in Greek, magia, derives from the magi.
[28:54] Speaker 1: These were the priestly caste of the Persian Empire, experts
[28:58] Speaker 1: in rituals and astrology. Herodotus notes that no Persian sacrifice
[29:02] Speaker 1: was considered valid unless a magi was present to chant
[29:07] Speaker 1: the prayers. they were revered in their own land as
[29:12] Speaker 1: holy men, serving their god Ahura Mazda. But to the Greeks,
[29:18] Speaker 1: their foreign wisdom carried an aura of mystery. Only Greek
[29:24] Speaker 1: writers used Magia to describe the secret arts they imagined
[29:29] Speaker 1: the Persian magi possessed. Firmly linking Persia with arcane knowledge,
[29:35] Speaker 1: the legends further enhanced their repute as master sorcerers from
[29:38] Speaker 1: the East, but in reality it was a little bit
[29:42] Speaker 1: more boring I think they're more akin to learned priests
[29:47] Speaker 1: and dreamed interpreters at the Achaemenid court and they knew
[29:51] Speaker 1: quite a lot about astrology too their influence on the
[29:55] Speaker 1: Greek imagination of what is magic is nonetheless pretty profound.
[30:02] Speaker 1: Alongside these high-status practitioners were the more maligned figures, like
[30:06] Speaker 1: the Goets and Pharmakeas of Greece, and the Sage and
[30:11] Speaker 1: Strege witches of Rome. A Goet, in Greek, literally, whaler,
[30:18] Speaker 1: originally meant a mourning singer. That is, mourning with an O-U.
[30:25] Speaker 1: But it came to mean a magician who summons ghosts
[30:28] Speaker 1: or works necromancy, which is obviously not well received by everyone.
[30:34] Speaker 1: There were itinerant sorcerers, who might offer love potions, curses,
[30:39] Speaker 1: or spirit communications, albeit for a reasonable fee. The pharmacus
[30:47] Speaker 1: was typically a woman skilled in herbs and potions, sometimes
[30:51] Speaker 1: a healer, sometimes accused of being a witch. In literature,
[30:56] Speaker 1: for instance, the poet Theocritus betrayed a sorceress named Symaitha,
[31:01] Speaker 1: using magic to draw her lover back, burning herbs in
[31:05] Speaker 1: a bull's liver while reciting spells. Real-life counterparts likely existed.
[31:11] Speaker 1: An inscription from Athens even curses a, quote, witch named
[31:15] Speaker 1: Anoia for causing somebody's afflictions. These freelance magicians provided services
[31:23] Speaker 1: that formal religion did not. Personal love spells, malicious curses,
[31:29] Speaker 1: or private divination. Products you can only get on the
[31:34] Speaker 1: magical black market, or the black magic market, certainly earns
[31:40] Speaker 1: them a shady reputation. Well, in Rome, the term saga
[31:46] Speaker 1: referred to a wise woman or a witch, depicted by
[31:50] Speaker 1: authors as old crones brewing up the foul concoctions, a
[31:54] Speaker 1: bit of a stereotype. Horace, in his De Satires, describes
[32:02] Speaker 1: two old hags, Candidia and Saganna, performing a nightmarish rite
[32:07] Speaker 1: in a graveyard, trying to extract a love potion from
[32:11] Speaker 1: a buried young boy. Such literary caricatures reflect Roman fears
[32:17] Speaker 1: of witches who practice the mixing of potions and poison, beneficium.
[32:23] Speaker 1: Yet Rome also had its share of professional astrologers and
[32:26] Speaker 1: foreign magicians in the cities. Chaldean astrologers from the East
[32:30] Speaker 1: were so popular that the Senate repeatedly expelled them in
[32:34] Speaker 1: the late Republic, and sometimes they were politically disruptive by
[32:39] Speaker 1: casting horoscopes of the powerful. Despite laws, Romans of all
[32:45] Speaker 1: classes consulted astrologers, or bought cursed tablets to influence the
[32:50] Speaker 1: chariot races and legal trials, sometimes seeking a witch's help
[32:54] Speaker 1: to concoct a love charm. As for the Celts, once again,
[33:01] Speaker 1: our information comes from outsiders, but it does suggest that druids, bards,
[33:05] Speaker 1: and seers, also called Vates, governed most spiritual needs, from
[33:10] Speaker 1: conducting sacrifices to divining omens and reciting lore. The druids
[33:16] Speaker 1: in particular were said to have knowledge of nature's secrets
[33:19] Speaker 1: and performed impressive feats. Denny the Elder famously describes the
[33:24] Speaker 1: druids harvesting mistletoe with a golden sickle, and sacrificing two
[33:28] Speaker 1: white bulls in a ceremony, believing the plant would make
[33:33] Speaker 1: sterile animals fertile, and serve as an antidote to poisons.
[33:39] Speaker 1: Celtic seers, like the Bandrui, female druids in Irish lore,
[33:44] Speaker 1: also appeared in legends. For example, the warrior queen, Boudica,
[33:48] Speaker 1: was said to have had a prophetess on her side,
[33:52] Speaker 1: and didn't call a druidess named Veleda, was revered as
[33:56] Speaker 1: a seer by her tribe under Roman rule. These accounts,
[34:01] Speaker 1: though tinged with Roman exoticism and sensibilities, portray the Celtic
[34:07] Speaker 1: magician-priest as a respected and feared person in equal measure.
[34:14] Speaker 1: In everyday terms, ancient magic practitioners could be as ordinary
[34:18] Speaker 1: as a village healer, or as eminent as a royal advisor.
[34:24] Speaker 1: They might be learned men in temples or marginal figures
[34:27] Speaker 1: on the fringes of society. What they shared was a
[34:31] Speaker 1: claim to special knowledge, omens, formulae and rituals that gave
[34:38] Speaker 1: them access to unseen powers. Whether society branded them as
[34:43] Speaker 1: esteemed wise men or dangerous old hags often depended on
[34:48] Speaker 1: the context. State-employed diviners or priests enjoyed prestige. while the
[34:55] Speaker 1: unsanctioned spellcaster risked distrust or even prosecution. Well, we know
[35:05] Speaker 1: who they are. Why don't we talk about what they do?
[35:10] Speaker 1: The spells, the rituals, and the texts. In fact, one
[35:15] Speaker 1: of the most thrilling aspects of Looking into all these
[35:19] Speaker 1: ancient magic practices is reading the actual spells and recipes
[35:25] Speaker 1: that have survived. And we got quite a few of them.
[35:30] Speaker 1: They pull back the curtain on what these magicians did
[35:34] Speaker 1: and said, written on the clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, lead sheets,
[35:39] Speaker 1: and sometimes stone inscriptions. We can make a little bit
[35:43] Speaker 1: of contact with the hopes and fears of people a
[35:46] Speaker 1: millennia ago. Let's start with the Mesopotamian incantations. Thanks to
[35:53] Speaker 1: the thousands of cuneiform tablets, we have a rich corpus
[35:56] Speaker 1: of Mesopotamian magic literature. Though, as noted, they're mostly anti-witchcraft
[36:03] Speaker 1: or healing spells. We don't have any how-to manuals for
[36:08] Speaker 1: witches themselves, at least not yet. May I remind you
[36:13] Speaker 1: that cuneiform tablets, we've discovered thousands of them, thousands and thousands.
[36:19] Speaker 1: But there's probably tens of thousands still underground. It's yet
[36:25] Speaker 1: to dig them up. The incantations often begin by invoking
[36:31] Speaker 1: high gods and naming the evil to be dispelled. A
[36:34] Speaker 1: typical Babylonian incantation against illness might start, O Marduk, great
[36:39] Speaker 1: son of A, your servant is afflicted by a baneful curse,
[36:44] Speaker 1: and proceed to command the evil spirit to leave. The
[36:47] Speaker 1: language is repetitive. and sonorous, intended to be chanted. You'll
[36:52] Speaker 1: find this in a lot of other Mesopotamian literature too.
[36:56] Speaker 1: They'll often say things several times in a row. Sometimes
[37:00] Speaker 1: the Egyptians will do this, but it's really common in
[37:02] Speaker 1: Mesopotamian stuff. For instance, an incantation to cure fever addresses
[37:09] Speaker 1: the fever demon directly, threatening it with divine wrath if
[37:13] Speaker 1: it stays. We also have ritual instructions. The Marklu series
[37:19] Speaker 1: details how figurines of the witch should be burned and buried,
[37:23] Speaker 1: while the priest recites incantations. Another set of decks, the
[37:29] Speaker 1: Surbu series, lists certain sins that might cause curses and
[37:33] Speaker 1: their remedies. Through these, we learn that a Mesopotamian spell,
[37:39] Speaker 1: if we're going to call it that way, is half
[37:42] Speaker 1: a prayer and half a command quite often. calling on
[37:47] Speaker 1: gods like Shamash, A, Asaluhi, to stand as judges and
[37:53] Speaker 1: executioners against a supernatural culprit. And then, of course, we
[37:59] Speaker 1: have Egypt. We can't go past them. Ancient Egyptian magic
[38:04] Speaker 1: was recorded in various forms, from the monumental pyramid texts
[38:09] Speaker 1: and temple inscriptions to the personal, that being papyrus minos
[38:14] Speaker 1: and ostraca. The coffin texts in later Book of the
[38:19] Speaker 1: Dead are compilations of spells, especially for the afterlife. One
[38:23] Speaker 1: famous spell, that being 125 in the Book of the Dead,
[38:27] Speaker 1: is a negative confession. But the deceased declares that they
[38:32] Speaker 1: have not committed various sins. While not a spell in
[38:37] Speaker 1: a casting sense, it was believed that these words had
[38:40] Speaker 1: power to justify the soul before the gods. On the
[38:44] Speaker 1: more practical side, We have papyri like the London-laden magical papyrus,
[38:50] Speaker 1: and papyrus harris, of course named after their universities or discoverers,
[38:56] Speaker 1: which contain dozens of spells for daily needs. Love charms,
[39:00] Speaker 1: protection of mother and child, healing bites, etc. Practical things.
[39:07] Speaker 1: A pretty good example is an Egyptian spell against hangovers,
[39:11] Speaker 1: believe it or not. It hails the beer goddess and
[39:15] Speaker 1: includes the line, truly effective, proven a million times, to
[39:21] Speaker 1: assure the user of its potency. I love this. It's
[39:25] Speaker 1: sort of like it's trying to sell itself as a
[39:28] Speaker 1: miracle cure. Another is a remedy for a fish bone
[39:32] Speaker 1: stuck in the throat. The magician would recite, The unique
[39:37] Speaker 1: one creator is my servant. My bread is in the town.
[39:41] Speaker 1: My beer is in the field. Bone be gone. Bone
[39:44] Speaker 1: be gone. Bone be gone. Now that would be a
[39:50] Speaker 1: good name for the product. Well, you're then meant to
[39:55] Speaker 1: have a little cake and swallow it, and the cake
[39:59] Speaker 1: is meant to take the fish bone down with it.
[40:02] Speaker 1: That is the theory. It's probably more the cake doing
[40:06] Speaker 1: the heavy lifting than the spell itself. Well, we even
[40:11] Speaker 1: find a spell for protecting books. an inscription threatening dire
[40:15] Speaker 1: curses on anyone who steals or damages the magical book
[40:19] Speaker 1: of a sorcerer. It warns that any violator will lose
[40:24] Speaker 1: their burial, their afterlife offerings, and even their name on earth.
[40:29] Speaker 1: It shows that magicians safeguarded their own spell collections with
[40:35] Speaker 1: spells on top of that. In fact, the magical texts
[40:40] Speaker 1: from Egypt often mix myth with command too. A healing
[40:45] Speaker 1: spell might recount how the god Horus was healed of
[40:48] Speaker 1: a scorpion sting by Isis, then declare that likewise, O poison,
[40:54] Speaker 1: come out of so-and-so, by the power of that myth.
[40:58] Speaker 1: Re-enacting these divine stories, the magicians would attempt to harness
[41:02] Speaker 1: the same power. And many Egyptian spells were spoken over figurines,
[41:08] Speaker 1: amulets or potions. We still have recipes like instructions. to
[41:13] Speaker 1: inscribe certain hieroglyphic symbols on a strip of linen and
[41:17] Speaker 1: tie it around a patient's head to cure a headache,
[41:20] Speaker 1: as in a spell invoking Isis and Nephthys for Horus's migraine.
[41:26] Speaker 1: All these give us an intimate glimpse of Egyptian belief
[41:29] Speaker 1: that correctly spoken words, often in combination with ritual actions,
[41:35] Speaker 1: could have a pretty good influence on reality. And what
[41:40] Speaker 1: of the Greeks? They had their own magical papyri and
[41:43] Speaker 1: curse tablets. Perhaps the most eclectic trove of spells comes
[41:48] Speaker 1: from the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri, a collection of texts mostly
[41:53] Speaker 1: from the 2nd century to the 5th century, that being
[41:57] Speaker 1: 2nd century BC to 5th AD, written in Greek and
[42:01] Speaker 1: bits of Egyptian and Demotic. These papyri were essentially the
[42:08] Speaker 1: handbooks of practicing magicians, They contain everything from invocations to Egyptian, Greek,
[42:16] Speaker 1: and Jewish deities to spells for love, subjugation of enemies,
[42:22] Speaker 1: gaining luck, and summoning spirits. And they show a fascinating syncretism.
[42:26] Speaker 1: A single spell might call on Zeus, Helios, Serapis in
[42:31] Speaker 1: one breath. For example, a love spell might begin by
[42:35] Speaker 1: invoking the jackal-headed god Anubis, whose some arcane, barbarous names
[42:41] Speaker 1: strings of mysterious words thought to compel spirits, then state
[42:46] Speaker 1: the magician's intent on brutal clarity. One such spell by
[42:52] Speaker 1: a woman named Sophia calls on a, quote, fire-breathing corpse demon,
[42:58] Speaker 1: hell yeah, to inflame the heart of a female target, Gorgonia,
[43:05] Speaker 1: and give her no peace until she returns Sophia's love.
[43:11] Speaker 1: The text reads, Burn, set on fire, inflame her soul, heart, liver, spirit,
[43:17] Speaker 1: with love for Sophia, drive Gorgonia, torment her body, night
[43:22] Speaker 1: and day, not letting her rest until she loves Sophia,
[43:26] Speaker 1: giving herself and all her possessions, because this is the
[43:30] Speaker 1: command of the great God. The intensity of this spell
[43:35] Speaker 1: is pretty palpable. It was written on a lead tablet.
[43:39] Speaker 1: to be placed in the bathhouse where the victim would frequent,
[43:42] Speaker 1: hoping the demon would find a place to enter her there.
[43:47] Speaker 1: Greek curse tablets are another primary source, and they're pretty interesting.
[43:54] Speaker 1: These are typically thin sheets of lead inscribed with curses,
[43:58] Speaker 1: then buried in graves, wells, or nailed to temple walls,
[44:02] Speaker 1: or put Nailed to Devil Walls, rather, to put the
[44:07] Speaker 1: spell into effect. Excuse me. Thousands have been found, from
[44:12] Speaker 1: Athens to Rome, all the way to Britain. Usually they
[44:17] Speaker 1: start with a formula, like, I bind whatever name, and
[44:22] Speaker 1: go on to wish misfortune on the target unless some
[44:24] Speaker 1: condition is met. For instance, a 4th century curse tablet
[44:28] Speaker 1: from Athens, aimed at a resentful ex-lover, says, may he
[44:34] Speaker 1: not be able to sleep or eat until he takes
[44:37] Speaker 1: me back. In the city of Kyrene, one tablet even
[44:42] Speaker 1: curses a figure in the legal case, quote, bind the
[44:46] Speaker 1: tongue and thoughts of so-and-so, so he cannot testify against me.
[44:52] Speaker 1: These show the practical side of magic. People trying to
[44:55] Speaker 1: get an edge in love, romantic affairs, or lawsuits, or
[45:00] Speaker 1: even just business by supernatural means, On the flip side,
[45:04] Speaker 1: there were also protective spells inscribed on amulets. Greek and
[45:08] Speaker 1: Roman amulets, often gemstones rolled gold leafs in lockets, might
[45:15] Speaker 1: bear images of gods or words like abracadabra, which actually
[45:19] Speaker 1: first appears in the Roman world, by the way, to
[45:22] Speaker 1: ward off illness in the evil eye. And then there's
[45:27] Speaker 1: the Celtic charms and later records. Direct texts from ancient
[45:32] Speaker 1: Celts are pretty scarce, of course, due to our old traditions,
[45:34] Speaker 1: but a few tantalizing finds exist. The Lazak tablet from Gaul,
[45:40] Speaker 1: 1st century A.D., is a lengthy inscription in Gaulish that
[45:45] Speaker 1: appears to be a curse, or at least a legal
[45:48] Speaker 1: oath involving sorcery, possibly mentioning a sisterhood of witches. Another find,
[45:55] Speaker 1: the Chamalieris tablet, 1st century A.D., is a Gaulish language
[45:59] Speaker 1: prayer to the underworld gods for help. Essentially, a magical
[46:03] Speaker 1: petition for favour. While these Celtic texts are fragmentary, medieval
[46:09] Speaker 1: Irish manuscripts likely preserve old Celtic incantations in the stories
[46:14] Speaker 1: of saints and heroes. For example, charms for healing or
[46:19] Speaker 1: for protection in battle appear in the mythic tales. St.
[46:24] Speaker 1: Patrick's Lorica, or Breastplate Prayer, as pre-Christian parallels as a
[46:29] Speaker 1: protective chant. And the earlier mentioned Song of Ammergin, the
[46:35] Speaker 1: recorded later, probably echoes more Iron Age druidic poetic incantations.
[46:43] Speaker 1: It reads like a riddle of identification with nature's powers,
[46:47] Speaker 1: possibly to assert the speaker's magical dominance over the land.
[46:51] Speaker 1: And so by comparing these texts across cultures, we notice
[46:55] Speaker 1: both differences and common threads All involve spoken or written
[47:00] Speaker 1: words believed to carry power, whether imploring gods, commanding demons,
[47:05] Speaker 1: or binding people mystically. Many use symbolic actions alongside words,
[47:11] Speaker 1: the burning of effigies, mixing potions, burying documents, knotting cords,
[47:17] Speaker 1: things like this. But the goals are usually tangible. Heal
[47:22] Speaker 1: the sick, protect the home. defeat rivals, see the future,
[47:26] Speaker 1: hurt an enemy, win love, and so on. This utilitarian aspect,
[47:31] Speaker 1: magic as a tool to cope with life's uncertainties, try
[47:35] Speaker 1: and gain some control, well, that vividly emerges from the
[47:40] Speaker 1: spell texts. Moreover, the sources we discussed show a blending
[47:45] Speaker 1: of high theology and folk practice. A Babylonian exorcism might
[47:50] Speaker 1: quote a grand myth of Marduk versus Tiamat to add force.
[47:54] Speaker 1: an Egyptian spell might borrow the authority of Ra's secret name,
[47:59] Speaker 1: and a Greek magician might invoke Solomon alongside Hermes. If
[48:04] Speaker 1: it could help, you may as well add another person
[48:09] Speaker 1: to the mix, if they're going to provide anything of value.
[48:13] Speaker 1: Ancient magicians were eclectic, and their texts were a rich
[48:17] Speaker 1: stew of cultural influences. Crucially, such documents bring us the
[48:22] Speaker 1: voices of those who were not kings or famous philosophers,
[48:25] Speaker 1: but just everyday people, who were trying to wield a
[48:29] Speaker 1: bit of otherworldly power in their favour. If you want
[48:37] Speaker 1: to truly appreciate ancient magic, you must see how seamlessly
[48:42] Speaker 1: it blended into daily routine. Far from being an isolated
[48:46] Speaker 1: cult activity, it permeated the lives of ordinary people, in
[48:52] Speaker 1: overt and subtle ways. In the households of Mesopotamia and Egypt,
[48:58] Speaker 1: protective magic was everywhere. They placed clay demon masks or
[49:03] Speaker 1: figurines under the house foundations in rooms to ward off
[49:08] Speaker 1: evil spirits, for example, Pazuzu figurines to scare away Lamashtu,
[49:13] Speaker 1: a female demon who attacked infants. They hung amulets inscribed
[49:17] Speaker 1: with protective incantations, over cradles. Newborns and mothers were safeguarded
[49:24] Speaker 1: by spells and goddess figurines, kind of like those of Lamashtu,
[49:29] Speaker 1: not as a demon, but as an apotropaic image. And
[49:34] Speaker 1: in Egypt's Family kept little ivory wands or magic knives
[49:40] Speaker 1: carved with deities and symbols, drawing a protective circle around
[49:45] Speaker 1: a mother and child at childbirth. These objects were the
[49:50] Speaker 1: standard kit of life, as normal as having a doctor's
[49:54] Speaker 1: tonic on hand, a first-aid box in the bathroom, this
[49:58] Speaker 1: kind of thing. When illness struck, that's when you really
[50:03] Speaker 1: needed magic. and they first turned to magic healing, before
[50:09] Speaker 1: they went to practical remedies a lot of the time.
[50:11] Speaker 1: An Assyrian with a mysterious sickness might suspect a curse,
[50:18] Speaker 1: so an Asibu would perform a ritual in the home.
[50:22] Speaker 1: This involved incense, libations, and recitations to expel the affliction.
[50:28] Speaker 1: The patient might wear a charm afterwards inscribed with the
[50:30] Speaker 1: divine figure, and a snippet of the spell for continued protection.
[50:36] Speaker 1: Egyptians famously integrated magic into medicine. The Eberus Papyrus from
[50:41] Speaker 1: 1550 BC is a medical text containing dozens of spells
[50:45] Speaker 1: to be set while applying treatments. For example, a remedy
[50:50] Speaker 1: for asthma says to breathe in a mixture of herbs
[50:54] Speaker 1: while an incantation is spoken to the seven divine cobras
[50:58] Speaker 1: to open the bronchial tubes. The logic was pretty holistic.
[51:04] Speaker 1: physical and spiritual aspects treated alongside each other. In the
[51:10] Speaker 1: workplace and economy, magic also had a role. Miners in
[51:15] Speaker 1: Roman Egypt invoked Bess, a protective deity, to safeguard them
[51:20] Speaker 1: in the dangerous mines. Merchants might wear a mercury amulet
[51:25] Speaker 1: for luck and eloquence in trade. Farmers in all cultures
[51:29] Speaker 1: practice a kind of low magic, uttering blessings over seeds.
[51:34] Speaker 1: using scarecrows or figurines with apotropaic markings in the fields,
[51:40] Speaker 1: and performing little rituals to encourage rainfall. And at the
[51:46] Speaker 1: same time, they feared the evil eye, the idea that
[51:51] Speaker 1: envy or ill will could cause real harm to their
[51:54] Speaker 1: livestock or children. To counter this, people in Greece and
[51:58] Speaker 1: Rome wore eye-shaped pendants or phallic charms. to divert the
[52:03] Speaker 1: malign glance. Pliny the Elder records that even Roman generals
[52:09] Speaker 1: would have a phallic amulet hung on their triumphant chariot
[52:12] Speaker 1: to ward off the envy of the onlookers. Love and
[52:17] Speaker 1: family life offered prime occasions for magical help, too. Throughout
[52:21] Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, individuals resorted to love spells and erotic magic
[52:27] Speaker 1: to either attract a desired partner or rekindle an old passion.
[52:32] Speaker 1: We find Egyptian love spells promising to ignite the heart
[52:36] Speaker 1: of a woman like a torch. And then we have
[52:40] Speaker 1: Greek binding spells, intended to prevent a rival from consummating
[52:45] Speaker 1: a marriage. In a way, these are ancient counterparts to
[52:49] Speaker 1: love potions in fairy tales when you think about it.
[52:53] Speaker 1: Sometimes they were benign, where a charm of two love
[52:56] Speaker 1: gods embracing, other times pretty cruel, curse a suitor to
[53:00] Speaker 1: lose his virility. Fertility magic was another common need. Barren
[53:06] Speaker 1: couples in Mesopotamia might seek a charm or plea to
[53:10] Speaker 1: Ishtar for a child. Celtic lore suggests rituals involving holy
[53:14] Speaker 1: wells and special herbs to promote conception. Divination was a
[53:19] Speaker 1: routine practice for many, not just kings. A Babylonian businessman
[53:25] Speaker 1: might consult a diviner on which way to start a journey,
[53:29] Speaker 1: watching the pattern of oil drops in water for an omen.
[53:33] Speaker 1: A Roman might cast lots by shaking marked sticks or
[53:37] Speaker 1: bones in a container and interpreting how they fell. In
[53:42] Speaker 1: the European Celtic world, simple methods like listening to the
[53:46] Speaker 1: fall of acorns or the shapes of clouds were employed
[53:48] Speaker 1: on holy days to get a few hints about the future.
[53:52] Speaker 1: Dream interpretation, too, was a democratic form of divination. Manuals
[53:58] Speaker 1: for interpreting dreams existed in Egypt and Assyria. so that
[54:03] Speaker 1: anyone could look up what seeking a snake or flood
[54:08] Speaker 1: in a dream actually meant. Magic was also present in
[54:12] Speaker 1: legal and political spheres, albeit somewhat covertly. We have letters
[54:18] Speaker 1: from ancient Mesopotamia, where officials accuse each other of employing
[54:22] Speaker 1: witches or curses in court intrigues. In Rome, electoral candidates
[54:28] Speaker 1: occasionally were rumoured to use sorcery to eliminate opponents or
[54:31] Speaker 1: win favour, For instance, by enchanting the populace. This was,
[54:37] Speaker 1: of course, frowned upon. It's not the typical way of
[54:40] Speaker 1: winning elections. But the fact that rumours existed speaks to
[54:45] Speaker 1: how people thought magic could influence even state affairs. And finally,
[54:51] Speaker 1: death and the quest for an afterlife were certainly as
[54:54] Speaker 1: drenched in magic as anything else. Nowhere is this more
[54:59] Speaker 1: clear than in ancient Egypt. where every tomb was effectively
[55:03] Speaker 1: a fortress of magic spells. Mummies were interred with scrolls
[55:08] Speaker 1: or walls painted with spells to guide their soul. Amulets,
[55:12] Speaker 1: such as scarabs placed over the heart, were inscribed with
[55:15] Speaker 1: spell 30B from Book of the Dead, imploring the heart
[55:19] Speaker 1: not to betray the ceased doing judgment. In Mesopotamia, although
[55:25] Speaker 1: afterlife beliefs were more bleak, families still placed plaques and
[55:29] Speaker 1: figurines in tombs to protect the dead from hungry ghosts
[55:32] Speaker 1: or demons below. The living might pour libations and recite
[55:37] Speaker 1: incantations on certain days to soothe ancestral spirits. Essentially, magic
[55:43] Speaker 1: to maintain harmony between two worlds. Greeks and Romans, too,
[55:48] Speaker 1: had gravesite spells. Cursed tablets show up in graves, not
[55:54] Speaker 1: just to harm the dead, but who often enlist the
[55:57] Speaker 1: dead spirit to carry out a curse, the logic being
[56:00] Speaker 1: that a restless ghost might be persuaded to coerce or
[56:04] Speaker 1: haunt somebody. But on a gentler note, the Orphic tradition
[56:09] Speaker 1: gave us the gold tablets buried with initiates, tiny gold
[56:13] Speaker 1: leaves etched with the instructions for the soul in Hades.
[56:18] Speaker 1: Say to Persephone that Bacchus himself released you. A secret passphrase.
[56:25] Speaker 1: for a blessed afterlife? What is it, if not a
[56:30] Speaker 1: kind of magic password for eternity? Through these myriad examples,
[56:37] Speaker 1: we see that magic was a daily resource, a lifelong
[56:41] Speaker 1: companion for the ancients. And when facing the great unknown
[56:45] Speaker 1: of death, magic promised some agency, spells to light the
[56:50] Speaker 1: way in the dark mysteries beyond. from prehistoric shamans to
[56:58] Speaker 1: the cusp of the Roman Empire, the tapestry of ancient
[57:02] Speaker 1: magic and witchcraft is one of astonishing diversity. We've seen
[57:07] Speaker 1: how Mesopotamian exorcists, Egyptian priests, Greek oracles, Roman wise women,
[57:14] Speaker 1: and even Celtic druids, all sought to tap into the
[57:18] Speaker 1: ancient unseen forces, whether sanctioned by the gods or in
[57:23] Speaker 1: defiance of social norms. To the ancients, the world was
[57:27] Speaker 1: alive with spirits, and magic was essentially the art of
[57:31] Speaker 1: negotiating with them, be they gods, ghosts, demons, or elemental powers.
[57:40] Speaker 1: One cannot help notice, but our primary sources, close to
[57:45] Speaker 1: the time, bring these practices to life best. A line
[57:49] Speaker 1: of Hammurabi scope exposes the Bronze Age fear of spells.
[57:54] Speaker 1: A Demosthenes speech throws light on a witch trial in
[57:58] Speaker 1: classical Athens, a lead curse tablet whispers the grudge of
[58:04] Speaker 1: a common Roman. Documents like this, which we've used today,
[58:10] Speaker 1: ground our understanding in real experience, rather than later imagination.
[58:17] Speaker 1: But still, the line between history and legend in ancient
[58:21] Speaker 1: magic is going to remain blurry. for those legends were believed.
[58:29] Speaker 1: When a Roman general believed a druid's prophecy, or an
[58:33] Speaker 1: Egyptian peasant inscribed a few hieroglyphs on a poster to
[58:38] Speaker 1: ward off harm, they acted on the same impulse, to
[58:43] Speaker 1: enlist the supernatural in the very tangible struggles of their
[58:47] Speaker 1: daily life. So in the end our journey through ancient
[58:51] Speaker 1: witchcraft and magic reveals a world that's not so alien
[58:54] Speaker 1: to our own The context and cosmologies differ, of course,
[58:58] Speaker 1: but the fundamental drivers— hope, fear, curiosity, the desire for control
[59:04] Speaker 1: over one's fate they're utterly human and timeless the academic
[59:10] Speaker 1: in us analyses the spells and the laws, sure but
[59:14] Speaker 1: the storyteller is fascinated and at times awed by the
[59:19] Speaker 1: creativity and daring of these early people and so our
[59:27] Speaker 1: time today comes to an end And as you leave
[59:31] Speaker 1: this video and return from the lamplit temples and the
[59:35] Speaker 1: old groves of our ancestors, consider how the legacy of
[59:39] Speaker 1: ancient magic lives on. In our languages, alchemy, magic, enchantment,
[59:46] Speaker 1: in our literature and fantasies, even in our subconscious, rituals
[59:50] Speaker 1: for luck and love are still there. We're not so
[59:54] Speaker 1: far removed from those Mesopotamian sorcerers and Celtic druids. crossing
[1:00:00] Speaker 1: our fingers behind our backs, hoping and praying. The ancient worlds,
[1:00:07] Speaker 1: witches and wizards, have cast a long spell across history,
[1:00:12] Speaker 1: and it still captivates us today. And with that being said,
[1:00:18] Speaker 1: I will cast a spell on you now. Like and
[1:00:22] Speaker 1: subscribe to the channel. I hope it worked. I am
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: going to thank the patrons and supporters of the channel. Dark, Kimberly, Christine, Sally, Hember, Susan, Cameron, Legitmus, Carrie, Charlene, Lynn, Therese, Katiana, Nicholas, Ulf, Adair, Alexander, Charles, Christine, Dr. Neuronerd, Erin, Jaden, Jim, Jeffrey, Jessica, Madeline, Melissa,
[1:00:52] Speaker 1: Orthodox Review, Scott, Star Factory, Thank you very much. And
[1:01:10] Speaker 1: I will see you on the next exciting episode. I
[1:01:13] Speaker 1: really hope you enjoyed this one. I really did enjoy
[1:01:17] Speaker 1: narrating it. There's going to be more to come. And
[1:01:21] Speaker 1: as always, lots of love to you all. Good night.

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