Sorcery in the Song of Solomon

J. Tyson, MA argues that The Song of Solomon is replete with references to ancient earth magick and sexual sorcery. The primary figure, the woman of the Song, is a foreign seductress, depicted as the antagonist, putting King Solomon in jeopardy. Solomon was renowned for having multiple foreign women in his court and for loosening the Israelite laws to allow them freedom to worship their own deities. With hindsight, Tyson suggests, the post-Babylonian Israelites, who were keen to have foreigners ‘put away’ after years of inter-marriage, wrote the Song to preserve the caveat of Solomon’s experience. The Song was thus written to warn future leaders not to allow the guile of foreign women to jeopardize Israel itself. By today’s standards, however, the woman of the Song becomes a fascinating case study of feminine sorcery in a context of Egyptian-Israelite monarchy.