The+Arrival+at+the+Gate+of+the+Duat

The Arrival at the Gate of the Duat

"I come like a priest in a leopard skin, having crossed the Nile by barque, having come through the gap in the mountains, having walked black corridors. Like a hare from the depths of its hutch, blinking at light, I have come. In my heart a lyre is humming. Its strings ring true. My body is a rolled papyrus tied with red string. I spread the length of myself before the gods and let them study me. What I have done needed to be done. What I have said needed to be said. No malice obscures the quartz pool of my heart. No worms hide in the folds of my scroll. I have come to the other world a pure man. I am washed and fasted.

There is no rest in Egypt. The laurel tree sends forth no shoots, the oasis shrinks to sand, the fig tree gives no fruit. Men hammer the hard heart of the mountain, but the mountain refuses them gold. They grow weary and turn wicked. Yet I have done what must be done. I led seven goats to the temple. I offered cake to the gods. I burned three grains of incense each day. I brought my parents cattle and ducks. I fed the hungry and gave water to the thirsty and clothed the beggars. I drove away scorpions and thieves. When I spoke, butterflies burst from my lips. Faithful in word like a scribe I have come. I've walked dark chambers believing in light.

I ask to enter those houses lit by candles and gods. I wish to fill my nose with the smoke of prayer, to come and go in the dark world, to sail the Nile again. I ask for water, a loaf of bread, a little honey cake. I ask for a strong sailing wind. I have come to this dark world like a bright star in the sky, a shaft of light gleaming in the falcon's eye."

Spells for the Afterlife