Magic: Did you mean...?

In ancient Egypt, if a woman were having difficulty conceiving a child, she might spend an evening in a Bes Chamber (also known as an incubation chamber) located within a temple. Bes was the god of childbirth, sexuality, fertility, among...

For the Greeks magic (mageia or goeteia) was a wide-ranging topic which involved spells and evil prayers (epoidai), curse tablets (katadesmoi), enhancing drugs and deadly poisons (pharmaka), amulets (periapta) and powerful love potions (philtra...

Magic and medicine in ancient Egypt were understood as gifts from the god Heka, who presided over both, and were used together – or interchangeably – by medical professionals in treating patients. 'Magic' was recognized as the act of drawing...

Elements of Norse mythology abound in The Lord of the Rings, and none is so compelling as the ring itself. The One Ring is reminiscent of magic rings in Norse lore, especially Odin's Draupnir or Andvaranaut from the legend of the Volsungs...

Heka is the god of magic and medicine in ancient Egypt and is also the personification of magic itself. He is probably the most important god in Egyptian mythology but is often overlooked because his presence was so pervasive as to make him...

The gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt were an integral part of the people's everyday lives for over 3,000 years. There were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon, many whose names are well known - Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor...

A presentation on some aspects of Norse religion such as the importance of sorcery, its meanings and practitioners, as well as the role of gender. Important terms in the "lesson": seiðr - sorcery seiðmaðr - sorcerer seiðkona - sorceress...

A ten-year project to study and digitise some 80,000 cases recorded by two famous astrological physicians has opened a wormhole into the everyday worries and desires of people who lived 400 years ago.

The Magical Lullaby (popularly known as Charm for the Protection of a Child) is an inscription from the 16th or 17th century BCE. The poem exemplifies the ancient Egyptian's personal religious and spiritual practices as it is a spell which...

In this talk I present some considerations about the use of runes in Norse sources and draw attention to how they were instrumental in occult and nationalist circles in the 19th century up to Nazi ideology. Hope you find it entertaining...