Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, who I had first encountered through his translation of the Kebra Nagast, but who had also been keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, had this to say on the subject:
Moses was a skillful performer of magical rituals and was deeply learned in the knowledge of the accompanying spells, incantations, and magical formulas of every description . . . . [Moreover] the miracles which he wrought . . . suggest that he was not only a priest, but a magician of the highest order and perhaps even a Kher Heb.
As a Kher Heb (High Priest) of the Egyptian temple Moses would have undoubtedly have had access to a substantial corpus of esoteric wisdom and magico-religious “science” that the priestly guilds kept secret from the laity. I knew that modern Egyptologists accepted that such a body of knowledge had existed. I also knew that they had very little idea as to what it might have actually consisted of: obscure references to it appeared in inscriptions in the tombs of senior temple officials but almost nothing of any substance had survived in written form. A great deal was probably passed on in an exclusively oral tradition confined to initiates.
From The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant by Graham Hancock
The classic translation of the hymns, rituals and prayers that the ancient Egyptians believed would guide and protect the dead in their journey through the underworld and ensure their immortality.
Publisher: Arkana
Paperback: 592 pages
An authentic presentation of the Papyrus of A-7i, the best surviving example of the texts that have come to be known as the Book of the Dead. It’s a collection of spells, charms, hymns, prayers and invocations, designed to guide the deceased’s journey in the afterlife. Provides rich insight into ancient Egyptian philosophical, spiritual and religious thought. Text is matched to the actual hieroglyphs on papyrus, which are reproduced in color. GR
Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 176 pages
Illustrated
Ideas and beliefs about immortality were crucial points upon which Egyptian religious and social life turned. Renowned Egyptologist Budge presents a synopsis of these ideas of the afterlife: belief in an almighty God; Osiris, the god of resurrection; the Egyptian gods of death; judgment at death; amulets, rites, charms and other items Egyptians regarded as essential for salvation; and more. MET
Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 198 pages
Covers the powerful amulets that warded off evil spirits; the scarabs of immortality; the use of wax images and spirit placements; magical pictures and formulas; magic via the secret name; magic of sounds; rituals; curses; destruction of hostile magic; determination of fortunate dates; and many other practices of the ancient Nile dwellers.
Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 234 pages
Illustrated
“Using the Book of the Dead as his chief source, the author examines the principle ideas and beliefs held by ancient Egyptians concerning the resurrection and future life, focusing particularly on the great central idea of immortality.”
Publisher: Arkana
Paperback: 216 pages
“The author, for many years the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum, was one of the 20th century’s greatest Egyptologists… Part One contains the principal facts about the religious beliefs and thoughts of the Egyptians, and their conception of God and the ‘gods,’ their enneads and triads, the religions and systems of the great cities and more. Magic, the cult of animals, the cult of Osiris, and the Tuat, or Other World, are treated at some length. Part Two is devoted to a series of superb English translations of some 19 hymns (some of which are certainly models for biblical psalms); myths, both ritual and etiological; 15 legends of the gods, and a selection of important miscellaneous texts.”
Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 545 pages
Illustrated
“For over 40 centuries, the Great Pyramid of Giza has tantalized and baffled mankind. Is it a royal tomb, a treasure-house, an astronomical observatory, or an incredibly sophisticated public works project? Or is it, as some believe, nothing less than the Bible written in solid stone? Or could it even be a landmark of an earlier civilization, perhaps immeasurably older than Egypt itself? Having discussed the extraordinary facts of the pyramid’s siting and construction, Peter Lemesurier goes on to uncover intriguing links between the pyramid’s picture of man’s place in the universe and the religious traditions of Egypt, Palestine, India and even Central America.” Dr. Gene Scott has read from this work on the air.
Publisher: Element
Paperback: 350 pages
Illustrated
“Explains the basic rules of the writing system and the grammar and then applies them to 13 actual inscriptions taken from objects in European and Egyptian museums… [through] explanations and learning the most commonly used glyphs, readers can begin to decode hieroglyphs themselves and increase their enjoyment of both museum objects and Egyptian sites.”
Publisher: University of Texas
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated
Such feats of engineering as the Giza pyramids, the irrigation system and so on suggest that the Egyptians knew the law of cause and effect. They also knew that this wasn’t all there was to this world. Egypt produced techniques of magic, innumerable magical texts and magical objects: figurines, statues, amulets, wands, etc. (pierced dolls are an Egyptian invention). The book also touches on the role of magicians, the magico-medical exchange with Mesopotamia, how rulers like Augustus (who burnt many magical books seen as subversive) reacted to magic, and the influence of Egyptian magic on Medieval and Renaissance times (including Arab scholars) and modern practitioners such as W.B. Yeats and Aleister Crowley. MET
Publisher: University of Texas
Paperback: 192 pages
Illustrated
Bitumen filling: “The arms, legs, hands and feet of such mummies break with a sound like the cracking of chemical glass tubing, they burn very freely, and give out great heat.” Preserved by natron: “The skin is found to be hard and hang loosely from the bones, in much the same way it hangs from the skeletons of dead monks preserved in the crypt beneath the Capuchin convent at Floriana, in Malta.“ Preserved in honey: “Once… they came across a sealed jar, and having opened it and found that it contained honey, they began to eat it… Someone in the party remarked that a hair in the honey turned round one of the fingers of the man who was dipping his bread in it, and as they drew it out, the body of a small child appeared with all its limbs complete and in a good state of preservation.” First edition appeared in 1893. GR
Publisher: Dover
Paperback: 513 pages