This article discusses magic and divination in ancient Mesopotamia, and how these topics related to medicine and religion at that time. In this context, magic can refer to the supernatural causes and explanations that these early civilizations had for different life events or natural disasters. To overcome these life challenges, they developed rituals and practices that today we call magical, although they are not necessarily witchcraft. The number of tablets and objects referencing these topics shows how common these beliefs were and how they influenced people's daily lives, their culture, their different roles and jobs within society and their decision-making . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Evidence shows that ancient Mesopotamians assumed that different gods/goddesses and mythical creatures were responsible for different aspects of life and natural phenomena, as the true reasons behind them were unknown at the time. In order to protect themselves from undesirable circumstances, they tried to predict the future, or to please the gods and ward off evil. This resulted in them using different types of magic to find solutions to their problems, such as illnesses and natural disasters. An example of this is the use of certain objects such as stones and figurines in medicine. Clear evidence of this is a cuneiform tablet dated to the mid-to-late 1st millennium BCE (currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which shows a list of hundreds of stones used to treat or prevent different medical conditions due to magical effects associated with them. Based on cuneiform evidence, medical healers existed in Mesopotamia since the mid-3rd millennium BCE. Back then, it was believed that all illnesses were caused by supernatural powers such as gods, goddesses, ghosts, demons, etc. The treatments sought were therefore designed to please the gods or repel evil spirits. These methods were applied by healers, who were mainly of three types: the barû (seers) who practiced medicine by divination, the âshipu (exorcists) who treated illnesses believed to be caused by ghosts, and the asû (healing priests). who dealt with illnesses. the patients. One proof of the involvement of magic in medicine is the Maqlû series, which translates as “Burning”. This is the description of an anti-witchcraft ceremony, organized to help a patient regain health. The ceremony took place in several divisions and consisted of burning the figurines of an anonymous witch, fumigation, washing the patients on the witch figurines, etc. It could also be considered a religious ritual as participants hoped that by burning the figurines representing the witch, they could gain the attention and mercy of the gods, who would be able to heal the patient and protect the family and others against illness. Evidence from Mesopotamian prescriptions shows that they believed that ghosts were responsible for a variety of physical and mental problems. These illnesses and health problems range from mild problems such as ringing in the ears and headaches to digestive problems or even strokes. Additionally, mental problems such as depression were thought to be caused by ghosts. Many symptoms were also considered directlyrelated to how the ghost had died. For example, if the patient had difficulty breathing, it was assumed that the ghost afflicting the patient had died by drowning or suffocation. For each of the problems, a specific prescription was given, consisting of a recitation addressed to a god with appropriate power, or specific actions to be performed to dispel the ghost, such as offerings of food and drink. Most gods and goddesses were believed to have healing powers, but "Ninib" and "Gula" were particularly considered healing gods. According to Reteif (2007), people who played a healing role within society were generally very respectable and had different ranks depending on their importance. The role was so important that royal healers in the Assyrian Empire even had to take an oath. All this considered, it is clear that medicine has been influenced by the theocratic state, priestly brotherhoods, and public religious beliefs. A subject that also falls under the broad term of magic in ancient Mesopotamia is divination. Mesopotamian temples and personal diviners of kings attempted to predict the future and avert danger through divination and astrology. A notable problem is that these prophecies were generally used by kings and the upper classes of society, and members of the lower classes were not involved in this type of magic on a daily basis, although they did participate in magical rituals and religious. The influence of divinations and prophecies is evident when we see that Mesopotamian kings consulted their diviners and priests before making important decisions. For example, if the king intended to invade a neighboring state, he would ask his diviners if the gods approved of his decision, to be assured that he did not anger the gods with his actions. Then he would make the decision based on the answer, because if the gods were unhappy with the king's invasion plan, they could turn events against him and result in his defeat. This shows how divination was heavily based on religious beliefs and gods. Assyrian divination could be classified into two categories of “omina oblativa” and “omina impetrative” which, as Cryer (1994) describes, are “simply presenting themselves to the public.” the attention of the observer” and “those that the observer himself provokes” respectively. Examples of “Omina oblivata” are lunar eclipses and any natural phenomena, which are events that occur independently of humans and observed by diviners. In Assyrian culture, these types of events could convey prophecies or actions and feelings of the gods. On the other hand, the "Omina impetratives" were actions undertaken by diviners and priests in order to obtain prophecies and avert all evil, which could include omen sacrifices, as well as offerings to the gods to prevent the consequences of their anger and the predicted disasters. Another method of obtaining prophecies was extispicy, in which an animal was purified in a ceremony and then slaughtered in a specific way. An autopsy would then be performed and certain organs, such as the liver, would be inspected and marked by the diviners, which would then be used to predict different things, such as the weather, current or upcoming health problems, and political events. Sometimes, if the results obtained by the predictions were not desirable, they repeated the rituals and extispices until they obtained results that were favorable to them, mainly those of the king. This may possibly mean that they did not have clear reasoning behind these forms.