Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
It is argued that the origins of magic are found in the ancient Near East. Since the Greek term magea is borrowed from an ancient Middle Eastern language, it is expected that the research on ancient Middle Eastern ceremonies and spells will result in the essence of why a tradition, practice, or procedure is called magic. However, the phrase has a different origin as it usually occurs. The source has little to do with what is referred to as Middle Eastern magic. Furthermore, magic does not objectively refer to the customs of the ancient Middle East from the beginning but instead contains the value judgments evoked by Greek thought on the Middle East.[1]. As a result, the origins of “magic” can be seen as early examples of “orientalism.” Thus, the concept of magic was surrounded by a mixture of curiosity, ridicule, and confusion from the beginning.
Initially, Greek writers used the name Magos, a literal translation of an ancient Persian magician, as a derogatory term for Iranian religious experts and as a derogatory term for ceremonial people whose activities, according to the author, lack devotion. Derived from mágos, megea quickly became synonymous with the same controversial meaning. This classification is commonly used as a negative word for ritual acts designated as esoteric, illogical, and unholy. Finally, according to this idea, magic is a potent trick used by discerning meditators on young and unsuspecting victims.
Judging from its utilization in Greek literature, magic has since evolved into one of the three primary standards for defining and grouping human history and surroundings, particularly anthropology and religion. The Trinity of Magic, Science, and Religion provides a solid heuristic base for organizing the study of civilizations’ past and present. Religion encompasses all phenomena related to God, whereas science deals with man’s logical and empirical efforts to develop objective and verifiable knowledge. Worship, including theology and ethics; Magic, on the other hand, is a capricious (and thus often hidden) child born of science. Since then, students from pre-classical and non-European cultures have criticized this approach, arguing that the three categories do not adequately reflect the actual structure of that culture and do not coincide with the conceptualization of this part developed within this cultural structure. In particular, sorcerers have argued that the name “magic” should be avoided entirely, or at least reserved for behaviors despised by the research community, because of its negative connotations and pervasiveness.
Sumerian and Akkadian ceremonial texts and chants are associated with specific occupations in ancient Mesopotamia. The text itself can be called iptu “exorcism” or simply “magic.” According to Babylonian mythology, this collection of books was written by Enkiea, the God of wisdom and amulet, and finally compiled by Enkiea herself. Mesopotamian magic can be divided into four main types: Protective magic that removes and reflects evils that befall (or fall over) the cult’s client, and aggressive magic in which ritual clients gain superiority, power, and charm. Witchcraft is an unlawful and forceful kind of magic that has caused harm to the ritual client.
The latter category is known as “dark magic.” The first two groups are called “white magic,” and aggressive magic falls in the middle. The overwhelming majority of transmitted ritual texts fall into the first two categories, and the transition from impurity to purity is essential to each. No letters were sent regarding illegal witchcraft. However, knowledge of the concepts and beliefs related to magic can be obtained from the exorcist tradition’s collections of protective anti-magic and aggressive rituals.
Anthropologists generally distinguish between witchcraft, which is defined as the activity of a person who identifies himself as a witch because of his innate personality and abilities, and witchcraft, which is defined as the learned skill of performing harmful rituals and using magically crafted substances. This distinction is not expressed in Akkadian and Sumerian magical terms and therefore has no relevance to the Mesopotamian evidence. Although in most texts, the archetypes of wizards and witches are depicted as brothers using special witchcraft tactics, although Mesopotamian sources rarely depict witches with demonic and superhuman personalities, internal witch characters appear. In Akkadian, many phrases can be employed to allude to witchcraft. Some of these expressions appear to have been substantially stripped of their distinctive implications in the extant textual record. Kip “witchcraft” is the basic word for illicit, malevolent witchcraft.
Cuneiform tablets were a significant (if not the only) source of knowledge about ideas and ideas about magic and witchcraft in the ancient cultures of the Near East. Fights and disagreements led to accusations of witchcraft. Legal literature, such as laws, documents, pledges of allegiance, and contracts, has provided information about prohibited ceremonial acts and how their enforcement is punishable. In many ancient languages of the Near East, lexical essays offer essential information about the vocabulary of witchcraft and witchcraft. Myths allow us better to understand the role of gods in magical rituals.
Exorcism rituals can be performed as well as in front of the stars. Witches were believed to perform evil rituals in front of the same stars. Some sources indicate that at least some form of magic was considered perfect in the presence of the gods upon which ritual customers relied to escape from magic. The gods were not, by definition, allies of the patient. Perhaps the witches misjudged him because they slandered him, or perhaps they turned their backs on him in anger because of their shortcomings. One of the healing ritual goals was to convince God of the patient’s innocence and persuade him to change his mind. Anti-witchcraft spells have further evidence of the belief that witches could unwittingly practice sorcery and inflict pain on their patients by avoiding divine attention. Anti-witchcraft rituals warn the gods of the unnecessary suffering of their patients and the horrific actions of the witch so that the gods can solve the problem.
Many, if not all, societies take the effects of symbolic gestures for granted somehow. The Babylonians and Assyrians considered witchcraft one of the possible causes of disease and misery in Mesopotamia. While all witchcraft-induced afflictions may be referred to as ‘hand-of-men’-disease (Akkadian qt multi), certain sets of symptoms could be classified as black magic. Stomach difficulties, lung ailments, infertility, emotional problems, mental disorders, and complicated, terrible diseases that caused great pain, paralysis, and fast decline of the patient’s health are examples. Nonetheless, the identification of bewitchment was not random; specific warning signs, such as excessive salivation, bleeding from the lips, or the bizarreness of the illness pattern, were recognized as characteristic of witchcraft-induced disorders.
The tablets in the private collection were made as part of training by a young scribe who replicated technical information. A great example is a Neo-Assyrian library located in the so-called “House of the Exorcist” of Neo-Assyrian Ashur (7th century BC). The tablets of royal libraries, particularly those of the Neo-Assyrian Nineveh and Hattus eras, were written by well-trained scribes who generally worked under the supervision and frequently used multiple sources. The creation of these libraries included systematic collection, text editing, tablet ordering, and expert recruitment.
In ancient Mesopotamia (Babylonia in the south of Iraq and Assyria in the north), ceremonial texts and spells were associated with particular occupations. The text itself can be called iptu “exorcism” or simply “magic.” According to Babylonian mythology, this corpus of books was written by EnkiEa, the deity of wisdom and exorcism, and was finally composed by EnkiEa himself.[2] The first recorded hymns in cuneiform date back to the mid-3000 BC. They were found in Babylonian settlements and at Ebla in northwestern Syria and were written in Sumerian or ancient Akkadian. The collections of Sumerian and Akkadian incantations and rituals acquired specific formal stability, as seen in similar library works from the 1st century. However, editing and serialization of the text continued, and some text groups appeared to be organized. For example, it is a long series of articles about the Assyrian monarch Sargonid, initially written by 7th-century scholars.
The primary purpose of most Babylonian anti-magic rituals is to change the fate of the sick and the witch. Spells cast by warlocks and witches on their victims are removed and returned to their creators. Warlocks and witches are destroyed to undo magic and consciously destroy ideas. The patient regains the place of his former life, and those who seek to harm him are defeated due to an evil maneuver.[3]. Naturally, enacting this coup within the framework of an anti-magic ritual is similar to an evil ceremonial act in which warlocks and witches are charged with a diagnosis, or more specifically, a magic spell. Often rituals to fight witchcraft turn out to be a mirror image of what witches are doing. Therefore, it may seem like a matter of perception to distinguish between witchcraft protection rituals and what would be considered lousy witchcraft. However, there are essential differences between anti-magic traditions and behaviors attributed to warlocks and witches.
Many anti-magic rites, including most letters to Ama, the Heavenly Judge, are recorded in the language of ceremonial lawsuits. In this painting, the patient takes on the role of a victim who the villains have damaged. He defends his position, and at the end of his ritual, he is cleansed and rehabilitated and experiences the torment the witch has planned for her innocent victim. Therefore, their punishment is consistent with one of the basic principles of ancient Mesopotamian law.
Maklu, or “burning,” was the most comprehensive Babylonian rite of passage against witchcraft. His one-day event involved casting nearly 100 spells. The basic scheme of rituals is standard in most traditions fighting magic and consists of simple transitions where victims return from the brink of death, cleansed and unbound. Wizards and sorcerers are assigned a fate prepared for their victims, returning the witchcraft.[4] Changing the patient’s fate and the wizard can be seen as legal to acquit an innocent patient who made a wrong decision due to the wizard’s slander.
After sunset, the Maklou ritual begins with an appeal to the stars, believed to be representations of gods. The afflicted teams up with the underworld gods, requesting that they capture the witch and collaborating with the gods of heaven, who are summoned to cleanse him. With the help of a magic circle, the Exorcist must protect the Crucible, which will play an essential role in future events, and bring the entire universe to a standstill to aid the patient’s cause.
This ritual is followed by a lengthy sequence of burning ceremonies in which different figurines of warlocks and witches are burned in the Crucible. At this point in the rite, the following magic is spoken. Warlock and witch figurines of clay and fat are thrown in the fire during the exorcism, when the clay character explodes and the tallow figurine burns.
After the sorcerer is killed in a fire, a particular witch goddess figure is violated by splashing black liquid onto her head. This deed defines her destiny, witch, and her patient sends her into the shadows of her night. In the later part of the evening, the damaging rites for the villain are gradually replaced with ritual elements aimed at cleansing the patient and safeguarding him in the hereafter. The chant honors the rising sun as the patient’s Savior, and the ceremony concludes with the patient verifying himself in the pure waters sparkling in the early sun.
To Maklou, the texts of spells and ritual instructions were transmitted from Mesopotamia in nine tablets. Speak. The utterance of individual orders accompanied her. Maklou’s bits of witchcraft were written in Akkadian, especially in the later literary style Akkadian known as Standard Babylonian. Maklou does not know the exact creation date. Maklou’s text had a fixed “canonical” format dating back to 1000 BC and survived in several other Babylonian and Assyrian libraries.[5] This canon was most likely compiled, compiled, and compiled in Babylonia at the end of the second millennium.
More than 100 cuneiform tablets and fragments collected from various libraries in Babylonia and Assyria attest to the Maklou text. The most notable manuscript sets are from the Royal Library of Nineveh (7th century BC), but private exorcist libraries such as the libraries of Kiiraur (Ashur, 7th century BC) and Ika (Uruk, 4th–3rd century BC)), There were also tablets with Maklou. The Maklu Order was part of the curriculum of the first millennium scribes, and numerous copies of passages and complete tablets written by students throughout the course contributed to the restoration of the text.
First Footnote | Subsequent Footnote | Bibliography | |
Article | Mesopotamian Magic – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021. | Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | Phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. 2021. Mesopotamian Magic – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online. |
Online Article | Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | 2021 | Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | University of Helsinki, 2021 |
Journal | Maqlû – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021 | Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | Phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. 2021. Maqlû – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online. |
Journal Article | Tablets & Libraries – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021 | Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021 | Phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. 2021. Tablets & Libraries – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online. |
References
Phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. 2021. Mesopotamian Magic – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online. [online] Available at: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/cmawro/magic-witchcraft/mesopotamian-magic/
The University of Helsinki. 2021. Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | University of Helsinki. [online] Available at: https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/language-culture/mesopotamian-anti-witchcraft-rituals
“The Magic of Mesopotamia”. 2021. Medienportal.Univie.Ac.At. https://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uniview/forschung/detailansicht/artikel/the-magic-of-mesopotamia/.
Phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. 2021. Maqlû – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online. [online] Available at: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/cmawro/magic-witchcraft/maqlu/
Phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. 2021. Tablets & Libraries – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online. [online] Available at: https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/cmawro/magic-witchcraft/tablets-libraries/
[1] (Mesopotamian Magic – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021).
[2] Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals | University of Helsinki, 2021
[3] The Magic Of Mesopotamia” 2021
[4] (Anti-witchcraft Rituals – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021)
[5] (Maqlû – Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals online, 2021).