Ancient Egyptian · Heka, Book of the Dead, amulets, Isis in ancient authors

Ancient Egyptian: what the sources say

Ancient Egyptian religion is an ancient religion with no present-day cultic succession. This path describes what ancient authors, older public-domain accounts and freely accessible modern scholarship say about it.

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Boundaries

This path describes what the sources say. It teaches no practice. It rests on older public-domain accounts as they stood around 1912 and on freely accessible modern scholarship. Where the two contradict each other, both statements are given. Dijkstra's thesis is given through a review: by this account the cults died out on their own, and 537 was not an epochal date.
Modern Kemetism is a reconstruction of the 20th century. It arose in the 1970s in the USA. There is no unbroken transmission from the ancient cult to these groups.
Tarot as Egyptian and the Kybalion as Egyptian are attributions with no ancient evidence. Tarot cards arose in the 15th century in northern Italy as playing cards; an Egyptian origin was first claimed in the 1780s in Paris. The Kybalion appeared in 1908 under a pseudonym and belongs to the American New Thought movement.

Sources:Erman, Adolf, Die ägyptische Religion (2. umgearbeitete Auflage 1909), Georg Reimer 1909 · Herodot, The History of Herodotus, Band 1 (englisch, Übersetzung: G. C. Macaulay, 1890), 1890 · Breasted, James Henry, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, Scribner 1912 · Griffith, F. Ll. und Thompson, Herbert (Hrsg.), The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden, Band 1 (englisch, Übersetzung: die Herausgeber, 1904), 1904 · Scalf, Foy (Hrsg.), Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt (Oriental Institute Museum Publications 39), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 2017 · Wendrich, Willeke; Dieleman, Jacco; Frood, Elizabeth; Baines, John (Hrsg.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (begutachtete Einzelartikel, seit 2008), University of California, Los Angeles 2008 · Dijkstra, Jitse H. F., Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion. A Regional Study of Religious Transformation (298-642 CE) (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 173), Peeters 2008

Heka: a force of creation

Heka is an Egyptian word and the name of a god. Erman described Heka as a supernatural force of the gods, Budge as a spoken formula.

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Sources:Ritner, Robert K., The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 54, 4. Druck), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 1993 · Erman, Adolf, Die ägyptische Religion (2. umgearbeitete Auflage 1909), Georg Reimer 1909 · Budge, E. A. Wallis, Egyptian Magic (Books on Egypt and Chaldaea, Vol. II), 1899 · Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Gods of the Egyptians, or Studies in Egyptian Mythology, Band 1, 1904 · Wiedemann, Alfred, Magie und Zauberei im alten Ägypten (Der Alte Orient, 6. Jahrgang, Heft 4), 1905 · Griffith, F. Ll. und Thompson, Herbert (Hrsg.), The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden, Band 1 (englisch, Übersetzung: die Herausgeber, 1904), 1904

The Book of the Dead: “Going Forth by Day”

Book of the Dead is the modern name for a collection of spells written on papyrus rolls for the deceased. The Egyptian title is “Going Forth by Day”.

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Sources:Scalf, Foy (Hrsg.), Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt (Oriental Institute Museum Publications 39), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 2017 · Wendrich, Willeke; Dieleman, Jacco; Frood, Elizabeth; Baines, John (Hrsg.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (begutachtete Einzelartikel, seit 2008), University of California, Los Angeles 2008 · Breasted, James Henry, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, Scribner 1912 · Erman, Adolf, Die ägyptische Religion (2. umgearbeitete Auflage 1909), Georg Reimer 1909

Afterlife: Maat, Ba, Opening of the Mouth and Ushabti

Maat, the Ba, the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth and the tomb figure Ushabti are missing from the older sources of the path. Modern scholarly articles describe them as ancient beliefs.

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Sources:Wendrich, Willeke; Dieleman, Jacco; Frood, Elizabeth; Baines, John (Hrsg.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (begutachtete Einzelartikel, seit 2008), University of California, Los Angeles 2008 · Scalf, Foy (Hrsg.), Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt (Oriental Institute Museum Publications 39), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 2017 · Ritner, Robert K., The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 54, 4. Druck), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 1993

Amulets and their attested meaning

In 1914 Petrie describes, in a collection catalogue, around 270 kinds of Egyptian amulets. Erman writes that what power was ascribed to an individual amulet, and why, is hardly known.

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Sources:Petrie, W. M. Flinders, Amulets. Illustrated by the Egyptian Collection in University College, London, 1914 · Wiedemann, Alfred, Die Amulette der alten Ägypter (Der Alte Orient, 12. Jahrgang, Heft 1), Hinrichs 1910 · Erman, Adolf, Die ägyptische Religion (2. umgearbeitete Auflage 1909), Georg Reimer 1909 · Breasted, James Henry, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, Scribner 1912 · Wendrich, Willeke; Dieleman, Jacco; Frood, Elizabeth; Baines, John (Hrsg.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (begutachtete Einzelartikel, seit 2008), University of California, Los Angeles 2008

Gods: Ra, Amun, Ptah, Hathor, Anubis and Isis

For Ra, Amun, Ptah, Hathor and Anubis there are modern overview articles. About Isis, a Greek traveller, a Greek philosopher and a Roman novelist report.

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Sources:Wendrich, Willeke; Dieleman, Jacco; Frood, Elizabeth; Baines, John (Hrsg.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (begutachtete Einzelartikel, seit 2008), University of California, Los Angeles 2008 · Scalf, Foy (Hrsg.), Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt (Oriental Institute Museum Publications 39), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 2017 · Ritner, Robert K., The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 54, 4. Druck), The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 1993 · Herodot, The History of Herodotus, Band 1 (englisch, Übersetzung: G. C. Macaulay, 1890), 1890 · Plutarch, Über Isis und Osiris (griechisch und deutsch, Übersetzung: Gustav Parthey, 1850), Nicolai 1850 · Breasted, James Henry, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, Scribner 1912 · Apuleius, The Golden Asse (englisch, Übersetzung: William Adlington, 1566), 1566 · Erman, Adolf, Die ägyptische Religion (2. umgearbeitete Auflage 1909), Georg Reimer 1909