Magic in Ancient Egypt

Predictions in ancient Egypt were seen as a way to know the divine will , so that a person could live and act in accordance with his mission ^[2] . The most common way of predicting the future in ancient Egypt was through dream predictions. Dream predictions were taught in the temples of Heliopolis , where the high priest also had the title of "great seer." Often pharaoh gave honorary posts to the predictors he liked. For example, according to biblical legend, the pharaoh brought Joseph closer to him and made him the second person in the state.

Also an important aspect of ancient Egyptian magic was the challenge of any feelings in another person . In ancient Egypt, various love drinks were common ^[3] . During excavations, a description of an unusual spell dating back to the reign of the 20th dynasty (about 1100 BC) was found, in which the magician threatens the gods to destroy their temples if he does not fulfill his desire ^[4] :

In 2018, scientists at the University of Strasbourg, under the leadership of Korsha Dosu, decoded the Egyptian text (written in Coptic using the Greek alphabet ) over 1300 years old, in which a spell was written to create strong love bonds. These charms were hardly used as a means to make one person fall in love with another. Birds symbolizing lovers were called to reunite loving hearts to bypass the barriers. The papyrus also mentions exotic musk perfumes used to attract partners and the names of biblical heroes. Probably, the papyrus was part of a kind of "magic guide" containing various spells ^{[5] [6]} .

All sorts of curses were also common in ancient Egypt. All Egyptian tombs contain detailed descriptions of what will happen to a person who will be disturbed by a mummy located in the sarcophagus ^[7] .

From the court documents in the case of a conspiracy against Pharaoh Ramses III , the conspirators, led by Tsarevich Pentaur and his mother Tsariya Tiya, resorted to witchcraft, making “ magic scrolls for obstruction and intimidation ”, sculpted “ gods and people from wax to weaken bodies ” ^{[ 8] [9]} . The pentaur did not carry out punishment worthy of mummification and burial, which, according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, deprived him of the afterlife ^[10] .

The name (ren) for the ancient Egyptians was sacred and therefore they could have erased it in punishment, betraying it with a curse of memory . In the Amarna period, the curse of memory was cast by the pharaoh Akhenaten on the gods themselves, especially on Amon-Ra . After the death of this pharaoh, the subsequent rulers anathematized Akhenaten, abandoned his transformations and tried to destroy or usurp the buildings he erected ^[11] . The ritual destruction of a name implied the destruction of its owner. On the contrary, ignorance of the name deprived the sorcerer of the opportunity to perform a magical ritual. For serious crimes, the condemned could be deprived of their name and called a "bad name", as happened with the participants of the already mentioned "conspiracy in the harem" ^{[12] [13] [14]} .

• Heka - god of magic in Egyptian mythology
• Shezmetet - goddess of magic in Egyptian mythology
• Curse of the Pharaohs