 The god Ptah, for instance, was particularly important in his cult center of Memphis, but as the patron of craftsmen he received the nationwide veneration of many in that occupation.The word "magic" could be used to translate the Egyptian term "heka", which meant, as James P. Allen puts it, "the ability to make things happen by indirect means".Heka was believed to be a natural phenomenon, the force which was used to create the universe and which the gods employed to work their will.