The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian codex of rituals and ceremonial practices which aim to facilitate the souls of the dead in navigating the path to and paths within the afterlife. The common name for the book and its default title in the western world was invented by western Egyptologists; the original would translate approximately as The Book of Coming Forth by Day or Spells for Going Forth by Day. The work is often compared to the Christian bible as though it is a similar work, however it is a markedly different book. They share the characteristic of being compilations of texts written across a long period of time and combined into the form of an encyclopaedia spiritual.
Distinct from the religious texts the reader may be more familiar with, this book will have been crafted as a particular combination for some individual in Egyptian society with enough social power to command extra help succeeding in the afterlife.
To give a picture of the world our ancient Egyptian ancestors thought they must prepare for one must understand that this Book was a talisman against the dangers of the path to paradise. Gods, demons, bodily decay, spirits and disharmony of the elements within the human body were just some of the dangers that needed to be tackled, there was even the prospect of a second death, of the soul, to contend with.
While this book, released and restored by the British Museum, was valuable to our ancestors as a passport to paradise, for us it is a scarcely less majestic guide to understanding our own origins and beliefs.
Book of the dead (plan). These men knew nothing of the contents of such a roll, and all they meant to say was that it was a dead man's book, and that it was found in his coffin with him.
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