An ancient tome, presumably written by representatives of one of the early Christian sects, turned out to be a guide to strange rituals and spells. Specialists from Australia told about the book, whose content is no less mysterious than its origin.
The Sethians, or the followers of Set, are a Gnostic sect that existed at the junction of antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Seth is one of the biblical patriarchs, the third son of Adam and Eve, and Jesus Christ, as the sectarians themselves believed. According to Dr. Malcolm Chot, a historian from Macquarie University, it was the Sethian who wrote the mystical book, the title of which can be translated as A Manual on Ritual Power.
An unusual creation of an unnamed author in the Coptic language in words and pictures acquaints the reader with various magical rites. The book contains a wide list of spells and ritual actions that will help heal from diseases, drive out evil spirits and even bewitch the right person.
The folio begins with a long line of ornate prayers, which are then replaced by drawings and spells.
The strange-looking Talmud consists of 20 pages and is made of parchment. Surely we can say that the homeland of the book is the territory of Upper Egypt 7-8 centuries AD.
The tome has been kept in the vaults of the Museum of Ancient Cultures at Macquarie University in Sydney since 1981, since the book was acquired from a collector named Michael Fakelman. How it ended up with Fakelman and where it was kept was not known to historians before.
“The book begins with a long series of ornate prayers, which are then replaced with drawings and incantations,” writes Dr. Chot in his book titled A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power.
Coptic rituals are of an everyday nature and do not frighten with their sophistication. Thus, the reader may be asked to read a prayer over a pair of iron nails and then drive them into the doorframe, one on each side. According to the scientist, one of the long spells is aimed at healing from a common disease - infectious jaundice, leptospirosis.
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It is curious that the book was written in Egypt during the early Christian era. The pages contain references to the name of Jesus Christ, Seth in the mythology of the Sethians. One of the lines directly says: "Seth, Seth, the living Christ."
In addition, the book contains the name of an unknown, but divine figure, a certain "Baktiota".
“This is a dual personality. It seems that Baktiota represents great power and is central to the material world,”explains Dr. Chot.
The scientist is especially fascinated by the question of who could be the "user" of the book. The official church considered the Sethites to be heretics, and already in the 7th century AD they became rather small in number.
“It’s impossible to say for sure, but apparently it was someone associated with mysticism and did not have an official clergy. Because of the persecution, people preferred not to advertise their magical activities,”Chot says.