the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Abode Of The Blessed.
course along his mother's body, but sometimes a second female is represented bowed beneath Nut [1]
(Fig. 2), and this is believed to signify the night sky across which the moon travels. In an interesting
picture which M. Jéquier has published[2] the goddess is depicted lying flat with her arms stretched out
at full length above her head; on her breast is the disk of the sun, and on her stomach the moon. Those
who believed that the sky was an iron plane imagined that the stars were a numbers of lamps which were
hung out therefrom, and those who pictured the sky as a goddess studded her body with stars. One scene
makes the morning and evening boats of Ra to sail along the back of Nut;[3] another depicts Shu holding
up the boat of the sun wherein is the disk on the horizon.[4] A third from the sarcophagus of Seti I.
represents Nu the god of the primeval water holding up the boat of the sun, wherein we see the beetle
with the solar disk facing it accompanied by Isis and Nephthys, who stand one on each side; behind Isis
stand the gods Seb, Shu, Hek, Hu, and Sa, and behind Nephthys are three deities who represent the doors
through which the god Tmu has made his way to the world.[5]
The Tuat, or abode of the dead.
Within the two bowed female figures which represent the day and the night sky, and which have been
referred to above (Fig. 2), is a third figure which is bent
[1. Lanzone, op. cit., tav. 155.
2. Le Livre de ce qu'il y a dans l'Hadès, p. 3
3 Ibid., tav. 157.
4. Ibid., tav. 158.
5 Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, p. 216.]
{p. civ}
The Egyptian heaven.
round in a circle; the space enclosed by it represents according to Dr. Brugsch the Tuat[1]or Egyptian
underworld, wherein dwelt the gods of the dead and the departed souls. This view is supported by the
scene from the sarcophagus of Seti I. (Fig. 1). In the watery space above the bark is the figure of the god
bent round in a circle with his toes touching his head, and upon his head stands the goddess Nut with
outstretched hands receiving the disk of the sun.[2] In the space enclosed by the body of the god is the
legend, "This is Osiris; his circuit is the Tuat."[3] Though nearly all Egyptologists agree about the
meaning of the word being "the place of departed souls," yet it has been translated in various ways,
different scholars locating the Tuat in different parts of creation. Dr. Brugsch and others place it under
the earth,[4] others have supposed it to be the space which exists between the arms of Shu and the body
of Nut,[5] but the most recent theory put forth is that it was situated neither above nor below the earth,
but beyond Egypt to the north, from which it was separated by the mountain range which, as the
Egyptians thought, supported the sky.[6] The region of the Tuat was a long, mountainous, narrow valley
with a river running along it; starting from the east it made its way to the north, and then taking a circular
direction it came back to the east. In the Tuat lived all manner of fearful monsters and beasts, and here
was the country through which the sun passed during the twelve hours of the night; according to one
view he traversed this region in splendour, and according to another he died and became subject to Osiris
the king, god and judge of the kingdom of the departed.
The Fields of Aaru and Hetep.
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