BOOK OF THE DEAD

In 1929 the charred and fragmentary remains of what has come to be known as the Book of the Dead were discovered in the smoldering ruins of the shop of an antiquities dealer in Istanbul. The dealer himself, the mysterious Mr. Mustafa (clearly a pseudonym), was never seen again, so the provenance of the document cannot be definitely established. There are elusive references to documents that may have been the Book of the Dead that crop up in the records of the Knights of St. Johannes, the Hospital of Mary Claire in Beirut, and in the annals of the Library of the Sultan of the Grand Porte, none of which can be authenticated. While some pages are clearly of 20th century origin, scholars are unanimous in the opinion that other pages are of very great antiquity. Carbon dating has proven useless in this matter due to contamination by smoke particles from the 1929 fire.

What is the Book of the Dead? While this question has been the subject of intense scholarly debate for seventy years, a general answer can be formulated that does no violence to any of the contending schools. The Book of the Dead is the esoteric ritual book of a secret cult of initiated adepts, written in a unique pictographic language and illustrated with pictures of great beauty and significance. All the surviving pages, even those of probable 20th century origin, were made using the woodcut printing process.

The identity of the cult has never been determined. No member has ever come forward, and the group may no longer even exist. The pictographic language used in the Book of the Dead uses images and symbols drawn from nearly every spiritual tradition. Indeed, the eclectic nature of the language has greatly assisted in its translation, while at the same time frustrating efforts to pin down the origins of the cult. Tantalizing fragments of oral tradition have been discovered in various locales around the globe, from Tangiers to Fairbanks (of all places), and while these oral fragments have given scholars some gleaming nuggets to study, in general they have served only to further obfuscate the search for the origins of the cult.

Whatever its origins, the beauty and wisdom of the Book of the Dead shine through the mystery surrounding it, richly rewarding even a casual examination.

TITLE PAGE

The title page of the Book of the Dead is almost entirely taken up by a large picture. Only one line of text appears at the bottom of the page. As with much else concerning the Book of the Dead, the title page has generated much scholarly controversy. This controversy has centered on the interpretation of the human figure at the bottom of the picture. Most researchers agree with Al-Rashid that the figure is someone who has recently died (Al-Rashid, The Dead Speak, Haroun & Mamoud, 1930), but there is a strong minority who believe the figure is merely sleeping (Sealey, The Book of the Dead in Pictures, Ipswich, 1966). More recently, a school of interpretation centered in Boston has made a compelling case for the view that the figure, while certainly dead, is lying in the fetal position because he is ready for rebirth (Mather, The Esoteric Importance of Reincarnation, North Church Press, 1987).
As for the other images and figures on the title page, such controversies that exist, e.g., whether the orb at the top is the sun or the moon, have been mild. That the Eyes of God appear at the top corners of the page is undisputed, as is the identification of the lion-headed figure on the right as Aion, and whether the bird-headed figure on the left is Garuda, Quetzalcoatl, or Horus is the sort of hair-splitting enjoyed only by elderly scholars in their cups. The female figure in the center is undoubtedly the goddess Kwath (identifiable by the Iron Ring of Birth and Death held in her hand). In her other hand, Kwath holds the kundalini serpent, having either just extracted it from the recumbent figure, as in Al-Rashid's interpretation, or holding it enticingly before him, as in Mather's.
There is some difficulty with the translation of the line of text at the bottom of the page because of two esoteric pictographs the meaning of which is unknown.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: In this case, due to the rather remarkable preservation of an oral tradition, the name of the scribe is thought by most researchers to have been Aqua, or Water. This would almost certainly have been his cultic or initiatory name, not his given name.
Nevertheless, the survival of this individual's name is nothing short of miraculous.

Pg. 5

The text accompanies a picture of two male elephants in musth, fighting for a female who is visible in the background. The elephant is an important symbol in the Book of the Dead, but it must be confessed that it is poorly understood. In fact, the esoteric pictograph of the elephant, repeatedly used in the present text, is untranslatable. There is speculation that it represents the Great Mother, or the earth itself (Mujer, The Symbol of the Mother in the Book of the Dead, Venus Books, 1969). Another school of interpretation holds that the elephant represents wisdom in its most spiritual sense (Pankratos, Sophia and the Elephant, Athenaeum, 1936). There are minority opinions that give the elephant the meanings of strength and power, mountains, or even clouds. Whatever else one might say, the importance of the elephant as a symbol is clearly demonstrated by its use in the present text with the solar pictograph in the superior position, which is the only instance in the surviving portions of the Book of the Dead where this arrangement occurs.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: Translation that is suggested by the placement of a pictograph, either in the superior position, as in the case here with the solar and the comet pictographs, or by its syntax, e.g., its linear relationship to other pictographs, is placed in brackets.

Pg. 38

The text accompanies a picture of a woman, possibly pregnant, her arm held up in adulation or triumph, with a tree, usually interpreted as the Tree of Life (Van Saar, Pictographic Analysis, Leyden & Troomph, 1956), emerging from her mouth. In her belly is either a germinating seed (Ricardo, Possibilities and Potentialities, Brazzaville, 1947), or another version of the Eye of God which appears in the upper-left corner of the page. This text is one of the most difficult-to-translate texts in the Book of the Dead, due to the extensive use of esoteric pictograms the cultic meaning of which can only be surmised

TRANSLATORS NOTE: One can only confess to bafflement when confronted by the esoteric difficulties of this text. For example, the pictographs that appear on either side of the conflict pictograph in line 6 are usually interpreted as meaning good fortune (Spassky and Fisher, Issues Raised in the Book of the Dead, Icelander Press, 1975). Perhaps only an initiate could explain the nuances of meaning that would make sense of this seemingly contradictory arrangement of pictograms. In a similar vein, the pictogram of the dark sun over the waters that appears in line 2 and elsewhere in The Book of the Dead, has been interpreted as meaning death (Rhybek, Understanding Esoteric Religions, Roma, 1980), or, somewhat contradictorily, as the birth of something very like the alchemical concept of the sol nigredo (Knight, The Book of the Dead as a Manual for Living, Yelm, 1981). In a spirit of humility and scholarly honesty we have declined to enter this long-standing academic controversy, and have presented these debatable pictographs untranslated. Hopefully the enlightened reader will be able to form an opinion as to the meaning of this famously difficult passage

Pg. 40

The text accompanies a picture of a warrior, armed and armored for battle, standing beside a woman holding a child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Over them is an angel with outspread wings, and in the lower right and left corners a winged serpent and a winged solar cross . There is general agreement that the warrior is departing for war, particularly since both the woman and the angel seem to be crying. Perhaps Sr. Noel Hernandez is correct in suggesting that the warrior is off on a holy crusade for Quetzalcoatl (Hernandez, Quetzalcoatl Through the Ages, Oaxaca, 1987). This would seem to be suggested by the plumed serpent and solar cross symbols which are known to be associated with Quetzalcoatl. This image and text speak directly to the heartbreak that can result from the mystic quest; one must lose the world to gain the world.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The esoteric pictographs at the end of lines 2, 3, and 5 are untranslatable at this time. There is some speculation that the pictograph at the end of line 2 might refer to something similar to the alchemical concept of the sol nigredo (Knight, The Book of the Dead as a Manual for Living, Yelm, 1981). The last line is clearly a formal ritual benediction, which is artistically interesting because of the repeated use of rhyming pictographs based on the circle

Pg. 42

The text accompanies a picture of two lions, male and female, clawing a tree among whose branches sit three startled ravens. The tree has been variously interpreted as the World Tree, the axis mundi, or the shaman's tree. The ravens are nearly unanimously interpreted as the spirits of shamen (Morden, Collected Works, Asgaard, 1932). The lions have been interpreted as representing bodily urges or the clamoring of the world outside the cloister. Because of the initial pictograph, this text is called the Phoenix Text.

TRANSLATORS NOTE: In this particular idiom, especially during the early period, one frequently encounters pictograms that that do not translate neatly into a single English word or phrase. In addition, phrases are suggested in the translation by the syntax, that is, the linear relationship of one pictograph to another. In these cases, the translation has been placed in brackets. Of particular interest in this text is the frequent use of rhyming pictographs, e.g., the repeated use of the wing image in lines 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7.

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