Coming Forth and Passing Through

From the Papyrus of Ani

The plug has been lifted from the unguent jar. Oh, cascade of black hair, perfume of the hour. The past has been written, rolled and sealed in a scroll I'll not see again. The eye of the hawk ranges the sky unblinking. Open. Shut. Perfect.

Above olive trees I rise like the sun, like the moon above the date palms. Where there is light, I enter absolute. Where there is dark, there is none of me. Like the moon above the date palms, I rise. I am counted as one among stars. I am sworn to life. I am bound to death. I take my oath under the sun, splendid eye set ablaze in the forehead of its father.

Oh, beam of light. Oh, sun and moon and stars. Shining beast, man and woman. I pass through. Gaze on me. I've traveled the tomb, dark and lonely. I am now. I have come. I see. This light among the people and along the Nile is my will. In the dark I embraced my father. I burned up night. I killed the snake. I gave him meat. I am his beloved. His time fled through my body--a jolt of essence, a glow of ether, a passion for eternity. I am with him, one of him.

I walk in sleep through heaven. With earth I dust my feet. I have set the sky in two parts. I wander horizons, passing through. In the skins of black panthers, I chant in the ears of children. I am a living god, with the earth millions of years. Coming forth, I pass through.

Queen Neffertiti in the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas


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Awakening Osiris: The Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Normandi Ellis (Translator). Phanes Press: Grand Rapids, MI. 1988.
For non-profit educational use only. ISBN 0-933999-74-7

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