Ancient Magic I often talk about weird things happening both in our normal lives and in science experiments. It seems there is plenty of strange things going on in the world all the time. One would think there could be an explanation for all of these things, and yet many go unexplained. We can find evidence of all sorts of strange things and sometimes the only explanations which can fit are either extraterrestrials did it, which is overused, or maybe it was a miracle attributable to God. For those who do not believe in God or space aliens, there really is not much they can say about some strange events. Take for example what is known as the miracle of Fatima. It is said there were over 10,000 witnesses to the event. What they all saw was described as the sun moving closer to earth and then back, several times. Three children also said they saw the Virgin Mary and she called herself the Lady of the Rosary. The Catholic church investigated the event from 1917 to 1930 before recognizing it as a miracle, they could find no other explanation for it. It is not only the Catholic church which has its miracles. Miracles seem to happen to believers of other religions and even non-believers. They seem to happen when we need them the most. Miracles go back to ancient times. Probably most of them were just misunderstood things that happened. The ancient Greeks and Romans were astonished by what they thought were miracles, most of which we would have an explanation for today. They may have been amazed, but they didn’t necessarily attribute the event to one of their gods. One of the problems with ancient miracles was, it was relatively easy to fool people in those days. Can you imagine a magician’s audience. The audience might have thought the magician was a god. There are stories about ancient magicians claiming to control gods, and all types of spirits. This must have really put the fright into their onlookers and given them a position of high authority in their culture. They had to be careful however and make sure they didn’t seem to be on the side of evil I would imagine, because the crowd could turn on them and try and kill them. The first magician who performed for entertainment was said to be Dedi. He put on magic shows in ancient Egypt in 2,700 B.C. The famous cups and balls trick was said to have been invented by him. It is said he performed before the Pharaoh Khufu who is known today as Cheops the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza. We know this because his name was found in an ancient papyrus. From what I can discern, there were two kinds of magicians, ones who were trying to convince the population they had magical powers and the others who were entertainers. In ancient times the Egyptians had a House of Life. The Chief Lector was the pharaoh’s head magician. The senior magicians were called Sem priests. The scribes were called magicians because it was felt writing was a form of magic. It was felt if a magician was really good he could command a statuette he created to come to life and perform different tasks. There was even a god of magic in ancient Egypt named Heka who not only was the god of magic, but also the god of medicine. The ancient Greeks also had a god of magic which was Hecate. She was said to preside over spells. It was said she witnessed the abduction of Demeter’s daughter Persephone to the underworld and searched for her. Greek magicians were called either magos, magian or magician. Even in more ancient times they were called goes which included astrology, alchemy and other things. The three most famous magicians in ancient Greece were, Orpheus, Pythagoras and Empedocles. In 13 B.C. 2,000 scrolls containing magical spells and such were ordered burned. Many magicians were considered lesser members of society. In the case of Pythagoras genius was mistaken for magic. People who practiced magic in ancient Persia were called the Magi. It is an interesting term which was used for the three wise men who sought out the birth of Jesus. Interestingly, Persian magicians had spells which could be used for exorcisms. It was also said they could bless people and defend them against evil spirits and also cure them when they were sick. Zoroaster was said to be the most famous of their magicians. He was also known by some as a sorcerer. It seems every culture in the ancient world had magicians. How far back did the idea of magicians really go? We know with the ancient Egyptians it went back to around 4,500 years and maybe further. There is this idea however ancient tribes had magicians but didn’t call them that. They may have been known as medicine men or something similar. Humans it seems probably have almost always believed in magic. If something happened like fire being created in an electrical storm it probably was considered magic by our very ancient ancestors. It is said magic was considered part of everyday life in ancient Mesopotamian life. There was no connection to religion and magic according to the experts. Magic was used to look for omens and against ghosts and demons. It could also be used to combat the magic of other magicians. Extensive records were found which talk to public exhibitions of magic and also private ones. The ashipu were magicians responsible for performing public magical acts and advisors to the king. They were used in funerals. Diviners or baru were the magicians who checked the omens and interpreted the signs. Today the modern world thinks of magic quite differently. To us magic is a source of entertainment and many of us are amazed at the skill of some of the better magicians. We all know magic is trickery, and that is half of the fun which is trying to discern how the trick was accomplished. Penn and Teller on Fool Us has entertained me for years. The show allows magicians to come on and try and fool them, but most of the time they can’t. If Penn and Teller would have been born a couple of thousand years ago, they might have been considered gods by the population because of the way magic was thought of in those days. They are not the only ones, so would have been David Copperfield. Imagine what the reaction would have been if he would have made the Sphinx disappear like he did with the statue of liberty.
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