The Pyramid Text of UNAS

Cartouche of King Unas ("wnis").

(ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE)

The Royal Ritual of Rebirth & Illumination

the regeneration of the divine king and the transformation of his Ba into an Akh

by Wim van den Dungen

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

"O You, the great god, whose name is unknown."

King Unas (Utt.254 - West Wall of Antechamber)

01 From Predynastic graves & mounds to royal tombs. 02 The rise of henotheism. 03 The ritual complex of King Unas.

04 The interpretation of the Pyramid Texts.

05 An integration of perpectives.

06 The role of Osiris in the Unas text. 07 The complete text of the translation.

08 Greek versus Egyptian Initiation

The Complete Text l Central Plan of the Hieroglyphs l Bibliography

by Wim van den Dungen

Antwerp, 2006 - 2007.

Burial-Chamber l Passage-way l Antechamber l Corridor l Serdab

HIEROGLYPHS

Burial-chamber or Sarcophagusroom (I, II, III, IV, V) l Passage-way (VI)

Antechamber (VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII) l Northern Corridor (XIII) l Serdab (XIV)

Remark :

The use of capitals in words as "Absolute", "God" or "Divine", points to a rational context

(i.e. how these appear in a theology conducted in the rational mode of thought). Hence,

when these words are used in the context of Ancient Egyptian ante-rational thought (which,

as a cultural form, was mythical, pre-rational & proto-rational), this restriction is lifted.

Hence, words such as "god", "the god", "gods", "goddesses", "pantheon" or "divine" are not capitalized.

1. From Predynastic graves & mounds to royal tombs.

Predynastic burials

In Egyptian funerary rituals, the tomb was a dark, underground structure,

dug out in desert sand or rock and completed with offerings accompanying the dead. In the Predynastic millennium (ca. 4000 - 3000 BCE) preceding

the Pharaonic Period (ca. 3000 - 30 BCE), the tombs were simple holes in the ground, with wooden walls and mats. Little is known of what was on top

of them, and so scholars hesitate to categorize these constructions as

funerary architecture. On the outside, a mound of sand or gravel or perhaps

a simple wooden construction may have served as a marker. Most

Predynastic corpses were completely dried out because of the desert sand. Was this a prefiguration of the Pharaonic practice of removing bodily fluids

with natron (during mummification) ?

From Naqada II onwards, highly differentiated burials are found in cemeteries in Upper Egypt (cf. Gerzean, ca. 3600 - 3300 BCE). These élite

burials contained large quantities of grave goods, with exotic materials such as gold and lapis lazuli. These burials point to an increasing hierarchical

society and the wish of the deceased to keep their status in the afterlife, of prime important in the funerary theology under the Pharaohs. In short, the

royals had access to the sky of Re, whereas commoners were spirits unable to leave the kingdom of Osiris.

Naqada III tomb - Minsjat Abu Omar - Eastern Delta - ca. 3300 BCE.

First seen in Amratian culture (Naqada I, 4000 - 3600 BCE), there was, during the second phase of the Gerzean culture, a distinct acceleration of the

funerary trend, whereby a few individuals were buried in larger, elaborate

tombs, containing richer and more abundant offerings (cf. the Painted Tomb at Naqada). These Gerzean cemeteries develop a wide range of grave types,

ranging from small oval or round pits, poorly provided, to burials in pottery vessels and rectangular pits subdivided in partitions (to put the funerary

offerings). There were coffins of wood or airdried pottery, and indications of the wrapping of the body in strips of (expensive) linen (cf. the Double Tomb

at Adaïma near Hierakonpolis). Various burial-sites appear, and also the richer tombs of the chieftains, the predecessors of the "Followers of Horus",

the first divine kings.

"In the Neolithic period the dead were desposited in oval graves in foetal

position, with the head at the south. In Lower Egypt the deceased was placed on his right side, his face turned towards the east, while in Upper

Egypt, as all along the upper Nile, the dead person was placed on his left side, looking west. Often the body was wrapped in a cloth or an animal skin,

the head resting on a cushion." Lamy, 1981, p.27.

On the treshold of the First Dynasty (ca. 3000 - 2900 BCE), the graves of

the rulers and the élite consisted of neat mudbrick boxes, sunk in the desert and divided, like a house or an imitation palace, into several rooms. The

tombs of the first kings followed this pattern, but with increased complexity. Situated far out in the desert near the cliffs at Abydos, they were marked by

a pair of large stelæ and covered by a mound. These mounds of sand and gravel can be traced back to the modest pit graves. The pyramid form is

deemed an elaboration of this architecture, itself rooted in the myth of the primordial hill emerging out of the eternal "zep tepi", the Golden Age. This

"risen land" ("ta-tenen") was the "first land" to come into being (in phenomenal time - cf. Nun).

the advent of dual kingship & sacred language

At Naqada, Abydos and Hierakonpolis, the end of the Naqada II phase brings

separate political centres to the fore. At the end of Naqada III, we witness a

new style of "royal" burial. Also at this time, the first hieroglyphs appear.

Predynastic names of kings - Names not to same scale - Wilkinson (1999), p.53.

From the very early start, Egyptian kingship expressed a unique feature :

realizing the harmony or equilibrium of opposites by using sacred language & its ritual. The dual nature of the monarchy was all-comprehensive and

reflected in the regalia, in the royal titulary, in the royal rituals and festivals, building-projects, etc. Frankfort (1948) called the presence of the divine king

and his institution of "transcendent significance".

Divine kingship or theocratic statemanship was a unique phenomenon in the

region, if not in the world. Contemporary civilizations were often fragmented and political unity was difficult, short-lived or foreign to them. By absence of

natural buffers, centuries of political centralization, stability, sacrality, administration & economy were unknown to them.

The Eastern & Western Deserts of Egypt surrounded the narrow strip of

green land bordering the Nile. It was not an easy to attack Egypt from the South or the North. Its culture flourished on the surplus economy of the

yearly inundation. Without a "good Nile", Egypt perished. Add to this the power of the divine, sacred kingship of the Great Word (cf. power & magic of

words), creating the world (cf. Memphis theology), and Egyptian divine kingship is unique in Antiquity. Its direct influence on Greek philosophy and

monotheism are unmistaken.

The first outstanding feature of the Egyptian solution was to institutionalize

the king's dual nature : he was the Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as human and divine. At first, in the Early Dynastic or Archaic Period (ca.

3000 - 2670 BCE), when the "Followers of Horus" ruled, the Falcon-principle inherent in Horus (the sky-god) was deemed to incarnate in each king.

Later, in the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 - 2205 BCE), the divine king or "nesut" was deemed the son of Re, i.e. the sole divine being abiding on Earth (the

Akhu or deities remained in the sky and only sent their Kas -doubles- and Bas -souls-, not their spirit).

This crucial witnessing quality of the "great house" ("pr-Aa", much later

Hellenized as "Pharaoh"), associated with the images of (a) the watchful, surging Falcon and (b) the mighty and fertile Bull (cf. the Predynastic

consort of the great goddess), help to explain the importance of the institution of divine kingship in Egyptian culture, as well as the longevity and

endurance of the Pharaonic canon. In the actual transmission of the

standards of the Ancient Egyptian mindset, hieroglyphs played a crucial role.

Kingship implied the end of the fragmentation of Prehistory, terminating the "chaos" to which no return was possible. Thanks to the second crucial

feature, the advent of sacred language (cf. magic and the power of the word), the new political ideology could be "eternalized" for millennia : the

divine king, overseeing the "Two Lands" as its sole Lord, speaks Maat, thus keeping Upper & Lower Egypt together & united by way of this Great Word.

Incarnating the Great Word (cf. Memphis theology), the royal ritual balances the scales of Maat, allowing for communication between the divine and the

mundane, maintaining creation and causing a "good Nile" (not too much and not too little flooding).

"Indeed, the lips of King Merenre are as the Two Enneads. This King Merenre is the Great Speech."

The Egyptian symmetry or play of equilibria, verbal, visual and written,

utilizes the duality of opposites as part of a careful strategy to master the whole. The power of pairing lies in the combination demarcating and

underlining a greater unity. Opposites are not contradictions, but complementarities. A kind of "organic" patchwork-thinking of great delicacy

emerges.

Thanks to the presence of the divine king, the eternal cycle of the natural

order ("neheh") initiated by Atum in the First Time, is transcended by a witnessing consciousness characterized by :

the overseeing capacities of the son of Re, keeping dynamical divisions

united ; the wholesome, fertilizing power of the regenerated Osiris who is king

of the Duat and the strong, creative output as Horus on Earth, engaging others in

community-building activities and securing one's return to the stellar

light-fields of father Re. These works made the natural order and its dynamical equilibria endure for "millions of years".

the royal tombs

With the arrival of the institution of kingship & sacred language, the royal

ritual and its funerary cult came into existence.

The kings of the First Dynasty were buried at Abydos (the cult place of Osiris), an indication of the Upper Egyptian origin of the Egyptian state (cf.

the "Followers of Horus" first uniting Upper Egypt before settling in

Memphis). The institution of kingship was already strong & powerful. The central element of the later Osiris myth, the pairing of Horus and Seth, is

attested from the middle of this First Dynasty (cf. the two ivory djed-pillars found in the First Dynasty tomb at Helwan). Osiris, not attested by name

until the Unas texts, is very likely "Khentiamentiu", or "the Foremost of the

Westerners", the god of Abydos, most likely of Predynastic origin.

Palace façade style mud-brick tomb - Queen Neithhotep - First Dynasty - ca. 3000 BCE.

The burial-chambers were incorparated at ground level.

The superstructures of the first royal tombs at Abydos were simple mounds of sand held in place by a mudbrick revetment. Scholars conjecture the

burial mound recalls the primeval mound which emerged from the waters at the time of creation. The mound is Solar, and refers to the first ray of Re

shining on the first day after the waters receded. In the tombs of kings Den and Adjib (First Dynasty, ca. 3000 - 2800 BCE), the entrance stairway

approaches the burial-chamber from the East and the rising Sun. The symbolism speaks for itself. Like the rising Sun, the king rose to the sky.

In the tomb of King Qaa, who closes this dynasty, a change to a northerly

orientation is effectuated (and maintained thereafter). The entrance corridor is a large ramp pointing northwards toward the circumpolar stars ("ixmw-sk"

or "the ones that know not destruction"). Funerary ideology became stellar.

The pyramids reflect a stellar ideology made possible by the local horizon delimiting the cycle of the Sun. They are made to assist the divine king on

his celestial voyage to the stars. This is effectuated in two stages : Osirian regeneration, Solar ascension and luminous existence in heaven.

In these theological considerations, the change from mastaba to step

pyramid, from primordial mound (of the Sun) to celestial ladder (to the stars), reflects the increased importance of the celestial, stellar terminus of

the divine king. The influence of Re rose and a pre-rational and Heliopolitan

henotheism saw the light. The royals were divine beings, and so bound to the sky, whereas commoners hid beneath the Earth, in the dark kingdom of

Osiris. This Lunar fertility god would eventually represent the "regenerative" part of the royal ritual, but his kingdom had to be escaped. It represented

an "order" created by Re but outside his reach (cf. Heavenly Cow), making humans & deities alike fear Osiris and make sure his judgement was

favourable.

In this pre-rational henotheism, Re and his divine son rule the pantheon & creation. By the end of the Vth Dynasty (ca. 2487 - 2348 BCE), Osiris

became "second best" in royal theology, creating the unsettling tension between the "Duat", the Netherworld, and "pet", the sky, left unresolved in

the texts. Horizontal (fertility - rebirth) & vertical (illumination - transformation) layers are not integrated in the text (yet), but in the

architecture. This movement away from the strong architectonic message of

gigantic hieroglyphic monuments for all to see, to the use of written hieroglyphs to make the magic work in splendid secure tombs, is another

evidence of the growing importance of the magical power of hieroglyphs, lasting for ever.

"The sun's apparent path across the sky throughout the year follows a 12°-

wide arc from east to west, known as the Winding Canal. The region of the sky to its south was known as the Marsh of Reeds and that to its north the

Marsh of Rest or Marsh of Offerings. These names reflect the Egyptian's experience of their own country, where the marshes of the Delta gradually

gave way to the Mediterranean Sea. Features within both regions were sees as islands, some inhabited by the 'Imperishable Stars', in the north, and the

'Unwearying Stars' in the south, and others known as the Mounds of Horus, Seth and Osiris."

Allen, 2005, p.9.

In some mysterious way, Osiris' Southern "Field of Reeds" and Re's Northern "Field of Offering" or "Field of Peace" were adjacent salvic conditions with

conflicting ontological features. They reflect the dual spiritual economy at hand, and represent the Solar (dry) and Lunar (wet) "mechanics" of the high

magic of rebirth (as the Lunar Osiris) and enlightenment (as the Solar Re). Very likely, divine kingship (as Re) assimilated the Lunar power of the

Predynastic "great goddess", represented by Osiris, the "fertile bull" slain &

risen. The earliest hieroglyphs evidence these two theologies, and their distribution in the tomb points to a sequence involving Lunar purification

(rebirth) and Solar illumination (transformation).

Although the tombs left by the kings of the Early Dynastic Period are

monumental in size, they do not approach the scale suddenly reached in the

IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 - 2600 BCE), in particular under King Netjerikhet or "Djoser" (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE) and his grand architect Imhotep.

Pyramid of Djoser and part of its surrounding enclosure wall.

"The Step Pyramid of Djoser heralded the classic pyramid age, the 4th to 6th

dynasties, also known as the Old Kingdom. During these centuries the Egyptians built pyramids for their god-kings in a 72-km (45-mile) span of

desert, between Abu Roash, northwest of Giza, to Meidum in the south, near

the entrance of the Fayum. Excluding the pyramids of Djedefre at Abu Roash and Sneferu at Meidum as outliers, the 21 major Old Kingdom pyramids

stand like sentinels in a 20-km (12-mile) stretch west of the capital the 'White Walls', later known as Memphis, clustering at Giza, Zawiyet el-Aryan,

Abusir, Saqqara and Dahshur." Lehner, 2001, pp.14-15.

The Step Pyramid represents a significant leap in architectural size and

sophistication. A limestone wall, 10.5 m high and 1.644 m long, contained an area of 15 ha (then the size of a large town). This is the barrier between

the outer world and the domain of the divine king. The complex, with functional and dummy buildings, large terraces, façades, columns,

stairways, platforms, shrines and life-seized statues, reflected the dual nature of the afterlife : the half-submerging dummy buildings "must have

signified the chthonic, underworld aspect of existence after death" (Lehner, 2001, p. 84), while the Step Pyramid itself, rising in six steps to a height of

ca. 60 m, reflects the route of celestial (stellar) ascension/descension taken by the Solar King after he was mummified and entombed. Even after death,

the king was still "at work" in his tomb, which acted as a stairway to and fro

the sky. This depicted the fundamental duality of the afterlife : on the one hand, the Lunar underworld ("Dwt", "Duat") and, on the other hand, the

Solar sky ("pt", "pet") of the "imperishable" circumpolar stars (Alpha Draconis rather than Alpha Polaris), about 26° to 30° above the northern

horizon in the area of the pyramids.

Lehner,

2001, p.19 older DJOSER type new MEIDUM TYPE

Orientation North - South East - West

Parts N - S sequence E - W axial symmetry

Enclosure

wall

niched,

no inner wall

smooth outer wall,

at times niched inner wall

Entrance South end of East side Centre East side

Ka tomb South tomb

no Satellite Pyramid Satellite Pyramid

Temple N or S temple E temple, N entrance

chapel

In the reign of King Sneferu (ca. 2600 - 2571 BCE), the first king of the IVth Dynasty, radical changes in the overall plan of the Pyramid complex

happened. A new form was sought. The royal tomb changed into a true pyramid. A new orientation was applied (the main axis of the complex was

now from East to West instead as the previously North - South direction),

and the mortuary temple was built against the Eastern face of the Pyramid (Djoser's is to the North). It was linked by a causeway to a valley temple,

close to the edge of the cultivated area further to the East, which provided a monumental entrance to the complex as a whole ...

This new standard, so-called Meidum-type arrangement, was amplified by

the gigantic Giza complex of King Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE), and remained unchanged throughout the Old Kingdom. Only in the Middle

Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE), when the earliest Meidum-type were fading into ruin, did pyramid builders return to the basic elements of Djoser's

complex, with a long North - South rectangular enclosure, defined by a decorated wall with a single entrance at the far South end of the East side.

During his reign, Pharaoh Sneferu finished in half a century three giant

pyramids at Meidum and Dahshur. But the largest pyramid, 146.59 m high, would be built by his son Khnum-khuf ("Khnum is his protector"). The only

known figure of him is a tiny figurine around 7.6 cm high with his name on its throne !

Plan of the Pyramid-complex of Pharaoh Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE). The northern

ventilation shaft pointed directly to Alpha Draconis, the Pole Star. But once every 24 hours,

the three stars in Orion's belt passed at culmination above the southern ventilation shaft of

the burial-chamber ; a combination of the myths of Re and Osiris ?

Even if we allow Pharaoh Khufu a reign of 30 to 32 years, his workers and

builders would had to set in place 230 m³ of stone per day, i.e. a rate of 1 average-size block of 2.5 tons every 4 or 6 minutes (working in day and

night shifts), to finish his pyramid, causeway, two temples, satellite

pyramids, three queens' pyramids and official's mastabas (a combined mass of ca. 2.700.000 m³). Although this king did not equal his father's total mass

of monuments, he surpassed his pyramids in sheer size and accuracy. After a few failures, the principle of pyramid-building had been mastered and the

building of the king's royal pyramid-complex (also containing his tomb)

become state policy.

The base of the Great Pyramid (containing about 2.300.000 blocks of stone weighing on average ca 2.5 tons) is level within 2.5 cm (290.33 m) with an

angle of slope of 51°50'40", the average deviation of the sides from the cardinal points is 0°03'06" degrees of arc and the greatest difference in

length of the sides is 4.4 cm. The pyramid alone covers 5.3 ha. The finished pyramid was surrounded by an 8m high Tura limestone wall !

The Great Pyramid has three chambers : a King's Chamber with the

sarcophagus near the western wall ; a Ka chamber with the statue of the king, the so-called "Queen's Chamber", never intended for the burial of the

queen and the Subterranean Chamber, 30 m below the plateau surface, reached by a Descending Passage cut straight into the natural rock of the

plateau. Some think the lower chambers were "mistakes", while this seems

unlikely (in view of the triune architecture of royal tombs, with burial-chamber, antechamber and Ka-chamber). What is typical for these "Stellar"

pyramids of Sneferu (Bent Pyramid as well as North Pyramid) and Khufu is the elevated position of the King's Chamber. In both, the funerary

symbolism is clearly celestial. The expanse of the sky was the celestial Nile, with banks on the West and on the East. The Milky Way was called "the

beaten path of stars" and paradise was invisioned as the Nile Valley at inundation : the Field of Reeds (Osiris) on the eastern edge (i.e. the

culminating moment in the movement from dusk to dawn) and the Field of Offering (Re) further North.

By elevating the King's Chamber, the architects of the Great Pyramid

underlined the celestial goals of Solar Kingship, and, by doing so, also made it possible for the "son of Re" to unite with the celestial, stellar corpse of

Osiris, associated with the Orion constellation and the star Sirius (the

Southern shafts). By the bright appearance of the Dog-star in the dawn sky of July, the annual Nile inundation was heralded. This star, associated with

Isis, was called "the Bringer of the New Year and the Nile flood". Osiris, the brother and husband of Isis, was identified with Orion : the announced

renewal of life by the heliacal rising of Sirius, entailing the blessing of Osiris, the vegetation god. Moreover, the Ba of King Khufu, son of Re, could rise in

its "sah" ("sAH", "noble") and be transformed into an "Akh" ("spirit") helped by Osiris and Isis in their stellar, celestial form (in the South). Thus he

reached his final destiny : the Imperishable Stars in the North.

The Great Pyramid with Sphinx

In this remarkable architecture, we may "read" the same ambiguity, apparent in the Pyramid Texts, between, on the one hand, the sky of Re

("pet"), creator of the deities and the universe, and, on the other hand, the Netherworld ("Duat") of Osiris, its king hidden in the darkness of the

subterranean world, i.e. between, on the one hand, the royal Solar/Stellar

prerogative and, on the other hand, the influence of the popular (Lunar and Predynastic ?) Osiris, with whom eventually (in the Middle Kingdom), every

deceased would identify. The kings of the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE) emphasized the Solar component of divine kingship, the direct

manifestation of the supreme deity on Earth. Nevertheless, Heliopolitan theology incorporated Osirian thematics, but only insofar Osiris assisted the

celestial terminus of the deceased king, i.e. the son of Re returning to his father, and escaping the darkness of the Duat, thematized in the New

Kingdom Amduat.

Cairo taken from behind the Sphinx

2. The rise of henotheism.

"Men hide, the gods fly away." King Unas (Utt.302 - antechamber, North Wall)

At the start of Dynastic times (ca. 3000 BCE), the religious beliefs of the

Egyptians were contextual, local & relative to social class. Hither and thither, a variety of gods and goddesses were worshipped. Each and every local

deity was "great" ("wr") and polytheism reigned. At the level of state, Horus (Lower Egypt) & Seth (Upper Egypt) represented the balance of the Two

Lands, realized by the institution of divine kingship (his Great Word) and the powers of state (cf. the royal palace or "great house", the temples, the

economy, the seats of learning, the administration, health-care, the military, etc). The (Predynastic ?) identity of the anarchic Seth seems obvious

enough, but the identity of Horus is less so, appearing as a fusion of (a) Horus the Elder and (b) Horus, son of Osiris.

From the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 BCE), initiating the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670

- 2205 BCE), the royal ritual issued a new emphasis on the single, Solar

creator-god Re, replacing the traditional balance between Horus and Seth. The original battle was reorchestrated as a smaller part within the scheme of

a single, universal, all-powerful creator : Atum-Re. The latter did not assimilate or reject the other deities (as in monotheism, stressing the

singular), but became their original point of departure, the self-created initiator of the "first time" (zep tepi) of them all (cf. the Heliopolitan Ennead,

or henotheism), the operative principle (ba) of Nun, the primordial ocean of unending potential outside creation.

The architectural wonders of Pharaohs Djoser (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE), Snofru

(ca. 2600 - 2571 BCE) and Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE) evidence this new royal theology, focusing on the divine king while in power (cf. as Osiris &

Horus in the Sed-festival) and as Son of Re in the afterlife. The latter is two-tiered : first the Duat is confronted (the king becomes Osiris), then, in the

horizon, the Ba of the king is transformed into a spirit rejoining the

Imperishables.

The pyramid is a stairway to heaven, a rising as given by , 041, the double stairway, a determinative indicating "ascent" and "high place" (cf. the

Step Pyramid of Djoser). The names given to the earliest edifices imply the transformation (happening in the Akhet or "horizon") of the royal soul (ba)

of the king into a spirit (akh) rejoining the stars : "Sneferu Endures" (Sneferu"), "The Southern Shining Pyramid" (Sneferu), "The Shining

Pyramid" (Sneferu), "Akhet Khufu" (Khufu), "Djedefre is a Sehed-star"

(Djedefre), "Great is Khafre" (Khafre), "Menkaure is Divine" (Menkaure), "The Purified Pyramid" (Shepseskaf), "Pure are the Places of Userkaf"

(Userkaf), "The Rising of the Ba Spirit" (Sahure), "Pyramid of the Ba of Neferirkare" (Neferirkare), "The Places of Niuserre Endure" (Niuserre),

"Beautiful is Isesi" (Djedkare-Isesi).

By the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE), when King Khephren (ca. 2540 - 2514 BCE) added the title "son of Re" to his royal titulary, Ancient Egyptian

culture had reached its pinnacle. Canonical attainments in science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, magic, ritual and sapiental teachings

had been realized, and we have to wait until the New Kingdom (ca. 1539 - 1075 BCE) to witness new developments (cf. Amduat, Atenism and

Amonism). However, in all periods, especially in the Late Period (664 - 332 BCE), Egypt would return to the canon initiated by King Djoser and his

"Leonardo da Vinci", the vizier, scribe, doctor and architect Imhotep, "the

one that comes in peace". In architecture (cf. Giza pyramids), religion (cf. the Pyramid Texts) and wisdom-teaching, to name but a few areas of

interest, these Old Kingdom rules became sanctosanct.

the henotheist religion of Re

As Papyrus Westcar puts into evidence, the beginning of the Vth Dynasty

saw major changes in Egyptian religion. The powerful influence of Re made the first Pharaoh of the Vth Dynasty (King Userkaf - ca. 2487 - 2480 BCE)

highpriest of Re and begotten by Re himself. Re had visited the wife of Userra, a highpriest of Re. The result was the birth of a divine child.

"From the 3th Dynasty we have the evidence for a new emphasis on a single

creator, eclipsing the balance between the good Horus and the anarchic

Seth. The battles of Horus and Seth do no disappear in the new, classical Egyptian arrangement of divine powers, but they become a smaller part

within the general scheme of a single all-powerful creator." Quirke, 2001, p.83.

The popular Osiris and the crucial battle between his son Horus and Seth, were apparently not ousted from the royal mindset. On the contrary, his

divine family-drama became part of the cycle of the "Great Re", the

overarching & overseeing deity. Osiris became the "Sun of the night", although an essential tension between both myths continued to exist

throughout the Old Kingdom.

"In the royal and state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky, and while he is there Solarized, we have just shown how he also tinctures the Solar

teaching of the celestial kingdom of the dead with Osirian doctrines. The result was thus inevitable confusion, as the two faiths interpenetrated."

Breasted, 1972, p.160.

The pyramid of Userkaf was built at North Saqqara, close to the north-eastern corner of Djoser's enclosure. It evidences a truly substantial re-

evaluation of the rigid monumentality of the previous Dynasty (cf. its small size : side = 73.5m and height = 49m) and less painstaking methods of

construction. The main surviving architectural achievement of Pharaoh Userkaf was his temple dedicated to Re, the Sun-god. Six of the seven kings

of this Vth Dynasty, King Unas included, would do the same in the next eighty years. Re became a state god and Pharaoh the son of Re. These

temples were personal monuments to each king's continued relationship with Re during life and in the afterlife.

The funerary ritual was also elaborated, and in the Vth Dynasty, the Lector-

priest, or "Kheri-Heb" appears in scenes. He was a specialist, and master of

the mortuary rituals for the royals. He was attended by the "Heri-Shesheta", the "Head of Mysteries". These developments evidence an increased

interiority. Sacred writing realizes its first internal structure : words joined

together in simple sentences. Internalization led to the formation of pre-

concepts, i.e. word-images created through imagination and the interplay of meaningful objective relational contexts. Subjectivity was expressed as a

function of an objective state. The actions of the "I"-form are objective states which are not yet (self) reflective. The opacity of the material side of

presence prevailed. The subject has no transparancy of its own, but functions as a "collective Self" walking the Lunar and Solar paths.

However, in the royal cult, three central natural types emerge : on the one

hand, the divine king, his residence and magical power to assure a "good Nile", and, on the other hand, his father, the creator-god Re, "father of the

gods" and giver of life. This is Atum, the "Ba of Nun", the potential to autogenerate floating in the inert waters of chaos. In-between there is

Osiris, the prototype of the regeneration brought by darkness and silence.

Pharaoh, being the son of Re, returns the "right order" to his father (as the

sole god on Earth, he is the only one able to do so). Because he worships his father properly (effectively), he is blessed by the latter and receives a "good

Nile". Thanks to the tomb, his father may descend from the sky and assist his son. The dead would thus continue to rule and Egypt would last for

millions of years ...

Because of this emphasis on Re, a constellational henotheism ensued. To evidence unity, multiplicity is not eliminated. To operate the multiple, the

original unity of the divine is not eclipsed. The various natural types work together under the overarching order of Re, who is their beginning and end.

The deities are so many appearances of the creator. Every night they are reborn with him. Likewise, his son Pharaoh is present in more than hundred

temples simultaneously and he alone effectuates the necessary rituals to make the god find his shrine pleasant and become united with his statue.

Deities only communicate with other deities. A human coming face to face

with the god dies.

the royal titulary

Changes in the royal funerary rituals had already been monumentally expressed by Kings Sneferu and Khufu, but under Khufu's son, Pharaoh

Radjedef (ca. 2548 - 2540 BCE), the signs of far-reaching religious change become institutional. Re surpassed all other deities, even Horus, the sky god

and emblem of the "Followers of Horus". Pharaoh Radjedef, who provided himself with the name "belongs to the firmament", is the first to bear the

name "son of Re" ("sA Ra").

His brother or half brother King Khephren (ca. 2540 - 2514 BCE)

incorporated the royal title "son of Re" in his official, royal titulary. This

titulary ("nxb.t") consisted of 5 titles or "rn wr", "great names". Each of these express a specific view-point on kingship. As the name of someone

was crucial and all-important for his or her survival and effectiveness, the royal name was the "name of names". To know and understand Pharaoh's

names revealed his power in life and to have one's own name written next to his, guaranteed success in the afterlife.

As the "son of Re", King Khephren added a fifth name to his four other

titulary names, thereby expressing the idea of the divine king being the human form of Re at birth, i.e. Re begets the king, who rules over Egypt in

the former's name.

"From this time onward every king of Egypt, whether of Egyptian origin or not, called himself the 'son of Râ'. In later days, when Amen, or Amen-Râ,

became the King of the Gods, it was asserted by his priesthood that the god

assumed the human form of a man and begot the king of Egypt." Budge, 1989, p.33, my italics.

The definitive form of the royal titulary was attained : it began with the Horus Name of the Early Dynastic Period and ended with the name of the

king at birth (as a prince), preceded by "son of Re". When enthroned, the king received a "prenomen", a divine name referring to Re. Both names

were enclosed by an oval ring (suggestive of the Solar cycle), a cartouche.

The "nomen" name is phenomenal. The "prenomen" name is for all of eternity. This enclosure may be compared with the wall surrounding the

temple. Thus it reflects the Solar horizon of the Sun-disk and assures the clear distinction between the divine and the profane.

Just as the "sah" is the result of "senetjer" or ritual consecration, the king

becomes the "son of Re" in actu exercito only after having received his throne-name. As a prince, he was the son of a divine father, as divine king

he is a Lone Star, the son of the unique creator-god and god of light, Re, the star of stars. By adding "son of Re" to the birth name, the divine birth (not

yet divine right) of the royal prince was underlined. At his coronation, he received the "form" of kingship ritually (cf. the royal Ka), but his divine

nature was already present at birth (cf. the royal placenta), for he was conceived by Re himself.

The five names of the royal titulary, a temporal as well as a spiritual declaration of divine rule, are :

1. the Horus name, Banner name or Ka-name : designating the king as

the manifestation of Horus, the elder sky god (Horus in the palace, not

yet Horus, son of Osiris, although both were confused), the divine

prototype and patron of the Egyptian kings. The earliest divine kings, the "Followers of Horus", ruled with this Horus name alone. In the

Early Dynastic Period, the perched falcon of Horus was part of the name of the king. King Aha, for instance, was "Horus-Aha", or "Horus

who fights". In the New Kingdom, "Mighty Bull" was added at the beginning of the name, but it was usually quite variable. Although it

would continue to be used throughout the entire Ancient Egyptian history, it lost its importance to the prenomen en nomen from the end

of the Old Kingdom on. This name was not the birth name of the king, but it was given to him when he ascended the throne. During the Early

Dynastic Period and the early Old Kingdom, it was the king’s official name. His name of birth would not appear in official documents.

This name is often written within a rectangular frame, at the bottom of

which is seen a design of recessed panelling, such as we find in the

facades of early tombs and in the false doors of many private tombs. The Ancient Egyptian name for this facade was "serekh". When

speaking of the (palace) facade, this name is often used in modern texts as well. On top of this "serekh" is perched the falcon of Horus,

hence the appellation "Horus-name". In more elaborate New Kingdom examples, Horus is wearing the double crown and is accompanied by

the Sun and an Uraeus ;

2. the Nebti name or "Two Ladies" title : first met in the reign of Pharaoh Aha, Nekhbet and Uadjit ("wADiit") were the protective goddesses of

Upper and Lower Egypt respectively (a vulture & a cobra, each atop the basket for "Lady"). These two refer to the dual kingdom the king

unites as "Lord of the Two Lands". The "Two Ladies" correspond to these "Two Lords", and to the royal gods Horus and Seth (Lower and

Upper Egypt respectively). The concept of the king embodying both

goddesses, highlights the reconciliation of opposites to maintain the balance, here on a geographical level ;

3. the Gold name, Golden Horus name or Falcon of Gold name : this

name of gold, a falcon atop a beaded collar (meaning "gold"), is first attested in the IVth Dynasty and is represented by a Horus falcon atop

a beaded collar ("nbw" - gold). The name might refer to the wealth and splendour of Pharaoh's divinity, as well as to his enduring qualities

(gold was considered to be the untarnished "flesh" of the deities). The Papyrus of Ani (chapter 77) makes the Falcon of Gold refer to the

Sekhet Hetep, the Field of Peace. The notion of "gold" may thus be linked to neheh-time & its eternal repetition. The burial-chamber in the

royal tombs of the New Kingdom was often called the "golden room",

not (only) because of the presence of actual gold, but because it was

there for all of eternity. The gold name may convey the same notion of eternity, expressing the wish that the king may be an eternal Horus,

i.e. he and his kingdom endure ;

4. the Throne name (prenomen) : is preceded by the "nswt-bitii" title, which translates as "he of the sedge and bee", "King of Upper and

Lower Egypt" or "Dual Kingdom" and is enclosed (in a cartouche). The first known example of this title is dated to the reign of Pharaoh Den,

when it was often combined with the Nebti-name. It would take until the end of the IIIth Dynasty before it came into use and eventually

replaced the Horus-name as the most important official royal name. The systematic presence of the name of Re in the prenomen

(starting with Pharaoh Khephren) indicates it was given to the king when he ascended the throne. It put him in a narrow relationship with

the universal Solar god Re. More recent scholarship conjectures the

name to be a statement regarding Pharaoh and his policies (instead of a theological statement concerning the god). It was compounded with

the name of the Sun god Re (including the hieroglyph of the disk of the Sun), written first (cf. honorific transposition) ;

5. the personal name of Pharaoh (nomen - our family-name) : always

preceded by the epithet "son of Re". It is the name given to the prince at birth. After coronation, it was also enclosed in a cartouche. It

affirmed Pharaoh was by birthright a god. A "cartouche" or "royal ring" depicts a loop formed by a rope, the ends tied together. This conveys

the notions of "eternity" and "encompassing the entire creation". The loop can be seen as the cycle of the Sun itself, the celestial ecliptic (in

reality, the elliptical movement of the Earth around the Sun). The crucial role of "Tail-in-Mouth" in the VIth Hour of the Amduat refers to

this "encircling of creation".

On a single royal monument, all five names seldom appear together. When

only one name was used, the Throne name was the most common. Usually, it was also used when the king had died, avoiding the necessity to add

numbers to the personal names, a method in vogue since the time of Manetho, an Egyptian priest of the third century BCE, who wrote a history of

the Dynasties (of which only fragments have survived). For example, by his contemporaries, King Amenhotep III was named "Nebmaatre", his Throne

name, or "Re is the Lord of Maat" and not "Amenhotep", or "Amun is pleased", the name given to the royal prince at birth (indicative of his family

lineage).

The kings of old were named by their Horus name, suggestive of the

overseeing qualities of the Falcon flying over the "Two Lands". After the

theological changes brought about by the Old Kingdom Heliopolitans, the Throne name was preferred. The complexity of the titulary and the use of

these names, tries to encompass the supernatural effectivity of the presence of the divine king on Earth. His "name of names" conveys his extraordinary

nature in the order of things. The king is "divine" because he is an incarnated Akh, which is truly exceptional, and also the only living being

possessing a "Ba" or principle of transformation (dynamism, change, movement). He is a human being with a personal name, but also a divine

being, with a Ba becoming an Akh (soul becoming spirit). The nomen of the prince underlines his divine origination and vocation, but without the "royal

Ka". Although in the titulary, the nomen is preceded by "the son of Re", he does not use this epithet as long as his father rules. Once crowned, the king

is no longer called by his princely nomen name. Whenever used, it is preceded by "son of Re". As a king, only his Throne name is heard.

the complete titulary of Pharaoh Amenemhet III (ca. 1818 - 1773 BCE)

Middle Kingdom, XIIth (Theban) Dynasty :

Mighty Horus

Great of Might He of the Two Ladies

Taking possession of the inheritance of the Two Lands Horus of Gold

Permanent of Life King of Upper and Lower Egypt

Maat of Re (Nimaatre). Son of Re

Amun at the Head

the theology of Heliopolis

In the theology of Heliopolis (the "On" of the Bible and today the Coptic

suburb of Cairo), the divine king of Egypt, as the sole son of Re, ascends to

the realm of Atum, the unique supreme deity (cf. Hornung, 1986). There, in the Sun's domain, the First Time, the king is ensured of an ongoing increase

in spirituality (an efficiency due to the transformation of his Ba into an Akh, a spirit of light) and a union with the only true source of life and youth,

projected near the Northern Circumpolar Stars ; he arrives there as an awesome god (cf. Cannibal Hymn). He sails on Re's Bark of Millions of Years,

ascends with a ladder or flies as a bird, a grasshopper or sacred smoke ... He escapes the realm of Geb (the Earth) and the Duat of Osiris (the land of

the dead).

The lightland of Re, fountain of rejuvenation and endless power, is a continuing cycle of renewal (in neheh-time), a perpetuum mobile at the core

of (stellar) light. Here, the powerful Sa-energy of the universal Heka-field can be harvested. The latter is due to the autogenic activity of the sole

creator-god Atum.

"Nun" : the unmanifested sameness of everything that is not light ;

"Atum" : unmanifested light diffused in Nun ; "Atum-Kheprer" : the unmanifested, first occurrence of eternally

recurrent light ; "Re" : the manifest presence of Atum as light on the primordial "hill".

Grosso modo, this Heliopolitan ideology of the divine king was Solar, stellar & national, complementing the contextual, regional and variable Lunar

spirituality of the common Egyptians. In the latter, shared by the majority of Egyptians, the role of Osiris was as crucial as the yearly inundation (cf. the

agrarian, Sothic calendar) and the monthly cycle of fertility (cf. Isis & Osiris as Moon deities).

The four compass points and the Heliopolitan ritual.

WEST dusk

Re at dusk and his entry into the Netherworld to regenerate.

Thanks to the magic of Isis and Thoth, Osiris rose in the realm of the dead. When Pharaoh Horus brought his restored eye to

his father, Osiris was pulled out of his slumber and became the king of the "beautiful West" ;

NORTH nadir

During the twelve hours of the night of the Netherworld, Re

travels (and countless Bas with him) on his Bark of Millions of Years. At midnight, the darkest point is reached. The stars

shining in Osiris' Netherworld are in the upper sky, the abode of the Imperishable Stars, the spirits of Re, the pantheon, the

sons of Horus and Pharaoh.

EAST dawn

The rise of Re's rebirth at dawn, the place of light, rebirth and the Ka-statue (the false door). "Khepri", the end result of the

nocturnal regeneration of the deities thanks to Re and his (re)union with Osiris - Horus as a child ;

SOUTH zenith

The culmination of Re at noon, the heat of Seth, the place of birth of the Egyptian state, the inundation given by Osiris

(Sothis), the slaying of Osiris, the mourning of Isis, the fierce

battle between Horus and Seth and the justification of the former as the "avenger of his father" - Horus as king ;

For good reasons, Kemp (1989) and Lesko (1999) doubt whether, in the

Predynastic and the historical periods, Heliopolitan henotheism was shared by the vast majority of unlettered Egyptians. The opposite seems to be true,

associating Heliopolitanism with elitism and Osirian faith with populism.

"Kemp has suggested that Egyptian religion, as we know it from the formal, state-approved written texts, is an intellectually manipulated construction of

the historic period, most likely of the middle or late Old Kingdom (...) to promote the divinity of the king of Egypt."

Lesko, 1999, p.31.

3. The ritual complex of King Unas

the architecture

King Unas, Unis or Wenis (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE) was the last Pharaoh of the

Vth Dynasty. His pyramid at Saqqara, called "Perfect are the Placed of Unas", is at the South-western corner of Djoser's enclosure and the smallest

of all known Old Kingdom pyramids. The complex, a model for subsequent rulers, is almost diagionally opposed to the pyramid of Userkaf (ca. 2487 -

2480 BCE), the founder of this Heliopolitan Dynasty. Located between the enclosures of Djoser's pyramid and Sekhemkhet's, King Unas completed "a

historical and architectural symmetry" (Lehner, 1997, p.154). The pyramid temple was erected directly over the substructure of the IInd Dynasty tomb

assigned to King Hetepsekhemwy. The entrance of the pyramid proper, in the middle of its North side, opens at ground level in the pavement of the

pyramid court (and not in the face of the pyramid). There are remnants of a small entrance chapel.

Plan of the Pyramid-complex of Unas (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE).

The Pyramid was 57.75 m², 43 m high, with a slope of 56°. (after Lehner, 1997, p.155)

Like most Old Kingdom pyramids, the complex of Unas included a pyramid-complex, a causeway and a valley temple below, adjacent to a canal.

Coming in by boat, preparatory rituals took place in the valley temple. One

then proceeded uphill along a causeway, a long corridor with high walls and an insulating roof. The processional causeway to the pyramid of Unas is

750m long and equal to Pharaoh Khufu's. Most causeways have been destroyed, but that of King Unas at Saqqara is in a good condition and hand

been restored in modern times. In its roof, a slit is left open, so a shaft of light illuminates the gallery of brightly painted reliefs, of which only

fragments survive. A wide array of scenes once covered the wall : boats transporting granite palm columns, granite cornices or lintels, craftsmen

working gold & copper, harvesting scenes (grain, figs & honey), deer hunted by greyhounds, archers, woman bearing offerings, battles with enemies,

bearded "Aziatics", scenes of starving people, prisoners begging for mercy ... The causeway had two changes of angle, and South of the second bend lay

two boat pits (each 45m long). By the New Kingdom, the complex had fallen into ruins. More than 1000 years after King Unas died, Khaemwaset, son of

Ramessess II and high priest at Memphis, restored it, causing the famous

name of Unas to live again ...

Plan of the Valley temple and Pyramid-complex of Unas (after Lehner, 1997, p.154)

The pyramid-complex of Unas consisted of two parts separated by a long,

transverse corridor : the foretemple had an entrance hall and a pillared court and the secret, inner temple included a hall with five statue niches, an

antechamber (a high square room with in the middle a single granite pillar) and a sanctuary. A network of storerooms enclosed these elements. There

the offerings and sacred objects for the royal ritual were kept. A temenos wall surrounded the complex. Today it is in ruin, and the pyramid reduced to

a small heap of debris. The temple design itself is also lost.

Plan of the royal tomb underneath the pyramid of Unas.

If the pyramid-complex of Unas became the model for the later pyramid temples, then the purpose of certain parts of the temple may be inferred by

studying later examples, like Pepi II's pyramid temple. In the latter, the transverse corridor was adorned with reliefs illustrating the Sed festival, the

this-life ritual of regeneration of the divine king. The West end of the sanctuary abutted the East wall of the pyramid. This West wall against the

pyramid was covered by a granite stela, serving as point of contact between the world of the living and the realm of the dead (the tomb below). At its

foot an altar was set up and offerings were brought by priests.

Entering the pyramid from the North, it is necessary to bend over in order to move down the passage. The slope is deliberate and varies between 28°

(Khufu), 26° (Khafre), 25° (Pepi II) or 22° in the case of the pyramid of

Unas. The passage is oriented to specific northern stars. It slopes down to a corridor-chamber or vestibule, followed by the usual horizontal passage with

three granite portcullis slabs. It is not possible to stand upright. Once this barrier passed, the first hieroglyphs appear, to be read from the inside of the

pyramid out.

Plan of the royal tomb underneath the pyramid of Unas.

This entrance/exit corridor then opens into the antechamber, directly under the pyramid's centre axis. Standing up, one is surrounded on all sides by

blue-tinted hieroglyphs. On the ceiling of the tomb, golden, pentagram-like stars were carved in relief on a sky-blue background. The North and South

walls of the antechamber and the burial-chamber stop short of the ceiling,

forming a kind of shelf below it (cf. left picture).

In the East of the antechamber (on the left hand side when entering the tomb), a doorway opens to the undecorated and uninscribed tomb-chapel

with three recesses. The middle recess of this possible tomb-chapel lies lower but aligned with the false door of the sanctuary above. Egyptologists

are not sure about the role of this triple chamber, the so-called "serdab" or "cellar".

© Piankoff, A. : The Pyramid of Unas, Princeton University Press - Princeton, 1968.

Burial-chamber - pyramid of King Unas. Sarcophagus West, western half of North & South walls in alabaster.

On the West of the antechamber (at the right hand side when entering the tomb and precisely opposite the Ka-chapel), a passage-way leads to the

burial-chamber. This has a black granite sarcophagus at its West end. In its immediate vincinity, there are no texts. Instead, we see a palace-façade

design, with reed-mats and a wood-frame enclosure, an iconography derived from the royal mastaba tombs of the First Dynasty. Together with the icon of

two lotus flowers back to back, these motifs recur, possibly because the

lotus represents dawn, the emergence of light as Nefertem, the son of dawn. This would make the royal ritual a ceremony of life, merging the finite life of

the king (both alife & deceased ?) with the infinite life, viewed as "djedet", everlasting (as Osiris, through darkness) and "neheh", eternal recurrent (as

Re, through light).

"All of these considerations may lead us to conclude that in the highly

sensitive space surrounding the sarcophagus, certain ritual events took place that were -in the pyramid of Unas- regarded as too delicate to reveal in

words. But in later times, after the reign of King Teti, the immediate vincinity of the sarcophagus -especially the West wall- was freed from this

stricture, and what was only implied by the symbolic designs in the Unas pyramid was now openly expressed in words. It is of for this reason that the

pyramid of Unas contains so little textual reference to the Osirian re-memberment : It was considered too delicate a matter to put into words."

Naydler, 2005, p.164.

In the West, the place of regeneration, the mummy is in the total darkness of Osiris, allowing it to be reborn, ascending to illumination. The walls

around the sarcophagus, on which these designs were carved, are made of polished alabaster, whereas all the other walls of the tomb are in Tura

limestone. Alabaster is soft and translucent. It was referred to as "ankh", or "life" and had a milky color (milk was also called "ankh was", "the sap of

life"). Sunk in the floor to the left (South) of the foot of the sarcophagus was the canopic chest, meant to protect the four "ritual" elements of the physical

body, represented by the "sons of Horus", or lords of the four pillars of the physical world the deceased (or the high priest) has left. Taken together,

these spiritual symbols learn us a lot suggesting the sacredness of this uninscribed area of the tomb, overtowered by the West Gable hieroglyphs,

acting as magical protection devices, and initiating oration.

"One of the recurrent motifs is that of two lotus flowers with their stems but

no leaves, represented back to back. This is a motif that occurs in many Old Kingdom tombs and on tomb artifacts, but especially on sarcophagi and

around false doors. The significance of this is that the sarcophagus was a place of transition between the physical and spiritual worlds, while the falso

door was a place of communication between realms. The lotus, whose manner of growth involves passing out of the water element in order to

flower in the air, touched by the rays of the sun, was preeminently a symbols of breakthrough from one world to another."

Naydler, 2005, p.162.

In the Old Kingdom, temples for the cult of the deities were usually made out of brick, a perishable material. The tombs of the divine kings were

petrified, precisely because in this way he became the sole guardian of the magical keys of the kingdom : a "good" Nile. Only the king was the son of Re

on Earth (cf. Heavenly Cow). The plateau being full, the kings of the Vth Dynasty, in order to erect their pyramid complex, had to leave Giza. In

doing so, they lost their sight-line to Iunu (Heliopolis). Adding a Solar temple to the pyramid complex (cf. King Userkaf) compensated for the distance,

assuring the royal cult was directly associated with the son of Re on Earth.

These "Heliopolitan" Dynasties (Djoser - Unas ?), were exceptional & foundational.

The royal cult also served this-life purposes (of which the celebration of the

Sed festival is an outstanding example, but there must have been more). Service to the father of the king, and creator of all deities, was also part of

it. To represent the link with the Sun, a massive stone mound shaped like a squat obelisk was used. It stood at the back of an open court (the best

example is King Neuserre's at Abu Ghurab, following the model of the pyramid complex, and situated riverside). As a result, both the royal cult and

the cult of the deities (in casu Atum-Re) took place in temples made out of lasting materials. Later cult temples, even disconnected from the royal cult,

remained stone edifices. Thanks to Re the deities endured.

© Piankoff, A. : The Pyramid of Unas, Princeton University Press - Princeton, 1968.

Antechamber - pyramid of King Unas passage-way West to Burial-chamber, corridor North

The royal cult is origin and goal of the traditional theologies of the Old

Kingdom (Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Memphite & Osirian). Without the

king, there is no Maat and the created world returns to chaos, as light to

darkness. The ideal of divine kingship, a unity of temporal and spiritual activities, is crucial to understand the "canon" of the Old Kingdom mentality

and way of life. Especially in the IIIth, IVth & Vth Dynasties, a fairly unmixed, pristine strand of this culture is revealed.

The Unas text is a literary masterpiece summarizing the best theology of the

moment. It is not a loose set of funerary spells, but a composition to be viewed as an integrated whole, albeit in early ante-rational thinking. No

doubt, the intellectual elite produced concrete concepts, as in proto-rational cognition, but the culture at large was still steeped in myth and pre-rational

pre-concepts, remaining very situational and with limited functionality.

"But one cannot help suspecting that a fundamental revision of the ritual coincided with the decision to immortalize these spells, previously handed

down on perishable papyrus, by carving them in stone and thereby also

endowing them with greater magical power. The decision on Wenis's part has provided for us the earliest collection of religious texts, not only of

Egypt, but of all humankind." Hornung, 1999, p.36.

The divine nature of the king is the core myth holding Ancient Egyptian society together. It explains royal magic (effectiveness), Great Speech and

Maat, truth & justice. In the "ideal" of the Heliopolitan priests, the living

Horus-king guarantees a "good Nile" and his united administration creates economic surplus. The Nile records his magic, while the "pacification" of the

"two lands" is his control & power, the brilliance of his Great Mansion. Centuries before Unas, this state ideology was already fully in place (cf. the

great building projects).

the texts

King Unas was the first to include hieroglyphic inscriptions in his royal tomb, namely in its corridor, antechamber, passage-way & burial-chamber. The

area around the sarcophagus and the serdab are left uninscribed. This coincides with a general increase of writing in general in the later Vth

Dynasty. The Unas text, carved and filled with blue pigment, contains, in 228 of the 759 (Faulkner, 1969) known "utterances", the first historical

account of the (Heliopolitan) religion of the Old Kingdom, in particular its

royal cult. It precedes the textualization of the Vedas, reckoned at ca. 1900 BCE (Unas died ca. 2348 BCE).

"The Pyramid Texts reflect not only an Egyptian vision of the afterlife but

also the entire background of Old Kingdom religious and social structures,

and they incorporate an ancient worldview much different from that of more

familiar cultures." Allen, 2005, p.13.

Technically, the Pyramid Texts are a corpus consisting of "utterances" or "spells", so called because the expression "Dd mdw" ("Dd" = "word" ; "mdw"

= "speech"), "to say" or "to say the words", i.e. the sacred words to be recited is, as a rule, atop most texts, allowing for a classification. The one

introduced by Sethe (1910, with 714 utterances), is an inventory of all texts,

irrespective of the kind of text or its placement in the tombs.

Integrating both variables underlines the effort to bring out the dramatic & ritualistic features of these texts.

"The actual inscription of text on the walls of the Pyramid of Unas shows

considerable redactional care, with a significant number of corrections, both to the original ink draft and to the carved signs, in ways that seem to imply

copying and then collation from a more cursive original. There can indeed be no reasonable doubt that inscriptions themselves were copied immediately

from papyrus text." Eyre, 2002, p.12, my italics.

Discovered by Maspero in 1881, the Unas text had been buried and left

undisturbed for ca. 4200 years. An untainted primary religious source ! Together with the texts found in the tombs of King Unas' successors,

Pharaohs Teti, Pepi I, Merenre & Pepi II (ca. 2270 - 2205 BCE) of the VIth Dynasty, these compositions form the first known religious corpus in world

literature, as well as the earliest example of extended writing worldwide (including a rich pallet of various styles, forms & intentions). The small

pyramids of the three wives of King Pepi II (Neith, Ipwet and Oudjebeten) are also inscribed, as is that of King Iby (VIIIth Dynasty).

The quality of these inscriptions is however relatively crude and they are not part of the inventory realized by Sethe (1908), the "standard edition" of the

Pyramid Texts, later translated into German. In 1952, Mercer published the first English version and in 1968, Piankoff translated the text in his The

Pyramid of Unas. Finally in 1969, Faulkner published his The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, the acclaimed standard English translation, with

new & refreshing grammatical & semantic perspectives. For him, Sethe's work was bulky, incomplete and never revised by its author. Meanwhile,

more material had come to light, enabling him to restore many lacunae, whereas in the last half of the previous century great advances in Ancient

Egyptian had been made.

The list of tombs containing Pyramid Texts is apparently never final, nor has

our knowledge of Ancient Egyptian stopped advancing. In 2005, Allen published The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, containing the texts found in

10 tombs (besides the canonical five, he also includes Ankhesenpepi II, Neith, Iput II, Wedjebetni & Ibi). This clear translation of the Unas text is in

many ways remarkable and most welcome, in particular regarding the use of verbal forms, as well as offering translations of passages beforehand

deemed untranslatable, calling for revision. No doubt, this translation by Allen excells Faulkner's and is a humbling experience for anyone studying

these texts for years.

The Unas text was copied in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE) tomb of the official Senwosret-Ankh, high priest of Ptah, suggesting the

presence of a separate corpus (on papyrus ?), i.e. a continuous manuscript tradition and an underlying archival tradition. This is also the best preserved

body of text representing a complete set, providing the standard approach

to the theology of the Old Kingdom, dominated by Re-Atum of Heliopolis (Pepi II has the most complete surviving texts of the later pyramids, but

suffering damage).

"... the Unas texts were evidently regarded as an integral work in their own right, and seem to have acquired 'canonical' status ..."

Naydler, 2005, p.149.

Maspero (1884, p.3) assumed these texts were exclusively funerary and divided them in ritual texts, prayers and magical spells. In the previous

century, authors realized they include drama, hymns, litanies, glorifications, magical texts, offering rituals, prayers, charms, divine offerings, the

ascension of Pharaoh, his arrival & settling in heaven, etc. They offer a glimpse of an African, anterational perspective on death, rebirth &

illumination.

4. The interpretation of the Pyramid Texts

"They include very ancient texts among those which were nearly

contemporary with the pyramids in which they were inscribed, imposing on the modern reader problems of grammar and vocabulary ; the orthography

is apt to be unusual ; and there are many mythological and other allusions of which the purport is obscure to the translator of today."

Faulkner, 1969, p.v.

For Sethe (1908), the Pyramid Texts were a free collection of magical

utterances, which, by virtue of their presence, assisted the divine king in his

resurrection & ascension de opere operato, dispensing with the need for daily priestly offerings to his Ka (in the pyramid temple above) as well as

elaborate monumental buildings. He himself uttered the words of power to regenerate himself and rise up. The sarcophagus chamber texts have to be

read first. This is the standard funerary interpretation.

"Food offerings alone, however, even when they conformed to the prescriptions regarding purity and dietary taboos (e.g. no pork, no fish), did

not suffice to maintain the divine forces. These forces were nothing without ritual and efficacious speech." Traunecker, 2001, p.40, my italics.

The presence of offering-texts feeds the subtle bodies of the deceased. Sacred words or hieroglyphs not only describe objects, but embody their

double (cf. the Lascaux pictures and the Eastern desert petroglyphs). Hence, once properly recited (by the dead and/or the living, the so-called "voice-

offerings"), they become efficient (for all of eternity). The hidden, secret, dark potential of hieroglyphs is evidenced by the sacrificial rituals found in

the extended mortuary literature. Words made these rituals work. The Ba of the deceased reads the words and the latter manifest their meaning,

guaranteeing a safe passage to the afterlife.

"We have already pointed out that the spells of the so-called sacrificial ritual,

i.e. the texts used in the provision of supplies, were inscribed in a prominent place where they could be seen by the dead person resting in his

sarcophagus. (...) In other words, texts were written down so that the dead themselves could 'proclaim the provision of supplies' ("nis dbHt-Htp")

instead of this being done by unreliable priests. This was the nucleus around which the texts crystallized."

Morenz, 1996, p.229.

Schott (1945) & Ricke (1950) advanced the thesis that at the time of the funeral, these texts were recited in the various chambers, corridors and

courts through which the procession passed on its way to the pyramid. The valley temple corresponded to the vestibule, the causeway to the entrance

corridor, the outer pyramid temple to the antechamber and the sanctuary to the burial-chamber. But it was not easy to identify where each spell was

recited.

This view was challenged by Arnold (1977), who tried to discover the function of the pyramid complex by examining the wall reliefs, statues,

inscriptions and architectural features of the complex itself. These refer little to funerary rituals ! Schott discovered three literary forms : (a) dramatic

texts recited by the participants in a ritual drama, (b) hymns assisting the

ritual drama and (c) transfiguration spells, in which the scene happens in the spirit worlds while the king speaks through the reciting priest. As for Scott

the funerary procession terminated in the inner pyramid temple (corresponding with the sarcophagus room), we have to read the texts in

the burialchamber last !

For Spiegel (1953 & 1971) the texts are an integral part of the funerary ritual performed in the tomb and hence recited in the area were they were

inscribed. They reflect the royal burial ritual taking place solely in the tomb underneath the pyramid. Their placement reflects the entry of the funerary

procession into the tomb. Hence, the text begins on the West wall of the entrance corridor, continue in the burial-chamber and re-enter the

antechamber on its South wall, ending on the East wall of the entrance corridor ... Again a different order from that of Sethe, Scott and Ricke !

Spiegel is the first to claim the sarcophagus chamber represents the Duat

and the antechamber the Akhet.

These conjectures were criticized. In 1960, Morenz wrote :

"This bold, learned and ingenious interpretation can properly be accessed only by one who has examined it in terms of the vast and diverse material.

When this is done, it appears that quite serious objections may be levelled against numerous points in the argumentation and thus against the thesis as

such." Morenz, 1996, p.228-229, my italics.

According to Mercer (1952), only the offering liturgy (on the North wall of

the burial-chamber) belongs to the funerary ritual proper. The purpose of the magical & mythical formulae, prayers, hymns and petitions was to

guarantee the king's resurrection and new birth, involving transfiguration and deification, the king being immortal like the other deities. In his

translation, Mercer follows Sethe's classification.

Likewise, for Piankoff (1968) the texts describe a postmortem mystical journey, culminating in union with the godhead, Re-Atum. It entails rebirth,

ascent, traveling in the Solar Barque, absorption of the substance of the deities and exaltation in the embrace of Re-Atum. Like Schott, Piankoff

begins to read the text in the corridor leading into the tomb, moves to the

antechamber for the king's ascension and projects his final deification in the burial-chamber.

For Faulkner (1969), the Pyramid Texts are to be regarded as religious and

funerary literature. They describe the king's postmortem journey to the stars

and transformation into one (Faulkner, 1966). His translation again follows

Sethe's classification.

Altenmüller (1972) agrees with Schott & Ricke that these texts were recited in the pyramid temple, as well as in the tomb, involving priests assuming the

god-forms of Re, Horus, Seth and Thoth.

In the Unas text, he isolates three main sections : (a) the funerary procession and actions on the mummy (censing, libation, opening of the

mouth), (b) the offering ritual and (c) the burial ritual on the West wall of the antechamber. He attempts to explain every utterance in terms of the

mortuary rituals, relying mostly on mythological references and worldplay to determine which text corresponds to which representation. He based his

order of the text on (a) the sequencing found in the tomb of Senwosret-Ankh and (b) his conjectured order of the royal funerary ritual as portrayed

in the later Middle and New Kingdom private tombs.

"Schott, Spiegel, and Altenmüller all see the key to understanding the

Pyramid Texts as lying outside the texts themselves." Naydler, 2005, p.180.

Barta (1981) doubts whether the Pyramid Texts belong to the funerary ritual at all. The goal of these texts extended beyond the short duration of the

actual funerary ritual. They serve the king in the afterlife. Barta returns to

the interpretation of Sethe. The texts are used by the king in the afterlife, providing him knowledge and magical power, assisting him in the process of

his deification. Barta accepts that the Duat might be accessible to the king while he is still living, but the texts themselves are intended to help the

deceased king ...

Osing (1986) & Allen (1988) compared the location of the texts within the tomb of Unas with other Old Kingdom pyramids and the tomb of Senwosret-

Ankh at Lisht. Allen was able to establish a coherent model describing the funerary ideology of these royal tombs without reference to conjectured

stages of a funerary ritual. The position of particular groups of texts within Unas' pyramid corresponds with the placement of the same texts in other

pyramids. Spells recited during the burial ritual were thus eternalized as divine words on the walls, further complementing the importance of

symbolism in the general layout of the mortuary complex in general and the

royal tomb in particular. The order is determined by the thematic relationship of the texts to the architectural symbolism of the two chambers

and their four quarters. There is a spatial semantic at work.

"Allen's analysis of the sequence of spells in the pyramid of Wenis defines

the architecture as a material representation of the passage of the king

through death to resurrection, exploiting themes familiar in the Underworld Books of the New Kingdom. From the darkness of the earth he passes to life

in the light of the sky, progressing from the burial chamber as underworld (duat) through the antechamber as horizon (akht) where he becomes Akh,

through the doorway leading to the corridor -ascending by ladder- to heaven (pet), or passing like the setting sun from the west to his rising from the

mouth of the horizon in the east, or exploiting the image of the king passing from his sarcophagus -the womb of Nut- through her vulva to birth at the

door of the horizon. (...) Allen's analysis focuses on the principle whereby the position of discrete units of ritual text asserts a functional identity

between the theology of the text and the architectural symbolism of the pyramid substructure, and so the reality of the king's passage to

resurrection". Eyre, 2002, p.44-45 & 47.

The direction of the texts was thus identical with the soul's path through the

tomb, moving from the innermost parts of the burial-chamber (the "Duat" in the West), through the antechamber (the Eastern horizon or "Akhet"), to the

outside of the pyramid via the second northern tunnel, flying to the Northern, circumpolar (imperishable) Stars, reaching the Field of Offering.

the Duat (burial-chamber) : though a part of the world (Earth), but neither Nun or sky, the Netherworld is inaccessible to the living and

outside normal human experience. It is separate from the sky and reached prior to it. The Field of Reeds is the realm of the deceased and

the deities and the mystery of Osiris. The Horus-king has perpetuated offerings, and stands at the door of the horizon to emerge from the

Duat and start his spiritualization ; the Horizon (antechamber) : "Axt" ("Akhet"), translated as "horizon",

is both the junction of sky and Earth and a place in the sky underneath this point (before eastern dawn and after western dusk), a secret

interstitial zone reached and crossed by boat. It is a zone of transition and a "radiant place", the "land of the blessed". The horizon is the

place of becoming effective, the locus of the becoming "Ax" ("Akh"),

an effective spirit. Note (as did Allen, 1988), that the Cannibal Hymn, thematically belongs in its place (the East Gable). It summarized the

king's passage through the night sky to the Sun at dawn. The process of spiritualization ends with the emergence of the new light ;

the Imperishable sky (northern corridor) : the process of transfiguration (ultimate spiritualization) being completed, the Akh-

spirit leaves the tomb and ascends to the northern stars, becoming an Imperishable One.

Eyre (2002) suggests the training and initiation of the funerary priests points

to this-life rituals. Perhaps the king rehearsed his forthcoming burial during life ?

"The promise of divine assistance, resurrection, and safe passage to the

afterlife is not, however, a concern purely of funerary ritual, and the markedly initiatory form of parts of the mortuary literature must be taken as

a pointer to contemporary 'this-life' ritual that is otherwise lost from the archaeological record."

Eyre, 2002, p.72.

Recently, Naydler (2005), by suspending the funerary interpretation, evidenced that the Pyramid Texts in general and the Unas texts in particular,

reveal an experiential dimension, and so also represent this-life initiatic experiences consciously sought by the divine king (cf. Egyptian initiation).

These may be classified in two categories : Osirian rejuvenation (cf. the texts of the burial-chamber), already at work in the Sed festival, and

Heliopolitan ascension (cf. the texts in the antechamber). Apparently the former was celebrated regularly, whereas the latter is foremost funerary.

According to Allen (2005), the Pyramid Texts :

"are largely concerned with the deceased's relationship to two gods, Osiris

and the Sun. Egyptologists once considered these two themes as

independent views of the afterlife that had become fused in the Pyramid Texts, but more recent research has shown that both belong to a single

concept of the deceased's eternal existence after death - a view of the afterlife that remained remarkably consistent throughout ancient Egyptian

history." Allen, 2005, p.7.

conjectured symbolism of the compass points

Many variations regarding the reading direction of the pyramid texts of Unas

prevail. Allen's interpretation of Spiegler's conjecture (identifying the burial-chamber with the Duat and the antechamber with the Akhet) seems very

interesting and has been adapted. However, my sequencing of the texts differs from both Allen & Naydler, and this for variant reasons.

For example, Allen (2005) is not impressed that in the sacropagusroom, PT 219 on the South Wall continues on the East Wall, nor that in the

antechamber PT 260 on the West Wall continues on the South Wall. For Naydler (2005), this points to the Solar & regenerative movement from West

to East, as seen in the tomb, confirmed by what he sees as examples of inverse quioning, used in architecture to avoid making the joint between two

blocks in the corner.

5. An integration of perspectives.

the mind & magic of Re

Let us try to integrate these various perspectives, taking into consideration

the cognitive texture of the ante-rational mind as well as the dramatic, ritualistic interpretation of these ancient magical texts.

If we understand these texts as magical devices, and realize each monarch

had his own political and theological preferences, then it seems likely each

divine king, to define his own royal cult, made his own, titulary choice out of the available body of religious literature (available on papyrus), maybe

adding a few spells of his own. By doing so, he left to posterity an elaborated theo-literary testament with magical effectivity. If so, it became

exemplary. This was his magical Great Speech, serving Pharaoh's welfare in the afterlife, elevating him above all possible beings and making him rise

even above most deities (cf. the Cannibal Hymn). But also during life on Earth, his royal cult was active and assured his renewal (as the Sed festivals

testify).

This magic is part of the logic of the Great Speech, which involved a return to the First Time ("zep tepi") of Atum-Khepri, the self-created essence of Re.

This going back to the Golden Age lay at the core of both this-life and afterlife rituals. In the books of the Netherworld, they are represented near

Re on his Sacred Barque ; Re with his functions :

"sia" (understanding) : often wrongly associated with "wisdom"

("saa"), "sia" is related to "knowledge", "perception", "intelligent plan", and might be equated with the mind of Re, or "understanding". In the

Old Kingdom, Sia is the divine functionary at the right side of Re, holding the god's sacred papyrus scroll. He is mostly depicted or

mentioned together with "Hu". For the Memphites, the mind of Re was the heart of Ptah (cf. Late New Kingdom) ;

"hu" (authorative utterance) : the creative word of the supreme creator-god is uttered by his tongue. To speak words of power is

immediate and carries conviction, strength and weight. "Hu" is also

deified, and is always depicted together with Sia. Both represent the basic functions of the divine mind : overarching understanding

(overviewing the Two Lands) hand in hand with authority, weight & power of command. Both concepts pre-figurate the omiscience &

omnipotence of the Judeo-Christian God ; "heka" (magic) : the creative power contained in the divine word of

Atum. "Heka" is used to denote (a) the "primordial Sa", the ever-dynamical energy of creation, issued from the word of Atum when he

created himself as Atum-Kheprer, and (b) the "primordial field" underpinning creation. Sa-energy was present from the beginning,

when Atum-Kheprer hatched out of the primordial egg floating in Nun. Not only does the king's Great Speech know it all and carry the power

of conviction & authority, but it has immediate effectiveness and causal power. The king is such a powerful cause that creation bows

before the son of the Creator ;

"maat" (truth & justice) : daughter of Re, and spouse of both Heka and Thoth (deities of magic), Maat represents the impersonal idea of

cosmic order, embodied by the divine king, who offers "truth" to his

father Re. Maat is the plummet of the balance of justice. In Middle Egyptian, the word "maat" ("mAat") is used for "truth" and "justice".

Truth is an equilibrium (a bringing together hand in hand with a keeping apart), measurable as the state of affairs given by the image,

form or representation of the balance :

U38 "mxAt", balance

"Pay attention

to the decision of truth and the

plummet of the balance,

according to its

stance." Papyrus of Ani

18th Dynasty -

Chap.30B, pl.3

Anubis measures &

represents this

precise attention of

the divine guardian

& psychopomp,

while the input of

sensation is

recorded (mind) by

Thoth.

This New Kingdom exhortation by Anubis, the Witness of the Balance,

summarizes the Egyptian practice of wisdom and pursuit of justice & truth. By it, their "practical method of truth" springs to the fore : serenity,

concentration, observation, quantification (analysis, spatiotemporal flow, measurements) & recording (fixating), with the sole purpose of rebalancing,

reequilibrating & correcting concrete states of affairs, using the plumb-line of the various equilibria in which these actual aggregates of events are

dynamically -scale-wise- involved. Responding likewise, but always from two different angles : on the one hand, the "common" view of "the heart",

namely the end result of the activities of the living person, on the other hand, the divine view of truth & justice, the truth of the cosmic order of the

world, represented by a feather (H6).

The activities of the divine king cause :

(a) Maat to be done for them and their environments and

(b) the proper "Ka", or vital energy, at peace with itself, to flow between all

parts of creation (truth and justice are personified as the daughter of Re,

equivalent with the Greek Themis, daughter of Zeus - cf. "maati" as the Greek "dike").

The "logic" behind the operation of the balance involves four rules :

1. inversion : when a concept is introduced, its opposite is also invoked

(the two scale of the balance) ;

2. asymmetry : flow is the outcome of inequality (the feather-scale of the balance is a priori correct) ;

3. reciprocity : the two sides of everything interact and are interdependent (the beam of the balance) ;

4. multiplicity-in-oneness : the possibilities between every pair are measured by one standard (the plummet)

5. witnessing consciousness : the operation of measuring the whole balance is witnessed with precise and concentrated attention and

recorded for further comparison and retuning.

Parapsychology, comparative religions and mysticology allow us to

distinguish between psi-events (parapsychology), occultism (knowledge of the invisible worlds between heaven and Earth) and mysticism (direct,

radical experience of the Divine, the "totaliter aliter"). Although in immature instances of meta-nominal experience (i.e. those falling outside empirico-

formal consciousness - cf. Clearings, 2006), these phenomena cannot be distinguished, I avoid adjectives as "shamanic" or "shamanistic" (cf. Naydler,

J. : Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, 2005), and prefer "ecstatic", which is more neutral and devoid of the historical connotations implied by

historical Shamanism (the art & science of controlled trance). The word "ecstatic" comes from the Greek "ex", "out" + "stasis", "standstill" or

"statikè", "art of weighing", and refers to an extraordinary, unmeasurable, radical experience, clearly out of the ordinary. In my opinion, the

Heliopolitan priesthood was too well organized to be called "Shamanistic", although this does preclude shamanistic components in the sacred spells

(compare this with the presence of trance oracles & dagger-liberations in

Tibetan Buddhism today). Can one do otherwise but disagree with a most rewarding sources of inspiration and learning, Erik Hornung, who wrote

about the Egyptians :

"... any sort of ecstasy appears quite alien to their attitudes." Hornung, 1986.

In Ancient Egypt, the variety of ecstatic experiences may be classified as

personal piety (offerings, prayers, festivals, mystery plays), magic (psi-events), the occult (initiation, entering and leaving the Duat) and mysticism

proper. The latter is found in the spirituality of the divine king and his high

priests, meeting the deity "face to face" in their temples or transforming into one during life (as a living Osiris during the Sed festival).

the royal cult

In order to understand the Pyramid Texts, the ecstatic, magical, occult &

funerary elements should be combined. The pyramid-complex may well have been the place of the royal cult, both during and after the king's life. He was

the "Great House" or "Great Mansion" of the Old Kingdom (Memphis), and he alone uttered the Great Speech. All areas of the temple complex may

have been used in this magico-religious empowerment of the divine king, who was the sole reference-point here, in the invisible Duat as well as in the

afterlife. Much later, with king Akhenaten, we witness the return of this royal Solar cult.

"In each instance Maat is in concrete forms undoubtedly the divinely-established pattern of government, and the pharaoh, by virtue of his divine

nature, receives it substantially like a sacrament. It will at once be clear that in this process the king is not regarded as an individual person but as the

bearer of the royal office. One must assume that the Maat at work in the ruler was thought to be of benefit to each individual Egyptian."

Morenz, 1996, p.121.

So the "djed medu" or the recitative use of these texts should not be

surprising. With the tomb as cosmos, the material image of the texts magically assist the process of the Pharaonic rite of passage, transforming

the king into a spirit efficient enough to bless his son with a "good Nile", guarantee of the unity of Egypt. But the royal cult was much more. During

life, it was a means to continuously regenerate the powers of the divine king to perform his office efficiently, i.e. ti was accompanied by great magic &

divine protection.

The overall Egyptian mentality seems to favour an enduring canon of broad

schemes adaptable to immediate circumstances. As each divine king had his own titulary, or political statement, so he, as supreme High Priest, had his

own regeneration-ritual & burial ritual, of course influenced by the prevailing dynastic theology, each Temple being the home of the "supreme" god of

each system, one of the five local gods promoted to national deities : Osiris of Abydos, Re of Heliopolis, Ptah of Memphis, Thoth of Hermopolis or Amun

of Thebes.

The royal cult was both regenerative as mortuary, reflecting a variety of local (nomic) traditions at work around the divine king and soliciting his

favours. Of course, some compositions were considered more sacred than

others, and the texts carved in Unas' tomb were and/or became canonical.

The Egyptians existed by the grace of the "good Nile" the king alone, being divine, could guarantee. His death was thus a major calamity, and could

perturbate the agricultural cycle, leading to famine, conflicts and death. His burial provided him with a ladder between heaven and Earth, and so the first

thing the glorified (spiritualized) king would do arriving in the sky (pet, heaven), was to provide Egypt with a new king and a "good Nile". The latter

was the magical proof of the king being blessed by the spirit of his father ...

Ba of Ani rejoining the mummy - Ba leaving the tomb

Papyrus of Ani - ca. 1250 BCE - New Kingdom.

This reciprocal function of the tomb has to be emphasized. The Ba could return with its Ka. The liberated "Akh" has freedom of movement and time.

It is bright, light, radiant and efficient. While they stay in the sky, the spirits make their souls and doubles come down and unite with their statues.

Through them, they were present to the priests. The destruction of a tomb or a temple, implied the end of its role as "interphase" with "the other side"

of the false door.

the language of the texts

In the ca. 650 years between ca. 3000 BCE (the beginning of the Dynastic

Period) and ca. 2348 BCE (the death of king Unas), the written language had considerably developed. But although words could be joined together in

simple sentences and the latter in pragmatical groups (dealing with honors & gifts, offices, legacies, inventories, testaments, transfers, endowments,

etc.), the additive, archaic quality of the literary style was pronounced and remains.

The Pyramid Texts pose their own particular problems & difficulties. Most, if

not all, founding fathers of Egyptology accepted Maspero's funerary interpretation, in which these texts form a set of symbolical "heraldic"

utterances (great speeches) dealing with the promotion of the welfare of the divine king in the afterlife. But, enjoying a broader perspective, conjecture

these utterances were part of the ceremonies of the royal cult, especially those relating to the coronation, rebirth (Sed festival), death, resurrection

(in the Duat or Netherworld) and ascension of the divine king (via Akhet, horizon, to Pet, sky).

These texts are to a large extent a composition, a compilation and joining of

earlier texts which must have circulated orally or have been recorded on papyrus many centuries earlier. Certain registers go back to the oral

tradition of the Predynastic Period, for they suggest the political context of Egypt before its final unification (as Sethe pointed out). Others, although the

archeological record is limited, were used in this-life rituals (Naydler, 2005),

and must have had initiatoric connotations.

"The Pyramid Texts were not the work of a single man or of a single age. They are entirely anonymous and of uncertain date. And they are religious

literature which reflect more or less clearly the conditions of religious thought in ancient Egypt previous to the Seventh Dynasty - more like the

Psalms than any other book of the Old Testament." Mercer, 1956, p.2.

In the Old Egyptian of the Pyramid Texts, the composition between semantic

groups is loose. Subjectivity is still objectified. Pre-operatoric activity is limited to the immediate material context. Older structures were mingled

with new ones and many traces of earlier periods were left over. The language of these compositions, which has the style of the "records" of the

Old Kingdom, is often additive and offers little self-reflection (which starts with the literature of the First Intermediate Period). Didactic poetry

(precepts) and lyrics in which personal emotions & experiences are highlighted are nearly absent. Although proto-rationality is most of the time

lingering, the overall framework of the composition is pre-rational (cf. cognition and epistemology). The tensions are not resolved but stratified,

allowing for several registers to be identified : Predynastic, Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Osirian, royal, funerary, ecstatic, magical, occult, funerary,

etc. The blend itself is most interesting, if not very difficult to understand.

Various types of parallelism occur : synonymous (doubling or by repetition),

symmetrical, combined, grammatical, antithetic, of contrast, of constraint, of analogy, of purpose and of identity. Metrical schemes of two, three, four,

five, six, seven or eight lines occur (the fourfold being the most popular).

The play of words is the commonest literary feature, depending on the

consonantal roots. Alliteration, metathesis, metaphors, ellipses, anthropomorphisms and picturesque expressions and puns are also found.

Not surprising a thorough understanding of these texts is lacking.

Translating Ancient Egyptian literature calls for special considerations, which may be summarized as follows :

1. semantic circumscription (Gardiner) : to those unaware of the

semantical problem in mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational thought and its literary products, the differences between various

translations may be disconcerting. Ancient Egyptian literature is a

treasure-house of this ante-rational cognitive activity, and its "logic" is entirely contextual, pictoral, artistic and practical. The meaning or

conception of the sense of certain words, especially in sophisticated literary context, is prone to large discrepancies. Gardiner spoke of

"interpretative preferences" (Gardiner, 1946).

Furthermore, despite major grammatical discoveries, Egyptian writing is ambiguous qua grammatical form. Some of its defects can not be

overcome and so a "consensus omnium" among all sign-interpreters is unlikely. The notion of "semantic circumscription" was derived from

this quote by Gardiner : "If the uncertainty involved in such tenuous distinctions awake

despondency in the minds of some students, to them I would reply that our translations, though very liable to error in detail, nevertheless

at the worst give a roughly adequate idea of what the ancient author

intended ; we may not grasp his exact thought, indeed at times we may go seriously astray, but at least we shall have circumscribed the

area within which his meaning lay, and with that achievement we must rest content."

Gardiner, 1946, pp.72-73, my italics.

To the latter, more attention to lexicography (a discussion of individual words) and the rule that at least one certain example of the sense of a

word must be given were considered as crucial. Personally, I would

add the rule that one has to take into consideration all hieroglyphs (also the determinatives) and try to circumscribe the meaning by

assessing the context in which words and sentences appears ; 2. the benefit of the doubt (Zába) : amendments should be introduced

with great caution and for very good reasons. Indeed, some egyptologists change the original text with great ease, and consider

that Egyptian scribes were careless and prone to mistakes. This is not the correct attitude. We all make mistakes. Zába prompted us to

respect the original text and made it his principle. He wrote :

"Pour ce qui est la traduction d'un texte égyptien dans une langue

moderne, l'étude de divers textes (...) m'a amené au principe dont je me suis fait une règle, à savoir de considérer a priori un texte égyptien

comme correct et de m'en expliquer chaque difficulté tout d'abord par l'aveu de ne pas connaître la grammaire ou le vocabulaire égyptien

aussi bien qu'un Egyptien. (...) et ce n'est donc qu'après avoir longement, mais en vain, consulté d'autres textes et ne pouvant

expliquer la difficulté autrement, que je suis enclin à croire que le texte est altéré." Zába, 1956, p.11.

3. multiple approaches (Frankfort) : one has to assimilate the Egyptian

way of thinking before engaging in explaining anything. Their "method" being not linear, axiomatic (definitions & theorema) or linea

recta. Frankfort (1961, pp.16-20) explains : "... the coexistence of different correlation of problems and phenomena presents no

difficulties. It is in the concrete imagery of the Egyptian texts and designs that they become disturbing to us ; there lies the main source

of the inconsistencies which have baffled and exasperated modern students of Egyptian religion. (...) Here then we find an abrupt

juxtaposition of views which we should consider mutually exclusive. This is what I have called a multiplicity of approaches : the avenue of

preoccupation with life and death leads to one imaginative conception, that with the origin of the existing world to another. Each image, each

concept was valid within its own context. (...) And yet such quasi-

conflicting images, whether encountered in paintaings or in texts, should not be dismissed in the usual derogatory manner. They display

a meaningful inconsistency, and not poverty but superabundance of imagination. (...) This discussion of the multiplicity of approaches to a

single cosmic god requires a complement ; we must consider the converse situation in which one single problem is correlated with

several natural phenomena. We might call it a 'multiplicity of answers'."

4. integral acceptation (Zimmer) : in his study of Eastern religions and exegesis of Hindu thought, the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer

introduced a principle which implies that before one studies a culture one has to accept that it exists or existed as it does and claims. One

should approach and interprete its cultural forms as little as possible using standards which does not fit in, which focus on subjects which

were of no interest to it (like the colour of the hair of royal mummies)

or which reduces it to what is already known. This means that one, as does comparative cultural anthropology with its methodology of

participant observation, accepts the culture at hand without prejudices and projections. Zimmer (1972, p.3) explains himself : "La méthode -

ou, plutôt, l'habitude- qui consists à ramener ce qui n'est pas familier

à ce que l'on connaît bien, a de tout temps mené à la frustration

intellectuelle. (....) Faute d'avoir adopté une attitude d'acceptation, nous ne recevons rien ; nous nous voyons refuser la faveur d'un

entretien avec les dieux. Ce n'est point notre sort d'être submergés, comme le sol d'Egypte, par les eaux divines et fécondantes du Nil.

C'est parce qu'elles sont vivantes, possédant le pouvoir de faire revivre, capables d'exercer une influence effective, toujours

revouvelée, indéfinissable et pourtant logique avec elle-même, sur le plan de la destinée humaine, que les images du folklore et du mythe

défient toute tentative de systématisation. Elles ne sont pas des cadavres, mais bien des esprits possesseurs. Avec un rire soudain, et

un brusque saut de côté, elles se jouent du spécialiste qui s'imagine les avoir épinglées sur son tableau synoptique. Ce qu'elles exigent de

nous ce n'est pas de monologue d'un officier de police judiciaire, mais le dialogue d'une conversation vivante."

5. non-abstraction : egyptologists are aware that the cognitive abilities of

the Ancient Egyptians were not the same as the Greeks. Thanks to Piaget's description of the genesis of cognition, we can assess the

Egyptian heritage with the standards of ante-rational thought, to wit : the mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational modes of thoughts, which

each have their specific modus operandi. Hence, when we try to interprete a text, the question before us is : in what mode or modes of

thought was this written (which kind of text is this) ? Indeed, because of the multiplicity of approaches, the Ancient Egyptians left old strands

of thought intact, with an amalgam of approaches placed next to each other without interference ;

6. spatial semantics : Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was more than a way to convey well-formed meaning (i.e. language), but tried

to invoke the magic of the "numen praesens", involving the use of artistic space (a contemporary equivalent is the Zen garden) as a

additional element in the composition of meaning. The Shabaka Stone,

discussed earlier, is only one (late) example of the principles of spatial organization which governed Egyptian from the start (besides honorific

or graphic transpositions). Unsightly gaps and disharmonious distributions were rejected. Groupings always involved the use of

imaginary squares or rectangles ensuring the proportioned arrangement. This allowed for slight imperfections. Symmetry-breaks

bring the importance of an item to the fore. Furthermore, important hieroglyphs were given their architectonic, monumental or ornamental

equivalent. Spatial semantics was at work in large monumental constructions as well as in small stela or tiny juwelery and important

tools (for Maat is at work in both the big and the small) ... Besides Schwaller de Lubicz, egyptologists have not given this aspect of

Egyptian "sacred geometry" the attention it deserve leaving the

horizon wide opened to wild stellar, historical & anthropological

speculations ; 7. metaphorical inclination : Ancient Egyptians "spoke in images". This

holds true in a linguistic sense (namely their use of pictograms), but also with regard to their literary inclinations. When somebody grabbed

his meat violently, the Egyptian thought of the voracious crocodile who has no tongue and who has to grab his food with his teeth and swallow

it in one piece. When they saw the Sun rise and heared the baboons sing, they associated this activity with praise and the glorification of

light, etc. Some hymns speak in images, poetical phrases, metaphors and other sophisticated literary devices. Literary and metaphorical

meaning overlap and interpenetrate (for example : "He who spits to heaven sees his spittle fall back on his face.") ... The epithets of the

deities too are full of visual elements. Some egyptologists tend to rewrite this to comfort the contemporary readers. This harms the fluid

nature of the texts and makes them dry and gray. The contrary

(leaving these images intact) works confusing when Egyptian literature is new. As a function of their intention to try to really grasp the sense,

translators make a compromize between literal and analogical renderings. I myself tend towards the analogical (which was closer to

the Egyptian way of life), leaving room for explicative notes and comments.

"The only basis we have for preferring one rendering to another, when once the exigencies of grammar and dictionary have been satisfied -

and these leave a large margin for divergencies- is an intuitive appreciation of the trend of the ancient writer's mind."

Gardiner (1925, p.5).

It goes without saying, that all the hermeneutical rules-of-thumb in the world will not guarantee a "perfect" translation, which simply does not exist.

The Italian dictum "traduttore traditore" (the translator is a traitor), is especially true for Egyptian. As with all texts of Antiquity, large scale

comparison of all available translations (in this case, those of Mercer, Piankoff, Faulkner & Allen) is the best option. Not only has the text to be

contextualized, but one has to acquire the habit of looking up the same word

or expression in various contexts across time (lexicography). But even then, one should be content with Gardiner's view that to circumscribe sense is the

best one can do.

"Although we can approach its grammar in an orderly fashion (...) we are

often puzzled and even frustrated by the continual appearance of exceptions

to the rules. Middle Egyptian can be especially difficult in this regard ..." Allen (2001, p.389).

Put aside the obvious difficulties encountered when trying to translate texts

4300 years old, a more subtle problem is posed by the mentality of the Egyptians themselves. We must not be entrapped by projecting on Ancient

Egyptian literature our own rational approach, based on abstract cognitive activity initiated by the Greeks. Egyptian civilization is ante-rational. This

means mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational strands are at work. In the Pyramid Texts, the pre-rational mode of thought is mostly at hand. Hence,

no concrete "closure" is realized. In other parts (as in the ascension texts), proto-rationality is suggested.

"The ordinary consideration of the Egyptian symbol reduces it to a primary

arbitrary, utilitarian and singular meaning, whereas in reality it is a synthesis which requires great erudition for its analysis and a special culture for the

esoteric knowledge that it implies - which does not exclude the necessity of being 'simple', or knowing how to 'simply look' at the symbol."

Schwaller de Lubicz, 1978, p.55.

the present English version of the Unas text

The present English version of the Unas text makes use of the hieroglyphs to choose between alternative views on the text as proposed by Sethe, Mercer,

Piankoff, Faulkner & Allen. It pays homage to their magisterial translations and is indebted to them. Especially in the case of an Opus of such scope as

the pyramid texts of Unas, the present author claims no authority over a

"new" English translation of this monumental work, and presents his work as the ongoing result of constantly (re)studying direct (the hieroglyphs) &

indirect sources (new translations), and amending his choices. For the goal of these Ancient Egyptian studies is not to translate Egyptian texts ab ovo,

but to bring together a basket of texts allowing us to appreciate Ancient Egyptian wisdom teachings and clarifying the relationship with Greek

philosophy (cf. Hermetism and the Hermetic Keys). Because these texts only exists on the WWW, amendments can always made without cutting trees.

The contemporary school of egyptological literalism equates the earliest

temporal layer of any text with its historical date of composition, mistrusting the presence of literary antecedents. In the case of the Pyramid Texts, they

would agree to push the date of inception with a few centuries (the margin of error for this period being ca. 100 years), but try to avoid a Predynastic

figure, which is not supported for all the texts. Indeed, comparisons with the

architectural language of the period, makes it likely that under Pharaoh Djoser, the Egyptians had the conceptual framework of the Pyramid Texts at

their disposal. King Djoser, the "inventor of stone" and his vizier Imhotep, the "great seer" (or prophet) of Re at Iunu, "the Pillar", layed the

foundations of the Old Kingdom "canon" ruling all aspects of the life of the

elite, including writing, sapience, art & religion. To project the beginning of

the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 BCE) as the date of inception of most (not all !) of these texts is altogether a reasonable guess.

Here is Sethe's standard edition of the Pyramid Texts (1910) and Mercer's

translation (1952).

Summarizing :

aim of the texts : to assist the divine king in his royal cult, both during his life on Earth (namely through Lunar regeneration), and in the

afterlife (to ascend to Re) ;

spatial semantics : there is a spatial symbolism at work in the actual placement of the texts in the chambers, passage-way & corridor :

Lunar Duat (sarcophagus room) and Solar Akhet (antechamber) are at work in four directions : West (Duat, sarcophagus, false door, dusk),

North (Imperishables, the sky of Re), South (cyclic stars, the inundation) & East (Eastern Horizon, rise of Re). The texts

circumambulate the theme of the king's glorious being, both as a living Horus (a reigning monarch), a living Osiris (rejuvenated by the Sed

festival) and, finally, a divine ancestor, a "power of powers" and "image of images", a god one with Atum ;

composition : the texts form a literary unity insofar as they represent a careful and conscious selection out of the available body of ritual

utterances (cf. those found in the tomb of his successors plus very likely others). They are not narrative and do not represent the actual

funerary ritual, nor the pyramid complex. As a ritual and magical

anthology, they bring together all what is needed to bring about for the divine king his regeneration (in the Lunar Duat) and ascension (via

the Solar Akhet) to the stellar Imperishables. The composition is not available as a linear narrative. There is matter of choice guided by

spatial semantic, although an overall story-line is discernable ; cognitive limitations : to back the unstable concepts of pre-rationality,

a regression into myth is a common strategy, as are conservatism, contextuality and multiple approaches. As a lot of these myths are

meaningless today, some connotations may seem pointless to a contemporary reader. Careful study of the images and the actual

hieroglyphs used is often rewarding but seldom conclusive ; hermeneutical typology : the Unas text contain short pieces of drama,

hymns, litanies, glorifications, magical texts, offering rituals, prayers, protective charms and divine offerings. They invoke the regeneration

of Osiris King Unas, the ascension of King Unas, his arrival in heaven,

settling in heaven, eating the deities, etc. Predynastic, Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Osirian, royal, funerary, ecstatic, magical, occult &

funerary registers can be isolated, making its unity and integration (in

one tomb) even more remarkable ; date of inception : the beginning of the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 BCE).

6. The role of Osiris in the Unas text.

In the Old Kingdom, the king affirms the divine status of his "Ba" by partly

assimilating the Lunar deities of old (Hassan, 1992). The royal nation state is given an administrative body, with Memphis as royal residence and focus of

culture. A patrilineal system is invented, lasting for more than three millenia. Its state approved mythology was largely based on the Solar and stellar

considerations. But, in the more popular strands of the Egyptian cultural

form, the Lunar, contextualized, wandering, matriarchal line of transmission (of which the original root is Upper Palaeolithic) was never relinquished, as

we can see in the First Dynasty Abydos burials. Without the female side of Nature, no balanced equation is possible. The divine king is nurtured by the

milk of the goddesses and in all major dynastic turns, the role of women was of extreme, if not decisive, importance.

Dynastic Egypt remembered the mythical family of (Lunar) Osiris, his wife

Isis and their son Horus. People identified and played the dramatic episodes of their lives, including in their musings his assassination, dismemberment,

restoration, resurrection and rejuvenation. The mystery of his becoming the "king of the Duat" completed the picture. Whether Osirian faith was already

popular in the Early Dynastic remains disputed, although a Predynastic origin of Osirian faith concurs with the fertility cults of the Neolithic (the "Bull of his

Mother" pointing to his role as consort of the great Neolithic fertility

goddess), both agrarian (grain, flood) as communal (just ruler). But this remains largely speculative. Re had given to Osiris a separate jurisdication, a

kingdom of his own, and so he was feared by humans & gods alike.

The "djed" may point to a crucial link between history and Prehistory : this backbone of Osiris serves as a mortuary amulet of stability and

everlastingness. It is a necessary aid in the transformation of the human body into the spiritual body of glory assumed by the dead in the afterlife.

With it, the shamanistic beliefs of old are maintained but refined. The divine dead bone is there to transmute. The restoration of the body of Osiris and

his "resurrection" in the noble, spiritualized, beautified and stellar body ("sAH"), given by Isis thanks to Re and Thoth, is completed when Osiris

receives the Eye of Wellness (the Left Eye) from Horus, the Lunar Eye of Re. Restored, resurrected and resuscitated, Osiris then becomes the "king of the

Duat" and, receiving a jurisdiction of his own.

The "djed" Pillar Festival was held annually. It was a time of enthusiasm and rejuvenation for the people. On the first day of Shomu, the season of

harvesting, the priests raised up the "djed" Pillar, and all payed homage to the symbol. People conducted mock battles between good and evil. Oxen

were driven around the walls of Memphis ...

"Although the god Osiris is not attested by name until the Fifth Dynasty Pyramid Texts, the probable antiquity of many of these texts makes it not

unlikely that he was recognized at an earlier period, perhaps under the name Khentiamentiu. A central element of the later Osiris myth, the pairing of

Horus and Seth, is attested from the middle of the First Dynasty." Wilkinson, 1999, p.292.

The majority of cemeteries were situated to the West of the Nile, the region

where the Sun set. Already in the Neolithic, the West was the principal mortuary direction. Deceased Badarians faced West (ca. 5000 - 4000 BCE).

The Solar horizon had been assimilated. The steady rise of kingship and piecemeal centralizations followed. Dating to the Late Predynastic Period,

Khentiamentiu, "the Foremost of the Westeners", the god of the Abydos necropolis, was depicted as a jackal. He also navigated Re's nightly voyage

in the Duat. His cult was popular in the First Dynasty (cf. seals of Kings Den and Qaa). Heliopolitan theology associated him with Osiris, who also bore

the epithet "the Foremost of the Westeners". We have to wait until the First

Intermediate Period before Abydos becomes a cult centre explicitly dedicated to Osiris.

In the Heliopolitan account, Osiris belonged to the last generation of deities,

those sustaining the mythical kingdom of plenty of Atum-Re, the sole, unique creator of it all. Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys are the differentials

or natural types covering the ideal state of affairs for human beings. Osirian faith appealed to the common majority.

"The four children of Geb and Nut are not involved in this description of the

universe. They establish a bridge between nature and man, and that in the only manner in which the Egyptians could conceive such a bond - through

kingship. Osiris was the mythological form of the dead ruler forever succeeded by his son Horus."

Frankfort, 1978, p.182.

As the "Bull of his mother", he represented the myth of the "perfect king", empowered not by patrilineal logic, but by the self-possessed and

unalienated power of the great goddess and her dark secrets of resurrection, rejuvenation and rebirth (associated with the Duat rather than the sky). His

assassination by Seth evokes the discontinuum of moral evil ("isefet"),

rooted in a natural divine will to harm, hurt and cause suffering for the sake of dominion, love of power and the persistent gratification of perverse

desires (cf. the Isis & Horus cycles of the Delta). It underlines the power of evil and destruction, and invokes the fragility of life and order, in all

directions under seige by evil, annihilation, death and chaos. The tragedy of evil's power does not lead to pessimism, for in Egyptian thought, the soul of

chaos is the author of light, life and order. If chaos itself is to be avoided, not so its efficient, auto-generative potential. The latter regenerates the

deities and sustains creation. This distinction drawn a line between the blind lust to destroy (as in "Apophis", the giant snake of destruction) and the

divine will to harm (or "Seth", who controls the snake).

"But it will be discerned at once that the Osiris myth expressed those hopes and aspirations and ideals which were closest to the life and the affections of

this great people. (...) In the Osiris myth the institution of the family found

its earliest and most exalted expression in religion, a glorified reflection of earthly ties among the gods."

Breasted, 1972, p.37.

Paradoxically perhaps, a pyramid tomb is not an expression of Osirian faith

as profound as the "Heb Sed" or "Sed festival", in which the divine king assumed the costume and insignia of Osiris, enjoying the same resuscitation

by Isis and Horus. This does not (as Egyptian thought teaches) exclude

Osirian components, connotations or assimilations (such as a subterranean chamber). But the Pyramid Age was of Heliopolitan inspiration. Pharaoh

finally adheres to his own divinity ("son of Re") and evidences his authority on a gigantic scale. In the Pyramid Texts, Osiris is present but at times

avoided. King Unas passes-by Osiris (and is, as the latter, resurrected in the Duat as "this Osiris King Unas"), but does not stay in the Duat. As a bird or

as incense, he flies away to be transformed into a stellar spirit, joining his father Re in the sky. A strange division is, at times, maintained between

Osiris in the Duat and Re in the sky. In the pre-rational mode of cognition, such conceptual tensions are left unresolved.

Nothwithstanding royal this-life rituals, a pyramid complex was, after the

king had died, the tomb of a divine king of Egypt, and so the focus of a temple complex, with a dedicated priesthood and regular priests, daily

maintaining the Ka of the deceased king to gratify its Ba or soul and clearing

a safe passage to and fro the tomb. As such, a royal mortuary temple was an spirito-economic motor, employing people and redistributing goods for

the sake of a spiritual economy of transformation of material offerings into "food" for the Ka of the king, who would bless Egypt. A funerary complex

was also a "false door" or "gate" allowing the enlightened spirit of the

deceased (justified to realize the station of the Akh-spirits) to return as Ba

and/or Ka. This divine presence of the spirit in its tomb on Earth, is always indirect (never absolute). It happens through the intermediate states of

consciousness, such as the Ba and Ka of the divine son of Re.

The pyramid ensured Maat, the turning of days and seasons, as well as a "good Nile". How ? It allowed the deceased king to "transform" ("kheperu")

into an "Akh", a glorified spirit-being of light, effective and equipped in the afterlife. The pyramid was his way to ascend. Arrived in heaven as an Akh,

the king allowed his divine incarnation to pass to his son (from Osiris to Horus) and the pyramid "is better understood as the meeting point of life

and light with death and darkness" (Lehner, 2001, p. 20). After mummification, it became a "cosmic exchange engine" set in motion by the

appropriate funerary rituals, bringing the glorified body ("sah") into being (cf. the ritual of "Opening the Mouth"). As an Akh-spirit, the deceased king

could then choose to bring down his souls and doubles on Earth. If so, he

would use his tomb and mummy as a point of entry into the physical plane of existence. In this way, the presence of the ancestor could continue to

influence the living, in particular the new Horus-king. The names given to the pyramids or associated with them, reflect the crucial spirito-economical

role of royal tombs : "horizon", "radiant place", "endures", "flourish", "established", "pure", "divine", "perfect" etc.

Indeed, the focus of any tomb, including the king's, was the "false door" and

adjacent "offering place". This imaginal gate was the point of departure to or return from the Netherworld. The success of this bi-directionality of the

justified, blessed deceased in the afterlife (from the tomb to the sky and back) depended on the funerary rituals, as well as on the offerings placed in

the tomb. During their daily rituals, the priests (endowed by the son) fed the Ka of his father and placed the sacrifices near the "false door". In this way,

the "lowest" point of the transformational chain would be kept active. The

subtle energy (or "Ka") of the offerings gratifies the Ba and attracts the attention of the Akh, who returns in the tomb in its "sah", completing the

cycle by uniting with the mummy. This ideal of Egyptian religious life was only attained by the deities and the justified dead. Pharaoh ascended, while

common men hid ...

Can may be argued that, in order to operate properly, every state needs to stay in touch with its people. So the Heliopolitan, Solar Atum-Re assimilated

(before the Vth Dynasty) a human generation of deities, namely Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys, entangled in a Lunar family drama ? Already present

since ever, they would then become the great-grand children of Atum-Re, and represent the human side of the "Golden Age" of Egypt, the epoch when

the gods reigned on Earth, a time when the eternal equilibrium of the First

Time had not yet been broken by Seth. This was the time of Osiris, the

Lunar deity of vegetation, reigning over the whole of Egypt, making her living, healthy and prosperous, bringing bread & wine. By doing so, the

theologians of Atum-Re assimilated the popular (Predynastic) Lunar cult, and made it part of the royal ritual, especially in terms of the physical

regeneration & resurrection of the divine king (during and after life), whereas the latter's ascension remained Solar and spiritualizing.

"While there is some effort here to correlate the functions of Re and Osiris, it

can hardly be called an attempt at harmonization of conflicting doctrines. This is practically unknown in the Pyramid Texts. (...) But the fact that both

Re and Osiris appear as supreme king of the hereafter cannot be reconciled, and such mutually irreconcilable beliefs caused the Egyptian no more

discomfort than was felt by any early civilization in the maintenance of a group of religious teachings side by side with others involving varying and

totally inconsistent suppositions. Even Christianity itself has not escaped this

experience."

Breasted, 1972, pp.163-164.

Although historical traces of Osirian faith predating the Pyramid Texts are sparse, popular Osirian beliefs must have, during the previous Dynasties,

slowly infiltrated the Solar state religion. Had Predynastic religion identified Osiris with the fertile waters of the inundation, with soil and vegetation (cf.

Orion and the Dog-Star in the South, the direction of the inundation) ? The

ever-waning and ever-reviving life of Egypt's soil through the Nile was entrenched by the story of the murder & resurrection of Osiris and the

triumph of his son Horus over Seth, the evil uncle. As a result, and despite its popular origin, Osirian faith entered into the most intimate relationship

with the ideology of divine kingship, causing a fundamental tension no pre-rational structure could resolve. When, in the "classical" Middle Kingdom

(XIIth Dynasty), proto-rationality blossomed, and Osiris, as netherworldly god of the dead, was increasingly seen as the nocturnal aspect of Re (cf. the

New Kingdom Solar theology, the Amduat).

So, although the religion of state was Solar and focused on the divine king, the Pyramid Texts evidence an ambiguous relationship with Osiris, the god

of the common people and popular beliefs. The Predynastic Osiris cult, probably local to the Delta, involved a forbidding, stern & repellent

hereafter. Osiris was a Nile-god and a spirit of vegetable life, a harvest-god.

But, as a king of Egypt, he had been killed by his brother Seth, recovered and restored by his wife Isis (with the help of the secret name of Re) and

resurrected by his son Horus, who avenged his father by overcoming Seth in a battle presided by Thoth. When Osiris migrated up the Nile from the Delta,

he was identified with the old mortuary jackal-god of the South, "the First of

the Westeners" (Abydos, Assiut). His kingdom was conceived as situated

below the western horizon, where it merged into the Netherworld, the Duat. He became the king of the dead below the Earth, the "Lord of the Duat",

monarch of a subterranean kingdom.

"... in the Solar faith we have a state theology, with all the splendor and the prestige of its royal patrons behind it ; while in that of Osiris we are

confronted by a religion of the people, which made a strong appeal to the individual believer. (...) In the mergence of these two faiths we discern for

the first time in history the age-old struggle between the state form of religion and the popular faith of the masses."

Breasted, 1972, pp.140-141.

According to Breasted, nothing in these primordial myths proved Osiris to have a celestial afterlife. As in the New Kingdom Amduat, a millennium later,

he enjoys a juridiction of his own, one powerful enough to alert the gods. Indeed, the Pyramid Texts evidence survivals from a period when Osiris was

even hostile to the Solar dead. There are exorcisms intended to retain Osiris to enter the Solar tomb with evil intent.

"May Osiris not come with his evil coming. Do not open your arms to him ..."

Pyramid Texts, § 1267, utterance 534.

However, the popularity of Osiris among the common people forced the theologians to incorporate him into their Solar creed. In this way,

Heliopolitan Solar theology got slowly Osirianized. Eventually, these tensions would be resolved in the Middle Kingdom, which in turn gave rise to the New

Kingdom books of the Netherworld.

SOLAR RE - DIURNAL LUNAR OSIRIS - NOCTURNAL

the eternal cycle of dawn/dusk/dawn

the seasonal cycle of the Two Lands

the perpetuity of darkness - the Nun

the local, monthly cycle of agriculture

Re-Atum hidden in Nun

the diffused, efficient principle of Nun

Osiris is created by Re-Atum Osiris is left behind in the Duat

Bi-sexual Atum is self-created within Nun

simultaneously s/he generates the

mostly passive himself, Osiris is

reassembled by Isis &

healed by the Eye of Horus

Ennead he, the Lord of Eternity

Atum thrones the Akh-sphere Osiris thrones the Duat

Atum belongs to pre-creation

Atum is the sole Lord of Creation

Osiris is bound to creation & the Duat

Osiris receives a separate jurisdiction

Atum is the spirit of matter or the

awareness of consciousness (of itself)

Osiris is the matter of spirit or the

substrate of consciousness : energy.

Atum refers to eternity-in-

everlastingness the recurrent hatching within Nun

& the indestructible, primordial nature of

light

Osiris refers to everlastingness and the endurance of absolute

sameness, the backbone of being, the prima materia

"neheh" the Akh

"djedet" the Ba, the Ka

Antechamber Re chamber

Burial-chamber Osiris room

The resurrection of Osiris by Horus and the restoration of his body was affirmed to be the king's privilege. The Osirian hereafter was celestialized.

Osiris was now called "Lord of the Sky" (PT, §§ 964, 966a) and the king was

announced to Osiris in the sky precisely in the same way as he had been announced to Re in the Solar theology. Hence, we find the king ascending to

the sky and then descending among the dwellers in the Duat (PT, § 1164),

implying that the Duat became (via the North) somehow accessible from the sky. In the Osirian cult, the Duat became the lower region of the sky, in the

vincinity of the horizon, below which it is also extended (Breasted). An important link between Re and Osiris was the former's death every day in

the West, the place of the dead. The dead king and the dying Sun corresponded well, as did the resurrection of Osiris (as king of the dead) and

the dawning of the Sun (as the child Harpocrates, who is the father of the king of the living).

"The fact remains, then, that the celestial doctrines of the hereafter

dominate the Pyramid Texts throughout, and the later subterranean kingdom of Osiris and Re's voyage through it are still entirely in the

background in these royal mortuary teachings. Among the people Re is later, as it were, dragged into the Nether World to illumine there the subjects of

Osiris in his mortuary kingdom, and this is one of the most convincing evidences of the power of Osiris among the lower classes. In the royal and

state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky, and while he is there Solarized, we have just shown he also tinctures the Solar teaching of the

celestial kingdom of the dead with Osirian doctrines. The result was thus inevitable confusion, as the two faiths interpenetrated."

Breasted, 1972, pp.159-160.

The Pyramid Texts evidence the emergence of a composite doctrine. But what used to be viewed as a separate "Osirian" destiny of the king "has

more recently been recognized as one aspect of his celestial cycle - the regenerative phase through which he passes before 'rising in the eastern

side of sky like the Sun' (Pyr. 1465d-e)." (Allen, 1989, p.1).

7. Egyptian versus Greek initiation.

Egyptologists like Morenz, Piankoff, Mercer, Frankfort, Faulkner, Assmann,

Hornung or Allen have good reasons to stress the difference between the Greek and the Pharaonic perspective on initiation (from the Latin "initio",

introduce into a new life) and the mysteries (from the Greek "muoo", to close lips or eyes, i.e. hidden, secret ; "mustès" = "initiate").

The Egyptians maintained a series of rituals aimed at "a constantly renewed

regeneration" (Hornung, 2001, p.14) of (1) the divine king and through him the whole of creation, and of (2) their supreme deity, Atum-Re, situated as

the Unique, Self-Begotten Great One at the core of a henotheist constellation of deities, or "cosmic beings, the elements and forces of nature. As such,

they existed on a scale far removed from that of ordinary human beings." (Allen, 2000, p.55).

At best, the Greeks, like the Egyptians, induced the point of death (assumed the "death posture") in order to glimpse into Darkness and "see" the divine

to be renewed. But they had no "science of the Hades" as in the Amduat. The active continuity between life and death found in Egypt, of which

funerary rituals and the interaction between the living and their dead (cf. the letters to the dead) are examples, contradicts the closed and separated

interpretation of the Greeks, fostering "escapism" (the "body" as a "prison"

out of which one needs to escape, the "Hades" as a place of shades,

divorced from the plane of Earthly life). In Egypt, no "new" life was necessary. Potentially, death is "more" life. For both life and the afterlife

depend on identical conditions : offerings ; either directly to the deities through the divine king or indirectly to the Ka of the deceased, gratifying the

Ba. If dualism fits Greek religion, triadism rules Egyptian theologies (while duality takes on the dual "form" or "land"- ruled by the "third", or "nswt",

the divine king, the "tertium comparationis").

By the exclusive funerary interpretation given to the religious literature of Ancient Egypt (Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Coming out into the Day,

Amduat, Book of the Heavenly Cow, Book of Gates, etc.) these great scholars evidence Hellenocentrist prejudice. Although the Platonic

philosopher "preparing for death and dying" is like the initiate of the Eleusinian mysteries (cf. Phaedrus and Phaedo), and so may come to the

point of death to see into the invisible (spiritual) worlds, as did the Egyptian

initiate and the Shaman of old, the Greek knows that he will never find wisdom in all its purity in any other place than in the next world.

So, according to these authors, sustaining the Hellenistic approach of

contemporary Egyptology regarding religious experience in Ancient Egypt, the initiatic, this-life experiences of the king, of his priests and of his

worshippers, found in the religious text and on the monuments of Egypt, do not reflect direct spiritual experiences, but are imaginal constructions and

wishful thinking about the afterlife, the dogma being : Ancient Egyptian religion is funerary & mortuary. This position is rejected.

It is not because a text is found in a tomb that it is necessarily funerary. In

Egypt, the king and his high priests encountered the deity "face to face" every day. He was a god on Earth, in the Duat and in the sky. His energy

had no limitations and with it he sustained creation by offering the right

order of nature (cf. the Great Hymn to the Aten). There was no question of initiation being linked with the separation caused by physical death. Physical

death (of Osiris, the divine father) was the gate to a resurrection for the benefit of the living (Horus, the divine son). But the living king (Horus) could

also ritually assume death (as "Osiris King N") to resurrect (himself and Egypt) while his physical body had not died (as in his Heb Sed festival). This

assumption of the death posture is a universal characteristic of the spiritual process of emancipation of Homo Sapiens sapiens (cf. the Ars Obscura of the

Hidden Chamber).

"As we have already seen, it is perfectly feasible for the same pyramid to

have been use both for the Sed festival, 'secret rites' and then subsequently as the tomb of the king."

Naydler, 2005, p.109.

Indeed, the validity of an exclusive funerary interpretation of the Pyramid Texts (or for that matter of the complete corpus of religious texts, popular in

Egyptology the last 50 years, has to be addressed : is there a mystical dimension or direct experiential contact with the divine beyond the first

three studied by Egyptology (Assmann, 2002) ? To wit :

1. the cultic : the local, political residence of the deities, either as

belonging to a particular place and/or as state deities functioning as symbols of the collective, political identity ;

2. the cosmic : the emergence, structure & dynamics of the sphere of their action ;

3. the mythic : the sacred tradition, or "what is said about the gods", their cultural memory as set down in myths, names, genealogies etc.

4. the mystic : the direct experience of the deities or the objective spiritual realities encountered by the divine king, his priests and

worshippers ?

For Moret (1922), the Egyptian mysteries revolved around the concept of

"voluntary death", experienced before the actual physical death of the body. This "dead posture" preludes spiritual rebirth or "peret-em-heru" : going out

into the day ... For Wente (1982), the New Kingdom Amduat and Book of Gates bring "the future into the present", so that rebirth "could have been

genuinely experienced in this life now". And this, most likely through festivals, pilgrimage & personal piety. In these latter contexts, Osirian faith

allowed non-royals to have direct spiritual access to the Duat, the world of magic and of the dead. The Books of the Netherworld are usually very

explicit about this.

"He who know these words will approach those who dwell in the

Netherworld. It is very very useful for a man upon Earth." Amduat, concluding text of the Second Hour.

"The mysterious Cavern of the West where the Great God and his crew rest in the Netherworld. This is executed with their names similar to the image

which is drawn in the East of the Hidden Chamber of the Netherworld. He who knows their names while being upon Earth will know their seats in the

West as a contented one with his seat in the Netherworld. He will stand

among the Lord of Provision as one justified by the Council of Re who reckons the differences. It will be useful for him upon Earth ..."

Amduat, introductory text of the Ninth Hour.

These texts point to a this-life magical knowledge (assisting the mystical

quest for union with godhead, a return to the "first time" of the "Golden

Age"). And once we acknowledge the presence of a mystical dimension, we beg the question of how to operate the magic ? Is there a particular series of

rituals enabling one to experience the objective spiritual realities behind three thousand years of spirituality today ?

"And so the study of ancient Egyptian religion may lead us to conceive of a

task that we have to fulfill in the present day. This task is to open ourselves once more to those realms of spirit that we are presented with in the

mystical literature of Egypt. This could lead to the possibility of a new Egyptian-inspired Renaissance, in which Western spiritual culture is given

fresh vigor by its reconnecting to its Egyptian roots. While it would make little sense to try to resurrect the religion of ancient Egypt today, the

spiritual impulse that issues from ancient Egypt into contemporary culture may nevertheless encourage us to persue paths of inner development

appropriate to our own period in history ..." Naydler, 2005, p.329.

Of course, the first thing to do is to lift the funerary restrictions put on the

available corpora. Although found in tombs, they move beyond funerary concerns (cf. Wente, 1982), but also put into evidence an experiential

register, albeit in ante-rational terms, and in initiatic (cf. Duat) and ecstatic (cf. Akhet) mindsets.

Egyptian initiations, unlike the Greek, were not meant to release the applicant from the solid chains of the world and its destiny, quite on the

contrary. The initiate entered the invisible Duat at will and was free as a bird to stride and experience. He also returned, completing the standard cycle of

human spirituality en vogue since the Cro-Magnon. The Egyptians understood the revitalizing logic of plunging into the darkest night of the

spirit-world and particularly focused on regeneration, rejuvenation and rebirth both in this life and in the afterlife. This happened by an "embrace"

of objective spiritual principles projected upon recurrent natural cycles (like Horus and Osiris in the myth of Osiris, or the Ba of Re and the body of Osiris

in the Books of the Netherworld).

In Egyptian, the verb "bs" ("bes") has two nuances : inductive and secretive :

inductive : to introduce, bring in, install ; secretive : to initiate, reveal.

What is revealed should never be said. It is a secret, or "bs" again, but with

one more determinative added (that of a papyrus scroll, indicative of words

related to writing and thinking). The "secret of secrets" was the secret image

of the deity or "bsw" ("besu").

"I am a priest knowledgable of the mystery, who's chest never lets go what he has seen !"

Chassinat, 1966, pp.11-12.

With the verb "bes", Middle Egyptian points to the Egyptian initiate as someone who had seen the hidden image of the deity "face to face",

triggering a secret experience. Transformed, he or she had received more life-power (balancing the natural depletion), and had become thus more

complete. The initiate had gone and come back, and was prepared for the afterlife. He had faced judgment, had been regenerated and transformed on

Earth as he would be in the afterlife. After death, he was ready for his ascension, and would escort Re in the sky. Osiris would not be able to lay his

hands on him as he escaped the Lunar world and entered the Solar.

Clearly then, the "initiates" were foremost the divine king and those

Egyptian priests who belonged to the higher priesthood. Only they were allowed to enter the sanctuary of the temple and perform rituals there (the

offering hall, the ambulatory, the inner sanctum). Only one member of this higher priesthood saw the deity "face to face", enthroned in its naos at the

back end of the inner sanctum. This high priest was the representative of the king, the divine "son of Re" and the "Lord of the Two Lands".

Another word for "secret" is "StA" ("Shtah"), also meaning : "secretive,

mysterious, inexplicable, hidden, hidden away." "Shtahu", in epithets of divine beings, refers to the mysterious secrets themselves. In Greek, the

word "mustikos" (root of "mystic, mystical, mysticism") also means "hidden". But in the Greek mysteries, the afterlife was depicted as a realm of

shadows and any hope of individual survival was deemed ephemeral.

Nobody escaped destiny, except the deities and the lucky few elected. The latter "escaped" from the world and its sordid entropic fate, misery and

possible "eschaton" : a world-fire invoked by these wrathful deities themselves, unforgiving of man's tragi-comical sins, but able to recreate the

world in a whim ! Escape from this fated comedy was offered through the Greek mysteries dedicated to certain Deities. They would erase the cause of

the heaviness of the soul and its attachment to Earth, and end the cycle of metempsychosis, the successive return of the soul in other physical bodies.

Both perspectives (a negative view on matter and reincarnation) are absent in the Egyptian mindset.

"... what appears in the fifth century is not a complete and consistent

doctrine of metempsychosis, but rather experimental speculations with

contradictory principles of ritual and morality, and a groping for natural laws

: the soul comes from the gods and after repeated trials returns to them, or else it runs forever in a circle through all spheres of the cosmos ; sheer

chance decides on the reincarnation, or else a judgement of the dead ; it is morally blameless conduct that guarantees the better lot or else the bare

fact of ritual initiation that frees from guilt." Burkert, 1985, p.300, my italics.

The Greek spiritual experience was rational (decontextual). But with the end

of the Polis States, a great fear had taken hold. Late Hellenism was flooded by astral fatalism and Oriental mysteries adapted to Greco-Roman standards

and tastes. Deities or demons were invoked to erase a preassigned fate or to control destiny. The Greek initiate, a God or Goddess, was deemed

"liberated" from nature. The Egyptian initiate was "deified" by nature.

Egyptian initiation was not redemptoric (elimination of guilt), did not intend to break away from the (inexistent) cycle of reincarnation, nor invite its

adepts to leave the material plane without ever returning. The Egyptian

adept did not enter the sanctuary with a confused idea about death. His initiatoric this-life rituals intended to prepare him for what was bound to

happen in the afterlife. Osiris was the prototype of this Lunar quest. Thanks to a "general rehearsal" of what would happen, the adept would have no

surprises in the afterlife. Indeed, the laws of life (the deities) were operational in the afterlife as well as on Earth, and the spirits of the

deceased existed together with the living, albeit on another plane of existence (cf. hylemorphism). The efficient adept escorted Re in the sky. All

other initiates remain in the Lunar Duat and find their use in the dark kingdom of Osiris.

As a temple ritualist, the Egyptian initiate, in order to be transformed and

"see" the deity directly, never leaves his physical body behind in a passive, trance-like state (compare this with what happens in the Hermetic

Poimandres or in Classical Yoga). Fully awake, he enters into a deeper, more

profound, mysterious layer of reality and contacts this plane directly, alone and without intermediaries, except for the doubles (Kas) and the souls

(Bas). Rituals make his body fully participate in this inner experience.

A marked contrast with the Greek mentality ensues : the Greeks had assimilated a rational, formal distinction between the conditions of becoming

and those of being, between potentiality and actuality (cf. Plato and Aristotle). In general, matter was perceived as "gross" and more in tune

with the world of becoming. Concepts, ideas and their contemplation were deemed of a "higher" order, which meant done for their own sake

(decontextualized). Linear order was the standard of Greek conceptual

rationality and the afterlife was envisaged as a gloomy land of no return,

alien to the living. The body was negative and had to be made passive in order for it to "see" the Divine light. Only in its death was true liberation

found (later, this Greek prejudice was made dogma by all three "religions of the book"). But, because of the difficulties involved with magic and initiation,

most men are meaningless shades in the Hades ("hidden" as Pluto). Hence, the Greek mysteries anticipate a rupture between the living and the dead.

Let this difference stand out : the Egyptian mysteries anticipate a continuation of communication between the diurnal and nocturnal sides of

creation. In Greek thought, dualities easily become oppositions (contradictions, antinomies, etc.). In the Egyptian way of life, dualities

always remain complementary.

"The living are not at the mercy of the dead ; the shades are without force

and without consciousness. There are no ghostly terrors, no imaginings of decomposition, and no clatterings of dead bones ; but equally there is no

comfort and no hope. The dead Archilles brushes aside Odysseus' words of praise, saying : 'Do not try to make light of death to me ; I would sooner be

bound to the soil in the hire of another man, a man without lot and without much to live on, than ruler over all the perished dead.' In the dreary

monotony everything becomes a matter of indifference." Burkert, 1985, p.197, my italics.

The regular movements of the planets followed precise geometrical

conditions. These were suggestive of the "perfect forms" of the world of ideas (or those perceived by the "active intellect"). Hence, in the Greek

mysteries, astrology was used to divinate destiny and fate ("heimarmene"

and "ananke"). Magic was addressed as a means to overcome one's preassigned fate, wiping out unluck, etc. Finally, theurgy came into being. A

decisive release from the forces of fate & mortality was invisaged by working directly with the Deities. In Gnosticism, which had many branches, a "special

knowledge" was aimed at. Again the material world appeared in negative, depreciative terms (cf. evil as "privatio boni" in Neoplatonism and Roman

Catholicism on original sin and the cause of evil).

"And when, by drawing on repressed or non-Greek traditions, mysteries

began to feed on the hopes of individuals with universal speculation and sought to overcome the chilling isolation of man in death, this was for a long

time more a complement than a dangerous rival to the Greek system." Burkert, 1985, p.203.

In the Egyptian conception, commoners sought a happy life to satisfy their

souls (cf. the Discourse of a Man with his Ba), while priests were consecrated in (local) induction rituals (leaving the "ultimate" experience to

the high priest). Is it possible that the higher priesthood also participated in

the Osirian mysteries of death and resurrection, held in major temples of Egypt, like those of Abydos, Busiris and Karnak ? Such ritual activity would

prepare them for the afterlife and transform them into "initiates" on Earth (adepts "justified" while alive) ?

"Follow the god as far as his place,

in his tomb which is found at the entrance of the cavern. Anubis sanctifies the hidden mystery of Osiris,

(in) the sacred valley of the Lord of Life. The mysterious initiation of the Lord of Abydos !"

Griffith, tombe I, 238, lines 238-239, ca.XIIth Dynasty.

But Egyptian and Greek initiations had this in common : both involved a confrontation with a symbolical death, followed by a new state of being alife.

In Greek, "teleirtan" (to die) and "teleisthai" (to be initiated) are alike.

"to die, that is to be initiated"

Plato

CENTRAL PLAN OF THE TOMB OF KING UNAS

The Unas Text is divided in thirteen sections :

I (226 - 243) l II (23, 25, 32 - 57 / 72 - 79 , 81 - 96, 108 - 116 / 117 - 171) l III (213 - 219) l IV (219 - 224) l V (204 - 205, 207, 209, 210 - 212) l VI

(23, 25, 32, 199, 200 & 244 - 246) l VII (247 - 253) l VIII (254 - 260) l IX (260 - 272) l X (302 - 312) l XI (273 - 276) l XII (277 - 301) l XIII (313 -

317 & 318 - 321)

Unas text in English

"<" from right to left or ">" from left to right "<" or ">" between numbers = sequence of the text

"<" or ">" underneath / above numbers = direction of the signs

"<" (face left) or ">" (face right) underneath / above numbers = direction of the signs