The Book of the Dead was the nickname of magic spells that were written by the Ancient Egyptians. These books contained oftentimes, more than 200 spells. The spells were written on papyrus and on tomb walls.
The wealthy people would hire scribes to write their spells and to create different spells for them. They would use these spells as part of their grave goods.
The spells not only helped with what was needed in the afterlife, but the spells were also a great place for the Egyptians to write their names, making sure that their names were in the grave somewhere.
These spells would help the dead to be able to know what to do in the afterlife. The spells would show them where to go, what things to say, and how to travel in the afterlife, it was basically a manual for traveling through the afterlife.
The Book of the Dead would teach the dead how to know what to do if they faced danger in the afterlife and it would help them to be able to turn into different creatures if needed.
The book would also give the dead different passwords that would allow them to enter into different worlds such as the Underworld.
The Book of the Dead was important for every Egyptian to have and this book was basically like having all of the answers in life.
Most of the time, the book was divided into chapters so that the dead could find the answers quickly and to be able to find the spell or password that was needed fast.
If someone was dying or if they were very sick, they would sometimes go to the scribe. The scribe would find out what kind of life the person had lived so that he could know what the person would expect in the afterlife.
The scribe would then write up different spells that would help that individual person, and each spell was unique and different for each person.
The spells and going to the scribe were oftentimes expensive and so sometimes a person would have a very small book, and some would have no book at all.
Sometimes only pages would be put into the tomb of the spells that the person wrote themselves, depending on how much money that they had while they were on the earth.
The Book of the Dead even included spells that would help the dead person to have a lighter heart in the weighing of the heart. The Book of the Dead would give clear instructions on what the person was supposed to say when they met Osiris and were being judged.
The book tells the person what they will be wearing when they are in judgment and what they will say and how to recite the spell.
The scribes believed that they would receive better judgment when they died and that they and their children will have a better life in the future because they were able to write such great spells.
Since the scribes wrote the spells, they were considered to be part of the inner kingdom and they were thought to have a better way to the afterlife than other Egyptians.
The Egyptians believed that when you died, you went on a journey to the underworld. It was a scary place, and there were monsters trying to stop you from getting there.
If you did get there, it was still scary, because the god of the underworld (Apep, a Serpent) was going to cut off your head and eat your heart.
They reserved the text for the Pharaoh during the old Kingdom era. The spells within the text were there to protect the Pharaoh’s physical remains and also in the afterlife.
Later the rich and wealthy could also afford this text.
The pyramid texts were written during the Egyptian Old Kingdom. Similar to the book of the dead, the pyramid texts are also a collection of spells. They were also carved into the walls of the tomb, but unlike the coffin texts and the book of the dead, they did not generally contain any illustrations.
The Coffin Texts first started to appear during the Middle Kingdom era and were written from the 18 to 21st dynasties. The texts, which were basically a new language, were sometimes written on papyrus rolls, which could be up to 100 feet long.
There were also written on the inner surface of coffins by priests and on other furniture within the tomb.
Each spell of the coffin text has its own title and was specially arranged by the priest. The texts were also sometimes written on the tomb wall.
It was mainly the wealthy who could afford coffin text to help them in the afterlife.
The priest would also place amulets in the tomb, which had portions of coffin text written on them to ensure the soul’s well-being in the afterlife.