The Egyptian Heaven and Hell · 58 of 96 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 13 (part 1)
p.
131 CHAPTER VIII.
FOURTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT.
I.
THE KINGDOM OF SEKER ACCORDING TO THE BOOK AM-TUAT.
THE Boat of AFU-RA has now passed out of the dominions of KHENTI-AMENTI, the ancient god of the dead of the city of Abydos, and has entered the kingdom of SEKER, who is probably the oldest of all the gods of the dead in Egypt.
The dominions Of SEKER were situated in the deserts round about Memphis, and were supposed to cover a large extent of territory, and their characteristics were entirely different from those of the regions ruled over by KHENTI-AMENTI near Abydos, and from those of the kingdom of Osiris, the lord of Busiris and Mendes, in the Delta.
The kingdom of SEKER was shrouded in thick darkness, and, instead of consisting of fertile plains and fields, intersected by streams of running water, was formed of bare, barren, sandy deserts, wherein lived monster serpents of terrifying aspect, some having two, and some three heads, and some having wings.
This region offered so many difficulties to the passage of the boat of AFU-RA, that special means had to be found for overcoming them, and p.
132 for enabling the god and his followers to proceed northwards to the House of Osiris.
As there was no river in the land of SEKER a boat was useless to AFU-RA, and as the god was unable to travel through the FOURTH DIVISION boldly, and to allow himself to be seen by all the inhabitants thereof, it was arranged that he should pass through a series of narrow corridors, which were provided with doors.
The pictures which illustrate the passage of the god through this DIVISION, or HOUR, are arranged in three registers, but the actual corridors through which he travelled are drawn across these obliquely.
The main corridor is called RE-STAU.
At the end of the first section of it is the door MATES-SMA-TA (Vol.
i., p.
63), at the end of the second section is the door MATES-MAU-AT (vol.
i., p.
71), and at the end of the third section is the door MATES-EN-NEHEH (vol.
i., p.
75).
An inscription in this last tells us that it is the road by which the body of SEKER enters and that his form is neither seen nor perceived; hence it is clear that the road by which AFU-RA passed through this DIVISION was supposed to be high up above the dominions Of SEKER, and that he never saw that god at all.
The name given to this DIVISION, or "CIRCLE," as it is called in the Summary, is ANKHET-KHEPERU, and that of its Gate is AMENT-SETHAU.
the goddess of the Hour is called URT-EM-SEKHEMU-S.
We may now consider the means employed by AFU-RA p.
133 for passing through this HOUR.
Looking at the middle register (vol.
i., p.
63) we see that the god has discarded his ordinary boat, and that he and his crew are standing in a boat which is formed of a two-headed serpent; a serpent was the best means of transport for the god, because it could glide easily along the sandy floor of the rocky corridor.
From the "mouth of the boat," which is drawn by four gods, rays of light are emitted; this light is not strong enough to enable AFU-RA to see the beings who are on each side of him (vol.
i., p.
66), but knowing they are there, he cries out to them, and they hear him.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
Offerings made upon earth are linked to the sustenance of beings in the afterlife realm.
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.
The god actively decrees the sustenance of the dwellers and orders the movements of the boat through the divisions.
[auto] The passage describes the specific journey through the Tuat (underworld) and the sustenance of the dead in shrines, which is central to Egyptian funerary texts.
The Egyptian principle of truth, balance, and right order underlying both the cosmos and human conduct; the parallel to Zoroastrian asha and Greek dike.
[auto] The passage explicitly centers on the 'word of maat' and 'maat kheru' as the mechanism by which divine power and order are enacted against chaos.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The beings use consecrated words and tones to enchant and render serpents helpless, engaging divine power through ritual speech.