I’m why old empires like ancient Egypt, mesopotamia, sumeria, Canaanites so influential on Magick?
I’m not going to speculate the why and the how but I’m genuinely curious
Did they really know more about how the universe operates on a spiritual level
Because they were known magical based cultures, societies where magick and religion were part of every day life. They hold a mystique over the Western imagination that more modern civilizations do not.
Many Victorian age occultists were heavily enamored with the mystical East and archaeological information on Egypt and Sumer were scarce and hard fought so they entered the popular imagination as civilizations of mystery.
It’s interesting to note though, that each and every one of those magical societies fell to armies with greater technology.
Odd. I was thinking a day or two while listening to shaman drumming videos, on how and why ancient Americas tribal Nations flourished, until Europeans came and destroyed them due to diseases (and rats on ships).
I might be a novice to magick, but I know history well enough.
To anyone living within these empires’ influence, magick was something as important and as commonplace as engineering is to us. While highly advanced magick was usually left to dedicated experts- the principle wasn’t lost on most people. Had your goats stolen? Write a curse tablet targeting the thief. Want to find your way to more silver? Petition Nabu for help. Invaders march on your borders? Offer them to satiate Sekhmet’s thirst for blood so it isn’t you. It was both a way to understand the universe and a solution to many of life’s problems.
There are theories out there, many of them wild and posing more questions than answers. Some say these empires contained knowledge that was left after a previous great flood wiped out a highly advanced preceding civilization. Others will insist that they did understand the universe on a spiritual level, that they knew something we don’t and were far more advanced than we think. The only thing that I can know is that the monuments they built are odd. The Pyramids could not be recreated with today’s technology- how and why they built them 5,000 years ago is a mystery we may never know.
What is the most straightforward and likely answer is simply that these empires practiced magick heavily, its role in their society was equal to natural science or other disciplines in ours. Logically, they would have the most background and influence on it through this.