🜃 Witchcraft in Ancient Mesopotamia: Magic in the Cradle of Civilization

When we think of witchcraft, our minds often leap to the forests of medieval Europe or the trials in Salem. But the true roots of magical practice stretch much deeper—into the cradle of civilization itself: Ancient Mesopotamia.

Long before modern notions of witches and wizards took shape, the people of Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria lived in a world where magic wasn’t fantasy—it was reality embedded in daily life, religion, and the laws of the land.

⚖️ Magic: A Daily Affair, Not a Dark Art

In Mesopotamia, magic wasn’t seen as something wicked or unnatural. Instead, it was considered a vital force, a way of interacting with the unseen. Illness, nightmares, crop failures, or even bad luck might all be blamed on supernatural interference—divine wrath, malevolent spirits, or a neighbor’s hidden curse. Magic was simply how you dealt with it.

Practitioners didn’t just chant spells in the shadows. Priests, healers, and scribes trained for years to master incantations, herbal remedies, and the art of divination.

These weren’t renegades—they were respected members of society, sometimes even working directly with kings and temples.

🕯️ The First Witch in History?

One of the most intriguing stories from this era tells of Sagburu of Ereš, a wise woman summoned to defend her city in a magical duel.

Her opponent, Urgirinuna of Aratta, conjured river creatures through his spells. But Sagburu, drawing on the sacred powers of her gods, summoned even stronger beasts to defeat each one. In the end, she vanquished him—and became what many scholars believe to be the first recorded witch in history.

🌌 Gods, Demons, and the Spirit World

Mesopotamian magic wasn’t a rogue force—it was deeply connected to the gods. Powerful deities like Ea (Enki), the god of wisdom and fresh waters, were credited with gifting humanity spells and rituals.

Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, was often invoked to banish chaos. Meanwhile, Ishtar, goddess of love and war, could help in love spells—or curses.

Then there were the demons. 

Lamashtu, a terrifying she-demon, was believed to attack pregnant women and infants.

To protect against her, families would place amulets of Pazuzu, a grotesque, winged demon whose fearsome image was thought to drive away greater evils.

In a strange twist of logic, sometimes, the best protection from a demon was another demon.

🧙‍♂️ The Healers, Exorcists, and Diviners of Mesopotamia

Three types of magical professionals served the public in ancient Mesopotamia:

• Āšipu – the exorcist-priest who specialized in removing curses and performing purification rituals.
• Asû – the healer or physician who combined herbal knowledge with magical remedies.
• Bārû – the diviner who interpreted signs from the gods through dreams, animal entrails, and celestial movements.

These roles often overlapped. Healing wasn’t just about medicine—it was about spiritual diagnosis, and a remedy might include both a poultice and a spell.

🔥 Fighting Witchcraft with Fire: The Maqlû Ritual

Not all magic was benevolent.

If someone suspected a curse had been cast on them, they might turn to the Maqlû ritual—a powerful, all-night ceremony designed to destroy the witch’s influence.

The ritual involved creating figurines of the suspected witch, chanting dozens of incantations, and then burning, drowning, and smashing the effigies to symbolically sever their power.

These weren’t fringe practices. The Maqlû spells were standardized, widely used, and preserved in royal libraries like Nineveh on clay tablets.

⚖️ Witchcraft and the Law

Mesopotamians codified them into law, unlike some later cultures that merely feared witches.

The famous Code of Hammurabi decreed that if someone accused another of witchcraft, the accused must undergo a trial by water. If they drowned, they were guilty.

If they survived, the accuser was punished. They believed justice would be decided by the gods through the river itself.

🕳️ Magic Beneath Your Floorboards

Archaeologists have found demon-repelling figurines buried beneath doorways, protective plaques in bedrooms, and even “handbooks” listing hundreds of magical stones and their uses.

Far from fantasy, magic was a practical tool for protecting the home, healing the body, and calming the spirit.

🔮 The Legacy of Mesopotamian Magic

Many magical ideas that would later spread through Egypt, Greece, and Rome began here.  Incantations, ritual purification, love charms, divination, and curse tablets are all rooted in this ancient land.

Mesopotamian witchcraft was not a deviation from society; it was society.

It gave voice to fears, comforted suffering, and provided a sense of control in an unpredictable world.

In the flicker of a Mesopotamian oil lamp beneath clay tablets etched with spells, we find the very origins of magical thought—and the witch’s earliest whisper.

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📚 Coming Next:

Stay Tuned for a 5-Part 🧙‍♀️ Blog Series: Witchcraft in Ancient Mesopotamia

1. – The Witch’s Toolkit: Magical Practices and Rituals

2. – Demonology and Divine Protection: Spirits That Shaped Mesopotamian Magic

3. – Cursed or Curer? How Mesopotamian Law Drew the Line Between Witch and Healer

4. – Healers, Priests, and Prophets: The Real Magicians of Mesopotamia

5. – The Maqlû Ritual: Ancient Mesopotamia’s Powerful Spell to Destroy Witchcraft

📚 Core References for the Series

1. Bottéro, Jean. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
2. Black, Jeremy, and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. University of Texas Press, 1992.
3. Abusch, Tzvi. Mesopotamian Witchcraft: Toward a History and Understanding of Babylonian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature. Brill, 2002.
4. Finkel, Irving. The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies. Hodder & Stoughton, 2021.
5. Graff, Sarah. “Pazuzu: Beyond Good and Evil.” Metropolitan Museum of Art Blog, 2014.
6. Scurlock, JoAnn. Magical Means of Dealing with Ghosts in Ancient Mesopotamia. Brill, 2014.
7. Sasson, Jack M., ed. Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Scribner, 1995.
8. The Code of Hammurabi. Translated by L. W. King. Yale Law School Avalon Project.
9. Abusch, Tzvi, and Daniel Schwemer. Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals. Brill, 2011.
10. Robson, Eleanor. “The Tablet House: A Scribal School in Old Babylonian Nippur.” Revue d’Assyriologie, vol. 95, 2001, pp. 39–66.