Ink and rituals
4th century. Detail of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyrus P.Lond. I 121 (‘GEMF 74/PGM VII’), Thebes (Egypt). The Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri, so called because of their content, provide a valuable insight into ritual practices that were outside the 'authorised' religious environment of Imperial Roman Egypt © British Library

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Ink and rituals

III Ink Uses and Users

One of the aspects that links writing to the field of ritual is its material dimension. In Ancient Egypt, for example, the concavity of the pigment mortar and those for inks in the scribes’ palettes were often protected by the symbol of the shen-ring, also known as «cartouche». Although various explanations have been proposed, the need to protect these spaces may be due to the fact that, according to Egyptian beliefs, any space (usually circular) that created a void was likely to become an access point to the afterlife and was therefore dangerous. The protection of ink and its associated processing spaces was of great importance, as ink was capable of materialising concepts within our tangible reality. This transformation of non-existent ideas into something physical makes ink a substance with the capacity to act as a vehicle of communication between the material and spiritual planes, the human and the divine.

The components used in the manufacture of inks were also imbued with ritual and symbolic properties. For example, the soot of certain ritual resins, such as frankincense and myrrh, is the most common ingredient of inks used in the religious and magical Egyptian practices. On the same principle, «ritual» inks could be made from ingredients chosen for their symbolism. The papyri of magical content from Greco-Roman Egypt include inks made from sacred plants (GEMF 60/PGM XIII 17-29), from the ashes of an offering (GEMF 57/PGM IV 2226), or containing the most powerful substance of all: blood (GEMF 74/PGM VII 652). Writing with a particular ink during a ritual was a special «act of power» because the ingredients of the ink could imbue the message with additional powers.