![]() ![]() There are also spells about protecting yourself, because the ancient Egyptians expected to be attacked on the journey to the afterlife by snakes, crocodiles and insects – an idea very much based on the threats they knew in real life, only much more frightening and much more dangerous.Īs well as the animals, you could be attacked by gods or demons who served the gods. So there are a lot of spells to make sure you do not lose your head or your heart, that your body does not decay, as well as other spells about keeping alive by breathing air, having water to drink, having food to eat. The ancient Egyptians believed that a person was made up of different elements: body, spirit, name, heart, all embodiments of a person, and they were afraid that these elements would disperse when you died. Some of the spells are to make sure you can control your own body after death. ![]() Depending on how rich you were, you could either go along and buy a ready-made papyrus, which would have blank spaces for your name to be written in, or you could spend a bit more and probably choose which spells you wanted. They would have been quite expensive so only wealthy, high-status people would have had them. The rolls of papyrus usually have beautiful coloured illustrations as well. The ‘book’ is usually a roll of papyrus with lots and lots of spells written on it in hieroglyphic script. The Book of the Dead isn't a finite text – it's not like the Bible, it's not a collection of doctrine or a statement of faith or anything like that – it's a practical guide to the next world, with spells that would help you on your journey. They imagined the afterlife as a kind of journey you had to make to get to paradise – but it was quite a hazardous journey so you would need magical help along the way. The Book of the Dead is a modern term for a collection of magical spells that the Egyptians used to help them get into the afterlife. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the weighing of the heart ceremony. It was conceived as surviving death in the Netherworld, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. In Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. Part of the spell gives instructions for making the heart scarab: ‘Make a scarab of nephrite adorned with gold and put within a man's breast, and perform for him the ceremony of opening the mouth, the scarab being anointed with myrrh.’. The spell appeals to the heart not to weigh down the balance or testify against the deceased to the keeper of the balance. Spell 30 was often inscribed on heart scarabs that were placed with the deceased. In the weighing of the heart rite, the heart of the deceased is weighed in the scale against the feather of the goddess Maat, who personifies order, truth, and what is right. It could reveal the person's true character, even after death, so the belief went, and therefore the heart was left in the deceased's body during mummification. Because of its apparent links with intellect, personality and memory, it was considered the most important of the internal organs. To the Egyptians, the heart, or ib, rather than the brain, was the source of human wisdom and the centre of emotions and memory. The classic exposition of judgement at death comes in the Book of Coming Forth by Day, in chapter/spell 30 and in chapter/spell 125, and the so-called weighing of the heart.
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