A Brief Primer on Ancient Egyptian Magick

I was an am still a practioner of Egyptian ritual Magick. When I was initiated by my Master Jero had me lay skyclad on a feather carpet in the dark. I had to discover who was making contact with me. I went into trance and got my answers
Three Gods came to my side which is the normal in Egyptian initiation.

Horus/Heru
Set/Sutekh
Bast/Bastet

In Egyptian magic the altar is very simple and spartan.a candle, statues of the Gods you work with and a blade.

To understand Egyptian magic

The Ka

The Ancient Egyptians have been historically known for their mortuary practices and customs world wide. The magnitude at which they were prepared for their afterlife was incredible. For the nearly 3000 years that Ancient Egypt reined, their burial customs grew more and more ornate.
The living would sometimes provide bread, beer, oxen and fowl to feed the ka for the afterlife. They also believed the deceased body would have to resemble the past living body as much as possible so the ka could recognize its body and then the ba would “return to it each night after spending time in the sunshine.”[18] The living would leave more than just food for the deceased if possible. They would also leave servants, weapons, jewelry, clothes, and their mummified pets, in their tomb—anything that would help them in their afterlife. The tombs would also house the Shabti [18,19] statues that represented servants who would help the owner of the tomb in the after life. “The backs of these figurines were inscribed with Chapter 6 of The Book of the Dead. This spell ensured that if the owner of the shabti was called upon at any time to do any kind of compulsory labour the shabti would respond and perform the duty instead of its owner.”[19] The tombs from the Age of the Pyramids would have inscriptions on the tomb that would read, “May this official be given a thousand loaves of bread, a thousand jugs of beer”, in hopes this prayer would be enough to feed the ka, if no offerings were available.[2]

The Ba

The ba, another spiritual entity was seen as a human-headed bird hovering over the deceased or exiting the tomb in the hieroglyphics, and was the part of the soul that could travel between the worlds of the living and the dead.[18,2] During the Age of the Pyramids, it was believed only the King had a ba. The word ba was similar to the word ‘ram’ and was associated with strength and power. In later periods of Egyptian history, it was believed every person had a ba.[18] The ba also required food to move and survive in the afterworld. There are images from Ramesside Books of the Dead that show the ba perched on the arm of the decease, or hugged to his body, like a pet parrot. The small pyramids built over the tomb chapels at Deir el Medina contained a little niche near the top, where the ba could perch, to watch the sunrise and to observe the goings-on in the village where it had lived.”[2]

The Akh

The akh, another spiritual entity which “was the transfigured spirit that survived death and mingled with the gods.”[18] One source explained that the akh was only allowed to individuals whose souls were worthy because they were good people in their past lives. Condemned criminals did not have proper burials and their real names were buried with them. So it was believed criminals could not survive in the Afterlife and the criminal could not become or have an akh.[2] “An akh is the blessed or ‘transfigured’ soul of a person who died and whose soul had been judged by Osiris and found maat kheru- justified. An akh was an effective spirit, one could still influence events in this world.”[2] The akh and ka were believed to need a preserved body and tomb in order to exist.

The Maat Kheru
Maat, the goddess of Truth, Justice and Balance [18] took the form of an ostrich feather. The final trial of the deceased would be to have his heart weighed against Maat. If the person had led a good and decent life, his heart would be in balance and he would pass into the Afterlife. But if the weight of his heart did not balance with Maat, a monster named the The Devourer consumed his heart. The heart was identified as “the seat of intelligence and moral judgement, as well as of emotions.”[2] The term Maat Kheru is identified with the party at the end of a civil trial that would be declared innocent and true, or ‘true of voice’ or ‘justified’.[2]

The magician should always call his Ka, and Ba to be with him or her in magical ritual. My guess is because magic happens on the astral and that’s where the Ka and Ba operate.

Lastly the magician should know to form a clay vessel with the markings of a bird. This symbolizes and houses his spiritual heart. After calling the Ka and Ba the magician then calls his heart and shows that he is blameless and true before maat ( Truth)

download (2)

The calling of the heart rite

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/12037163.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjqyq-zzff5AhXN9jgGHbSkBUIQFnoECA0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw37-MbDLFNRkc2tOGe9q_5u

E.A. Wallace Budge -

Of all the ceremonies, the most important was that of the
“ Opening of the Mouth and Eyes,

This can be done to a god statue to 8mb8e.it with life and cause it to “speak” to the practicioner.

This ceremony can and should be performed on the mouth and eyes of your Egyptian god statues. This wakes them.

” which
was performed either on the mummy itself or upon a
statue which represented it . It has already been stated
that the Egyptians beh aved that they coul d transmit
to a statue the attributes Of the person in whose image
it was made, and Similarly that that which was done to
the statue of the mummified person was also done to it .
The u se of a statue instead of the actual mummy has
Obvious advantages ,
for the ceremony could be per
formed a t any time and in any place, and the presence
of the mummy was unnecessary . As a matter of fact
the ceremony was performed in a chamber at the
entra nce to the tomb, or outside the tomb at a place
which had been made ceremonially pure or consecrated,
and tho se who took part i n it were The Kh er - h eb,
or chief Officiating priest, wh o held a roll of papyrus
in his hand . (
2) The Sem priest . (
3) The Smer, who
was, perhaps,
some intimate friend of the deceased.The S

a - mer - ef,

1

or man who was either the son o f

th e deceased or hi s representative . (
5) The Tchera u - u r,
or woman wh o represented Isis . (
6) The Tcher a u
shera u t,
or woman who represented Nephthys . (7) The
Menh u , or slaughterer. (
8) The A m- a si priest. (
9 ) The
A m- kheu t priest. (
1 0) A number of people wh o rep
re
sented the armed guard Of Horus . All these becam e
actors inscenes which were intended to represent the
events which took place in connexion with the burial
of Osiris, with whom the deceased is now identified ;
the two women took the parts of the goddesses Isis and
Nephthys , and the men those Of the gods who helped
them in the performance Of their pious duties . Fro m
the scenes
2 which accompany the texts
8 relating to
the ceremony of Opening the mouth and eyes we see
that it began with the sprinkling Of water round about
the statue or mummy from four vessels, one for each
quarter of the earth, and with the recital of addresses
to the gods Horus, Set, Thoth, and Sept ;
th is act
restored to the deceased the use of his head . The
sprinkling of water was followed by a purificatio n by
means Of incense, also contained in four vases, one for
each Of the four quarters of the Earth.

Finally Egyptian Magick

To craft ceremonies for 6our own purpose try this.

M to girlfriend at the time had a meddling girlfriend that wanted us to separate.

I called my Ka and Ba, called my heart, assumed the godform of Set and imagined smashing her to bits.

Within 12 hours she broke her arm in a car accident.

To understand Egyptian Magick you must under the concept of assuming a God form.

The technique known as Assumption of the Godform is among the most impressive, as well as challenging techniques in esotericism. A careful study of a chosen pantheon in depth is often required, along with the willingness to spend a great deal of time in extended meditation and devotion each of the pantheon’s deities. Yet, if done carefully and in a progressive and step-by-step manner, Assumption of the Godform can offer practical occultists insights into the depth and power of ancient cults, practices, and ideas that simply reading about them can not.

To do this study the positions of the body that the deity is normally pictured In. Emulate this while trancing and feeling deep love and admiration for the divinity.

Then vibrate the deities name over and over, imagine the deities image superimposed over yourself and identify with the deity.

That’s how it’s done my friends

There are Also plenty of spells you can try when you’ve mastered the basics. Egyptian talisman magic was an art and was Uber powerful as well.

Two Egyptian magicians jannes and Jambres had talismans that alowed them to. Visit the 7 kaballistic heavens. Thier amulets and talismans were so strong they soundly defeated the archangels.

Anyway any questions are welcome. I’m not an expert at Egyptian Magick but I am competent.

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Bookmarked. Thank you for another excellent guide :slight_smile:

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Excellent post! I find it interesting that they did not believe in the immortality of the Soul (although, I suppose this depends on the time period?). Among the Greeks, there was also various beliefs regarding the immortality of the Soul, but after Plato, it’s immortality was well established among the Greeks.

Very interesting post.

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The “assumption of the godform” strongly resembles a hypnotic technique called Deep Trance Identification, which is what method acting is based on. Definitely an immensely powerful tool for a magician; I will add that there are a lot more equally life-changing uses for it other than magick

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I never made that connection I’m my mind. Thank you for pointing that out, excellent insight.

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Some thoughts I had while reading:

  1. I would say a blade is not critical, but specific ones can be beneficial to have (such as a Pesesh-Kef knife for Opening of the Mouth rituals). Depending on the working a candle may also have pros and cons. Some gods, such as Bes and Tauret, were associated with public worship and such, out in the day, laid out in the home, etc. For these, light is not a problem at all. However, patron deities were kept in extreme darkness at the very back of the temple in the sanctuary. When working in such a context I would recommend only limited light, and natural if possible.

  2. While the afterlife beliefs are accurate of later Egypt, they do not so much resemble the older views and practices.

  3. I would add what the Ka is – which is argued to be either a vital essence or a divine double. I like to think of it as the Platonic Form of the individual.

  4. I would add that the Ba is what we would mainly associate with the soul today. It is inaccurate that only the king had a Ba, all people would have all the parts of the soul, the debate is more what happened to those parts of the soul. I would add that we should not confuse the fact that only the royalty had documentation for thousands of years with the belief that non-royalty did not share these beliefs.

  5. Later on it was only “worthy” people who could become/create and Akh, but we do not know this was always the case. It would perhaps be better to understand the Akh as the “deified self,” and while the Ka needed a body the Akh did not require one, which is why it was a good state of being to obtain. Akh means “to shine” and it dwelt among the stars.

  6. Other important aspects: khat (the body itself), Ren (the name), Shut/Khabit (shadow), Ib (ego/heart), Sahu (astral body/ghost).

  7. I would again note this describes a specific afterlife view with the weighing of the heart, though one that certainly stole the popular vote.

  8. The Ka and Ba are always within you while alive, or else you could not live (no Ka) and would not have a Self (Ba). They are just stuck in the material body. For astral-type work you may want to utilize the Sahu instead of Ba or, if even possible, Ka.

  9. There are a lot of alternatives to the clay vessel, some of my favorites include Ka-houses. Alternatively a scarab can be used, and even when someone could not be buried with their heart a scarab may replace it.

  10. Assuming godforms is certainly powerful magic, and definitely an important part of Egyptian practice. It is also important to have statues of the gods and bring them to in-dwell in their altars. This was the central ritual in the sanctuary of the average temple. It can be anything from simple meditation to full on purifying statues, putting out offerings, burning incense, performing the opening of the mouth, etc. I would note that incense not only please the gods, but they were actually thought to dwell within the incense, not just enjoy it.

Some other tips:

  1. Know a god’s associations and act accordingly, such as foods, constellations, etc.

  2. Make sure to keep statues of gods like Bes and Tauret around the home.

  3. Create an altar to the house patrons near your entrance.

  4. Create an ancestor niche somewhere in your house and treat it as any altar.

  5. Make sure to have a niche for your sole patron in a dark spot away from outside eyes.

  6. Burn incense, sage, keep clean, etc.

  7. Paint/create false doors in the home for the gods/spirits to come and go more easily.

  8. Minimize empty space on altars.

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@Dankquanicus the Egyptians did believe in immortal parts of the soul, though this sometimes had a catch.

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@anon75849095

I’m so rude and socially awkward, my first statement should have been well done and thank you!

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No problem, it’s nice to see someone actually appreciate this arm of the occult sciences. I’m definitely have not Mastered the Egyptian current by any stretch of the imagination .

I tried to write out here what I could from memory about come of the basics until someone else came along to flesh it out more.

I worked very closely with my 3, Heru, Sutekh, and Bastet. Brings back some good memories ( especially Bastet ).

Nice to meet you @Xepera_maSet

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I forgot the use of “wands” such as seen in the middle kingdom. They generally had fantastic or more aggressive animals on them, and were carried by priests like the lectors for protective and healing magic.

http://www.joanlansberry.com/setfind/knf-mid.html

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