The Book of the Dead: Ancient Egypt's Guide to the Afterlife

In countless mummy movies, all it takes is a recitation from a book of spells to awaken the dead and unleash horror. Real ancient Egyptians also believed in the magical power of written words, but with a very different purpose in mind: to ensure that the deceased could live again in the afterlife.

The spells in the Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts and incantations, were meant to help the dead regain their senses, navigate the dangers of the underworld and stand before a tribunal of gods to prove they had led virtuous lives.

The Book of the Dead has often been described as a “guide” for the deceased, explains Marissa Stevens, executive associate director of the Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World at the University of California, Los Angeles. It also guided those responsible for funerary rituals.

The Book of the Dead was not a book in the modern sense, nor was there a single version that all Egyptians consulted. The ancient Egyptians called it "Going Forth by Day," a reference to the possibility of leaving the tomb and returning to the world of light.

The name "Book of the Dead" was coined in 1842 by Egyptologist Richard Lepsius, who numbered 165 chapters in his published edition. Over time, scholars identified additional spells, bringing the number of known spells to be more than 190. Yet no surviving copy contains them all, and it is not a codified sacred text comparable to the Bible. Rather, it was part of a much broader funerary tradition.

Although most copies were written on papyrus rolls, spells have also been found on tomb walls, coffins, mummy wrappings, amulets and even inside King Tutankhamun’s funerary mask. The spells did not always follow a fixed order, and their selection depended on several factors, including the preferences and budget of the person commissioning the manuscript, family traditions and choices made by artisans.

“A husband and wife might wish to choose matching Books of the Dead or pick spells that are complementary to one another,” says Stevens.

Its spells protected and preserved the body from physical decay and helped ensure that the deceased’s basic needs would be met. During burial, for example, priests performed the Opening of the Mouth ceremony (wepet-er), intended to reactivate the eyes, ears, nose and mouth for life after death.

Protecting the body was only one part of the process. “The Book of the Dead has spells to ensure that the Ba (part of the soul) of the deceased is free to move between this realm and the realm of the dead, but also rejoin the physical body when needed,” Stevens explains.

The spells also warded off threats in the Duat, the ancient Egyptian underworld, and helped the deceased become an akh, or effective spirit, capable of acting in the afterlife and reuniting with loved ones.

Some spells allowed the deceased to transform into animals or deities and to take on their powers. Each transformation offered a different form of protection or strength to help navigate the afterlife.

"Transforming into a crocodile allows the deceased to pass successfully through the waters of the underworld, protected from aquatic monsters," says Stevens. Taking the form of a serpent, meanwhile, offered the power of regeneration, much as snakes renew themselves by shedding their skin.

Transforming into gods held even greater significance. Becoming the sun god Ra connected the deceased to the sun's daily cycle of rebirth, while taking the form of Ptah was associated with creative power and stability in the afterlife.

"The most powerful transformation is into Osiris and obtaining all of the regenerative powers of the lord of the underworld,” Stevens says.

Some spells were more popular than others. Among the most important was Chapter 125, which describes the judgment of the deceased and one of ancient Egypt's best-known rituals: the weighing of the heart.

Before this test, the deceased had to convince Osiris and a tribunal of 42 gods that they had led a virtuous life. To do so, they recited a series of declarations known as the Negative Confession. These included statements such as “I have not killed, I have not stolen, I have not told lies, I have not been angry without reason,” among others.

Then came the weighing. According to their beliefs, the deceased’s heart was placed on a scale opposite the feather of Ma’at, the symbol of truth and order. As the gods looked on, Thoth, the god of wisdom, recorded the result. To pass the test, the heart had to be balanced with the feather, symbolizing a truthful life well lived.

If it did not, Ammit, a creature with the parts of a lion, a hippopotamus and a crocodile, stood ready to devour the heart. The punishment meant more than condemnation; it entailed the annihilation of the deceased and the loss of any chance of an afterlife.

Ammit “is prepared to send the unworthy into undifferentiated nothingness, essentially obliterating the soul, if they fail this test,” Stevens explains.

The scene also offers a window into ancient Egyptian ideas about morality and justice. Unlike some other ancient societies, ancient Egypt left no known written legal code that would allow scholars to reconstruct its rules of conduct.

“We do not have proscriptive laws recorded," says Stevens. "The Negative Confession, therefore, serves as a main source for how we interpret Egyptian morality."

In the 1999 movie The Mummy, reading from the Book of the Dead is enough to resurrect an evil mummy and unleash a chain of horrors. Did the ancient Egyptians believe their spells had such power?

“It’s both very far and not far at all!” Stevens replies.

The Egyptians did not believe that the Book of the Dead could bring someone back to life in this world, but they did believe it could revive a person in the next life for the underworld. Its spells could reactivate the deceased’s senses, provide the tools and knowledge needed to navigate the Duat and grant the magical powers required for transformation.

The aim was not to awaken the dead in the world of the living, she says, but to ensure that they could live again in a new form. For the ancient Egyptians, death was not the end but the beginning of a journey for which it paid to be well prepared.