Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World

I'm glad I bought this book. It has a lot of research into what a curse tablet is and how they used to be used. If your looking for witchcraft/wicca or infomation on casting magics this isn't the book for you. It does list translations of the curse tablest in extensive quantities, which could be used and shaped into a wicca form of black magic. Curses for sex, love and marriage, court matters, theft, revenge and justice and then loads of random curses and binding spells. Good buy

t's Very good you try it Fantabulous.it will defintely change your life for real.ohh man its that good.

Great - would use again

Extremely useful for academic research

Latin is perhaps as robust a language as we've had in Europe - something you don't learn in school. Its closest descendant, Spanish, can have a sharp edge too, in the right circumstances. But what this book isn't is a list of abusive terms. It's far worse than that. It comes nearer to voodoo. If you don't have a strong stomach, or aren't used to this sort of material, don't read it, for it's likely to haunt you.The practice of placing metal (usually lead, a symbol of death) was well known in ancient times. In Latin, it was defixio. The Greek equivalent is more familiar: anathema. If someone really wanted to vent hatred, a single phrase wasn't enough. A long list of evil wishes, dedicated to some spirit, would specify every possible harm the ill-wished person might suffer, including even impotence and infertility. They could run for paragraphs, to omit not a single detail of the suffering desired. A taste of this practice, shortened, is portrayed in one of the later episodes of the HBO/BBC DVD, Rome. This is not easy reading. If you want to explore some of the nastier recesses of some ancient minds, it's valuable. If you want easy, holiday reading, don't open it, for that'swhat it's not - and not intended to be

Ich liebe dieses Buch-- schön zu erfahren wie Damals die Menschen ihren Hass ausgelebt hatten-- fies und Abgründe zeigt dieses Buch, Flüche und Verwünschungen.

Le introduzioni generali ai capitoli tematici sono ben fatte e scorrevoli, oltre che sapientemente suddivise in paragrafi. Tuttavia, pur essendo nel complesso un buon testo di riferimento per chi voglia farsi un'idea sulle tabellae defixionum, manca della trascrizione dei testi greci e latini, non permettendo un'analisi personale - o, se vogliamo, autoptica - delle testimonianze stesse; inoltre l'apparato delle note è talora eccessivamente sintetico, seppur chiaro e comprensibile. Lodevole è l'impegno dell'autore, però, nel proporre immagini e riproduzioni dei signa magici, anche con qualche bella fotografia. In conclusione, lo consiglierei per una buona infarinata generale sull'argomento; ma con mia sincera sorpresa mi trovo a riconoscere quanto ancora sia fondamentale, dopo quasi 115 anni, l'edizione critica di Audollent.

In this work, Professor Gager provides a catalog of curse tablets and binding spells from Europe and the Middle East and some fairly impressive analysis of these finds. If you are looking for a systematic analysis of such finds, skip this work. If you are looking for source material and enough analysis to make it interesting, this is the book for you.Gager divides these materials into a number of sub-categories such as those involving race-course competition, sex love or marriage, business competition, pleas for revenge and so forth, This functional breakdown makes the material easier to piece together and draw connections between the samples presented.The one thing that could have made this work much better would be to include many more of the inscriptions in their original languages.I would highly recommend this work to anyone interested in ancient magical practices or classical studies.

I really enjoyed this book.

Educational of different religions. Really recommend for understanding of different cultures.