Against Qasas contains a delightful pun, which is found over and over again in Jewish magic, often without explanation. Although Judaism is very much a patriarchal religion and invocations of Yahweh (both liturgically and magically) often begin “the God of Isaac, Jacob, and Moses” or some variation thereof, in the examples I’m discussing it is the ancestral mothers of the Hebrew people who are invoked, specifically Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah.

Why these four?

While those familiar with their stories from the Torah (and later aggāḏāh) cannot deny their importance, there are plenty of other equally worthy candidates (hello Yāʿēl and Debōrāh!) especially since this formula usually occurs in protective spells, charms and amulets. (Frankly, I wouldn’t want to piss off any Jewish mother!)

Well, the first letters of their names combined spell brzl, or more accurately בַּרְזֶל, meaning “iron” which symbolizes strength, resistance, harshness, and inability to be bent or broken. Iron also had a ton of apotropaic functions for the ancient Israelites and their neighbors, driving off bad luck, illness, witchcraft, and assorted spirits, usually of a violent and chaotic (bordering on malevolent) nature. This folk custom was reinforced when Jewish groups were dispersed into Celtic, Germanic and Slavic lands where they likewise encountered families of spirits who shared an aversion to iron. So they invoked the ancestral mothers Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah — often bearing iron rods, swords or spears to drive the point home. 

Speaking of which, a reader had a wonderful question which I had taken for granted, or I would have explained earlier. 

What does NN mean?

It is the academic standard for the Greek deina (or simply Δ, sometimes stylized), itself a placeholder where the itinerant religious specialist (or as we would call them, “magician”) was supposed to insert the name of a spirit, their client, or the target. It is Englished as NN because most Greco-Egyptian magic insisted on maternal descent (i.e. “Bruce, son of Martha”) over the usual designation which included name and then either father or clan, especially if the document was intended to hold any legal weight. Magic observes a much older law however. 

And this holds true for Jewish, Syrian, Roman and other systems, not just Greek and Egyptian magic. I suspect this has a two-fold reason: you always know who the mother is, and precision is preferred in such operations. And secondly, there are certain things inherited and transmitted through the maternal line, so if you want to harm an enemy that’s one of the places you target. 

I have more thoughts on why Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah in particular were chosen — there’s a very important detail that isn’t apparent unless you know not just their stories, but the stories of their entire lines — but that will have to wait for another time, along with the Bacchic Judaica. Seeing that vile shit posted on r/hellenism has put me in a mood, especially considering the overlap with r/dionysus (including shared moderators.) But anyone who has seen the state of that forum and the fruit that’s come of it probably won’t be surprised. It does explain the push to return I had been feeling recently. That cannot be all that people find when they search for Dionysos online. So I’m going to share more of what I’m doing and experiencing, not just the cool shit I’m researching. And I hope you guys will too.