Ancient Egyptians believed strongly in an afterlife however accessing that beautiful place was fraught with peril. The Book of The Dead is a guidebook and a book of spells that was important to ancient Egyptians because it helped them to access the afterlife.
Commonly called the Book of the Dead it is referred to by scholars as “The Chapters/Book of Going Forth By Day”.
These books were written on papyrus and often mass-produced. They represented both the democratization of Egyptian life and the growing economy. The oldest ones date back to 1700 BCE in the city of Thebes.
Book of Magic
The Book of the Dead is often referred to as the Book of Magic. The spells within it help the person to defeat evil beings and thus make it to the afterlife.
To ancient Egyptians, death was a crisis to be overcome. After dying they woke up in the underworld where all sorts of evil beings traumatized them.
Ancient Egyptians held a strong connection between ritual speech and magical power. Incantations and intentions were powerful just as they are today. The Book of the Dead contained these spells and incantations that were needed to reach everlasting life in the Field of Reeds.
192 different spells have been identified although not all appear in each person’s book. They had different purposes:
Plea to a particular god
Reuniting and preserving body parts
Allowing the deceased to control what was happening around them
Protecting them from hostile spirits
Guiding them through the maze of the underworld
Weighing of the heart or judgment
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Sacerdotal texts and Personal texts
There are two types of spells or rituals found.
Sacerdotal texts were more ritual in nature and were performed by a priest. They were more instructional and included an offering. Priests were often paid to recite these during the funeral.
Personal texts were meant to help guide the soul out of the tomb and into the underworld before reaching the Field of Reeds.
While the primary objective was a guide for the deceased, the spells were not limiting. Many of the spells could be done by living people to enhance their spirituality while on earth. Transformation was a frequent theme among the spells.
Amulets
Amulets were powerful magical items used in daily life. They were also made to place among the mummy wrappings to protect the soul on their journey. Amulets were infused with power and had spells written on them.
Egyptian View of Life After Death
One of the reasons that Ancient Egypt stands out to us today was their belief in an afterlife and the religious rituals to prepare the body. They believed in three basic principles: belief in an underworld, eternal life, and rebirth of the soul.
A journey to and through the underworld was required. The deceased met numerous obstacles and terrifying beasts that they must navigate around.
Sekhet-Aaru, the "Field of Reeds" was the Egyptian heaven for lack of a better term. An island paradise where you would be reunited with family and pets. This was a land of abundance although interestingly Egyptian paradise still required manual labor. Therefore, it was filled with livestock and equipment.
Immortality was not guaranteed, however, and the process of mummification was a very important step. The mummy was the physical vehicle for the soul. A person’s body, name, and shadow went with them into eternity.
Read my article on mummification to learn more about that process.
Isis, Osiris, and Horus. From The Tomb of the Kings in Thebes.
Isis and Osiris
Their religion taught that people continued to live in the afterlife through the teachings of Isis and Osiris. This brother/sister and husband/wife pair of deities are credited with bringing agriculture to Egypt and are the Gods of the Afterlife.
In their mythology, Osiris is tricked by his evil brother Set who kills him and sinks his body in a wooden chest to the bottom of the Nile. He is recovered and returned to life via Isis’s magic.
Once again Set finds him, chops him into fourteen pieces, and throws the pieces throughout the land. Isis once again uses her magic to find his parts and rejoin them.
All except his penis which had been eaten by fish in the Nile where it was tossed. She made him an artificial penis and when he came back to life got her pregnant before becoming the God of the Afterlife (1).
This mythos is the foundation for the belief in resurrection among the Egyptian people. Just as Osiris was resurrected so shall all Egyptians. However, having an intact body was critical to the ability to gain life after death. They expanded on that theory to include grave goods or all the necessary items needed for the journey (2).
Osiris became the God of the Underworld known as Duat. Osiris would determine the virtue of the person and whether they would achieve eternal life.
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4 Main Sections
Egyptologists divide The Book of Going Forth By Day into four main sections
The deceased person enters the underworld where they regain their physical abilities
They are resurrected and join Re to rise as the sun each day
They travel across the sky to judgment and weighing of the heart
The deceased join the gods.
Mass Produced
Probably the first ever mass-produced book, the book of the dead was customized for the individual. In some cases, this meant merely writing in the person’s name in fill-in-the-blank sections.
For others, with more means, it meant individualizing what spells and prayers were most suited to them successfully gaining entry to the afterlife.
The texts were written by scribes who charged for their services. Depending on the complexity of the text they could be quite pricey. In some cases 50% of one’s annual wages. So most were held by high-ranking persons with more white-collar jobs.
Men were the primary “owners” of the text but their wife was also included by name. Many people who purchased one were illiterate. The texts were well illustrated to help the person understand them.
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Scroll of Ani
The scroll of Ani is a beautiful historic document that contains 65 prayers and 150 illustrations.
Ani was a high-ranking scribe who lived in Thebes (now called Luxor) around 1250 BCE. Today we might refer to him as an accountant who was in charge of the inventory of religious offerings.
His scroll was discovered by British Egyptologist Wallis Budge in 1888 and it’s a bit of a scandalous tale. Budge is either a manipulative thief or a savior of history depending on your view.
Many of the Books of the Dead had male owners. However, this one was written for Nauny, a Chantress of the god Amun-Re. Nauny was a 70-year-old woman who lived in Thebes. This portion of the scroll shows her at the Weighing of the Heart ritual. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Open Access Photo)
History of Funerary Texts
The Book of the Dead is referred to as a funerary text by archaeologists and is considered to evolve from the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts.
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest known Egyptian religious writings and date back to 2400 BCE. They were originally only written in tombs of kings and queens but became more common over time for high-ranking officials.
The Pyramid texts were actually carved into the walls of the pyramids. Their purpose was to help the Pharoah to his or her place among the gods.
The Coffin Texts were an expansion of the pyramid texts and date back to 2100 BCE. They were available to a wider range of people and written all over the coffin.
References:
1. Bob Briar & Hoyt Hobbs. (2013) Ancient Egypt: Everyday Life In The Land Of The Nile. Sterling Publishing.
2. Kellie Warren. Book of the Dead: A Guidebook to the Afterlife. American Research Center in Egypt. https://www.arce.org/resource/book-dead-guidebook-afterlife
Author, Ame Vanorio, is the founder of CPH and loves following and honoring Egyptian deities.
Ancient Egyptians believed strongly in an afterlife however accessing that beautiful place was fraught with peril. The Book of The Dead is a guidebook and a book of spells that was important to ancient Egyptians because it helped them to access the afterlife.