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The Egyptian Heaven and Hell · 55 of 96 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge

Chapter 12 (part 1)

THIRD DIVISION OF THE TUAT. II. THE KINGDOM OF KHENTI-AMENTI-OSIRIS ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF GATES. Before AFU-RA can pass into the THIRD DIVISION it is necessary for him to pass through a Gate which is protected by two strong walls, with a passage running between them. This passage is swept by flames of fire which proceed from two uraei; each end of it is guarded by a warder in mummied form, and on the inner side of the inner wall is a company of gods. The Gate is called SEPTET-UAUAU, and the name of its monster serpent is AQEBI. So soon as the Boat enters the DIVISION or HOUR four of the gods of the region appear, and take it in tow; the god is in the same form as before, and has in no way suffered by his passage through the Gate, because at the word of SA the Gate opened, the flames which swept between the walls ceased, and the warders of the passage and the guardian gods withdrew their opposition. In this DIVISION a serious obstacle had to be overcome. Immediately in the fair way of the course of AFU-RA is a group of eight gods, called FAIU-NETERU, who bear on their shoulders a long pole-like object, each end of which terminates in a bull's head. This object is, p. 126 intended to represent the long tunnel in the earth, each end of which was guarded by a bull, through which, according to one tradition, the night-Sun passed on his journey from the place of sunset to the place of sunrise. At intervals on the tunnel are seated seven gods called NETERU-AMIU, i.e., the "gods who are within," and they are intended to represent the guardians of the seven portions into which the tunnel was divided; the name given to the tunnel is "UAA-TA," i.e., "Boat of the Earth," but there is no doubt that it originally represented Click to view The Boat of the Earth . a kind of Tuat which was complete in itself, as the bulls' heads, one at each end of it, prove. The difficulty of passing through the "Boat of the Earth" is soon overcome, for the gods of the Tuat tow AFU-RA through it, and we see them at the other end of the Division still holding the tow-line in their hands. In front of them are the four gods, whose arms and hands are covered (vol. ii., p. 107), whom we have already seen in the BOOK AM-TUAT (Vol. i., p. 48), where they were in charge of the four boats which filled the p. 127 picture. It is not difficult to explain why the "Boat of the Earth" was omitted by the Theban priests from their composition; had they kept it in it they would have been obliged to make their god AFU-RA, the night form of AMEN-RA, to submit to being towed through an inferior Tuat, and to being absorbed by the earth-god.
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Themes
Funerary Navigationpraxis

Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death.

[auto] The text is from the Book of Am-Tuat, explicitly describing the journey of the solar barque through specific divisions of the underworld to guide the deceased or divine entity.

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Invisible Worldcosmology

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 Tuat (underworld) is presented as a non-physical dimension populated by gods, warders, and guardian beings who operate on a plane imperceptible to ordinary senses.

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Psychopomp Journeycosmology

Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.

[auto] The passage details a guided passage through afterlife realms where the Boat of Afu-Ra is steered by specific deities like the goddess TENT-BAIU.

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Sacred Namestheology

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

Knowledge of the names and forms of beings is explicitly stated as crucial for the deceased to avoid terror and danger.

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Tripartite Soulanthropology

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

The text describes deities as having bodies of flesh, souls that speak, and shadows joined to them, reflecting a threefold composition.

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Word Power Incantationpraxis

The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.

The passage explicitly states that 'at the word of SA the Gate opened, the flames which swept between the walls ceased, and the warders of the passage and the guardian gods withdrew their opposition,' demonstrating the spoken word's direct causal-magical efficacy.

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