The Mysterious History Of Magic (What the Ancients Knew & We Lost) – Agrippa’s Diary

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[Music] The ancient priest-kings used to say that stars rule men, but a wise man rules the stars. What is the meaning behind this profound statement, you might wonder? The answer lies in understanding magic—the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will, as defined by Aleister Crowley. Magic is real; there is no doubt about it. Like any powerful tool bestowed upon humanity by the Divine Creator, it can be used for both good and evil. To not believe in it, to quote the venerable Francis Barrett, is to be defenseless against it.

In today’s video, in collaboration with After Skool, we will trace the fascinating history of the magical arts through time, exploring its ancient origins, its development in various civilizations, its complex relationship with early spiritual practices and religions, and its legacy kept alive by various secret societies throughout the centuries.

Long before the written word, when the world was a vast, uncharted wilderness, magic thrummed at the heart of human existence. In these prehistoric times, magic acted as a vital aspect of daily survival. Understanding magic in its most primal form was the means by which early humans sought to interact with the forces of nature and appeal to the spirits of the land, the sky, and the vast unknown. It was the earliest form of spirituality—a way to make sense of the natural world and one’s place within it.

Shamans, tribal healers, druids, and seers acted as mediators between the physical world and the spiritual realm, employing rituals, chants, and dance to invoke spirits, heal the sick, and glimpse into the future. These practices were deeply embedded in the fabric of prehistoric communities, shaping their beliefs, their art, and their understanding of the cosmos.

The ancient origins of magic are etched in the walls of caves and the surfaces of ancient artifacts. Cave paintings, some of the earliest forms of human expression, are rich with magical symbolism. In the dim light of torches, early humans painted scenes of hunting and figures that appear to merge human and beast. These images were not just records of daily life but invocations for success in the hunt, fertility, the changing seasons, the cycles of life and death, and protection against the dangers of a world beyond their control.

The figures often depicted with antlers or wings suggest a shamanic transformation—a journey into the spirit world to gain the aid of powerful animal totems. Symbols such as spirals, circles, and handprints found in these ancient sanctuaries carry their own magic. Spirals evoke the cycles of life, the seasons, and the journey of the soul, believed to hold protective powers. Circles represent the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon, symbolizing wholeness and eternity. Handprints, the personal mark of the individual, were a plea for blessing or healing—a signature that linked the physical to the spiritual.

As humanity’s cradle rocked gently in the ancient river valleys, magic evolved from its primal roots, which we define today as low magic, into sophisticated systems of mysticism and ritual, categorized as high magic. In Mesopotamia, the ancient cradle of civilization, magic was a core part of religious belief. Incantations and rituals, known in the Akkadian tongue as asipu or maasu, were the tools employed to sculpt the malleable clay of their world, aiming to fend off the spectral threats of demons, ghosts, and malevolent intentions.

For example, the ancient rites of the kisu involved offerings laid in tombs to pacify the restless spirits of the aggrieved, and the ceremonial burial of figurines to compel the divine eradication of malevolent spirits epitomized the Mesopotamian quest for cosmic equilibrium. In this land, where the veil between the rational and the magical was unseen, the distinction between the two was a concept unfathomed.

The asipu, a figure of immense knowledge and reverence, traversed these realms as a healer, a priest, and a sage, embodying the synthesis of the sacred and the scientific. This conjurer would wield arcane knowledge against shadowy curses cast in secrecy, conducting a rite known as the burning to sever the tendrils of witchery with the purifying flames of justice. This exalted role was generally passed down from generation to generation and was held in extremely high regard, with priests serving as advisers to kings and great leaders.

Thousands of years later, the enigmatic John Dee would serve a similar role to Queen Elizabeth I of England, unearthing the wisdom of Enochian magic by making contact with angels and demons alike. Enki, later known as one of the Anunnaki and the deity of wisdom, water, and incantation, was revered as the fountain of all esoteric law and associated with the number 40 and the planet Mercury, standing at the heart of the Mesopotamian magical system.

In the ancient realms of Babylon, magic was not only a practice but a profound art employing mystic incantations, sacred rituals, and potent amulets. The exalted Babylonian priests, like the asipu, the exorcists, and the ASU, the healers, served as the hallowed intermediaries between the earthly and the divine, their lives devoted to mastering the arcane disciplines that governed the forces of the cosmos.

With whispered spells etched upon venerable clay tablets, they conjured ancient powers, crafting a symbiotic dance with the gods themselves to mold reality’s fabric in accordance with the hidden laws of the universe. The Enuma Anu Enlil, a compendium of omens, and the creation epic Enuma Elish narrate the story of creation through the victory of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, over chaos, symbolizing the order brought about by magical and divine intervention.

In this celestial drama, the Babylonian pantheon reigned supreme. The enchanting Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, Enki, the sage of watery depths, and Tiamat, the primordial embodiment of chaos, stood as testaments to the cosmic balance of creation and destruction. Their legends are etched in the annals of time, beneath this divine assembly, a myriad of lesser spirits and demons cavorted, each a crucial player in the grand cosmic theater, challenging or aiding the magicians in their quest to navigate the tumultuous sea of fate.

But it was neither in Babylon nor Mesopotamia that the magical arts reached their peak; it was in the sacred land of the Nile, known in ancient times as Kemet, where the magical arts reached their zenith. Magic in ancient Egypt was far more than mere illusion; it involved the deliberate manipulation of forces deemed supernatural, embodying natural laws as deities to achieve specific outcomes. For the Egyptians, a world devoid of magic was unimaginable; they believed magic not only brought the world into existence but also maintained it daily. It provided healing, sustenance, and the promise of eternal life after death.

Thus, magic permeated every facet of ancient Egyptian life, being as routine and essential as sleep or cooking. From conception to birth, through life and beyond death, magic was a constant presence embodied by Heka, a god who predated creation itself. In the Coffin Texts, Heka claims this primordial power, stating, “To me belonged the universe before you gods came into being; you have come afterward because I am Heka.”

The core concept of Heka revolves around the transformative power of words to shape reality. The sacred word is the primary instrument employed by the Creator deity to manifest the world. Since humans are perceived to possess a divine essence akin to the gods, being made in their image, they too share the divine capability to employ words creatively, just as the gods do.

In ancient Egyptian magic, a combination of spoken words and specific hand gestures played a critical role in the execution of spells. This practice, deeply rooted in the belief system of the Egyptians, involved reciting incantations while performing ritualistic gestures to invoke divine powers and manipulate supernatural forces. These gestures, or magical passes, were thought to channel the energy of the gods and activate the magic imbued in the spoken words.

Together, the precise articulation of spells and the accompanying hand signs were believed to harness cosmic forces, offering protection, healing, and control over spiritual entities. This synergistic use of voice and movement epitomized the Egyptians’ sophisticated approach to ritual magic, reflecting their profound understanding of the interconnectedness of action, word, and divine intervention.

In fact, some occultists believe these signs were used to harness the powers of nature in order to manipulate matter, move objects, and awaken certain latent powers of the human body. These hand signs can be found in various works of art depicting Genesis and the invocation of spiritual entities to aid the priest in performing what would be to the uninitiated miracles.

The ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, writing, and magic also played a pivotal role in the magical arts by serving as the divine communicator and mediator between the gods and humans. Thus, it was through the essence of Thoth, who was later known to the Greeks as Hermes Trismegistus, that such deeds were performed. He was believed to be the inventor of writing, which was essential for formulating magical spells and incantations.

The magic of Thoth was thought to operate through the power of hieroglyphs—sacred carvings that were not merely representations of words but were considered potent magical symbols. These symbols, when written or spoken, were believed to have the inherent power to bring about changes in the material world or the spiritual realm. Thoth’s deep knowledge and mastery over these magical scripts enabled him to maintain the universe’s balance and order, making him a key deity in rituals aimed at healing, protection, and divine justice.

But what happened to the mysterious magical arts, you might wonder? How could it be that all these fascinating teachings got lost and went underground, essentially having no chapters in the mainstream history books? The answer is complex and deserves a video of its own, but this is what you need to know.

The decline of magical arts in the Western world can be traced through a series of cultural and religious shifts, primarily influenced by the Greeks, and later by the Romans and Christians. This transformation began in the late 6th to early 5th centuries BCE when the term “magia” entered the Greek language, initially used to describe rites seen as fraudulent, dangerous, and unconventional. This term set the stage for the negative perceptions of magic.

During this time, Greek city-states were engaged in conflicts with the Persian Empire, which had already occupied the ravaged Egyptian lands. It was these encounters that brought them into contact with different religious practices and influenced their views on magic. As Greek influence spread during the Hellenistic period, the scope of what was considered magic expanded. Greek authors categorized a broad array of practices, including enchantment, witchcraft, incantations, divination, necromancy, and astrology under the umbrella of magic, deepening its association with malign and suspect activities.

This broader negative connotation of magic was then adopted by the Romans in the first century BCE, who integrated these ideas into their own culture, viewing magic as a societal ill. By the first century CE, early Christians had begun to absorb these Greco-Roman concepts of magic, further embedding the negative stereotypes into their developing theology.

It was in this way that the emerging powers were able to bring the Persians and what remained of the Egyptian culture into submission, essentially erasing this knowledge from history. Influential figures like Pliny the Elder promoted the idea that magic originated with the Iranian philosopher Zoroaster, tying its roots to foreign, non-Christian sources. Early Christian thinkers like Augustine of Hippo echoed this sentiment, arguing that magic was fundamentally opposed to Christian religion because it involved demons, which were seen as the henchmen of Satan.

But these demons, in some cases, were nothing more than the ancient gods of the Mesopotamians, who long predated Christianity and who had once served as a source of protection for the cradle of civilization. Studying the roots of their names will reveal this truth. Because of this lack of understanding—or maybe because of ill intentions and the thirst for power—a series of tragic massacres occurred in medieval Europe, which we know today as the witch hunts.

It is for this reason that this knowledge had to be transformed into allegories, disguised in symbols, and kept hidden underground by secret cults—not because it was meant for this knowledge to be kept secret, but because people were not yet ready to receive it. Nonetheless, the teachings found their way into important works of art and literature.

Thus, the perception of magic as a dangerous and heretical practice was cemented in early modern Europe, particularly as Christian Europeans expanded their colonial endeavors. During this period, Europeans encountered diverse religious beliefs and practices across the world, which they labeled as magic to underscore their strangeness and illegitimacy. This label was also used internally within Europe as Protestants criticized Roman Catholic rituals as more magical than religious, intensifying internal religious conflicts.

Despite some Renaissance humanists’ efforts to recast magic in a more positive light as natural magic, the negative associations prevailed. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa discusses natural magic in his “Three Books of Occult Philosophy,” where he calls it nothing else but the highest power of natural sciences. The Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who founded the tradition of Christian Kabbalah and brought about the Hermetic Renaissance, argued that natural magic was the practical part of natural science and was lawful rather than heretical.

But it was already too late; the collective fear had already plagued the minds of people. Through these historical stages, magical practices, which might have once been part of normative or even revered religious traditions, were increasingly marginalized and demonized. This strategic demonization by Greeks, Romans, and Christians not only reshaped the understanding and acceptance of magic but also facilitated its decline, effectively erasing many of its forms from mainstream cultural and historical consciousness.

It is for this reason that the Great Library of Alexandria might have been burned, for while this knowledge still existed, the Egyptians and the Babylonians would continue to be a threat. Such is the tragic history of mankind. But there is still hope; fragments of this knowledge have been preserved underground by various secret societies throughout history, and the time has now come for it to be unearthed and deciphered for all to see and be awakened by its powers.

In the sacred rites of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, we can find traces of the lost rites of the ancients and the keys to what we once knew but lost. Although this knowledge is hidden behind alchemical and occult symbols, the seekers of truth will find no obstacle in finding this golden thread, unlocking the true history of mankind, forever basking in the glory of our sacred roots.

This is a story for another time, or that you can explore further on my YouTube channel. In conclusion, the journey through the mystical landscapes of the magical arts, as depicted in our exploration, reveals a rich legacy of human engagement with the supernatural. From the primal rituals of prehistoric shamans to the sophisticated rites of ancient civilizations, magic has been an integral part of human culture, evolving and adapting to the changing contours of society and belief systems.

The transformation of magical practices into popular modern media, such as the Harry Potter series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” and epic tales, illustrates a profound continuity and revival of these ancient traditions, albeit in fictional form. The hand signs and elemental manipulations seen in these series echo the ancient Egyptians’ use of gestures and words to harness cosmic forces, while certain concepts like the Philosopher’s Stone and the magical word “Abracadabra” echo the knowledge of the alchemical tradition.

Looking to the future, the resurgence of interest in magical arts, spurred on by popular culture and a renewed curiosity about alternative spiritualities, suggests a bright horizon for this ancient practice. As we delve deeper into the complexities of our own universe, the lines between science and magic may blur, revealing new ways to understand and influence the world around us. Whether through the continued fascination with fantasy literature and media or through the serious study of esoteric and occult practices, the magical arts are likely to persist and evolve, offering both entertainment and enlightenment.

In this way, the ancient arts of magic, so deeply woven into the fabric of human history, continue to inspire, mystify, and guide us, just as the stars guided our ancestors. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of After Skool. This script was written and recorded by a Gripper’s Diary, an educational project that serves as a captivating gateway to the world of the occult arts. My mission is to provide well-researched, engaging, and enlightening content that leaves no stone unturned in the quest for truth and personal growth. If you want to learn more about fascinating traditions such as hermeticism, gnosticism, and alchemy and their influence on modern philosophy and religion, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thank you for watching, and many thanks to After Skool for making this collaboration possible. [Music]

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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while ensuring clarity and appropriateness.