THE DECLINE OF EGYPT

MAGIC EGYPTIAN

Magic and religion, although they have many similarities, are very different. The supernatural element is present in both magic and religion: each tries to deal with events beyond the laws of physics. We might call this parapsychology today. In religion, we call such events miracles. Magic is always goal-oriented; prayer or devotion, on the other hand, doesn't have to have a specific objective, because belief itself is sufficient. The difference between a magician and a priest is that the magician is the agent of change, while the priest is an intermediary. The Egyptians had plenty of both religion and magic. They had, for example, a goddess of magic, Heka. (Most of the gods associated with magic were women.) Isis, too, had magic capability, as in "She Who Knows Everyone's Name." Egyptians often had two names-one of them, public; the other known only by one's mother. There are three basic elements of magic. The spell, the spoken part of magic, has its own logic.

The spell obeyed certain principles. A critical precept was: the word is the deed. The ritual involves a physical performance, such as burning incense or drawing a protective circle-in this way it resembles theater. Some spells, for example, prevented one from being bitten by a scorpion at night. To enforce such spells, the Egyptians had magical wands made of bone or ivory to make a magic circle and complete the ritual. Magicians were heroic, because they controlled the forces of nature. There were priest magicians associated with traditional temples (in the Old Testament, pharaoh called for his priest magicians, or "scribes of the house of life") and lay magicians, especially in rural areas.

Magical practices varied considerably, depending on the desired goal. Egyptians were resurrectionists and viewed the next world as much like
this one, only better. They believed that labor would still be needed in the next world. Servant statues, called ushabtis ("I'm answering"), were intended to come to life in the next world and do work for the deceased. Some Egyptians buried 365 such statues, standing with arms crossed and inscribed with magical spells. Some ushabtis were made from the quartzite paste faience. Many ushabtis have magical spells from the Book of the Dead. (The sorcerer's apprentice scene from Disney's Fantasia recalls this.) For every ten ushabtis, there was an overseer who was not required to do manual labor.
Oracle statues could tell the future and were said to be capable of talking and deciding legal cases. One record tells of an oracle statue "solving" a crime. The most dominant form of magic in ancient Egypt was amulets, small ornaments worn for protection. The Egyptians had different amulets for the living and for the dead. The Eye of Horus amulet was worn for good health. Our pharmacists' Rx is a corruption of the Eye.
The scarab (beetle) was probably the most common amulet. It represented continued existence. (The Egyptians believed the scarab could procreate without both sexes being present.) Surprisingly, the ankh (a looped cross), which stood for life, was the rarest of all amulets.
The Djed Pillar amulet represented the backbone of Osiris and was primarily for the dead. Not only shape but also color and material were considerations in making amulets.