Back in the day, magic was as common as bread and water. The world of antiquity was packed with folks who genuinely believed in the power of spells, charms, and curses. In this roundup of 10 ancient magical practices, we’ll walk you through the most out‑there rituals that people actually performed, complete with the gruesome details and the oddly specific ingredients they swore would work.
10 Ancient Magical Overview
From love‑obsessed dolls to terrifying death curses, the ancients left us a treasure trove of spellcraft that reads like a medieval mixtape of desperation and creativity. Let’s dive into each spell, one bizarre ritual at a time.
10 Voodoo Dolls Of Love
Just as Voodoo practitioners fashioned effigies for their own brand of sorcery, the Greeks and Romans crafted tiny clay figures for romantic mischief. These weren’t always meant to cause pain—sometimes they were intended to coax affection, though the results were, let’s say, questionable.
The recipe was oddly specific: fashion a male figurine resembling Apollo and a kneeling female figure, but with the male figure gruesomely beheading the woman. Once the clay models were ready, bronze needles came into play.
First, you’d thrust a needle into the brain‑region of the beloved’s likeness, shouting, “I pierce your brain!” Then you’d repeat the stabbing for every other body part, announcing each location aloud, and ending with a particularly graphic, “I pierce your anus!”
To seal the curse, you’d inscribe a lead tablet with a plea to Pluto, demanding things like “prevent her from eating and drinking” until she falls for you, and “drag her by her hair, her guts, her very soul to me.” Tie the tablet to the dolls and place them on a murdered person’s grave.
Follow these steps and, according to the ancient script, your true love will either adore you forever or rush to obtain a restraining order. Either way, you’re in for a wild ride.
9 Summoning A God
Think of this as a divine DIY kit: when you need an answer from the cosmos, just set up a few oddly specific items and chant your way into the otherworldly.
First, plop an untouched olive‑wood table in the middle of a room, drape it with a plain tunic, and stack four bricks underneath. Place a clay incense burner in front, then start pounding wild goose fat and myrrh into sticky balls.
Now, shout, “I invoke thee who art seated in the invisible darkness!” three times, followed by, “Send up to me this night thy archangel Zebourthanunen,” while staring at the table in absolute silence until dawn.
If the ritual worked, an archangel with a nose on his feet would appear, whispering forbidden truths. When he departs, jot down your ambitions on a time‑tablet and set it on the bricks, allowing your twisted desires to seep into reality.
Don’t forget to drop a comment below describing the secret Zebourthanunen revealed to you—if you ever manage to summon him.
8 An Invisibility Spell
Turning invisible wasn’t as high‑tech as you might think. A 1,700‑year‑old incantation claimed you could vanish simply by uttering a bizarre phrase and slathering your face with a particularly pungent concoction.
The spoken words were something like, “Assesouo, dim the eyes of every man or woman, when I go forth, until I achieve as many things as I wish!” After chanting, you’d soak a few ingredients in “oil with crocodile dung” and rub the mixture over your visage.
Unfortunately, the spell’s script is partly illegible, so modern scholars can’t fully reconstruct it. Still, the fact that someone actually wrote it down shows they believed it worked. Imagine a hapless soul strolling into a market, face smeared in crocodile dung, proudly announcing, “I’m a ghost!” while onlookers pretended not to see.
7 A Spell To Win Chariot Races
When speed mattered, Greek athletes didn’t just train—they hexed. The Olympic officials kept a keen eye out for any competitor who seemed to be under a magical curse, because such sorcery was apparently common.
One particularly vicious spell called on the gods to torture opponents’ thoughts, minds, and senses, escalating to a scream of “Pluck out their eyes!” The intensity of the curse matched the desperation of the racer.
Another, even more lethal, summoned deities from Egypt to Jewish angels, demanding they “cast down and cause to fall” the rival team, then begged the gods to “smite” and “drag” them from their chariots. It was a full‑blown divine assault.
For those who preferred a subtler edge, there existed a milder incantation designed simply to slow the competition down—though if you wanted a guaranteed win, the eye‑plucking version was apparently the safer bet.
6 Love Potions
Love potions were abundant in antiquity, but this particular brew guaranteed romance—provided the willing participant was already smitten, because the recipe demanded a sip of the caster’s own urine.
The process began by immersing a scarab beetle in milk for four days, then splitting it in half. The left half was bound to the caster’s arm with myrrh and saffron, while the right half was combined with fingernails from both hands and feet, nine apple seeds, and a generous amount of personal urine, forming a foul‑smelling ball.
This ball was then dropped into a glass of wine and offered to the desired lover. If they swallowed the concoction, the spell supposedly ensured they would fall deeply in love—right after they also agreed to a night of intimacy. In short, the potion’s success hinged on convincing someone to drink your pee and then get cozy.
5 Give People Seizures
If you wanted to inflict a seizure on an enemy, you had to be a truly twisted soul. The spell’s instructions were as macabre as they were elaborate.
First, you’d decapitate a donkey and place its head between your feet. Cover your right foot with “set‑stone of Syria” and your left foot with clay, then position your hands—right in front, left behind. Finally, you’d pour donkey blood into both hands and even into your mouth.
With the blood sloshing around, you’d roar, “I invoke thee who art in the void air, terrible, invisible, almighty, god of gods dealing destruction and making desolate!” After this, you’d politely explain to the deity that the god had wronged you, justifying the ritual. Greeks believed that after such a performance, the god would grant you a bone and cause your foe to seize—provided you repeated the rite eight times over four days.
4 Death Spells
When a seizure wasn’t enough, some ancient magicians escalated to outright murder spells. The transition involved upping the frequency from eight to fourteen performances and adding an itchy palm‑fiber mat tied to the caster’s genitals.
Archaeologists have uncovered lead tablets engraved with lethal curses, one of which invoked Mercury to drive three enemies “to the greatest death,” denying them any moment of health or sleep until they perished in excruciating agony. The motivation? Apparently, those three men had stolen a prized cow, so the caster felt justified.
These death spells showcase the extreme lengths to which people would go, turning personal vendettas into elaborate, supernatural contracts with the gods.
3 Dealing With Dog Bites
The ancient Egyptians were wary of the “venom” they believed resided in a dog’s mouth. Their remedy combined gruesome magic with a more familiar folk practice.
To begin, a sufferer would gargle a mouthful of a black dog’s blood while proclaiming, “I have come forth from Arkhah, my mouth being full of the blood of a black dog. I spit it out!” Afterwards, they’d crush garlic into the wound and continue shouting at the injury daily, all while still holding dog blood in their mouth, until the bite healed.
While modern medicine dismisses garlic as ineffective for dog bites, the ritual likely gave the patient a psychological boost and, at the very least, let the canine know who was boss.
2 Magical Nonsense Words
When Mesopotamia’s first cities blossomed, physicians blended nascent medical knowledge with mystic incantations. They believed that chanting could heal, even if the words made little sense.
For eye ailments, a doctor might chant the terms for “eye” and “open,” repeating, “Igi bar igi bar, bar igi bar!” The rhythm was thought to coax the eye back to health. Other spells were pure gibberish—one such chant read, “En ni ip pa ah min ki ri ni ip pa ah,” which, unsurprisingly, translates to the same nonsense.
Often after the magical mumbo‑jumbo, the physician would perform actual surgery, warning the debris, “rain down here like a star,” before the “knife and scalpel of Gula” would strike. In short, the chants were a ceremonial prelude to real medical intervention.
1 Developing Your Magical Power
A Persian grimoire lays out a grueling 90‑day regimen designed to amplify a sorcerer’s inner power and summon a divine vision. The first thirty days demanded isolation in a women‑free chamber, subsisting on minimal food, speaking only in magical formulas, and staring at the floor for hours on end.
During this seclusion, the aspirant was required to craft three protective amulets, stitch together a patchwork cloak, and devote most of their waking hours to memorizing angelic names. The final thirty days intensified the austerity: a strict fast with food only permitted at night.
After the three‑month ordeal, the practitioner would emerge, circle a stack of seven stones several times, then pull a cat’s tail in and out of a bottle. Peering through the glass, they claimed to witness a spirit on the other side—a testament, perhaps, to the power of prolonged deprivation.
Whether this truly unlocked supernatural sight is debatable, but anyone who endured such extreme discipline likely experienced something profound—perhaps a hallucination, or simply the mental clarity that comes from intense focus. One can’t help but wonder if a modern dose of psychedelics would have achieved the same result more efficiently.