Some research started.
After getting the new desktop now that I have all the required funds saved up, the next thing I want to save for is a hardcover edition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. I'm browsing through powells.com(since they're just so SPIFFY) and now I'm wondering just who has the best translation for my tastes. Budge's is most likely the oldest, and may be tinged or colored with the notions of his time. What I'd like is a translation by someone who sees the writings of Kemet not through a purely academic lens, but as something that still lives and breathes in the heart of its followers.
I still carry that one sentence that came to me back when I saw the Cleopatra exhibit in Philadelphia oh, three years ago now? "While you live, Kemet lives." If all else fails, I could purchase maybe three paperback copies, then compare and contrast the translations. The reason I'm doing this is because in my will all I stated was I wanted a wake, rather than the full knock down drag 'em out, here I am in my coffin funeral. But what form for it to take? That's where this book comes in. It had spells and prayers to say at certain times to ease the passage of the deceased into Pert-em-Hru, coming forth by day...to where is anyone's guess. Also I'm pretty certain it will help reunite the conscious and sub-conscious parts of the mind/soul once it departs the body(the ba and ka respectively) into the ahk. Interesting how akh and ankh are only one letter apart, Eternal life and life eternal.
Though nowadays we seem to be discovering that it's more the intention than the actual form that creates the desired results. Still it would be nice to have SOME kind of form for the living to latch onto to give the deceased the needed push in the right direction.
I still carry that one sentence that came to me back when I saw the Cleopatra exhibit in Philadelphia oh, three years ago now? "While you live, Kemet lives." If all else fails, I could purchase maybe three paperback copies, then compare and contrast the translations. The reason I'm doing this is because in my will all I stated was I wanted a wake, rather than the full knock down drag 'em out, here I am in my coffin funeral. But what form for it to take? That's where this book comes in. It had spells and prayers to say at certain times to ease the passage of the deceased into Pert-em-Hru, coming forth by day...to where is anyone's guess. Also I'm pretty certain it will help reunite the conscious and sub-conscious parts of the mind/soul once it departs the body(the ba and ka respectively) into the ahk. Interesting how akh and ankh are only one letter apart, Eternal life and life eternal.
Though nowadays we seem to be discovering that it's more the intention than the actual form that creates the desired results. Still it would be nice to have SOME kind of form for the living to latch onto to give the deceased the needed push in the right direction.