The Egyptian Heaven and Hell · 60 of 96 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 14 (part 1)
FIFTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT.
I.
THE KINGDOM OF SEKER ACCORDING TO THE BOOK AM-TUAT.
This DIVISION, or HOUR, or CIRCLE, as it is described in the text, is called AMENT, and it contains the secret ways, and the doors of the hidden chamber of the holy place of the Land of SEKER, and his flesh, and his members, and his body, in the forms which they had in primeval times; the main gate is called AHA-NETERU, the gods are called BAIU-AMMIU-TUAT, and the goddess of the HOUR is SEMIT-HER-ABT-UAA-S.
The Boat of AFU-RA is towed by seven gods and seven goddesses, and is preceded by a few gods who are led by Isis (vol.
i., pp.
87, 91, 95, 99, 100, 107, 111); the texts make it clear that AFU-RA continues his journey by the help of KHEPERA.
The corridor of RE-STAU through which he travels now bends upwards, and passing by p.
135 the secret abode of SEKER, by which it is hidden, once more descends to its former level.
The Land of Seker is in the form of an elongated ellipse, and is enclosed by a wall of sand; it rests upon the backs of two man-headed sphinxes, each of which is called AF and lives upon the voice, or word, of the great god.
The duty of these is to guard the Image of Seker.
The form in which this god is depicted is that of a hawk-headed man, who stands between a pair of wings that project from the back of a huge serpent having two heads and necks, and a tail terminating in a bearded human head.
The Land of Seker is covered by a pyramid having its apex in the form of the head of a goddess, and above it is the vault of night, from which emerges the Beetle of KHEPERA When the Boat of AFU-RA comes to the pyramid, the Beetle ceases to converse with the goddess of the apex, whose duty it is to pass on its words to SEKER, and betakes itself to the Boat, and begins the revivification of AFU-RA, who is led on without delay to the end of RE-STAU, where he is received by the MORNING STAR and the light of a new day.
The IMAGE of Seker, which has been described above, lives in thick darkness, and any light which is seen there proceeds from the "eyes of the heads of the great god whose flesh sendeth forth light," and the god himself lives upon the offerings which are made to the god TEMU upon earth.
When AFU-RA has passed by in his boat there is heard in the Land of p.
136 [paragraph continues] Seker a mighty noise which is like unto that heard in the heights of heaven when they are disturbed by a storm.
On one side of the Land of Seker is the serpent TEPAN (vol.
i., p.
95), which presents to the god the offerings made to him daily; on the other is the serpent ANKHAAPAU, which lives upon its own fire, and remains always on guard.
Close by are the emblems of the various forms of Seker.
Behind the serpent TEPAN is a lake of boiling water, from which project the heads of those who are being boiled therein.
This lake or stream is called NETU, and it is situated in the region of the kingdom of Seker which is called AMMAHET, the unfortunate beings who are in the boiling water weep when the Boat of AFU-RA has passed them by.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes the progression of the solar barque through specific divisions of the underworld (Tuat) as detailed in the Book of Am-Tuat, a core funerary text.
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 non-physical Tuat realm with its secret ways, hidden chambers, and populated by gods, serpents, and sphinxes in a dimension imperceptible to ordinary senses.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The sphinxes 'live upon the voice, or word, of the great god,' directly invoking the creative and sustaining power of the divine word as a mediating principle between the transcendent god and the beings it sustains.
Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.
[auto] The text details the guided movement of the divine boat through distinct afterlife realms ruled by different deities such as Khenti-Amenti and Seker.