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https://u3dn.com/packages/conifers-for-unity-142076

The Egyptian Book of the Dead: It’s Not What You Think It Is

One of my favorite things about the Egyptian Book of the Dead is the way it’s sometimes portrayed in fiction and modern media — like it’s a single, canonical book of black magic, filled with spells to wake the dead. If you play your cards right, you could become a powerful necromancer… but one wrong move and you’ll unleash a deadly curse!

From The Mummy, 1999

Take the above scene from the 1999 classic film, The Mummy, for example. There’s a heavy book with gilded, turnable pages. It’s locked, but if you hang around enough adventurers, you might just come across the mysterious key!

“It’s just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book.”

Well, that was the line spoken in the movie right before the characters opened The Book of the Dead and, consequently, resurrected a very angry Imhotep. How ironic.

Was it a terribly classic film or just classically terrible? You be the judge. Nonetheless, although I think you probably already know this: that’s not what the Book of the Dead is. In fact, it’s nothing like that at all.

Selene and I were at the Met Museum in New York a few days ago and I happened to walk by a funerary papyrus in the Egyptian wing. It reminded me of what the Book of the Dead really is. And hence, this article.

Funerary Texts

The Book of the Dead is a collection of funerary texts. The intention was to give the deceased person a set of spells, prayers, and hymns to use as they crossed over into the afterlife. Egypt was around for a long time, however, so this practice went through several different forms.

Old Kingdom (2675 – 2130 BCE): This time period is sometimes called the “Age of the Pyramids.” Funerary texts were carved directly into the walls of tombs. As such, these particular versions are known as the “Pyramid Texts.” Due to the ridiculous expense and effort it takes to carve giant scenes into stone, this was only done for royalty.

Pyramid Texts from Pyramid of Teti I in Saqqara. Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Middle Kingdom (1980 – 1630 BCE): This time period is considered a golden age for Egypt and was filled with expansion and trade. Funerary texts were written on the inside of rectangular coffins. Now we call them “Coffin Texts.” Since they’re slightly easier to produce when compared to the previous period, their use was expanded to also include higher-ranking government officials.

Dismantled Coffin of Khety ca. 1919–1800 B.C. with “Coffin Texts.” Public Domain, Courtesy of Wikipedia.

New Kingdom (1539 – 1075 BCE): This was probably Egypt’s most prosperous and powerful era, highlighted by imperial expansion and grand temples. At some point, they changed the shape of coffins. Instead of being rectangular, they were curved to follow the contours of a human body, which left less room to write things inside. To compensate, they started putting funerary texts on pieces of papyrus, which was easy to roll up and place inside next to the deceased. They could be used by anyone, even commoners, who could afford to buy one.

The Singer of Amun Nany’s Funerary Papyrus, ca. 1050 B.C.E. Public Domain, Courtesy of Met Museum.

Note: There are multiple schools of thought for exactly when each era started in Egypt. I’m pulling dates from the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis.

With each era, additional material and new illustrations were added to the standard litany of texts, but did you notice how there wasn’t a single period that said “funerary texts were written in a book”? That’s because they weren’t ever books.

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In fact, the entire term “Book of the Dead” is a bit of a misnomer. A more accurate translation of the title would have been “Spells of Coming Forth by Day,” but I guess people thought “Book of the Dead” sounded cooler, so it stuck.

During the New Kingdom, funerary texts were written on papyri in massive quantities — we know that thousands were produced. Many of the cheaper ones most likely followed a similar format and structure… but they were almost all unique!

If you had lots of money, however, you’d probably have a “special” one commissioned just for you that was slightly more personalized.

The Papyrus of Ani

When most people say “The Book of the Dead,” they’re referring the funerary texts from the New Kingdom. Actually, they’re referring to one specific version of those funerary texts, The Papyrus of Ani, which was created for a Theban scribe named Ani upon his death sometime around 1250 BCE. Of all the surviving copies of the Book of the Dead, this one is probably the best preserved and the most richly illustrated — it contains over 60 spells and vibrant colors in the depictions.

At some point in history, this papyrus was excavated from Ani’s tomb in Thebes. In 1888, E.A. Wallis Budge “discovered” it in Luxor. And by “discovered,” I mean he “purchased it” from “antiquities dealers” for the British Museum.

Here’s the thing: it wasn’t exactly a legal transaction. It was more like a black market heist.

Budge inspected several artifacts, including The Papyrus of Ani, to make the purchase, but before he could pick everything up, Egyptian authorities discovered that illegal activities were taking place. They sent several police officers to make arrests and sealed up the homes of the antiquities dealers, locking all of the merchandise inside. They also posted guards at the doors to prevent anyone from entering.

You know what they say right? When one door closes… another one opens…

Quite naturally, Budge had several local farmers tunnel under the house’s walls to retrieve all of his purchases. Meanwhile, he distracted the police with a nice meal.

You can read all about it in his autobiography, By Nile and Tigris, if you’re curious.

Today, The Papyrus of Ani is located in the British Museum in London. Kind of seems to me like it should have been returned to Egypt… but who am I to judge?

Weighing of the Heart. A famous scene from The Papyrus of Ani. Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

You can view the full papyrus here. Just follow the link, zoom in, and scroll.

The Egyptian Afterlife

In Ancient Egypt, the afterlife was really just a continuation of earthly existence. After you died, you got back up and went on a long journey that would take you west. West was associated with the afterlife because of the setting sun — so much so, in fact, that Egyptologist Bob Brier suggests that they basically called their dead “Westerners.” Egyptians lived on the east bank of the Nile River, so they figured the afterlife (the so-called “Field of Reeds”) was somewhere past the west bank.

It wasn’t really death like we might view death today. It was more of… waking up into a new world.

But like any adventurer, you’d need supplies. And that’s why they buried you with so much stuff! The Book of the Dead was just one of those supplies… hymns to praise deity, secret names of gods, passwords to allow entry through gates, and spells to command unruly spirits that might oppose you. If you were successful and passed all of the tests, you could live in an eternal land among the gods. If you failed, your soul would be destroyed. No pressure.

Just think about it. You wake up in a coffin. Everything seems strange and different. You’re confused for a moment, but then… oh, it’s just that you died. It’s time to start heading off into the sunset. Luckily, there’s a trusty little papyrus scroll tucked next to you with all the information you need to get started.

It would really suck to die without one of those, wouldn’t it?

The Hymn to Osiris

The Papyrus of Ani is a fairly long document but here’s an excerpt that contains a hymn to be sung in praise to Osiris.

A Hymn of Praise to Osiris Un-Nefer,
the great god who dwelleth in Abtu,
the king of eternity, the lord of everlastingness,
who traverseth millions of years in his existence.
Thou art the eldest son of the womb of Nut.
Thou wast begotten by Keb, the Erpat.
Thou art the lord of the Urrt Crown.
Thou art he whose White Crown is lofty.
Thou art the King of gods and men.
Thou hast gained possession of the sceptre of rule, and the whip,
and the rank and dignity of thy divine fathers.
Thy heart is expanded with joy,
O thou who art in the kingdom of the dead.
Thy son Horus is firmly placed on thy throne.
Thou hast ascended thy throne as the Lord of Tetu,
and as the Heq who dwelleth in Abydos.
Thou makest the Two Lands to flourish through Truth-speaking,
in the presence of him who is the Lord to the Uttermost Limit.
Thou drawest on that which hath not yet come into being
in thy name of ” Ta-her-sta-nef.”
Thou governest the Two Lands by Maat in thy name of “Seker.”
Thy power is wide-spread, thou art he of whom the fear is great
in thy name of “Usar”
Thy existence endureth for an infinite number of double henti periods
in thy name of”Un-Nefer.”
Homage to thee, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords,and Prince of Princes.
Thou hast ruled the Two Lands from the womb of the goddess Nut.
Thou hast governed the Lands of Akert.
Thy members are of silvergold, thy head is of lapis-lazuli,
and the crown of thy head is of turquoise.
Thou art An of millions of years.
Thy body is all pervading,
O Beautiful Face in Ta-tchesert.
Grant thou to me glory in heaven, and power upon earth,
and truth-speaking in the Divine Underworld,
and the power to sail down the river to Tetu in the form of a living Ba-soul,
and the power to sail up the river to Abydos in the form of a Benu bird,
and the power to pass in through and to pass out from,
without obstruction, the doors of the lords of the Tuat.
Let there be given unto me bread-cakes in the House of Refreshing,
and sepulchral offerings of cakes and ale,
and propitiatory offerings in Anu,
and a permanent homestead in Sekhet-Aaru,
with wheat and barley therein—to the Double of the Osiris, the scribe Ani.

Phew — it’s a good thing Ani didn’t have to memorize that. Lucky for him, it was all written down in his funerary papyrus, along with similar praises to several other deities.

He’s not asking for too much from Osiris, right? Basically just safe passage, some food, and a place to live in the afterlife.

If you’d like to read the full translation that Budge made of the entire Papyrus of Ani, you can do so here.

Conclusions

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, in all of its various forms, is an interesting thing to study. It obviously says a lot about how the Ancient Egyptians viewed life and death.

It was never a book, though. And there were thousands of different versions.

If you were prepping yourself for the afterlife, what would you need to bring with you? Maybe it isn’t a Hymn to Osiris or spells to command unruly spirits, but… is there something you’d need?

Don’t miss out. Here’s what’s coming up…

#ancientEgypt #bookOfTheDead #comingForthByDay #egypt #egyptian #funeraryTexts #history #mythology #papyrusOfAni #spells

Ma’at

She comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, & justice. Ma’at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, & regulated the stars, seasons, & the actions of mortals & the deities who had brought order from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological opposite is Isfet (Egyptian: jzft), meaning injustice, chaos, violence, or to do evil.

The earliest surviving records indicating that Ma’at is the norm for nature & society in this world & the next, were recorded during the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The earliest significant surviving examples being found in the Pyramid Texts of Unas (circa 2375 BCE-2345 BCE).

Most Egyptian goddesses were paired with a male counterpart. Her masculine equivalent was Thoth. This is because their traits are similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, the goddess of writing & measure, who’s a lesser-known deity.

After her role in creation & continuously preventing the universe from returning from & returning to chaos, her primary role in ancient Egyptian religion dealt with the Weighing of the Heart that took place in the Duat.

Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise other afterlife successfully. In other versions, Ma’at was the feather as the personifications of truth, justice, & harmony.

Pharaohs are often shown with the emblems of Ma’at to emphasize their roles in upholding the laws & righteousness. From the 18th Dynasty (circa 1550-1295 BC), Ma’at was shown as the daughter of Ra, suggesting that Pharaohs were believed to rule through her authority.

As the goddess of harmony, justice, & truth, Ma’at was shown as a young woman. She’s sometimes shown with wings on each arm or as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head.

The sun-god Ra came from the primaeval mound of creation only after he set his daughter Ma’at in place of isfet (chaos). Kings inherited the duty to ensure Ma’at remained in place. They with Ra are said to “live on Ma’at,” with Akhenaten in particular emphasizing the concept to a degree that the king’s contemporaries are seen as intolerance & fanaticism. Some kings combined Ma’at into their names, being referred to as Lords of Ma’at or Meri-Ma’at (Beloved of Ma’at). Ma’at had a central role in the ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart.

Ma’at represented the ethical & moral principle that all Egyptian citizens were expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were to act with honor & truth in matters that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, & the gods.

Ma’at was the spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic account of rules. She represented the normal & basic values that formed the setting for the application of justice that had to be carried out in the spirit & fairness.

From the 5th Dynasty (circa 2510-2370 BC) onward, the vizier (Jafar’s job in Disney’s Aladdin, the 1st one.) was responsible for justice and was called the Priest of Ma’at. In later periods, judges wore images of Ma’at.

The goddess Ma’at was the daughter of the Egyptian sun-god Ra. She was/is the wife of Thoth, who’s the god of wisdom who invented writing. She’s associated with the judgment of the dead & whether a person has done what’s right in their life. To do Ma’at was to act in a manner unreproachable or innocent.

So revered was the concept of Ma’at that Egyptian kings would often pay tribute to gods, offering small statues of Ma’at. This indicated that they were successfully upholding the universal order.

The earliest evidence for a dedicated temple is in the New Kingdom (circa 1569-1081 BC) era. Amenhotep III commissioned a temple in the Karnek complex. While textual evidence indicates that other temples of Ma’at were located in Memphis & at Deir el-Medina. The Ma’at temple at Karnak was also used by courts to meet regarding the robberies of the royal tombs during the rule of Ramesses IX.

In the Duat, the Egyptian underworld, the hearts of the dead were said to be weighed against Ma’at’s single “Feather of Ma’at.” This symbolically represented the concept of Ma’at in the Hall of 2 Truths.

This is why hearts were left in the Egyptian mummies while other organs were removed, as the heart (called “ib”) was seen as part of the Egyptian soul. If the heart was found to be lighter or equal to the feather of Ma’at, the deceased had led a virtuous life & would go to Aaru. A heart that’s unworthy was devoured by the goddess Ammit & its owner condemned to remain to the Duat.

The Weighing of the Heart, as usually shown on papyrus in the Book of the Dead (or in tomb scenes) shows Anubis overseeing the weighing & Ammit seated awaiting the results to eat those who failed. The image contains a balancing scale with an upright heart standing on 1 side & the Shu-feather standing on the other.

Other traditions God that Anubis brought the soul before the posthumous Osiris who performed weighing while the heart was weighed the deceased recited the 42 Negative Confessions as the Assessors of Ma’at looked on.

The Assessors of Ma’at are the 42 deities listed in the Papyrus of Nebseni, to whom the deceased make the Negative Confession in the Papyrus of Ani. They represent the 42 united nomes of Egypt. They’re called “the hidden Ma’ati gods, who feed upon Ma’at during the years of their lives.”

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https://www.storyangles.com/post/the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead

The Secrets of the Eastern Mysteries: The Tibetan Book of the Dead — Life, Death, and Beyond

A roadmap for one of life’s biggest mysteries: what happens after we die?

#bookofthedead #tibetan #EasternMysticism #life #death #speculative

Bruce Gourley: Legislating from the Egyptian Book of the Dead: How white Christian Nationalist leaders deceive their followers

#AmericansUnitedforSeparationofChurchandState #ChristianNationalism #10commandments #bible #bookofthedead
https://www.au.org/the-latest/church-and-state/articles/legislating-from-the-egyptian-book-of-the-dead-how-white-christian-nationalist-leaders-deceive-their-followers/