Ancient Egyptian spell book deciphered by Macquarie University

WANT to win a heart? Got a ghost to get rid of? What about a persistent infection? A recently deciphered ancient Egyptian codex has a spell for that.

Ancient book of spells unlocked

WANT to win a heart? Got a ghost to get rid of? What about a persistent infection? A recently deciphered ancient Egyptian codex has a spell for that.

Researcher’s can’t quite bring themselves to say “spell book”. So they’re calling the 1300-year-old book a “Handbook of Ritual Power”.

But it’s really a spell book.

Written in Coptic, the mystically illustrated piece of papyri contains 27 spells for a series of specific purposes.

Want to bend someone to your will? Chant these words over two nails, before hammering them into the doorposts of your opponent.

Figure of power ... The codex makes reference to “Baktiotha”, a deity-like figure. Source: Ms. Effy Alexakis/Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre

Want to know more of arcane history? Read all about Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, and the great and powerful “Baktiotha — lord over the forty and the nine kinds of serpents”.

The book was purchased from a Vienna antiquities dealer by Sydney’s Macquarie University in 1981.

Professors Malcolm Choat and Iain Gardner have now published the results of their research in the book, A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power.

They say the book of spells appears to have originated among of group of Christian heretics known as Sethians in the 7th Century. Likely written during the early years of the Christian faith, the name Jesus is mentioned in several invocations.

But it’s Baktiotha that gets top billing: “I give thanks to you and I call upon you, the Baktiotha: The great one, who is very trustworthy,” the translation reads.

There’s a spell for that ... The codex contains 27 spells for a variety of purposes, including love, revenge and business success. Source: Ms. Effy Alexakis/Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre

“The Baktiotha is an ambivalent figure. He is a great power and a ruler of forces in the material realm,” the authors recently said while promoting their book.

The papyrus is itself a source of mystery. Who owned it before the sale to Maquarie University is unknown.

Otherwise, a few clues contained within the document — such as the style of writing — suggests it originated near the ancient city of Hermopolis in Upper Egypt.