Ancient Egyptians believed that magic, science and religion were all linked together. Priests performed ceremonies and cast spells, asking the gods for favour and power to help people.
They performed different rituals at set times in the day and on special days in the year to bring success to the kingdom and to protect the pharaohs.
Everybody used magic in their daily lives to solve their problems. They would use magical wards to stop evil from entering their house or a tomb and would say spells, as well as take medicine, to cure disease.
When people left the protection of their home, they carried or wore amulets – jewellery which they believed had magical powers so could protect them and bring them good luck.
The ancient Egyptians thought that the gods would communicate with them in their dreams. They thought the gods would give them solutions to their problems and tell them what would happen in their future.
For example:
If people had a dream that they thought meant something, they would immediate run out to buy a spell or an amulet.
For a bad dream, you wanted magic to protect you and for a good dream you wanted some good luck to make sure the prediction happened.
The ancient Egyptians kept their spells written down on a sheet of papyrus paper. These sheets were nicknamed the Book of the Dead!
Most spells were to help people reach the afterlife after they died, as this was the most important thing to ancient Egyptians – over 200 spells were created! Some were written on tombs or amulets to carry with you when you died for protection.
You could buy spells written down already in the marketplace, with blank spaces for you to write your name in, or you could pay a scribe to design a spell for you.
This would then be placed in your tomb. It was important to write your name down so that you got the protection after you died. Also, it helped your souls (Ba and Ka) to get home to your tomb and body at night, after their travels around the world.