Magic & Ritual

The working documents of ancient magic: spellbooks from Roman Egypt, curses scratched into lead, and what people actually asked for.

Magic & Ritual21 August 2026

The Greek Magical Papyri: Real Spellbooks From Roman Egypt

Everywhere else the ancient world guarded its secrets. Then a cache of papyri surfaced in Egypt in the 1820s containing hundreds of pages of working instructions — for divination, binding, invisibility, and one ritual for meeting a god face to face.

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Magic & Ritual24 August 2026

Curse Tablets: Sixteen Hundred Letters Written to the Dead

Scratched into lead, rolled up, pierced with a nail, and shoved into a grave so the powers below would read them. They are the most direct record we have of what ordinary ancient people actually wanted.

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