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Etruscan Magic and Priestcraft
Jun. 21st, 2023 11:06 amWhat follows is a very brief summary of the religious, spiritual, and occult practices of the ancient Etruscan culture of Iron Age Italy. It’s what we know or can deduce via historical records, archaeology, and semi-contemporary second and third-hand sources. Much of this information I gleaned from a book on “Pagan Europe” by Nigel Pennick, an English historian, occultist, and pagan.
1. Spiritual Science: The Etruscans seems to have made no hard distinction between priestcraft, spirituality, science, and occultism. They apparently saw all of these areas of study as being of a divine/numinous nature. A spiritual view was incorporated into every facet of life. “Secularism” as we know it today would have been totally alien to the Etruscans.
2. Professional Priests: Unlike the Greeks and the Romans, the Etruscans had a full-time, professional priesthood. A Priest was known as a Maru, whether he was a Cultic Priest, Augur, or Sacral Magistrate (deputy to the Lucumo). Religious specialists underwent periods of intensive training at specialized colleges.
3. Sacral Kingship: The Etruscans as a whole people had no centralized state. Rather, they formed a league of different city-states and surrounding territories, usually numbering about 12. Each city-state was headed by a high priest known as the Lucumo, who (along with his deputies) was responsible for carrying out the public ceremonies of the Etruscan religion. The Lucumo was regarded as a king, but perhaps just in a ceremonial sense during the later phases of Etruscan civilization. The style of his diadem, his scepter, his purple robe, his staff of office, and his ivory throne were adopted by the Roman magistrates, later by the emperors, and eventually by the Roman Catholic Pope and cardinals. The sacred offices of the lucumones were carried out after the overthrow of the Etruscan kings in Rome by a ceremonial “king,” the Rex Sacrorum. What’s fascinating here is that we see a very ancient priestly practice that carried on in an unbroken manner from deep prehistorical times, up until the modern age in the West. Perhaps the Tarot trump, “The Hierophant” best encapsulates the essence of this venerable Western tradition.
Reject lawyer-priest modernity; retvrn to priest-king tradition
4. Master Diviners: Each Lucumo was advised by a body of priestly scholars, known as haruspices. Today we mainly remember them for their skill in divination, but they were also known for being astronomers, mathematicians, and engineers. Even after Rome destroyed Etruscan political power, a college of haruspices was maintained in the city of Rome as a part of its administrative establishment. Bird augury, the examination of animal livers, and the interpretation of various other omens were the primary types of Etruscan divination practices. Multiple Roman authors and historians have pointed out that Rome’s divination practices were derived from the Etruscans. These Roman commentators also noted how divination was everything to the Etruscans; practically everything they did in ordinary life was accompanied by divination of one sort or another. The Romans were more secular-minded and generally regarded the Etruscans as being very superstitious. Having said that, I think from this we can conclude that the Etruscans were masters of divination like no other people in the region of that time.
5. Revealed Texts: Though thoroughly-polytheistic, like just about all other peoples of that time period, the Etruscans derived much of their religious instruction from a corpus of revealed texts. The books were manuals on divination, interpretation of omens, the allotment of time, the afterlife, and instructions on the proper performance of cultic rituals. One of the twelve cities, Tarquinii, became the holy city of the entire league. It was in that city where priests from all over the Etruscan realm went for training. Perhaps the “Sibylline Oracles” of Roman tradition are derived from this.
6. Magical City Layout: Nigel Pennick speculates that the way the Etruscans plotted out their cities and countryside districts seemed to have been magical in nature. Town plans were optimized for magical protection of settlements, and perhaps there was an astrological component to this sacred science. They used a foursquare plan, oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. From a central point or plaza, four roads ran out, each intersecting with the city wall to form four gates. Though often, the Northern quarter was omitted and thus it was a system of three roads and three gates instead. This plan seems to date to the Bronze Age, and is likely derived from the town layouts of the Terramare Culture of Northern Italy. The Romans acknowledged that their concern with land and law was derived from the Etruscans. Roman military camps were based on this Disciplina Etrusca, and some Roman towns and cities were built around the foursquare plan; a famous example being the Roman-British city of Colchester, founded by the Etruscophile emperor Claudius in 49 CE. I can only speculate that the magic of Etruscan town planning had a lot to do with the art and science of how to keep miasma and noxious entities out of their settlements. The Romans considered the home itself to be a sacred enclosure that should be safe from the chaotic energies of the outside world and the wilds beyond.
7. Fatalism: The Etruscans seemed to believe that everything that occurred was the will of the gods, in one way or another. They even plotted out precisely how long their own civilization would last, and these predictions ended up being not too far off the mark. Perhaps this is why the Etruscans went out without so much as a whimper, once it became readily apparent that Rome would gobble up all of Italy in due time. Though whether this fatalism also applied to personal spirituality is anyone’s best guess. In fact, we know very little about the inner spirituality of the Etruscans, as these things were either never written down, or if they were, any records of their beliefs on these topics would have been lost beneath the shifting sands of history.
8. Etruscan Religion: I won’t go into much detail here on the Etruscan pantheon, as that would go well beyond the scope of this brief summary. But if so inclined, read about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Etruscan_mythological_figures
Having said that, one thing I find quite interesting is that the Etruscans worshiped multiple pantheons side-by-side. They had one for their own archaic indigenous gods, then a group of celestial deities that seem to be of Indo-European origin, and then at some point they adopted a some of the Greek gods and heroes the during their orientalizing phase. Some of the indigenous gods made it into the Roman pantheon; for example, Selvans as Silvanus. Finally there was a fourth category of deities, the dii involuti ("veiled" or "hidden gods") which were a group of gods, or possibly a principle, superior to the ordinary pantheon of gods. In contrast to the ordinary Etruscan gods, these hidden gods were not the object of direct worship and were never depicted. Another very interesting thing is that there was some dispute among Romans on whom the chief Etruscan deity was. One view was that the (very Indo-European) sky god Tinia, (also god of boundaries and the law, much like the Greek Zeus) was the head god. Varro took a different view and considered Voltumna (aka Veltune) to be the chief god. It seems Veltune was some sort of cthonic counterpart to Tinia. The early Roman religion seems to have shared a similar dynamic, with Vediovis being an underworld version of Jupiter. I’m reminded too of Slavic paganism having a similar dynamic with Perun (sky) and Veles (underworld). Overall, it seems the Romans inherited the Etruscans eclectic tendencies regarding deities and mythology.
9. The Dead: From archaeology, perhaps the most notable thing about the Etruscan religion was their reverence for the dead. The earliest Etruscan remains are elaborate stone tombs dating from about 750 BCE. As the culture devolved they built vast Necropoli, which have been uncovered in modern times near the sites of what were the most significant Etruscan cities. Almost everything we know today about Etruscan art comes from these tombs. Just look up images of Etruscan art on your favorite search engine and you’ll see exactly what I’m referring to. Note however that the artistic style and technique tends to be very derivative of Greek (and to a lesser extent, Phoenician) styles.
10. What Remains? The aforementioned Etruscan-loving Roman emperor Claudius reportedly wrote a massive 12-book history of the Etruscans. Unfortunately, that work was lost in its entirety after the Western Roman Empire collapsed and hordes of Christian fanatics and barbarian invaders reduced must of classical antiquity’s high culture to dust. What I listed above are merely fragmentary hints as what must have been the immense splendor of Etruscan religious, spiritual, and magical traditions. It seems the Romans inherited many of their religious and divinatory practices from the Etruscans, but even this must have come to them in a piecemeal and fragmentary form. The Romans certainly did a lot of history-rewriting and memory-holing after they became the undisputed king of the Italian hill. Some things we’ll just never know. My very rough and speculative take is that magical knowledge as a whole has been on the steady decline since the Bronze Age, and the Etruscans were one example of a culture that did a fantastic job at holding onto as much of the old knowledge as they were capable of doing.
1. Spiritual Science: The Etruscans seems to have made no hard distinction between priestcraft, spirituality, science, and occultism. They apparently saw all of these areas of study as being of a divine/numinous nature. A spiritual view was incorporated into every facet of life. “Secularism” as we know it today would have been totally alien to the Etruscans.
2. Professional Priests: Unlike the Greeks and the Romans, the Etruscans had a full-time, professional priesthood. A Priest was known as a Maru, whether he was a Cultic Priest, Augur, or Sacral Magistrate (deputy to the Lucumo). Religious specialists underwent periods of intensive training at specialized colleges.
3. Sacral Kingship: The Etruscans as a whole people had no centralized state. Rather, they formed a league of different city-states and surrounding territories, usually numbering about 12. Each city-state was headed by a high priest known as the Lucumo, who (along with his deputies) was responsible for carrying out the public ceremonies of the Etruscan religion. The Lucumo was regarded as a king, but perhaps just in a ceremonial sense during the later phases of Etruscan civilization. The style of his diadem, his scepter, his purple robe, his staff of office, and his ivory throne were adopted by the Roman magistrates, later by the emperors, and eventually by the Roman Catholic Pope and cardinals. The sacred offices of the lucumones were carried out after the overthrow of the Etruscan kings in Rome by a ceremonial “king,” the Rex Sacrorum. What’s fascinating here is that we see a very ancient priestly practice that carried on in an unbroken manner from deep prehistorical times, up until the modern age in the West. Perhaps the Tarot trump, “The Hierophant” best encapsulates the essence of this venerable Western tradition.
Reject lawyer-priest modernity; retvrn to priest-king tradition
4. Master Diviners: Each Lucumo was advised by a body of priestly scholars, known as haruspices. Today we mainly remember them for their skill in divination, but they were also known for being astronomers, mathematicians, and engineers. Even after Rome destroyed Etruscan political power, a college of haruspices was maintained in the city of Rome as a part of its administrative establishment. Bird augury, the examination of animal livers, and the interpretation of various other omens were the primary types of Etruscan divination practices. Multiple Roman authors and historians have pointed out that Rome’s divination practices were derived from the Etruscans. These Roman commentators also noted how divination was everything to the Etruscans; practically everything they did in ordinary life was accompanied by divination of one sort or another. The Romans were more secular-minded and generally regarded the Etruscans as being very superstitious. Having said that, I think from this we can conclude that the Etruscans were masters of divination like no other people in the region of that time.
5. Revealed Texts: Though thoroughly-polytheistic, like just about all other peoples of that time period, the Etruscans derived much of their religious instruction from a corpus of revealed texts. The books were manuals on divination, interpretation of omens, the allotment of time, the afterlife, and instructions on the proper performance of cultic rituals. One of the twelve cities, Tarquinii, became the holy city of the entire league. It was in that city where priests from all over the Etruscan realm went for training. Perhaps the “Sibylline Oracles” of Roman tradition are derived from this.
6. Magical City Layout: Nigel Pennick speculates that the way the Etruscans plotted out their cities and countryside districts seemed to have been magical in nature. Town plans were optimized for magical protection of settlements, and perhaps there was an astrological component to this sacred science. They used a foursquare plan, oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. From a central point or plaza, four roads ran out, each intersecting with the city wall to form four gates. Though often, the Northern quarter was omitted and thus it was a system of three roads and three gates instead. This plan seems to date to the Bronze Age, and is likely derived from the town layouts of the Terramare Culture of Northern Italy. The Romans acknowledged that their concern with land and law was derived from the Etruscans. Roman military camps were based on this Disciplina Etrusca, and some Roman towns and cities were built around the foursquare plan; a famous example being the Roman-British city of Colchester, founded by the Etruscophile emperor Claudius in 49 CE. I can only speculate that the magic of Etruscan town planning had a lot to do with the art and science of how to keep miasma and noxious entities out of their settlements. The Romans considered the home itself to be a sacred enclosure that should be safe from the chaotic energies of the outside world and the wilds beyond.
7. Fatalism: The Etruscans seemed to believe that everything that occurred was the will of the gods, in one way or another. They even plotted out precisely how long their own civilization would last, and these predictions ended up being not too far off the mark. Perhaps this is why the Etruscans went out without so much as a whimper, once it became readily apparent that Rome would gobble up all of Italy in due time. Though whether this fatalism also applied to personal spirituality is anyone’s best guess. In fact, we know very little about the inner spirituality of the Etruscans, as these things were either never written down, or if they were, any records of their beliefs on these topics would have been lost beneath the shifting sands of history.
8. Etruscan Religion: I won’t go into much detail here on the Etruscan pantheon, as that would go well beyond the scope of this brief summary. But if so inclined, read about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Etruscan_mythological_figures
Having said that, one thing I find quite interesting is that the Etruscans worshiped multiple pantheons side-by-side. They had one for their own archaic indigenous gods, then a group of celestial deities that seem to be of Indo-European origin, and then at some point they adopted a some of the Greek gods and heroes the during their orientalizing phase. Some of the indigenous gods made it into the Roman pantheon; for example, Selvans as Silvanus. Finally there was a fourth category of deities, the dii involuti ("veiled" or "hidden gods") which were a group of gods, or possibly a principle, superior to the ordinary pantheon of gods. In contrast to the ordinary Etruscan gods, these hidden gods were not the object of direct worship and were never depicted. Another very interesting thing is that there was some dispute among Romans on whom the chief Etruscan deity was. One view was that the (very Indo-European) sky god Tinia, (also god of boundaries and the law, much like the Greek Zeus) was the head god. Varro took a different view and considered Voltumna (aka Veltune) to be the chief god. It seems Veltune was some sort of cthonic counterpart to Tinia. The early Roman religion seems to have shared a similar dynamic, with Vediovis being an underworld version of Jupiter. I’m reminded too of Slavic paganism having a similar dynamic with Perun (sky) and Veles (underworld). Overall, it seems the Romans inherited the Etruscans eclectic tendencies regarding deities and mythology.
9. The Dead: From archaeology, perhaps the most notable thing about the Etruscan religion was their reverence for the dead. The earliest Etruscan remains are elaborate stone tombs dating from about 750 BCE. As the culture devolved they built vast Necropoli, which have been uncovered in modern times near the sites of what were the most significant Etruscan cities. Almost everything we know today about Etruscan art comes from these tombs. Just look up images of Etruscan art on your favorite search engine and you’ll see exactly what I’m referring to. Note however that the artistic style and technique tends to be very derivative of Greek (and to a lesser extent, Phoenician) styles.
10. What Remains? The aforementioned Etruscan-loving Roman emperor Claudius reportedly wrote a massive 12-book history of the Etruscans. Unfortunately, that work was lost in its entirety after the Western Roman Empire collapsed and hordes of Christian fanatics and barbarian invaders reduced must of classical antiquity’s high culture to dust. What I listed above are merely fragmentary hints as what must have been the immense splendor of Etruscan religious, spiritual, and magical traditions. It seems the Romans inherited many of their religious and divinatory practices from the Etruscans, but even this must have come to them in a piecemeal and fragmentary form. The Romans certainly did a lot of history-rewriting and memory-holing after they became the undisputed king of the Italian hill. Some things we’ll just never know. My very rough and speculative take is that magical knowledge as a whole has been on the steady decline since the Bronze Age, and the Etruscans were one example of a culture that did a fantastic job at holding onto as much of the old knowledge as they were capable of doing.
