by Joan Grant
My spirit still watched over my country; and I saw the land spread out below me as though I were poised above it like a hawk. Where the water-channels ran not freely, though the crops were still green to the eyes of men, I saw it as a desert. Where there were speakers of evil to the people, I saw it as though there were a great cloud of flies. Where there were those who opposed their servants or their animals, I saw blood over the lintels of their doors. And about the houses of those who would destroy their fellow-men, I saw not shade-trees, but skeletons springing from the ground along their path, for they walked in the shadow of death.
And when I saw those things that were not well in our country, I would tell of them to Den, so that although her own lotus was but an opening bud, she was a Ruler of Maat and there was no wrong in Kam that was hidden from the eyes of Pharaoh.
When there was one of great guile or strong in his evil, still did I sit in judgment upon him; and while he slept the night before, I listened to the words he repeated to himself, with which he hoped to bewilder me. Then, when he came before me in audience, I said to him, ‘Listen and I shall speak your words for you’. Then a great fear would fall upon him, for he knew that I heard the words of his heart as though he had spoken them in a loud voice upon a still evening. Then would I give judgment upon him.
As time passed I saw that Den was following the pattern of my life as one lotus flowers like another, and that in her hands the Crook and Flail were secure. So, when I was forty-seven, I went to live with Seshet, to pass the gentle evening of my days at Nekht-an. Mirrored in its lotus pools, the old palace of the South stood upon the east bank of the river, and my windows opened to the setting sun.
Though Seshet was their vizier, the people of the South came to him with their troubles as if he were a temple counsellor. He went among the people of the little farm-lands, and a man who told him that the lettuces in his garden were wilting felt while they talked together that they were the two masters of a great vineyard. The linen-weavers knew that he understood the trouble brought by a roughened finger in the setting of the fine threads upon their looms. And the soldiers loved him, for his words could unseal the wine of laughter. His people called him Nekht-ab, ‘the great-hearted’, for they flourished under the sun of his compassion.
We talked together of things that are far away from Earth. We explored the crystal uplands of clear thought and scaled unfooted pinnacles where we could capture some image of the spirit with words. In old papyrus rolls of forgotten song-makers we heard whispers of lovers whose bodies were long dead, yet whose memory still walked through leafy avenues.
In the evening he would call for his musicians, who plucked from their strings the melodies of his thoughts; strange music, clear-cut as shadows on a wall, its harmony spaced into measures meticulous as the lines on the pillars that mark the river’s height. The silver of flutes wound through the green of harps, as brooks awake quiet pastures in valleyed hills.
The spirit of Neyah shared my sleep, and his son was beside me through the day.
When Seshet had become Vizier of the South, he caused a new temple to be built at Nekht-an upon the west bank, opposite to the palace. When it was ready to be made a place of peace, I spoke these words to the assembled people.
“Hear my voice! For the Gods have made my tongue of silver so that your hearts shall echo to its words as a bell echoes to the striking of the hammer.
“Remember always that the things which befall you are but your own actions reflected in a true mirror. No flail shall fall upon your back unless your hand has been upraised unjustly. Your belly shall not be taut with hunger nor your throat parched with thirst unless you have suffered another to know these things. You shall not journey across the wilderness in darkness unless you have closed your eyes to the Light when it would have shone upon you. Your feet shall not bleed because of the stones upon your path unless you have heeded not the voice of one who told you to make sandals for yourselves of your own wisdom. You shall not cry upon the wind for loneliness unless you have been false to one who was your proven friend. You shall not fear death looming in your path unless you have denied the glory of his contenance.
“Think only this of anything you do, ‘Would I be glad if this were done to me?’ Then shall you travel swiftly in the Boat of Time along the River of Eternal Life, and set no course upon the stream of tears that flows through the Caverns of the Underworld.”
CHAPTER SIX
The Heart of Kam
Up and down the great river of Kam our temples stand like an avenue of torches. The voices of priests are heard in the sanctuaries, and the courtyards whisper with the feet of Sandal Bearers. But the priests of our children are still in the bodies of children. So, on the seventh day of the seventh month of each year, all children who are in their seventh year are taken to the temples for the seers to look upon their gateways. And children whose bodies sit lightly upon them and who, in the great journey, travel along the pathway of a priest, return to the temple for their further training when they are twelve years old: so that in their turn they can become the life-blood of the heart of Kam.
Those among them who remember their dreams clearly, or who have a mark within them which shows that before they were born they had begun to fly, are taught how to grow stronger wing-feathers so that they can become dreamers of true dreams. They shall become Pathfinders of the Jackal, and when the gateway of sleep is as an ever open portal through which the Light shines, they shall lead others through the dusk of Earth, even as Anubis has led them across the Great Causeway.
Those children who, when they sit beside the river looking upon bright water, see it coloured more vividly than dreams, are trained to leave their bodies and to go to and fro over Earth while they describe what they see upon their wanderings as though they saw them pictured in a polished bowl, or in a mirror, or upon the silver faces of their pyramids. They shall become the Lookers, who, swiftly as clear-sighted birds, watch over our country so that under their protection its tranquillity is undisturbed. And among them there are those who shall become Lookers of Maat whose tongues speak while they travel to the far realms of the spirit.
Those children under whose eyes life beats strongly are trained until they become Priests of Ptah and can cause life to flow down through their gateways. Just as the water-carriers fill their jars at the river to restore the young green to their gardens, so shall these healers draw water from the river of life to give it to those who thirst for it. And they shall give health to our people even as the inundation brings life to our fields. Among them are those who follow the Leadership of the Hawk. When in their hands they hold the sword of a Horus Priest, they shall sever the bonds of those who are enchained in the furthest Caverns of the Underworld, and about evil they shall put a noose of fire. They shall war with the great overlords of Set, and with their power beat down the challenge of destroying eyes.
Those children who see through the dark curtain of their lids are trained as seers. But only those who are in men’s bodies are chosen, for this is the hardest of all line of temple-training, and a body must be a strong citadel to encompass this burnishing of the spirit without being injured. Their bodies cannot be unto them as a gentle pavilion, for while they are awake they see those things that other men see only while they sleep; and though they return to their bodies, they cannot escape from the multitudes of the beyond-earths or from the demons of the Underworld. When they have worn the Scarlet Feather of Maat, there shall be no curtains drawn to them on Earth. They shall look upon a sick man and know what has caused his sickness. They shall look upon a man and see his ba as though he were cloaked in colour, and so know the tempering of his heart. They shall see the memory of old evil, which stains the place where that evil was done; and they shall see where an ancient wrong or a forgotten sorrow has left its mark upon a room, clearer than bloodstains upon a floor. They shall see men who walk bodiless as clearly as if they were clothed in flesh, whether such men are free in their spirit or bound to earth by t
heir own ignorance or by a condemnation. They shall read the records that are held in stone that is unscribed, yet which has been made lively with memory and can bear witness to those who can give it speech—and this power they share with the Lookers of Maat. And they shall fight mightily against the Hosts of Darkness, for they shall be Warriors of the Scarlet upon Earth and away from Earth, and seeing truth they shall fight for it in splendour.
These legions of the Winged Ones, who in their several ways have trained their will, shall join that mighty panoply of spears which protects us from the black destroying wave that would engulf us in the name of Set.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Tomb of Meri-neyt
In the twenty-ninth year of my reign my tomb was ready to receive my body when my spirit need return to it no longer.
I shall lie at Abidwa in the City of the Living Dead, among the beloved of my family in the last garden of Za Atet. Round me will sleep the companions of my journey: Ney-sey-ra who taught me to fashion the Golden Sandals so that the Causeway to the Gods was smooth under my feet; the viziers who gave me of their counsel; the captains who have been a flail in my hand to scourge the enemies of my country; Maata who sheltered my childhood; Harka who made me wise in the ways of chariots; Benater who taught me to weigh the spear that killed Zernak; and many others who have worked with me in the shepherding of the Two Lands.
The Gods made me their Vizier, and Ptah put the lives of his children into my hands. The scroll of my life is nearly scribed, yet within me are housed all that I have been since I was born in the Royal City: I am the child to whom my mother brought sleep when she sang to me in the dusk; I am the daughter of Atet, whose image has been a standard that I have followed; I am the girl who went into the Temple to learn of wisdom, and the triumphant one who has proven her wings; I am the woman who rejoiced in her lover, and who sorrowed until the tears of her heart were stemmed by the slow healing balm of time; I am the Pharaoh who gave justice to the Two Lands, and the warrior whose chariot led the van of spears.
With me in my tomb shall be those things that will show our followers in time the manner of people who once dwelt in Kam. There shall be the things that I have used during my life: the sandals and cloaks and head-dresses I have worn, and the chest wherein I have kept my necklaces; the furniture from my apartments, and the little vase that held my flowers when I lived in the temple.
These things will show the surroundings of my life. But it matters little what people wear, what houses they live in, or what things they use. It is their thoughts which should endure through time; the span of their knowledge, their burnishing to Light. So with me there shall be long papyrus rolls on which shall be recorded by the scribes under my seal the wisdom I have learnt, the prayers I have said, the laws I have kept in Kam. They shall be with me in my sarcophagus; for as my body held wisdom while it walked on Earth, so shall these records hold it still. They shall be tied with threads of the warrior scarlet and sealed with my priest name, Meri-neyt.
With me also shall be the legend of the Creation of Earth and the story of the Journey of Man. When man sets forth upon his journey, he has learnt the strength of mountains and the gentleness of plants, and become wise in the ways of animals. Yet if evil is upon the one hand and good upon the other, to him their faces are as one statue reflected in two mirrors, for his maat is an empty jar. But through long time he finds that the voice of evil, though it beguiles him with smooth words, brings pain and sorrow to him. And thereafter it may be that for many lives he listens to no counsel. Then the voice of good falls upon his ears, a voice calm as dear water, unhurried as a hill of stone; and it tells him of the end of his journey, and the traveller listens and he goes on his way refreshed. But the things of Earth are still heavy upon him, as though he carried a great burden upon his shoulders. He seeks wisdom in many countries and in a multiplicity of tongues. Sometimes he travels across stony deserts, where his footprints are scarlet upon the sand, and sometimes he walks by the river beneath the shade-trees. But whether his day has been a rejoicing or a tribulation, always at night he shall sleep, to awake refreshed on a new dawn.
He left the Gods to go upon his journey, and he thinks that he has travelled away from them; and for many lives this is so, for he journeys upon a circle. And in time he becomes a pupil of one of the twelve pupils of one of the twelve pupils of a Luminous One. Now he has joined a brotherhood, each of whom is part of the Gods as the filaments of the feathers are part of the Hawk of Horus. When this time comes, it is upon the other semi-circle that he travels, returning from whence he came. And when the end reaches the beginning, his circle will be completed. Then he will be one with the father, brother to the Gods who gave him life.
Upon the same scroll shall be recorded the Weighing of the Heart by the Forty-two Assessors of the Dead.
When the traveller reaches the end of his journey, he finds himself upon the bank of a river, and before him he sees a boat, which is the Boat of Time in which he must take passage. But before the decks allow him to set foot upon them, he must call them by name; and he must name the oars, or they will not row him; and he must name the prow, or it will not lead the boat along the river. He journeys in the boat over the dark water until the river down-plunges into the Great Caverns. Here he is beset by demons, which assail him in their shapes of terror, but if he is without fear, they cringe back into the shadows. Then he disembarks upon a quay where seven steps lead up to a great door. He must call upon the bolts by their name, and the hinges by their names, and he must know the secrets even of the planks that make it. At the hearing of their names, the door opens before him, and he passes through into a great hall of audience, where, seated on their thrones, are the Forty-two Assessors of the Dead. They soar above him into the shadows and their faces are beyond his sight, for he is in a valley among the mountainous Gods.
Each in his turn shall challenge him; and if he cannot answer them in truth, saying, ‘By the Feather of Truth, thee have I conquered’, then shall the floor open under his feet and he shall be in darkness until he emerges from his mother’s womb. And in his conquering, the virtues shall enter into him and the evils shall enter the strength of their overthrowing into his heart.
Upon the four sides of the hall are the Assessors upon their thrones.
And the first shall challenge him, saying:
Hast thou treated thy body wisely and considerately, even as thy creator cherished thee in the days of thy youth?
And the second shall say:
Hast thou lived out the full span upon the Earth that the Gods allotted thee?
And the third shall say:
Hast thou kept thy body as a clean garment unstained by the River of Filth?
And the fourth shall say:
Hast thou lain only with the woman whom thy spirit loveth also?
And the fifth shall say:
Art thou free of the knowledge of the body of thy mother or thy daughter or thy sister or thine aunt?
And the sixth shall say:
Hath no man been unto thee as a woman?
And the seventh shall say:
Is there any animal that can call thee husband?
And the eighth shall say:
Have thine hands taken that which was not theirs to hold?
And the ninth shall say:
Hast thou eaten of food until thy belly was tormented and cried out against thee, or taken of strong drink until thy will was the slave of thy body?
And the tenth shall say:
Hast thou severed the silver cord of any in violence?
And the eleventh shall say:
Hath thine anger been just, and the flail in thine hand been as the Flail of Pharaoh?
And the twelfth shall say:
Hast thou looked upon the rich and the skilled and known not envy?
And the thirteenth shall say:
Hath thine heart been untorn by the claws of jealousy?
And the fourteenth shall say:
Hast thou spoken no ev
il except of evilness itself?
And the fifteenth shall say:
Hast thou left no plough idle in the furrow when the seed was ready for sowing?
And the sixteenth shall say:
Hast thou lusted after knowledge for those things that were not for thine ears or for thine eyes?
And the seventeenth shall say:
Hast thou seen thy giant shadow upon the wall and thought thy semblance mighty?
And the eighteenth shall say:
Hast thou turned from the right path when it was beset with danger?
And the nineteenth shall say:
Hast thou chained thyself to Earth with fetters of gold?
And the twentieth shall say:
Hast thou looked upon the things of Earth until thine eyes were blinded?
And the twenty-first shall say:
Hast thou been upright in thy dealings in the market-place?
And the twenty-second shall say:
Hast thou shown gratitude to all who have befriended thee upon thy journey, whether it be thy companion, or the pomegranate that refreshed thee when thou didst thirst?
And the twenty-third shall say:
Hast thou given bread to the poor and the fruits of thy vineyards to the weary?
And the twenty-fourth shall say:
Hast thou closed thy mouth against falsehood?
And the twenty-fifth shall say:
Hast thou been so prideful of thy wit that thy wisdom was clouded?
And the twenty-six shall say:
Hath thy friendship been a strong rock in a desert of shifting sands?
And the twenty-seventh shall say:
Hast thou chained thyself to no man with the shackles of hatred?
And the twenty-eighth shall say: