The Egyptian Heaven and Hell · 54 of 96 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 11 (part 2)
The realm of Osiris had to be cleared of such beings, and the gods whose duty it was to protect him destroyed them with fire.
We may note, too, that in this Division the shadows and souls of the dead were supposed to wander about, and though we do not know how they arrived there, or exactly why they failed to please Osiris, it is quite certain that they were regarded as a danger to the god, and destroyed in consequence.
On the left of AFU-RA stands a row of deities (vol.
i.
p.
50 ff.), some wholly in animal forms, who appear to have taken part in the burial ceremonies which were performed for Osiris; the exact functions of many of them are unknown, and the names of certain of them are not found elsewhere.
According to the text these gods are clothed with their own bodies of flesh, and their souls speak from them, and their shadows are joined to them.
Having been addressed by p.
124 they sing praises to the god, and when he has passed from their Division they, as well as the gods on the right of the BOAT, lift up their voices and weep.
In return for the lands which were given them by Osiris, in the possession of which they were confirmed by AFU-RA, these gods have certain duties to perform, viz., to take vengeance upon the fiend SEBA, to make Nu to come into being, and to cause HAPI to flow.
From this it appears that SEBA possessed at times power over Nu, that is to say, the great celestial watery mass which was the source of the river NILE in Egypt; to destroy this fiend was all-important, for without water the inhabitants of the Tuat could not live, and the cessation of the flow of the NILE would cause the ruin and death of the people of Egypt.
It is interesting to note the connexion of the NILE with the chief domain of Osiris, and it is, no doubt, a reminiscence of the period in the history of the god when he was a water-god.
A knowledge of the beings in these pictures and of the texts of this DIVISION was considered of very great importance for the deceased, for, knowing their forms and their names, he would not be terrified by their "roarings," and would not in his haste to escape from them fall headlong into their pits.
In this DIVISION of the Tuat we see that AFU-RA was absolute master, and that he is made to create its inhabitants to serve Osiris, and Khenti-Amenti, and himself, and to allot to them places to dwell in, and food to keep them alive.
When he withdraws his light from them they p.
125 weep, and sink into a state of inertness to await his return on the following day.
The Kingdom of Khenti-Amenti-Osiris According to the Book of Gates
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
Afu-Ra actively orders the cosmos by creating gods to serve him and allotting lands to inhabitants.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The passage describes the sentence of death and destruction in fire for the wicked and doomed souls.
The interference of a discarnate human soul, or the lingering condition of a particular place, with the living — Dion Fortune's distinction between a soul in distress that clings out of ignorance and ties itself to a person or locality, versus deliberate malice. Distinct from animism (indwelling nature-spirits inherent to a place by nature, not a specific dead individual's soul) and from psychopomp_journey and ancestor_veneration (guiding the dead onward, or the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the honoured dead) in naming the pathological case: a soul that has NOT been guided onward and instead interferes, whether with a person or a place.
The wandering shadows and souls of the dead are described as a danger to the god Osiris that must be destroyed, fitting the definition of discarnate souls not properly guided onward that instead interfere.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage describes the Tuat as a non-physical realm populated by gods, shadows, and wandering souls of the dead that affect the deceased who pass through it.
The Egyptian principle of truth, balance, and right order underlying both the cosmos and human conduct; the parallel to Zoroastrian asha and Greek dike.
The structured defense of Osiris against enemies and the maintenance of the Tuat's divisions reflect the Egyptian principle of cosmic order.