Lux Esoterica (Nifiluz)

The ancient Egyptian text known today as the Book of the Dead (its Egyptian name was Reu nu pert em hru — "The Book of Coming Forth by Day") was not a book in the modern sense. It was a collection of magical spells, prayers, and illustrated guides, compiled over more than a millennium (from approximately 1550 to 50 BCE), copied on papyrus scrolls and placed in the tomb with the deceased, intended to guide the soul through the dangers of the Duat (the underworld) to the Hall of Two Truths, where the heart would be weighed against the feather of Ma'at. The illustrated papyri that survive — particularly the Papyrus of Ani, now in the British Museum — represent some of the most sophisticated and most beautiful religious art ever produced: images of the soul's journey through death, annotated with the precise words that needed to be spoken at each gate, to each guardian, before each divine council. They are practical manuals for what ancient Egyptians believed was the mos...