The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden
Thirteen lamps of ancient Egypt
AN OCCULT HALL ILLUSTRATIONEnter its world.
The surviving roll brings together divine inquiries, dream procedures, material lists and other operations. Its words treat gods, names, light and human perception as parts of a world in which hidden knowledge can be sought.
Follow thirteen illustrated lessons through the actual columns, then read the complete three-volume historical edition: translation and transliteration, the editors’ hand-copy of the script, and indices. The original papyrus has losses; these volumes present the surviving text rather than imagined missing pages.
- Thirteen substantial lessons with source pages and worked reading exercises
- Complete English translation and Demotic transliteration
- Full hand-copy of the script and the historical indices
Thirteen lamps
One free introduction · 12 member lessons
Why this number?
13 lessons form our expanded editorial path through this collection. The course count is a modern study arrangement, not the number of chapters, beings or stages stated by the historical authors.
Your way through.
Follow the teachings step by step, work through concrete examples, and connect each explanation with its cited passage.
A vessel large enough for a world
Explain how the first invocation transforms a vessel into a place of revelation, and distinguish the operator, witness and divine presence.
12 min · Free introduction
A banquet before the answer
Trace the sequence from Anubis’s arrival to the named answering god, explaining the role of the feast.
12 min · Member lesson
The flame that answers in a dream
Explain the relation between the lamp, divine revelation and a dream answer in recto V.
12 min · Member lesson
The god whose hidden name is known
Explain the paradox of a hidden divine name that the operator claims to know, using the inquiry of Khons.
12 min · Member lesson
To see the boat of the Sun
Explain how the solar-boat invocation uses motion, opened heaven and the identity of Geb to seek a vision.
12 min · Member lesson
When the full Moon becomes a voice
Compare the two lunar inquiries in recto XXIII and explain the role of fullness, location and speech.
12 min · Member lesson
Dawn, the witness and the answering god
Compare the two solar settings in recto XXIX and separate the operator’s voice from the witness’s perception.
12 min · Member lesson
A lamp beneath the northern stars
Explain how the short inquiry in verso XVIII links appearance, speech and truth while allowing a lamp or constellation as its setting.
12 min · Member lesson
The garden behind the secret names
Distinguish a material’s evocative name, descriptive features and uncertain modern identification in the verso lists.
12 min · Member lesson
Hospitality before an answer
Follow the transformation of an arriving divine company into one named respondent, and distinguish hospitality from the information sought.
11 min · Member lesson
Light, space, presence, and truth
Separate the four results a divinatory invocation requests, comparing vessel, sunrise, and lamp settings.
11 min · Member lesson
Hidden identity and a borrowed voice
Understand why an invocation both identifies a hidden god and gives the speaker several divine identities.
11 min · Member lesson
The solar journey and the human window
Compare seeing the solar boat with receiving an answer through sunlight, distinguishing the object of vision from its setting.
11 min · Member lessonThe source beside you.
Members can explore the complete edition. Begin with the free introduction and its selected source pages.
The complete book awaits.
The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden
The complete historical editions and page-turning readers belong to the member library. Free introductions include the source excerpts used in their teaching.
Books & dates
Volume I · Text and translationGriffith and Thompson · 1904
Volume II · Hand-copy of the textGriffith and Thompson · 1905
Volume III · IndicesGriffith and Thompson · 1921
Guided readings and teaching diagrams are original Occult Hall commentary. Imagined scenes are modern illustrations, separate from the historical source pages.
Clavis Inferni
Eleven readings through a gilded book of spirits, authority and signs