Ashait's Journey to Aalu.

When my passage in this world is done, and I am preparing to travel across the waters into the west, prepare me for my journey, and ask Anubis to guide me forth.

Prepare my instructions to the Land of the Dead on a papyrus roll and lay it in my coffin. Slaughter a bull to provide food for the sustenance of my Ka and as a sacrifice to the gods.

Lower my coffin down the grave shaft to the secret chamber and place around me an image of myself, my weapons and clothing, my ornaments and perfumes and an image of my faithful cat, to keep me company in the long hours alone in the darkness.

Then seal the entrance with stone. Let my mourners and loves ones feast and make offerings to the gods for me.

My soul must travel a long and weary way, beset with many perils. Before I can reach the paradise of Aalu, in the west, I must cross bleak and waterless deserts, infested by fierce reptiles. Boiling streams block my way. I am ever in danger of being compelled to turn back.

When I set forth, I will have my staff and weapons, and food for nourishment. I will climb the western mountains and enter the Kingdom of the Dead. An immense sycamore tree towers before me with great clusters of fruit amidst its luxuriant foliage. As I approach, a goddess will lean out from the trunk. In her hands she holds a tray heaped with cakes and fruit; she has also a pot of clear fresh water. My soul will eat of the magic food and drink of the magic water, and thus become a servant of the gods.

If I rejected the hospitality of the tree goddess, I would have to return again to the dark and narrow tomb whence I came, and lead forever there a solitary and joyless existence.

As I continue my journey I must face many perils and endure great trials. Evil spirits and fierce demons compass me about, desiring that I should die a second death and cease to be. A gigantic tortoise rises against me; I must fight against it with my lance; serpents are poised to strike, and they must be overcome. The very insects have venomous stings and must be driven away.

But my most formidable enemy is the fierce god Set, the murderer of Osiris, the terror of the good gods and of men, who appears as an enormous red monster, with a head like a camel and the body of a hound, his long and forked tail erect and venomous. Fain would that wrathful demon devour my soul.

If I am strong enough to overcome the evil god, my soul will go forward until I reach the bank of a wide river. There a magic boat waits me. The crew con­sists of silent divinities who will give me no aid. But ere I can embark I must answer each question which the boat addresses to him. I must know and tell how it is constructed in every part, and if the papyrus roll laid beside my mummy contains the secrets of the boat, and the magical formulae I must also repeat, I will be ferried over the river and taken to the Osirian kingdom. The sulky “ferryman” is called “Turn face”: his face is always turned away from the dead who call to him.

After entering the boat my soul’s journey is not near to an end. I desire greatly to join those happy beings who have their dwellings in the blessed fields of Aalu, but must first be tried before Osiris, the King of the Dead and Judge of All. The only approach to Paradise is through the Hall of Justice, which rises before me stupendous and dark and full of mystery. The gate is shut fast; no man can draw the bolts or enter without permission of the king.

Alone, and trembling with fear, my pilgrim soul will stand before the gate with both hands uplifted in adoration. I will be beheld by the shining god who is within. Then in a clear, full voice my soul will cry out in the deep silence:

Hail, unto thee, O thou great god, thou who art lord of truth!

Lo! I draw nigh to thee now, O my lord, and mine eyes behold thy beauty.

Thee I know, and I know also the two-and-forty gods assembled with thee in the Hall of Justice;

They observe all the deeds of the wicked;

They devour those who seek to do evil;

They drink the blood of those who are condemned before thee, O just and good king.

Hail! Lord of Justice; Thee I know,

I come before thee even now to speak what is true;

I will not utter what is false, O Lord of All.

I have done no evil against any man.

I have never caused my kinsfolk to be put to death,

I have not caused false witnesses to speak in the Hall of Justice.

I have not done that which is hated by the gods.

I am not a worker of wickedness.

I have never oppressed a servant with too much work.

I have not caused men to hunger nor to weep.

I have not been devoid of good works, nor have I acted weakly or with meanness.

I am not a murderer.

I have not conspired to have another put to death.

I have not plotted to make another grieve.

I have not taken away temple offerings.

I have not stinted the food offered to the gods.

I have not despoiled the dead.

I have never committed adultery.

I have not failed to keep myself pure as a priest.

I have not lessened the corn measure.

I have not shortened the hand measure.

I have not tampered with the balance.

I have not deprived children of milk.

I have not stolen cattle from the meadows.

I have not snared the birds consecrated to the gods.

I have not taken fish from holy lakes.

I have not prevented water from running.

I have not turned aside the water.

I have not stolen water from a channel.

I have not put out the fire when it should burn.

I have never kept from the Nine Gods what was their due.

I have not prevented the temple cattle from grazing on my land.

I have not obstructed a god when he came forth.

I am sinless, and pray that no ill will befall me in the Hall of Judgment.

The jackal-headed god Anubis, “Opener of the Ways “, will then stride from the hall and lead me by the hand before Osiris, who has heard my confession in silence.

No word will be uttered as I enter the silent dread hall.

The King of the Dead sits in his high throne within the dim pavilion.

His crown is upon his head.

In one hand he holds the crook and in the other the flail.

He is the supreme Judge of the Dead.

Before him stands the sure balance on which my heart will be weighed. Thoth, the recording god, is beside it, and Horus and Maat, goddess of truth and justice, are there also.

The guardian of the balance is a monster which is ready to fall upon sinners who are condemned before the great god.

Around the dread hall crouch the two-and-forty animal gods who tear the wicked to pieces.

In the tingling silence which prevails, my pilgrim soul again recites my confession.

Osiris will make no comment.

Quivering with fear, I will watch the gods deliberately weighing my heart in the balance, while Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, occupies the opposite scale.

My trembling soul cries out to my heart not to witness against me.

“O heart that was mine,” I will say, “do not say ‘Behold the things he hath done’. Permit me not to be wronged in presence of the great god.”

I pray that I escape the terrible tortures that are the fate of the sinful.

I pray that I am not be devoured by the animal gods which crouch, waiting, in the silent and awful Hall of Judgment.

If my heart is found to be neither too heavy nor too light, I shall be acquitted. Thoth makes known the result of the weighing to Osiris, who will order my heart restored to me.

“She hath won the victory,” the King of the Dead will exclaim. “Now let her dwell with the spirits and the gods in the fields of Aalu.”

Released and rejoicing, I will go to gaze upon the wonders of Aalu. The divine kingdom is a greater and more glorious Egypt, in which the souls work and hunt and combat against their enemies as in other days. To each man is allotted his task. He must till the soil and reap the grain which grows in abundance and to a great height. The harvest never fails, and famine and sorrow are unknown.

When my soul grows lonesome for the sight of my kin, for familiar places, I may share the body of a bird or an animal, or perhaps I will blossom as a flower, a small lotus opening my petals to watch my loved ones walk the earth.