Pregnancy, childbirth, and early childhood were dangerous endeavors in ancient Egypt. We’re talking about a time before ultrasounds, sanitized hospitals, and epidurals. Since Egyptians didn’t have the advantages of modern technology, they turned to magic to ensure the safety of mama and baby. During the Middle Kingdom, one of the most common magical tools for birth rituals was magic wands.
Magic wands protected mothers and infants by averting evil forces and misfortune. Furthermore, their decorative schemes of apotropaic and solar imagery magically ensured that the human births were successful. We’ll examine the Apotropaic Wand from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection as an example.
Before we dive into Egyptian magic wands, let’s quickly talk about magic and religion in the Middle Kingdom.
Religion and Magic in the Middle Kingdom
During the Middle Kingdom period of Egyptian history, non-royal folks gained access to religion like never before. Previously, religion was the domain of the Pharaoh and his temple priests. But times were changing, and everyday people began having closer contact with the gods through the performance of magical rituals.
As a result, the archaeological record is full of magical objects. These objects give us insight into how the ancient Egyptians navigated the dangers of the living world and the afterlife. And what could be more dangerous than childbirth in antiquity? Enter…ancient Egyptian magic wands.
Egyptian Magic Wands
Our Apotropaic Wand dates to Dynasty 12-13 of the Middle Kingdom, circa 1981–1640 BCE. It belongs to a class of objects known as magical wands, which are carved from hippopotamus ivory. The wands take the natural shape of hippo tusks, mimicking a throwing stick (like a boomerang) or broad curved knives. Therefore, scholars also refer to them as magical knives.
Magic wands were associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and early childhood. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how they were used in ritual. Scholars theorize that magic practitioners used the wands to draw a protective circle in the ground around mothers when they gave birth. They also may have drawn a circle around newborns when they slept. Egyptologist Geraldine Pinch also believes that the wands were laid on the stomachs of pregnant women for protection.1
Whatever their role, the fact that the wands are worn away on their ends tells us they were repeatedly used in rituals. Wear and tear, and all that jazz. Our Apotropaic Wand shows signs of wear on the back, particularly at the broad end. Other magic wands even show signs of having been repaired after a break.
Imagery on the Magic Wands
So, how did magic wands actually protect mothers and infants? Through their imagery, of course! They were incised or carved with apotropaic deities and demons who warded off evil forces. These figures also linked the unborn child with the sun god to ensure a successful birth. Say what now? I know, I know, it sounds complex, but it’s actually pretty simple.
Scary = Protection
These deities and demons were scary as hell, and dangerous to boot. But that was how the magic worked. By depicting these deities, wands channeled their power and harnessed it for protection rather than harm. The fact that our protective demons are brandishing knives further amplifies their power and protection.
The same goes for the hippo ivory the magic wands are made of. The power of this huge and dangerous animal was wielded for beneficial purposes. Angry, angry hippos to the rescue.
Sunrise = Birth
The gods on the wands also assisted the sun god in the fight against his enemies as he traveled to the underworld every night. Yes, Every. Single. Night. Where else did you think the sun went once it set? The sun god’s journey across the sky represented life and death, and once he was in the underworld, he battled the forces of chaos, returning triumphant the next morning as the sun rose. This victory represented rebirth.
Because these deities were a band of badasses fighting alongside the sun god, they were linked to the cosmic cycle of rebirth. The unborn child protected by the magic wands would therefore be magically identified with the solar cycle. Since the sun successfully rose each day, the infant’s birth would also be successful.
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
The figures on our Apotropaic Wand are common elements across all wands in the Middle Kingdom. Since each one is so rad, we’ll go through them one by one.
Beginning at the broad end is a frontal image of a feline head. Some scholars think she’s a panther, and others a leopard. Next up is a sun disk on legs that has a knife at the front foot. Then we have the deity Bes in a bowlegged stance. He’s sporting a lion’s tail between his legs, a lion’s mane for hair, and leopard skin. Bes was a dwarf god who aided women in childbirth by easing their labor pains. An ancient epidural, if you will. He was also linked to the protection of newborns.
The goddess Tawaret appears next as a lion-hippopotamus hybrid, with a crocodile on her back. She wields two knives and is devouring a snake, like a true badass bitch. Egyptians associated Tawaret with households, women, children, and childbirth. So like Bes, her appearance on this wand symbolically makes sense.
Following the goddess is a lion with a knife in each front paw. Then we have a vulture with a flail over its back and a knife at its feet. Next is a jackal-headed figure with a knife at its foot and a seated baboon grasping a snake. The tip of the magic wand culminates in a fox head.
It’s important to note that other wands included these figures, but also a ton of others, like frogs, serpents, cats, crocodiles, and turtles. They also have fantastical creatures like griffins and sphinxes. Someone get Newt Scamander on the line.
Inscriptions on Magic Wands
In addition to deities and demons, magic wands also include inscriptions that literally tell us what these figures are meant to do.
Our Apotropaic Wand’s inscription translates to “protection by day” and “protection by night.”2 Other wands have longer and more explicit inscriptions, such as:
“recitation by the many protectors: we have come that we may afford protection around the healthy child Minhotep, alive, sound, and healthy, born of the noblewoman Sitsobek, alive, sound, and healthy.”3
Another wand is straight up violent, stating the protectors will use their knives to cut off the head of any male or female who enters the protected child’s room.4 That’s…really intense.
Magical Imagery Across Objects
These fierce protectors belong to a wider system of apotropaic and solar imagery that appears on other magical objects associated with childbirth and infancy. This means the Egyptians had a cohesive system of magical representations. Let’s take a look at some of these other types of objects.
Protectors on Feeding Cup
This faience feeding cup from Lisht in the Fayum contains a magical menagerie of protectors. We see lions, turtles, snakes, Tawaret, and a goddess in a frontal pose holding two snakes in each hand.
Birthing Brick
This snake-wielding goddess also appears on the edge of an ancient birthing brick, which archaeologists discovered in South Abydos in 2001.
Photo from Archaism and Innovation: Studies in the Culture of Middle Kingdom Egypt.
Scholars believe the goddess is the female counterpart to the dwarf god Bes. She’s also linked to Near Eastern depictions of the “Mistress of Animals,” who is associated with fertility.
Other familiar deities on the brick’s edges include Tawaret, a baboon grasping a snake, a cobra, a cat, and a lion. Like the Apotropaic Wand, the birthing brick both protects and ensures a successful birth through solar imagery.
The Goddess Hathor
The surface of the brick is a single scene depicting two events that would happen at different times. The first is the successful birth of a baby boy, who is in his mother’s arms. The second shows female attendants in poses associated with the actual birth.
The sky-goddess Hathor frames the scene with a head-on representation of her face on sycamore branches. These depictions of Hathor represent the eastern horizon, where the sun god successfully emerges each day upon his rebirth. Again, this links the solar cycle to human birth.5
Domestic Magic
The magic wands, feeding cup, and birth brick are all magical objects with protective and solar imagery that Egyptians used during rituals surrounding childbirth and infancy. AKA, the feminine sphere of magic, which is often shrouded in mystery. Since magic was practiced at home by women and was handed down through oral traditions, there are no official written records of it. As a result, we don’t know exactly what the rituals entailed. But these objects offer us a tantalizing glimpse into women’s lives in ancient Egypt.
Magician’s Tomb
We do, however, get a further peek into feminine magical practices thanks to the Ramesseum Tomb in Thebes. Also known as the “magician’s tomb,” the burial dates to circa 1650 BCE. Scholars believe the deceased was a professional magician, likely a male, who traveled through communities to provide his services.
The tomb contained a toolkit of magical objects and papyri associated with women and children. This pro had magic wands, a wicked bronze wand in the shape of a cobra, figurines of lions and baboons, and a statue of a lioness goddess holding two snakes.
Once again, we see the same figures, this time in the form of statuettes. We can conclude, then, that there was an established system of magical imagery related to birth for women and professional magicians to draw upon when performing their rituals.
Magic Wands in Burials
As we can see, ancient Egyptian magic wands belong to a wider Middle Kingdom practice of magic ritual and standardized imagery. While their primary use was to protect mothers and young kiddos, they also served a secondary function. Wands were a popular grave good in Middle Kingdom burials because of their association with fertility and birth. By drawing upon the wands’ magical connection to the solar cycle and human reproductive process, the deceased ensured protection and rebirth in the afterlife.
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Footnotes
- Allen, “Magic Wands,” 29; Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt, 130; Hayes, Scepter of Egypt I, 248-249; Riggs, Ancient Egyptian Magic, 156-157. ↩︎
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Apotropaic Wand.” ↩︎
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Magical Wand.” ↩︎
- Allen, “Magic Wands,” 29; Hayes, Scepter of Egypt I, 249; Lilquist, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 20; Stunkel, “Magical Wand,” 147; Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt, 42, 130-131. ↩︎
- Wegner, “A Decorated Birth-Brick,” 448, 452-455, 460-468. ↩︎
Bibliography & Further Reading
*Several of the following links are Amazon affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Allen, James P. “Magic Wands.” In The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, edited by James P. Allen and David T. Mininberg, 28-30. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
Hayes, William C. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1953.
Lilyquist, Christine, Peter F. Forman, and Edna R. Russman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41, no. 3 (Winter). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983.
Pinch, Geraldine. Magic in Ancient Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press, British Museum Press, 2006.
Riggs, Christina. Ancient Egyptian Magic: A Hands-on Guide. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd., 2020.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Apotropaic Wand.” Accessed April 12, 2022.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Feeding Cup.” Accessed April 22, 2022.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Magical Wand.” Accessed April 12, 2022.
Stunkel, Isabel. “Magical Wand.” In Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium BC, edited by Joan Aruz, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans, 147. New York; New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008.
Wegner, Josef. “A Decorated Birth-Brick from South Abydos: New Evidence on Childbirth and Birth Magic in the Middle Kingdom.” In Archaism and Innovation: Studies in the Culture of Middle Kingdom Egypt, edited by David P. Silverman, William Kelly Simpson, and Josef Wegner, 447-496. New Haven: Yale University; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2009.
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