2. The rise of henotheism.

"Men hide, the gods fly away."
 King Unas (Utt.302 - antechamber, North Wall)

At the start of Dynastic times (ca. 3000 BCE), the religious beliefs of the Egyptians were contextual, local & relative to social class. Hither and thither, a variety of gods and goddesses were worshipped. Each and every local deity was "great" ("wr") and polytheism reigned. At the level of state, Horus (Lower Egypt) & Seth (Upper Egypt) represented the balance of the Two Lands, realized by the institution of divine kingship (his Great Word) and the powers of state (cf. the royal palace or "great house", the temples, the economy, the seats of learning, the administration, health-care, the military, etc). The (Predynastic ?) identity of the anarchic Seth seems obvious enough, but the identity of Horus is less so, appearing as a fusion of (a) Horus the Elder and (b) Horus, son of Osiris.

From the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 BCE), initiating the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 - 2205 BCE), the royal ritual issued a new emphasis on the single, Solar creator-god Re, replacing the traditional balance between Horus and Seth. The original battle was reorchestrated as a smaller part within the scheme of a single, universal, all-powerful creator : Atum-Re. The latter did not assimilate or reject the other deities (as in monotheism, stressing the singular), but became their original point of departure, the self-created initiator of the "first time" (zep tepi) of them all (cf. the Heliopolitan Ennead, or henotheism), the operative principle (ba) of Nun, the primordial ocean of unending potential outside creation.

The architectural wonders of Pharaohs Djoser (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE), Snofru (ca. 2600 - 2571 BCE) and Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE) evidence this new royal theology, focusing on the divine king while in power (cf. as Osiris & Horus in the Sed-festival) and as Son of Re in the afterlife. The latter is two-tiered : first the Duat is confronted (the king becomes Osiris), then, in the horizon, the Ba of the king is transformed into a spirit rejoining the Imperishables.

The pyramid is a stairway to heaven, a rising as given by , 041, the double stairway, a determinative indicating "ascent" and "high place" (cf. the Step Pyramid of Djoser). The names given to the earliest edifices imply the transformation (happening in the Akhet or "horizon") of the royal soul (ba) of the king into a spirit (akh) rejoining the stars : "Sneferu Endures" (Sneferu"), "The Southern Shining Pyramid" (Sneferu), "The Shining Pyramid" (Sneferu), "Akhet Khufu" (Khufu), "Djedefre is a Sehed-star" (Djedefre), "Great is Khafre" (Khafre), "Menkaure is Divine" (Menkaure), "The Purified Pyramid" (Shepseskaf), "Pure are the Places of Userkaf" (Userkaf), "The Rising of the Ba Spirit" (Sahure), "Pyramid of the Ba of Neferirkare" (Neferirkare), "The Places of Niuserre Endure" (Niuserre), "Beautiful is Isesi" (Djedkare-Isesi).

By the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE), when King Khephren (ca. 2540 - 2514 BCE) added the title "son of Re" to his royal titulary, Ancient Egyptian culture had reached its pinnacle. Canonical attainments in science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, magic, ritual and sapiental teachings had been realized, and we have to wait until the New Kingdom (ca. 1539 - 1075 BCE) to witness new developments (cf. Amduat, Atenism and Amonism). However, in all periods, especially in the Late Period (664 - 332 BCE), Egypt would return to the canon initiated by King Djoser and his "Leonardo da Vinci", the vizier, scribe, doctor and architect Imhotep, "the one that comes in peace". In architecture (cf. Giza pyramids), religion (cf. the Pyramid Texts) and wisdom-teaching, to name but a few areas of interest, these Old Kingdom rules became sanctosanct.

the henotheist religion of Re

As Papyrus Westcar puts into evidence, the beginning of the Vth Dynasty saw major changes in Egyptian religion. The powerful influence of Re made the first Pharaoh of the Vth Dynasty (King Userkaf - ca. 2487 - 2480 BCE) highpriest of Re and begotten by Re himself. Re had visited the wife of Userra, a highpriest of Re. The result was the birth of a divine child.

"From the 3th Dynasty we have the evidence for a new emphasis on a single creator, eclipsing the balance between the good Horus and the anarchic Seth. The battles of Horus and Seth do no disappear in the new, classical Egyptian arrangement of divine powers, but they become a smaller part within the general scheme of a single all-powerful creator."
Quirke, 2001, p.83.

The popular Osiris and the crucial battle between his son Horus and Seth, were apparently not ousted from the royal mindset. On the contrary, his divine family-drama became part of the cycle of the "Great Re", the overarching & overseeing deity. Osiris became the "Sun of the night", although an essential tension between both myths continued to exist throughout the Old Kingdom.

"In the royal and state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky, and while he is there Solarized, we have just shown how he also tinctures the Solar teaching of the celestial kingdom of the dead with Osirian doctrines. The result was thus inevitable confusion, as the two faiths interpenetrated."
Breasted, 1972, p.160.

The pyramid of Userkaf was built at North Saqqara, close to the north-eastern corner of Djoser's enclosure. It evidences a truly substantial re-evaluation of the rigid monumentality of the previous Dynasty (cf. its small size : side = 73.5m and height = 49m) and less painstaking methods of construction. The main surviving architectural achievement of Pharaoh Userkaf was his temple dedicated to Re, the Sun-god. Six of the seven kings of this Vth Dynasty, King Unas included, would do the same in the next eighty years. Re became a state god and Pharaoh the son of Re. These temples were personal monuments to each king's continued relationship with Re during life and in the afterlife.

The funerary ritual was also elaborated, and in the Vth Dynasty, the Lector-priest, or "Kheri-Heb" appears in scenes. He was a specialist, and master of the mortuary rituals for the royals. He was attended by the "Heri-Shesheta", the "Head of Mysteries". These developments evidence an increased interiority. Sacred writing realizes its first internal structure : words joined together in simple sentences. Internalization led to the formation of pre-concepts, i.e. word-images created through imagination and the interplay of meaningful objective relational contexts. Subjectivity was expressed as a function of an objective state. The actions of the "I"-form are objective states which are not yet (self) reflective. The opacity of the material side of presence prevailed. The subject has no transparancy of its own, but functions as a "collective Self" walking the Lunar and Solar paths.

However, in the royal cult, three central natural types emerge : on the one hand, the divine king, his residence and magical power to assure a "good Nile", and, on the other hand, his father, the creator-god Re, "father of the gods" and giver of life. This is Atum, the "Ba of Nun", the potential to autogenerate floating in the inert waters of chaos. In-between there is Osiris, the prototype of the regeneration brought by darkness and silence.

Pharaoh, being the son of Re, returns the "right order" to his father (as the sole god on Earth, he is the only one able to do so). Because he worships his father properly (effectively), he is blessed by the latter and receives a "good Nile". Thanks to the tomb, his father may descend from the sky and assist his son. The dead would thus continue to rule and Egypt would last for millions of years ...

Because of this emphasis on Re, a constellational henotheism ensued. To evidence unity, multiplicity is not eliminated. To operate the multiple, the original unity of the divine is not eclipsed. The various natural types work together under the overarching order of Re, who is their beginning and end. The deities are so many appearances of the creator. Every night they are reborn with him. Likewise, his son Pharaoh is present in more than hundred temples simultaneously and he alone effectuates the necessary rituals to make the god find his shrine pleasant and become united with his statue. Deities only communicate with other deities. A human coming face to face with the god dies.

the royal titulary

Changes in the royal funerary rituals had already been monumentally expressed by Kings Sneferu and Khufu, but under Khufu's son, Pharaoh Radjedef (ca. 2548 - 2540 BCE), the signs of far-reaching religious change become institutional. Re surpassed all other deities, even Horus, the sky god and emblem of the "Followers of Horus". Pharaoh Radjedef, who provided himself with the name "belongs to the firmament", is the first to bear the name "son of Re" ("sA Ra").

His brother or half brother King Khephren (ca. 2540 - 2514 BCE) incorporated the royal title "son of Re" in his official, royal titulary. This titulary ("nxb.t") consisted of 5 titles or "rn wr", "great names". Each of these express a specific view-point on kingship. As the name of someone was crucial and all-important for his or her survival and effectiveness, the royal name was the "name of names". To know and understand Pharaoh's names revealed his power in life and to have one's own name written next to his, guaranteed success in the afterlife.

As the "son of Re", King Khephren added a fifth name to his four other titulary names, thereby expressing the idea of the divine king being the human form of Re at birth, i.e. Re begets the king, who rules over Egypt in the former's name.
 
"From this time onward every king of Egypt, whether of Egyptian origin or not, called himself the 'son of Râ'. In later days, when Amen, or Amen-Râ, became the King of the Gods, it was asserted by his priesthood that the god assumed the human form of a man and begot the king of Egypt."
Budge, 1989, p.33, my italics.

The definitive form of the royal titulary was attained : it began with the Horus Name of the Early Dynastic Period and ended with the name of the king at birth (as a prince), preceded by "son of Re". When enthroned, the king received a "prenomen", a divine name referring to Re. Both names were enclosed by an oval ring (suggestive of the Solar cycle), a cartouche. The "nomen" name is phenomenal. The "prenomen" name is for all of eternity. This enclosure may be compared with the wall surrounding the temple. Thus it reflects the Solar horizon of the Sun-disk and assures the clear distinction between the divine and the profane.

Just as the "sah" is the result of "senetjer" or ritual consecration, the king becomes the "son of Re" in actu exercito only after having received his throne-name. As a prince, he was the son of a divine father, as divine king he is a Lone Star, the son of the unique creator-god and god of light, Re, the star of stars. By adding "son of Re" to the birth name, the divine birth (not yet divine right) of the royal prince was underlined. At his coronation, he received the "form" of kingship ritually (cf. the royal Ka), but his divine nature was already present at birth (cf. the royal placenta), for he was conceived by Re himself.

The five names of the royal titulary, a temporal as well as a spiritual declaration of divine rule, are :

1. the Horus name, Banner name or Ka-name : designating the king as the manifestation of Horus, the elder sky god (Horus in the palace, not yet Horus, son of Osiris, although both were confused), the divine prototype and patron of the Egyptian kings. The earliest divine kings, the "Followers of Horus", ruled with this Horus name alone. In the Early Dynastic Period, the perched falcon of Horus was part of the name of the king. King Aha, for instance, was "Horus-Aha", or "Horus who fights". In the New Kingdom, "Mighty Bull" was added at the beginning of the name, but it was usually quite variable. Although it would continue to be used throughout the entire Ancient Egyptian history, it lost its importance to the prenomen en nomen from the end of the Old Kingdom on. This name was not the birth name of the king, but it was given to him when he ascended the throne. During the Early Dynastic Period and the early Old Kingdom, it was the king’s official name. His name of birth would not appear in official documents.
    
   This name is often written within a rectangular frame, at the bottom of which is seen a design of recessed panelling, such as we find in the facades of early tombs and in the false doors of many private tombs. The Ancient Egyptian name for this facade was "serekh". When speaking of the (palace) facade, this name is often used in modern texts as well. On top of this "serekh" is perched the falcon of Horus, hence the appellation "Horus-name". In more elaborate New Kingdom examples, Horus is wearing the double crown and is accompanied by the Sun and an Uraeus ;
    

2. the Nebti name or "Two Ladies" title : first met in the reign of Pharaoh Aha, Nekhbet and Uadjit ("wADiit") were the protective goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively (a vulture & a cobra, each atop the basket for "Lady"). These two refer to the dual kingdom the king unites as "Lord of the Two Lands". The "Two Ladies" correspond to these "Two Lords", and to the royal gods Horus and Seth (Lower and Upper Egypt respectively). The concept of the king embodying both goddesses, highlights the reconciliation of opposites to maintain the balance, here on a geographical level ;
    

3. the Gold name, Golden Horus name or Falcon of Gold name : this name of gold, a falcon atop a beaded collar (meaning "gold"), is first attested in the IVth Dynasty and is represented by a Horus falcon atop a beaded collar ("nbw" - gold). The name might refer to the wealth and splendour of Pharaoh's divinity, as well as to his enduring qualities (gold was considered to be the untarnished "flesh" of the deities). The Papyrus of Ani (chapter 77) makes the Falcon of Gold refer to the Sekhet Hetep, the Field of Peace. The notion of "gold" may thus be linked to neheh-time & its eternal repetition. The burial-chamber in the royal tombs of the New Kingdom was often called the "golden room", not (only) because of the presence of actual gold, but because it was there for all of eternity. The gold name may convey the same notion of eternity, expressing the wish that the king may be an eternal Horus, i.e. he and his kingdom endure ;
    

4. the Throne name (prenomen) : is preceded by the "nswt-bitii" title, which translates as "he of the sedge and bee", "King of Upper and Lower Egypt" or "Dual Kingdom" and is enclosed (in a cartouche). The first known example of this title is dated to the reign of Pharaoh Den, when it was often combined with the Nebti-name. It would take until the end of the IIIth Dynasty before it came into use and eventually replaced the Horus-name as the most important official royal name. The systematic presence of the name of Re in the prenomen (starting with Pharaoh Khephren) indicates it was given to the king when he ascended the throne. It put him in a narrow relationship with the universal Solar god Re. More recent scholarship conjectures the name to be a statement regarding Pharaoh and his policies (instead of a theological statement concerning the god). It was compounded with the name of the Sun god Re (including the hieroglyph of the disk of the Sun), written first (cf. honorific transposition) ;
    

5. the personal name of Pharaoh (nomen - our family-name) : always preceded by the epithet "son of Re". It is the name given to the prince at birth. After coronation, it was also enclosed in a cartouche. It affirmed Pharaoh was by birthright a god. A "cartouche" or "royal ring" depicts a loop formed by a rope, the ends tied together. This conveys the notions of "eternity" and "encompassing the entire creation". The loop can be seen as the cycle of the Sun itself, the celestial ecliptic (in reality, the elliptical movement of the Earth around the Sun). The crucial role of "Tail-in-Mouth" in the VIth Hour of the Amduat refers to this "encircling of creation".

On a single royal monument, all five names seldom appear together. When only one name was used, the Throne name was the most common. Usually, it was also used when the king had died, avoiding the necessity to add numbers to the personal names, a method in vogue since the time of Manetho, an Egyptian priest of the third century BCE, who wrote a history of the Dynasties (of which only fragments have survived). For example, by his contemporaries, King Amenhotep III was named "Nebmaatre", his Throne name, or "Re is the Lord of Maat" and not "Amenhotep", or "Amun is pleased", the name given to the royal prince at birth (indicative of his family lineage).

The kings of old were named by their Horus name, suggestive of the overseeing qualities of the Falcon flying over the "Two Lands". After the theological changes brought about by the Old Kingdom Heliopolitans, the Throne name was preferred. The complexity of the titulary and the use of these names, tries to encompass the supernatural effectivity of the presence of the divine king on Earth. His "name of names" conveys his extraordinary nature in the order of things. The king is "divine" because he is an incarnated Akh, which is truly exceptional, and also the only living being possessing a "Ba" or principle of transformation (dynamism, change, movement). He is a human being with a personal name, but also a divine being, with a Ba becoming an Akh (soul becoming spirit). The nomen of the prince underlines his divine origination and vocation, but without the "royal Ka". Although in the titulary, the nomen is preceded by "the son of Re", he does not use this epithet as long as his father rules. Once crowned, the king is no longer called by his princely nomen name. Whenever used, it is preceded by "son of Re". As a king, only his Throne name is heard.

the complete titulary of Pharaoh Amenemhet III (ca. 1818 - 1773 BCE)
Middle Kingdom, XIIth (Theban) Dynasty :

Mighty Horus
Great of Might
He of the Two Ladies
Taking possession of the inheritance of the Two Lands
Horus of Gold
Permanent of Life
King of Upper and Lower Egypt
Maat of Re (Nimaatre).
Son of Re
Amun at the Head

the theology of Heliopolis

In the theology of Heliopolis (the "On" of the Bible and today the Coptic suburb of Cairo), the divine king of Egypt, as the sole son of Re, ascends to the realm of Atum, the unique supreme deity (cf. Hornung, 1986). There, in the Sun's domain, the First Time, the king is ensured of an ongoing increase in spirituality (an efficiency due to the transformation of his Ba into an Akh, a spirit of light) and a union with the only true source of life and youth, projected near the Northern Circumpolar Stars ; he arrives there as an awesome god (cf. Cannibal Hymn). He sails on Re's Bark of Millions of Years, ascends with a ladder or flies as a bird, a grasshopper or sacred smoke ... He escapes the realm of Geb (the Earth) and the Duat of Osiris (the land of the dead).

The lightland of Re, fountain of rejuvenation and endless power, is a continuing cycle of renewal (in neheh-time), a perpetuum mobile at the core of (stellar) light. Here, the powerful Sa-energy of the universal Heka-field can be harvested. The latter is due to the autogenic activity of the sole creator-god Atum.

• "Nun" : the unmanifested sameness of everything that is not light ;

• "Atum" : unmanifested light diffused in Nun ;

• "Atum-Kheprer" : the unmanifested, first occurrence of eternally recurrent light ;

• "Re" : the manifest presence of Atum as light on the primordial "hill".

Grosso modo, this Heliopolitan ideology of the divine king was Solar, stellar & national, complementing the contextual, regional and variable Lunar spirituality of the common Egyptians. In the latter, shared by the majority of Egyptians, the role of Osiris was as crucial as the yearly inundation (cf. the agrarian, Sothic calendar) and the monthly cycle of fertility (cf. Isis & Osiris as Moon deities).

For good reasons, Kemp (1989) and Lesko (1999) doubt whether, in the Predynastic and the historical periods, Heliopolitan henotheism was shared by the vast majority of unlettered Egyptians. The opposite seems to be true, associating Heliopolitanism with elitism and Osirian faith with populism.

"Kemp has suggested that Egyptian religion, as we know it from the formal, state-approved written texts, is an intellectually manipulated construction of the historic period, most likely of the middle or late Old Kingdom (...) to promote the divinity of the king of Egypt."
Lesko, 1999, p.31.

3. The ritual complex of King Unas

the architecture

King Unas, Unis or Wenis (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE) was the last Pharaoh of the Vth Dynasty. His pyramid at Saqqara, called "Perfect are the Placed of Unas", is at the South-western corner of Djoser's enclosure and the smallest of all known Old Kingdom pyramids. The complex, a model for subsequent rulers, is almost diagionally opposed to the pyramid of Userkaf (ca. 2487 - 2480 BCE), the founder of this Heliopolitan Dynasty. Located between the enclosures of Djoser's pyramid and Sekhemkhet's, King Unas completed "a historical and architectural symmetry" (Lehner, 1997, p.154). The pyramid temple was erected directly over the substructure of the IInd Dynasty tomb assigned to King Hetepsekhemwy. The entrance of the pyramid proper, in the middle of its North side, opens at ground level in the pavement of the pyramid court (and not in the face of the pyramid). There are remnants of a small entrance chapel.

Plan of the Pyramid-complex of Unas (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE).
The Pyramid was 57.75 m², 43 m high, with a slope of 56°.
(after Lehner, 1997, p.155)

Like most Old Kingdom pyramids, the complex of Unas included a pyramid-complex, a causeway and a valley temple below, adjacent to a canal. Coming in by boat, preparatory rituals took place in the valley temple. One then proceeded uphill along a causeway, a long corridor with high walls and an insulating roof. The processional causeway to the pyramid of Unas is 750m long and equal to Pharaoh Khufu's. Most causeways have been destroyed, but that of King Unas at Saqqara is in a good condition and hand been restored in modern times. In its roof, a slit is left open, so a shaft of light illuminates the gallery of brightly painted reliefs, of which only fragments survive. A wide array of scenes once covered the wall : boats transporting granite palm columns, granite cornices or lintels, craftsmen working gold & copper, harvesting scenes (grain, figs & honey), deer hunted by greyhounds, archers, woman bearing offerings, battles with enemies, bearded "Aziatics", scenes of starving people, prisoners begging for mercy ... The causeway had two changes of angle, and South of the second bend lay two boat pits (each 45m long). By the New Kingdom, the complex had fallen into ruins. More than 1000 years after King Unas died, Khaemwaset, son of Ramessess II and high priest at Memphis, restored it, causing the famous name of Unas to live again ...

Plan of the Valley temple and Pyramid-complex of Unas
(after Lehner, 1997, p.154)

The pyramid-complex of Unas consisted of two parts separated by a long, transverse corridor : the foretemple had an entrance hall and a pillared court and the secret, inner temple included a hall with five statue niches, an antechamber (a high square room with in the middle a single granite pillar) and a sanctuary. A network of storerooms enclosed these elements. There the offerings and sacred objects for the royal ritual were kept. A temenos wall surrounded the complex. Today it is in ruin, and the pyramid reduced to a small heap of debris. The temple design itself is also lost.

Plan of the royal tomb underneath the pyramid of Unas.

If the pyramid-complex of Unas became the model for the later pyramid temples, then the purpose of certain parts of the temple may be inferred by studying later examples, like Pepi II's pyramid temple. In the latter, the transverse corridor was adorned with reliefs illustrating the Sed festival, the this-life ritual of regeneration of the divine king. The West end of the sanctuary abutted the East wall of the pyramid. This West wall against the pyramid was covered by a granite stela, serving as point of contact between the world of the living and the realm of the dead (the tomb below). At its foot an altar was set up and offerings were brought by priests.

Entering the pyramid from the North, it is necessary to bend over in order to move down the passage. The slope is deliberate and varies between 28° (Khufu), 26° (Khafre), 25° (Pepi II) or 22° in the case of the pyramid of Unas. The passage is oriented to specific northern stars. It slopes down to a corridor-chamber or vestibule, followed by the usual horizontal passage with three granite portcullis slabs. It is not possible to stand upright. Once this barrier passed, the first hieroglyphs appear, to be read from the inside of the pyramid out.

Plan of the royal tomb underneath the pyramid of Unas.

This entrance/exit corridor then opens into the antechamber, directly under the pyramid's centre axis. Standing up, one is surrounded on all sides by blue-tinted hieroglyphs. On the ceiling of the tomb, golden, pentagram-like stars were carved in relief on a sky-blue background. The North and South walls of the antechamber and the burial-chamber stop short of the ceiling, forming a kind of shelf below it (cf. left picture).

In the East of the antechamber (on the left hand side when entering the tomb), a doorway opens to the undecorated and uninscribed tomb-chapel with three recesses. The middle recess of this possible tomb-chapel lies lower but aligned with the false door of the sanctuary above. Egyptologists are not sure about the role of this triple chamber, the so-called "serdab" or "cellar".

© Piankoff, A. : The Pyramid of Unas, Princeton University Press - Princeton, 1968.

Burial-chamber  - pyramid of King Unas.
Sarcophagus West, western half of North & South walls in alabaster.

On the West of the antechamber (at the right hand side when entering the tomb and precisely opposite the Ka-chapel), a passage-way leads to the burial-chamber. This has a black granite sarcophagus at its West end. In its immediate vincinity, there are no texts. Instead, we see a palace-façade design, with reed-mats and a wood-frame enclosure, an iconography derived from the royal mastaba tombs of the First Dynasty. Together with the icon of two lotus flowers back to back, these motifs recur, possibly because the lotus represents dawn, the emergence of light as Nefertem, the son of dawn. This would make the royal ritual a ceremony of life, merging the finite life of the king (both alife & deceased ?) with the infinite life, viewed as "djedet", everlasting (as Osiris, through darkness) and "neheh", eternal recurrent (as Re, through light).

"All of these considerations may lead us to conclude that in the highly sensitive space surrounding the sarcophagus, certain ritual events took place that were -in the pyramid of Unas- regarded as too delicate to reveal in words. But in later times, after the reign of King Teti, the immediate vincinity of the sarcophagus -especially the West wall- was freed from this stricture, and what was only implied by the symbolic designs in the Unas pyramid was now openly expressed in words. It is of for this reason that the pyramid of Unas contains so little textual reference to the Osirian re-memberment : It was considered too delicate a matter to put into words."
Naydler, 2005, p.164.

In the West, the place of regeneration, the mummy is in the total darkness of Osiris, allowing it to be reborn, ascending to illumination. The walls around the sarcophagus, on which these designs were carved, are made of polished alabaster, whereas all the other walls of the tomb are in Tura limestone. Alabaster is soft and translucent. It was referred to as "ankh", or "life" and had a milky color (milk was also called "ankh was", "the sap of life"). Sunk in the floor to the left (South) of the foot of the sarcophagus was the canopic chest, meant to protect the four "ritual" elements of the physical body, represented by the "sons of Horus", or lords of the four pillars of the physical world the deceased (or the high priest) has left. Taken together, these spiritual symbols learn us a lot suggesting the sacredness of this uninscribed area of the tomb, overtowered by the West Gable hieroglyphs, acting as magical protection devices, and initiating oration.

"One of the recurrent motifs is that of two lotus flowers with their stems but no leaves, represented back to back. This is a motif that occurs in many Old Kingdom tombs and on tomb artifacts, but especially on sarcophagi and around false doors. The significance of this is that the sarcophagus was a place of transition between the physical and spiritual worlds, while the falso door was a place of communication between realms. The lotus, whose manner of growth involves passing out of the water element in order to flower in the air, touched by the rays of the sun, was preeminently a symbols of breakthrough from one world to another."
Naydler, 2005, p.162.

In the Old Kingdom, temples for the cult of the deities were usually made out of brick, a perishable material. The tombs of the divine kings were petrified, precisely because in this way he became the sole guardian of the magical keys of the kingdom : a "good" Nile. Only the king was the son of Re on Earth (cf. Heavenly Cow). The plateau being full, the kings of the Vth Dynasty, in order to erect their pyramid complex, had to leave Giza. In doing so, they lost their sight-line to Iunu (Heliopolis). Adding a Solar temple to the pyramid complex (cf. King Userkaf) compensated for the distance, assuring the royal cult was directly associated with the son of Re on Earth. These "Heliopolitan" Dynasties (Djoser - Unas ?), were exceptional & foundational.

The royal cult also served this-life purposes (of which the celebration of the Sed festival is an outstanding example, but there must have been more). Service to the father of the king, and creator of all deities, was also part of it. To represent the link with the Sun, a massive stone mound shaped like a squat obelisk was used. It stood at the back of an open court (the best example is King Neuserre's at Abu Ghurab, following the model of the pyramid complex, and situated riverside). As a result, both the royal cult and the cult of the deities (in casu Atum-Re) took place in temples made out of lasting materials. Later cult temples, even disconnected from the royal cult, remained stone edifices. Thanks to Re the deities endured.

© Piankoff, A. : The Pyramid of Unas, Princeton University Press - Princeton, 1968.

Antechamber  - pyramid of King Unas
passage-way West to Burial-chamber, corridor North

The royal cult is origin and goal of the traditional theologies of the Old Kingdom (Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Memphite & Osirian). Without the king, there is no Maat and the created world returns to chaos, as light to darkness. The ideal of divine kingship, a unity of temporal and spiritual activities, is crucial to understand the "canon" of the Old Kingdom mentality and way of life. Especially in the IIIth, IVth & Vth Dynasties, a fairly unmixed, pristine strand of this culture is revealed.

The Unas text is a literary masterpiece summarizing the best theology of the moment. It is not a loose set of funerary spells, but a composition to be viewed as an integrated whole, albeit in early ante-rational thinking. No doubt, the intellectual elite produced concrete concepts, as in proto-rational cognition, but the culture at large was still steeped in myth and pre-rational pre-concepts, remaining very situational and with limited functionality.

"But one cannot help suspecting that a fundamental revision of the ritual coincided with the decision to immortalize these spells, previously handed down on perishable papyrus, by carving them in stone and thereby also endowing them with greater magical power. The decision on Wenis's part has provided for us the earliest collection of religious texts, not only of Egypt, but of all humankind."
Hornung, 1999, p.36.

The divine nature of the king is the core myth holding Ancient Egyptian society together. It explains royal magic (effectiveness), Great Speech and Maat, truth & justice. In the "ideal" of the Heliopolitan priests, the living Horus-king guarantees a "good Nile" and his united administration creates economic surplus. The Nile records his magic, while the "pacification" of the "two lands" is his control & power, the brilliance of his Great Mansion. Centuries before Unas, this state ideology was already fully in place (cf. the great building projects).

the texts

King Unas was the first to include hieroglyphic inscriptions in his royal tomb, namely in its corridor, antechamber, passage-way & burial-chamber. The area around the sarcophagus and the serdab are left uninscribed. This coincides with a general increase of writing in general in the later Vth Dynasty. The Unas text, carved and filled with blue pigment, contains, in 228 of the 759 (Faulkner, 1969) known "utterances", the first historical account of the (Heliopolitan) religion of the Old Kingdom, in particular its royal cult. It precedes the textualization of the Vedas, reckoned at ca. 1900 BCE (Unas died ca. 2348 BCE).

"The Pyramid Texts reflect not only an Egyptian vision of the afterlife but also the entire background of Old Kingdom religious and social structures, and they incorporate an ancient worldview much different from that of more familiar cultures."
Allen, 2005, p.13.

Technically, the Pyramid Texts are a corpus consisting of "utterances" or "spells", so called because the expression "Dd mdw" ("Dd" = "word" ; "mdw" = "speech"), "to say" or "to say the words", i.e. the sacred words to be recited is, as a rule, atop most texts, allowing for a classification. The one introduced by Sethe (1910, with 714 utterances), is an inventory of all texts, irrespective of the kind of text or its placement in the tombs.

Integrating both variables underlines the effort to bring out the dramatic & ritualistic features of these texts.

"The actual inscription of text on the walls of the Pyramid of Unas shows considerable redactional care, with a significant number of corrections, both to the original ink draft and to the carved signs, in ways that seem to imply copying and then collation from a more cursive original. There can indeed be no reasonable doubt that inscriptions themselves were copied immediately from papyrus text."
Eyre, 2002, p.12, my italics.

Discovered by Maspero in 1881, the Unas text had been buried and left undisturbed for ca. 4200 years. An untainted primary religious source ! Together with the texts found in the tombs of King Unas' successors, Pharaohs Teti, Pepi I, Merenre & Pepi II (ca. 2270 - 2205 BCE) of the VIth Dynasty, these compositions form the first known religious corpus in world literature, as well as the earliest example of extended writing worldwide (including a rich pallet of various styles, forms & intentions). The small pyramids of the three wives of King Pepi II (Neith, Ipwet and Oudjebeten) are also inscribed, as is that of King Iby (VIIIth Dynasty).

The quality of these inscriptions is however relatively crude and they are not part of the inventory realized by Sethe (1908), the "standard edition" of the Pyramid Texts, later translated into German. In 1952, Mercer published the first English version and in 1968, Piankoff translated the text in his The Pyramid of Unas. Finally in 1969, Faulkner published his The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, the acclaimed standard English translation, with new & refreshing grammatical & semantic perspectives. For him, Sethe's work was bulky, incomplete and never revised by its author. Meanwhile, more material had come to light, enabling him to restore many lacunae, whereas in the last half of the previous century great advances in Ancient Egyptian had been made.

The list of tombs containing Pyramid Texts is apparently never final, nor has our knowledge of Ancient Egyptian stopped advancing. In 2005, Allen published The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, containing the texts found in 10 tombs (besides the canonical five, he also includes Ankhesenpepi II, Neith, Iput II, Wedjebetni & Ibi). This clear translation of the Unas text is in many ways remarkable and most welcome, in particular regarding the use of verbal forms, as well as offering translations of passages beforehand deemed untranslatable, calling for revision. No doubt, this translation by Allen excells Faulkner's and is a humbling experience for anyone studying these texts for years.

The Unas text was copied in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE) tomb of the official Senwosret-Ankh, high priest of Ptah, suggesting the presence of a separate corpus (on papyrus ?), i.e. a continuous manuscript tradition and an underlying archival tradition. This is also the best preserved body of text representing a complete set, providing the standard approach to the theology of the Old Kingdom, dominated by Re-Atum of Heliopolis (Pepi II has the most complete surviving texts of the later pyramids, but suffering damage).

"... the Unas texts were evidently regarded as an integral work in their own right, and seem to have acquired 'canonical' status ..."
Naydler, 2005, p.149.

Maspero (1884, p.3) assumed these texts were exclusively funerary and divided them in ritual texts, prayers and magical spells. In the previous century, authors realized they include drama, hymns, litanies, glorifications, magical texts, offering rituals, prayers, charms, divine offerings, the ascension of Pharaoh, his arrival & settling in heaven, etc. They offer a glimpse of an African, anterational perspective on death, rebirth & illumination.

4. The interpretation of the Pyramid Texts

"They include very ancient texts among those which were nearly contemporary with the pyramids in which they were inscribed, imposing on the modern reader problems of grammar and vocabulary ; the orthography is apt to be unusual ; and there are many mythological and other allusions of which the purport is obscure to the translator of today."
Faulkner, 1969, p.v.

For Sethe (1908), the Pyramid Texts were a free collection of magical utterances, which, by virtue of their presence, assisted the divine king in his resurrection & ascension de opere operato, dispensing with the need for daily priestly offerings to his Ka (in the pyramid temple above) as well as elaborate monumental buildings. He himself uttered the words of power to regenerate himself and rise up. The sarcophagus chamber texts have to be read first. This is the standard funerary interpretation.

"Food offerings alone, however, even when they conformed to the prescriptions regarding purity and dietary taboos (e.g. no pork, no fish), did not suffice to maintain the divine forces. These forces were nothing without ritual and efficacious speech."
Traunecker, 2001, p.40, my italics.

The presence of offering-texts feeds the subtle bodies of the deceased. Sacred words or hieroglyphs not only describe objects, but embody their double (cf. the Lascaux pictures and the Eastern desert petroglyphs). Hence, once properly recited (by the dead and/or the living, the so-called "voice-offerings"), they become efficient (for all of eternity). The hidden, secret, dark potential of hieroglyphs is evidenced by the sacrificial rituals found in the extended mortuary literature. Words made these rituals work. The Ba of the deceased reads the words and the latter manifest their meaning, guaranteeing a safe passage to the afterlife.

"We have already pointed out that the spells of the so-called sacrificial ritual, i.e. the texts used in the provision of supplies, were inscribed in a prominent place where they could be seen by the dead person resting in his sarcophagus. (...) In other words, texts were written down so that the dead themselves could 'proclaim the provision of supplies' ("nis dbHt-Htp") instead of this being done by unreliable priests. This was the nucleus around which the texts crystallized."
Morenz, 1996, p.229.

Schott (1945) & Ricke (1950) advanced the thesis that at the time of the funeral, these texts were recited in the various chambers, corridors and courts through which the procession passed on its way to the pyramid. The valley temple corresponded to the vestibule, the causeway to the entrance corridor, the outer pyramid temple to the antechamber and the sanctuary to the burial-chamber. But it was not easy to identify where each spell was recited.

This view was challenged by Arnold (1977), who tried to discover the function of the pyramid complex by examining the wall reliefs, statues, inscriptions and architectural features of the complex itself. These refer little to funerary rituals ! Schott discovered three literary forms : (a) dramatic texts recited by the participants in a ritual drama, (b) hymns assisting the ritual drama and (c) transfiguration spells, in which the scene happens in the spirit worlds while the king speaks through the reciting priest. As for Scott the funerary procession terminated in the inner pyramid temple (corresponding with the sarcophagus room), we have to read the texts in the burialchamber last !

For Spiegel (1953 & 1971) the texts are an integral part of the funerary ritual performed in the tomb and hence recited in the area were they were inscribed. They reflect the royal burial ritual taking place solely in the tomb underneath the pyramid. Their placement reflects the entry of the funerary procession into the tomb. Hence, the text begins on the West wall of the entrance corridor, continue in the burial-chamber and re-enter the antechamber on its South wall, ending on the East wall of the entrance corridor ... Again a different order from that of Sethe, Scott and Ricke ! Spiegel is the first to claim the sarcophagus chamber represents the Duat and the antechamber the Akhet.

These conjectures were criticized. In 1960, Morenz wrote :

"This bold, learned and ingenious interpretation can properly be accessed only by one who has examined it in terms of the vast and diverse material. When this is done, it appears that quite serious objections may be levelled against numerous points in the argumentation and thus against the thesis as such."
Morenz, 1996, p.228-229, my italics.

According to Mercer (1952), only the offering liturgy (on the North wall of the burial-chamber) belongs to the funerary ritual proper. The purpose of the magical & mythical formulae, prayers, hymns and petitions was to guarantee the king's resurrection and new birth, involving transfiguration and deification, the king being immortal like the other deities. In his translation, Mercer follows Sethe's classification.

Likewise, for Piankoff (1968) the texts describe a postmortem mystical journey, culminating in union with the godhead, Re-Atum. It entails rebirth, ascent, traveling in the Solar Barque, absorption of the substance of the deities and exaltation in the embrace of Re-Atum. Like Schott, Piankoff begins to read the text in the corridor leading into the tomb, moves to the antechamber for the king's ascension and projects his final deification in the burial-chamber.

For Faulkner (1969), the Pyramid Texts are to be regarded as religious and funerary literature. They describe the king's postmortem journey to the stars and transformation into one (Faulkner, 1966). His translation again follows Sethe's classification.

Altenmüller (1972) agrees with Schott & Ricke that these texts were recited in the pyramid temple, as well as in the tomb, involving priests assuming the god-forms of Re, Horus, Seth and Thoth.

In the Unas text, he isolates three main sections : (a) the funerary procession and actions on the mummy (censing, libation, opening of the mouth), (b) the offering ritual and (c) the burial ritual on the West wall of the antechamber. He attempts to explain every utterance in terms of the mortuary rituals, relying mostly on mythological references and worldplay to determine which text corresponds to which representation. He based his order of the text on (a) the sequencing found in the tomb of Senwosret-Ankh and (b) his conjectured order of the royal funerary ritual as portrayed in the later Middle and New Kingdom private tombs.

"Schott, Spiegel, and Altenmüller all see the key to understanding the Pyramid Texts as lying outside the texts themselves."
Naydler, 2005, p.180.

Barta (1981) doubts whether the Pyramid Texts belong to the funerary ritual at all. The goal of these texts extended beyond the short duration of the actual funerary ritual. They serve the king in the afterlife. Barta returns to the interpretation of Sethe. The texts are used by the king in the afterlife, providing him knowledge and magical power, assisting him in the process of his deification. Barta accepts that the Duat might be accessible to the king while he is still living, but the texts themselves are intended to help the deceased king ...

Osing (1986) & Allen (1988) compared the location of the texts within the tomb of Unas with other Old Kingdom pyramids and the tomb of Senwosret-Ankh at Lisht. Allen was able to establish a coherent model describing the funerary ideology of these royal tombs without reference to conjectured stages of a funerary ritual. The position of particular groups of texts within Unas' pyramid corresponds with the placement of the same texts in other pyramids. Spells recited during the burial ritual were thus eternalized as divine words on the walls, further complementing the importance of symbolism in the general layout of the mortuary complex in general and the royal tomb in particular. The order is determined by the thematic relationship of the texts to the architectural symbolism of the two chambers and their four quarters. There is a spatial semantic at work.

"Allen's analysis of the sequence of spells in the pyramid of Wenis defines the architecture as a material representation of the passage of the king through death to resurrection, exploiting themes familiar in the Underworld Books of the New Kingdom. From the darkness of the earth he passes to life in the light of the sky, progressing from the burial chamber as underworld (duat) through the antechamber as horizon (akht) where he becomes Akh, through the doorway leading to the corridor -ascending by ladder- to heaven (pet), or passing like the setting sun from the west to his rising from the mouth of the horizon in the east, or exploiting the image of the king passing from his sarcophagus -the womb of Nut- through her vulva to birth at the door of the horizon. (...) Allen's analysis focuses on the principle whereby the position of discrete units of ritual text asserts a functional identity between the theology of the text and the architectural symbolism of the pyramid substructure, and so the reality of the king's passage to resurrection".
Eyre, 2002, p.44-45 & 47.

The direction of the texts was thus identical with the soul's path through the tomb, moving from the innermost parts of the burial-chamber (the "Duat" in the West), through the antechamber (the Eastern horizon or "Akhet"), to the outside of the pyramid via the second northern tunnel, flying to the Northern, circumpolar (imperishable) Stars, reaching the Field of Offering.

• the Duat (burial-chamber) : though a part of the world (Earth), but neither Nun or sky, the Netherworld is inaccessible to the living and outside normal human experience. It is separate from the sky and reached prior to it. The Field of Reeds is the realm of the deceased and the deities and the mystery of Osiris. The Horus-king has perpetuated offerings, and stands at the door of the horizon to emerge from the Duat and start his spiritualization ;

• the Horizon (antechamber) : "Axt" ("Akhet"), translated as "horizon", is both the junction of sky and Earth and a place in the sky underneath this point (before eastern dawn and after western dusk), a secret interstitial zone reached and crossed by boat. It is a zone of transition and a "radiant place", the "land of the blessed". The horizon is the place of becoming effective, the locus of the becoming "Ax" ("Akh"), an effective spirit. Note (as did Allen, 1988), that the Cannibal Hymn, thematically belongs in its place (the East Gable). It summarized the king's passage through the night sky to the Sun at dawn. The process of spiritualization ends with the emergence of the new light ;

• the Imperishable sky (northern corridor) : the process of transfiguration (ultimate spiritualization) being completed, the Akh-spirit leaves the tomb and ascends to the northern stars, becoming an Imperishable One.

Eyre (2002) suggests the training and initiation of the funerary priests points to this-life rituals. Perhaps the king rehearsed his forthcoming burial during life ?

"The promise of divine assistance, resurrection, and safe passage to the afterlife is not, however, a concern purely of funerary ritual, and the markedly initiatory form of parts of the mortuary literature must be taken as a pointer to contemporary 'this-life' ritual that is otherwise lost from the archaeological record."
Eyre, 2002, p.72.

Recently, Naydler (2005), by suspending the funerary interpretation, evidenced that the Pyramid Texts in general and the Unas texts in particular, reveal an experiential dimension, and so also represent this-life initiatic experiences consciously sought by the divine king (cf. Egyptian initiation). These may be classified in two categories : Osirian rejuvenation (cf. the texts of the burial-chamber), already at work in the Sed festival, and Heliopolitan ascension (cf. the texts in the antechamber). Apparently the former was celebrated regularly, whereas the latter is foremost funerary.

According to Allen (2005), the Pyramid Texts :

"are largely concerned with the deceased's relationship to two gods, Osiris and the Sun. Egyptologists once considered these two themes as independent views of the afterlife that had become fused in the Pyramid Texts, but more recent research has shown that both belong to a single concept of the deceased's eternal existence after death - a view of the afterlife that remained remarkably consistent throughout ancient Egyptian history."
Allen, 2005, p.7.

conjectured symbolism of the compass points

Many variations regarding the reading direction of the pyramid texts of Unas prevail. Allen's interpretation of Spiegler's conjecture (identifying the burial-chamber with the Duat and the antechamber with the Akhet) seems very interesting and has been adapted. However, my sequencing of the texts differs from both Allen & Naydler, and this for variant reasons.

For example, Allen (2005) is not impressed that in the sacropagusroom, PT 219 on the South Wall continues on the East Wall, nor that in the antechamber PT 260 on the West Wall continues on the South Wall. For Naydler (2005), this points to the Solar & regenerative movement from West to East, as seen in the tomb, confirmed by what he sees as examples of inverse quioning, used in architecture to avoid making the joint between two blocks in the corner.

5. An integration of perspectives.

the mind & magic of Re

Let us try to integrate these various perspectives, taking into consideration the cognitive texture of the ante-rational mind as well as the dramatic, ritualistic interpretation of these ancient magical texts.

If we understand these texts as magical devices, and realize each monarch had his own political and theological preferences, then it seems likely each divine king, to define his own royal cult, made his own, titulary choice out of the available body of religious literature (available on papyrus), maybe adding a few spells of his own. By doing so, he left to posterity an elaborated theo-literary testament with magical effectivity. If so, it became exemplary. This was his magical Great Speech, serving Pharaoh's welfare in the afterlife, elevating him above all possible beings and making him rise even above most deities (cf. the Cannibal Hymn). But also during life on Earth, his royal cult was active and assured his renewal (as the Sed festivals testify).

This magic is part of the logic of the Great Speech, which involved a return to the First Time ("zep tepi") of Atum-Khepri, the self-created essence of Re. This going back to the Golden Age lay at the core of both this-life and afterlife rituals. In the books of the Netherworld, they are represented near Re on his Sacred Barque ; Re with his functions :

• "sia" (understanding) : often wrongly associated with "wisdom" ("saa"), "sia" is related to "knowledge", "perception", "intelligent plan", and might be equated with the mind of Re, or "understanding". In the Old Kingdom, Sia is the divine functionary at the right side of Re, holding the god's sacred papyrus scroll. He is mostly depicted or mentioned together with "Hu". For the Memphites, the mind of Re was the heart of Ptah (cf. Late New Kingdom) ;

• "hu" (authorative utterance) : the creative word of the supreme creator-god is uttered by his tongue. To speak words of power is immediate and carries conviction, strength and weight. "Hu" is also deified, and is always depicted together with Sia. Both represent the basic functions of the divine mind : overarching understanding (overviewing the Two Lands) hand in hand with authority, weight & power of command. Both concepts pre-figurate the omiscience & omnipotence of the Judeo-Christian God ;

• "heka" (magic) : the creative power contained in the divine word of Atum. "Heka" is used to denote (a) the "primordial Sa", the ever-dynamical energy of creation, issued from the word of Atum when he created himself as Atum-Kheprer, and (b) the "primordial field" underpinning creation. Sa-energy was present from the beginning, when Atum-Kheprer hatched out of the primordial egg floating in Nun. Not only does the king's Great Speech know it all and carry the power of conviction & authority, but it has immediate effectiveness and causal power. The king is such a powerful cause that creation bows before the son of the Creator ;

• "maat" (truth & justice) : daughter of Re, and spouse of both Heka and Thoth (deities of magic), Maat represents the impersonal idea of cosmic order, embodied by the divine king, who offers "truth" to his father Re. Maat is the plummet of the balance of justice. In Middle Egyptian, the word "maat" ("mAat") is used for "truth" and "justice". Truth is an equilibrium (a bringing together hand in hand with a keeping apart), measurable as the state of affairs given by the image, form or representation of the balance :

This New Kingdom exhortation by Anubis, the Witness of the Balance, summarizes the Egyptian practice of wisdom and pursuit of justice & truth. By it, their "practical method of truth" springs to the fore : serenity, concentration, observation, quantification (analysis, spatiotemporal flow, measurements) & recording (fixating), with the sole purpose of rebalancing, reequilibrating & correcting concrete states of affairs, using the plumb-line of the various equilibria in which these actual aggregates of events are dynamically -scale-wise- involved. Responding likewise, but always from two different angles : on the one hand, the "common" view of "the heart", namely the end result of the activities of the living person, on the other hand, the divine view of truth & justice, the truth of the cosmic order of the world, represented by a feather (H6).

The activities of the divine king cause :

(a) Maat to be done for them and their environments and
(b) the proper "Ka", or vital energy, at peace with itself, to flow between all parts of creation (truth and justice are personified as the daughter of Re, equivalent with the Greek Themis, daughter of Zeus - cf. "maati" as the Greek "dike").

The "logic" behind the operation of the balance involves four rules :

1. inversion : when a concept is introduced, its opposite is also invoked (the two scale of the balance) ;

2. asymmetry : flow is the outcome of inequality (the feather-scale of the balance is a priori correct) ;

3. reciprocity : the two sides of everything interact and are interdependent (the beam of the balance) ;

4. multiplicity-in-oneness : the possibilities between every pair are measured by one standard (the plummet)

5. witnessing consciousness : the operation of measuring the whole balance is witnessed with precise and concentrated attention and recorded for further comparison and retuning.

Parapsychology, comparative religions and mysticology allow us to distinguish between psi-events (parapsychology), occultism (knowledge of the invisible worlds between heaven and Earth) and mysticism (direct, radical experience of the Divine, the "totaliter aliter"). Although in immature instances of meta-nominal experience (i.e. those falling outside empirico-formal consciousness - cf. Clearings, 2006), these phenomena cannot be distinguished, I avoid adjectives as "shamanic" or "shamanistic" (cf. Naydler, J. : Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts, 2005), and prefer "ecstatic", which is more neutral and devoid of the historical connotations implied by historical Shamanism (the art & science of controlled trance). The word "ecstatic" comes from the Greek "ex", "out" + "stasis", "standstill" or "statikè", "art of weighing", and refers to an extraordinary, unmeasurable, radical experience, clearly out of the ordinary. In my opinion, the Heliopolitan priesthood was too well organized to be called "Shamanistic", although this does preclude shamanistic components in the sacred spells (compare this with the presence of trance oracles & dagger-liberations in Tibetan Buddhism today).

Can one do otherwise but disagree with a most rewarding sources of inspiration and learning, Erik Hornung, who wrote about the Egyptians :

"... any sort of ecstasy appears quite alien to their attitudes."
Hornung, 1986.

In Ancient Egypt, the variety of ecstatic experiences may be classified as personal piety (offerings, prayers, festivals, mystery plays), magic (psi-events), the occult (initiation, entering and leaving the Duat) and mysticism proper. The latter is found in the spirituality of the divine king and his high priests, meeting the deity "face to face" in their temples or transforming into one during life (as a living Osiris during the Sed festival).

the royal cult

In order to und