the teaching, wishes to disobey, then for him it will no longer (750) be in
effect. Instruction for the ritual:
Take a sun-scarab which has twelve rays, and make it fall into a deep, turquoise
cup, at the time when the moon is invisible; b put in together with it the seed
of the lotometra, (755) and honey; and, after grinding it, prepare a cake. And
at once you will see it (viz. the scarab) moving forward and eating; and when
it has consumed it, it immediately dies. Pick it up and throw it into a glass
vessel of excellent rose oil, as much as you wish; and (760) spreading sacred
sand in a pure manner, set the vessel on it, and say the formula over the vessel
for seven days, while the sun is in mid-heaven: "I have consecrated you,
that your essence may be useful to me, to _______ alone, IE IA E EE OY EIA,
that you may prove useful to me (765) alone. For I am PHOR PHORA PHOS PHOTIZAAS
(others: PHOR PHOR OPHOTHEI XAAS)."
On the seventh day pick up the scarab, and bury it with Myrrh and wine from
Mendes and fine linen; and put it away in a flourishing bean-field. (770) Then,
after you have entertained and feasted together, put away, in a pure manner,
the ointment for the immortalization. If you want to show this to someone else,
take the juice of the herb called "kentritis," and smear it, along with rose
oil, over the eyes of the one you wish; (775) and he will see so clearly that
he will amaze you. I have not found a greater spell than this in the world.
Ask the god for what you want, and he will give to you.***
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* The scarab, the Egyptian god Kheper, represented the rising sun.
** Literally "at the seizure of the moon." This interesting phrase probably
designates the new moon.
*** For examples of Jewish and Christian parallels to this familiar statement,
cf. Matthew 7:7, and H. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament
aus Talmud und Midrasch (Muenchen: Beck, 1926), vol. 1, 450ff.