Ancient Egypt: Travels Beyond the Grave - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 187

What most seize the wise traveler's imagination are two things: the architectural and
artistic achievements of an ancient civilization and the fact that these achievements sprang
from a singular dedication: assuring the most powerful persons in that ancient civilization
a happy life after death.
HOW DID THE EGYPTIANS ENVISION LIFE AFTER DEATH?
One of mankind's oldest metaphors proclaims death to be a journey. Now as in the past,
every culture ponders the mystery of death, and most take comfort in the belief that death
continues the journey of life, but in another realm. As far as is known, every culture
provides for the journey to the afterlife—with words, ritual, or gravesite possessions (gifts
for the guide who will lead the dead to another realm or implements that will be useful in
that realm: a plow, a flail. And some cultures add such personal possessions as a sacrificed
dog or slave!). Across history and cultures, prayers and rituals help bind humans and their
gods and help assure success for the journey to the afterlife.
But even when the afterlife is a reward for an earthly life well lived, it is not easily
entered. Every religion has its own commandments and behaviors that are believed to help
the deceased enter into a blessed afterlife. Most of us who live today are reasonably well
aware of our own culture's beliefs about achieving the afterlife. But when we become trav-
elers to Egypt, we need to know more. How did the ancient Egyptians ensure an afterlife?
What fingerposts would point the dead toward the afterlife? And what instructions did they
need to enter a happy eternity?
Almost all who visit the tombs of ancient Egypt today are monotheists, especially
Christians and Muslims. None require after-death instruction to reach the promised place.
For monotheists, it is before-death behavior that helps to achieve the promised place. In an-
cient Egypt, a successful journey to the afterlife required both before-death and after-death
instruction.
WHO WAS THE FIRST EGYPTIAN TO TRAVEL BEYOND THE GRAVE?
Every religion relates the story of mankind's beginnings and, in so doing, establishes the
special relationship between God and the religion's communicants. Jews and Christians
take their earliest history largely from the Old Testament . Muslims take theirs from the
Koran, a history that parallels much that is in the Old Testament . For the ancient Egyp-
tians, earliest history is told through the sufferings and resurrection of Osiris. Legend has
it that Osiris was an early king of Egypt, ruling over a barbaric land whose people had no
knowledge of the arts, agriculture, or law until Osiris brought them knowledge. Osiris was
married to his sister Isis and, in that way, kept intact a bloodline that descended from the
gods of the earth, suns, and moon. That intact bloodline was preserved through their son,
Horus.