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In ancient times, magic was an ever-present force. People from all corners of the world accepted the reality of magical powers. On serene Sundays, everyone, from temple priests to the eccentric neighbor next door, would spend their day indoors, attempting to summon spirits and perform spells.
While these spells likely had no real effect, that didn't stop anyone from trying. If you had lived a couple of thousand years ago, you might have caught sight of your neighbor experimenting with some of the mystical incantations listed here.
10. Voodoo Dolls Of Love
Just like Voodoo witch doctors, the ancient Greeks and Romans also crafted magical dolls. However, theirs weren’t always intended for causing harm. Sometimes, these figurines were made to cast love spells—though, if you saw someone crafting one for you, it might not exactly fill you with warm feelings.
To make a woman fall in love with you, according to ancient Greek sorcery, you only need to sculpt two figurines from clay—one male and one female. The male should resemble Apollo, while the female should be positioned on her knees. And as for the male figure? He should be depicted chopping off the female's head.
Then, take some bronze needles and stab one into the figurine's head, shouting, 'I pierce your brain!' Continue piercing each part of her body, naming each area you're stabbing, and finish with a dramatic 'I pierce your anus!'
Next, grab a lead tablet and write a message to Pluto, requesting that he make her 'unable to eat or drink' until she comes to you. Ask him to 'drag her by her hair, her guts, her soul to me.' Secure the tablet to the figures and place them on the grave of someone who was murdered.
Follow these instructions, and your true love will be drawn to you forever. Or, she might file a restraining order. Either way, one of those two outcomes is almost certain.
9. Summoning A God
Here’s an intriguing life hack: The next time you have a burning question that needs an answer, simply follow these straightforward steps, and you can summon a dark messenger of the gods right from the comfort of your own home.
Start by placing an olivewood table—one that has never been used by anyone—right in the center of the room. Drape it with a tunic, and beneath the table, stack four bricks. Place a clay incense burner in front, and begin mashing wild goose fat and myrrh into small balls.
Now, shout, 'I invoke thee who art seated in the invisible darkness!' Repeat the phrase, 'Send up to me this night thy archangel Zebourthanunen,' three times, and then gaze at the table in complete silence until dawn breaks.
If you’ve followed these steps to the letter, an archangel with a nose on his feet should appear and begin revealing the forbidden truths that mankind was never meant to hear. Once he vanishes, write down your desires on a tablet of reading the hours (any kind will do) and place it on the bricks—your dark wishes for humanity will soon become our twisted reality.
Be sure to share with us the dark secret that Zebourthanuen revealed to you in the comments!
8. An Invisibility Spell
Invisibility, it turns out, isn’t all that difficult. According to a 1,700-year-old incantation, all you need to do is chant these words: 'Assesouo, dim the eyes of every man or woman, when I go forth, until I achieve as many things as I wish!' Then, soak a few ingredients in 'oil with crocodile dung' and rub it on your face.
A portion of the spell is now illegible, so we can't really test it ourselves—but the scribe who wrote it down clearly had faith in its effectiveness. And that’s an intriguing notion because it suggests someone tried it and was probably pleased with the results.
It stands to reason that, at some point in history, there was likely a man who entered a store with crocodile dung smeared across his face, proceeded to grab things from the shelves, and shouted, 'Ooo, I’m a ghost!' The other shoppers, whispering among themselves, would have probably muttered, 'Just pretend you don’t see him.'
7. A Spell To Win Chariot Races
In the Greco-Roman world, an athlete seeking an advantage had a powerful tool at their disposal: magical curses. These hexes were considered a significant issue. During the Greek Olympics, organizers kept a sharp eye out for anyone suspected of being under a magical curse, as they believed it was a common occurrence.
But sometimes, these spells didn’t just offer a slight advantage. Some of them were downright vicious.
One spell, found in a Greek magical text, invokes the gods to put the opponent through torment. 'Torture their thoughts, their minds, and their senses!' the spellcaster would chant, before escalating things by shouting, 'Pluck out their eyes!'
That’s nothing compared to another spell, which calls on the gods to directly eliminate the other team. It begins by invoking everyone from the Egyptian gods to Jewish angels, before asking them to 'cast down and cause to fall' the rival team. To leave no doubt about the severity of the request, the spellcaster then pleads with the gods to 'smite' and 'drag' them from the backs of their chariots.
Of course, you could always opt for a spell that simply slows down the other team—but let's be honest, if you really wanted to ensure victory across the finish line, plucking out their eyes and dragging them to their doom might have been the safer choice.
6. Love Potions
There were countless love potions in the ancient world, but this one guarantees romance—because any woman willing to drink this concoction must already be in love with you.
An ancient Greek spell instructs you to soak a scarab in milk for four days, then remove it and slice it in half. Bind the left half to your arm using myrrh and saffron. Then, take the right half of the scarab, your right hand and foot nails, nine apple seeds, and as much of your own urine as you can gather, and mix them into a ball. Finally, drop the strange concoction into a glass of wine.
Once you've convinced your crush to drink a glass containing your urine, you’re just one step away from making her fall for you. All that’s left to complete the spell is to sleep with her. Yes, that’s right: All you need to do to make this love spell work is persuade a woman to drink your pee and sleep with you. Then, she'll begin to love you.
5. Give People Seizures
Anyone who would use magic to induce a seizure in another person clearly has to have a bit of a dark streak to begin with, but whoever came up with this spell must have been completely out of their mind.
Step one is to decapitate a donkey and place its head between your feet. Cover your right foot with 'set-stone of Syria' and your left foot with clay, then position your right hand in front of you and your left hand behind you. Afterward, pour donkey blood on your hands and into your mouth.
With the blood in your mouth, shout, 'I invoke thee who art in the void air, terrible, invisible, almighty, god of gods dealing destruction and making desolate!' Then, because the god of gods may have some concerns about why you’re gargling donkey blood, calmly explain, 'He has wronged me. Therefore I do these things.'
If you're willing to go through with all of this, the Greeks believed that the gods would grant you the power to cause your enemy to have a seizure. But this wasn’t a one-time deal. You’d need to repeat this ritual eight times over four days.
4. Death Spells
If merely causing a seizure doesn’t satisfy your darker needs, there were spells that could take things even further. In fact, that very spell could evolve into a death sentence. The difference? You’d need to perform it 14 times instead of just eight, and on top of that, you'd have to bind a mat of palm fibers to your genitals.
To get the gods to carry out a killing on your behalf wasn’t a simple task, but people did manage it. We've uncovered sheets of lead inscribed with death curses. One such spell invokes the god Mercury, requesting that he lead three enemies 'to the greatest death,' ensuring that they experience neither 'health nor sleep' until they succumb to agonizing death.
It’s a horrifying thought to put three individuals through such suffering, but the reason for Mercury’s wrath becomes clear. It’s believed these men had stolen one of his cows. So, in fairness, they probably had it coming.
3. Developing Your Magical Power
A Persian grimoire describes how to enhance your magical abilities and experience a divine vision. While we can't vouch for its ability to summon magic, this method would surely make you see some wild sights.
Persian magicians were instructed to spend 90 days preparing their magic power before attempting a spell. They had to isolate themselves in a room that women were not allowed to enter, eat minimally, speak only magical incantations, and keep their eyes fixed on the ground during the entire process.
While sequestered, they were to create three magical talismans, stitch together a patchwork cloak, and mostly engage in memorizing the names of angels. During the last 30 days, they would fast, only being allowed to touch food after sunset.
After the 90 days of solitude and deprivation, they would step outside, walk around a pile of seven stones several times, and repeatedly pull a cat's tail in and out of a bottle. Finally, they would peer through the bottle, where they would see a spirit on the other side.
It probably worked. Anyone who went through all of that was bound to see something in that bottle. Still, Persia could've saved themselves a lot of hassle if they'd just had LSD.
2. Magical Nonsense Words
As the first civilizations in Mesopotamia began to thrive and doctors emerged, medicine took a new shape—diagnoses, evaluations, and treatments began to be tested and proven in ways never seen before. However, these were the early days, and medicine still wasn’t trusted without a sprinkle of magic.
The Babylonians and Assyrians believed that repeating a word could imbue it with magical powers, often unconcerned with the actual meaning of the words. Sometimes, the words made some sense. One spell for treating eye disease involved the doctor chanting the words for 'eye' and 'open' while repeating, 'Igi bar igi bar, bar igi bar!'
More often than not, however, the words were complete gibberish. One spell, for instance, had the doctor chant, 'En ni ip pa ah min ki ri ni ip pa ah,' which, when translated into English, simply becomes: 'En ni ip pa ah min ki ri ni ip pa ah.'
But most of the time, they'd actually perform the medicine after the magic. Before attempting to remove debris from someone’s eyes, doctors would ask the debris to 'rain down here like a star' before adding, 'the knife and scalpel of Gula reach you!' Essentially, the doctor was saying, 'Before we try this surgery thing, let’s kindly ask the debris to come out on its own.'
1. Dealing With Dog Bites
The Egyptians had their own method for handling dog bites. They were particularly concerned about the 'venom' in a dog’s mouth, so their sorcerers tried to extract that venom through magic.
The remedy involved gargling a mouthful of dog’s blood while declaring, 'I have come forth from Arkhah, my mouth being full of the blood of a black dog. I spit it out!' Then, you’d mash garlic into the wound and yell at it daily, with your mouth still filled with dog blood, until it healed.
Putting garlic on a dog bite is still used as a folk remedy today, so it may have had some effect—though modern health experts claim it doesn't work. Whether it actually healed the wound or not, one thing is certain: This spell would definitely show the dog who’s in charge.
