Margaret Alice Murray

“ While he yet spoke, Thoth entered into his presence, Thoth, the twice-great, the maker of magic, the lord of Khemennu. He listened to the words of Amon-Ra, king of the gods, and in the silence that followed he spoke:
"O Amon-Ra, Lord of the thrones of the Two Lands, King of the gods, Maker of men. Behold in the Black Land in the palace of the king is a maiden, fair and beautiful is she in all her limbs. Aahmes is her name, and she is wife to the king of Egypt. She alone can be the mother of the great Queen, whom thou wilt create to rule over the Two Lands. She is in the palace of the king. ”

“ Two birds cling on either side, and round about it glides a two-headed serpent. He lifts his savage heads, and his poison is ever ready to strike the rash intruder who should dare to try to pass. Faithful is his watch, for in the home of Night and Darkness lives Khepera, the great Soul of the universe, he whose emblem is the beetle, the god of resurrection. ”

“ In order to clear the ground I make a sharp distinction between Operative Witchcraft and Ritual Witchcraft. Under Operative Witchcraft I class all charms and spells, whether used by a professed witch or by a professed Christian, whether intended for good or for evil, for killing or for curing. Such charms and spells are common to every nation and country, and are practised by the priests and people of every religion. They are part of the common heritage of the human race and are therefore of no practical value in the study of any one particular cult. ”

“ FAIRIES AND WITCHES
The dwarf race which at one time inhabited Europe has left few concrete remains, but it has survived in innumerable stories of fairies and elves. Nothing, however, is known of the religious beliefs and cults of these early peoples, except the fact that every seven years they made a human sacrifice to their god—'And aye at every seven years they pay the teind to hell'—and that like the Khonds they stole children from the neighbouring races and brought them up to be the victims. ”

“ Enthroned is he, appearing in splendour as king, with the White Crown of the South Land and the Red Crown of the North Land upon his head.
Great is Osiris, god of the dead, for all who die come before him for judgment, and their hearts are weighed in the balance against the feather of Truth. His throne is set upon a running stream, clear and deep, and from the waters rises a single lotus-blossom, the colour of the sky at morning. Upon the blossom stand the four Children of Horus, they who assist Osiris at the Judgment, who protect the bodies of the dead. ”

“ Of these the most surprising to modern ideas is the one referring to costume, yet it was on this that the judges laid most stress. Even the severest of sumptuary laws has never made the wearing of male dress by a woman a capital crime; yet, though Joan had recanted and been received into the Church, the moment that she put on male attire she was doomed on that account only. Whether she donned it by accident, by treachery, by force, or out of bravado, the extraordinary fact remains that the mere resuming of male garments was the signal for her death without further trial. ”

“ I am content merely to point out that it was a definite religion with beliefs, ritual, and organization as highly developed as that of any other cult in the world.
The deity of this cult was incarnate in a man, a woman, or an animal; the animal form being apparently earlier than the human, for the god was often spoken of as wearing the skin or attributes of an animal. At the same time, however, there was another form of the god in the shape of a man with two faces. ”

“ On the prow of the Boat is a fiery star, but its light is not redder than the strange and lurid glow which fills this land; terrible and red is it and the sight of it is full of horror. This is the region feared by evil-doers, for their punishment awaits them here. Far and near are pits of fire; goddesses, whose breath is flame, guard the pits, holding in their hands gleaming swords of fire. With their knives do they torment the wicked and cast them into the pits of flame till they perish utterly. ”

“ Looked upon in the light of a fertility cult, the ritual of the witches becomes comprehensible. Originally for the promotion of fertility, it became gradually degraded into a method for blasting fertility, and thus the witches who had been once the means of bringing prosperity to the people and the land by driving out all evil influences, in process of time were looked upon as being themselves the evil influences, and were held in horror accordingly. ”

“ In the midst lies a serpent with three heads, and between his wings stands Sokar in the form of a man with the head of a hawk. Savage and fierce as a hawk is Sokar, and terrible is the punishment he metes out to those who rebel against him. Hard by his dwelling is a lake where the water boils and bubbles with heat as water boils in a pot. Into the boiling lake are cast the rebels, and they cry to Ra for help, but Ra lies cold and lifeless, waiting for the coming of Khepera, and their cries are unheeded while the Boat passes on its way. ”

“ Let him be cut in pieces, and let his bones be given to the cats, the fragments of him to the reptiles.
"O Horus, the Striker, the great One of Valour, the Slayer, the Chief of the Gods, the Harpooner, the Hero, the only begotten, Captor of captives, Horus of Edfu, Horus the Avenger!
"He has destroyed the wicked One, he has made a whirlpool with the blood of his enemy, his shaft has made a prey. Behold ye, see ye Horus at the prow of his boat. Like Ra, he shines on the horizon. ”

“ Of the ancient religion of pre-Christian Britain there are few written records, but it is contrary to all experience that a cult should die out and leave no trace immediately on the introduction of a new religion. The so-called conversion of Britain meant the conversion of the rulers only; the mass of the people continued to follow their ancient customs and beliefs with a veneer of Christian rites. The centuries brought a deepening of Christianity which, introduced from above, gradually penetrated downwards through one class after another. ”

“ The coldness of the devil's entire person, which is vouched for by several witches, suggests that the ritual disguise was not merely a mask over the face, but included a covering, possibly of leather or some other hard and cold substance, over the whole body and even the hands. Such a disguise was apparently not always worn, for in the great majority of cases there is no record of the Devil's temperature except in the sexual rites, and even then the witch could not always say whether the touch of the Devil was warm or not. ”

“ But behold, Thoth had discovered the loss of his Book, and Thoth raged like a panther of the South, and he hastened before Ra and told him all, saying, "Nefer-ka-ptah has found my magic box and opened it, and has stolen my Book, even the Book of Thoth; he slew the guards that surrounded it, and the snake that no man can kill lay helpless before him. Avenge me, O Ra, upon Nefer-ka-ptah, son of the King of Egypt." ”

“ Behold the men whom I have created, how they speak against me. Tell me what ye would that I should do to them, for verily I will not slay them till I have heard your words."
And Nun, the great god whose dwelling is in the waters of the sky, made answer, "My son Ra, greatest of gods, mightiest of kings, thy throne is set fast, and thy fear will be upon all the world when thou sendest out thy daughter, the apple of thine eye, against those who attack thee." ”

“ The suggestion that the Devil was a man, wearing either an animal's skin or a mask in the form of an animal's head as a ritual disguise, accounts as nothing else can for the witches' evidence as to his appearance and his changes of form. A confusion, however, exists from the fact that the witches, and therefore the recorders, usually spoke of the familiars as the Devil; but in almost every case the disguised man can, on examination of the evidence, be distinguished from the animal familiar. ”

“ The charms used by the witches, the dances, the burning of the god and the broadcast scattering of his ashes, all point to the fact that this was a fertility cult; and this is the view taken also by those contemporary writers who give a more or less comprehensive account of the religion and ritual. Though most of the fertility or anti-fertility charms remaining to us were used by the witches either for their own benefit or to injure their enemies, enough remains to show that originally all these charms were to promote fertility in general and in particular. ”

“ Then Nefer-ka-ptah was eager in his questions, and the priest replied, "Thoth wrote the Book with his own hand, and in it is all the magic in the world. If thou readest the first page, thou wilt enchant the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; thou wilt understand the language of the birds of the air, and thou wilt know what the creeping things of earth are saying, and thou wilt see the fishes from the darkest depths of the sea. ”

“ To them belong the South and the North, the West and the East, and the four great goddesses are their protectors. They stand upon the lotus-blossom and their faces are towards Osiris; the first has the face of a man, the second the face of an ape, the third the face of a jackal, and the fourth the face of a bird of prey. This is the hour which evil-doers fear; by their own actions are they judged, and naught can avail them. Heavy is the heart of the evil-doer and drags down the scale ”

“ Dead and buried are they, embalmed and bandaged as men embalm and bandage the dead upon earth. They cry aloud salutations to Ra as he passes, calling to him across the vast expanse, but so far away are they that the sound of their voices is as the roaring of savage bulls, as the cry of birds of prey, as the wail of mourners, as the murmur of bees. ”

“ Loud does he hiss and roar, and the Duat is filled with the thunder of his voice, yet Isis flinches not, nor does she cease her incantations and the magical movements of her hands. Her spells prevail and the abominable Apep lies helpless on the sand. Then Selk and Her-desuf leap from the Boat of Ra and bind him with cords, and with sharp knives they pierce his flesh, hoping to destroy him. But Apep is immortal, and every night will he await and attack the Boat of Ra. ”

“ Thick darkness broods not upon this land, for twelve great hooded snakes lie coiled upon the bank, and the breath of their mouths is a flame of fire, gleaming upon the dark water and upon those who dwell in the Duat. ”

“ And to this day men make dough of wheat-flour kneaded with salt and lay it upon the wound made by the sting of a scorpion, and over it they recite the Words of Power which I recited over the child of the woman Glory when the sevenfold poison was in him. For I am Isis, the great Enchantress, the Mistress of magic, the Speaker of spells. ”

“ Then the associates of Set came together and took counsel, and took upon themselves the likeness of crocodiles and hippopotamuses, for these great beasts can live under water and no human weapon can pierce their hides. They came up the river, the water swirling behind them, and rushed upon the Boat of Ra to overturn it. But Horus had gathered together his band of armourers and weapon-smiths, and they had prepared arrows and spears of metal, smelted and welded, hammered and shaped, with magical words and spells chanted over them. ”

“ Mysterious and strange are they, and the shadowy shapes which fill them have forms like the forms of men. In this country Ra is Lord and King, and those who live here are in peace, for none can pass the great hooded snakes who guard the gates, whose breath is mingled flame and venom. ”

“ Horus stands by and beholds their torments, for these are the enemies of Osiris and of Ra, doers of evil upon the earth and blasphemers of the gods. No help can come to them, no escape is possible; doomed are they by their own actions to the sword and fire. ”

“ And together they made a little magic box, like the cabin of a boat, and they made men and a great store of tackle, and put the men and the tackle in the magic cabin. Then they uttered a spell over the cabin, and the men breathed and were alive, and began to use the tackle. And Nefer-ka-ptah sank the magic cabin in the river, saying, "Workmen, workmen! Work for me!" And he filled the royal barge with sand and sailed away alone, while Ahura sat on the bank of the river at Koptos, and watched and waited, for she knew that sorrow must come of this journey to the Southern Land. ”