Blurred Line Between Medicine and Magic

The line between medicine and magic was blurred in ancient Egypt, and priests of Sekhmet often also acted as doctors. In the absence of effective remedies to cure many ailments, they turned to spells and rituals. Some magic was “sympathetic,” using curative substances that were similar to the perceived cause of the ailment, such as dung to alleviate gut problems.

Magicians used spells either as a direct measure, such as “ordering” a stuck bone to leave the patient’s throat, or indirectly, for instance, telling the spirit (often identified as a foreign demon) responsible for the illness to leave the sick person. Amulets were also placed on afflicted parts of the body or used to stave off illness.

Death was the greatest challenge. Observances on behalf of the dead were elaborate, at least for the elite, and aimed to unite the ka and ba, the two parts of the soul, in death. Incantations and mummification were carried out to protect the ka, the life source, and to release the ba, which contained a person’s character, on its journey to the underworld.

For kings, Pyramid Texts, written down from the 27th century BCE, let their souls fight demons, pay off otherworldly boatmen, and reach the next life. It was another 600 years before texts appeared offering magical protection to a wider section of society.

— A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult, A Universal Force