Sehet+Aaru

Sehet Aaru


 * Other Names:**

//Yaaru//, //Iaru//, //Aalu, Amenta//


 * Meaning of Name:**

"Field of Reeds"


 * Hieroglyphics:**



According to Egyptian mythology, //Sehet Aaru// was the heavenly paradise where the Egyptian people hoped to go when they died. Ruled over by the kindly god Osiris, //Sehet Aaru// was placed in the east, where the sun rises. It is always described as eternal papyrus fields, very much like those of the earthly Nile delta, an ideal hunting and fishing ground. Wheat and barley grew to enormous heights, and everyone dressed in their best clothes as if on holiday. Couples who loved and cared for each other hoped for a reunion in the Egyptian afterlife, along with their children and favorite pets. The humblest tiller of the soil could look forward to eternal ease and the "pleasant pools of peace and rest."

//Sehet Aaru// was a paradise imagined by an agricultural society: tilling fertile fields, tending fat livestock, hunting in a countryside teeming with birdlife and game, boating, singing, dancing, eating, drinking, fighting, and fishing in swollen streams. It was a life like that along the Nile, but brighter, more beautiful, and more restful, where magical servants carried out the more tiresome tasks, and everyone was comfortable and happy. This was not only a paradise for the upper classes, but one to which every Egyptian aspired.

The part where Osiris dwelt was sometimes known as //Sekhet Hetepet// ("Field of Offerings.") The deceased were expected to take part in the maintenance of the Field of Reeds, where they would live for all eternity. This meant undertaking agricultural labor, such as plowing, sowing, and reaping the crops. To undertake this hard work for the deceased, small, magical figures known as Ushabti were buried with the dead. Ushabti would magically come to life and do any work or chores that the deceased had to do.

The ancient Egyptians saw life as a continuous process, in which mortal existence was only preparatory to the transformation brought by death, a mere shadow of the delightful world to come. It is a popular misconception that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with death when, in reality, they were in love with life and so, naturally, wished it to continue on after bodily death. The elaborate funerary rites and mummification were not meant as tributes to the finality of life, but to its continuance and the hope that the soul would win admittance to //Sehet Aaru//. The deceased could only enter //Sehet Aaru// if they first journeyed through the dangerous underworld, the //Duat//.

Important Terminology