Ancient Egyptian Magic: A Hands-on Guide

This is a great book, packed with interesting information and really well presented.

Book arrived in good time and in good condition. Well worth the read.

A lot of information I didn’t know inside this book, worth the money!

An amazing book very easy to read and is just perfect

Lovely book I really enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say it was a handbook to me but good reference to some information I didn’t have prior to reading.

Really good book

Excellent informative book

This little book makes some powerful claims if one is to believe the back cover. You can “learn how to summon spirits and speak to ghosts, craft an amulet to keep demons at bay, read the future in the stars, travel to the land of the dead and survive it.” The author calls this a ‘hands on guide’ but she does point out early on that it is “a light-hearted look at a serious subject.” Certainly the Egyptians were firm believers in magic and its powers and would not have treated the subjects covered as anything but deadly serious. Magic affected every aspect of life and death. Medicine and magic were interwoven and no distinction was made between them.This small volume is crammed with information on a wide range of magical lore and practice starting with the discovery of a box containing what appears to have been a magician’s kit of magical and mysterious objects and scrolls. The book then looks at the power of the word, including spells to be recited in case of illness or to protect from demons or evil occurrences, the complex realm of the dead and how to deal with them, through to the apotropaic use of amulets and the medical uses of herbs. Between its pages the reader encounters a huge collection of deities and animals, both real and mythical. Each had their magical role in Egyptian life. Lesser deities such as Bes and Taweret played an important role in the daily life of the ordinary people who were generally illiterate but would be very aware of the occult heka around them.Several of the animals represented in art were shown as partly human, usually with an animal head. Some were good and protective, others were to be feared. Some deities such as Sekhmet had dual personalities, while a creature known to Egyptologists as the Seth animal was generally evil in behaviour, and yet at certain periods, such as the Nineteenth Dynasty, and at certain locations such as the Delta, this dangerous animal became a respected deity. Supernatural beings oversaw many milestones in life from childbirth to death and the hazardous journey through the afterworld.Light-hearted the approach may be but the book contains a vast amount of information, bringing together an impressive array of sources. Use it as a mine of information – practical use of the spells and incantations, however, is not recommended!Review by ancientegyptmagazine dot com