Horse Magick: Spells and Rituals for Self-Empowerment, Protection, and Prosperity - Lawren Leo 2020
The Ancient Horse
The horse played a prominent role in the great empires of the ancient world—Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Rome—and there are numerous horse deities in these cultures associated with warfare as well as daily life. The loose-knit group of city-states in the region of Mesopotamia, in the ancient Near East, provides a time and place to begin recording a horse-human relationship. This civilization stretched from roughly 5000 to 1750 BCE. For maximum protection and ease of commerce, the Mesopotamians built the first cities in a fertile, crescent-shaped region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq. It was here that horses were first systematically domesticated and bred, although there is also strong evidence that the Botai culture of Kazakhstan had domesticated horses as early as 3500 BCE and that the Yamnaya, or pit-grave culture, of the Caucasus spread the use of the horse (and a Proto-Indo-European language) throughout parts of Europe, India, and Asia.1
The historical record begins at this point, for the Mesopotamians invented writing around 3200 BCE, and their prayers, myths, and even business transactions are preserved on baked clay tablets in cuneiform text. In fact, the oldest surviving horse-training manual comes from the Hittites, famed horsemen and charioteers. This fascinating document, which dates from 1345 BCE, is attributed to Kikkuli, “master horse trainer” of the land of Mitanni, in present-day Turkey.2
Astarte and Ishtar
The peoples of Mesopotamia harnessed horses and used them primarily to drive their war chariots. In fact, no secure evidence supports the use of mounted warriors in a cavalry until after 1000 BCE. It appears, however, that these people did not initially engage in actual combat with their chariots; instead, they used them as convenient transportation on the battlefield.
The Mesopotamian religious pantheon was broad and encompassed some of the deities of Canaan, which was made up of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In fact, they associated the Canaanite goddess Astarte with their most important goddess, Ishtar. Astarte, known as the Mistress of Mares, was the goddess of war, sexual love, mothers, horses, and chariots. There are hundreds of small clay statues of her depicted as a nude woman holding her breasts. These were kept in the household to bestow fertility and good luck on those who revered them. Statues and relief sculptures of Astarte also show her in a chariot.
In a passage from the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero responds to the Babylonian precursor goddess, Ishtar, when she seeks to seduce him. She tempts him with the more-than-generous offer of a lapis and gold chariot and race-winning horses.3 When Gilgamesh rebuffs her, he insults her by recounting a list of lovers she had already taken and the way they had suffered when she left them. He compares their plight to the mistreatment of a victorious war stallion that is ordered to be whipped and restrained and then to be run and given water while overheated, making it ill.4
The portrayal of Ishtar in the passage discussed above is by any standards conflicted and, ultimately, misogynistic. Ishtar is both whore and mother, shamefully vengeful and parentally protective. Most likely, this tale had a “spellbinding” effect on the audience when it was read aloud or sung, promulgating the idea in this culture that a woman's sexuality needed to be feared, controlled, and manipulated. Gilgamesh literally demonizes Ishtar and treats her as an evil, insatiable seductress. The champion war horses with which she baits him are a metaphor for lust. It is only by denying her advances and remaining sexually abstinent that the hero obtains power over her. By reversing Ishtar's intrigue, Gilgamesh avoids the savage emotional pain the goddess has systematically inflicted on her trail of disposable lovers.
In the spell below, I have turned this characterization of Ishtar/Astarte on its head. I reworked the storyline and extracted the boldness and beneficial power of these goddesses to make them relevant for 21st-century witches.
SPELL FOR SEDUCTION AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT
This empowerment spell is meant especially for female readers, but can be used regardless of gender or sexual orientation. At its core are rights we should all possess: the right to choose any lover and always to be treated with respect by that person.
What you need:
The Chariot card from a tarot deck (you can download and print one if you don't own a deck), a red candle, and lapis lazuli.
Instructions:
Place the red candle on your altar and light it. Then say:
Astarte, Mistress of the Mares, I invoke you.
Ishtar, Queen of thunderous power, empower me,
For you are me and I am you.
Let me seduce whomever I wish;
Teach me to accept pleasure;
Teach me to satisfy my needs,
And that my purpose is not only to satisfy the needs of others.
Place your chosen piece of lapis lazuli next to the lit candle as an offering to Astarte and Ishtar. Then say:
Astarte, Goddess of the Morning Star, I call on you.
Ishtar, Queen of thunderous power, empower me,
For you are me and I am you.
Fill my aura with your confidence;
Let me gain the respect of others;
Put all those I desire at my feet;
Trample those who wish to enslave me in mind, body, or spirit.
Place the Chariot card on your altar to finish creating a symbolic “triumvirate.” Then say:
Astarte, Mistress of the Cavalry and Charioteers, I invoke you.
Ishtar, Queen of thunderous power, empower me,
For you are me and I am you.
Allow my true self to emerge,
For my heart is like yours.
It is filled with lapis and gold.
I have everything to give.
Why did I choose a red candle, lapis lazuli, and the Chariot card? Placing the red candle on your altar and lighting it are signals to the goddesses and spirits that you are ready to begin your spell. This also sends and attracts vibrations associated with the color red: aggression, lust, desire, and pleasure.
Lapis lazuli is associated with psychic empowerment, especially clairvoyance and receptivity. Also, it was crushed into a powder, mixed into a paste, and used as eye makeup to cut the glare of the sun and to enhance natural beauty in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, adding to the seductive power of this spell.
The Chariot card connotes movement, strength, and battle. Placing it on your altar naturally calls on the spirits of empowerment, enhancing the spell's final verses and helping you to achieve your goals.
Together, the red candle, lapis lazuli, and the Chariot card create a triple symbol of magickal authority.
Reshef
Egyptians were in contact with Mesopotamia through trade and war. This is how Astarte and another foreign horse deity, Reshef, entered their pantheon in the New Kingdom under the pharaoh Amenhotep II (1427—1401 BCE or 1427—1397 BCE). There is text on an engraved stone plinth near the Great Sphinx at Giza that depicts the young prince standing before these two deities. It states that he looked after the horses in the stables of his father, the pharaoh, with such zeal that he made Astarte and Reshef rejoice.5
“Reshef” is one of many spelling variations for a deity who, like Astarte, was worshipped by his Near Eastern name, but depicted in the Egyptian style. He wears the white Egyptian crown with a gazelle head projecting from it over the forehead. Sometimes he has a Sumerian-style pointed beard. He most often carries a spear or mace. His name can mean “firebrand,” “plague-giver,” or “ravager” in Hebrew, and he was commonly called upon to combat Akha, a demon who caused severe abdominal pain.
Reshef's traditional powers and characteristics make him ideal to invoke in spells aimed at relieving stress and anxiety, since the stomach is the location of the sacral chakra that governs hidden emotions. Confronting, analyzing, and intelligently combatting these emotions will stop them from creating disease.
SPELL FOR RELIEVING STRESS AND ANXIETY
The following spell can be used to relieve stress, anxiety, and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and to focus healing energies on the sacral chakra for humans and animals alike. You can also use it to protect stables or any home where a horse or pet resides.
What you need:
Calendula oil.
Instructions:
First, invoke the great Reshef, using these words:
Great Reshef, stop all intruders!
Great Reshef, oh thou who art revered by the spirits of horses
past and present, stop the demons that would cause [my/
my horse's/my pet's] anxiety and seek to lodge in [my/my
horse's/my pet's] stomach! For it was thy might that protected
the horses in the stables of the pharaoh against colic and
maltreatment.
I call on thine energy to cleanse and purify my sacral chakra.
I call on thine energy to cleanse and purify the sacral chakra of
my beloved [pet's/horse's name].
And I call on thine energy to cleanse, purify, and protect the
stables and the abode of my beloved [pet's/horse's name] from
all evil, negativity, obsessions, and especially all enemies.
My sacrifice to thee, great Reshef, is trust. As the great
pharaohs trusted thine integrity, so dost thou have my word
in heart and spirit that I trust in thee without fail. For never
was it known that someone who called on thee was left
unanswered.
I give thee permission, great god, to enter my sacred and holy
place, that area within me that needs to be purged of anger,
betrayal, fear, and even hatred. Do thou the same for my
beloved [pet's/horse's name].
Slowly rub calendula oil in a clockwise motion on your sacral chakra, which is located approximately two to three inches below the navel. Then say:
Great Reshef, bring light and healing energy where there is none.
Great Reshef, protect me with a father's love.
And do thou bless my spirit, so I may bring comfort
to my loved ones and to [pet's/horse's name].
Stop rubbing the calendula oil on your sacral chakra. While the energy is still running through your hands, extend them in prayer, palms open and facing downward (the Benedictine pose) over your pet/horse. Then close the spell by saying:
Great Reshef, bring thy light and healing energy where there
is none.
Great Reshef, protect [pet's/horse's name] with thy fatherly love.
Great Reshef, bless [pet's/horse's name]'s spirit, so we may
both feel thy heavenly healing and peace.
Why did I choose calendula? Calendula is used to remove anything that has become stagnant in our lives. It attracts light, love, and the power necessary to remove anxiety, PTSD, and obsessions. It captures the energy and warmth of the sun, including the orange hues associated with the sacral chakra. Because of this, it can be called upon to bring nurturing opportunities into the auric field and into the physical body.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Primary sources
Gardner, John, and John Maier, trans. Gilgamesh (New York: Vintage Books, 1984).
Kammenhuber, A. Hippologia hethitica (Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1961). The Kikkuli text has yet to be translated into English, but is available here in its entirety in German.
Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 2 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976).
Sandars, N. K., trans. Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia (London: Penguin Books, 1971).
Secondary sources
Anthony, David W. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the European Steppes Shaped the Modern World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).
————. “Horses, ancient Near East and Pharaonic Egypt.” In Roger S. Bagnall, et al., ed. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Chichester, England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2013), pp. 3311—3314.
Collins, Billie Jean, ed. A History of the Animal World in the Ancient Near East (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2001).
Dawson, Tess. The Horned Altar: Rediscovering and Rekindling Canaanite Magick (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2013).
Drews, Robert. Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe (New York: Routledge Press, 2004).
King, Leonard W. Babylonian Magic and Sorcery (York Beach, ME: Weiser, 2000; reprint of 1896).
Lenormant, François. Chaldean Magic: Its Origin and Development (York Beach, ME: Weiser, 1999; reprint of 1878).
Meeks, Dimitri. “L'introduction du cheval en Égypte et son insertion dans les croyances religieuses.” In Armelle Gardeisen, ed., Les équidés dans le monde méditerranéen antique (Lattes, France: CNRS, 2005), pp. 51—59.
Outram, Alan K., et al. “The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking,” Science 323 (March 2009), pp. 1332—1335.
Raulwing, Peter, ed. and trans. The Kikkuli Text. Hittite Training Instructions for Chariot Horses in the Second Half of the 2nd Millennium B.C. and Their Interdisciplinary Context (text published directly online, 2009). Retrieved from http://www.lrgaf.org (accessed 9/26/2019).
Recht, Laerke, “Asses Were Buried with Him: Equids as Markers of Sacred Space in the Third and Second Millennia BC in the Eastern Mediterranean.” In Louis Daniel Nebelsick, et al., ed., Sacred Space: Contributions to the Archaeology of Belief (Archaeologica Hereditas, 13) (Warsaw, Poland: Institute of Archaeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyń ski University, 2018), pp. 65—94.
Watanabe, Chikako E. Animal Symbolism in Mesopotamia: A Contextual Approach (Vienna: Universität Wien Institut fuür Orientalistik, 2002).
Zivie-Coche, Christiane. “Foreign Deities in Egypt.” In Jacco Dieleman and Willeke Wendrich, eds., UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (Los Angeles, 2011).
NOTES
1 Outram, 2009, and Anthony, 2010.
2 Raulwing, 2009.
3 Tablet VI, column I, lines 10, 20.
4 Tablet VI, column II, lines 53—56.
5 Lichtheim, 1976, vol. 2, p. 42.