Lesson Six

Africa

Historians tend to focus on Egypt

Heka- Egyptians name for magic- a mystical force that created the universe and the gods

Egyptians believed that controlling the substance made them more powerful and, by extension able to control the gods.

those who made up the priesthood were allowed unrestricted access to practice their Heka

In order to practice Heka freely one had to be "pure"

It was a legal requirement for members of the priesthood to carry around and ivory amulet to signify their purity and ability to command the gods. These amulets were what we would today consider early wands, however they were often circular in shape, and had far less power. 

Egyptian priests developed a system of words that went along with rituals and which were passed down from master to apprentice. These rituals were transcribed but often very vague, leaving only the imagination to fill in the blanks. During this time if you were a priest and you were particularly good at healing eyesight, you might craft a book with rituals and spells for this craft so that you may perfect it and pass it down to an apprentice. So you would want it detailed enough for your apprentice to understand and use as reference, but vague enough so that if a competing priest found your book, they wouldn't be able to use it. 

The Egyptian curse breakers are known as Maheka-Lala and are trained for five years post Hogwarts study to prepare for this role during the International Summit of Magical Communications (cir. 500 C.E.) there was a decision made to make the common spell language Latin, which lead to the demise of Egyptian practices in spellcreafting. The Summit lasted over fifty years because of the debate and deliberation that went into deciding what language would be the best suited for the international community as a whole.