Magic Was Both a Force of the Universe and a Set of Practices
One of the important powers of the Egyptian universe is heka, to which both gods and people are subject. This was the power that made creation possible and is often translated as ‘magic’. For the Egyptians, magic was both a force of the universe and a set of practices. A bit like the Force in Star Wars, heka is neither inherently good nor inherently bad: its effects depend on the intentions of those who wield it. There is a moral dimension to heka, but, having said that, there is little sense of black magic or witchcraft. The gods are more likely to misuse heka than are people. And Ancient Egyptians made little distinction between the sacred and the secular worlds: daily life is infused with the actions of gods and demons. As a consequence, there is no notion of a cosmic realm above nature. The separation we have come to make between science and religion did not exist in the same way in Egypt.
Furthermore, magic and religion were continuous: the gods were subject to heka, as well as being instantiations of its power, and some humans had greater control of heka than others. From this it follows that magic was not supernatural. As a practice, magic was one of the instruments available to people to hold the universe in harmony, although obviously complex training and considerable skill were needed for such large tasks; more humble magic could be used to shield from harm or to help cure minor ills. There was a spectrum of practitioners, from the priests of the major temples, with long training in how to wield heka, to men and women in villages who might protect the cattle herd from crocodile spirits when crossing a river, or a newborn baby from demons. For temple priests, written transmission of spells was vital; for more humble magic, oral transmission sufficed, so that we now know more about the former. The priests were also not moral teachers but paid specialists with defined duties. Temple priests could undertake private magical practice, for a fee, and the better-off could employ them in cases of real need, making private use of long state-funded training. Large temples had a House of Life, in which a library, a scriptorium where manuscripts were copied and a classroom were combined. Houses of Life also helped to create learned communities that could debate a range of cosmological and earthly matters.
It is worth bearing in mind the distinctive features of temples compared with mosques, synagogues or churches. Egyptian temples were not designed for congregations to worship; rather the opposite: they were to house gods in seclusion. In the form of their statues, they were clothed, fed and cared for in the temples. Such seclusion was interrupted regularly, when the gods were brought out on festivals, although still concealed in shrines covered in cloth. The town of Lahun had thirty-five annual festivals, some lasting for several days, and the general populace would have participated to various degrees, able to enjoy the food and drink of the temple, along with the gods. Harmony was the aim of the temple, but crisis was built into the magico-religious structure, with the passage of the Sun into the underworld every night a minor threat to life, with no absolute guarantee of return.
— Magic: a History, pp. 97-98
