The Positive Way to work with Egyptian Magic Akashically

Doing a deepish dive into what we need to unlearn about Ancient Egypt in order to unfold the amazing and unique skills and techniques of their healing and magic.

Transcript

The Positive Way to work with Egyptian Magic Akashically

"History is written by the victors." Quote attributed to Winston Churchill

There is so much which is amazing, powerful, enlightening and instigating about ancient Egypt. Seeing the preserved images on papyrus scrolls or the reconstruction of brilliant colors painted on columns, temple and pyramid walls, or the intricate ceremonies described in coffins fills the senses and stimulates both creativity and curiosity.

But to make any sense of it, to get to the practical, it requires us to back up a bit. Like dancing, we have to take two steps back and possibly one to the side before we can glide forward. To understand what Egyptian people meant by magic, how it existed in their culture, who used it and how, we must first have an understanding of Egypt and Egyptians. Which means we need to scrape the layers and layers of old, lead paint misinformation about them which has been layered onto us since childhood.

Because Ancient means Ancient but not Monolithic

We've all experienced someone saying, "All of X kind of people are like this or all of this group is like that." Today most everyone has learned the knee jerk cringe because the next thing someone will say is "Well, but except for..." or "Oh, no they're not!" or "What about ___??!!" Generalizations have many great uses not just in conversation, but in helping us see patterns, set expectations, create plans for the future and so on. But they can also lead to stereotypes, bigotry, and cultural appropriation.

Ancient Egyptian culture tends to be talked about, taught to children, and used in media as some monolithic stereotype similar to the stereotypes of all American's as fat and ignorant, all Australians as guzzling beer and wearing safari gear, or the French sneering at...well, everyone. What we actually have is evidence of a definable culture we have come to call Ancient Egypt existing for thousands of years, which means it probably existed for thousands of years prior to that and we just don't have anything which survived to present day to prove it.

What we do have shows Egypt's culture, spirituality, technology, fashion, economics and so on all growing, changing, and interacting with other cultures over a span of thousands of years. Therefore what is true in Pyramid texts is not necessarily true at the time of the Coffin texts, which changes at the time of the Book(s) of the Dead and on through to the time the Egyptians were finally conquered and became a tourist attraction for the Greeks and Romans.

So, to say Ancient Egypt was like this or like that, did this or that, believed this or that, is to selectively pick pieces out of an amazing and long-lasting tapestry. Luckily It's more complicated and richly better than any such generalization.

Othering and Orientalism

But where did this get started? Orientalism is defined as the West's patronizing representations of "The East"—the societies and peoples who inhabit the places of Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. According to Edward W. Said in his book Orientalism, orientalism (the Western scholarship about the Eastern World) is inextricably tied to the imperialist societies who produced it, which makes Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power.

In other words, for centuries conquering or more powerful nations have been fascinated with Egypt, but at the same time writing about them as a lost, conquered, and less than culture. "Too bad they didn't last, couldn't win against us, were less enlightened and fairly backwards, but 'Hey! Mummies!'"

This is seen in Greek accounts of Egyptian practices, most of which had actually died out hundreds of years before and were basically stories told in Egypt like we in the US recreate the first Thanksgiving meal between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans each November. This orientalism is also seen in the reports and papers of archaeologists from Germany, France and especially the UK throughout the 1600-1800's, and has filtered through to us ever since.

Along with Orientalism comes Othering or the "not us" we place on cultures and people who look, act, sound, and perceive things differently than us. We can overhype the things about them we like, place value on the things which make sense and support us, while denigrating or ignoring the things we don't, which can lead to a very skewed understanding of things in general and abuse of them specifically. I'm looking at you, people who thought it was a good idea to take mummified remains and do...well...anything to them other than return them to the indigenous people. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, wealthy Europeans of the 1600's.) 

So when it comes to magic, if we remove the Orientalism and Othering which has been layered onto our understanding of Egyptian culture, Ancient Egypt wasn't any more mystical, unique or magical than European Catholics (Mass, Popes, St. Peter's Cathedral), New Zealand's Maori (Haka, facial tattoos, and their language: te reo), or China's Ming dynasty (The Forbidden City, Mandarin kanji, blue and white porcelain).

Implicit Bias

Just to peel back another layer of outdated misinformation, let's look at the effects of implicit bias. Yes, we think of this in terms of our current cultural issues with race, gender equality, and sexual orientation, just to name a few emerging areas of healing and transformation. But the history of 'discovering' Ancient Egypt is a classic example of how implicit bias (the attitudes or stereotypes which affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner) can affect entire cultures.

In the beginning of Western culture scientific enquiry, most scientists, archeologists, and Egyptologists were Christian, which means they were not only monotheistic but thought this was the epitome of spiritual development. Many were Catholic priests.  And here they were attempting to understand and interpret images of scantily clad women, groups of women seemingly dancing naked around a male, men with erect members and so on.  There was a great deal of implicit bias informing their perceptions of what they were discovering including: a need for there to be one god ruling all other deities or a hierarchy of deities, one religion being given to the people by the monarchy and enforced politically, one text which is cannon and informs all other written record and all religious practice, and anything which shows women having power, autonomy or sexual agency being an aberration.

This bias created quite a few misunderstandings which have since been recognized such as: Egyptian men had large harems (for which there's no actual evidence), that plural marriage was common (which appears to be only true for the monarchy), and incestuous marriage was legitimate (this too seems to be unique to the ruling class as a means to keep legitimate heirs within one bloodline as only one was descended from divine godhood.)

A more recent but just as biased notion of Ancient Egypt as feminist and pro-egalitarian has arisen from newer discoveries about women's lives and roles.  But it wasn't. It was much more pro-female than their contemporaries (Greeks & Romans) who reported this often and with astonishment.  Egyptians, who lived in a hot climate, were not overly concerned with the modesty of bodies therefore didn't feel the need to cover them thoroughly. They were also fairly healthy and open about sex and sexuality (again causing astonishment from neighboring cultures), found divorce an acceptable option, and promoted the drinking of beer and other spirits as part of their spirituality.

Oh,One last thing...Science vs. Religion

With Darwin's papers on the nature of...well...nature, came this notion of science and scientific rigor in all things as very separate from matters of religion.  Along with Descartes' separation of mind from body, and the Industrial Revolution, Western culture created itself into what amounts to a cafeteria tray where things can all exist on the same surface, but never touch each other or interact other than when we want to use them.  Yay for those who don't like their food intermingling on their plate.

Because we live in a world where medicine is considered a science, but mental and spiritual health can fall under religion, where politics can be separated out from morality, and economics supposedly creates but often comes before quality of life, it is simple and often inevitable we would see and describe Ancient Egyptian culture through these lenses.  So, the gods fall under religion, surgical texts are medical, magical texts are magic/fantasy, while the Pharaohs are political figures with some pretty amazing McMansions.

So If we peel all this back, if we remove the layers and layers of misunderstanding, bias, colonialism, we can find the actual beauty of the original Ancient Egypt beneath.

Heka - Magic - Manifestation - Akasha

One of the most important things to know about Ancient Egypt is, up to the very end, it was a holistic culture. Like in Native American languages, there is no Egyptian word/symbol for "religion".   They had no reason to create one as it was not a separate thing from life.  All of the things we see as separate and even contradictory such as science, alternative medicine, selfcare, personal excellence, ownership of property and goods, creating and maintaining abundance and so on, were all thought of as one interconnected whole.  Hence what we think of as magic was performed along with rather sophisticated surgery, amulets were just as valued as bread for the midday meal, and dancing and social drinking were a moral imperative to make sure the crops grew well throughout the wet season.

The Egyptian word Heka, which has been translated as magic, was seen both as life force energy and as a god in and of his own right.  In the mythology he was created early on in the formation of All That Is.  Each person was thought to have their own heka and was able to draw on universal, divine sources of heka in order to manifest themselves and their desires. 

Being holistic, manifesting or using heka was not thought of as something which could be done solely through thinking or intending a certain way, nor simply doing a spell, nor only seeking out a physical remedy.  It required all of these things in right relationship for the situation and the desired outcome.

If you're interested in working with Egyptian magic, it's important to see it not as something separate from you, as a tool, or something different from the rest of your life. There is no mundane vs spiritual. Egyptian magic or heka is running through your veins every second of every day.  Which doesn't mean you need to live differently or live in a special, spiritual way.  Instead, it means you have the opportunity to acknowledge you are a spiritual being so each thing you do is spiritual. Honor your own divinity and see where you live, what you drive, and how you work each day as an act of heka - akasha - magic.

Balance

Ancient Egyptian culture valued balance or right relationship, truth, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice on all levels of life from the individual to the family, from village to territory and therefore the royal family as well.  Hence their understanding of the afterlife as including the weighing of their soul (who they had been and what they had done throughout their life) against the feather of Ma'at.  Whether or not they would move through all the danger and chaos of the afterlife and join the gods in part depended on this judgement.

This means the use of magic or manifestation techniques tended towards protection against being out of balance, against the forces of chaos, or bringing something into being which would address chaos which already existed, even if it was only in their hearts.  On the other hand, A large number of prayers, incantations and spells are about love, lovers, and wanting to consummate love.  So basically like every other culture. ;)

Something else to keep in mind, Egyptian culture was agrarian.  While gold was readily available and easily mined, Egypt is fertile growing land.  The economy thrived on the three seasons: Nile inundation, growing once the waters had calmed, and the dry season after harvest. Houses were made of mud brick, which anyone could make themselves for free.  With no rebar or wood to steady them in place, houses were built tall, thin and long. They were also multifunctional and multigenerational, housing not only nuclear and extended family, but also livestock, manufacturing equipment, and food storage.  There is little evidence of much more than rudimentary furniture, but plenty of equipment for baking bread, spinning thread, weaving fabric, laundry, as well as the storage of things needed for fishing, hunting, and the processing of animals for food.

In part this is why the reverence for cats and snakes.  With grains and food stored in the house (no Tupperware or rubber sealed jars), with no indoor plumbing, no garbage hauling, and people living in close proximity to each other, the rodent population was an ongoing nuisance.  Snakes would live in, near, or under houses and keep the population down. Cats would do the same only were less likely to live indoors.

In an agrarian society like this, balance includes a reticence to innovate, a love for promoting traditional ways of doing and being, and direct connection through experience to ancestors and even to divinity.  Also, Egyptians knew they had the ability to live with and become one with the gods after death, if they lived a balanced and ethical life. Hence many magic "spells" exhort gods, attempt to placate them, and speak with them sharply rather than with the deference we have learned to have through monotheism.

Egyptian magic as we understand it today is about supporting you in becoming balanced, from the macro to the micro. You can start by calling the gods to you and bringing aspects of them into your life or from the other end of the spectrum, start updating your daily routine from the perspective of balance, like your heart being weighed against the feather of Ma'at. Where are things too much in one direction? Should I do a bit less there? A bit more? Where are things too much in the other direction? What is the best mix to create balance for myself so it can spread outwards from me to those I care about?

Images

Ancient Egyptian culture found images to be so potent, so powerful, they would edit them down, make them only hinted at or partial, when putting them in royal tombs. This way the heka in them couldn't hurt the person while they were transitioning from embodied life into spirit, the liminal time before they had the ability to defend themselves on the other side.

It seems, like many indigenous cultures and traditional Buddhist artists, they saw images as repositories for the divinity represented. Each painting, figure, sculpture or tattoo was a home for and source of the being. Images are therefore a prayer or magic spell in themselves once complete. So, for example, if a person wanted to evoke and incorporate aspects of Thoth into their life or a project, then a picture or representation of him would be an invitation for this to occur.

Words

Until the discovery of the Rosetta stone, experts thought each image of Egyptian language was a word or concept, somewhat like Chinese kanji characters. However, with the Rosetta stone as a key, they could finally begin to see it as a phonetic script and not just one, but several. Pictures represent sounds, not single concepts. 

With this said, Ancient Egyptians found the power of the word, written and spoken, to be just as powerful, if not more so, than images. Hence entire ceremonies are written and described on the inside of coffins specifically for the dead person to use after mummification. The dead were literally placed in the ceremony they needed to successfully navigate through chaos to the next phase of their lives.

Amulets were inscribed with formulas which invoke the manifestation desired, so acted like a living, manifesting prayer engine once complete. Each version of what has come to be called The Book of the Dead, is a written instruction manual for officiants on how to perform the spoken incantations, rituals, and spells which will support the dead in transitioning back out into the light.

Every written language has a formal, decorative, power form which is complemented by special implements and papers or materials to receive it. Just think of how governments sign things into law physically with a heap of pens which become ritually imbued with the power of the moment and the office, which are then given out to others as talismans and so on. Or Japanese calligraphy, which is an art form, meditation, and spirituality of its own. 

To work with Egyptian word magic, try writing down what it is you want, but on specially selected paper or cloth or clay. Try writing it with a writing instrument which is only for that purpose. You'll feel the difference right away as this focuses and enhances your heka automatically.

Amulets

With an understanding of each person as having heka, of being an engine for creating, of continuously manifesting heka or life force or akasha, comes an understanding of how to work with heka in order to achieve a specific goal. Think of this a bit like owning and learning how to play an instrument. Different techniques, implements, even surroundings change the output and make new sounds, rhythms and options possible.

Through various designs, colors, shapes and figures an amulet can be created to influence a person's heka. Wearing the amulet puts it into the person's energy field, acting like a lens or a filter. Think of this like putting a lamp shade over a light bulb. The bulb is still itself, but the lampshade changes the color, brightness, and even direction of the light.

Amulets could have incantations written on them, be shaped like a certain god or aspect of a god, and be worn to call in the energy, like a fish worn at the end of a woman's braid to call in fertility, or a scarab around the neck or at the waist for transformation and protection.

Most Egyptians would not have made amulets themselves, but traded for them in the market, from traveling merchants, healers, from each other, or near the temples. If necessary, the amulet would have been modified to focus on the specific needs and desires of the person. A simple fish fertility charm doesn't need anything special; it's just worn in the hair. A scarab for power or protection could be carved with a prayer or spell. A figure of Isis could be wrapped in a more complicated incantation written on paper or papyrus. Whatever amulet you feel called to, make it or buy it or trade for it, then make it your own.

Sound

Life is hard, agrarian life can be harder still (ask any farmer) and when balance is the goal, this means dancing, music and partying needs to be engaged in just as hard.

There is mounting evidence Ancient Egyptians understood sound not just as a means of rejoicing, but also for cleaning, clearing, and healing. Sistrum and Menat necklaces were shaken to clean sacred precincts before ceremonies were performed. They were also used as a means of clearing the way before sacred processions and during ceremonies to keep the energy active, positive and moving.

Hathor in particular enjoined her acolytes to dance, drink, and revel in order to stay in right relationship with themselves and the world. Also, to heal from too much doing by resting and allowing music to soothe what had become damaged over time or through trauma.

To engage in Egyptian spirituality, rather than be solemn, studious, and focused, or trying to calm yourself and get into a meditative state, try being ecstatic. Put on music which gets your feet moving. Try working with a rattle and stomping your feet in time, faster than your regular heartbeat. Have beer or wine and bread to get you in the mood and raise the energy before you get started. Things will go much faster and you'll have fun doing them.

Ancient Egyptian magic, when you peel away all of the old baggage, is both staggeringly unique in its culture, how it creates personal relationship with divinity and the universe beyond, as well as it's pantheon. And yet the practicalities of how it uses, understands and incorporates magic will seem comfortingly familiar to anyone who has practiced Wicca, been to a sweat lodge, or seen the traditional tattoos of the Maori. Egyptians were a highly advanced, literate but indigenous culture which lives on through us today.

For more about the magical tools they used, I recommend the book Magic in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pinch.