MUMMIFICATION

 

EGYPTIAN MUMMIES
The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. They believed that mummification would guarantee passage into the next life. Some people believed that the dead lived on in the tomb. While others thought of the dead as having gone to a blessed afterworld in some far-distant place. That being the case they provided for both worlds. In no other civilization have such elaborate preparations for the afterlife been made in the preservation of the dead.

In addition to his ba (body) and his ka (spirit guide) - an Egyptian had a soul, which flew away at death. Many cults believed that the soul was a human-headed bird with the face of the deceased. During life the soul had resided within the body - probably in the belly or in the heart--but after death it flew freely about the world, taking refuge in the tomb at night, when evil spirits might be about. But in order to find the right tomb, it was necessary that the soul be able to recognize the body from which it had come. Hence the body of the deceased was preserved in the best possible way. It was mummified.

The word 'mummy' is not of Egyptian origin, but is derived from the Arabic 'mumiyah,' which means 'body preserved by wax or bitumen'; This term was used because of an Arab misconception of the methods used by the Egyptians in preserving their dead.

The actual process of embalming as practiced in ancient Egypt was governed by definite religious ritual. A period of seventy days was required for the preparation of the mummy, and each step in the procedure was co-ordinated with relevant priestly ceremonies.

The embalmers' shop might be a fixed place, as in the case of those connected with the larger temples. Often, however, it was a movable tent - which could be set up near the home of the deceased.

Removal of those parts most subject to putrefaction was the initial step in preparing a corpse for mummification. The embalmers placed the body on a narrow, table-like stand and proceeded to their task. The brain was removed through the nostrils by means of various metal probes and hooks. Such a method necessarily reduced the brain to a fragmentary state, and, as no remains of it are associated with mummies, we may assume that it was discarded. An incision was then made in the left flank of the body to permit removal of the viscera, with the exception of the heart, which was left in the body.

The liver, the lungs, the stomach, and the intestines were each placed in a separate jar, the Canopic Jars , and consigned to the protection of a particular divinity.

 

Next came the preservation of the body itself. This was accomplished in a manner somewhat similar to that of drying fish. But instead of common salt, natron, a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, with sodium chloride (common salt) and sodium sulphate as impurities, was used. Natron occurs in Egypt in a few places. Water containing natron in solution comes to the surface and is evaporated, leaving the natron as surface deposits.

Small parcels of natron wrapped in linen were placed inside the body. The outside was covered with loose natron or packages of linen-wrapped natron. The dry atmosphere of Egypt accelerated the desiccation process. After the body moisture had been absorbed by the natron, the packs were removed and the corpse was given a sponge bath with water. The skin was anointed with coniferous resins, and the body cavity was packed with wads of linen soaked in the same material. The body was then ready to be bound into that compact bundle we know as a mummy.

 

Only linen was used in the wrapping. To give a more natural appearance, linen pads were placed in the hollows caused by the drying. The arms and legs, sometimes even the fingers and toes, were bandaged separately. Then some twenty or more layers of alternating shrouds and bandages were wrapped around the entire body. Between every few layers of linen a coating of resin was applied as a binding agent. The proper wrapping of a mummy required several hundred square yards of linen. The shrouds were sheets six to nine feet square, and the bandages--strips torn from other sheets were from two to eight inches wide and three to twenty feet long. The linen used in wrapping mummies was for the most part not made especially for shrouds but was old household linen saved for this purpose. Often the linen is marked with the name of the former owner, faded from repeated washings. Occasionally bandages bear short religious texts written in ink.

When the wrapping had been completed, the shop was cleaned, and all the embalming materials that had come in contact with the mummy were placed in jars for storage in the tomb. This was a fortunate practice, as Egyptian embalmers were none too careful, and any stray toe or ear which may have become detached or mislaid during the long embalming process was usually swept up with the spilled salt and scraps of linen and included in the storage jars.

But the making of a corpse into a mummy was not all that took place during the seventy days. The artisans who were engaged meanwhile in all the activities essential to proper burial might number in the hundreds. The construction and decoration of the tomb, if not already completed by the deceased during his lifetime, presented an enormous task. Woodworkers were constructing the coffin-or a series of coffins, each to fit within another - tailored to measure.

 
Artists were busy decorating the coffins. The fine painting on the coffins was rarely done directly on the wood, but rather on a smooth plaster coating of whiting and glue over linen glued to the wood. The beautiful colors on many cases are pigments from minerals found in Egypt, often covered with a clear varnish.

Countless other helpers were engaged in constructing and assembling the numerous articles to be deposited with the mummy when it was laid to rest in the tomb.

An extremely important task also undertaken during the seventy days of mummification was the preparation by priests or scribes of magical texts to be placed in the tomb. These texts, now known as the 'Book of the Dead' were written on papyrus rolls varying in length from a few sheets to many sheets, some rolls approaching a length of one hundred feet. Often they were exquisitely illustrated in color. The chapters forming the Book of the Dead contained information necessary to the deceased in overcoming obstacles on his journey and in gaining admittance to the afterworld.

 

An elaborate funeral procession of priests, relatives, friends, servants, and professional mourners accompanied the mummy to the tomb. Attended by priests, the mummy, in its magnificent coffin, was carried on a great sledge pulled by oxen. The mourners followed behind the sledge. In the procession, too, were porters bearing gifts to be placed in the tomb. These mortuary accouterments believed essential for a happy afterlife might be furniture, weapons, jewelry, food, linens - any or all of those things that had made for comfort and happiness in the earthly life.

The final ceremony at the tomb was the opening of the mouth. Through this ceremony the mummy was thought to regain ability to move, to talk, and to eat. In order to fulfill his destiny in the afterworld. It was necessary that the priests perform this last rite which would restore to him the functions of a living person.

The mummy was then carried into the tomb and sealed in the outer coffin or sarcophagus. The Book of the Dead was placed near him, mortuary gifts were piled about, and priests in the guise of gods made sure no evil spirits lurked in the tomb.

According to Egyptian belief, interment of the mummy did not automatically insure entrance into the afterworld. The deceased had first to appear before a group of forty-two spiritual assessors and convince them that he had led a righteous life on earth. Then in a final trial before Osiris, king of the nether world, the heart of the deceased was placed on the Great Scales and balanced against a feather, symbol of righteous truth. Anubis, the jackal-headed god who presided over embalming, did the weighing, while Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe of the gods, recorded the result on a tablet. If the heart of the deceased passed this test, he was admitted into heaven. If not, his soul was doomed to roam the earth forever.

The Pre-Dynastic Egyptian (before 3000 n.e.) was buried in the sand and was surrounded with pottery jars containing food. He was placed on his side in a contracted position, and was occasionally wrapped in reed matting or animal hide. Later, the dead were placed in crudely made baskets, boxes, or pottery coffins, which were buried in the sand or deposited in small natural caves at the base of the cliffs in the Nile Valley. By 3000 b.c. men of importance had small chambers cut for themselves in the rock, often with a shallow pit or niche to receive the coffin. From these beginnings evolved the typical Egyptian tomb consisting of two essential parts: the burial chamber and a room in which offerings to the dead were placed.

Most impressive of all Egyptian tombs are those of the Pyramid Age (2800-2250 B.C.). Those colossal tombs that are as famous as Egypt herself developed from a less elaborate form now called "mastaba" (from the Arabic word mastabah, meaning "bench," which describes the form of the superstructure of the tomb). The mastaba tombs are low, rectangular structures of brick and stone built on bedrock. The building houses an offering chamber, or a series of them, and a secret room containing a statue of the deceased.

A vertical shaft in the superstructure leads down into the bedrock to the tomb chamber some twenty to eighty feet below. The limestone walls in the offering chambers of the mastaba tombs are covered with sculptured scenes done in low relief. They were originally painted, and some of the color still remains. It is from these skilfully executed scenes depicting contemporary Egyptian life that we derive much of our knowledge of the period. The mastaba tombs are for the most part those of nobles, the pharaohs preferring the more monumental pyramids. The great pyramids at Giza, tombs of the Fourth Dynasty kings, are by far the most imposing of the pyramid tombs.

The Egyptians were mummifying their dead even in the days of the pyramids. Indeed, there are mummies that antedate the pyramids. These ancient mummies are wrapped in the contracted position characteristic of Pre-Dynastic burials, whereas the mummy of the Pyramid Age lies full length on its back, enclosed in a box-type coffin decorated to resemble a house.

In the early days of mummification only the kings were definitely conceded the opportunity to attain an exalted afterlife. Religious texts to aid the dead kings in gaining entrance into heaven were carved on the stone walls of the mortuary chambers of some of the pyramids. These are now known as the Pyramid Texts. It is on the walls of the pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty kings at Saqqara -smaller and less imposing pyramids than those at Giza - that these oldest collections of Egyptian religious texts are found. Although nobles of the Pyramid Age were also accorded sumptuous burial, no texts are found in their tombs.

By the time of the Middle Kingdom (2100-1780 b.c.), after the period of the mastabas and pyramids, tombs and their accessory chambers were usually hewn out of solid rock in the sides of the hills along the Nile. Occasionally, however, tombs were enclosed by or built under mortuary buildings erected on the plain.

These buildings served as chapels or offering chambers. The mummy of the Middle Kingdom was placed on its left side in a rectangular wooden coffin on which was painted religious texts. These Coffin Texts were excerpts from the older Pyramid Texts, with the addition of new thoughts and symbols. Some mummies had a cartonnage mask over the upper portion of the body. These cartonnage coverings--layers of linen or papyrus soaked in plaster - were shaped in human form and painted. Sometimes the entire mummy was enclosed in such a covering, a practice which quickly led to the making of coffins themselves in mummy form.

 

A person of rank or wealth (and these went hand in hand), would have a series of two or three coffins, each case fitting inside the other, with the inner one the most elaborate. Often the outer coffin would be carved from stone in mummy form, or would consist of a huge stone sarcophagus. It was late in this period, when liberalization of religious concepts extended the privilege of an afterlife to those in less fortunate circumstances than kings and nobles, that beards appeared on mummy cases. The beard, heretofore worn only by divinities and kings, indicated presumption on the part of the deceased that he would be accepted into their immortal presence.

During the time of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties the rock-cut tombs reached their zenith in the famous Tombs of the Kings in the valleys at Thebes. These tombs consist of corridors, chambers, and halls descending into the solid rock of the hillsides a distance of several hundred feet. The walls are covered with religious texts and scenes, and with inscriptions and pictures portraying every phase in the life of the deceased, all beautifully painted.

Mummification practices, too, varied with the passing centuries. The use of the Canopic Jars as repositories was discontinued during the Twenty-first Dynasty (1085-945 BC), and the viscera were henceforth wrapped in packages and replaced in the body or bound with it. Hollows in the desiccated body were cleverly filled out by placing pads of linen underneath the skin. From this period on, the art of making good mummies went into a gradual decline, even though mummification continued to be practiced for another fifteen hundred years. Less attention came to be paid to the condition of the body itself, and more to the external appearance of the wrappings.

In Roman times (after 30 BC) a garish type of coffin came into use. Showy cartonnage coverings were formed and painted in fanciful likeness of the deceased. At the same time, coffin-makers were building coffins of simple board boxes. On the cover there might be a life-sized plaster face modeled after that of the dead. Sometimes a painted portrait of the deceased was placed inside the coffin over the face of the mummy.

Quite naturally, wealth was always a dominant actor in the mummification and burial accorded an individual. Although actual Egyptian records of the cost of mummi~cation are lacking, Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian who traveled in Egypt, touches on burial costs in his writings. According to Diodorus, at the time he journeyed in Egypt (60-57 b.c.) there were three grades of burial. One was expensive, costing sixty-six pounds of silver (one talent), another cost a third as much (twenty minas), and the lowest grade of burial cost much less.

Tombs for the common people had no chambers. The coffins were placed in walled recesses in the side of a rock or in shallow holes gouged out of the rocky plain. Mummies of the poor were placed in common repositories, either with or without coffins. The bodies of those with no money at all were given a perfunctory ceremonial cleansing, were sometimes covered with a cloth, and were buried in the sand.

The Egyptians believed that a god incarnate assumed the form of an animal. Nearly every deity was associated in their minds with a certain bird or beast. So it is not surprising that we find near the sites of ancient cities large cemeteries devoted to the burial of animals. Usually only one kind of animal was buried in a given cemetery. Adjacent to each such cemetery was a temple devoted to the cult of the god identified with the specific kind of animal buried at that place.

The animals were mummified, but not always too carefully. Chief stress was laid on the bandaging, the object having been that the package should clearly indicate the kind of animal enclosed. Often these animal mummies were placed in theriomorphic coffins. There are mummies of jackals, cats, ibises, snakes, lizards, gazelles, hawks, bulls, sheep, baboons, crocodiles--in fact, almost every conceivable kind of animal known to Egypt.

At some places animal tombs such as those of the Apis bulls at Memphis are found. The tombs of the Apis bulls, which date from the Eighteenth Dynasty and later, consist of subterranean passages and vaults hewn in the rock an aggregate length of some twelve hundred feet. Many of the bulls were placed in huge stone sarcophagi.

The ambition of every Egyptian was to have a well mummified body and a perpetually cared-for tomb. The children of the deceased were charged with the maintenance of this home on earth and the observation of all attendant ceremonies. In the case of a favored government official a portion of the state revenue might be assigned as an endowment for the care of the tomb.

As the number of deceased ancestors and officials multiplied, however, and the consequent cost of tomb maintenance became excessive, the tendency was to neglect those of the remote past and to concentrate attention on those of the more recently deceased. Thus the living inhabitant of ancient Egypt, with all the faith he placed in the preservation of his own mummy, was constantly faced with the anomaly of neglected and despoiled tombs -for tomb robbers were at work even during the days of mummification.

We have Egyptian papyri recording the robbery of royal tombs and the capture and punishment of the despoilers. An archaeologist rarely finds a tomb that has not been plundered.

'Mummy dust' was sometimes stolen from the Sarcophagi and sold.

There are about 500 Egyptian mummies in the US. Most are in museums. Some are privately owned.

The Coffin Texts, which basically superseded the Pyramid Text as magical funerary spells at the end of the Old Kingdom are principally a Middle Kingdom phenomenon, though we may begin to find examples as early as the late Old Kingdom. In effect, they democratized the afterlife, eliminating the royal exclusivity of the Pyramid Text. 
If the dating of examples in the Dakhla Oasis at the Balat necropolis is correct (Old Kingdom), these would be the oldest known coffin texts, though we can be certain of the text found in the First Intermediate Period pyramid of Ibi (8th Dynasty) at South Saqqara. While examples of the text have been discovered from the Delta south to Aswan, our major sources of the text are found in the later necropolises, especially of regional governors (nomarchs), of the 12th Dynasty, particularly at Asyut, Beni Hasan, Deir el-Bersha, el-Lisht and Meir. The necropolis which probably yielded the largest number of coffin text spells was Deir el-Bersha, the necropolis of the ancient city of Hermopolis. By the end of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, the coffin texts were refined into the corpus of the Book of the Dead (Book of Coming Forth by Day), though we may continue to find the spells in burial chambers of the New Kingdom, Third Intermediate Period and early Late Period. Spells 151, 607 and 625 were particularly popular during these later times.

Mostly, as the modern name of this collection of spells implies, the text was found on Middle Kingdom coffins of officials and their subordinates. However, we may also find the spells inscribed on tomb walls, stelae, canopic chests, papyri and even mummy masks.

The earliest known research on the coffin text was done by C. R. Lepsius who in 1867, published the first copies from coffins that had been removed to Berlin. Afterwards, there were several publications made of the text from individual coffins, but between 1904 and 1906, Pierre Lacau published many of the Middle Kingdom coffins as part of the Cairo Museum's Catalogue generale. Based on this work, he set out  individual spells of the coffin text in a series of articles entitled, "Texts religieux" in a publication called Receuil de travaux between 1904 and 1915.

Early on, one part of the coffin text known as the Book of the Two Ways, received special attention. Found on the floor of the coffin of Sen, Hans Schack-Schackenburg published this text in 1903 and in 1926, Kees detailed it in a publication.

Using Lacau's work from the Textes religieux, James Henry Breated (1912) and Hermann Kees (1926) both made early evaluations of the coffin text, but the first (relatively) complete publication of the coffin texts was supplied by Adriaan de Buck in seven volumes that were produced between 1935 and 1961. This work was based on the earlier research done by James Henry Breasted and Alan H. Gardiner just after World War I. Though new spells have been added since then, most present day divisions of the spells relies on de Buck's work.

Adriaan de Buck's work was used by Louis Speleers, who translated de Buck's first two volumes into French in 1947, and between 1973 and 1978, Raymond O. Faulkner produced the first complete translation into English. He used de Buck's order of spells, while a later translation in French by Paul Barguet produced in 1986, divided them into thematic groups.

Today we face many of the same problems in dealing with the coffin text that de Buck faced, which mostly concerns their order. He had no established chronological order and the beginnings or ending of the text were not consistent from one source to the next. Furthermore, the text could be written on all six surfaces in the interior of the coffin, and their progression within any given coffin could vary.

Though many are unique to individual coffins, de Buck divided the coffin text into 1,185 spells, with some being assigned to larger compositions such as the Book of the Two Ways. These spells, which always refer to the deceased in the first person singular, attempt to imitate the language of the Old Kingdom, though they are actually produced in the classical language of Middle Egypt. They are inscribed using hieroglyphs, or occasionally early hieratic. Unlike the Pyramid text, they are almost always titled, though at times the title may come at the end of the text.

Usually written in vertical columns, the columns are sometimes split in order to save space. Red ink is utilized for emphasis and as divisions between the spells. However, some important spells are completely written using a red pigment.

For the first time in funerary literature, the coffin text use graphic depictions, though very infrequently. In both the Book of the Two Ways and in spell 464 known as the Field of Offerings, we find detailed plans. At other times (spells 81 and 100) there are textual descriptions of figures that were meant to strengthen the magical results of the text.

Yet the ancient Egyptians were cautious of graphic depictions. One holdover from the Pyramid Texts that we find at least in the early Coffin Text is the mutilation of most of the hieroglyphic signs representing animate objects. Sometimes the glyphs are actually carved as two separate pieces divided by a blank space. At other times, snakes, other animals and various other creatures are inscribed with knives in their backs. This was all intended to ensure that the intact figure would not be able to somehow threaten the deceased person interred nearby. 

Within the coffin text, the composition that today we refer to as the Book of the Two Ways is the most comprehensive. Usually placed on the inside bottom of coffins examined at Deir el-Bersha, various Egyptologists have divided it into four, or nine sections which can consist of a long version (spells 1,029 through 1,130) or a short version consisting of spells 1,131 through 1,185 but which also includes spells 513 and 577.

While the coffin text were available as a tool for the afterlife to all Egyptians, the spells were primarily employed by the local governors and their families of Middle Egypt. The content of the coffin text spells basically continued the tradition of the Pyramid Text, though the afterlife is better defined, and its dangers are portrayed more dramatically. They were intended to aid the deceased during his afterlife. The spells providing protection against supernatural beings and other dangers and helped assure the deceased admission into the cyclical course of the sun, and thus, eternal life. Other spells, such as number 472, were used to activate ushabti figures so that they could perform various labor related duties for the deceased during the afterlife.

However, we also find interesting new components not found within the older Pyramid Text. Now, we find spells (268-295), meant to allow the deceased king ascent to the sky in the form of a bird, but which may also be used to transform the deceased into anyone of a number of different deities. For example, spell 290 reads: "into every god into which one might desire to transform". However, with other spells the deceased could become fire, air, grain, a child or perhaps even a crocodile. This may explain why, during the Middle Kingdom, the scarab beetle, representing transformation, was one of the most popular amulets. Other newly created spells also allowed the deceased to be reunited with his loved ones and family during the afterlife.

Significantly, for the first time we also find within the coffin texts spells to deal with Apophis, a huge serpent who had to be combated as the enemy of the sun. Apophis would continue to play a major role in the refined funerary books of Egypt's New Kingdom.

In the coffin text, we now find that all of the deceased must be subjected to the "Judgement of the Dead", based on the actions during his or life, rather than on a person by person indictment.

Many of the coffin text spells play on the concepts of creation, so we find the deceased portrayed as a primeval god and creator and once series of spells references the creator god and his children, Shu and Tefnut, who were given the responsibility of creation. At other times the deceased takes on the form of Osiris, or that gods helper, while he may also be portrayed as his devoted son, Horus, who rushes to his fathers aid as in spell 312.

One reason that the composition within the coffin text known as the Book of the Two Ways, perhaps originally composed at Hermopolis, has received so much attention is that, for the first time, it describes a cosmography. It was perhaps originally titled, the "Guide to the Ways of Rosetau" and the ancient Egyptians believed the composition was discovered "under the flanks of Thoth". Rosetau is a term regularly translated by Egyptologists as the Underworld or Netherworld, which would be misleading in this case. Here, the journey is made through the sky. It takes the deceased on a journey to the Kingdom of Osiris on a route with the sun god, first from east to west along a waterway through the inner sky and then back again from west to east by land through the outer sky (the two ways). Between the two ways was a Lake of Flames, where the ambivalent fire could consume (the damned) but also serve the purpose of regeneration (to those blessed followers of the sun god, Re).

Above: Coffin Text and the Book of the Two Ways;
Below: A rendering of the Book of the Two Ways
 

Though not nearly as elaborate as later New Kingdom books of the netherworld, it was meant to depart to the deceased the necessary knowledge needed to navigate their way to the afterlife while avoiding the many dangers of their journey. While this guide was not as systematic as, for example, the later Book of Gates, it nevertheless provided warnings and a schematic plan making it the first real guide to the afterlife.

Unlike the later funerary books, the Book of the Two Ways does not begin with the sunset, but rather with the sunrise in the eastern sky. Hence, the journey takes place in the sky rather than the underworld. The deceased is faced with many obstacles, such as the threatening guardians at the very gates of the hereafter that must be dealt with before the entering. Other dangers include the "fiery court", which is the circle of fire about the sun. At other times, total darkness followed by walls of flame seem to continuously block the deceased path. In fact, within the very middle of this composition we find a region known a Rosetau, which is "at the boundary of the sky". According to spell 1,080, it is here that the corpse of Osiris resides and the region is locked in complete darkness, as well as surrounded by fire. If the deceased can reach this region and gaze upon Osiris, he cannot die. Consistently there are regions that the deceased wishes to reach, but must overcome dangers to do so. Another of these is the Field of Offerings (peace, or Hetep), a paradise of abundance, but again the path is full of obstacles. By the end of the book, the deceased encounters confusing paths that cross each other, many leading nowhere.

An important concept found within the Book of the Two Ways (spells 1,100 through 1,110)  is that of seven gates, each with three guardians. Though primitive, this is obviously an early text that would later evolve into the New Kingdom Books of the Netherworld such as the Amduat. At these boundaries, the deceased must display his knowledge to the guardians in order to establish their legitimacy to proceed in the afterlife.

 By the center of the last section of this text, we find three boats, all of which may perhaps be intended as the solar barque, from which the serpent Apophis must be repelled. In spell 1,130, the "Lord of All" gives us his final monologue from his barque:

WORDS SPOKEN BY HIM WHOSE NAMES ARE HIDDEN.
The Lord to the Limit speaks
before those who still the storm, at the sailing of the entourage:

'Proceed in peace!
I shall repeat to you four good deeds
that my own heart made for me
within the serpent's coils, for love of stilling evil.
I did four good deeds within the portals of the horizon:

I made the four winds that every man might breathe in his place.
This is one deed thereof.
I made the great inundation, that the wretched should have power over it like the great.
This is one deed thereof.
I made every man like his fellow;
I did not ordain them to do evil, (but) it was their own hearts which destroyed that which I pronounced. *
This is one deed thereof.
I made that their hearts should refrain from ignoring the west,
for love of making offerings to the gods of the nomes.
This is one deed thereof.
I created the gods from my sweat.
Man is from the tears of my eye.

I shine, and am seen every day
in this authority of the Lord to the Limit.
I made the night for the Weary-hearted. **
I will sail aright in my bark;
I am the lord of the waters, crossing heaven.
I do not suffer for any of my limbs.
Utterance together with Magic
are felling for me that evil being.
I shall see the horizon and dwell within it.
I shall judge the wretch from the powerful,
and do likewise against the evildoers.
Life is mine; I am its lord.
The sceptre shall not be taken from my hand.
I have placed millions of years
between me and that Weary-hearted one, the son of Geb;
then I shall dwell with him in one place.
Mounds will be towns.
Towns will be mounds.
Mansion will destroy mansion.'

I am the lord of fire who lives on truth,
the lord of eternity, maker of joy, against whom the otherworldly serpents have not rebelled.
I am the god in his shrine, the lord of slaughter, who calms the storm,
who drives off the serpents, the many-named who comes forth from his shrine,
the lord of winds who foretells the northwind,
many-named in the mouth of the ennead,
lord of the horizon, creator of light,
who illumines heaven with his own beauty.
I am he! Make way for me
so that I shall see Niu and Amen.
For I am a blessed spirit, equipped with otherworldly knowledge;
I shall pass by the fearful ones -
They cannot speak (the spell) which is on the end of the book-roll;
they cannot speak for fear of him whose name is concealed, who is eithin my body.
I know him; I am not ignorant of him.
I am equipped, excellent in opening portals.

As for any man who knows this spell,
he shall be like Re in the east of heaven,
like Osiris within the Netherworld;
he descends into the entourage of fire,
without there being a flame being against him, for all time and eternity!

Thus, he recounts all his beneficial deeds when he created the world, and for the first time, we also find him foretelling the end of this creation after "millions of years". Apparently, only he and Osiris will survive beyond this end of time.

Some Selected Spells:

A Spell for the Revival of Osiris (74)

Ah Helpless One!
Ah Helpless One Asleep!
Ah Helpless One in this place
which you know not-yet I know it!
Behold, I have found you [lying] on your side
the great Listless One.
'Ah, Sister!' says Iris to Nephthys,
'This is our brother,
Come, let us lift up his head,
Come, let us [rejoin] his bones,
Come, let us reassemble his limbs,
Come, let us put an end to all his woe,
that, as far as we can help, he will weary no more.
May the moisture begin to mount for this spirit!
May the canals be filled through you!
May the names of the rivers be created through you!
Osiris, live!
Osiris, let the great Listless One arise!
I am Isis.'
'I am Nephthys.
It shall be that Horus will avenge you,
It shall be that Thoth will protect you
-your two sons of the Great White Crown-
It shall be that you will act against him who acted-against you,
It shall be that Geb will sec,
It shall be that the Company will hear.
Then will your power be visible in the sky
And you will cause havoc among the [hostile] gods,
for Horus, your son, has seized the Great White Crown,
seizing it from him who acted against you.
Then will your father Atum call 'Come!' Osiris, live!
Osiris, let the great Listless One arise!'

Osiris, the Prototype of every Soul Who Hopes to Conquer Death (197)

Now are you a king's son, a prince,
as long as your soul exists, so long will your heart be with you.
Anubis is mindful of you in Busiris,
your soul rejoices in Abydos where your body is happy on the High Hill
Your embalmer rejoices in every place.
Ah, truly, you are the chosen one!
you are made whole in this your dignity which is before me,
Anubis' heart is happy over the work of his hands
and the heart of the Lord of the Divine Hall is thrilled
when he beholds this good god,
Master of those that have been and Ruler over those that are to come.

Mans Soul Identified with Both Osiris and With Nature (330)

Whether I live or die I am Osiris,
I enter in and reappear through you,
I decay in you, I grow in you,
I fall down in you, I fall upon my side.
The gods are living in me for I live and grow in the corn 
that sustains the Honoured Ones.
I cover the earth,
whether I live or die I am Barley.
I am not destroyed.
I have entered the Order,
I rely upon the Order,
I become Master of the Order,
I emerge in the Order,
I make my form distinct,
I am the Lord -of the Chennet (Granary of Memphis?) 
I have entered into the Order,
I have reached its limits. . . .
 
 

The Judgement of the Dead
Among the obstacles that could stand in the way of reunion of ba and ka, and resurrection, the most important was the Judgement of the Dead.   We know of the Judgement mostly from one of the latest and most popular collections of spells known as the Book of the Dead, which became the standard for funerary literature from the 18th Dynasty until the end of ancient Egyptian civilization. Especially from spell 125 of the Book of the Dead, we learn about the final judgement.

 
A scene from the the Book of the Dead depicts the Judgement of the Dead. Anubis watches the scales; on the right, Thoth records the results; Amemet, next to Anubis, waits to eat sinful hearts. In the scales are shown the deceased's heart on left, and the feather of Maat on the right. 
 
 
The deceased's ba, we are told, is summoned in to the "Hall of Two Truths" (or of the two Maat goddesses), where the judgement is to take place. There the deceased was usually joined by Anubis, the god of embalming,who ushered him or her into the hall where he would first greet Re and his nine gods,
 
 

or Osiris and his forty-two messengers, reciting to them "I know you, I know your names." From there the heart of the deceased was placed on one side of a balance. The heart was special to the ancient Egyptians: it was considered the center of a person's personality, and it provided a link between one's life in this world and the next - it would assure memory of ones earthly identity in the afterlife. So important was it that the Egyptians took special care that the heart be left in the body of the deceased, along with a spell from the Book of the Dead to give the heart back to the dead in the afterlife. (This unlike the brain, which was extracted and discarded.) On the other side of the balance was placed a feather, symbol of Maat, goddess of truth, justice and order.

The deceased then would begin immediately reciting a formula called the Negative Confession, part of which is shown below:
 

 

I have not done falsehood against men.
I have not impoverished my associates.
I have done no wrong in the Place of Truth.
I have not learnt that which is not.
I have done no evil.
I have not made people labor daily in excess of what was due to be done for me ...

   The statements in the confession corresponded with the desire to separate one from his sins, the ultimate goal of the judgement. What's more, the statements reflect that the confessor is not being made to answer to moral laws of the gods,
 
 

but to attest to his previous social character among the living. As the confession was recited, the scales of the balance would either stay in equilibrium, indicating that his heart was not heavy and he thus told the truth, or would tip, indicating that his heart was made heavy with falsehood.Anubis would be present to verify the results and bring the scales in balance, and also to reassure the confessor, since Anubis, who presided over mummification, was presumed to have much knowledge about he dead. Thoth, the god of the written word, would record the results.

 

Additionally, the deceased who was prepared for the judgement would have also spoken to his heart from spell 30b of the Book of the Dead:
  

O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart of my different ages!
Do not stand up as a witness against me.
do not be opposed to me in the tribunal,
do not be hostile to me in the presence of
the keeper of the Balance ...

 

 

Assuming all went well, as it usually did if one made it to the Hall of Two Truths, a general verdict would be given in which the truthfulness of the judged is validated, and he is allowed to receive offerings and take bread with Osiris, confirming his transfer to the order of the afterlife, and is given a parcel of land on which to live eternally.
The principle value in achieving this eternal extension of one's life in the next world is the promise it holds in fulfilling one's life begun on earth. Those who were debilitated in life by crippling diseases, or who suffered from poverty, or those women who were unable to bear children, would be given an opportunity to fulfill their desires in a new place where those obstacles were now removed. The dream of an ideal life held on earth could now be realized.
 
 
  Those used to philosophies centered on a single God, focused on the uniqueness of the individual, and formed by the view that earthly existence precedes an eternal paradise become easily confused by the various divinities and their role along the treacherous path of the Egyptian afterlife. It is impossible to encapsulate the full scope of the divine, since not only was it extremely crowded, but it also changed over the centuries. Gods and goddesses performed different tasks at different times, but all were deeply concerned with the dead.

Every Egyptian held deep concerns for the Beyond. Although gods and goddesses demanded mollification and obeisance while one was alive, when you died the gods became beneficent protectors - provided the dead passed the netherworld's many hurdles. Representation of the deities was often a fascinating blend of man and animal. Those animals that might seem comical, like the hippo or the baboon, often assumed a more menacing air - or assumed a certain nobility - when attached to the body of a man or woman.

Death was not seen as the last stage of life, simply as a state in which one was at rest awaiting revivification. We know little of the peasantry; their lives, and thus their deaths, are not easily reconstructed. For those fortunate to live comfortably, however, funerary objects, mummification, and entombment tell us how dangerous the next life could be. Ample evidence exists of how terrifying the afterlife was: inscriptions from the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Two Ways, the Amduat (a section of the Book of the Netherworld) found their way onto objects accompanying the corpse. These inscriptions were spells to be ward off and protect the dead as they progressed from netherworld to the Hall of Judgment. The dead chose to travel on the solar barque, a low-slung boat from which Re, the sun god, recreated the world every day, as a way to achieve eternal life.

A priest had to perform the, "Opening of the Mouth," ceremony over the mummified body, whereby all the incantations restored all the senses to the body. Speech especially was needed, since the Egyptians had to justify their time on earth upon arrival at the Hall of Judgment. The other senses were needed immediately because the first trip after death was to the Field of Reeds, the land of wish-fulfillment. Having to pass through seven gates, aided by the magic spells inscribed upon the funerary objects, the dead arrived in the presence of Osiris, god of the netherworld, to face judgment. The ceremony was called, "weighing the heart," and explains why the heart remained intact while the priests removed the other vital organs and placed them in canopic jars.

Justifying himself was not easy. Face to face with forty-two gods, the heart of the dead was weighed in the presence of the jackal-headed Anubis, god of the dead, against a feather, representing Maat, goddess of truth. Balancing the scale meant immortality. Should the heart not balance perfectly, Amemet devoured it, and Seth, murderer of Osiris, ate the rest of the body. It is little wonder then that spells, tokens, ushebtis, shabtis, amulets, and charms held such sway over the Egyptians.
 
 The Egyptian Afterlife

The Soul’s Journey to Egypt's Paradise

By Donald A. Mackenzie

In the inner chamber of the Tutankhamen tomb the figure of an Egyptian jackal has for thirty long centuries been keeping watch over the mummy.

Here we touch on one of the world's most ancient beliefs regarding the destiny of the soul.

THE SOUL'S FIRST FLIGHT
The preparation of the mummy with its magic armour of charms and amulets was an inportant process, and placed under the protection of the god Anubis, who is here shown in the act of laying the corpse on the funerary couch. The humna-headed bird is the soul of the deceased, holding the breath-giving sail and sceptre of power. After a drawing in Rosellini's "Monumenti Civili".

It was believed in Egypt that in death, as in life, man was in constant need of his faithful companion, the dog. The dog, his immemorial sentinel and scout, would defend him against human and bestial enemies and act as his guide and tracker when he wandered afar in search of food and shelter.

The belief enshrined in the lines of Pope :

He thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company�?

was shared by "..the poor Indian.." and the highly-cultured Egyptian aristocrats and Pharaohs.

The prowling egyptian jackal was regarded by the early peoples as the hunting scout of the lion. It is closely allied to the dog, and the dog was the first animal domesticated and deified by man.

Herodotus tells us that when a pet dog died the Egyptians went into mourning and shaved their heads and the whole of their bodies, and that there were sacred burial places for dogs.

It was, no doubt, because the wild jackal was seen by night prowling in the cemeteries that the Egyptians regarded it as " the dog of the dead," and deified it as Anubis.

Many ancient and modern peoples have clung to the belief that a dog howling in the darkness proclaims the sudden and stealthy approach of the god or goddess of death. Thus, the Greek poet Theocritus makes Simaetha exclaim : " Hark ! the dogs are barking through, the town. Hecate (portress of Hades) is at the crossways. Make haste and clash the brazen cymbals."

Many folk-stories and old myths tell of the terrible watch-dogs of Hades, of dog-scouts accompanying souls, and of attacks made by dogs on supernatural beings who threaten the lives of their owners.

Anubis, the Egyptian wild dog, was a veritable scout of souls. As Ap-uat he was "Opener of the Ways," guiding the dead along the dark and desolate paths that led to the mysterious Underworld of the Egyptian Paradise.

 

MAGIC WHEREBY THE PRIESTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT AWOKE THE MUMMIFIED DEAD
After the preparation of the mummy, there were other acts to be performed for the dead man. One was known as the creemony of the Opening of the Mouth,and belonged to a series designed to re-animate the mummy and make it a fit habitation of the "ka" or double, which lived in the tomb. The double was born with a a man, but at his death took on a separate exitence and was ree to roam the world at will, returning to the tomb. However, to feed on the funerary offerings; the part of the man which voyaged to Paradise was his "Ba", or soul, symbolised as a human-headed hawk. This vigneete from the "Book of the Dead" of Hunefer shows the mummy before which the wife and daughter of Hunefer are weeping, while the high priest and his assistants perform the mystic rites; the god Anubis is also introduced, exbracing the mummy, to indicate that his protection is assured for the dead.
From the Papyrus of Hunefer, British Museum.

By Tutankhamen's time, however, Anubis had become a highly complex deity and had assumed a double character.

In the tomb he was a sentinel crouched standing beside the mummy. " I have come to protect Osiris (the dead Pharaoh)," declares Anubis, in the "Book of the Dead.�?

He was also supposed to assist in the process of mummification.

In his other form he conducted the soul to the Egyptian Celestial Paradise.
 

The Soul’s Journey to Egypt's Paradise

Plutarch, commenting on these conceptions, and on the resemblance which the Egyptians "..imagined between Anubis and the dog," said it was because it had been observed that the jackal "...is equally watchful by day as by night" that Anubis was regarded like the Greek Hecate as "a deity common both to the celestial and infernal regions."

Apuleius tells, in the romance of "The Golden Ass," that when the worship of Osiris and Isis had been established in Rome, the dog-god was represented in the Procession of Isis, rearing his head and neck. And he refers to the dog-god as " that messenger between heaven and hell, displaying alternately a face black as night and golden as day."

THE SOUL COME FORTH FROM THE EGYPTIAN TOMB
The ceremonies over and the mourners departed, the soul is now free to go forth on its perilous journey to paradise. This illustration from the Papyrus of the Scribe Ani shows the dead man standing at the door of the tomb, accompanied by his shadow, or "khabit." The human-headed hawk, as usual, symbolises the soul. Papyrus held by British Museum.

But the dual character of Anubis was due mainly to the fusion of two ancient Egyptian cults: that of Osiris (which originally believed in a Paradise in the West); and that of the sun-worshippers (Ra) who believed in a Celestial Paradise in the East (“to the east of the sky," as the old Pyramid texts emphasise).

The early conflict between the two cults is echoed in the egyptian mortuary texts dating back to 2700 B.C.

"Go not on those currents of the west," Egypt's Pharaoh is warned. "Those who go thither, they return not again." In another passage, translated by Breasted, the dead pharaoh, however, is advised to go to the West in preference to the East. A third passage effects a compromise by stating that "King Unis rests from life (dies) in the West…King Unis dawns anew in the East."

THE JOURNEY BEGUN TO EGYPT'S PARADISE
The soul ascends the western mountain which divided Egypt from the fabled land of Amenti. After a drawing in Navile's "Das Aegyptische Todtenbuch".

Osiris, …was identified with the god of the Western cult called "First of the Westerners." And it would appear that the story of his dismemberment was a dim memory of an ancient burial custom which had for its aim the release of the soul, so that it might go Westward, led by the wild dog-scout of the night.

 

MAGIC TAUGHT BY THE EGYPTAIN BOOK OF THE DEAD
According to the Eastern cult the soul entered the boat of the sun-god Ra, passing at night into the Mount of the West and partaking of fresh life with him each morning in the east. After a photograph in the Minutoli Catalogue.
 

 

To the later Egyptians the dismemberment custom was abhorrent, and in the "Book of the Dead" the mummy is made to exclaim : " My head shall not be taken from my neck, my tongue will not be torn out…my body is firm and shall not be destroyed."

The gruesome custom referred to is found to have been practised by the early North African invaders of Europe who, in the Azilian (Mesolithic) period, buried the heads of their dead in the cave of Ofnet in Bavaria, and turned their faces towards the west,. It is thought they believed in the existence of a Western Paradise, the way to which had been " opened " by the first man (remembered in Egypt as Osiris) with the aid of his faithful dog.

PERILS OF THE EGYPTIAN WESTER DESERT
The souls that sought Amenti in the West did well to avoid these ominous apes, who fished with nets for the souls of men. The well-instructed soul preserved its human form. After a facsimile by Deveria.

The early Egyptian texts do not give details of the adventures experienced by the souls who set out on the perilous journey to Egypt's Paradise in the West. Apparently they had to cross bleak deserts, climb high mountains, ford streams, and engage in combat with fearsome monsters�?gigantic complex animals and reptiles, fire-spitting serpents, dark shapes with clutching claws, and so on.

These the dead man was enabled to overcome, or escape from, because his dog-scout came to his aid and constantly led him along the safe path to the land of bliss. A lake�? Lily Lake "—had to be crossed, and its ferryman was the cross and callous " Face Backwards," who had to be propitiated.

The texts of the egyptian solar cult provide more intimate details of the soul's last journey. They provide also a variety of conceptions regarding life after death. One beautiful old belief was that when the Pharaoh died, he became once more a helpless babe and had to be suckled by the mother-goddess.

Professor Breasted has translated some characteristic Pyramid texts in this connection.

"This King Pepi knows his mother," one text declares, and the goddess is appealed to in these words so that she may suckle him: “O mother of this King Pepi…give thy breast to this King Pepi, suckle this King Pepi therewith.�?BR>A text then puts into the mouth of the goddess the comforting assurance :

“O my son Pepi, my King, my breast is extended to thee, that thou mayest suck it, my King, and live, my King, as long as thou art little.�?BR> 
 

But the idea of rebirth in infant form had already become archaic in the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Age of the early dynasties. No doubt the custom of mummification, which was then being gradually adopted, had something to do with the abandonment of the idea of the infant soul.

The Pharaoh's body was being preserved so that he himself might have real existence as an adult in the Egyptian Otherworld of the Celestial regions, and in various texts we can trace a variety of beliefs regarding the manner in which he was supposed to reach the sky. Some early and late texts told of a ladder similar to that which Jacob saw in his dream�?a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it " (Genesis xxviii. 12).

An Egyptian Pyramid text tells of the gods "fixing together the ladder for King Pepi," and another calls on King Unis to climb the ladder so as to reach the sky. The ladder ultimately became a stairway, and was taken over by the Osiris cult after the Egyptian Paradise of that god had been raised to the regions beyond the sky. Sometimes the ladder is referred to as one of wood, and sometimes as one of rope.

Other beliefs were that the Pharaoh was raised to heaven by the wind, or that he climbed a column of smoke and then used a cloud as his vehicle. "He has been taken away by the clouds of the sky," one text proclaims, while another says of Egypt's Pharaoh: "He goes up on the smoke from the mighty burning of the incense."

In many ancient Egyptian pictures the soul, "Ba," is depicted as a human-headed bird. The idea of the soul reaching the sky in bird form is found to be as old as the Pyramid Age, when the gods, as stars, were supposed to flutter by night into the darkened sky.

"Thou takest flight to the sky as a falcon," a text suggests to Egypt's Pharaoh; "thou hast perched on a cloud like a bird on the top of a mast," is another example of imagery characteristic of the Egyptian texts.

SUSTAINED BY THE EGYPTIAN TREE OF LIFE
The deseased and his wife are shown receiving from the goddess Nut, in her sacred sycamore tree, the bread and water wherewith weary travellers might be refreshed. She must be distinguished from Nut the sky-goddess, and is often identified with Hathor, the Lady of the West. After a coloured plate in Rosolini's "Monumenti Civili".

Apparently, however, the soul-transformation belief did not entirely satisfy the Egyptian priests, who still clung to the memory of the nursing deities. In some very old mortuary texts the Pharaoh is represented as being lifted from the earth by the mother-goddess, whose body was supposed to curve over the world, forming the sky, her legs and arms being the supports of the four quarters.

In ancient pictures the arms of the mother-goddess are shown stretching towards the earth from the curving sky, and an Egyptian Pyramid text, inscribed for the benefit of one of the old Pharaohs, renders articulate this piece of symbolism in the words.

"Nut (goddess of heaven) has reached forth her arms to thee, she with the streaming hair (sun rays) and hanging breasts." In other texts that have been preserved the gods and the priests (literally "servants") are called upon to raise up the body of the re-animated Egyptian monarch.

After reaching the sky, which was supposed to be of iron, the Pharaoh had to have its door or gates opened for him. Magical texts were provided to help him.

The insistence in the Pyramid texts that the dead should go eastward suggests, however, the existence of the belief that admission to the Egyptian Celestial regions was possible only at dawn. The foundry (mesnet), in which the new sun was forged, was situated in the eastern horizon." When the doors of the foundry are opened, "a text declares, "the disk (in other words, the sun) riseth up."

On entering the foundry doors the dead man was accompanied by Horus, in his form of a " green falcon," called "Morning Star," another indication of the belief that the Celestial regions " to the east of the sky " could be reached at dawn only. The wonderland of the realm of Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, was then revealed to the wandering soul.

MAGIC TAUGHT BY THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
By intercession and the right formulae souls could obtain the aide of the goddess Hathor on the last stage of their journey. Appearing as a cow, she carried the tired soul on her back at a swift gallop through the haunted desert lands. After a coloured facsimile in Leemans' "Monuments Egyptiens"