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    United States Avalon Member Skywizard's Avatar
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    Default Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered


    This ancient Egyptian papyrus, now at Macquarie University, is decorated
    with an image of two bird-like creatures. A magical spell written in Coptic,
    an Egyptian language that uses the Greek alphabet, is visible around the
    image.



    An ancient Egyptian papyrus with an image showing two bird-like creatures, possibly with a penis connecting them, has been deciphered, revealing a magic spell of love.

    "The most striking feature of [the papyrus] is its image," wrote Korshi Dosoo, a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg in France, who published the papyrus recently in the Journal of Coptic Studies.

    Dosoo estimates that it dates back around 1,300 years, to a time when Christianity was widely practiced in Egypt.

    In the image, the winged creature on the left seems to be poking its beak into the open beak of its counterpart on the right — which also seems to have a nail through its head. A person's outstretched arms surround the creatures.

    Both creatures are connected through what Dosoo said could be chains, bonds or a penis. The creature on the right has two ears (or horns), and both creatures have what look like feathers or scales on the front of their bodies. The small differences between the two creatures may be an attempt to show sex differentiation, Dosoo said, noting that the creature on the right may be a female and the one on the left a male.

    A magical spell written in Coptic, an Egyptian language that uses the Greek alphabet, surrounds the image. Just fragments of text have survived over the years, with part of the deciphered spell reading, "I call upon you … who is Christ the god of Israel …" The next part of the spell includes the words "you will dissolve" and mentions "every child of Adam…," who according to the Hebrew Bible was the first man on Earth and lived with a woman named Eve in the Garden of Eden before being expelled by God. The fragmented text also mentions Ahitophel, a man who betrayed King David, according to the Hebrew Bible.

    What was it used for?

    The papyrus seems to have been one page of a larger text, possibly a handbook that was used by a magician, Korshi said.

    The hypothetical magician's clients may have been impressed by the image on the papyrus. "From an observer point of view, we could say that the image might have enhanced the performative aspect of the spell — the client might find the weird drawings an impressive addition to the overall atmosphere and impression created by the ritual," Dosoo told Live Science.

    The fragmentary text makes it hard to determine what exactly the spell was used for, but Dosoo said he believes that it may have been related to love, possibly in cases where there was a complex situation such as a love triangle, or where a man was in love with a woman he couldn't marry.

    "Christian literary texts from Egypt which mention love spells often imply that the problem is not that the woman doesn't love the man per se, but that he does not have access to her, because she is a young unmarried girl protected and secluded by her family, or already married to someone else," Dosoo told Live Science.

    Mysterious origins

    The papyrus is at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, but how it got there is a mystery. The university has no records indicating who sold or donated the papyrus, or when the acquisition occurred, Dosoo said.

    The university has a collection of about 900 papyri, the bulk of which were purchased by or donated to the university between 1972 and 1985; it wasn't until 2007 that the university stopped purchasing papyri or accepting them as donations. Many of these 900 papyri were purchased from Anton and Michael Fackelmann, who were antiquities dealers that were active in Austria in the 1970s and 1980s. Among these papyri is a "Handbook of Ritual Power" (as modern-day researchers call it), which is a lengthy magical text that also dates back around 1,300 years. However, while that handbook is from the Fackelmanns, it's not clear if the newly published magical papyrus is also from them.

    The university's collection history poses a problem for scholars. In 1972, a UNESCO treaty banned the sale of antiquities that were removed from their country of origin after 1972. It's not certain when this papyrus, and other papyri in the collection, were removed from Egypt.

    With the ongoing looting that has ravaged Egypt's archaeological sites, many scholars are not comfortable working with material that may have been taken out of Egypt after 1972. Part of the reason is that some scholars believe that publishing such material may help those trying to loot and sell archaeological remains from Egypt. There is also the question of ownership since, if an artifact was taken out of Egypt after 1972, then it's possible the legal owner could in fact be the government of Egypt.

    Many of the university's papyri are not published. Despite the lack of information on when the recently deciphered papyrus was acquired, or who it was acquired from, the committee decided to publish the papyrus, noting the uncertain provenance in the journal article.





    Source: https://www.livescience.com/63659-an...eciphered.html



    peace...
    ~~ One foot in the Ancient World and the other in the Now ~~

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    United States Avalon Member Valerie Villars's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered

    Spell casting. For a very long time. And we wonder why the earth is in such a mess. Everyone trying to harness energies for their own personal belief system or to gain control. I wish we could just let it be, with kindness and compassion.

    Thanks Skywizard for your always interesting posts.
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone when we are uncool." From the movie "Almost Famous""l "Let yourself stand cool and composed before a million universes." Walt Whitman

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    United States Avalon Member Ba-ba-Ra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered

    Think of the word "spelling".

    How to "spell" a word. hmm!
    Blessed are the cracked, for they are the ones who let in the light!

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    Avalon Member O Donna's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered

    Quote Posted by Ba-ba-Ra (here)
    Think of the word "spelling".

    How to "spell" a word. hmm!
    Yep!

    In certain hands, ancient religious text such as the Bible or Koran, as examples, act as spell books. Hmmm

    As it's been said, magic is all around us.

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    Default Re: Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered

    Cool but some inaccuracies on the time line..... 1300 years ago Egypt was Islamic and its not considered 'ancient egypt 'as the article said. Terms of discussion are important
    and should be qualified for understanding


    Ancient Egypt

    Early Dynastic Period 3150–2686 BC
    Old Kingdom 2686–2181 BC
    1st Intermediate Period 2181–2055 BC
    Middle Kingdom 2055–1650 BC
    2nd Intermediate Period 1650–1550 BC
    New Kingdom 1550–1069 BC
    3rd Intermediate Period 1069–744 BC
    Ku****e Egypt 744–656 BC
    Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt 664–525 BC


    Classical antiquity


    Achaemenid Egypt 525–404 BC
    Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt 404–398 BC
    Twenty-ninth Dynasty of Egypt 398–380 BC
    Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt 380–343 BC
    Achaemenid Egypt 343–332 BC
    Macedonian and Ptolemaic Egypt 332–30 BC
    Roman and Byzantine Egypt 30 BC–641 AD
    Sasanian Egypt 619–629


    Middle Ages

    Rashidun Egypt 641–661
    Umayyad Egypt 661–750
    Abbasid Egypt 750–935
    Tulunid Egypt 868–905
    Ikhshidid Egypt 935–969
    Fatimid Egypt 969–1171
    Ayyubid Egypt 1171–1250
    Mamluk Egypt 1250–1517

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt

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    Default Re: Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered

    -

    That 'nail' - not through, but above the head - looks more like a halo to me.

    Perhaps the right creature is some holy creature ?


    Quote Posted by Skywizard (here)


    .......


    In the image, the winged creature on the left seems to be poking its beak into the open beak of its counterpart on the right — which also seems to have a nail through its head. A person's outstretched arms surround the creatures.

    .......
    Last edited by Deux Corbeaux; 26th September 2018 at 13:10. Reason: clarity

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    Default Re: Ancient Egyptian 'Magic Spell' Deciphered

    Good morning!

    This has been bugging me for days. So I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm not certain who Korshi Dosoo is but he has made a few mistakes regarding the image. I looked him up and aside from claiming to be a lecturer at a French university I can't find much on him other than some indications that he writes about magic spells and some on animals. Which surprises me because if he studies animals you'd think he'd get it right.

    That image is not two birds. It is a bird and a jackal. Birds do not have ears....Jackals do and were intune with the gods of Egypt.

    The coptics while being Christians did also assume the gods of Egypt in many things. Including their calendar as shown thus:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_calendar

    So if that is a not a bird but a Jackal why would it have a nail through the head? Because it does not. That is the Greek and Coptic letter "phi" as shown here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_alphabet

    Click image for larger version

Name:	phi.PNG
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    Click image for larger version

Name:	copticphiX.PNG
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ID:	39158

    There is also above the bird figure "XXX" which is "khi" the same goes for the greek alphabet here but in the Greek it's "Chi":

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet

    From looking at the Jackal in the greek god form you get this:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermanubis

    Which proclaims that: Although it was not common in traditional Greek religion to combine the names of two gods in this manner, the double determination of Hermanubis has some formal parallels in the earlier period. The most obvious is the god Hermaphroditus, attested from the fourth century BC onwards, but his name implies the paradoxical union of two different gods (Hermes and Aphrodite) rather than an assimilation in the manner of Hermanubis.

    Which might make more sense as a union....and also the phi above the head of the Jackal with the phi letter could be interpreted as

    Much older (classical) Sahidic pronunciation: [pʰ] as
    in Ancient Greek.

    the heaven nivyoui the heavens
    this (masculine)
    new
    dream, vision


    It could also mean the golden ratio but that is doubtful given the image itself.


    ~

    XXX above the head of the bird is pretty simple

    It could be interpreted as soul, Christ, good or kind, grace, or leader. Given there are three X's it could be a combination of those in any order I suspect.

    http://yearsandmiles.com/coptic-alphabet.pdf

    I'm not sure if this is a romantic love spell or not but the nail in the head is certainly phi, and the head of that animal is not a bird...it's a jackal.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis
    Last edited by Shadowself; 26th September 2018 at 13:30.

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