A Brief History

The Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri (Latin: Papyri Graecae Magicae, PGM) hold a position of paramount importance in the history of the Western Esoteric Tradition. They stand at the origin of the Ceremonial Method & have directly & indirectly influenced the emergence of nearly every European grimoire in history.

The PGM are the name given by scholars to a collection of papyri written over the span of 1000 years in Greco-Roman Egypt. While many of the scrolls display the same handwriting, indicating that a large bulk were written by the same scribal hand, they contain a complex syncretism of Egyptian, Hellenistic, Jewish, Babylonian, Gnostic & Semitic roots. As you might expect, they are mostly written in Greek, but also contain sections written in Old Coptic & Demotic.
 

Translations of most of the papyri were first made available in German by Karl Preisendenz between 1928-1931. Since then, his work has been expanded on by Hanz Betz, who collected and edited English translations (admittedly taking a secular view, and contributing some errors of his own), adding in more recently found papyri, bringing their total number up from 81 to 120. 

Thankfully, Betz also commissioned fresh translations of the Demotic & Coptic papyri, which were originally ignored. 

The oldest papyrus in the collection (PGM XL, the Curse of Artemisia) dates from shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, whereas the most recent dates more or less securely to the 5th century AD. 

Equally, we know from cursory records that another of the papyri (PGM XX) was written by (or at least in the possession of) two magicians, Philinna of Thessaly & another unnamed magician who likely lived in the Levant, perhaps Syria. Socially speaking, this gives us an indication of the scope of the kind of practices contained within the collection. This style of magick evidently spread over an area which included Thessaly, Syria, Palestine & Egypt. The PGM are therefore likely representative of the practice of magick in the whole Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity. 

As amazing as it is to have these fascinating papyri still with us, they form a fraction of the magickal books that must have existed in antiquity. Betz considers them a form of "underground literature", given frequent references to keeping the rites secret in the papyri, most likely to avoid the all too frequent book-burnings at the time. He cites book-burning in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 19:19), Augustus' orders to burn magickal books according to Suetonius (Suet. Aug. 31.1), and what he terms "numerous" early Christian book-burnings.

Personally, I don't agree with Betz in this statement. The PGM as a whole are representative of Greco-Egyptian magick in Late Antiquity, while certain rituals are certainly more chthonic, darker & informal, when we examine the methodology behind the magick itself, a different picture emerges.

Magick as a Sorcerous Technology

Regardless of whether the PGM contains ritual records written by Egyptian priests or an underground cult, the methodology of magick is the same. What we see are a set of core principles that create a spectrum of divine theophanies & bring about both tangible & psychological revelation. 

While there are strong Greek influences exerted on the texts, interestingly, the Greek gods appear more in their folk guises than with their orthodox religious attributes. Therefore if we look to the Egyptian portions of the papyri, we begin to see more of systematic approach. In the Pyramid Texts (2500-2200 BC) of Pepi & Unas, we see rituals connected with ensuring the revival of the dead pharaoh & their everlasting afterlife.

Their lineal successor, the Coffin Texts (2250-1784 BC) are found inscribed on the inside of coffins & perform the same tasks. As we come to the Book of Coming Forth by Day, we find a collection of 200 passages, 60% of which are derived from the the two previous sources. Amongst the burial & funerary rites of the Book of the Dead however, we also find fascinating procedures for animating shabti statues, which bare semblance on the creation of stoicheia (ensouled statues) that we find in the PGM as well as Hermetic and Neoplatonic texts.

Although most of these Egyptian texts concern the dead, the framework of the rituals involved likely were copied by magicians in rites designed to assist the everyday life, given that many of the temple priests were also magicians in their off time. As part of the technology of magick, we find principles such as Spiritual Identification, where the magician self-identifies with a god higher in the hierarchy than the entity they are working with in order to coerce it into action, the use of nomina magica, and the classic Egyptian technique of threatening a god. 

The PGM in Practice

As the papyri left Egypt with the Greeks & Persians, they spread to Constantinople & likely formed the basis of the Hygromanteia (the Treatise of Solomon) up until 1453 when the Ottomans and Mehmed II sacked the city, causing the Byzantines to flee to their stronghold in Italy, bringing their manuscripts with them. This inadvertently created a milieu of occult and esoteric thinking in the northern Italian Peninsula, centred especially around Florence. 

At the turn of the 15th century, Florence gave birth to the Renaissance and the same economical and social factors that created that amazing period of art, philosophy and culture also fuelled magical and esoteric speculation embodied by Humanists like Ficino and Pico.

From 15th century Italy, the Hygromantic influenced manuscripts spread into Europe, forming the basis for the Clavicula Salomonis tradition, the original Latin texts of the Key of Solomon. 

It is difficult to fully reconstruct a stable methodology for Greco Egyptian magick, on account of how much has been lost to us, however, we find similar methods at the heart of the grimoire tradition. Concerns with purity, sexual abstinence & ritual bathing are evidently carry overs from Egyptian temple culture, but it appears in practice such things are a spectrum rather than absolutes.

Preliminary purifications, the casting of a circle with lustration, circumambulation or the sprinkling of natron, planetary incenses, the invocation to specific directions & of course, the use of nomina magica, are all staples of Greco Egyptian magick. 

By brewing various inks, speaking the hymns, incantations & prayers, the entities contained within these papyri will listen. 

It isn't a question of whether they can hear you, but what you do when they show up.