By Anna Sofia Botkin, posted on 9 December, 2010

The ancient Egyptians are known for having their skeletons in the closet, but less is known about their darker secret: they had their demons, too.

But before the 19th century, archeologists started uncovering the skeletons and other hard data – tombs, sarcophagi, and the Rosetta stone –- Egypt’s demons were her most alluring attraction. And ‘wise’ men of every age were smitten.

Neo-Platonist philosophers were infatuated with the hieroglyphs in particular: what secrets might these exquisitely intricate, mysterious symbols encode? Being philosophers, they spent more time pontificating than doing actual research, and came up with elaborate theories without knowing even the rudiments of how this ancient system of writing worked. They postulated that the hieroglyphs encoded ‘pure’ philosophy, divine wisdom and were a form of writing designed by the gods to enshrine their secrets.

To be fair, reliable information on Egypt was hard to come by. There were a few artifacts and a few rumors; just enough to spur the imagination on but not enough to rein it back onto any trail of evidence and fact. Thus, what started as a few shamefully uneducated guesses about the hieroglyphs grew into a firm conviction that Egypt, ‘the temple of all the world’^[1], was hoarding humanity’s greatest repository of clandestine knowledge: information on magic, alchemy, astrology, spiritual philosophy, and the hereafter.

This conviction became the basis of western hermetic lore and esoteric philosophy, which was taken seriously by Humanism’s best and brightest for centuries –- even champions of science and reason like Isaac Newton and John Dee.

Paul Johnson explains in The Civilization of Ancient Egypt,

Until the Thirty Years War, imperial Prague was both the leading scientific center in Europe and the place where the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the secrets they were believed to contain were most eagerly scrutinized.”^[2]

But then in 1799 the Rosetta stone was uncovered.^[3] Now for the first time, translators of the hieroglyphs had a cipher showing a hieroglyphic message with a Greek parallel. But this long-awaited key to unlocking the secrets enshrined in this ‘enchanted’ form of writing unlocked something much stranger: the truth.

Paul Johnson continues,

The discovery of the principles of the hieroglyphs demolished at one stroke the pretentious monument of nonsense which had been erected on the basis of a false symbolism for nearly two millennia. It robbed the ancient Egyptians of their non-existent esoteric knowledge…”

The spell was broken; humanism’s Eldorado collapsed, and we can only imagine the bitter disappointment that rippled through Europe’s intelligentsia. However, assumptions about the paranormal that were based on this ‘pretentious monument of nonsense’ have never been fully exorcised from the mind and imagination of western esoteric tradition. From the free-masons to the wiccans to J.K. Rowling, the pseudo-science of early Egyptology continues to haunt.

What honest excavation exposed about Egypt’s true magic tradition was this: It was nothing more than the glue that held together an elaborate pyramid scheme. It consisted chiefly of word-magic and spells, which conveniently restricted it to the realm of the literate (the ruling elite.) On papyrus records we also have recipes for potions, instructions for evoking spirits, directives for divining the future and interpreting dreams, examples of cheap party tricks like reattaching supposedly severed animal heads, voodoo-like procedures and a little human sacrifice for good measure.^[4] All this was for the purpose of impressing the people, warding off bad luck and evil spirits, earning the favor of the gods, healing the sick and sending the dead on their way.

But perhaps its even greater purpose was to fill in the plot-holes of their far-fetched religion and keep up the people’s faith in the system. Thus it was a lie within a lie; this common hocus-pocus was closely guarded by the priests and magicians under the importance-giving label ‘top secret.’ Just the pretence of having highly-classified, deep, dark, boy-if-only-you-knew, mystery knowledge was enough to keep the people in a state of dumbstruck awe. In short, it was just the ‘super-normal’ stuff found in nearly every pagan civilization.

Yes, Egypt had its demons all right, and those demons knew a few tricks, but it didn’t have the ultimate truth that so many wanted to believe in. Pseudo-history had ripped them off.

This is the tragedy of all who turn to the occult for answers. They get taken in by the oldest trick in the book.

Since the Garden of Eden, man has been beguiled with the proposition of forbidden knowledge that will put him on the level with God, and since the Garden of Eden, he has been disappointed.

Man’s fallen desire to be as God can be seen through the ages in his every effort to hack into the system and play with the code, manipulating the rules of time and space around his desires. We all want to live forever, cheat death, control others, talk to the dead, foretell our futures, and convert base metals into gold^[5], generating instant wealth. But God has forbidden our experimentation in these dark arts^[6], and they don’t really work, no matter what Satan says (he isn’t known for telling the truth.)

This brings us to an important question: is all magic simply an illusion?

Cotton Mather, the level-headed champion of the Reformed Faith and scientific analysis did not dismiss the bizarre brushes with the supernatural that he recorded in his commentary on the Salem Witch Trials, Wonders of the Invisible World:

It is certain both from Scripture and History, that Magicians by their Inchantments and Hellish Conjurations, may cause a false Representation of Persons and Things.”

The powers of Satan were very real to Mather; however, he recognized that they could be displayed in ways that were not:

“We read of the working of Satan ‘in all Power and Signs, and lying Wonders’ (2 Thess. 2:9). His Heart is beyond what the wisest of Men may pretend unto: He has perfect skill in Opticks, and can therefore cause that to be visible to one, which is not so to another, and things also to appear far otherwise then they are.”

Closer investigation into the nature of these lying wonders takes us back to Egypt again. The cradle of the world’s darkest arts became the perfect staging ground for the definitive showdown between God’s power and Satan’s. In Exodus 3 God called Moses as the delegate of His power, through whom He would, “stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders.” In the court of Pharaoh, Moses faced-off with two magicians, Jannes and Jambres, whose names are given in 2 Tim. 2:8. (This duo was not just the ancient equivalent to Penn and Teller. They were the real deal, the kinds of master magicians that make Harry Potter look like the jam-stained, round-faced, school-boy protagonist of a cheap film series for children – oh, wait…).

The story continues from Exodus 7:

Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.”

You would think that this superior show of power would be enough to make these magicians eat their Bas and Kas out, but they seemed to be self-satisfied enough to keep going. They copied Moses, wonder for wonder, plague for plague, victoriously producing even more frogs and bloody water. The Bible is not clear on whether they did this by illusion or through demonic arts, facts which are beside the point: They could not counteract God’s judgment. Ironically, in their smug triumph they were extending it even further.

Scholars and theologians may never be able to give a definitive answer on the extent of Satan’s power. Can he create a living, breathing snake from a dead stick? Can he make people or objects invisible? Can he arrange contact between the living and the dead? Or can he just give the appearance of these things? One thing we can be sure of is that he is not called ‘the Deceiver’ for nothing, and everyone who has staked his soul in a game of roulette with this con master has lost.

Another thing: we are commanded to fear God, not the dark. Whatever Egypt’s magicians were able to perform by Satan’s help, they were no match for God’s power and they couldn’t offset His plan. Their examples are mentioned in 2 Tim.3:8 as men who “resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

God has more to say about those who dabble in the occult:

“after the working of Satan all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…” (2Thes. 2:9-11)

In conclusion, magic is a true lie. It has the very real power to deceive. But whether illusionary or paranormal, it’s just a realistic projection of something that is not real: God-like power.

The Pharaoh’s secret storehouse of celestial, all-powerful and power-giving wisdom was exposed as a sham by the true historic and biblical record; those who choose to keep believing in it are deceiving themselves and they know it.

In the depths of his heart, every man and every shuddering demon knows the truth: that Jesus Christ is Lord -- the only way, the only truth and the only life.