Opening the Way: the beginning of the journey into the Underworld. [THREAD]
![Opening the Way: the beginning of the journey into the Underworld. [THREAD] https://t.co/zwFLnbNFij](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fg_vEb0XEAIRRIr.png)
Before continuing, you should read the previous thread that explains what the Egyptian Underworld was.
The first stage of the Underworld journey is the Opening of the Door of the Tomb so that the ba may be released from its incarceration there. The tomb may be understood symbolically as the physical body...
Figure 10.1 shows Ani opening the door of his tomb in order to enable his ba to fly out. As the ba is liberated, Ani sets off on his long journey.
The illustration accompanies chapter 92 of the Book of the Dead. Chapter 92 bears the title βThe Chapter for Opening the Tomb to the Ba and Shadow [khaibit], of Coming Forth into the Day and of Getting Power in the Legs.β And it begins:
Given sufficient power in the legs, the Underworld traveller is able to turn away from the physical world, and sets off toward the horizon that marks the boundary between all that is familiar and that which is unknown.
Figure 10.2 shows Nu, staff in hand, bravely striking out toward the Otherworld beyond the horizon. This first stage of the journey, of finding the paths that lead from the tomb to the Underworld, takes place in a region called Restau.
Originally conceived as a gate between worlds, through which the sledge of the god Sokar (a god who was portrayed as an amalgam of Horus & Osiris) was ceremonially drawn, Restau was later thought of as a place of many paths, none of which were necessarily βopenβ to the traveller.
It was therefore considered advisable to enlist the support of a guide, and of all the gods, the most dependable guide through these paths was Anubis, the jackal-headed god who was also known as Upawet, or Wepwawet, meaning βthe Opener of the Ways.β
Figure 10.3, which belongs to the same chapter as figure 10.2, though from a different papyrus, shows Anubis leading Nakht by the hand toward the entrance to the Underworld. In front of it stands a tree, probably a sycamore fig (Ficus sycomorus) sacred to the goddess Nut.
She often appears in its branches offering refreshment of food and drink to the ba as it goes on its way (fig. 10.4). The benevolent presence of a feminine deity, whether in the guise of Nut, Hathor, or Maat, is an intermittent feature of the Underworld journey.
Of the three, Maat is probably the most constant of the feminine divine companions on this journey. For she is the personification of moral truth and cosmic harmony, in relation to which the journeyβin each of its stagesβis made.
On passing through the portal of the Underworld, the initial experience is of total darkness. This is one of the main signs to travellers that they have entered the Underworld. There is no longer any light of understanding or of hope.
Everything that one associates with life and happiness is gone. The Underworld journey begins in darkness, the obliteration of all that previously gave one comfort and security in the Upperworld. The traveller says:
From out of the depths of the all-encompassing darkness, the traveller hears a voice. It is the voice of the god Atum who, in the First Time, gave birth to himself out of the unfathomable abyss of Nun. Atum says:
Hearing these words of encouragement, the traveller gains new strength to continue the journey. But in the Dwat, everything is upside down and inside out. The Underworld is an inversion of the familiar world.
It is like a mirror world where what is apparently familiar reveals itself on closer inspection to be strangely other. Figure 10.5, from the tomb of Ramesses IX, shows the Underworld traveller encountering a topsy-turvy world.
It becomes difficult to judge which way to stand, let alone which way to travel. For the laws of the Dwat are not the laws of the physical world. They are more like the laws of the dream world.
Figure 10.6 illustrates the discomfort of those who are obliged, through ignorance or self-neglect, to make their way upside down, while those above them have discovered the secret of how to remain the right way up, and travel with ease along the paths.
Thread carefully...
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