On+the+Book+of+the+Dead



 The Book of the dead is an ancient funerary text used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC. It is a guide to the next world that assists the dead in his journey through the underworld and into the afterlife and it may well be the world’s first religious document. It represents the man’s desire to find eternal life after death, as well as his first vision of judgment day.

 The book of the dead is not a standard text; however it is a repertoire that consists of about 200 magic spells to choose from to put on papyrus and into the person’s tomb. This comes after the process of mummification in which the body is cleansed and reshaped for the soul to dwell in. The Egyptians thought they would be challenged by the gods to be allowed to pass onto eternity. This explains the presence of the series of the gates, each one guarded by a different God that’s animal headed. The text is very encoded and needs a special key to be able to decipher it. The secret of reading it was lost and it is not until 1799, when Rosetta Stone was found, that we were able to read that text.

The text is divided in four main sections: Chapter 1-16: Chapter 17-63: Chapter 64-129: Chapter 130-189:
 * The deceased enters the tomb, descends into the underworld and regains its powers of movement and speech
 * Explanation of mythic origins of the Gods and places
 * Deceased made to live again with the morning sun
 * Deceased travels across the sky in the evening and to the underworld to appear before Osiris
 * Deceased assumes power in the universe as one of the Gods
 * Includes chapters on protective amulets, provision of food and important places