Duwat.
Rather than repeating the misinformation I'll just go on ...
Each day the Sun set, it went into the Underworld, that's the Duwat.
There Osiris reins for he is rebirth, he is the giver of the zap that
helps rebirth the Sun each day, through the Scarab.
Now why was it so all fired important to preserve the body? Most of us
are ashes to ashes - dust to dust in our mind set about such stuff
because most of us believe that it is through a spiritual engine that
one's soul gets resurrection. With the Ancient Egyptians their tomb
was their individual Underworld, individual Duwat. Their mummy was
their Osiris for their soul. The soul depended on the preserved
remains of the body to get that zap to survive the after life, it got
zapped each night and went out into the day to be amongst the world of
the living, or work their crops in the fields of the blessed. The
daily offerings of food and ritual incantations at the mortuary
temples along the flood plains of the Nile were also imperative for
the soul to continue on the other side.
What a bummer. Since following Pharoes would have no compunction in
tearing down the temples and tombs of past rulers to build their own
temples and tombs. One can see on the inside of the rock face the old
carvings from pillaged monuments. Ramses II the big time builder, he
only has a couple of statues left today and he was a building fool.
All his structures were quarries for future Pharoes.
But I digress
The preservation of the body became a part of the mythology because
instead of using the 5% arable land along the Nile for burying the
dead, they were buried in the desert, tons of space there. The heat
and dryness naturally preserved the bodies. Myths involving
mummification came about that way. Anubis, the Jackal headed God, he
mummified Osiris.
Ok, you got yourself mummified, you got the crew left behind to do the
ritual incantations and provide offerings, is it a done deal?
Not hardly. You got to be Judged to have lived a righteous life. Not a
moral or religious judgment, but a societal one, shown in the Negative
Confession. "I did not steal, I did not kill anyone, I didn't neglect
my duties, I didn't walk backwards cracking peanuts during a parade
(real law in the Midwest, a blue law...LOL)." Then Anubis brings you
over to where your heart, the seat of all knowledge and emotion, was
weighed against a feather, the Ma'at. I think of it as Me-ought, for
it's all the things you ought to have done.
Now if your heart is as light as that feather then you are added into
the ranks of the righteous dead and you can help the living, if you
were called upon by those who bring offerings and do the abracadabra
at the False Door of your mortuary temple.
Osiris oversees all this. He is green sometimes because he is the
rebirth, like the buds of spring. He is black sometimes for the rich
flood plains. Land was valued for it's tendency to flood for rich silt
was brought down from the African highlands and enriched that narrow
band of land that is Egypt. So black was good, white was death and
grief.
Since Orisis was resurrected by Isis long enough to sire Horus, he
then becomes Ruler of the Underworld.
What happens if your heart doesn't balance with the feather of Ma'at?
It gets thrown to this fierce beast, Imenet. Head of a crocodile,
limbs of a tiger, body of a hippo. I always think of this beast as "I
MEAN it" it is there with gaping jaws for that tiny morsel of heart
and if your heart gets thrown into that gaping mouth, your game is
over. No appeal, no parole. You're really dead then.
In reading the Book of the Dead I was struck with the very vivid
descriptions of death, decay and putrification that they prayed
WOULDN'T happen to them. "Oh please don't let worms run through my
nose." and words to that effect. I mean it goes on for pages, don't
let this happen to me, don't let that happen to me. And then prayers
to kick start the after life body, "Bring my nostrils air, fill my
lungs." hard to do with the lungs in Canopic jars, take a really deep
breath and break the alabaster. LOL ...no just kidding. Tomb Humor.
So that's as good as I can remember my studies. The main thing I
wanted to point out is the drawing and carvings in the tomb was a
reflection of the cosmos. Ever see stars on the ceiling of tomb
pictures? See all the servants working in the fields? It's the
universe in macrocoism. Some scholars postulate that the spirit
leaving the tomb was a reflection of the birth process, nay not only
the tomb but the mortuary temples. The actual space for the
abracadabra in temples was a small and dark place only frequented by
the Priests. Then there was a hyperstyle hall, where columns
represented growth and life, on out to the public temple grounds which
was open to the sky. With the tomb there was the small space, that
individual Duwat and that was the womb, the long corridor was the
birth canal and you were reborn into the best of all possible places
Egypt.
There was no concept of heaven being elsewhere, or going to someplace
different. All Ancient Egyptians felt they were blessed for even
though life was work, it wasn't difficult, and it beat eating sand
like most of their covetous neighbors were doing.
I'll send this, it's long enough
xoxo
NJ