The Caretaker

THE GRECO-ROMAN MAGICAL MILIEU - 8/8/2022

Added 2022-08-08 18:31:43 +0000 UTC

INTRO

One of the problems with the term “Western occultism” is the variety of traditions that form complex relationships that are always being renegotiated
There are many structural parts of western magic that could not exist without the Greek tradition, even though a lot of the content is Jewish
The Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian traditions were constantly in conversation with each other, and so they should be discussed together
The main driver of that interaction was the Jewish diaspora, which is also why even in syncretized magical practices, the most visible element is the Jewish one
THESIS: You can’t understand western magic without understanding the interactions between Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Egyptian magic in the first century CE, BECAUSE of the fall of the temple and Jewish diaspora, the birth of Christianity, and the Roman conquest of Egypt among other influences.
The reader should not fall into the trap of thinking that at this time or any time these three traditions–whose boundaries are not stable–ever formed a cogent unity. That is why I use the term “milieu” rather than tradition, which would imply that these practices existed in a stable unity.

THE GRECO-ROMAN MAGICAL MILIEU

Religion and magic worked the same way.

***DISCUSS CLASSICAL GREEK MAGIC, E.G. CULT OF HEKATE

* you can say this all bares mentioning, but we have less sources for it, and the elements of greek magic that are most influential today come from later centuries. Also the details of of early classical and pre classical greek magic by and large did not survive.

The dawn of the first century was dominated by syncretism. Magic and religion were being remixed all over the place. The myriad religious and magical cultures that appeared in this time frame deserve books all their own, but in the interest of time, we will discuss the magical and religious milieus of our main three ingredients:

GREEK MAGIC

(Three sections:

What did magic mean to the greek world?
- Discuss greek interaction with zoroastrianism, origin of Magi
- What was disallowed?
- From where did the power come?
How did Greek magic work?
- Sports?
- Defixiones
- Theurgy vs Goetia
- What was “authentically greek”?
How did greek magic effect the systems it interacted with?
- It was kinda the broth, the medium by which other elements

The Greek world was a tapestry of magical practitioners. >>[For every sphere of life, there was a different kind of practitioner…]

>>Seers, the manteis and chresmologoi sold their services door to door, but the good ones work at the temples. The epodoi, sing incantations. The thaumatopoioi perform wonders which the tetraskopoi interpret. The goetoi speak to the spirits of the dead. Those who require medicine go to the root-cutters, the rizotomoi or the herbalists, the pharmakaeis. The world teems with magic, and those who work in its fold are called mágos, magicians. [this is from Gosden, find where he got it]

(Maybe make a table that gives short descriptions of these dudes, along with their roman equivalents?)

(Maybe discuss the origins of the word “magic” here? Like, talk about the Magi.)

(Talk about defixiones/katadeseis-katadesmoi)

DIASPORIC JEWISH MAGIC

(Three sections:

What did magic mean to the jewish world?
- Define terms like Keshaphim
- Discuss biblical prohibitions on magic
- Charismatic holy men vs Learned body of knowledge
How did jewish magic work?
- That one spell for killing mice
- Exorcisms
- Magic Amulets
- Invoking god for curses
How did jewish magic effect the systems it interacted with
- Importance of written language
- A common set of techniques
- A cosmopolitan and syncretic list of ingredients

The recently-concluded second temple period saw Jerusalem in a period of bitter, divisive social upheaval. New institutions like new standards of kingship, the synagogue, and a new class of non-priestly Torah interpreters (what would eventually become the modern Rabbi) were popping up left and right. Judaism wrestled with sectarianism, dualism, the idea of the afterlife, and a new apocalyptic strain of theology. If you think all that is complicated for you, just imagine how they felt. (Period in history where people choice really mattered, complicated, chaotic. We just threw a bunch of words at threader, give them a humorous soft landing. )

Periods of social upheaval tend to be fertile soil for new religious and magical ideas. Due to the Roman conquest, the Jews were forced to socially upheave themselves all across the Mediterranean. A whole library could be written on the diaspora's effect on magical history alone. In the interest of time and accessibility, we will be summarizing.

The obvious starting place for any discussion of Jewish magic is the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh does not discuss “magic” because for the time there was no unified or stable idea of magic, but it does place prohibitions on specific practices that we today would consider magic. This mild ambiguity leaves open a door for a diverse array of practices, as one could argue that they are not doing what is prohibited, but only something similar to what is prohibited.

Deuteronomy 18:10-11 states:

“Let no one be found among you who consigns a son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead.”

The terms used to discuss these practices and their specific translations bear some discussion. First, Kosem, which is probably a general term for those who see the future, comparable to “diviner.” with gazerin being a similarly general term for “those who practice magic.” In particular, there are also me’onen, the soothsayers, and machesh, the enchanters, and mechashef, the sorcerers. Although it is also possible that kosem is also a specific term for astrologers, and that kesamim refers to the specific sort of divination that astrologers do. (ibn Ezra on deuteronomy.)

(ask that torah scholar what the proper way to cite rabbinical literature is)

A particularly striking passage is found in Moses and Aaron engaging in a magical duel with the Pharaoh’’s wizards in Exodus 7:10. Within the context of biblical law, there is clearly some meaningful difference between what Moses and Aaron are doing, and what the Pharaoh’s wizards are doing. When Moses throws down his staff, it becomes a snake through the action of god, however the Pharaoh’s magicians are also able to turn their staffs into snakes via some indeterminate “secret art.” This raises the question: If there is no power but god, what exactly did the Pharaoh's magicians do? Though the Pharahoh’s magicians ultimately lose their magical duel, this passage acknowledges the existence of metaphysical powers outside of god.

This passage raises another important question. Was Moses a magician? Were Jewish charismatic holy people, in the fold of Jacob, Isaiah, and Jesus, magicians? There is some evidence to claim that the working of miracles could reasonably be called magic. However, I will argue that there is a meaningful difference between the works of a charismatic holy person, and a magician. In Ancient Jewish Magic, A History, Gideon Bohak draws a key distinction: The charismatic Jewish holy men of history perform their works through an innate power, whereas magicians rely on an “acquired body of technical knowledge (27).” Simply put, a prophet cannot teach someone else how to be a prophet, but a magician can.

– Errata stars here –

To start off, we should talk about biblical prohibitions about magic, and the term “Keshaphim” Specifically in the passages ( Exodus 7:11 Exodus 7:22 ; Exodus 8:7 Exodus 8:18 )

Isaiah 47:9 Isaiah 47:12

Jeremiah 8:17 ; Compare Psalms 58:5 ).

( Numbers 24:1 )

( Isaiah 47:9 Isaiah 47:12 ), "magical spells." All kinds of enchantments were condemned by the Mosaic law ( Leviticus 19:26 ; Deuteronomy 18:10-12 ).

One of our earliest sources on magic within the Jewish traditionis Philo, a Jewish philosopher from the Roman province of Egypt writing around the year 20 CE. Philo’s understanding of magic neatly follows the greek paradigm. He explains that there are two types of magic: On one hand, there is true magic, a revered art especially among the people of Persia, which is a discipline similar to science, in which the magician experiments to reveal the secrets of nature. On the other hand, there is the evil and deceptive counterpart, a profane art pursued by mendicant priests who sell snake oil medicines from stone altars to the dregs of society (read, women, slaves, etc.) for their own nefarious and chaotic purposes. [bohak, 79]

This clearly parallels the greek conception of magic as divided between the good Rhizotomoi, who acted as itinerant healers, and the evil Pharmakon, who were more closely associated with poisons and malicious spagyry.

Talk about how the dead sea scrolls gave us two new rules about magic

The First: No cursing The Name
The Second: “whoever is ruled by the spirits of Belial and speaks apostasy is to be judged in accordance with the law of the ’ov and the yide‘oni.”

Talk about ‘ov and yideo’oni

(Judaism was traditionally more focused around temples. The diaspora radically changed focus onto preservation and interpretation of scripture. Rabbinical system wasn’t codified until the 6th century.)

(the introduction of Charismatic holy men vs Magic as learned body of technical knowledge)

(the Hebrew Bible displays a deep-seated conviction that many striking feats – from the cleaving of rivers to the destruction of mighty walls – could be achieved not only by men of God, but also by the correct manipulation of God’s sacred objects. Similarly, the Greek distinction between “true piety” and “superstition,” that is, religious behavior which simply made no sense to a rational (Greek) observer, was quite meaning-less to most ancient Jews. Bohak 38)

(“Monotheistic gods are immune to magic.” < wrong)

(The Septugant, translated into greek during the 3rd century, tells us a few things: “We thus learn that not only necromancy, augury from birds, and other divinatory techniques are entirely forbidden, but also the dabbling in pharmaka (plural of pharmakon, which means both “poison” and “magical procedure,” not to mention the meaning “medicine,” whence the English word “pharmacy”) and the reciting of incantations.”)

(Book of Jubilees: The demon leader, Mastema, (Hatred) begs for clemency, so god lets one demon go, and the rest have to teach their healing arts to man.

This created a new category of practice that couldn’t be classified as keshaphim) (Define Keshaphim)

(Dead Sea Scrolls, comes with two new rules on magic

The First: No cursing The Name

The Second: “whoever is ruled by the spirits of Belial and speaks apostasy is to be judged in accordance with the law of the ’ov and the yide‘oni.”)

Josephus: (Now, all biblical prohibitions on magic are condensed into “Pharmakon”

This would sound really similar to the Roman “Lex Cornelia de sicariis (et veneficis)”

Or, “The Law of Assassins and Poisoners”)

More Josephus: (When asked if Moses was a Goetes, he says:

Moses didn’t invent his own laws, he got them from god

Moses’s miracles beat the egyptian wizards, proving their superiority and difference)

Summary of the 2nd temple period:

On the one extreme, we noted Philo’s very Greek concept of magic, which distinguishes between the noble art of the Persian Magi and the base counterfeit of that art as practiced by women and slaves

On the other hand, we saw the literary trajectory leading from 1 Enoch to Jubilees and to the Dead Sea Scrolls, with an elaborate demonological awareness, a conviction that magic is one of the evil things taught to humanity by the Fallen Angels, and a willingness in the Qumran sect to condemn any deviant member under the biblical rubric of the ’ov and the yide‘oni, as well as a willingness to use many techniques that we might see as “magic” in the daily fight against the forces of evil

Josephus’ general disinterest in “magic” as a concept, his downplaying of the relevant biblical legislation, and his pride in such ancient Jewish practices as the exorcism of demons.

multiplicity of views of magic and an absence of any real emic definition of magic as a legal or social concept. (87)

– end errata –

A PEEK UNDER THE HOOD

JEWISH MAGIC IN ACTION

[Talk about how in this part, you’re gonna look at how one practiced magic and how that magic worked in this context. One or two lines.]

The day-to-day practice of Jewish magic had three main types: exorcisms, magical amulets, and aggressive/erotic magic.

Exorcisms fall into three distinct types. The first is the use of animal, vegetable, or mineral products that possess a natural anti-demon effect, such as in the book of Tobit, when the heart of a certain type of fish is smoked to drive away the demon Asmodeus. The text is clear that it is specifically the smell that drives the demon away. There is no ritual or charismatic component to the fish heart’s effects beyond the smell of its smoke. The magic lies in the inherent properties of the fish, and in the laws of nature.

There were exorcists that did not consider natural or charismatic elements sufficient on their own. In Josephus’sThe Jewish War, he gives an account of an exorcism that involves natural and charismatic components with a significant degree of development. I would be remiss for not quoting the colorful passage in its entirety:

“In the ravine which encloses the town (Machaerus) on the north, there is a place called Baaras, which produces a root bearing the same name. The root has a flamelike color and towards evening it emits a brilliant light; it eludes the grasp of persons who approach with the intention of plucking it, as it shrinks up and can only be made to stand still by pouring upon it a woman’s urine or menstrual blood. Yet even then to touch it is fatal, unless one brings the very same root, suspended from one’s hand. Another innocuous mode of capturing it is as follows. They dig all around it, leaving but a minute portion of the root covered; they then tie a dog to it, and the animal rushing to follow the person who tied it easily pulls it up, but instantly dies – a substitute, as it were, for the one who intended to remove the plant, since after this, the root poses no danger to those who handle it. With all these attendant risks, it possesses one virtue for which it is prized; for the so-called demons – that is, the spirits of wicked men which enter the living and kill them unless aid is forthcoming – are promptly expelled by this root, if merely applied to the patients.”

The name of the plant, the ba’aras root itself, seems to be a transliteration of the Aramaic word for flame, and related to a similar Greek plant called aglaophotis, or “wonder-shine.” (Bohak 91) Josephus seems to emphasize the similarities between the two plants, the ba’aras and the aglaophotis, making it clear that both are “soul-drawing” roots, as in roots that will draw out the soul of any who tries to pick it. It is a trope that readers may recognize from the lore surrounding the Mandrake Root.

[PUT THE THING ABOUT JEWISH MAGICIANS LEARNING HERBIARY FROM ANGELS HERE ITS THE PERFECT TRANSITION, leave some commentary about how even with the razor of “magicians learn and prophets are,” the categories still blend together]

ANCIENT JEWISH CHARISMATIC EXORCISMS

Any magical practice that relies on the innate power of the practitioner can be difficult to study, as no two practices are ever alike. The Christian New Testament and rabbinical literature are both full of accounts of itinerant holy men performing miracles. They heal the sick, control the rain, ford rivers and lakes, raise the dead*, and occasionally even perform miracles on accident when someone touches their robes or shadow. (Bohak 94) These charismatic holy men generally model themselves after biblical archetypes like Elijah, Elisha, and Moses, but make ample use of exorcisms, which were outside the repertoire of such figures.

While these charismatic holy men rarely describe themselves or their practices, there is ample “outsider” (read: biased, corrupted, and apocryphal) evidence of others observing and commenting on their work. Descriptions of charismatic exorcisms run the gamut. In the Genesis Apocryohon we see Jesus make simple, repeated demands like “dumb and deaf spirit, I command you to come out of (the demoniac) and no longer enter him.” Rabbi Shimeon Bar Yohai and miracle-worker Hanina ben Dosa take a more involved approach, performing exorcisms through extended dialogues or negotiations with the demons.

RITUAL EXORCISM

Rather than relying on innate power or the occult properties of natural materials, some Jewish exorcists used elaborate rituals and incantations to expurge demons. These rituals were generally taught from master to student, handed down through generations of practitioners in writing. Thankfully for us, that means that much of what they wrote survives today.

The Book of Jubilees and the Book of Antiquities of the Bible each feature passages where a prayer is incanted aloud to drive away a demon. (They’re long quotes but they’re on Bohak 99) While Jewish exorcisms would evolve over time to become significantly more elaborate, the examples from Jubilees and Antiquities feature elements that would become commonplace in exorcisms well into the present day.

First, the exorcist addresses the demon in the second person accompanied by taunts, threats, and rhetorical questions. In earlier incantations the exorcist never spoke to the demon directly: this was an innovation. Second, the exorcist details the demon’s origins in the greater order of creation, chastising the demon for straying from its divinely intended place in the underworld.

Josephus makes a critical bridge between this type of ritual exorcism and the work of King Solomon:

“And God granted him knowledge of the art used against demons for the benefit and healing of men. And he composed incantations by which illnesses are relieved, and left behind modes of exorcisms by which the possessed drive out the demons so that they would never return.”

This passage makes several distinctions that will be critical in the development of western magic. First of all, though this knowledge is divine in origin, it is the sort of thing that can be learned and reproduced. Second, the incantations and modes of exorcism (read: spells) are things that Solomon composed. It is clear that while Solomon was given knowledge from God, it was given in a form that left room for application. It is as if God gave Solomon the knowledge that exorcisms can be performed by playing the lyre, but it was still up to Solomon to compose the song.

Josephus continues:

“And this was the mode of healing: He would bring to the nose of the demoniac the ring which had under its seal one of the roots prescribed by Solomon, and then, as the man smelled it, drew out the demon through his nostrils, and, when the man at once fell down, adjured the demon never to return, while mentioning Solomon’s name and reciting the incantations which he (i.e., Solomon) had composed.” (Bohak 101)

Here we see a mixture of the two previously discussed methods of exorcism. The ritual features both the manipulation of natural elements like roots alongside charismatic elements like incanting and adjuring the demon to leave.

The ring is a crucial ritual element of this exorcism. It is unclear whether the ring is necessary for the root to work, or is simply amplifying its power in some way. But the fact that it is there evinces a developing system of ritual jewelry, furniture, clothing, and other accouterments that will come to dominate western magic. Josephus does not describe the ring, but given King Solomon’s association with magical rings, we can safely speculate that it may have been inscribed with the tetragrammaton in some form of paleo-hebrew lettering. (Bohak 104) Similarly, Josephus does not describe the root in question, only mentioning that Solomon prescribed it for the ritual.

(we need a conclusion for this section)

AMULETS

So why the amulets? Well, for the time, it was understood that oftentimes exorcized demons would come back. Any exorcist worth their salt would provide some sort of countermeasure to ensure that the demon did not return.

This was not a belief common to the second temple period, however. Jesus never prescribed amulets to demoniacs, and in the book of Tobit, raphael assures Sarah and Tobias that the demon will never return again, so it is safe to assume that the production of amulets was a later invention. In fact, it is more than likely that the production of apotropaic amulets did not have its roots within jewish culture at all.

However, past a certain point in history, the writing of the tetragrammaton becomes an apotropaic mark par excellence. How exactly this became this case is a matter of speculation, but contemporary judaism already placed a deep spiritual importance on written text, so magical amulets inscribed with the name of god seems a natural fit.

Rabbinic sources from roughly the year 200 CE reference writing the Name on everything from ones body (but not tattooing it), to furniture, to utensils, to moses's staff, to the weapons of the Israelites at Sinai, to the ring and chain used by Solomon to capture Ashmedai. The sacredness of the Name gave way to several ritual practices within Judaism that utilized its unique power through inscribing it on objects.

JEWISH CURSES ET CETERA

Magic is not an easy thing to draw clear borders around. Any foray into a cultures magical milieu will reveal evidence of practices that don’t fit neatly into any one specific category. The term “curse” is broad and flexible. The jews besieged in the city of Jerusalem probably heaped many a curse upon Josephus, who was encouraging them to surrender to the romans, but their curses were likely more rude than magical.

It can be difficult to determine how “magical” a particular piece of “jewish magic” may be, but it is often equally difficult to determine just how “jewish” a practice might be. A good example would be a pair of graves on the island of Delos which feature the following inscription:

“I invoke and beseech the Most High God, Lord of the spirits and all flesh, against those who treacherously murdered or killed with pharmaka the wretched Heraclea, untimely dead, spilling her innocent blood in unjust fashion, so that the same would happen to those who murdered or killed her with pharmaka and also to their children. Lord who oversees all things and angels of God, before whom every soul humbles itself in supplication on this present day, may you avenge this innocent blood and seek [justice?] speedily.” (Bohak 126)

Tomb curses like these were extremely common in the Greek world, often invoking Helios, Nemesis, Isis, or the Syrian goddess. These graves are unique, in that they invoke the Jewish god.

ARAMAIC AND HEBREW MAGICAL PAPYRI

There are two types of written sources for Jewish magic in practice in this era. First, there are Magical Papyri, which are akin to magical cookbooks where “spells” are written one after another. Second, there are what Bohak calls books of Literary Magic, which are collections of magical knowledge framed within a story.

Some of the most famous Jewish Magical Papyri were recovered from the Cairo Genizah. (A genizah is a storage area in a Jewish synagogue or cemetery for storing damaged or worn-out texts and ritual objects so they can be ritually disposed of. They are treasure troves for religious scholars.) The magical texts recovered were written on highly perishable materials like papyrus or vellum, and only survived due to being mummified by the dry air of northern africa. Even for the time, papyrus was not the sturdiest of materials, and texts like these had to be regularly copied by scribes to preserve the knowledge within.

Magical papyri are often abysmally preserved and poorly translated. They were generally owned by individuals, copied haphazardly, and discarded upon the death of the owner, but even through these myriad roadblocks, we find something invaluable: Multiple copies of the same text. We are given a firsthand look at how magical knowledge develops from generation to generation, how it lives and breathes. Prof. Bohak describes it well, and his words are worth quoting in their entirety:

“We may say that magical recipes are a bit like the DNA of a living organism, containing the information which enables the creation of a new organism, and the mechanism by which to replicate itself. Moreover, just like DNA, some of the longer spells are actually made up of smaller units or “blocks” which could be grouped together in different forms, so that a passage from one recipe or “finished product” bears close resemblance to a passage from another recipe or “finished product,” while the remaining parts of the two texts may differ.” (148)

This conception of magic holds true today. Ideas that practitioners like, ideas that fit within the broader cultural milieu, are reproduced to the next generation. Magic moves through the waters of history like cuisine, like music.

BOOKS OF “LITERARY” MAGIC

In stark contrast to the Hebrew and Aramaic magical papyri, there are also books of magic in the more common sense of the term “book”. These texts have a story with a beginning, an end, and a narrative structure in which the spells are embedded. It is here that we will encounter a repeating theme throughout magical history: dubious authorship. These texts are strange, attempting to place them neatly in any one cultural milieu or attributing them to any specific author with a specific agenda is risky at best and ahistorical at worst. Even attempting to date these texts is difficult. Attempting to find some untarnished, untranslated, untransformed, “original” is difficult, if not impossible. The texts must be taken as they are.

THE SEPHER HA-RAZIM

The Sepher Ha-Razim or “Book of Mysteries” stands out from other magical texts of the time because unlike the more common “recipe book” style of magical text, the Sepher Ha-Razim has a narrative structure. Mythologies are nothing new, but the Sepher Ha-Razim constructs its own mythology in such a way as to reinforce the importance (and power?) of its contents.

The text begins by establishing its supposed angelic origins: “This is one of the books of the mysteries given to Noah, the son of Lamech . . . by the angel Raziel in the year when he entered the ark, before his entry.” This acts as an appeal to the texts credibility, as well as a way to sidestep existing biblical prohibitions against magic, essentially claiming “This magic book is allowed because it came from angels, and the Jewish patriarchs of antiquity love it.” Magical texts claiming divine inspiration will be a recurring theme throughout the rest of magical history, with varying degrees of success.

The body of the text is structured as a description of the seven heavens. (bohak 171) Each heaven features a description of its interior structure, the list of angels that can be found within that heaven, and the “overseer” or “minister” angel who commands them. Following each list of angelic names is a short description of the role those angels play in creation, as well as a series of recipes that allow the practitioner to call on said angels should the need arise.

For example “the first heaven has seven “camps,” the fourth of which is commanded by the overseer KLMYYH, who has some forty-four angels serving under him – ’BRYH, ’YMRHY, DMN’Y, ’MNHR, and so on; they are all in charge of entertaining kings and grandees and granting grace and charm to whoever approaches them in purity.” (Bohak 171)

If the practitioner wishes to call upon this angel for assistance, they must perform an intricate ritual that involves standing before the planet venus, slaughtering a lion cub with a bronze knife, mixing the blood with wine and aromatics, and mentioning the name of the overseer and his underlings. (In this case, KLMYYH and company) If performed properly, “And when you finish reciting this adjuration twenty-one times, look upwards and you shall see something like a flame of fire descending into the blood and the wine.” (Sepher Ha-Razim)

What follows is a series of modifications for the same ritual, edited for applying that angelic grace and charm to different situations. Perhaps the practitioner wants to go before the king? Then the ritual should be modified in X way. Perhaps the practitioner wants to curry favor with the populace? They would modify the ritual in Y manner.

Through this, the Sepher Ha-Razim demonstrates a notably more complex interaction with magical ideas than was common for the time. What we see here is something new, a methodology, an attempt at optimizing magical rituals for specific purposes.

The seventh heaven features no angels, only the abode of god. As such, the text bares no description except for an elaborate hymn in praise of god. This is a structure we will see repeated later in our discussion of Merkava mysticism.

(171 of ajm)

(Sepher Ha-Razim)

(Sword of Moses)

Babylonian Aramaic starts showing up on Incantation bowls

The advent of more literary magical texts:

Sepher Ha-Razim
Sword of moses

**A second feature of these magical texts is that in spite of some variation between the different types of magical products (e.g., magical papyri vs. magical gems), they all display a common set of magical techniques, “words of power,” and visual designs, images, and symbols, most of which are unique to this specific magical idiom. (195)

Basically, we hit the 1st century, and a new magical idiom shows up, characterized by three things: