Getting the Pharaoh to the Afterlife

Getting the Pharaoh to the Afterlife

How did the royal priests convince the king he had the golden ticket that would take him to the afterlife?

Ancient Egypt
Getting The Pharaoh to the Afterlife

Every ancient Egyptian king required a ticket to the afterlife. To understand how these tickets were made we need to understand the king’s sacred monuments, their design, materials, and decoration, but more importantly, we need to understand the religious ideas that inspired them.

The Old Way of Understanding Heka

The Pyramid Texts tell us that Heka was believed to have existed before the creation of the world and was, therefore, part of the divine energy of the creator. However, the first studies of Egyptian magic were influenced by the idea that magic was split into good magic and bad magic. Good magic was beneficent and bad magic negative or hostile. Good magic was practised by the pious and bad by the evil and blasphemous. Magic and knowledge were separated into that knowledge that could be acquired from nature and observation and that which was part of heka or supernatural. Magic was defined as a private religion whose purpose was defensive.

Today, Egyptologists use the anthropological definition of magic and religion, which represents social practices with a set of accompanying beliefs regarding the nature of reality. According to anthropologists, magic lies beyond nature and is, therefore, a figment of the human imagination. Its practitioners employ rituals, charms, spells, prayers, and incantations to influence the world’s natural forces to prevent the loss of something deemed essential or to obtain something desired.

Anthropologically, magic is said to come in two forms: 1] sympathetic magic and 2] contagious magic.

Sympathetic or homoeopathic magic is defined as like being effective against like. Something astringent would be used to treat a sting or insect bite when using a sympathetic magical cure. Magically, a statue or image of a person or a god could be used similarly to using the classic voodoo doll. That is as a representation of the person or God the magic was intended to act upon. 

Contagious magic is the type that flows from one object or person to another by touch, typically in the form of an amulet of charm. The abundance of charms and amulets found in the archaeological record and the survival of texts containing a wide range of spells shows that this sort of magic was highly prevalent from top to bottom in ancient Egyptian society.

Although most religions treat magic and religion as diametrically opposite, religion and magic are treated the same in anthropology because all religions include magical or supernatural beliefs. Here the ancient Egyptians would agree with the anthropologists because magic was an integral part of their world. Magic, ritual and religion were inseparable and were fundamental to all aspects of daily life and necessary for the correct operating of the cosmos.

Sex and Magic

The traditional view of heka also includes sex. Sex was viewed as the second most potent creative force in the cosmos. Evidence of phallic cults and the reviving efficacy of sex is found across archaeological records and ancient Egypt’s myths. The most prominent example being the annual raising of the Djed Pillar, a festival similar to raising the Maypole at the beginning of the growing season in Europe. Erecting the Djet Pillar was designed to celebrate the resurrection of Osiris and to celebrate the power of life over death. To the ancient Egyptians, nature’s power of begetting contained the secret spring of life.

Towards a New Understanding of Heka

 

Ancient Egypt Magazine - Cleopatra

Vignette illustrating part of the spell 23 and the power of heka from the Book of the Dead, papyrus of Hunefer, 19th dynasty (c. 1310 BCE). BM 9901/5 (R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, London 1985, 54).

The ancient Egyptians believed heka operated in this world and the next; it was neither good nor bad; it was simply the invisible energy or force that powered everything in the world. The royal priests believed they knew how it worked, how to connect with it, and, how to control it. It was their special knowledge, and it helped to maintain their position at the top of ancient Egyptian society for over three thousand years, and it was this sacred knowledge, the knowledge of the god Thoth that convinced the king his priests could get him to the afterlife.

A lot has been written about heka or hike; it was the tool of the gods; the Heliopolitian creator god Atum used it with Sai (perception) and Hu (speech) to make the world. Today we might call heka something like gestalt because it was the thing that provided the structure that made the world manifest in all its beauty and all its horror. Heka was also how the deceased passed from this transitory world to the life eternal beyond the grave. Beliefs surrounding heka were the fountainhead and the origin of every sacred building constructed in ancient Egypt. Egyptologists believe words contained the power of heka but not numbers, although they never speak of this omission.

Thoth and Isis were the two great magicians of the cosmos and were said to be great in heka. Like Sai and Hu, Heka was depicted as a god in his own right from the Old Kingdom and sometimes appeared in illustrations of the funeral boat on tomb walls. The gods Sai, Hu and Heka, were the physical manifestations of the invisible powers that created the universe, understanding heka was the key to comprehending the world.

The priests could invoke the gods’ power through speech, by saying the right spells or prayers but understanding heka was problematic; where was it and how could it be manipulated? We believe it was by using sacred materials, sacred images and by using both words and numbers. The priest’s special knowledge of all of the things to ensure the king’s transformation from man to god.

How Heka was Used to Re-birth the King in the Afterlife

A succession of high-ranking priests were inolved in getting the Pharaoh to the afterlife. They listened to and understood each ruler’s requirements; then facilitated projects that provided the monarch with their personal edifices of glory and their individual road-maps to the afterlife. 

The ancient Egyptian priesthood were the architects of each pharaoh’s greatest projects; their temples and their tombs using sacred materials, sacred images and by using sacred words and sacred numbers. They supplied the spiritual structure, the technically outstanding design work, and the organisational framework that underpinned and made possible all the monumental creations ever built in ancient Egypt.

 

A scene from the Book of Caverns in the tomb of Ramses V./VI. (KV9, chamber E, right wall) Wikipedia

Using a common language of shared intellectual and spiritual beliefs the priests and their kings created some of the greatest religious monuments on earth. These were pyramids and tombs with special sarcophaguses, decorated coffins, books of spells and sacred amulets. This special combination of design, decoration, furniture, spells and rituals created the pharaoh’s pathway to the afterlife.

The Royal cult sat at the centre of all religious and cultural innovation for 3000 years. Its ideas and practices were taken up by the wealthy and privileged in ancient Egyptian society after they had first been employed by the king. This is how royal practices trickled down to those at the bottom of the social pile. What the king did first was sure to be followed by others.

The two short videos below show some of these practices and motifs.