Namburbi: How Mesopotamian Rituals Tried to Cancel Evil Omens Before They Came True
Ancient Mesopotamian divination is often described as if it were a system for predicting a fixed future. A lunar eclipse appears, a snake enters a…
The Heptameron Before Modern Ceremonial Magic: Planetary Angels, Ritual Time, and the Pseudo-Abano Tradition
The Heptameron is one of those books whose afterlife has become larger than its origin. In modern occult publishing it is often presented as a…
The Book of Abramelin Before the Legend: Manuscripts, Sacred Magic, and the Making of the Holy Guardian Angel
The Book of Abramelin occupies an unusual place in the history of Western magic. It is famous for an austere program of prayer and purification,…
Lamashtu and Pazuzu: How Mesopotamian Demon Amulets Protected Mothers, Infants, and the Sick
Among the most arresting objects to survive from ancient Mesopotamia are tiny images of beings that look, to modern eyes, like nightmares made portable. A…
The Demotic Book of Thoth: Inside an Egyptian Scribal Dialogue on Knowledge, Animals, and Sacred Writing
For centuries, “the Book of Thoth” has sounded like the perfect occult object: a lost Egyptian volume said to contain divine knowledge, secret writing, magic,…
Ars Notoria: Angelic Figures, Sacred Prayers, and the Medieval Dream of Instant Knowledge
The first figure of grammar in an Ars Notoria manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 9336, fol. 18. The medieval work is public domain;…
Hittite Ritual Magic: Purification, Scapegoats, Incantations, and the Dangerous Art of Removing Evil
A Hittite cuneiform tablet from Hattusa, probably fourteenth century BCE, preserving a cultic festival text for the goddess Tetešḫapi. Photograph by Mx. Granger, CC0, via…
Reading the Gods in a Sheep: Mesopotamian Liver Divination, Bārûtu, and the Science of Signs
A late first-millennium BCE cuneiform fragment recording liver omens. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 86.11.378b, Public Domain. For much of the ancient Near East,…
The Oracle of Delphi Beyond the Vapors: Pythia, Possession, Politics, and the Ritual Technology of Prophecy
Few institutions in the ancient Mediterranean acquired the authority of Delphi. For centuries, rulers, cities, colonists, generals, lawmakers, private petitioners, and anxious families climbed the…
Roman Magical Gems: Abrasax, Chnoubis, Harpocrates, and the Ritual Power of Engraved Stone
A tiny engraved stone can carry an astonishing amount of religious history. Across the Roman Mediterranean, especially between the second and fourth centuries CE, craftsmen…
The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden: Lamps, Vessels, Dreams, and the Technology of Divine Vision
The London portion of the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden, British Museum EA10070. The roll preserves ritual recipes, divination procedures, healing texts, and…
Galdrastafir Beyond the Viking Myth: Icelandic Grimoires, Magical Staves, and the Manuscript History of Vegvísi r
Pages from AM 434 a 12mo, copied around 1500, preserve some of the earliest known Icelandic magical staves alongside medical material. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia…