Seven Knots and Backwards Psalms to Trap a Demon

Kabbalah & Mysticism Jewish Magic and Superstition, Ch. 9
Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team ·

Medieval Jewish magic was not freestyle improvisation. It was governed by strict rules, precise ingredients, and exact timing—a technology of the supernatural with its own internal logic. SAFE0 Trachtenberg, in his landmark 1939 study, documented how Jewish practitioners across medieval Europe developed a remarkably consistent set of procedures, drawing on traditions stretching back to the Talmud and elaborated in works like Sefer Raziel and the Shimmush Tehillim (Mystical Uses of Psalms).

Numbers were everything. Three was the most powerful number for repetition—names spoken three times, actions performed in triplicate, incantations repeated thrice. The Talmud itself prescribed calling upon the dead three times. Seven was the number of binding: knots tied seven times could bind a demon or seal a spell. Nine carried special force in German-Jewish magical tradition, appearing in recipes and protective rites throughout the Sefer Hasidim.

The spoken word held immense power, but it had to be spoken correctly. Psalms recited backward could reverse a curse. Biblical verses whispered over water transformed it into a healing agent. According to one source, writing (Numbers 11:2) on a bread crust and throwing it into a fire could extinguish a blaze—sympathetic magic at its most literal. Another technique involved slowly reciting that same verse while pouring drops of water, syllable by syllable, onto burning coals.

Physical materials mattered too. Recipes called for sweat, eggs laid on Thursdays, and the afterbirth of black cats. The Talmud (Berakhot 6a) preserves one famous prescription: to see evil spirits, take the afterbirth of a firstborn black cat born to a firstborn black cat, burn it to ash, grind it to powder, and put it in your eyes. The instruction is presented with complete seriousness.

Knots were perhaps the most widespread magical tool. The act of tying—<i>asar</i> in Hebrew, which also means "to bind" or "to imprison"—was understood as literally trapping spiritual forces. The Rokeah and other medieval authorities described elaborate knotting rituals that could bind demons, prevent miscarriage, or protect travelers. Every knot was a cage for the invisible.

Themes

Demons Magic & the Supernatural Death Folk religion

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