From the dawn of civilisation, the snake has been synonymous with various ideological representations of chaos, malevolence, protection and healing in almost every culture across the globe. In Egyptian society the serpent played a magical role within the realms of healing: both apotropaic (turning away harm) and prophylactic (safeguarding from harm). Yet the snake was also conceptualised …

Read more “An Examination of the Death of Cleopatra and the Serpent in Myth, Magic and Medicine”

Available for free download: https://www.academia.edu/36934248/Sekhmet-_Patron_Goddess_of_Healers_and_Physicians

Sleep is a universal phenomenon that unites all animals and has always been a core aspect of our existence, yet the function of sleep remains a scientific conundrum that is still being unravelled. For the ancient Egyptians, oneiromancy, i.e. the interpretation of dreams provided hidden messages about a person’s future, and dream therapy was used …

Read more “Why did the ancient Egyptians turn to dream therapy to solve life’s dilemmas, predict future events and cure various maladies? And what did they do to protect themselves against nocturnal demons wanting to infiltrate their dreams?”

Since ancient times, observing the extraordinary feats of animal behaviour has been critical to human survival. Our ancestors used this knowledge to out manoeuvre prey during hunts, to predict natural disasters such as earthquakes and even to experiment with potential plant and mineral based medicine. Around 10,000 years ago humans began to domesticate animals and …

Read more “How the Evolution of Animal Cults and Deities was Influenced by the Emergence of Rudimentary Biomedical Science and Pharmacology in Ancient Egypt”