Becoming Osiris by Ruth Schumann Antelme & Stéphane Rossini

Author:Ruth Schumann Antelme & Stéphane Rossini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inner Traditions
Published: 2012-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

Thoth Hands over the Magic Palette to the Deceased

(chapters 93–97)

With the question of the empowerment of all the personality components resolved, the dead individual, who had also recuperated his ka (chap. 92) in passing, had to “avoid being transported by bark toward the East, in the realm of the dead” (chap. 93). This journey was contrary to that of the sun, since he would enter the Dwat in the East and reemerge in the West. This would provoke a cosmic catastrophe and led the deceased straight to the “slaughterhouse.” To escape, the deceased again makes use of cruel threats such as, “I will swallow this phallus of Ra, the head of Osiris . . . I will strike the horns of Khepri and wounds will be inflicted upon the eye of Atum the destroyer immediately if I am seized . . . immediately if I am in danger of being murdered.” Desiring to protect himself from any and all disaster, the candidate for eternal life approaches Thoth, god of learning, order, and positive magical knowledge (chap. 94). The dead individual apprises the demiurge of Hermopolis of his worth, saying, “I am he who provides aid in a dispute and protects the great [Eye of Horus],” as did Thoth “in the quarrel” between Horus and Seth. “. . . I have aroused the carving knife [the moon] that Thoth holds in his hand during the quarrel” (chap. 95). This cosmic parable places the transfigured being on the side of the forces of light. The transfigured individual flatters himself for “having just given Maat to Ra.” Maat, the daughter of Ra and incarnation of abstract concepts such as good, balance in all things, justice, truth, and so forth, is a gift from the gods; but the latter are also nourished by Maat, who is also the principle of divinity. The human being, the creature, is therefore obliged to exchange this gift, the supreme offering, with the creator. Furthermore, the deceased emphasizes that he “pacifies Seth [Thoth’s antagonist] with the saliva of Aker and the blood from Geb’s marrow” (chap. 96), and, by virtue of having done so, reestablished tranquillity in the entrails of the earth. This certainly merited a reward. So Thoth gave him his palette, his reeds, and the pot of the scribe (chap. 94). These were the preeminent magic tools. The deceased exulted over this: “O great one . . . the overseer of the Book of Thoth, here I have come in blessedness, animated, powerful, and equipped with the scriptures of Thoth.” In the same order of ideas, chapter 97 affirms the purity of the deceased one more time: “. . . I have been purified on the isle of pacification and retrenchment . . .” The chapter ends in this fashion: “I was one of integrity and righteousness when I lived upon the earth, I was the interpreter of his word, the image of the one master, Ra the great who lives on truth.” Affirmed and equipped with all necessary magic and power, the deceased steels himself to summon the solar bark.

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