The belief that the name of an object contains the true essence of that object is one of the oldest and most important magical concepts. Names and titles are used to identify items. Instead of giving a long, detailed list of the characteristics of an animal, it is more convenient to say, for example, simply: "frog." But the idea of the need to distinguish between the name of the frog and the frog itself arose relatively recently. And for a person with magical thinking, the name includes all the distinctive properties of the animal, and therefore is the essence of the latter. If you call this animal some other name (for example, "toad"), then it itself will turn out to be something else.
These are the origins of the magical theory, which says that the name of a thing is a small resemblance to this thing, and therefore can be used as its replacement. To harm a person, you can influence his name - just like a wax or clay doll depicting him; moreover, when a wax doll is used in magic, it is usually given the name of the victim to whom the witchcraft is directed. In ancient times, in order to kill an enemy or send a disease to him, his name, along with the corresponding curse, was written on a lead, wax or clay tablet, after which the tablet was buried in the ground. During excavations, many such tablets have been found in tombs and temples in Greece, Asia Minor and Italy. One of them says, for example: "As this lead grows cold, so let it get colder." Sometimes the name was pierced with a nail to pierce the body of the enemy:"I'm driving a nail into that name - into itself." Many of these curses relate to lawsuits: the name of the enemy was buried in the ground at the trial in order to "bind" his tongue - to deprive him of eloquence, other curses were intended to infect the enemy with disease: "I send an intermittent fever to Ariston so that he die" …
One of the first brainchildren of the magical theory of names was the concept of a "true" name. If every person were subjected to magical influence simply by using his name, then life would become too dangerous; since in fact nothing of the kind happened, it was obvious that knowing the name does not yet give a person magical power over the bearer of this name. To explain this contradiction, they began to believe that the usual names of things are just convenient conventions. And what about the true essence? an object or person is contained in its "true" 'name, which is shrouded in mystery.
In many primitive societies, each person is given two names. One is used in everyday life, and the second, the true one, is kept secret.
Sometimes it comes to the point that the bearer himself does not know the true name: the mother only once calls this name in the ear of a newborn baby. If the sorcerer finds out the true name of a person, he can kill him - for example, put this name on the ground made of leaves or straws, and then burn or scatter them. As soon as the fire turns the name to ash, as soon as the wind carries it away, the victim begins to quickly weaken and soon dies. The true name of a person is his essence; as soon as it is destroyed, the person also perishes.
The true names of gods, angels and demons were also kept secret - for the same reason. Plutarch wrote that in ancient times the name of the guardian god of Rome was carefully hidden. It was forbidden to ask questions about the name of this deity and about its other characteristics (even about what gender it is): apparently, the Romans were afraid that the enemies would take away the power from the god or witchcraft would lure him over to their side if they knew his name. In the Revelation of John the rider on a white horse, called "Faithful and True," has another, genuine name: "His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; He had a name written, which no one knew except Himself."
The angel who visited Manoah, Samson's father, refused to reveal his name: “What do you ask about my name? it's wonderful. " The angel who fought with Jacob also did not want to reveal his name - apparently because Jacob could use this name to defeat the enemy. Jewish commentators believe that this angel was called Samaol. Samaol was a monstrous angel of death and poison; his name means "Poison of God".
The belief that the name of a thing is the thing itself explains the frequent use in the Bible of the phrase "God's name" in the meaning of "God." The Lord says about Solomon: “He will build a house for My name” (in the sense of “Me”), and tells Moses to obey the guardian angel walking before the Israelites, “for My name is in him” (in the sense of “I am in him”). Saint Paul says that the Lord exalted Christ "above … every name", meaning "above all that exists in the world."
Promotional video:
The Egyptian myth tells how the goddess Isis decided to take power from the sun god Ra and reign over the whole world. To do this, she needed to know the true name of Ra. Ra was already old, and saliva was flowing from his mouth.
Isis collected this saliva (which retained a magical connection with the body of the god) and, mixing it with earth, created a poisonous snake. The snake stung Ra, and the god began to be tormented by excruciating pains. Having tried all the means unsuccessfully, he agreed to give Isis his name in order to be healed: "Let Isis look in me, and my name will pass from my body into hers." Taking the name Ra, Isis actually took over the essence of the sun god. He herself became Ra and received the supreme power over the world.
Many remnants of the ancient belief in the magical significance of names have survived to this day. Parents try to choose a name for their child as carefully as possible, suspecting in their hearts that the name will affect his character. Popular occult books and magazines list the "meanings" of names, according to an old Jewish custom, which is still often observed, a child cannot be named after a living relative, because this relative can die if his name "passes" to the child.
A person entering the ranks of a religious society or an occult organization takes on a new name for himself as a sign of renewal and the beginning of a new life; so often did witches, swearing to serve the Devil. In addition, most of us still tend to adhere to the deeply rooted magical notion in the human mind that the meaning of a word does not depend on its use and that words such as "beauty" or "democracy" are names for phenomena, whose characteristics do not depend on our understanding of them. Only relatively recently have philosophers questioned such notions.
Richard Cavendish
