Ancient Egyptian Magic by Bob Brier

As part of my ongoing research for my intentions to eventually write something with fantasy elements set in actual ancient Egypt I reckoned this would be a good jumping off point. Granted, I did read the well-known EA Wallis Budge book eons ago, so I thought I'd mix it up and give Bob Brier's Ancient Egyptian Magic a spin. I certainly found Brier more friendly than Wallis Budge, and if anyone has an academic interest in how the ancient Egyptians viewed magic, then Brier's book is great place to start.

Something that can be said for the Brier is that his writing is accessible, and he gives a broad overview of not only the different methods but also gives a basic crash course on ancient Egyptian culture while he's at it – you can't really dig into the magical practices at least without some idea of the history behind it.

If something needs to be understood about ancient Egypt is that magic – and the practising thereof – was intrinsically embedded in the day to day. Doctors, priests, and magicians used amulets, spells, wax figures. Perhaps the most well known were the shabti figures that represented a pharaoh's servants in the afterlife – little statues that would come to life in the afterlife and serve the dead pharaoh so that he would not have to lift a finger after death. The gods themselves, practised magic in the stories – it was as natural as breathing. Great store was put in dreams, too, with some days considered more portentous than others.

Of course, there is also the famous Egyptian Book of the Dead which was not one book, as one might expect of say, the Christian bible, but rather a varying collection of spells to protect the deceased created specifically for individual folks – so the spells collated in each 'book' would vary from deceased to deceased. Brier also looks at how these books started as texts found in burial places – the Pyramid Texts – and eventually became inscribed on coffins and then scrolls.

This is a vast subject, and while this book does not represent a deep dive, it is still a useful jumping-off point that gives essential points that can be used for further study. In terms of the amount of study and research I've done over the decades, I didn't cover any new ground here, but what I read here put much into order, which I appreciated – so this is an excellent refresher. While the copy I read I accessed through a library, I've put the book on order for my permanent collection.