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The Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu, depicted here in a combination of human and animal features, was invoked to prevent the malicious actions of the demon Lamashtu, who was believed to endanger newborn…
Places:
Beth Shean, Land of Israel
(Bet She’an, Israel)
Date:
Iron Age II, 8th–7th Century BCE
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Amulets for the evil eye; tested. Write on either a kosher or deerskin parchment, on a day of [reading from] the Torah, before eating anything. And calculate in that hour which day it is and which…
Contributor:
Unknown
Date:
16th or 17th Century
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Amulets often took the form of Bes, a minor Egyptian deity, who was understood to guard mothers in childbirth and their babies. Bes is often shown with a feathered headdress and a grotesque face, a…
Places:
Lachish, Land of Israel
(Tel Lakhish, Israel)
Date:
Iron Age IIA, 10th–9th Century BCE
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In the year 5332 [1572], we went out in the fields and we passed the grave of a gentile that was more than a thousand years old. His Animus was seen on his tombstone and he tried to harm me and kill…
Contributor:
Ḥayim Vital
Places:
Safed, Ottoman Empire
(Safed, Israel)
Date:
16th Century
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“I, too, have authority, the authority of the Lord, blessed be He, of the Shekinah and all the members of the Heavenly Academy.”
[Padua, 16 March 1730]
Oh, thou great Prince, lofty pillar, Gaon R…
Contributor:
Moses Ḥayim Luzzatto
Places:
Padua, Republic of Venice
(Padua, Italy)
Date:
1730
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Public Access
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I was in the midst of a large group of people who were there, close to a hundred people, among them scholars and heads of communities. And two men, who knew adjurations and many things, approached the…
Contributor:
Elijah Falkon
Places:
Safed, Ottoman Empire
(Safed, Israel)
Date:
1571
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Categories:
Public Access
Text
For opening the heart; tested and tried. Take a new glass and write on it:
I adjure you, Patḥiel, to open my heart to all the Torah to learn all that I desire. That my heart should be as an…
Contributor:
Unknown
Places:
London, Kingdom of Great Britain
(London, United Kingdom)
Date:
17th or 18th Century
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Categories:
Public Access
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One who becomes possessed by a demon should recite this adjuration three times, and it [the demon] will leave him, God willing.
In the explicit name [Shem ha-meforash] of the God of Israel may His…
Contributor:
Unknown
Places:
Date:
1614
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Public Access
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More for the aforementioned [recipe so as not to leave empty-handed]: wash your hands and feet in warm water and file the toenail of the left or right hallux with a new knife. Using a needle—not ink…
Contributor:
Unknown
Places:
Date:
1614
Subjects:
Categories:
Public Access
Text
A dream question: clean yourself from all impurity and abstain from eating meat, drinking wine, and lying with a woman. And lie in a clean bed after ritually immersing—a stringent immersion, because…
Contributor:
Unknown
Date:
1729