Egyptian Magic Symbols

Animalistic look is one of the Egyptian gods' main features. Some of the animals they connected to gods are mentioned here.

Cow is the animal associated with the goddess of Hathor. She is the goddess of music, dancing, motherhood and joy. Protector of all women, she was often represented as a cow, or just wearing cow horns or ears along with a sun disk on her head. Dead women were thought of as Hathor they way dead men were connected to Osiris. The dark side of Hathor, Sekhmet, was associated with the killing power of sun, or Ra who became angry with men and sent Hathor (Sekhmet) to kill them.

Another animal directly associated with Egyptian deities is the ibis . This bird with long beak was the representation of Thoth, the god of wisdom, writing, magic, knowledge. He along with his wife, Ma'at, participated in the ritual of measuring the dead men' hearts.

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Cats were loved because of their usefulness, and there was a goddess represented by the cat. Her name is Bastet, and she helps Ra fight with one of the few evil creatures in the Egyptian mythology- the snake demon Apep.

This snake originates directly from the blood of Ra, the sun god, and was made by Isis from his blood to take his magic powers away in order to bring back to life her dead husband, Osiris. It is one of the two evil creatures, the second being Ammit the destroyer.

Ammit incorporates several animal features. He has a crocodile 's head, lion 's shoulders and hippopotamus 's rump. These were terrifying beasts to Egyptians. Ammit ate the hearts which were measured heavier than the feather of Ma'at.

Another highly respected animal is the scarab , worshipped because of his ability to move objects larger than itself.

Jackal , or Anubis, is the god of dead. Death was not end of life to ancient Egyptians and Anubis helped the dead for this transition. He mummified the bodies as he did for Osiris to provide them with eternal life.

Falcon is the animal representation of Horus, or the god of all pharaohs. A son of Osiris and Isis, he succeeds in defeating Seth and getting back the crown and the rule of Egypt. He was injured and Seth took away one of his eyes, which later Thoth cured and provided back. The eye of Horus-or a hawk's eye- was widely used as a symbol of protection and healing.

Though not directly ostrich appears in Egyptian mythology being reminded of by ostrich feathers. Ostrich feather was worn both by Ma'at, the goddess of justice, and Amun-the god of creation. Amun was believed to be invisible mostly but could appear if summoned. Thus ostrich feather were connected with justice and were used mythological to weigh a dead man's heart, and in reality to signal the start of a court trial.

Ram is the sacred animal of Amun. His name appears in today's ammonites since they have the ram horns' shape.
Internal organs were surgically removed from bodies and put into four vessels three of which in animal forms too. Baboon , falcon , and jackal were believed to have protective powers and represented the four protective spirits, and sons of Horus.

Frogs were respected as a symbol of regeneration and life being born in thousands with each Nile flood.

Except to gods Egyptians believed some nature objects to have magical (supernatural) powers. These are the sun, the moon, the stars, and Nile.

The sun took the form of Ra in the sense of giving life and providing with warmth and light crops to grow. He was believed to die each evening, to be born again each morning and float through twelve doors representing the twelve hours of night through the Underworld.
The sun's power to kill was incorporated in the belief in Sekhmet, Ra's wife who he sent to punish men. Unfortunately Sekhmet got so carried away that she couldn't stop herself from killing people. Ra was worried and tricked her into drinking a large quantity of beer thus making her fall into deep sleep. Upon waking her he convinced Sekhmet to stop her bloodlust.

The moon was another nature object worshipped by Egyptians. Nut, once married to Ra, fell in love with Geb. Ra cursed her to be unable to conceive, so Nut asked Thoth to help. Thoth took away some of the Moon's light and created 5 more days for the year. Previously it was considered to have only 360 days, during which R's curse was effective, but on appearing the new 5 days Nut got pregnant and had two boy children.

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Earth and sky also have their magic representations in the form of Nut (sky) and Geb (the earth). They are drawn respectively blue with stars for Nut and brown and green for Geb, which are the colors of earth and skies. Nile also is part of Geb's image through the brown color, representing Nile's mud.

Lotus was considered also a magic plant being mildly narcotic and used for medical purposes. Besides it used to bloom in the morning and sink under water at night like the Sun itself.

Storms, wind and dark skies were represented by the snake demon Apep who was thought to fight Ra and overcome him.

The writing symbols, or hieroglyphs, were used for protection and wishing well to friends and family. The most popular one is "Life health and prosperity".

Another symbol is the cartouche. This is a circle/ oval, which was used in writing Pharaoh's names to show his rule power over Egypt.

Another important symbol is Ankh, the symbol of life, as one might guess.

Tyet is another symbol used to represent life and welfare also referred to as the knot of Isis, whose magical power was intended to bring Osiris back to life.

The Eye of Horus is the symbol of magic powers protection and healing (since it was the healed eye of Horus).

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A symbol of strength and endurance is the Djed symbol representing a pillar symbolizing the spine.
Other symbols like hands, feet and other body parts were used as amulets, respectively wishing for strength and endurance of the organ represented.

The scarab is often used instead of the heart symbol.

A human headed bird or Ba represents the soul, accompanying the Ka or spirit in the afterlife.

Nefer is a symbol representing blessings, good fortune and luck. It is believed to represent the heart with aorta.

The snake worn as an amulet was believed to protect from snake bites.

Mut, or the vulture amulet was intended to bring the dead the protection of the vulture goddess Mut, or the Mother Goddess Isis.

The symbol menat was intended to bring joy and good fortune too. It reminds visually to liquid being poured into a cup (at least to me).

Sam or union symbol represented the male and female coming together and was also used in burial ceremonies being laid upon on the relevant part of the body.