An Ancient Egyptian Spell Against Cockroaches

 A Spell Against Cockroaches 

Careful, it might start flying at you!

Gross topic, but maybe having this spell in your grimoire can help. These little vermin can infest even the most spotless of homes. If your house has indoor plumbing, that’s all they need. Don’t get embarrassed, or frightened, get even. I’ve had a lifelong, perhaps illogical phobia against cockroaches. But Set would want me to be strong against them. After all, they’re just weak little bugs, they don’t even bite you. They are just filthy agents of the Chaos Serpent. You see, you might need to call an exterminator if non-toxic solutions prove ineffective, but if you’re a polytheist, you can also call upon the Gods. In this case, I turn to Khnum.

One lesser-known aspect of Khnum is that he could be called upon to drive away cockroaches, as written in The Book of the Dead. During the soul's journey to Duat, the Egyptian afterlife, the soul would recite a spell for Khnum's aid in getting past the cockroaches, with the speech:

“Be far from me, O vile cockroach, for I am the god Khnum”.

The advantage to knowing more than one language is that you can write your spells out in more than one language, and that augments its power. Here it is in Armenian:

Հայերեն

«Հեռու մնա ինձանից, ո՛վ պիղծ ուտիճ, որովհետև ես եմ Խնում աստվածը:»

«Heru mna indsanits, ov pighdz ootich, vorovhetev yes em Khnum Astvadzeh!»

And in hieroglyphs; I couldn’t find the word for “cockroach” so I had to make do with ibb (𓇋𓃀𓃀𓆣), when writing it out I replaced the scarab determanitive with a little drawing of a cockroach instead, a small liberty that I think gets the point across. I used two different dictionaries I found online. Here are the links, for your own useage:

https://app.vega-lexique.fr

https://www.academia.edu/42457720/Dictionary_of_Middle_Egyptian_in_Gardiner_Classification_Order

Medu Netjer 

Be far/ from/me/vile/beetle/because/I am/God/Khnum

𓃀𓈞𓈒𓄿 𓅓 𓀀 𓄡𓊃𓅪 𓇋𓃀𓃀𓆣 𓅮𓄿𓃹𓈖 𓀀 𓊹 𓎸𓅱𓁠

Bjȝ     em i     ẖsj            ibb         Pa-wen         i   Netjer Khnum

Bya         ee    Khesej  ibeb                              ee

And don’t forget the most important part, you need to give back. The Netjeru aren’t genies who grant wishes. They do what they are able, when they deem it necessary. Here is a list of offerings Khnum likes, from Sesh Kemet:

https://seshkemet.weebly.com/khnum-khnemu.html

Clay

Water

Potters wheel

Sculpting tools

Soil

Myrrh

Beer

Easiest offering for me to do will be the beer. I’m sure Lord Sutekh doesn’t mind me using one of His, I will need to replace it though. 

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

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