#Babylonian Method

[bogkeep]

in which i tell you about medieval timekeeping methods

ok we gotta start with BABYLONIAN TIME and SUNDIALS because this is the Foundation. this is what they used for thousands of years. pretty much every structure we have for understanding and conceptualizing time is based on The Movements Of The Universe - years, months, days, this is how we understand Time to pass. the sun and stars were used for keeping time since Always!!!! there were also multiple ways of keeping time with the Shadows of the sun, not just sundials, but also tablets to measure the length of shadows. And Such

BABYLONIAN TIME is twelve hours daylight, twelve hours nighttime. this makes very good sense considering Sundials, you just split the indicators into twelve parts. don't know why Twelve specifically other than that the babylonians liked it, but it is a very nice, divisible number, and its been kept as the base for all the hour keeping systems i've read about so far.

but yes this does mean that a babylonian hour does not have a set, static length like a modern hour does...! it changes with the seasons and the place, so a babylonian winter hour is different from, say, a winter hour in northern norway. it probably helps to be closer to the equator and reliable sunny weather.

until the invention of mechanical escapement clocks, babylonian time was The main, foundational understanding of timekeeping, BUT...!!!!!! the church put a spin on it. what the monasteries needed to keep time for was Prayer Times, which they had seven of and were based on the passion of the christ. so they signaled the Seven Canonical Hours, starting at sunrise, ending at sunset. church bells is also how people kept time, because you could hear them out in the fields. timekeeping was a bit of a wibbly wobbly art but accuracy wasn't That important.

the various methods used to keep time in addition to sundials included: the cock's crow, candles, hymns, incense, and water clocks. not hour glasses, as they were invented around the same time as mechanical clocks. isn't that wild!!!!!!!

WATER CLOCKS, also called clepsydra, are a diverse category of clocks ranging from a container with water dripping out of it at a steady pace, to complex hydraulic mechanisms with weights and stuff that i honestly have yet to grasp. the simple versions were used in classical greece + rome in the same way you'd use hourglasses, to keep track of speech time, watch time, et cetera. the islamic world + china were the ones to develop the complex water clocks. there's documentation of a water clock in gaza that had like, moving automata and stuff around year 500. there was a water driven astronomical clock in china around year 1000. water clocks made a comeback in europe around the 1100ds, and were getting more widespread use. like at least they work at night, unlike SOME dials

"mechanical clock" is a bit of a misnomer since water clocks were clearly also mechanical, and the exact time of invention of what we think of as mechanical clocks is Vague. the word "horologia" was used to refer to any kind of timekeeping device, including the noble rooster, so it's a bit of a semantic haze.

they had astrolabes, which Could be used to tell the time, but weren't used to do that in the daily life. scientists wanted to make an automated astrolabe for like, the Science, they just needed to invent the perpetuum mobile first and then combine them. obviously.

the missing piece for the MECHANICAL CLOCK was the escapement, the mechanism that regulates the time with which the gears turn. once they got this going, probably early 1300ds, they got the shows on the road. the shows being: the astronomical clock, and the public striking clock. these were considered different things, you see.

the astronomical clock is the Automated Astrolabe. it shows the movement of the sun and moon and stars and as a consequence, the Time. they had dials that people could read the time from, but they were generally considered objects of prestige and god's glory, kind of like cathedrals. they often had moving figures and such.

now, public clocks that mark the hours with sound, THAT'S a timekeeping device. they didn't even have clock faces at first, and it really is so interesting to think about how looking at a clock wasn't considered the main way to tell the time. these clocks seem to have originated in italian cities and spread from there, and this is where we get ITALIAN TIME.

to show babylonian time with a mechanical clock is impractical. the machinery is good at regular movement, to show babylonian hours you kind of need the astrolabe. so italian hours were static and unchanging in length. you had twenty four hours in a day, and the cut-off point was half an hour past sunset. that was the end of the twenty fourth hour, and a new calendar date begun.

of course, the time of the sunset keeps changing all the time As Well, so these clocks had to be adjusted for that Continuously. which was annoying but they still did it until the 17th century. this method was used in italy, bohemia, silesia and maybe poland? i'm unsure what they used outside these spaces at the time, if they stuck to the babylonian hours even with mechanical clocks and did complex maths about it.

at least the NUREMBERG CLOCK had its own take on it, even if it didn't spread beyond southern germany at all. they used babylonian hours, but instead of changing the length of an hour, they changed the amount. eight day hours and sixteen night hours in december, opposite in june. the tables needed for how many days with how many hours were very complex and annoying also.

the concept of starting a new calender day at midnight, and never needing to constantly adjust day hours or when the sunset begins, WAS known but only used for scientific and astronomical purposes. like that's such a weird way to split the day!!!!! twelve at MIDDAY?? WEIRD. some travellers noted that this was a very practical and elegant solution, though, but travel and far flung communication was still very slow, so mismatched timekeeping was more annoying than inconvenient. but anyway that's for the future to figure out

[slashire]

wings

Castiel x fem!reader

The air was thick with smoke and tension, that uncanny stillness just before everything goes wrong. You were crouched low behind the crumbled remains of an old stone altar, shotgun gripped tight in your hands, your breathing shallow and uneven. Sweat clung to the back of your neck, nerves crawling along your skin like static. Castiel was knelt beside you, expression as unreadable as ever, his trench coat dusted with dirt and soot. His blue eyes flicking between you and the clearing ahead, methodical, calculating, always a step ahead, even now.

The hunt had already gone sideways. This was supposed to be simple, nothing fancy. What was supposed to be a routine salt and burn turned into something much darker. A haunting reported in a real worn down abandoned monastery on the edge of town, standard stuff. You, Cas, and dean had split up to cover more ground. Dean had gone to the catacombs below, and you'd taken the ruins above. He stayed close, at your insistence. Something had felt wrong the second you crossed the threshold to where the doors used to be. Too quiet. The air was too cold.

And then you'd found the circle.

Etched beneath the floorboards and hidden beneath layers of rot and filth, it wasn't just some spirts playing field. This was something much, much older. Carved into the stone itself were sigils hidden beneath layers of decay, a summoning circle carved deep into the earth, the scent of blood too fresh. Archaic symbols tangled like a nest of thorns, pulsing faintly with an unnatural green light. The moment Castiel stepped near it, his posture shifted.

The sigils had begun to glow with an eerie, sickly green, pulsing with the rhythmic beat of something alive. You looked over at Cas, trying to steady your voice. “This isn't right.”

He nodded once, jaw clenched. “It's a binding circle. Demonic… but old. Babylonian, maybe older. Someones trying to open a gate.”

Before you could respond, the wind shifted. The trees groaned, the sky above cracked with a low rumble like thunder, but no storm came. Your heart skipped. The circle flared, too fast. The energy surged. Something had been triggered. Like someone had flipped a switch or spilled gasoline over a sacred flame, the ground beneath your feet vibrating with an  otherworldly hum. A sharp, shrieking sound split the air like a scream without a mouth, tearing through the clearing like a blade. The summoning circle cracked wide open, glowing veins spreading across the earth.

“Get back!” he barked, reaching for you.

You tried to step back, but it was too late. The blast was sudden, seismic, a burst of ancient magic that tore through the air with a blinding light. The force of it knocked you off your feet. The energy surged toward you like a wave, faster than your eyes could track.

“Y/N!” Cas shouted, voice edged with something alarmingly close to fear. 

One second you were falling, weightless, the blast about to consume you whole, then strong arms caught you mid air, pulling you into the safety of a chest that radiated warmth and something more, something divine. Castiel’s arms locked around you with a force that was both desperate and precise, and then, wings.

They exploded outward with a gust of wind that sent the smoke spiraling. Massive, celestial, impossibly soft and impossibly strong, they wrapped around you in a single fluid motion. The feathers blocked out the light, the flames, the sounds, everything but Castiel. The pressure of their span, the sound like sails catching the wind. Feathers, massive and soft and indestructible, cocooned around your body just as the fire from the explosion rolled over the treetops. You were encased in him, his warmth, his presence, his power.

Everything outside his wings was chaos. Flame and ash, screaming winds, branches snapping like brittle bones. Heat licked at the edges of his protection, but never touched you. The world was collapsing just beyond the veil of his grace, and all you could hear was the dull thud of your heart, and his voice, low, firm, a prayer in Enochian as he held you tighter.

Inside the shield of his wings, there was silence. Only your heartbeat, ragged and quick, and his, the steady rhythm of a creature older than the world. You could feel the tension in his arms, how tightly he held you, how every muscle in his body fought to keep the world out. His wings trembled at the edges, feathers shuddering with each new shockwave.

He was speaking still, chanting ancient words under his breath, pouring his grace into the space around you like armor. You tilted your head weakly to look up at him, but everything was spinning. Your limbs were numb. Your vision blurred, only catching silvers of blue flaring in his eyes as he focused all of himself on protecting you.

Another hit, stronger. The sigils outside exploded in a ripple of green fire that splashed against the edge of his wings. He grunted softly, and you felt it vibrate through his chest. The force of it slammed into the protective shield of his wings again and again like a tidal wave against a cliff. He gritted his teeth, wings straining to hold. You were limp in his arms now, the last flickers of your consciousness dimming. You heard his voice say your name, sharp, almost panicked. That wasn't like him.

“Stay with me,” he said, tone cracked. The words felt far away. Your head lulled against him, eyelids fluttering. 

But the last thing you saw was the flicker of celestial blue in his eyes as he poured every ounce of power into shielding you. The beat of his wings folding tighter, the warmth of him surrounding you, the pulse of his grace…then darkness.

When the fire finally died down, and the circle burned out, there was nothing but scorched earth and silence. The sigils were gone. The earth cracked and smoldering. The world around was deathly quiet, as if it too was stunned by the force of what had just occurred.

Castiel slowly unfurled his wings.

He was kneeling in the dirt, still holding you. Smoke drifted through the clearing in soft tendrils. His trench coat was torn, the hem burned, blood drying along a cut near his temple, but he didn't care. His wings were scorched at the tips, feathers singed and bent, but intact. The only thing that mattered to him right now was you. 

Your body lay limp in his arms, face slack and pale against the dirt covered fabric of his coat. He shifted to cradle you more securely, one hand pressed gently to the side of your head, the other around your waist, protective even now. He knelt, holding you close, one wing still partially draped over your body. His jaw was clenched, eyes darting over your form for injuries. He brushed a thumb gently against your cheek.

He looked down at you, searching. A flicker of panic, true, human panic, twisted behind his eyes for a split second. “Y/N.” he murmured, voice lower than a breath.

You didn't stir.

“You're safe,’ he said, more to himself than to you. “You're safe.”

He pressed two fingers to your temple. Nothing serious. Healing the worst of what you took, internal bruising, the gash at your shoulder, the shallow brun on your wrist. A concussion. Starin from the magical blow. He could fix that. He would fix that. His hand soft against your forehead as his grace flowed into you in soft pulses, stitching you back together. Still you didn't wake.

Castiel exhaled slowly through his nose, then leaned in, resting his forehead gently against yours. One wing still hung protectively over your shoulder, half sheltering you from the outside world. His voice was almost too soft to hear.

He looked to the sky, jaw tight. “You're not taking her,” he said softly, as if daring something unseen to try. The trees whispered in the breeze. A distant crow cried.

Only once your pulse settled into a steady rhythm beneath his fingers did he finally shift. He pulled you against him again, tighter this time, anchoring you to his chest like he could will you back to consciousness through sheer closeness.

His wings folded once more, curling you both in a soft darkness unmarred by the world's violence. He waited there, unmoving, until you stirred.

And when you finally did, when your lashes fluttered and your fingers twitched against the fabric of his coat, he let off a deep sigh of relief. Then with a flicker of his wings and a low hum of displaced air, he vanished, leaving nothing behind but ash.

[strawberrytoto]

WIP :3 kinda stuck on the fabric ngl. I based Nilvan’s clothes off Babylonian clothing (top right)

I’d like to think Nilvan cared for the girl in some capacity, even if she was just a method of gaining power.

[grey-sorcery]

[Title: Cleromancy: Bone & Dice Divination]

Related Reading

Divination: An Introduction Correspondences Finding Balance: Spirituality & Critical Thought Bias & Witchcraft Spirit Work: First Steps Spellcasting Basics

Grey-Sorcery's Masterpost

Introduction

Cleromancy, the practice of divination through the casting of lots or objects, has ancient roots that span across various cultures and epochs. This esoteric art form operates on the principle that chance events can yield meaningful insights into personal queries or broader existential questions. Throughout history, cleromancy has served diverse purposes, from guiding decision-making to uncovering hidden truths about the self and the universe. The tools used in this practice—ranging from bones and sticks to stones and seeds—each carry unique significance, shaping the divinatory process.

Historical Contexts of Cleromancy

Ancient Practices

Mesopotamian and Babylonian societies were among the earliest to document ritualistic practices linked to divination and spirituality. In these ancient civilizations, practitioners, often referred to as “baru” (diviners), would interpret the will of the gods through various means, such as hepatoscopy (reading the liver of a sacrificed animal) and extispicy (examining the entrails of sacrificed animals). The Babylonian Enuma Anu Enlil texts, a series of clay tablets, detail these divinatory practices, emphasizing their importance in both personal and state matters. This integration of ritual and divination laid the groundwork for later spiritual practices in the region. This use of Divination laid the groundwork for future divinatory practices.

Yi Jing (westernized as "I-Ching") (c. 1600–1046 BCE)

The Yi Jing’s earliest form can be found in oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang dynasty , where diviners would inscribe questions on bones or turtle shells and apply heat until they cracked. The patterns of these cracks were interpreted to provide guidance or foretell outcomes. Over time, these divinatory practices were codified into a text.

By the time of the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–771 BCE), the I Ching had taken on its more recognizable form, consisting of hexagrams (six-line figures) that represent different states and conditions. The text consists of 64 hexagrams, each accompanied by commentary, which reflects philosophical concepts such as yin and yang, the interplay of opposites, and the cyclical nature of life.

Ancient Greece (c. 800 BCE - 200 CE)

In ancient Greece, divination was integral to religion, politics, and daily life, with cleromancy appearing in multiple forms. One of the earliest Greek forms of cleromancy was astragalomancy, or the casting of knucklebones (often from sheep or goats), to discern future events. The bones were thrown, and their positions were interpreted based on specific symbolic meanings assigned to each side or face. Astragalomancy evolved into the use of dice, where each roll was understood as divinely influenced.

Additionally, the Greek practice of sortition, which involved drawing lots from a container to determine divine will, was widespread. Sortition was used not only in religious contexts but also for political purposes, such as in the selection of officials. In some cases, olive leaves, stones, or pieces of pottery would be inscribed with names or symbols and drawn randomly. This method underscored the belief that even randomness could reflect the will of the gods.

Medieval and Renaissance Practices

Early Germanic Use of Runes (ca. 150-500 CE)

The oldest known runic inscriptions date back to around 150 CE. The Elder Futhark, the earliest runic alphabet used by Germanic tribes, consists of 24 characters and is found on various objects such as weapons, amulets, and stones. These inscriptions often had a ritual or magical purpose, suggesting that from early on, the runes held spiritual significance beyond their use as a writing system.

It is believed that the Germanic tribes, particularly the Goths, used runes in divinatory practices during the early centuries of the Common Era. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing around 98 CE in Germania, describes how the Germanic tribes would cast lots made from carved wooden slips (possibly inscribed with runes), interpreting the way they landed as messages from the gods. According to Tacitus:

"For divination and casting lots they have the highest regard. Their procedure is simple. They cut off a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and slice it into strips. These they distinguish by certain marks and throw them, completely at random, on to a white cloth. Then the priest of the state, if the question is a public one, or the father of the family, if it is private, prays to the gods and, gazing at the sky, picks up three of the strips, one at a time, and reads their meaning from the marks previously scored on them."

Tacitus’ description aligns with what we know about early cleromantic practices among Germanic tribes, though runic divination likely evolved into a more specialized form in later centuries.

Ifá in West Africa (ca. 8th Century CE)

The roots of Ifá divination can be traced back to the Yoruba people of present-day Nigeria and Benin, likely emerging as early as the 8th century CE. The practice is centered on communication with the orishas, or spiritual entities, and the diviner (called a babalawo or "father of mysteries") plays a critical role in interpreting divine will through the casting of sacred objects, usually palm nuts or cowrie shells.

Ifá divination involves the casting of 16 palm nuts or cowrie shells, which generate specific patterns that correspond to verses in the Odu Ifá, the sacred text of the Ifá religion. The Odu Ifá contains a vast collection of oral literature, including myths, proverbs, and prayers, which the babalawo uses to interpret the client’s query. Each configuration of the palm nuts or shells is associated with one of the 256 odu (divinatory figures), which hold specific meanings and are linked to different aspects of life, such as health, relationships, and spiritual guidance.

The Ifá system became the foundation for many other African divinatory systems, influencing the divinatory practices of neighboring ethnic groups, such as the Fon people of Benin, who practice Fa divination, a similar form of cleromancy.

Geomancy (ca. 7th Century)

Geomancy, a highly structured form of cleromancy, is believed to have originated in the deserts of North Africa or the Arabian Peninsula, likely among Berber or Bedouin peoples. The word “geomancy” comes from the Greek geo (earth) and manteia (divination), meaning "divination by the earth." However, its original Arabic name, ilm al-raml (the science of the sand), suggests its origins as a method of casting and interpreting patterns made in the sand.

Islamic Geomancy (8th-13th centuries)

During the Islamic Golden Age, geomancy was refined and systematized into a detailed form of divination. Islamic scholars integrated numerology, astrology, and the philosophical traditions of Greek thought into their practices. Using dots or lines drawn in the sand, geomancers would generate a series of 16 figures, which were interpreted based on a complex set of rules involving astrology and cosmic correspondences.

Geomancy was highly respected in the Islamic world, where it was considered a legitimate science. Islamic geomancers like Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi wrote extensively on the subject, codifying its principles and ensuring its spread throughout the Mediterranean, including into Europe. These writings formed the basis for later geomantic traditions in Europe, where the practice became popular during the Middle Ages.

European Geomancy (12th-13th Century)

Geomancy made its way into Europe during the Middle Ages, likely through Spain and Sicily, regions where Islamic and Christian cultures mingled. Latin translations of Arabic texts on geomancy became widely available, and European scholars like Hugh of Santalla and Gerard of Cremona further refined the art. By the 12th century, geomancy was well-established in Europe, where it became known as the "art of the earth."

Unlike other forms of divination, geomancy did not require complicated tools or astronomical calculations, making it accessible to a wide audience. It was often practiced by both learned scholars and laypeople. During the Renaissance, geomancy was considered one of the seven forbidden arts, alongside astrology and necromancy, though it continued to be practiced by those seeking insight into political, personal, and spiritual matters. Renaissance occultists, including Cornelius Agrippa, wrote about geomancy in their works, further embedding it into the Western esoteric tradition.

Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Spread of Ifá (16th-19th Centuries)

With the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries, African religious traditions, including Ifá divination, were brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans. In Brazil, where a significant number of Yoruba people were forcibly relocated, Ifá was preserved and incorporated into the emerging Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé.

Ifá in Brazil and Candomblé (18th-19th Centuries)

In Brazil, Ifá divination became an essential aspect of Candomblé, which blends Yoruba beliefs with elements of Catholicism and indigenous Brazilian spirituality. The divinatory practice was maintained by Afro-Brazilian priests, known as babalorixás (male priests) and ialorixás (female priests), who performed Ifá-style readings using cowrie shells, a technique known as merindilogun.

The use of cowrie shells in Afro-Brazilian divination systems is closely related to Ifá, though certain adaptations occurred due to the blending of different African spiritual traditions in Brazil. The cowrie shells are cast in a way that generates patterns, which are interpreted by the priest in connection with the Odu Ifá or related Candomblé spiritual texts.

Candomblé grew throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in the state of Bahia, where Afro-Brazilian religious practices were preserved despite colonial efforts to suppress them. By the 19th century, the religion and its divinatory practices had become an integral part of Afro-Brazilian culture, and today, they continue to be practiced by millions of people in Brazil.

Santería and Afro-Cuban Divination (18th-19th Centuries)

A parallel development occurred in Cuba, where the Yoruba-based religion of Santería (or Regla de Ocha) developed, incorporating Ifá divination and the use of cowrie shells. Santería emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries as enslaved Africans in Cuba blended their spiritual practices with Catholicism. In Santería, diviners known as babalawos or santerosuse a system similar to Ifá to communicate with the orishas, seeking guidance on health, personal relationships, and spiritual matters.

Types of Objects Used

Bones and Sticks

Bones and sticks represent one of the oldest and most accessible forms of divination tools, deeply tied to their ubiquity in the natural environment. These items are often chosen for their varied shapes and textures, which allow for an array of interpretative possibilities. Bones, particularly those of small animals, may be selected for their durability and the unique characteristics they acquire through natural weathering or through specific preparation methods such as cleaning or carving. Sticks, on the other hand, may come from different species of trees, with variations in bark, length, and curvature serving as subtle signifiers within the practice.

The utility of bones and sticks lies in their simplicity and versatility. Their physical properties—whether straight, twisted, or fractured—can provide direct visual and tactile cues during a casting. For example, a bone with a sharp angle or curvature may prompt the practitioner to consider directional forces, while the texture of a stick might suggest either stability or the presence of external disturbances. Through these physical characteristics, a broad spectrum of meanings can be derived without relying on any specific cultural overlays.

Stones

In contemporary divinatory practices, stones serve as another widely used object due to their availability and the multitude of shapes and sizes they come in. The appeal of stones is often found in their permanence, as well as in their surface characteristics—whether rough or smooth, irregular or polished. The variety in color, density, and opacity found in different types of stones allows for a richer scope of interpretation, with attention often given to their weight and the sound they make when cast.

When stones are employed, the manner in which they land and interact with each other during casting becomes central to interpretation. Some practitioners might choose stones based on the aesthetic or tactile resonance they feel with a specific stone, but the focus remains primarily on their physical interaction in the casting process. This could involve examining patterns created by how the stones cluster or spread across the chosen casting surface. The distance between stones and their orientation may hold significance, depending on the diviner’s system of interpretation.

Seeds and Nuts

Seeds and nuts offer a unique category of divinatory objects due to their association with growth and potential. Their lightness and ability to roll or bounce during casting creates a dynamic method of reading that introduces an element of movement not found with heavier objects like bones or stones. Seeds can be chosen from a variety of plants, with the specific type of seed or nut often lending additional layers of interpretation. 

The trajectory, bounce, and eventual resting place of these objects can form the basis of interpretation. Practitioners might focus on the directionality of their motion, or how groups of seeds or nuts form patterns as they settle. These items are particularly useful for those seeking to incorporate a more kinetic dimension into their practice, as they often move further and in less predictable ways than heavier or more static objects. Additionally, their association with cycles of growth and change can serve as an interpretative axis, allowing for insights into processes of transformation and potentiality.

Other Types of Objects

Beyond the more commonly used materials, diviners might also incorporate a wide array of other objects into their practices. Small, everyday items such as buttons, shells, or pieces of glass can also be used, each contributing their own symbolic resonance. Buttons, for example, might suggest themes of connection or closure, while shells may speak to protection or the hidden depths beneath a surface. The eclectic nature of these objects means that their meanings are often determined by the individual diviner’s relationship with the object itself, rather than any intrinsic property of the material.

Casting Techniques

Simple Toss Method

The simplest and perhaps most intuitive casting method is the toss, wherein the objects are held in the hand or gathered in a container and thrown onto a surface. This method relies on the randomness of the toss to generate patterns that the practitioner can interpret. The diviner’s focus is on how the objects land—whether they cluster together, remain isolated, or overlap—and what these configurations might suggest in terms of the query or situation at hand.

Using Casting Tools

For those who prefer a more controlled approach, various tools can be employed to assist with the casting process. Cups, tubes, or even dice towers can be used to direct the fall of objects, ensuring a more regulated distribution during the casting. These tools provide a level of precision that the simple toss does not, allowing the diviner to control the dispersion of the objects while still allowing for chance to play its role. Some may feel that using such tools introduces a necessary balance between randomness and structure, enhancing the interpretative process by providing a consistent starting point for each reading.

Complex Pattern Casting

In more advanced forms of divination, the position and interaction of the cast objects become critical. Complex pattern casting looks at factors such as whether objects make contact with one another, overlap, or land in specific orientations. For example, two stones touching might suggest convergence or unity, while a seed landing upright could indicate stability or resilience. The diviner must then interpret these spatial relationships, often finding nuanced meaning in the way the objects interact on the casting surface. This method requires a deeper understanding of symbolism and is favored by more experienced practitioners who seek a more layered reading.

This technique is particularly useful for diviners who seek a balance between spontaneity and structure, as it allows for a degree of unpredictability while still maintaining a framework for interpretation. The position of the objects within the designated areas becomes a focal point for analysis, offering more detailed insights based on their relative placement.

Use of Casting Surfaces

The surface upon which objects are cast plays a significant role in shaping the reading. Diviners may use cloths, boards, or other surfaces marked with symbols or grids that correspond to different areas of life or elements of the self. For example, a board marked with a four-quadrant system might designate different domains—emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual—and the location of objects within these quadrants helps guide the reading.

Symbolism and Interpretation

Common Symbols and Their Meanings

Common symbols emerge organically from the objects used. For instance, a broken bone might symbolize disruption or fragmentation, while a smooth stone could suggest continuity or stability. These interpretations depend largely on the diviner’s system of symbolism, which can be personal or based on broader associations. Disclaimer: The following list of common correspondences is intended for inspiration purposes only. Correspondences may vary based on cultural context, personal experiences, and the specific cleromancy systems employed. Practitioners are encouraged to explore and adapt these meanings according to their individual beliefs and interpretations.

Bone: Transition, connection to ancestry, strength ; fragmentation, loss, decay   

Stick: Directionality, stability, grounding ; rigidity, inflexibility, barriers   

Stone: Endurance, reliability, permanence ; coldness, stagnation, obstinacy   

Seed: Potential, growth, renewal ; vulnerability, uncertainty, chaos   

Nut: Fertility, protection, sustenance ; hardness, concealment, difficulty in access   

Shell: Shelter, emotional depth, intuition ; isolation, fragility, superficiality   

Button: Connection, unity, completion ; closure, restriction, limitation   

Leaf: Transformation, life cycles, rejuvenation ; impermanence, fragility, loss   

Feather: Freedom, lightness, spirituality ; detachment, lack of grounding, impermanence   

Coin: Prosperity, material wealth, luck ; greed, loss, superficiality   

Glass: Clarity, insight, reflection ; fragility, distortion, breakability   

String: Connection, continuity, binding ; entanglement, restriction, tension   

Key: Access, opportunity, solutions ; secrets, barriers, confinement   

Mirror: Self-reflection, truth, clarity ; illusion, deception, superficiality   

Flower: Beauty, growth, love ; ephemerality, impermanence, superficiality   

Wood: Stability, grounding, nourishment ; decay, rot, obstruction   

Stone Sphere: Wholeness, unity, completion ; confinement, lack of growth, stagnation   

Candle: Light, guidance, hope ; danger, destruction, fragility   

Wool: Warmth, comfort, protection ; heaviness, limitation, entrapment   

Pine Cone: Potential, renewal, resilience ; rigidity, closed-off nature, unresponsiveness   

Chalice: Abundance, emotional fulfillment, nurturing ; excess, waste, emotional overwhelm   

Bowl: Containment, safety, balance ; emptiness, lack, deprivation   

Rock Crystal: Clarity, purity, heightened perception ; coldness, detachment, aloofness   

Dice: Chance, uncertainty, opportunity ; randomness, chaos, unpredictability   

Anchor: Stability, grounding, safety ; heaviness, being weighed down, stagnation   

Variations in Interpretation

Interpretation varies significantly between practitioners. One person might interpret the same object differently based on personal experience or the context of the reading. This fluidity of meaning is a key aspect of contemporary practice, where individual intuition plays a large role in shaping interpretations. The dynamic interplay between object, context, and personal resonance ensures that each reading is uniquely tailored to the practitioner. 

Role of the Diviner in Interpretation

The diviner serves as the intermediary between the cast objects and the querent, weaving together the symbols into a coherent narrative. Their ability to read the patterns, variations, and nuances of each cast is central to providing meaningful insights. While each system provides a framework of meanings and correspondences, diviners often bring their unique perspectives, experiences, and intuitions into the practice. This individuality allows for an array of interpretations, as personal insights may resonate more deeply than strict adherence to predefined rules. A diviner might find significance in symbols that diverge from traditional meanings, fostering a more personalized and resonant reading. 

Cleromancy Mat Design Examples

This mat is best used for tools for generalized readings. The mat itself doesn't command control of interpretation, rather it works with pieces and the diviner to generate unique interpretations for each throw.

This mat is best for diviners who want to do a lot of personal interpretations, since it doesn't provide much in the way of meaning. There are only 8 quadrants that can have assigned correspondences. With this mat, interpretation is derived mostly from the pieces, how they interact, and the discretion of the diviner.

This mat contains a lot of information. The pieces used on this mat should be more limited in terms of the complexity of their correspondences. This mat will assign more meaning to each interaction than the prior two mats. 

Creating your own method

When creating your own cleromancy system, the first critical step involves establishing a solid foundation. This foundation should be rooted in a conceptual framework that aligns with your overarching worldview or philosophical beliefs. Begin by determining the central theme or principle that will guide your practice. Whether the aim is self-reflection, decision-making, spell-verification, or something more abstract, having a clear focus will provide structure and coherence to your system. Defining this framework allows you to cultivate a personal connection with the tool and ensures that each step, symbol, and material used is deliberate and meaningful.

Once the conceptual framework is in place, you can move forward with selecting symbols and materials that resonate with you. The items you choose—whether stones, tokens, or other objects—should evoke a particular significance or meaning. The materials may carry personal associations, cultural relevance, or simply evoke a sense of utility for the task at hand. This personal resonance strengthens your connection to the practice and deepens the interpretive potential of the cleromancy system.

The next step is to design a coherent divination method, beginning with the assignment of symbols or values to your chosen items. This process involves either creating new symbols or adapting existing ones from other systems. Each symbol should hold a distinct meaning, and it is important to establish a clear framework for interpreting them. Whether this involves numerical values, positions relative to each other, or some other organizing principle, having an established interpretive guide will enhance the accuracy and clarity of your readings. The method should be fluid enough to allow growth but structured enough to provide consistency.

Casting techniques form the backbone of any cleromancy practice. The way in which materials are cast or arranged can significantly influence the interpretation of the results. Various casting techniques can be explored, from throwing or scattering the materials to laying them out methodically or randomizing their arrangement. Each technique carries its own nuances, and it is important to consider how the method of casting affects the overall energy or tone of the reading. This choice should complement the nature of the symbols and the guiding concept of your system.

After designing the method, the next phase involves developing guidelines for interpreting the outcomes. The structure for interpretation can be fixed, fluid, or context-dependent, depending on your system’s needs. If your system involves interaction between symbols—such as when certain items land near each other or align in specific ways—these interactions may offer additional layers of meaning. It is essential to create a clear process for evaluating these outcomes, one that is both logical and intuitive, allowing for deeper insight as you gain experience.

Lastly, maintaining a record-keeping system is invaluable. Documentation allows you to track patterns and outcomes, providing the opportunity to analyze how interpretations evolve over time. This, in turn, helps refine the system. By systematically recording results, you can observe recurring themes or symbols and adjust your framework accordingly, ensuring that your cleromancy practice remains dynamic and adaptive.

Through continual testing and refinement, your cleromancy system will grow into a robust tool for exploration and insight. Conduct multiple readings to test its efficacy, and make adjustments based on your observations. Over time, with regular integration into your personal practice, you will gain greater clarity, leading to deeper understanding and a more nuanced approach to the art of cleromancy.

Scientific and Mathematical Correlations to Bear in Mind in Order to Avoid Statistical Bias in Tool Design

Probability and Randomness: Statistics, Chaos Theory, Complexity Science, and Determinism

Randomness, as it pertains to divinatory tools such as cleromancy, is a nuanced concept grounded in mathematical theories of probability and chaos. When one casts dice, bones, or any similar objects in cleromancy practice, the assumption is that the results are left to chance or fate. However, from a mathematical perspective, "randomness" is a much more rigorous concept.

In the framework of probability theory, randomness refers to the outcome of events that cannot be predicted with certainty, even if all preceding conditions are known. In cleromancy practices, the user often interprets each cast as holding significance. This belief system interacts with randomness in complex ways, with each cast seen as uniquely meaningful. Despite this, mathematical understanding shows that, given enough trials, patterns in randomness tend to adhere to statistical laws.

Chaos theory, which explores systems highly sensitive to initial conditions, provides another layer of understanding for cleromancy tools. Even a minuscule difference in the force applied to a set of dice or the exact angle at which lots are thrown can result in radically different outcomes. Thus, while cleromancy acts may appear chaotic on the surface, they are mathematically deterministic—each outcome is a function of initial conditions and forces applied to the system.

Mathematical Models of Casting Outcomes

Mathematical models allow us to create a structured approach to understanding the casting of lots or dice. In probability theory, each possible outcome of a dice roll or lot casting can be assigned a numerical probability based on the total number of possible outcomes. For example, when casting a single six-sided die, each face has a 1/6 probability of appearing. These models are useful not only for understanding how frequently certain results occur but also for recognizing when certain patterns or clusters of outcomes deviate from what we would expect in a random distribution.

Complexity science, a field that studies how small interactions among components can result in emergent behaviors, provides another lens through which to view casting outcomes. Cleromancy operates within a complex system of inputs—ritualistic actions, environmental conditions, and the physical properties of the objects being cast—that lead to a seemingly infinite number of possible interactions. These interactions may produce clusters of outcomes that appear to follow discernible patterns, which, upon closer examination, may be random artifacts of a complex system rather than evidence of supernatural influence.

Understanding the mathematical properties of these tools is essential in minimizing confirmation bias and ensuring that tools are designed in ways that do not inadvertently favor particular outcomes over others.

Psychological Perspectives

While mathematical tools offer a way to predict outcomes probabilistically, cognitive biases significantly shape how individuals perceive and interpret the results of cleromancy or divinatory practices. One of the most prevalent biases in such practices is the "confirmation bias," where individuals unconsciously prioritize information that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs or expectations. In a divinatory context, a practitioner might focus on outcomes that seem relevant to their question or life situation while disregarding those that do not fit the narrative they seek to construct.

The "gambler's fallacy" is another psychological pitfall worth considering in these contexts. This bias leads people to believe that past outcomes will influence future random events, such as assuming that if a certain result has not occurred in several rolls, it is "due" to appear in the next cast. In reality, each casting of dice or lots is independent, with the probability of each outcome remaining constant regardless of previous events. Failure to account for this fallacy can lead to misinterpretation of divinatory outcomes, imbuing them with a false sense of significance.

To mitigate the effects of these cognitive biases, it is vital to approach the design and interpretation of divinatory tools with an understanding of psychological tendencies. A mathematically balanced system of casting outcomes can help minimize the tendency to read too much into any particular result. Additionally, consistent training or critical self-reflection can help practitioners recognize when their judgments may be clouded by bias.

Statistical Analysis with Dice as an Example

Analyzing Patterns and Frequencies within Mathematical Dimensions

Statistical analysis can provide insight into the distribution of casting outcomes, especially in dice-based divination. When conducting repeated trials of dice rolls, the results can be plotted to visualize the distribution of outcomes. In an ideal random system, each outcome would occur with roughly the same frequency over time. For instance, in a six-sided die, each number should appear approximately 1/6th of the time across a large number of rolls.

By analyzing the frequency of different outcomes, one can determine whether the tool is generating results consistent with random distributions or whether there are biases in the casting method. If certain outcomes appear significantly more or less often than expected, this may indicate a problem with the tool's design, such as uneven weight distribution in dice or flaws in the casting process. Such analysis is essential to avoid statistical bias and ensure fairness in the interpretation of results.

Comparing Outcomes with “Random” Distributions

Once patterns have been analyzed, comparing the actual outcomes of dice rolls or lot castings with theoretical random distributions can reveal important insights. For instance, a statistical technique such as the chi-square test can be employed to compare observed frequencies with expected frequencies. If there is a significant difference, it may suggest that the tool is not functioning in a truly random way.

This comparison helps ensure that the tool adheres to mathematical principles of probability, thus providing a baseline of fairness and accuracy in its use. Additionally, it guards against the possibility of subconscious manipulation of outcomes, where practitioners may—unintentionally or not—alter the casting process in ways that favor certain results. In conclusion, a strong grounding in statistical principles is essential for the design and use of divinatory tools, ensuring that they operate in ways that avoid unintentional biases and misinterpretations.

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[astroyongie]

Can you do that angel demon thing for TXT? and if possible more on how it affects their personality, thanks yongie!

Note: Sure thing! I will just put the same disclaimer than on the original post <33

TXT: Their Angel and Demon Influence

Notes: Let's start with some context first! In the Shem HaMephorash, which is derived from the Kabbalah and also linked with the Exodus 14:19-21, there's 72 Angels. These angels are represented in days of the year which are also based on the division of the 360-degree zodiac into 72 parts (each angel covering 5 degrees). In the The Lesser Key of Solomon (Lemegeton), specifically Ars Goetia, he also lists 72 demons although the origins of these spirits likely stem from a mix of Mesopotamian deities and spirits (Babylonian and Sumerian origins). However there's a gap between the 15 and 19 march in which is suggested that this is a "neutral period" where spiritual energy resets before the new cycle begins at the Aries equinox.

-> With this said, everyone of us (beside that gap) is ruled with a higher and lower astral which is supposed to influence our spiritual self.

This post is educational only <3 Have fun!

Soobin

➜ Higher astral: Nanael – Soobin was born under the influence of Nanael. He has an encouragement toward solitude, meaning he prefers to be alone and also enjoys divine contemplation like being alone on his own thoughts .Soobin is also a deep thinkers but he may struggle with isolation a lot.

➜ Lower astral: Caim – On his lower astral we have Caim. Now this means that Soobin was granted understanding of animals in a way where he can feel very empathetic toward them, can have deep connection with animals and his pets. he also has a lot of eloquence, people love to hear him talk. Soobin is also very intuitive but prone to outbursts.

Yeonjun

➜ Higher astral: Menadel – Yeonjun was born under the influence of Menadel. this energy makes Yeojun lucky because he will never know issues with employment and purpose in life. he will never be other than what he is today. Yeonjun is also someone who is very diligent but may fear instability with his life which can prone some control behaviors

➜ Lower astral: Stolas – Stolas is his lower astral being. so this energy makes Yeonjun have a thing for astronomy and being good with it if he studies and also with herbs (he would easily become an expert in medicine, plantation, ect). but yeonjun is also tempted on eccentricity. He is super brilliant but odd.

Beomgyu

➜ Higher astral: Mumiah – Beomgyu was born under the influence of Mumiah. Without a doubt, Beomgyu's life is full of rebirths and spiritual enlightenment in each cycle of his life. he is also someone who's wise but must avoid fear of change because that is the energy that always holds him back

➜ Lower astral: Andromalius – This lower astral is funny to me because he hates stealing. Meaning his influence goes on Beomgyu as someone who hates thieves and would try to always uncover them but beomgyu also hates uncovered secrets. the bad thing is that beomgu is also prone to be ruthless.

Taehyun

➜ Higher astral: Damabiah – Taehyun was born under the influence of Damabiah, which makes him blessed with wisdom and success in water related matters (most people with this placement swim well or have jobs related with water. needless to say he is safer on water than earth). Taehyun is intuitive but he is also emotional unstable in his every day life

➜ Lower astral: Andrealphus – his lower astral is Andrealphus and this demon makes Taehyun be very good in subjects like astronomy and geometry however he may also find it very confused as he understanding it but being unable to put it in practice with formatted methods. Taehyun is clever but chaotic overall

Hueningkai

➜ Higher astral: Omael – Kai was born under the influence of Omael. His energy makes Kai be someone who always have multiplication of resources when it comes to luck in life and he also has a thing for healing others and himself (rarely getting sick). Kai is blessed with generousity but may struggle with wastefulness.

➜ Lower astral: Forneus – and finally his lower astral is Forneus which means that Kai has an impeccable charisma to him and reputation that will always stick to him but he can also easily fosters deceit. Kai was blessed with respected energy but he can be very manipulative when needed

[sheydmade]

the Jewitch: An Exploration of Jewish Magical Practice

by Keziah

Does Judaism permit witchcraft? Does Jewish magic even exist? What is a Jewish witch? If you're Jewish and a witch, like I am, these questions (and many more) are likely asked of you on a fairly regular basis by Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. I've always hesitated to answer them and to speak publicly on Jewish magic in general because (surprise, surprise) there isn't any one answer to these questions (and because I typically like to avoid threats and harassment from strangers on the internet, which, most unfortunately, always comes along with any public statement or even public acknowledgement about Judaism).

Well, I had a good run of it, but the moment has finally come. Today, I'm writing explicitly about Jewish witchcraft. Welcome to an exploration (and adoration) of Jewitchery in all its glory.

Does Jewish Magic Even Exist?

Jewish magic always has and always will exist. Some of you may ask, "then why isn't it more widely known or accepted?" I defer to the words of Gideon Bohak in answering that:

'While the deliberate neglect of Jewish magic might be characteristic especially of older scholarship, still constrained by age-old Jewish apologetics and the Enlightenment’s disdain for all forms of magic and superstition, it is in no way uncommon in contemporary scholarship as well. Thus, to give just one example, a recent encyclopedia of medieval Jewish civilization has useful entries on many aspects of Jewish culture in the Middle Ages - and not a word on magic.' - Bohak, 'Ancient Jewish Magic: a History'

Let's remedy some of that neglect in scholarship today by acknowledging and going over some evidence as to practices one may deem witchcraft within Jewish history.

One of the most common forms of magic across cultures and countries is protection magic - amulets and charms used to protect our homes and loved ones, protection for livestock, protection from illness or malevolent forces, etc. There is no shortage of historical evidence showcasing the use of magic to such ends, and we do find a significant amount of evidence of such Jewish practices in the form of relics, written testimony, and Talmudic debate.

In describing their exhibit on such amulets, the Jewish Museum of Switzerland writes -

'The need for protection, luck and well-being has shaped religious and secular societies from antiquity to the present day. People turn to objects with magical power – an amulet, a talisman, a lucky charm – to protect them from harm. Religion, mysticism, faith and superstition are often closely linked. Belief in the power of amulets is widespread and creates a timeless link between different cultures and religions. '

Their exhibit contains a number of Jewish relics from Switzerland, Alsace, southern Germany, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Near East, showcasing the widespread use across land and time of magic in Jewish society.

Museums and private collectors have obtained mountains of evidence of the magical practices, especially protection magic, within Jewish history. We'll go over but a fraction of such customs below.

Jewish Incantation Bowls

Magic bowls or incantation bowls (also called demon bowls and Moses bowls) are a form of protection magic believed to have been in common practice during Late Antiquity (3rd to 7th century CE) within the Near East, particularly throughout Mesopotamia. These bowls are not exclusive to Jewish practice of the time, but most of those discovered bear inscriptions in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, a language most commonly identified with the Babylonian Talmud.

(left) Jewish incantation bowl from Nippur inscribed in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, discovered 1888-1889 and photographed circa 1913 -the Pennsylvania University Museum; (right) Jewish incantation bowl inscribed in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic using Hebrew Square-Script, circa. 400-800 CE -the Jewish Museum of Switzerland

These bowls were used as a method of protecting against demons - a demon trap, if you will. It's said that the bowls could be buried at the corners of one's home, in courtyards, and in cemeteries, capturing the specified demon in the bowl. They became trapped by reading the text, starting from the outermost ring of text and moving inward. By the time they finished the text nearest the center of the bowl, they'd be trapped inside the vessel.

The bowls could also be used to protect against the evil eye as well as harmful spirits and demons. Most bowls contained a depiction of whichever spirit or demon they were intended to ward against. Among the bowls found in the Jewish diasporic settlement of Nippur, there were images of and texts referring to Lilith, Lilitu/Liliths, and Bagdana, Jewish demons. In archaeological excavations in Nippur, such incantation bowls were said to have been discovered beneath nearly every home.

In his book 'Aramaic Incantation Bowls of Nippur,' James A. Montgomery describes the incantation bowls catalogued in the University of Pennsylvania's Babylonian Section of their University Museum -

'These vessels are generally of the size and shape of a modern porridge-bowl, except that in most cases the bowl is somewhat cone-shaped, so that when set down it balances itself in a state of unstable equilibrium. Some few have the boss expanded into a rim, thus giving a flat surface at the bottom of the bowl. The most common size is of about i6 cm. diameter at top, by 5 cm. full depth. There is one large bowl, 28 x 16 cm.'

The bowls in the Museum were excavated at Nippur, in Babylonia, by the University of Pennsylvania Expedition; so far as I know, they are finds of the first two campaigns, conducted by Professor Peters in the years 1888, 1889. According to Peters' account,' these bowls were found on the top, or in the first strata of the mounds, in several places. They appear generally to have been discovered in the ruins of houses, amidst what Peters suggests were Jewish settlements; the whole surface of one hill, he says "was covered with a Jewish settlement, the houses of which were built of mud-brick, and in almost every house we found one, or more, Jewish incantation bowls." "At least in one case, bowls were found in connection with a cemetery; we found ourselves in a graveyard... It was interesting to find, between one and two meters below the surface, in the immediate neighborhood of slipper-shaped coffins, inscribed Hebrew bowls."

In explaining the incantations put to work in these bowls, Dan Levene writes -

'The Aramaic incantation bowl literature depicts a rich theatre in which a varied community of angelic and demonic types and individuals are cast in a drama of war and conflict. The incantations are both stylized and structured, and consist of various elements, such as opening formulae, name invocation, sequences in both mystical and liturgical styles, biblical quotations and historiolae — tales of magical activity located in the distant past in which well known figures of authority, such as great sages and prophets, successfully vanquished demonic forces. At the same time the incantations also have the form of legal documents, and so depict the belief that supernatural beings are subject to a juridical system that covers all created beings.' 

On the subject of the incantations used, Dr. Alan J. Avery-Peck writes-

'The incantations generally begin with an invocation, followed by the name of the client or clients, the categories of demons to be purged, the names of the angels or deities in which the spells are pronounced, and a conclusion. Jewish texts frequently refer to the angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. The name Yahweh also occurs often broken down into individual, repeated letters or syllables.'

The belief that demons and spirits can be contained in vessels such as cups or bowls can also be found in the tails of Solomon, who was known to possess the ability to capture, contain, and control demons.

Cairo Genizah

There is evidence of Jewish magic at work within Egyptian Jewish settlements and communities. The Cairo Genizah is a collection of 400,000 manuscript fragments from the 6th to 19th centuries CE that were long kept in the storeroom/undercroft/genizah of Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, Egypt. The Genizah texts contain Jewish writings, among many other documents and manuscripts, and some of those Jewish writings are on Jewish magic, as well as Jewish religious and liturgical texts, and Jewish ritual and spiritual life.

Not all Jewish magic was for protective means, as showcased in the two fragments from the Cairo Genizah depicted below, both containing instructions on cursing and malevolent magical rituals.

(left) Cairo Genizah leaf bearing a 'recipe to bind and expel demons, and a re-enactment of the biblical ritual for detecting whether a woman had committed adultery;' (right) Cairo Genizah leaf containing 'aggressive magical recipes.' -University of Cambridge Library

The University of Cambridge Library indicates in their notes on these two portions of the Cairo Genizah that the leaf pictured to the left above bears lines drawn over some of the text, and those lines only appear above angelic names. Magical characters and symbols can also be found on the second half of the same leaf.

Jewish Amulets

References to the keeping and wearing of amulets are found all throughout Jewish history and the Talmud. It's still a commonplace practice today. Rabbinic literature attests to amuletic works to repel demons, prevent illness, ensure a safe pregnancy and delivery, combat Lilitu, thwart evil eye, and much, much more.

Amulets in Jewish custom can be written, can be items (such as the Jewish incantation bowls), can be worn as jewelry or charms (such as our red string bracelets, the hamsa, or the blue eye bead we wear), can be made of herbs, can be sown or embroidered into clothing, etc.

(left) 18th century Kabbalistic amulet to cure jaundice; (right) 18th century Kabbalistic amulet for protection [courtesy of wikimedia commons]

[courtesy of wikimedia commons]

The above pictured amulet, an 18th century Kabbalistic amulet to cure jaundice, was folded up and kept in a leather pocket or pouch, similar to a billfold, to be carried on one's person. This was a common way of handling written amulets, particularly those used for protection and health.

Medieval amulet, featured in the Sefer Raziel, to protect a mother and babe from Lilitu [courtesy of the Jewish Theological Seminary Library]

(left) early 20th century necklace from Syria or North Africa bearing a number of amulets/charms; (right) a late 19th century-early 20th century pewter amulet from Ottoman Palestine to ensure safe travels -the Jewish Museum

What Kinds of Jewish Witch Are There?

We've all heard it time and time again - 'there is no one way to be Jewish'. The same is true of the Jewish witch. There are many different ways to come to witchcraft or magical practice, some explicitly tied to one's Jewishness and some not at all, and countless labels or titles one could adopt in doing so. Here's a very brief list of some of the most common variations of Jewish witch -

Jewish and a Witch:

This is the most straightforward and all-encompassing variety of Jewish witch.

To be Jewish and to also be a wish is one way of classifying what makes one a Jewish witch or a Jewitch. The vagueness of this definition means it can be applied easily and liberally, regardless of whether one's witchcraft is tied to their Jewishness at all. Also, there's no requirement that one must be religiously Jewish or even believe in g-d to consider themselves a Jewish witch or a Jewitch.

the Kabbalist:

Kabbalistic Judaism not only embraces the magical side of the world, but it is also built on it. Mysticism, magic, and witchcraft have many blurred lines and often go hand-in-hand, and some have argued that Kabbalah is a form of witchcraft itself.

Kabbalah is an esoteric school of belief and practice within Judaism. Its aim is to procure enlightenment, to reveal or uncover ancient esoteric teachings and meanings within Jewish scripture, to come to understand and better connect with divinity, and to explore the divine aspects of ourselves and the world around us through mystical means - a scholarly, philosophy-heavy realm of Judaism that was formalized in the Middle Ages (though it finds it roots in earlier schools of Jewish mysticism, such as Merkabah).

There are multiple paths and schools within Kabbalah, and what is considered the specifically magical path of Kabbalah (that is it focuses on the use of magic or witchcraft within Kabbalah) is known as Practical Kabbalah or Kabbalah Ma'asit. Not everyone differentiates between them, but some do.

On the distinction between the two and the origin of (and taboo around) Practical Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem said -

'Historically speaking, a large part of the contents of practical Kabbalah predate those of the speculative Kabbalah and are not dependent on them. In effect, what came to be considered practical Kabbalah constituted an agglomeration of all the magical practices that developed in Judaism from the Talmudic period down through the Middle Ages.' 

Practical Kabbalah typically involves (though is not limited to) the practice of and/or study of:

meditative practices

angelology/demonology

the practice of angel magic

the use of amulets and charms

the use of and creation of magical sigils and symbols

the use of sacred gems and crystals

Torah study

Midrash study

Tarot reading

the belief in the power of a name/the names

the use of names to summon and/or control demons and angels

Merkabah mysticism

dream interpretation

astrology

prayer (sometimes ecstatic prayer).

A few texts for the Kabbalist witch: the Zohar; Sefer Yetzirah; Sefer Raziel HaMalakh; On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism - Gershom Scholem.

the Folk Witch:

Folk witches are those that practice magic rooted within the historic customs of a specific region, religion, ethnicity, or culture with which the practitioner has ties. Folk magic is the people's magic, magic that was accessible to all, no matter their station or class, as opposed to High Magic and Ceremonial Magic, which was only accessible to the elite.

For a Jewish folk witch, their folk magic would include superstitions, practices, and methods through a Jewish lens, and may also include elements of folk custom from whichever region their family finds their roots. For example, you may see a practitioner who is Jewish with roots to Ukraine. They might call themselves a Jewish Folk Witch, a Slavic Folk Witch, or both, and their practice may be a blend of both customs or they might maintain each tradition separate of one another. There is no one way to be a folk witch.

Jewish folk magic may look different depending on what region it hails from, but some (though not all) common practices amongst Jewish folk witches are:

the use of/creation of amulets and charms

herbalism

the recitation of sacred texts to magical ends

fortune-telling

Tarot reading

candle magic

the use of/creation of magical sigils and symbols

preservation of and belief in Jewish folklore

veiling

magical associations and uses of Jewish ritual customs and items/Judaica.

magical focuses for Jewish holidays

Does Judaism Permit Witchcraft?

Firstly, I'll start by saying that regardless of whether or not 'witchcraft' was outlawed in Judaism, it has still always existed and persisted within Jewish practice - religious and secular alike. We affix protective amulets on our homes in the form of mezuzot (the commandment to do so passed down on Sinai); we perform the recitation of chants and holy scripture to bring about healing, good fortune, and to ward off evil; we wear charms and amulets to combat evil eye and to protect ourselves from illness and harm; and some among us keep the practices and traditions of Jewish mysticism, astrology, Kabbalah, and Kabbalistic study alive. All of these customs may very well be considered witchcraft, and yet they're essential parts of Jewish life, practice, and culture.

But if whether or not magical practice is truly "permitted" in Judaism is a point of importance for you, I must say the answer depends on whom you ask, what magical practice we're speaking of, and what translations you're using.

'The use of magical powers was seen as normal, and it was sanctioned so long as the person involved stood within the rabbinic community and used magic for purposes accepted within rabbinic religion.' - Dr. Alan J. Avery-Peck

Witchcraft is a broad term used to refer to magical practices of all ilk - folk magic, occultism, charms, spells, amulets, divination, sorcery, herbalism, spirit communion, etc. To get technical, there's no ban on practicing witchcraft in this broad sense. There are, however, specific magical practices (or, by some interpretations, magical practitioners) that were considered "forbidden." As always, differences of opinion are rampant on the matter. You'll find discussions and debates about witchcraft and magical customs throughout the Talmud and commentaries of rabbis. What you won't find is one set opinion.

'... magic was widely practiced by Jews at least from late antiquity onwards, and was in no way limited to apostate Jews, or to some religiously lax strata of Jewish society. How, then, are we to explain the enormous gap between the letter of the law and the spirit of the people? One possible explanation would be that the Jewish readers of the Hebrew Bible found creative ways to overcome its prohibition of magic. Religious systems, and especially the so-called "book religions," often are forced to deal with the gap between their changing norms and those ordained by their sacred Scriptures, and can display amazing ingenuity in the process. [...] Another possible line of reasoning would take the opposite route. If magic was pervasive, perhaps this was due to the willingness of a large number of Jews to ignore the biblical prohibitions on this score...' -Bohak, 'Ancient Jewish Magic: a History

Suffer or Sustain

Exodus 22:17 is the source of the all too familiar "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live" line, which is where many find their main argument against any practice of witchcraft. There are countless commentaries breaking down the potential meanings of this commandment, and one common point of contention surrounds the translation of 'suffer' vs 'sustain'.

Scholars who believe 'suffer' is a mistranslation that should read as 'sustain' have argued that we then must question what it means to sustain a witch, and a myriad of answers to that can be found. One such answer is expounded upon in the Jewitches blog post 'Can You Even Be a Jewish Witch?' -

'This conclusion led Rabbi Winkler to believe that the meaning was instead, "don't get into the habit of supporting the livelihood of the village magician; don't let some guy with a lot of supernatural power drain you of your savings through fear and intimidation. Let him get a job like everybody else and perform his magic out of the goodness of his heart and in recognition of the sacred gift he possesses." Rabbi Winkler also discusses the possibility that it means "from sorcery you should not live", meaning that you should not make sorcery your main livelihood nor rely on it for every aspect of your daily life.'

Witch, Sorceress, Cutter, Poisoner

Another source of debate is the translation of the word 'witch' and 'sorceress' vs 'cutter' or 'poisoner.'

Depending on which translation one uses, the text could be referring to an outlawing of witchcraft or it could instead be an outlawing of using herbalism to malicious ends and/or selling poisons to others.

'Exodus (22.18) and Deuteronomy (18.10) both forbid Jewish people from being magicians, mekhashfim, a word translated in the Septuagint as pharmakoi, a synonym for magoi, or “magicians”. This is, in fact, one of the main sources of the Christian hostility to magic, but, as in the case of Christianity, ancient Jewish ideas about magic were complex – how could you tell the difference between a sage performing a legitimate miracle and a magician performing evil magic? Often, “magic” seems to be a label for the actions of foreigners, or those considered heretical or otherwise suspect.' -Religion in the Coptic magical Papyri: Judaism and Coptic Magic

(You can read more about the differing translations and the history and roots behind them here.)

As to why 'sorcery' or 'sorcerers' is/are outlawed at all in Exodus, seeming out of place amongst the other laws there, we find one explanation in Tur HaAroch, a 14th-century commentary:

'The reason the practice of witchcraft is so abhorrent in the eyes of G’d, is that these people not only sin but cause all those whom they mislead into believing in their powers to abandon their faith in the true G’d; in other words, they present themselves as G’d’s competition.'

The argument that witchcraft detracts from HaShem doesn't hold. For starters, there are many who believe that HaShem created the powers that are utilized in witchcraft, and therefore magical abilities or skills in witchcraft come from HaShem, gifted to some. We must also take into account the great number of Jewish witches who are a) religious and very much believe in HaShem, and b) who channel their magic and practices through HaShem, who perform their work only through HaShem and through no other means. How then is witchcraft detracting from HaShem? It simply isn't.

Contradictions

'... the hostility of some authorities to what they considered “magic” did not prevent Jewish people from carrying out activities that we might call “magical” – broadly speaking, the wearing of amulets and the practices of cursing, healing, and performing exorcisms, and invocations according to non-institutional rituals.' -Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri: Judaism and Coptic Magic

Magic in various forms (or, in some interpretations, specific types of magical practitioners) was forbidden in Levitical law, but that never stopped the Jewish people from partaking in magical practice. In fact, magical methods were hugely popular and widely practiced throughout Jewish history, evidence indicating that this was the case in the Second Temple period, in the time following the Temple's destruction, and into Late Antiquity. There are even documented attestations of magicians, such as Atomus, a prominent Jewish Cypriot magician or sorcerer who was under the employ of the Roman procurator of his time.

Jewish law and the Torah present contradictory opinions about magical practices deemed forbidden; and, while Biblical scholars interpret sorcery and divination outlawed in the Torah as certain 'improper' means of magical manipulation or divining, you will find such acts carried out in scripture.

'Biblical authors treat an attempt to learn the future as permissible so long as it is accomplished through permissible means: consultation with prophets, dream interpretation, or an oracle via the high priest’s breastplate (I Samuel 28:6). All other means — such as conjuring the spirits of the dead, interpreting the movements of clouds, or “reading” omens from the livers of sacrificial animals — fall into the category of intolerable sorcery.' -the Torah; a Women's Commentary

But, as mentioned above, there are examples of some 'improper' or 'intolerable' means being used in Jewish scripture - Saul summons the Witch of Endor in I Samuel 28 to conjure Solomon's ghost, and it isn't his wish to divine the future that is criticized, rather it's the means through which he went about it. When Saul had previously gone about trying to divine the future through dreams, through direct communication with HaShem, and through Urim and Thummim (the method mentioned above that involves the use of the High Priest's breastplate), none of those acts were deemed problematic; but Saul turning to the Witch of Endor and asking her to summon the dead for him, that was where issue was taken.

And Saul inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim [A kind of oracle; see Exod. 28.30 and 1 Sam. 14.41.] or by prophets. Then Saul said to his courtiers, “Find me a woman who consults ghosts, so that I can go to her and inquire through her.” And his courtiers told him that there was a woman in En-dor who consulted ghosts. Saul disguised himself; he put on different clothes and set out with two men. They came to the woman by night, and he said, “Please divine for me by a ghost. Bring up for me the one I shall name to you.” But the woman answered him, “You know what Saul has done, how he has banned [the use of] ghosts and familiar spirits in the land. So why are you laying a trap for me, to get me killed?” Saul swore to her by the LORD: “As the LORD lives, you won’t get into trouble over this.” At that, the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He answered, “Bring up Samuel for me.” Then the woman recognized Samuel, and she shrieked loudly, and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” The king answered her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a divine being coming up from the earth.” “What does he look like?” he asked her. “It is an old man coming up,” she said, “and he is wrapped in a robe.” Then Saul knew that it was Samuel; and he bowed low in homage with his face to the ground.

the Specifics

Laws forbidding various magical practices/practitioners can be found in Leviticus, Exodus, and Deuteronomy. As we've already visited the line from Exodus, I'll move on to Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Leviticus:

'You shall not eat anything with its blood; you shall not practice divination or soothsaying.' -Leviticus 19:26 -The Schocken Bible defines the divination mentioned here as an 'act of predicting the future [that] typically involved reading the shapes of nonmixing liquids in goblets.' -Metsudah Chumash, meanwhile, interprets the latter portion of this text as, 'You shall not act on the basis of omens nor act on the basis of auspicious times,' meaning that one shouldn't rely solely on divination to determine their actions.

'A man or a woman who has a ghost or familiar spirit shall be put to death...' -Leviticus 20:27 -The Kehot Chumash goes into a lot of detail about this one, saying, 'You were taught that a diviner who conjures the spirit of a dead person, causing it to speak via his armpit, or who speaks from his mouth by placing the bone of an animal called a yadu’a in it will be punished by excision if he was not properly warned and witnessed.'

Deuteronomy:

'Let no one be found among you who consigns a son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead.' - Deuteronomy 18:10-11 -In Rashi's commentary, he explains who qualifies as a diviner in this passage: 'What is a diviner? One who takes his stick in hand and says, (as though he were consulting it), “Shall I go, or shall I not go?”' He also defines a sorcerer as, '[one who draws prognostications from the fact that] the bread fell from his mouth, or that a stag crossed his path, or that his stick fell from his hand.' And of necromancers, 'one who raises a corpse, placing it on his genitals, or who consults a skull.' -Rabbi Akiba adds, 'Such are people who assign times — who say, “This time is auspicious to begin some work.” -Per Sifrei Devarim 171:9 - '...the Sages, however, say it refers to those “who hold your eyes under control” (who delude by optical deception).'

Many of the magical acts specifically discouraged are divinatory, and extremely specific acts of divination at that. So, that's good news for any Jewish witches who don't practice divination. I should also hope that the acts of letting the dead speak through one's armpit, putting talking bones in one's mouth, or putting a corpse on one's genitals are no longer relevant issues for magical practitioners, which essentially leaves most of these prohibitions as null and void nowadays.

But you do have scholars and rabbis who have accused even commonplace practice and ritual of being types of witchcraft, such as Rabbi Yosei in one discussion about the burning of incense and the use of fragrant spices in Jewish custom -

'Rabbi Yosei says: Even if the majority are Jews, one may not recite a blessing, as the daughters of Israel burn incense to witchcraft and the spices were certainly made for witchcraft, not for their fragrance.'

(You can find a thorough deep dive into these prohibitions [and others] and how to translate them in 'Ancient Jewish Magic: a History' by Gideon Bohak, and a fuller list than what I've featured here of forbidden divinatory and magical acts in 'Can You Really Be a Jewish Witch?' on Jewitches.)

So, what's the bottom line?

Two things can be true at once.

Witchcraft can have been taboo in Jewish circles at different points in history, can have been outlawed in the Tanakh, can have been prohibited by rabbinic authorities while also having been an active part of Jewish life for centuries. Rabbis may have frowned upon it, but even those in the Talmud acknowledged that their own wives likely practiced witchcraft of some kind. It simply was and is an intrinsic part of Jewish culture, no matter how many times people attempt to hide or erase that fact.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

-'Ancient Jewish Magic: a History' - Bohak, Gideon -'Antiquities of the Jews' - Josephus -'the Amulet: A Jewish Charm' - My Jewish Learning -'Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur' - Montgomery, James A.; Professor -Berakhot, 53a:32 -'Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia' -'Can You Even Be a Jewish Witch?' - Jewitches -'the Folk Element in Judaism' -Trachtenberg, Joshua -'Jewish Aramaic Incantation Bowls' - Levene, Dan -'Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion' - Trachtenberg, Joshua -'Jewish Magic in Late Antiquity' - Schwartz, Michael D. -the Jewish Museum -the Jewish Museum of Switzerland -the Jewish Theological Seminary Library -'Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction' - Joseph, Dan -'the Kehot Chumash' -'Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World' - Mirecki, Paul; Meyer, Marvin W. -'Magic Bowls' - Avery-Peck, Alan J.; Dr. -'Magic of the Ordinary' - Winkler, Gershon; Rabbi -'Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism' - Scholem, Gershom -'the Metsudah Chumash' -'the Mezuzah: History and Customs' - Poltorak, Alexander -'Rashi's Commentary on Deuteronomy' -'Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri: Judaism and Coptic Magic' -'Returning to the Lost Practice of Jewish Witchcraft' - Vincent, Jericho; Rabbi -'the Schocken Bible' - Fox, Everett -'the Torah; a Women's Commentary' -'Tur HaAroch'-University of Cambridge Library

[creature-wizard]

People who say 'oh you just don't want to admit bad things are happening to kids' don't understand that we do think terrible things are happening, it's just that the majority of it isn't organized and bad things can randomly happen to people perpetrated by people who are not categorically evil masterminds but by a lot of different kinds of people who have no idea how much damage they're doing (this does not excuse their actions)

Anybody can do bad things. They can even think they're doing something right and moral even though they aren't.

Yeah, yeah exactly. I think many of us are extremely aware that there are a lot of terrible things happening to many vulnerable people, including a lot of children. And I think most of us are aware that a lot of abuse is in some sense organized (for example, the abuses that went on in NXIVM).

Like, the actual reasons people are critical of this Project Monarch stuff is because:

Alter programming (specifically the type described here, in case any dipshit wants to try and project something I'm not actually talking about here) has allegedly been practiced since at least the mid-20th century, and not a single piece of literature written by or for the programmers (such as programming manuals, programming session records, programming scripts, or lists of access codes) has ever turned up anywhere.

Millions of people would have to be in on it, and each one would have to be a hypercompetent mastermind to keep their activities this well-hidden for this long. Every programmer would have to be a hypercompetent mastermind to not kill, severely disable, and/or severely disfigure most of the people they're trying to program with the methods they supposedly use.

Millions of alleged cult members supposedly practice human sacrifice on a regular basis (sacrifices are allegedly mandated for several holidays, every pregnancy-capable cult member must allegedly sacrifice their firstborn, and numerous programming rituals allegedly require the death of babies or children), but literally no evidence (like dead bodies, high numbers of missing children, or vanished pregnancies) supports this.

The so-called "experts" constantly out themselves as credulous clucks by repeating information that can be definitively traced back to very specific and known conspiracy theorists (like, you don't go around claiming the Babylonian Brotherhood is a thing unless you're getting your information from the Christofascist conspiracy theorists who still take Alexander Hislop seriously) or is scientifically impossible (like claiming that switching alters can make a person's eyes change from blue to brown).

We know that trance states don't allow you to access perfectly preserved memories. You can come up with literally anything under a trance. Hell, the first person to "remember" SRA in a trance (Michelle Pazder) is herself proof of this, because investigations into Michelle's claims revealed that they couldn't have happened - like her yearbook photo showing her healthy and fine at the time when she was allegedly being tortured every which way by the cult.

We know that what might appear to be a spontaneous recollection of an old memory might not be what it seems, either. (Plenty of New Agers spontaneously "remembered" fragments of perceived past lives based on New Age pseudohistory.)

There is just no getting around the fact that literally everyone promoting this idea at this point was influenced by Dr. Lawrence Pazder and very often Fritz Springmeier. Once you start tracing everybody's sources back and start doing the research, this fact is inescapable.

And, once again, not a single goddamn piece of literature written by or for the programmers has ever turned up in the 70+ years people have supposedly been practicing this.

Want more information on the origins of the Project Monarch alter programming conspiracy theory, and how we know it's a conspiracy theory? Click here.

[timesacircle]

— A Babylonian young man complains to his mother about the poor quality of his clothes.

The letter from Iddin-Sin to Zinu is an Old Babylonian letter written by the student Iddin-Sin to his mother Zinu. It is thought to have been written in the city of Larsa in the 18th century BC, around the time of Hammurabi's reign 3500 years ago.

Disappointed with the quality of the clothes his mother had weaved for him vis-à-vis those of his peers, Iddin-Sin in the letter tried to use various methods to manipulate his mother into feeling guilty and sending him new clothes.

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

10 Jewish Women from History Part 4

Roza Papo (1914-1984, Yugoslavia)

A physician and general of the Yugoslav People's Army, and the first woman to rise to rank of general on the Balkan Peninsula. Born to a Sephardi Jewish family in Sarajevo, she studied at the School of Medicine in Zagreb and worked as a physician. In 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia, she made contact with several resistance groups. She had the rank of officer, captain, and major. After the war, she continued her career as a physician in the army, and became the first head of the Military Medical Academy, formulating the first criteria for the selection of military physicians. She published over 50 papers, is credited with introducing new diagnostic methods, and has received six medals for her contributions. In 1973, she was promoted to the rank of major general, the first woman general in all the Balkans.

Fira Benenson (1898-1977, America)

A Russian born fashion designer and dressmaker who grew up in Baku, Saint Petersburg, London, Paris, and New York City. After her family fortune took a hit in the Great Depression and Wall Street Crash of 1929, she opened a dress shop in NYC and began to gain a reputation in the fashion industry. She worked with Bonwit Teller, until she created her own company focused on simple but elegant clothing that women could wear throughout their daily routines. She worked with Princess Grace of Monaco and Pat Nixon, and designed many clothes for women over forty.

Lilli Henoch (1899-1942, Germany)

Born in Konigsberg, East Prussia, she and her family moved to Berlin. She was a track and field athlete who set four world records and won 10 German national championships in four different disciplines. She participated and set world records in the discus, the shot put, and the four by one hundred meters relay. After 1933, she and other Jews were forced to leave the BSC by race laws, so she joined the Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Club 1905, where she played team handball. She also worked as a gymnastics teacher. She was entered into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, and was honored with a Stolperstein in Berlin in 2008.

Lily Krongerber (1890-1975, Hungary)

A Hungarian figure skater born in Budapest, she was Hungary's first World Champion. She won two bronze medals and four gold medals in the World Championships, and participated in the first official one in 1906. She was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997.

Adlene Harrison (1923-2022, America)

An American politician and the first Jewish woman to serve as Mayor of a major U.S. city, as well as Dallas's first Jewish mayor and first female mayor.

Ida Silverman (1882-1973)

A Jewish philanthropist who helped co-found approximately 100 synagogues. She is the only woman to have served as VP of the Zionist Organization of America and the American Jewish Congress. Born in Kovno, Russia, her family emigrated to the US when she was an infant. She was honored as Jewish Mother of the Year in 1951, and Rhode Island mother of the year in 1954. She has both a forest and a village in Israel named after her. She and her husband were jointly inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1971.

Rachel, Countess d'Avigdor (1816-1896, England)

A philanthropist and communal worker, she was privately educated by some of the most eminent teachers of the time. She was involved in communal institutions, including Jewish owned businesses, and was also a signatory of the firsts mass petition in Britain for women to vote.

Sara (200 CE ~ 600 CE, Roman Empire)

A Roman convert to Judaism buried within the Jewish catacombs of Rome. Also known as Veturia Paulla. She was honored as the mother of several synagogues.

Yalta (Period of Babylonian Talmud)

One of the few women named in the Babylonian Talmud, and wife of Rav Nachman, who was a sage from around 250 CE. The second most mentioned women in the Talmud, she is described as breaking 400 jugs of wine after a guest offended her and womenkind. She also offers her husband counsel, and was able to come up with non-kosher food that tasted the same as kosher food.

Helena of Adiabene (?-50/56 CE, Parthian Empire)

Queen mother of Adiabene, a vassal state of the Parthian Empire. She converted to Judaism around the year 30 CE, and was known for her generosity. Her strictness of keeping to the mitzvot was mentioned in the Talmud.

[maximthejewitch]

Ancient Mystical Teachings of Paganism That Define The Abrahamic Traditions

Have you ever wondered about the historical roots that define the Abrahamic traditions? Did you know Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have pagan origins? Let’s explore the similarities between the Abrahamic faiths and the ancient mystery religions.

Paganism and the Abrahamic traditions seem worlds apart, but they actually have a lot in common. Their symbolism, practices, and even their holy texts share common ancestors. Most followers of the Abrahamic faiths don’t know about these origins. They believe their texts to be accurate translations of divinely inspired documents. In truth, these writings are a compilation of myths, legends, and superstitions from many ancient cultures.

What are the ancient mystery religions? These are the cults that existed in the Mediterranean region in 1 BCE. They include Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian religious systems.

Shared Religious Texts and Beliefs

The similarities between pagan and Abrahamic ideologies are not a coincidence. In other circles, this is called plagiarism. The Abrahamic faiths have tried to keep these truths from being exposed. They fear it would affect their membership base. But the information age has made this harder. Thanks to the Internet, this information is more readily available.

While each tradition has its sacred texts, there are striking similarities between them. The same stories and teachings are in the Torah, Tanak, New Testament, the Quran, and other holy texts. The translation and interpretation of ancient texts provide a window into the past. Side by side, the comparison of myths and legends shows us how these stories have traveled far and wide.

By deciphering these texts, scholars reveal the historical roots of the Abrahamic faiths. For example, the doctrines of a Mother Goddess are prominent in many pagan religions. The Virgin Mary in Christianity reflects the same concepts and symbolism.

Historical evidence shows that Abrahamic religions were not original. They are copies of the ancient mystery religions. This is the home of the ancient mystical teachings of paganism. It is ingenious how so many different unrelated belief systems were combined. Granted, this effort took several hundred years. The Roman army supported their methodical acquisition of existing religions and their sites. They converted or expelled their previous leadership and built a worldwide empire.

Origins of Shared Religious Texts and Beliefs

Our understanding of “the ancient mystery religions” increased significantly in the 1800s. Scholars begin deciphering hieroglyphs and cuneiform texts. The work of Kersey Graves, The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors, 1881 is a good example. It outlines hundreds of similarities between pagan and Abrahamic beliefs. He says ignorance of history and science are the two greatest sources of religious error.

[iamthepulta]

The more I read about Babylonia, the more I realize the Romans were essentially copy-pasting a good 80% of their technology, enhanced by coinage and lightweight communication methods.

The Romans also loved stone more than the Babylonians. An abnormal amount. I say that as someone who loves rocks. They loved stonework.

[girlactionfigure]

🟦DEF. MIN. THREATENS - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - the Green Prince, son of Hamas founder, speaks at the Oxford Union )

✡️FAST of the 10th of Tevet - the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tevet, in the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later—on 9 Tammuz 3338—the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that year the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Asarah B'Tevet (this year, January 10, 2025) is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak to nightfall.

✡️BEFORE SHABBAT (Erev Shabbat) - Parshat Vayechi - Genesis 47:28 - "Vayechi," means "And he lived”. Jacob lives the final 17 years of his life in Egypt. Before his passing, he asks Joseph to take an oath that he will bury him in the Holy Land. He blesses Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, elevating them to the status of his own sons as progenitors of tribes within the nation of Israel.

▪️HOSTAGE BODY IDENTIFIED.. After completing the identification process, the IDF informed the Al-Zaydana family this morning that their son Hamza, who was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, was killed in Hamas captivity. 

May the dead receive mercy, and the family receive comfort in the final confirmation.

▪️ON THE CHAREDI DRAFT.. Will draft orders be sent to ultra-Orthodox Jews based solely on age?  Will first orders be sent to all those liable for conscription without distinction?  What will be done with those who do not enlist within the quotas in the next two years?

.. RELATED: IDF general who founded the Haredi brigade is rescued from a restaurant in Bnei Brak after being confronted by charedi rioters.  3 arrested.

▪️DEFENSE MIN. THREATENS.. Defense Minister Katz: "I instructed the IDF to present me with a plan for the complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza, if Hamas does not release the hostages by the time President Trump takes office.   We must not be dragged into a war of attrition against Hamas in Gaza, while the hostages remain in the tunnels. We must change the method of operation to eliminate Hamas and end the war.”

▪️AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.. suspends Israeli branch after Israeli branc rejects claims of 'genocide' in Gaza.

▪️ALL NATURE RESERVES.. in the north have re-opened, with the last Nachal Ayun re-opening tomorrow.

🇬🇧UK THREATENS CHABAD.. The British regulator has issued a warning to a London-based Chabad organization that raised thousands of pounds in donations for an IDF soldier serving in northern Israel. The warning requires Chabad to consider whether to return the funds raised as part of the donation, arguing that purchasing military equipment and transferring military supplies to non-British armed forces could be considered a violation of the law.

♦️HOUTHIS ASSASSINATED?  A security source told Maariv that a number of Houthi leaders were killed in mysterious airstrikes in recent days. The Houthis suspect that there are spies in their ranks, which has led to a large wave of arrests in their capital Sana’a.  They were killed in airstrikes while traveling.

🎗️HOSTAGE DEAL NEWS.. President Biden on the negotiations for the deal: ''There is some progress, it can be done before January 20th’’.

[bogkeep]

i am indeed here from bog horse! love learning about the clocks tho 👍

hell yeah !!!!!

today i learned about another variant of medieval timekeeping that gerhard dohrn-van rossum just refers to in his book as "nuremberg clock" - it's a variation of the babylonian time, which was 12 day hours and 12 night hours and the length of the hours changed with the seasons, but instead of always sticking to 12 hours, the number of hours would swap around over time. in december there were 8 day hours and 16 night hours, and the other way around in june. the calculations needed to keep up with the variations became incredibly complicated and yet they used this timekeeping method until the 18th century

[theironwarsmith]

Adad, Contemptor Dreadnought of The Pyre, II Legion

I finally got around to finishing the Contemptor Dreadnaught, Adad (Assyrian/Babylonian storm god). This is the tester for the colour and general feel of the custom legion project, The Pyre.

The idea for the legion is that they are utterly ruthless, without mercy and the end always justify the means. This ties into their main method of warfare: annihilation. They are the apocalypse manifest. When the legion arrives at a world to bring to compliance, they offer but one opportunity to surrender to Imperial rule. If the world doesn't surrender, they nuke major population centres and systematically render the population of the world extinct so that the world can be colonised by Imperial citizens or stand as a testament to those who defy the Imperium and its Great Crusade.

They utilise forbidden weaponry to achieve this aim, under the orders of their Primarch: Ashuradan the God-King. The use of large scale atomic warheads in orbital bombardment, as well as more tactical scale weapons, alongside rarer weapons that use radioactive adaptations to increase their efficiency. These include the much maligned Rad-Volkite weapons; which behave very similarly to Volkite weapons but when an enemy is deflagrated the ashen remains are highly radioactive and act like a rad-phage on their comrades. The legion also has a habit of attaching miniature rad-emitters to their close combat weapons so that, should their opponents survive a wound from their weapon, their wound is subjected to a high dose of radiation and their fate is sealed even if they somehow survive the encounter.

Furthermore, one of their more reprehensible weapons is the heretical use of Abominable Intelligence in various forms. A more noticeable form of this is the use of the Namsharu Dominators.

These were the warforms given to the Abominable Intelligences that the II Legion had shackled from the deep warrens beneath their homeworld. Equipped with horrific weaponry such as Phosphex Projectors, repeater dark-age Plasma Casters and Rad-Volkite Tri-Culverins. The warform itself was an element of psychological warfare. A towering, almost-humanoid exoskeleton, matted black with the death of hundreds of worlds, the lenses of its eyes glow a distant baleful red as if they were individual red giant stars seen from a vast distance. They stalk the darker battlefields of The Pyre's campaigns, lit by Phosphex fires and the dull glow of radiation.

It is the use of these weapons, the Primarch's arrogance in his relentless pursuit of forbidden technology and the results of their campaigns that eventually lead to their censure and subsequent erasure from Imperial records. Whether they still exist in the 41st millennium is another matter entirely.

As it currently stands their primary legion symbols are the Sunburst Radiation (radioactive symbol in a sunburst with skull at the centre, a Lammasu and a Cuneiform number 2)

[miragrimmastrologer]

MARS. The fourth from the sun.

The fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest in our Solar System. The exploration of Mars began a long time ago, about 3,500 years ago, in Ancient Egypt. The first detailed reports on Mars' position were compiled by Babylonian astronomers, who developed a number of mathematical methods for predicting the planet's position. Mars belongs to the family of terrestrial planets (Planets located in the inner region of the Solar System, as opposed to the gas giants located in the outer region. In structure and composition, some rocky asteroids, such as Vesta, are similar to terrestrial planets) along with Mercury, Venus, and Earth. Due to the reddish tint of its surface, given by the mineral maghemite – γ-iron(III) oxide, Mars is called the "Red Planet". Mars is well visible from Earth with the naked eye. It is outshone only by Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, and the Sun, but during "great opposition" (Opposition. The position of a celestial body in the Solar System, where the difference in ecliptic longitudes of it and the Sun is 180°, meaning this body is approximately on the extension of the "Sun – Earth" line and is seen from Earth roughly in the opposite direction to the Sun.) Mars can surpass even Jupiter in brightness. This phenomenon can be observed every two years.

Mars has two natural satellites – Phobos and Deimos (translated from ancient Greek as 'fear' and 'terror'), which are relatively small and have irregular shapes. Mars' mass is 10.7% of Earth's mass, and its linear size is almost half that of Earth's. A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days, or about 669 Martian solar days (sols).

Mars experiences seasonal changes similar to those on Earth, but the eccentricity of its orbit leads to greater differences in the duration of the seasons. The atmosphere of Mars is very thin, with surface pressure approximately 160 times less than that of Earth. A large amount of dust leads to the occurrence of dust storms, which have a noticeable impact on temperature distribution in the Martian atmosphere and can completely obscure the planet's surface. The average temperature on Mars is -81.4 °F (-63 °C), and the daily temperature range varies from -128.2 °F (-89 °C) to -23.8 °F (-31 °C). The terrain of Mars has many unique features. For example, Mars has impact craters (depressions formed on the surface of a celestial body by the impact of a smaller body) similar to those on the Moon, as well as volcanoes, valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps similar to those on Earth. In the past, Mars, like Earth, experienced tectonic plate movements.

By the beginning of the 21st century, Mars has become the most thoroughly studied planet in the Solar System after Earth. As of 2024, the orbital research group around Mars consists of seven functioning spacecraft: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, Al-Amal, and the orbiter of the Chinese Tianwen-1 mission. This is more than around any other planet, except for Earth. Additionally, the surface of Mars is currently being explored by two rovers – Curiosity and Perseverance.

[mightyostanes]

If at first you don't succeed Scry Scry Again.

(Note this post neither condones or prohibits the practice of magic, nor does it have a say in whether Magic is efficacious. This is solely a post about ideas in the history of Judaism.)

         Judaism and Magic go together like alcohol and social gatherings, some see them as inseparable, some find that they dilute each other, others try to separate them entirely and heavily polemicize against one or the other. Either way there’s plenty of very religious gentiles that see them as identical and absolutely evil. In modern times Judaism is often seen as the first anti magical and anti mythical (not anti mystical) religion. A religion that is explicitly based on the denial of intermediate and non rational theism. This is of course, complete and utter nonsense made up to make Judaism seem western, modern, and respectable to pre WWI Germans and Europeans. 

   It is true that Judaism has absolutely prohibited some forms of magic such as the use of sympathetic magic effigies or most forms of necromancy, there is quite a bit of discussion on exactly what kind of magic is outlawed. Healing amulets are almost universally agreed upon to be Kosher so long as they don’t call on other deities, and the only stipulation given is that the person they’re procured from knows what they’re doing (Talmud Tractate Shabbat 60-61.). A discussion that got so technical that there was fierce argument about which amulets were specifically not allowed (Tractate Avodah Zarah 43).. Natal astrology was also somewhat forbidden except when it was used to link people’s traits to the planetary hour they were born in (Tractate Shabbat 156). The old favorite of demon and angel summoning was also never officially banned and indeed there are stories in the Talmud of Rabbis using Shedim to do things beyond leaving the bodies/houses of people they were tormenting (2). 

       The trickiest form of magic to get away with was divination which is ironically around 65% of all magic is about. In opposition to the usually more liberal stance allowed by biblical vagueness the Torah especially Deuteronomy is quite clear that most forms of divination are absolutely banned. The few exceptions were the use of the Urim and Thummim (2), dream divination (3),  casting lots (4), and whatever other forms of divination happened to escape the Torah’s condemnation. Perhaps the most prolific form of semi allowed divination historically practiced by Jews was scrying. For those of you without an unhealthy obsession with the occult, scrying is the process of gleaning information by staring into semi opaque objects or liquids. It’s also the same method that wife swapper and original James Bond Jon Dee used to communicate with angels. In tractate Sanhedrin 101 certain methods of scrying involving the ‘princes of oil’ and ‘the princes of eggs’ are permitted though the sages doubt their efficacy. Said doubt doesn’t arrive from disbelief in these forces but doubts about whether these vaguely defined supernatural beings were trustworthy. Indeed whether these ‘princes’ were angelic or demonic varied from text to text with the latter winning out by a slight margin.       Scrying with a liquid medium has been widely attested in the mediterranean and the ancient near east. The earliest written records of its use date back to the old babylonian period ( approximately 1894 BCE - 1595 BCE) as methods used for divination (5). Interestingly scrying seemed to be used exclusively for private divination as opposed to divinatory arts used by the state and temples such as Astrology or divining from the intestines of sacrificed animals (5). Compounding this idea of scrying as something private was the fact that a child was often used as a medium outside of Mesopotamia (5). Perhaps this lack of association with Mesopotamian and Egyptian state religion made the practice of scrying slightly less pagan and somewhat more acceptable to the Talmudic sages.

Scrying in liquid was a Talmud approved way to divine future, but this was not the main aspect that drew Jews to scrying. The real attraction came from the fact that they could supposedly use it to talk to spiritual entities or even catch glimpses of the heavenly realms. To the point where several midrashim such as Re’iyyot Yezekiel even theorize that Ezekiel actually witnessed his vision by gazing into the river he was standing in (6). Considering the fact that achieving something similar to Ezekiel vision was perhaps the starting point for much of Jewish mysticism it wouldn’t be surprising if many attempted to achieve this by metaphorically scrying through heaven’s keyhole. Indeed there are even descriptions among the Hasidei Askhenaz of Europe where they openly state they achieved visions of the celestial glory by gazing into a bowl of oil and water exposed to sunlight. Keep in mind achieving a vision of the celestial glory was the highest form of gnosis to the Hasidei Askhenaz and they achieved it by scrying. Even such luminaries as Chaim Vital visited fortune tellers and wise women who used oil divination tg get in touch with the celestial realm.

      Is there a reason why scrying was mostly used as a means of contact instead of divination? Not really. The fact is that at least until the 1800s many Jews especially in more elite and intellectual circles were desperate to achieve a vision of G-d or at least one of the ministering angels. Abulafia used vocalizing Hebrew letters and rapid head movements, Luria used fasting and isolation, and some other people used scrying. A few Jewish communities were so desperate that they’d interrogate Dybbuks about the nature of G-d and the universe (8). The idea of Messianic redemption was constantly at hand among most Jews before the creation of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel so the future was already laid out where it mattered assuming G-d still cared. The part they wanted to confirm was that G-d still cared, that the Ruach Hakodesh had not departed from them forever. They wanted second opinions on their teachings, supernatural guidance in the era when there were no more true prophets in Israel, or even that their theurgic practices worked. In their minds, the Jews didn’t need to know the future because things would turn out all right as long as G-d remembered us. The real question then became whether G-d in fact remembered us.

Secondary source citations

Ronis, Sara. “A Demonic Servant in Rav Papa's Household: Demons as Subjects in the Mesopotamian Talmud.” The Aggada of the Babylonian Talmud and Its Cultural World, Edited by Geoffrey Herman and Jeffrey Rubenstein, 2018, 3–21.

Hatch, Trevan G. "Magic, Biblical Law, and the Israelite Urim and Thummim." Studia Antiqua 5, no. 2 (2007). https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua/vol5/iss2/10

Gnuse, Robert. “The Temple Experience of Jaddus in the Antiquities of Josephus: A Report of Jewish Dream Incubation.” The Jewish Quarterly Review 83, no. 3/4 (1993): 349–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/1455158.

Curwin, David. “Goral – Can We Let God Roll the Dice?” Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought 53, no. 2 (2021): 51–67. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27303737.

Reiner, Erica. “Fortune-Telling in Mesopotamia.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 19, no. 1 (1960): 23–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/543689.

Polliack, Meira. “EZEKIEL 1 AND ITS ROLE IN SUBSEQUENT JEWISH MYSTICAL THOUGHT AND TRADITION.” European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe 32, no. 1 (1999): 70–78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41443447.

Wolfson, Elliot R. Through a speculum that shines: Vision and imagination in medieval Jewish mysticism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021. Page 266

Goldish, Matt, Joseph Dan, and Erika Bourguignon. Spirit possession in Judaism: Cases and contexts from the Middle Ages to the present. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005.