Giving+Breath+to+Osiris

Giving Breath to Osiris

"I was inside a mound of earth; now I rise from a buried egg. I smell the air. I walk with my toes in the black earth. I give my family meat. Ah, the blue sky! A swallow darts and circles. I smell the air.

What a journey I have made, what things I have seen! In my right hand I grasp the sailing mast while my left hand trails in the water. The trees are heavy with figs and olives. The dates drop to the ground. I sail to the temple where gods have gathered to gaze at their faces in deep pools. In my barque the souls of years sail with me. The hair on my head moves in the wind. I hear the splashing of oars like the cracking of a thin, blue shell. The hippo raises herself and smiles.

Give me a cup of milk and a jug of water and bread. Give me air to breathe and a strong sailing wind and I shall rise, sail out of the dark world, be blown by the warm breath of a god. A sycamore rises white from the river, filling itself with water and air. Fill me with water and air. I sniff the breezes. I live, I breathe and live. One the banks of the Nile the sky fills with birds and the sails of barques swell like lungs."

Awakening the Osiris