Series: RECORDS OF MAGIC FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT

Series Editor: PANAGIOTIS H. M. KOUSOULIS, Professor of Egyptology, Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean

The worship of chthonic deities, and possibly of deceased ancestors, the appeasement of the cosmogonic forces of the Earth and the Underworld, constituted fundamental elements of the magical perception of Aegean cultures. Both the respect for the eternal regeneration of nature and the fear of the immensely powerful forces are associated with magical and occult practices that intricately intertwined their ritual space and time.

Cosmogony • Gates of the Underworld • Abyss • Elemental Forces • Den • Underworld • Foundation Ritual • Animation • Cosmic Axis • Magical Protection Circle • Chthonic Demons • Purification Rituals • Exorcisms • Intermediary Spaces • Esoteric Miniature Worlds • Loci Occulti • Seduction Techniques • Occult Time Capsules • Lightning • Crypts • Ritual Breaking • Magic and Technology • Ichthyomancy • Foundation Sacrifices • Sympathetic Magic • Double Horns of Establishment • Depositories-Pits-Pools • Chasms • Rock Crevices • Simulacra • Pillars and Columns • Blood and Non-Blood Offerings • Exorcism Cups • "Masonic Points" • Pentagram • Libations-Offering Bowls • Caves-Enhancements-Fetishes • Transmissive Magic • Purifications-Fire Offerings • Wells-Springs • Hydromancy • Sanctuaries

EXCERPT FROM THE PREFACE: "A magical world reveals itself before us and invites us to explore and visit it with a clear mind through the pages of this engaging book. It was written, with the usual diligence and scientific completeness that characterize her, by my colleague Dr. Christina Papadaki, continuing her challenging writing journeys through the paths of the timeless and trans-temporal, the occult and psychotropic phenomenon of magic. Here, however, the author, and we who will follow her, journey through the twists and turns of time in an internal, experiential quest, we might say, within the labyrinths of the past, the origins of our existence. She invites us to offer libations to the eternal, Heraclitean, Time, as well as to the memories and dreams of the people who shaped it and gave it form with their lives, while leaving their permanent mark on Space and the magic that it emits even today to those sensitive and pure in soul and mind, who possess the receivers to absorb it."

Dr. Georgios Rethemios Archaeologist, Honorary Director of the Heraklion Archaeological Museum

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: Astral Patterns in the Palace of Knossos More than a century ago, a dark-colored fragment of plaster was revealed in a small room in the Palace of Knossos, which once covered a part of its walls, engraved on its surface with two astral patterns, one beside the other. The smaller star remains intact and is six-pointed, while the larger one, which is preserved almost to half, is five-pointed. So far, similar astral patterns are not known from Aegean painting compositions; however, they constitute a beloved ornament of the seals from the Prepalatial period, both individually and in combination with other symbols, such as the circle and the radiating wheel associated with the solar disk.

In any case, the pentagram constitutes an ancient symbol. The earliest representations of it are found in rock engravings from the Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic periods, in locations of Western Europe. Depictions of it are also known from inscriptions and Paleo-Babylonian monuments of the Bronze Age. In Egyptian art, this specific pattern already appears in the Nakadian production of the second half of the 4th millennium, with the number five being key to understanding the manifested universe, in the version of the Heliopolitan cosmogony. Moreover, the five-pointed star inside a circle or a broken semicircle has defined, since the Old Kingdom, the word for the Egyptian Underworld, Duat, with the most characteristic funerary amulets being those in the shape of a five-pointed star.

The widespread adoption of this specific symbol is also observed in the Western European rock art of the second millennium BC, in regions such as Portugal, Spain, France, Austria, and Italy, where the pentagram is depicted in various variations, usually as a perfect or irregular star, sometimes open at one of its points and other times outlined internally or inscribed in a circle. The semiotics of the pentagram in this art has led to interesting interpretations concerning its continuous presence in military and religious scenes, which cover a broad chronological spectrum extending from the Bronze Age to the 18th century AD. In the medieval times, the motif adorns funerary and ecclesiastical monuments, and until the 19th century, often in combination with the symbol of the cross, it appears both in amulets and in transitional spaces of buildings, mainly doorways and windows, as a protective symbol that wards off the evil eye.

Moreover, the pair pentagram-cross survives in regions of Spain and Portugal as an element of sympathetic magic until the late 20th century. It is also characteristic that, in Croatia, this specific pattern is called Viliska noga, which means fairy's foot. The above is not coincidental, as the stars and their movements have historically played a protective role derived from ancient magical beliefs, drawing parallel paths with common ideological starting points and iconological models. A striking example is the creation of amulets, which has always had a close relationship with the position and visibility of the stars, which have been valuable guides for vital activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, and navigation.

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