Signs, Symbols & Omens: An Illustrated Guide to Magical & Spiritual Symbolism Read online

  Ancient Egypt

  During the more than four thousand years that the ancient Egyptian civilization flourished, religion and magic came together as never before . . . nor, perhaps, since. Talismans, amulets, figures, pictures, spells, and formulæ were part and parcel of everyday life. Prayers were intermingled with magical spells, chants, and incantations to protect from the hostile and to encourage the affable. From the earliest pre-dynastic times, the Egyptians saw the whole earth, together with the underworld and the sky above, as home to innumerable invisible beings. Some of these were friendly but many were not. The purpose of the magic that was developed was to give humankind authority over these beings, yet this magic was of both positive and negative kinds. There was magic to benefit the living and the dead, but there was also magic to harm others.

  There are numerous papyri containing formulæ for preparing medicine and drugs, such as the Edwin Smith Papyrus (c. 1500 b.c.e.), the Ebers Papyrus, the Hearst Papyrus, and others in both the British Museum and in Turin.2

  Magic certainly played a major role in ancient Egyptian medicine. Despite preparing bodies for embalming (in a formalized, basic operation that never varied), they had little understanding of human anatomy and, hence, little ability to diagnose. The medical panacea to evict evil spirits was magic.

  Much, if not most, of ancient Egyptian magic was guided by astrology. Many of the papyri exhort the operator to perform the ritual on a certain day and to avoid days that were thought to be hostile to the act. From these extant writings it is known that the year of the Egyptian calendar was made up of 365 days. Each of those days was divided into three parts, one or two of which were considered lucky or unlucky.

  The word hieroglyph, from the Greek, means “sacred carvings,” and is the word used to describe the numerous carvings and paintings on the walls of the tombs and temples. The Egyptians called these hieroglyphs “the speech of the gods.” The symbols themselves were thought to have magical powers. The earliest examples of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, unlike the picture writing of Native Americans and Eskimos, were made up entirely of pictures that had phonetic values. For example, the horned viper picture became the letter f, the cobra the letter g, a hand the letter d, and an owl the letter m. Words were composed by putting together different combinations of symbols. Hieroglyphs were first used about seven thousand years ago and continued in use until about 400 c.e.

  It became standard to use certain hieroglyphs by themselves as amulets and talismans. The best known is probably the ankh, meaning “life.” Others were the tet column (“stability”), the Eye of Horus (“soundness/wholeness”), and sa (“protection”).

  Most hieroglyphics were colored. Traditional colors were blue for the sky and all celestial objects; red for a human male; yellow or pink-brown for a female; and animals, birds, and reptiles in their natural colors, so far as possible. The “writing” followed a variety of forms. Some hieroglyphics were read from left to right, and some from right to left; some were written in vertical columns, and some in horizontal lines. On either side of a door, for example, the writing would go down each side and would be read from top to bottom. The figures on each side would face in toward each other. In other words, any figures on the left of the door would face to the right, while figures on the right of the door would face to the left. Similarly, the figures on a horizontal line faced the reader. That is, if the figures face to the left, then the writing is read from left to right; if the figures face to the right, then the writing is read from right to left. This is why you may see examples of individual hieroglyphs facing in opposite directions.

  There are a tremendous number of hieroglyphs and it is not possible to show them all in a book of this size.3 Here are the most common ones, including the Egyptian alphabet and some of the determinatives.

  Egyptian Alphabet

  A

  Å

  A

  I

  Egyptian Alphabet (continued)

  U

  B

  P

  F

  M

  N

  R

  L

  H

  H

  KH

  S

  Egyptian Alphabet (continued)

  SH

  K

  Q

  K

  T

  T

  TH

  TCH

  Determinatives

  God; Divine Being

  Goddess

  Man

  Woman

  Tree

  Plant; Flower

  Earth; Land

  Road; to travel

  Foreign Land

  Foreigner

  Determinatives (continued)

  To call or beckon

  To eat; to think; to speak;

  whatever done with the mouth

  Inertness; Idleness

  Water

  House

  Animal

  Bird

  Fish

  To cut; to slay

  To cook; burn; fire

  Determinatives (continued)

  Smell

  To overthrow

  Strength

  To walk; to stand; actions performed with legs

  Flesh

  Little; Bad; Evil

  Rain; Storm

  Day; Time

  Village; Town; City

  Stone

  Determinatives (continued)

  Metal

  Grain

  Wood

  Wind; Air

  Liquid

  Crowd

  Children

  Beard

  Right Eye

  Left Eye

  Determinatives (continued)

  To see; to look

  Right Eye of Ra

  Ear

  Opening; Mouth; Door

  Breast

  To embrace

  Hand and Arm; to give

  Hand

  To go; to walk; to stand

  Serpent; Body

  Determinatives (continued)

  Worm

  Feather

  Staircase; to go up

  Tet (stability)

  Ankh (life)

  Magical knot

  Rope

  Cartouches

  For the names of royalty and of deities, the letters are placed in a rectangular frame known as a cartouche (so called because it resembles a cartridge). For example, the cartouches for Hatshepset and for Thothmes III would be as follows:

  Hatshepset Thothmes III

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  2. See Life Under the Pharoahs by Leonard Cottrell (London: Evans Bros., 1955).

  3. Recommended is the classic Egyptian Language by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge.

  Astrology

  Origina
ting in Mesopotamia, probably around the third millennium b.c.e., astrology is the art of foretelling events through observation of the planets, fixed stars, sun, and moon, in their juxtaposition and their relationship to the earth. As we know astrology today, it is a combination of the early Babylonian ideas and those of the Egyptians. The Greeks adopted and perfected it, attributing gods and goddesses to the stars and planets. In his Laws, Plato proposed a composite god (Apollo-Helios) as the principal deity for the state, uniting the god of mythology with the sun.

  An astrological horoscope is, in effect, a diagram of the positions of the planets as seen from a particular spot on the earth at a specific moment in time. The individual’s horoscope comes under the heading of genethliacal astrology, a branch of judicial astrology. Foretelling events of national and international importance is known as mundane astrology; answering questions is horary astrology; and forecasting weather is meteorological astrology.

  It is believed that each planet has a particular influence on a person at the time of hi en time, with a different ascending sign appearing over the horizon approximately every four minutes. As the sun moves throughout the year, it passes through twelve different areas of sky and constellations. These areas are called houses of the zodiac, with the dividing lines between the houses known as cusps. The houses each measure thirty degrees, so the sun takes approximately one month to pass through each of the houses. The houses are named as follows:

  Aries

  March 21 through April 19

  Taurus

  April 20 through May 19

  Gemini

  May 20 through June 20

  Cancer

  June 21 through July 22

  Leo

  July 23 through August 21

  Virgo

  August 22 through September 22

  Libra

  September 23 through October 22

  Scorpio

  October 23 through November 21

  Sagittarius

  November 22 through December 21

  Capricorn

  December 22 through January 20

  Aquarius

  January 21 through February 19

  Pisces

  February 20 through March 20

  The planets close enough to have an influence on a person are the Sun, Moon (not actually a planet, of course), Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto. The symbols used in astrology for these planets and for the signs of the zodiac are as follows:

  Signs of the Zodiac

  Aries

  Taurus

  Gemini

  Cancer

  Virgo

  Leo

  Signs of the Zodiac (continued)

  Libra

  Scorpio

  Sagittarius

  Capricorn

  Aquarius

  Pisces

  Sun

  Moon

  Mercury

  Venus

  Planets (continued)

  Mars

  Jupiter

  Uranus

  Saturn

  Pluto

  When considering the relationship of the various planets to each other from the drawn chart, the relative positions are described as aspects. They are measured by drawing an imaginary line from the center of the earth to the planets concerned, along the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun around the earth), and measuring the difference in the angles. Two planets that are 180° apart form an opposition. Two planets close together (within 8° to 10° of each other) form a conjunction. Semisextile is the term for planets 30° apart; semisquare (or semiquartile) is the term for planets 45° apart; sextile for 60°; quintile for 72°; square (or quartile) for 90°; trine for 120°; sesquiquadrate (or sesquare) for 135°, and quincunx for 150°. Here are the symbols for the planetary aspects:

  Aspects

  Opposition

  Conjunction

  Semisextile

  Semisquare

  Sextile

  Quintile

  Square

  Trine

  Sesquiquadrate

  Quincunx

  The Moon’s Nodes

  The moon’s orbit intersects with the ecliptic (the apparent orbit of the sun around the earth) every nineteen years. The points where the moon’s orbit intersects the plane of the ecliptic are called the moon’s nodes.

  Ascending Node

  Descending Node

  Hour

  Day

  Day & Night

  Week

  Month

  Year

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  Australian Aborigines

  Australian Aboriginal art is found mainly as rock engravings, primarily in western New South Wales and northeastern South Australia. Much of it is abstract in form. However, there are also bark paintings and body paintings, plus the decoration of ceremonial objects.

  The various tribes have a wide variety of myths featuring, along with humans, such creatures as serpents, turtles and tortoises, jungle fowls, dingos, crocodiles, and other reptiles. Fish and insects are also included. The songs and dances of the rituals frequently enact the adventures of tribal ancestors, and the art complements these songs and dances. The tribal ancestors have become near-gods, who performed miracles and even traveled through the air or under the ground. The myths, chants, and rituals are nurtured in secret mystical lodges to which the men of the tribe belong. The men decide when, or even if, to pass on their knowledge to the younger men.

  In the north of the Northern Territory, women play a more important role than elsewhere. It is there that can be found the myth of the Great Fertility Mother. It was she who first arrived, from the sea, and gave birth to humans as she moved from place to place. The Rainbow Snake, a python, also plays an important role in this area. He is associated with the rains and floods; with the wet season.

  The Aborigines believe in reincarnation and in the transmigration of souls into animals and reptiles. Death is accepted, since all will be reborn.

  This is the Rainbow Serpent of Energy; the sacred body of the earth and spiritual order of the universe. Serpents are featured a lot in Aboriginal art. The Rainbow Serpent is the unity between the physical and the spiritual worlds. It is believed to be attracted to rituals in which the participants are painted in red ochre, which, in turn, increases the sexual energy of the ritualists.

  This is the medicine man, Mungada, who cures the sick. He does not practice black magic and is not feared. However, his pictorial form is very similar to that of Gurumuka, the night-dwelling spirit who is greatly feared. The differences are in the decorations: the bands of color around the arms, legs, and face. Gurumuka also has large teeth sticking out with which he bites his victims.

  Here is the Gundaman lizard. As with many Aboriginal paintings, this reptile is drawn in what amounts to an x-ray view, showing internal organs (in this case the lungs and alimentary canal).

  Laitjun was a mythical figure in the
Blue Mud Bay area of Arnhem Land. He was the son, or a second aspect, of the god Banaitja. Laitjun showed the Aborigines what designs they should paint on their bodies.

  Big-Breasted Women

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