Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (in the tradition of the Greek Magical Papyri)

As a kid, I always felt kind of sorry for baby Jesus. I mean, let’s face it: he got the worst possible Christmas presents ever! If you think back, how excited were you to unwrap a Christmas present and find inside a book or a sweater? Well, imagine getting some gold, some frankincense and some myrrh. Yeah; it’s not exactly the right stuff to get a kid all excited. Tell me about it.

These not-so-kid-friendly presents were presented to Jesus by the Three Magi, as the Gospel according to Matthew informs us (2:11) – “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh”. The writer, being in all probability a Hellenizing Jew, was all too familiar with the significance of these gifts, fit for an exalted deity. In the Book of Isaiah (60:6), when the restoration of the Holy City, Jerusalem, is described, we read that – “The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord”. In addition to this, Seleucus II Callinicus, one of the Greek rulers of Mesopotamia, Babylon, Media and vast expanses of land by the Euphrates, is recorded to have offered (among other things) gold, frankincense and myrrh to Apollo, at the sun-god’s sanctuary, in Miletus, sometime in the middle of the 3rd century BCE (E. R. Bevan, “The House of Seleucus”, London 1902).

Obviously, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to assume that the gifts of the Magi, mentioned in the Gospel according to Matthew, are symbolic offerings of ritualistic significance. Various long-winded theories and explanations of their symbolism has been offered throughout time and literature; and it is to that pile of speculation that I wish to add my own little musings on the matter, because if you can’t share things like that beside the crackling fireplace at Yuletide, then what can you do? Ok, don’t answer that. But you get the idea.

In the “Eighth Book of Moses”, a Graeco-Egyptian grimoire which is part of the larger corpus of writings known as the Greek Magical Papyri (Papyri Graecae Magicae) dating roughly from 100 BCE to 400 CE, we find a detailed list of the “occult incenses” (απόκρυφα επιθύματα) attributed to each of the seven planetary genii or gods. Not surprisingly, frankincense (λίβανος) is the appropriate incense for the Sun / Helios; myrrh (ζμύρνα or σμύρνα), for the Moon / Selene (PGM XIII, 18-20). 

Keeping that in mind, let us note that this “Eighth Book of Moses” would have been undoubtedly something that the Magi – if not our sainted gospel writer, living in the Hellenistic Judea of the 1st century CE and keenly interested in spiritual matters –, regardless of their native origin (discussed in another post), would be familiar with. After all, they were magicians*. And any self-respecting magician would not be unfamiliar with such a text of ritual power, circulating in the wider region of the Middle East. 

Therefore, following this line of thinking – that the Magi were practitioners of ceremonial magic – we can arrive at two probable assumptions: A) that of course they would have gold, frankincense and myrrh on them, as part of their “tools of the trade”, so to speak and that B) they carried these items with them to the scene of the nativity as instruments or ingredients of an intended theurgic ritual.

What exactly that ritual might have been is not something easily guessed. However, any student of the Greek Magical Papyri knows the importance of using the appropriate metal in a ritual (especially those involving the making of phylacteries or the carving of characters on horseshoe-shaped amulets charged with certain powers, which are referred to as “πέταλα”, in the original) and also the importance of suffumigations. To put it in more simple terms, an indispensable part of the magic practiced in the East around the time of Jesus’ birth was inscribing the proper medium with characters and words of power and then “sanctifying” it by fumigating it using the appropriate incenses (also at the right day, hour, under the right celestial auspices, etc.). 

At this point, let us note that the myrrh of the Magi is often understood as “oil of myrrh” (one of the principle ingredients used also in mummy embalming by the ancient Egyptians, along with natron). This has to do with Jesus being the Messiah, the Anointed One – and, therefore, some sort of oil had to be given to him at his birth, in order to act as a prooeconomia of sorts in the narrative of his life-story. Oil of myrrh or liquid myrrh, also known as “stacte” (στακτή) in Pliny’s writings, was used in antiquity by Jewish priests as an ingredient for the incense burned at the tabernacle, in the Temple of Solomon (Pliny, “The Natural History”, XII, 33-35). Myrrh, in the earliest Greek texts of the Gospel according to Matthew, is given as “Smyrna” (σμύρνα): “Kαι ελθόντες εις τον οικίαν είδον το παιδίον μετά Μαρίας της μητρός αυτού, και πεσόντες προσεκύνησαν αύτω και ανοίξαντες τους θησαυρούς αυτών προσήνεγκαν αύτω δώρα, χρυσόν και λίβανον και σμύρναν”. Smyrna (or myrrh) is a more general term for naturally occurring resin extracted from various tree species of the Commiphora genus. In antiquity, as well as even today, myrrh in its natural, resin form (extracted from the Styrax Benzoin tree), unmixed with anything else, is used as incense, among other things. 

Let’s assume that the myrrh of the Magi was in its solid, resin form, just like their frankincense; then the basic essentials of a theurgic ritual emerge: they had the gold as the medium-to-be-charged; they had one incense imbued with the attributes of the Sun and another imbued with the attributes of the Moon, the two principle bodies ruling the heavens during day and night, respectively.

Gold, of course, is the metal attributed to the Sun par excellence. It is the “king of metals”, the “incorruptible one”, the height of perfection in the mineral realm, according to Alchemical / Hermetic beliefs. Thus, gold is the appropriate metal for kings and solar deities. In the Greek Magical Papyri, gold is always the first medium of choice when it comes to creating phylacteries, rings or talismans inscribed with the most sacred name of the Highest God. Suffumigating a magical creation of gold with incenses bearing the attributes of the Sun and the Moon alike is to “ensoul” or give to that creation the attributes of both day and night – the all of visible creation.

The spiritual attributes of the Sun (represented by the rising smoke of the frankincense) are those of masculinity: the germinating principle, the giving of life, the energetic action which vitalizes all creation. The spiritual attributes of the Moon (represented, accordingly, by the smoke rising from the myrrh) are those of femininity: the nurturing matrix of life, the receptacle of the Sun’s energy, the vastness of benighted world of dreams and the capacity of imagination to create entire worlds, the ability to see beyond the visible – just as shapes of men and beasts entangling with one another appear to the vigilant eye when it looks in the dotted firmament of the night. A “spirit” (that is “smoke”, in its corporeal form) possessed of both these attributes is, in essence, androgynous. Just like the Highest God, Our Father (Ablanathanalba), as Poimeandres taught. 

As if that weren’t enough to fuel speculation on its magical implications, the tradition of the Magi’s visitation clearly states that the Three Wise Men were guided by a star – that is to say, they were fully cognizant of the celestial / astrological circumstances on their arrival at the nativity scene. This detail also conforms with the prerequisites of a theurgic ritual in Hellenistic magic.

As stated earlier, I do realize that all this is but fanciful speculation, fit for a cold winter evening’s discussion and nothing more – or less. I’m not making any extraordinary claims that I have pin-pointed the true purpose of the gifts of the Magi or anything as ambitious as that. It is interesting to note though, in closing, that the “actual” gifts of the Magi survive to this day. They are kept and venerated as holy relics, in the monastery of St. Paul, in Mount Athos**. The gold of the Magi is distributed in 28 elaborately carved flat plates of various shapes (some rectangular, others trapezoids, polygons, etc.) measuring approximately 5 X 7 cm. The frankincense and the myrrh are preserved mixed together, molded in small olive-sized spherical beads, attached by strings of pearls and precious stones to the golden plates. These 28 plates are kept in separate reliquaries and only a few of them are open to the public for veneration. The faithful claim that they still emit a strong, otherwordly fragrance and many miraculous healings have been attributed to their thaumaturgic properties by believers. 

Having no personal experience of these occurrences, I will merely say that, having looked at them, they do appear, in my opinion, to bear a striking resemblance to elaborate magical talismans: a fact not in the least surprising and all too natural, if one were to consider their provenance according to tradition.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with a few wise words from Apollonius of Tyana –  “There is much to be gained by neither believing yet not disbelieving everything” (και γαρ κέρδος αν είη μήτε πιστεύειν, μήτε απιστείν πάσιν) and wish you a very merry Christmas.

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*A more proper term would be “theurgists”; probably with a good deal of the “thaumaturgist” thrown in as well, for good measure. If you’d like to argue that “they were Wise Men”, their appellation deriving from the Latin “Magus”, and wish to portray them as secular scientists with a specialization in astronomy, then allow me to point out the simple fact that “The Picatrix”, the 11th century “root-source” grimoire otherwise known as “The Goal of the Wise”, refers to the practitioner of magic as a “Wise Man” (sapiens), reflecting long centuries of tradition which attributed to the “Wise Man” the ability to perform rites of theurgy and thaumaturgy. This is evidenced even in antiquity, in the cases of Pythagoras, Epimenides of Crete, Apollonius of Tyana and others. 

** When I say “actual” gifts of the Magi, I do not mean to imply that I personally believe in the undisputable authenticity of these relics; nor do I dismiss it, simply because of the “bad reputation” religious relics have in this day and age. I’m using the word “actual” to denote that Christian Orthodox tradition identifies them as such and that their keepers, the monks of Mount Athos, firmly believe them to be genuine. It is a fact that religious relics (belonging to any religion worldwide) are rarely put under any scrutiny, either of historical documentation or of scientific analysis of any kind. Even in the rare cases when this is done, such controversy and clamor of differing opinions arises that the finds remain obscure or inconclusive, producing but a couple of sensationalist headlines in the media of the day. Then, quietly, one of the two sides involved (the religious or the scientific) withdraws from the whole endeavor and that is the unclimactic end of it. Just as relics in the pagan religions of the ancient world were “untouchable” by profane inquirers, so they have remained to this day, with the successors of paganism.