Egyptian Magic: Preface excerpts:

“…the belief in magic, that is to say, in the power of magical names, and spells, and enchantments, and formulæ, and pictures, and figures, and amulets, and in the performance of ceremonies accompanied by the utterance of words of power, to produce supernatural results, formed a large and important part of the Egyptian religion. … this belief influenced their minds and, from the earliest to the latest period of their history, shaped their views concerning things temporal as well as spiritual in a manner which, at this stage in the history of the world, is very difficult to understand. ,…”

“From the religious books of ancient Egypt we learn that the power possessed by a priest or man who was skilled in the knowledge and working of magic was believed to be almost boundless.

By pronouncing certain words or names of power in the proper manner and in the proper tone of voice he could:

• heal the sick,
• and cast out the evil spirits which caused pain and suffering in those who were diseased,
• and restore the dead to life,
  • and bestow upon the dead man the power to transform the corruptible into an incorruptible body
  • wherein the soul might live to all eternity.
• His words enabled human beings to assume divers forms at will,
• and to project their souls into animals and other creatures;
• and in obedience to his commands, inanimate figures and pictures became living beings and things which hastened to perform his behests.

The powers of nature acknowledged his might, and wind and rain, storm and tempest, river and sea, and disease and death worked evil and ruin upon his foes, and upon the enemies of those who were provided with the knowledge of the words which he had wrested from the gods of heaven, and earth, and the underworld. Inanimate nature likewise obeyed such words of power, and even the world itself came into existence through the utterance of a word by Thoth; by their means

• the earth could be rent asunder,
• and the waters forsaking their nature could be piled up in a heap,
• and even the sun’s course in the heavens could be stayed by a word.

No god, or spirit, or devil, or fiend, could resist words of power, and the Egyptians invoked their aid in the smallest as well as in the greatest events of their lives. To him that was versed in the lore contained in the books of the “double house of life”

• the future was as well known as the past, and
• neither time nor distance could limit the operations of his power;
• the mysteries of life and death were laid bare before him, and
• he could draw aside the veil which hid the secrets of fate and destiny from the knowledge of ordinary mortals.”

Click here:–> Egyptian Magic: Preface – by E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. LONDON, August 28th, 1899