Jewish Oneiric Aggressive Magic
Since antiquity, Jews, like their neighbours, paid great attention to phenomena relating to sleeping and dreaming. The occurrence of dream accounts in the Hebrew Bible legitimized the discussion of the oneiric experience also in later Jewish texts.[313] The practice of “oneiric magic,” i.e., magical and divinatory rituals including within their structure a specific stage of dreaming, or aimed at interfering with the natural activity of dreaming and sleeping, is attested to within Jewish culture, at least from Late Antiquity.[314] Unfortunately, only a few Jewish sources mention sleep disturbances.
Yet these texts turn out to be particularly important, providing us with an insight into ancient Jewish conceptions of the origins of dreams and sleep ailments, as well as into specific developments in Jewish demonology.Most of the Jewish writings concerning sleep impairments, and all the textual excerpts discussed in this paper, refer to specific techniques, which belong to a category of ancient magic that I suggest we call “oneiric aggressive magic.” By the term “oneiric,” I refer to the natural and universal human experience of sleeping and dreaming.[315] In this study, I regard these two interwoven activities as “somatic techniques,” which can be managed, regulated and even provoked according to different socio-cultural models.[316] By “aggressive magic,” I refer to every magical act aimed at wielding a certain power on individuals, either on their psychophysical faculties or on their properties.[317] [318] By the expression “oneiric aggressive magic,” I indicate every magical act aimed at wielding a certain power on individuals, by operating on their sleeping and dreaming behaviour.[319] Under the category of oneiric aggressive magic, I include techniques for causing insomnia, controlling/orienting dreams, sending a dream or a nightmare. Oneiric aggressive magical techniques involve at least two characters. On the one side of the magical chain, the user of the incantation actively engages in the ritual, on his/her behalf or on behalf of a client, attempting to exert some sort of influence on the sleeping and dreaming behavior of a third party. On the other side, a victim, generally unaware of the occurrence of the magical practice perpetrated to his/her detriment, experiences an alteration of his/ her regular sleeping and dreaming faculties. There are also sources attesting to inverse ritual dynamics, in which victims, or experts on their behalf, actively engage in the magical practice as an act of defense or revenge. In these cases, the victim overcomes her/his unawareness and passiveness through protective spells aimed at interrupting or reversing the sleeping/dreaming impairment caused by the original curse. Occasionally, the roles are inverted and the perpetrator becomes the new victim of the oneiric aggression. Oneiric aggressive magical techniques are, generally, undertaken either to achieve an erotic purpose, by sending a spell of attraction to the victim through a dream, or to induce victims to fulfill the user's will, by blackmailing them with insomnia or by sending them a coercive dream. A third and most extreme use involves the actual damage of victims, generally enemies of the perpetrator, both from a physiological and psychological point of view, by provoking in them insomnia or by sending them disturbing nightmares. Oneiric aggressive rituals of this kind, aimed at gravely harming a third person, imply a certain level of awareness that physiological sleep is indispensable for good health and that the lack of natural rest leads to serious physical and psychological impairments. Evidence for late antiqueJewish aggressive magic is either in the form of general and impersonal recipes preserved in magical handbooks, or finished products written by a professional magician for a certain client or for a group of individuals.[320] [321] Finished products are generally represented by protective amulets, aimed at preventing the demons from appearing to users in their dreams, defending the users-victims from an oneiric aggressive spell perpetrated by a human party, or revenging the users-victims’ oneiric aggression by sending the aggressor a counter-spell. In the next three sections, I will examine Jewish magical recipes and finished products, respectively excerpts from Sefer ha-Razim, Harba de-Moshe, and the corpus of the Babylonian magic bowls, which attest to the practice of oneiric aggressive magical rituals for causing insomnia and sending nightmares within late antique Judaism.