Mystical Traditions in Antiquity

"Upon this spirit who comes today, taking the form of a beam of light, from the Isle of Fire..." In late antiquity there flourished among the nations a widespread literature in mysticism and magic that is of interest to scholars. From archeological sites, ancient fragments of occult books were discovered, some incised on clay and stone or hammered on beaten metal, that included instructions to experts in the secrets of occultism on how to treat clients and their troubles, which magic acts to perform, which spells to recite, and the correct incantations to write on mystic amulets. (The inscribed incantations were to protect a person from an enemy and from any misfortune, and to win him love, favor in the eyes of others, social success, and the like.) Hundreds of incantations inscribed on earthenware bowls have been found  at various sites in Babylonia, more than half of them written in the Aramaic language, the remainder inscribed in Syriac and Mandaean. (1) In Egypt, Hundreds of Greek papyrus fragments, the remains of magic texts, have been discovered; recipes and formulae of spells and amulets. The "EXECRATION TEXTS", inscribed on pots and figurines by the Egyptians were incantations against their enemies, the Asiatic and Nubian peoples and their rulers: the vessels were smashed in rites in order to bring about by sympathetic magic the downfall of the persons and people named on the vessels. Forty  amulets with magical formulae from ancient Israel and its surroundings have been discovered and published, mainly Aramaic and Greek incantations  incised on beaten metal sheets. Here it should be noted that there was no clear line of distinction in antiquity between magic and religion. In some of the mystery rites the initiate passed through a symbolic anticipation of things to come - a piece of sympathethic magic of things, which ensured safety by a simulation of here and now. Also the symbolic prophesies of the Biblical prophets  have their origin in the principle of mimetic magic that 'Like produces  Like’, but they are relieved from being purely magical because they are  expressions of divine personal will and purpose. Mysticism was one of the means used to express religious ideas and to create desirable conditions  for the living. (2) There was a widespread conviction among the ancients that nature affects conduct in mystic ways in addition to obvious physical effects of heat, cold, storm, etc..The belief those ceremonial movements must correspond to that of nature. For example: Circular religious processions followed the direction of the sun, from east to south, west and north in a clockwise direction. (The belief continues to this day.) The people of the past (and even of today) have always turned to the supernatural forces and have requested their help in solving personal troubles. All that afflicted man, mentally or physically, was attributed to the activities of evil demons and spirits of the nether world; through historical documents we read of spells and charms and amulets to ward of  all kinds of afflictions. References told of oriental cults that practiced  the mysterious occult rites of the exhortation of shadow spirits, evil tormentors, the evil eye (3) and the pure spirit from the tormented through charms and spells; they attained increasing prominence in the Hellenistic age, and particularly in the first centuries of the Christian era. Further testimony to the existence of the mysticism of magic in ancient lore can be found in the pages of the Bible. e.g. Eight forms of magic are given in Deuteronomy 18:10-12 " Let no one be found among you who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, no auger or soothsayer of  diviner or sorcerer, no one who casts spells or traffics with ghosts and spirits, and no necromancer." The 'Acts of the Apostles' record the meeting of Christian missionaries with magical practitioners of various types, and in one occasion said, "believers came and openly confessed that they had been using magical spells. And a good many of those who formerly practiced magic collected their books and burnt them publicity." (Acts 19:18-19). Testimony to the existence of magic is found in the Bible and in the Talmud (Commentaries on the Bible). Recently archaeologists have come up with direct early evidence of the practice of homoeopathic magic, being employed with the benevolent purpose of helping and healing others: Two incantation amulets on sheets of silver from the 6th century B.C. were found in a burial cave at Ketef Hinom, near Jerusalem; and at Qumran near the Dead Sea a fragment of a scroll was found containing mystic healing prescriptions written in the Hasmonean era. (There was some proximity between the curative powers of the Essenes of Qumran and the various incantations, which were suspected of being witchcraft and forbidden in Jewish religious law.) Most written amulets of that period were written mainly for the purpose of curing health problems. Healing was accomplished by the expulsion of evil spirits, demons, and the evil eye. Sometimes this is emphasized at  the start of the incantation. For example, on an amulet found in a Late Bronze Age grave in Turkey the written formula that opens with the words, "May the evil spirit, the shadow-spirit, and the demon, both male and female. depart from Shalona, son of Dimitron," is meant to preserve the boy's health. Occasionaly the incantation is directed against a specific illness described by name. e.g. A Syriac amulet on a piece of parchment was written for a girl suffering from breathing problems, but the incantation is also meant to expel the spirits from several parts of the girl's body: "This amulet is appointed for the healing of this girl, on whom the amulet is hung that there should be annulled from her the spirit of breathing that is stuck and spirit of the ribs that groans and every unclean spirit that it is in her... May they depart, go away, fly off, be closed up, be loosened, be broken, leave go away..." Magic and medicine were closely intertwined and ancient man used other mystic means to combat the threat of illness - the tooth of a fox, a nail from the cross of a crucified criminal, the 'preserving stone' (Even Tequma – Heb.), which was considered effective against the fear of abortion, amulets of roots and plants for the prevention of epilepsy, etc... Amulets were also worn against the 'EVIL EYE' - the belief that evil can be transmitted by the eye of a certain person. Many types of incantations were written and inserted into amulets to be worn by the afflicted. An amulet found at the ancient synagogue in Israel read (partly constructed) as follows, "An amulet proper for Esther, daughter of T'tys, to save her from evil tormentors, from evil eye, from spirit, from demon, from shadow-spirit, from all evil tormentors, from evil eye, from pure spirit..." Some instances the amulet was embossed with an image or design of an eye, which is supposed to throw the evil to its sources. (The chief  talisman against the 'evil-eye' has always been the symbol of a 'phallus', an image of sexual desire that strews temptation in its path.) Ancient man to fight against deliberate used incantations activities of witches and sorcerers, which could bring evil supernatural influences on man. The typical technique in witchcraft was making an image of the victim which was then destroyed, but anything connected with intended victim could be used to gain magical powers of over him. Troubles of this kind was dealt with by the Mesopotamian man through series of  incantations, called 'SHRUPU', meaning burning. The incantations were recited by the exorcist and then the victim was handed an onion, a date, tufts of wool matting (4). Each of these had to be pulled apart by the patient and thrown into a fire, coupled with one of the incantations e.g., "Like this onion, like this fig, like this wool thrown into the fire... so may oath, pain weariness, guilt which is in the body... be thrown into the fire..." The era of the past was an unsettled period with the constant threat of the menace of war and massacre, the distress of deadly plagues and the fickleness of nature, which brought drought or storms. The threat of evil forces, seen in the form of omens, witchcraft and other means determined the life of ancient man. By using these methods, men of past cultures could obtain a glimpse of their destinies. Many rituals and incantations, rites of sympathetic magic coupled with spiritual worship, and a vast corpus of taboos was designed to protect him from such perils. This world of magic, spirits and of the supernatural has been a companion of all civilizations, and has followed man from antiquity to the present day. NOTES: 1) The use of spiral motif (the snake emblem) in the ancient past was to symbolize the idea of eternal life and of the idea of eternal renewal. Spiral symbols was found in pre-dynastic Egypt; spread through the ancient Near East; was unearth in the excavations of the great Shang period capital at Hsiao T'un near Anyang in North Honan; and were exported to Oceania and America. 2) 'SHAMANISM' (Tugusian origin) was the intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds, using magic to cure illness, foretell the future, control spiritual forces, etc.. The 'SHAMAN' carried out his duties as a priest as well as doctor, but unlike the medicine man, he always performs his role in a self-induced state of trance. 3) The all-seeing 'EVIL EYE' was looked upon as the symbol of ill will and envy. Within are the powers of darkness; and the destructive will of SATAN, the symbolic mode of evil. 4) The 'ONION' can reveal immortality by peeling off layers to reach the center. The 'DATE' symbolizes fertility and fecundity and the casting of the layers was thought to cure impotence. 'WOOL-MATTING' was a symbol of black mourning. Early man believed that evil sorcerers cast spells which caused varied inflictions, and by sympathetic magic, the power of the devastating spell could be warded off.