Ancient Egyptian Funerary Magic

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Magic
By
Kiba Thunders

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Magic was a combination of spoken spells, amulets, talismans, sacred engravings, personal will, and theurgy (Greek for ‘God-magic’) for the security, wellness and sanctification in the land of the Afterlife for the dead. These spells were used upon the bodies, sarcophagi, tomb and soul of the deceased. Those who used them were the clergy, predominantly of Anubis (Anpu) in Egyptian or Osiris (Ausar in Egyptian). Until the Middle Kingdom, these clergy mainly performed and practiced their magic upon the Pharaohs. The clergy class was powerful, in that they alone could instill magic in the form of hieroglyphs, such as the pharaoh’s cartouche for his continued life in the Land of the Dead, also known as the Land of the West.

Ancient Egyptian magic, itself, was a unified concept, as K.M. Johnson of Philae.nu (2008) explains,

“While we of the modern world differ very distinctly between body and soul as well as between prayers, 'magic' and classical medicine, the ancient Egyptians, along with many other so called "primitive" cultures existing even today, did not. They regarded it necessary for all these components to be present and working together if 'magic' was to occur.”

In understanding this key point in Egyptian thought concerning magic also known as ‘heka’ which we could now akin to life-force as well as our understanding of ‘magic’ (Jonsson, 2008) and religious practice, one can begin to see the connections that would develop in funerary magic. As explained above, what happened to the body, happened to the soul, but there was more: what happened to a person’s written name and representations of that person, happened to that person. The effect upon the stone, or paper may not be directly impacting upon the person, but it was believed the effect of what happened to that link eventually would in some way, occur to the name’s bearer.
The thought of sympathetic magic is reflected in the very use of hieroglyphs and their destruction: if a person were to be enhanced or made god-like as pharaohs were, their hieroglyph/cartouche would be larger than any other on the item being wrote. If a person were to be killed, or otherwise harmed, or even forgotten, their name was literally destroyed in every instance of its writing. This occurred most famously in the case of Akhenaten, whom supplanted the gods of Egypt with a single one: Aten, the Solar Disc. (Nagle 2006) He worked to blot out the name of Amun, one the creator-gods of Egyptian myth. In a twist upon this same method of destruction, when his son ascended to the throne, his name was destroyed in every occurrence by the worshippers and priests of the gods.

With this in mind, it is easy to see why the pharaohs would wish to preserve their bodies and names and have an entire branch of Egyptian life dedicated to facilitating them. The methods of immortality, and not just that, but a desired immortality, were many. Among these methods, were the inscriptions of the spells, such as those in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead translated by R.O. Faulkner (2000):
“Spell 46: Spell for not perishing and for being alive in the realm of the dead.
O you young men of Shu of the morning, who have power over those who flash among the sun-folk, whose arms move about and whose heads sway to and fro; may I move about every day.”

To the Ancient Egyptians, to be dead in the Afterlife was as being dead here: inert, lifeless and without the ability to interact with the world. The lists of spells in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead number 189 of the discovered spells. These spells are almost all geared towards worshipping the gods, protection, and preservation of the person after death.
For the Ancient Egyptians, the Afterlife was made much easier by the facilitation of these spells upon the body, or casket, and was reflected in the person’s journey in the Afterlife. However, the only ones who could make these hieroglyphs were the clergy. Most notably, as can be seen in the hieroglyphs on the walls of the sarcophagi, these clergy were of Anpu (Anubis as rendered in Greek) the Jackal-Headed God of Embalming, and the Opener of the Way. In this way the priests not only maintained power in this life, but the next through their practice of bestowing blessings upon the pharaoh, and as centuries passed, those who could afford them.

For those who would live on in the next life as immortals, the steps for becoming an immortal were many. These steps as done by a Priest of Anpu as described by The British Museum’s AncientEgypt.co.uk website are:

“1) First, his body is taken to the tent known as 'ibu' or the 'place of purification'. There, the embalmers wash his body with good smelling palm wine and rinse it with water from the Nile.

2) One of the embalmer's men makes a cut in the left side of the body and removes many of the internal organs. It is important to remove these because they are the first part of the body to decompose.

3) The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines are washed and packed in natron, which will dry them out. The heart is not taken out of the body because it is the center of intelligence and feeling and the man will need it in the Afterlife.
A long hook is used to smash the brain and pull it out through the nose. Note: The Egyptians did not value the brain as they did the heart, because the heart was seen as the center of consciousness and conscience.

4) The body is now covered and stuffed with natron, which will dry it out. All of the fluids, and rags from the embalming process will be saved and buried along with the body.

5) After forty days the body is washed again with water from the Nile. Then it is covered with oils to help the skin stay elastic.

6) The dehydrated internal organs are wrapped in linen and returned to the body. The body is stuffed with dry materials such as sawdust, leaves and linen so that it looks lifelike.

7) Finally the body is covered again with good-smelling oils. It is now ready to be wrapped in linen.”

When the body was wrapped, it would be adorned with an amulet of Isis for protection and the Plummet for balance in next life. When the hands are bound together, a papyri scroll from the Egyptian Book of the Dead is placed in his hands. After this point, liquid resin is applied to keep the bandages together. While his attendants are wrapping the pharaoh’s body, the Priest of Anpu reads aloud any spells that have auditory components for the protection or other benefits of the pharaoh. A cloth is wrapped around the whole of the mummy, and a god, usually Osiris, is painted upon it as a protector, and Judge of the Dead. Another large clothed is wrapped about the holy image, and the mummy, with a painted board on it, is now lowered into a second coffin. This second coffin is generally the one that is seen from the outside. (AncientEgypt.co.uk)

The funeral for the pharaoh is performed, but the ritual is not over. The Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth, one of the most important among many of the rituals for the dead, is performed so that the dead pharaoh may eat, drink and speak the spells necessary for living life in the next world. The body within its two coffins is then placed into a sarcophagus in its tomb, and in some cases servants, as well as food, clothing, jewels and magical texts are kept with it as well.
However, the journey for the pharaoh was far from over. The amulets given to him during his mummification as he went from his body to Duat, a “place of frightening monsters and lakes of fire” (Finerary, 2001) to the Halls of the Dead protect the pharaoh’s soul, often represented in hieroglyphs as a Ba-bird. The Halls of the Dead, located in the West, would accept his soul for judgment of his heart weighed against that of Ma’at’s Feather. Ammut the Destroyer would eat a person’s soul, whose heart was heavier than the Feather, but if the person were pure, they would go on into the realm of the Dead (Finary).

Anpu would guide the soul to Ma’at, the Goddess of Order and Judgment. The funerary magic that was commissioned in his life now came to his aid. The Negative Confession, (Falkner, 2000) as it is known, was one of many ways to balance one’s heart against the Feather of Ma’at. Another was specific spells catered to asking the heart ‘not to rise up against me’ (Falkner, 2000) as was the case in Spell 30 of the Book of the Dead.

Unfortunately, there is no real record of what the Egyptians believed a soul to do in the Afterlife, beyond perhaps continue ambitions as begun in life, or perhaps assisting their families with a superior form of magic that they gained in the Afterlife The amount of work at this point could be mitigated by shabtis, little servants that would spring to life that were buried with the pharaoh at the time of his insertion into the sarcophagus. Before shabtis, it was believed servants who sacrificed themselves to serve the pharaoh went on to work for him in the Realms of the Dead.

The clergy, carved as sure as the pharaohs of Egypt’s cartouches on their temple walls into their niche, wielded a powerful magic, one that would cradle a pharaoh from death into life. The continuance of the Egyptian way of life, the pharaonic and priestly futures, were all tied to the beliefs behind the throne; that to ascend, the pharaoh must undergo the rituals of purity and spells to get there. It was believed that the ka (life force), and ba (soul) once released from the body, could form the powerful combined Akh, or unified spirit of the person’s soul and life force. This is what made a dead pharaoh’s magic so powerful, and the priests so influential; not only could the priests help make you an immortal, but they could make you even more powerful than you were than when you were earthbound.

What is known, and continues to push both the contemporaries of archaeologists and Egyptologists alike, is the continual discovery of something deeper to the texts that provide a window into the magic of Ancient Egypt’s funerals. The ideas of Ancient Egypt, theurgy and intercession of deity, ritual preparation of the body and preservation still survive in ways even into our modern times. With their highly developed systems of ritual preservation, ritual craft and jewelry, and their advanced-for-their-time view of the Afterlife, the images of Ancient Egypt’s Funerary Magic still echo as grand, intricate and powerful even until today.

References

Nagle, D. Brendan (2006). The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History 6th Ed. New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc.

Falkner, R.O. (2000). The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead Revised Ed. 1985. Texas, University of Texas.

Seawright, Caroline (2001, April) Tales of Magic in Ancient Egypt Retrieved on March 3, 2008, from http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/egypt_magic.html

Jonsson, K.M. (2008) Heka; Magic in Ancient Egypt Retrieved on March 3, 2008 from
http://www.philae.nu/akhet/Heka.html

The British Museum (2008) Mummification Retrieved on March 3, 2008 from
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/explore/main.html

Finary, Kevin (2001) Ammut. In Neferchichi’s Tomb Retrieved on March 3, 2008 from
http://www.neferchichi.com/ammut.html