across from modern-day Luxor, ancient Thebes. (See illustration 11.)
Most of the texts in the Egyptian Book of the Dead begin with the word ro and may be translated as mouth, speech, utterance, spell, enchantment, or incantation. Some archaeologists consider these sections of the Egyptian Book of the Dead to be spells cast to guide and protect the soul on his or her journey through the underworld to the heavens. In the first chapters the “deceased” or initiate enters the “tomb,” descends into the “underworld,” and goes through a series of incantations to awaken its abilities to speak, hear, and move through various passages required for his or her successful transition through the realms of the dead—of course we are speaking of the living dead. The next chapters educate the initiate about the origins of the gods or creative forces and key places. Next are chapters guiding the dead or initiate through the sky in sunlight and in the sun boat, then by night descending again into the underworld to meet Osiris, judge of the souls. Final chapters assert the person’s right to be among the citizens of heaven and to be among the gods.
Here is a brief summary of the major sections of the Egyptian Book of the Dead:
Chapters 1-16: The deceased or initiate leaves the “House of the Dead” and enters the tomb. It descends into the underworld. Here the soul body regains its powers of movement without physical muscles and speech without vocal cords.
Chapters 17-63: The mythic origin of the gods and secret places are explained. Then the disembodied deceased or initiate is made to live again in order for it to arise and be reborn with the morning sun—not as physical bodies but as active spirit beings.
Chapters 64-129: The deceased or initiate travels across the sky in the Boat of the Sun as one of the blessed dead. In the evening, the deceased or initiate travels to the underworld to appear before Osiris and have its heart weighed in the balance against the “feather of truth.”
Chapters 130-189: Having been acknowledged and vindicated of all accusations, the deceased or initiate assumes power as one of the godlings among the gods. This section also includes assorted chapters on protective amulets, provision of “food,” and important places.
As we learned in the previous chapter, in 1924 researchers and authors David Davidson and H. Aldersmith published a large book titled The Great Pyramid: Its Divine Message. In this book the prophecy timeline inside the Great Pyramid was meticulously detailed and correlated to passages in the Egyptian Book of the Dead and then to the known world events and assumed future events.
The Davidson-Aldersmith list of correlates between passageways and chambers in the Great Pyramid and terms and verses in the Egyptian Book of the Dead are as follows:
| GREAT PYRAMID The Great Pyramid | EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD “The Light” (Ta Khut) |
| The Descending Passageway | “The Descent” |
| The Ascending Passageway and the Grand Gallery | “Double Hall of Truth” |
| Entrance to Ascending Passageway | “Door of the Ascent” |
| Ascending Passageway | “Hall of Truth in Darkness” |
| Grand Gallery | “Hall of Truth in Light” |
| Antechamber to King’s Chamber | “Chamber of the Triple Veil” |
| King’s Chamber | “Chamber of Resurrection” |
| “Chamber of the Grand Orient” | |
| “Chamber of the Open Tomb” | |
| Passageway to the Queen’s Chamber | “Access to Chamber of Regeneration” |
| Queen’s Chamber | “Chamber of Regeneration” |
| “Chamber of Rebirth” | |
| “Chamber of the Moon” | |
| Subterranean Chamber | “Chamber of Chaos” |
| “Chamber of Upside-Downness” | |
| “Chamber of Central Fire” | |
| Well Shaft | “Well of Life” |
| Construction Chambers | “Secret Places of the Hidden God” |
This chart looks quite clear, but if one were to read the Egyptian Book of the Dead in an effort to find these correlates, one would quickly become perplexed. For example, the “Double Hall of Truth” cannot be found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. One would first have to know that the goddess Ma’at (also Maat) is the goddess of truth, and thus realize that the “Hall of Double Ma’at” is Davidson’s Double Hall of Truth. Another example is Davidson’s “Chamber of Upside-Downness.” It cannot be found in the ancient text. However, the Egyptian Book of the Dead does teach how not to walk upside-down in the underworld, which Davidson then correlates to the subterranean chamber. However, in examining Davidson’s research more closely, it turns out that he got many of his correlates directly from W. Marsham Adams’ book, The House of the Hidden Places, and Adams was not always getting his information directly from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. For example, Adams’ information about the Queen’s Chamber and its correlation with the Second Birth comes from an inscription on the vase of Osur-Ur, which Adams got from Archibald Henry Sayce’s (1846-1933) four volumes titled Records of the Past (published in 1888 and 1890). (See the Gospel of John 3:3-8 which explains that the First Birth is the birth of the physical being and that the Second Birth is the birth of the spiritual being.) Of course this does not mean that the information is not valuable and helpful to our study, but it is clearly not coming from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, although it is inspired by content in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. In this instance we learn from the inscription on the vase that Osiris is the “Second Birth, the Mystery of the Soul, Maker of the gods.” We also learn that Osiris’ sister Isis is the queen of the Queen’s Chamber. It is she who brings the magic of rebirth, as quoted in the Egyptian Book of the Dead: “The Osiris [person’s name here], whose word is truth, says: ‘The blood of Isis, the spells of Isis, the magical powers of Isis, shall make this great one strong, and shall be an amulet of protection [for him against] that would do to him the things which he abominates.’” Utterance 156 (7, p. 43)
In Chapter 5 we will go through the Egyptian Book of the Dead, correlating it with passageways and chambers inside the Great Pyramid. But first we need to familiarize ourselves with the Egyptian view of the “passage” of the deceased or initiate. It is a passage from physically incarnate human being to heavenly Star-god among all the Star-gods.
Before we can fully understand Egyptian perspectives on the transition from physicality to spirituality, we need to realize that we are speaking about the ancient Egyptians, not the modern Arab Egyptians who have a much different
