Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt

Description: Jeremy Naydler's radical reinterpretation of the Pyramid Texts--the earliest body of religious literature from ancient Egypt--now places these documents into the ritual context in which they belong. It is the shamanic spiritual tradition, argues Naydler, that is the undercurrent of the Pyramid Texts and holds the key to ancient Egyptian mysticism. Jeremy Naydler, is a philosopher who has for many years been interested in the religious life of ancient cultures, receiving his doctorate in religious studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He is the author of Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred and Goethe on Science. He lives in Oxford, England. Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Part One Mysticism in Ancient Egypt 1 Introduction: The Encounter with the Sacred Religious Egypt Mysticism and Ancient Egypt A Question of Boundaries Subjective Engagement Shamanism in Relation to Ancient Egyptian Religion The Call to Awakening 2 Egyptology: The Death and Rebirth of Mysticism in Ancient Egypt Mysticism and the Realm of Death Egyptology: Mysticism Denied The Knowledge of the Egyptians The Idea of Progress Were the Egyptians Practical Rather Than Mystical? The Rebirth of Egyptian Mysticism 3 The Mystical versus the Funerary Interpretation of Ancient Egyptian Religion A Clash of Views Mysticism and the Experience of Death The Eleusinian Mysteries and Other Mystery Religions The Funerary Interpretation of the Osiris Myth The Mystical Embrace of Osiris and Horus The Sed Festival 4 The Pyramids as the Locus of Secret Rites The Living in Relation to the Dead The Meaning of the Sed Festival The Sed Festival and the Step Pyramids Fourth Dynasty Pyramids and the Sed Festival Fifth and Sixth Dynasty Pyramids and the Sed Festival The Pyramid Texts and the Sed Festival 5 A Question of Method Phenomenology and the Ideal of Presuppositionless Inquiry On Approaching the Phenomena with Empathy The Challenge to Phenomenology Standing Reductionism on Its Head A Question of Motivation Part Two The Shamanic Roots of the Pyramid Texts 6 The Pyramid of Unas The Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Temples and Causeway of Unas The Pyramid of Unas Location of Texts The Interpretation of the Pyramid Texts 7 The Sarcophagus Chamber Texts The North-Wall Offering Liturgy The Twelve South-to-East-Wall Texts (Utts. 213–24) The Passage between the Chambers The East Gable (Utts. 204–5, 207, 209, 210–12) 8 The Antechamber Texts The West Gable (Utts. 247–53) The Fifteen West-to-South-Wall Texts (Utts. 254–58, 260–63, 267–72) The Eleven North-Wall Texts (Utts. 302–12) 9 From the Antechamber to the Entrance Corridor The East Gable (Utts. 273–76) The Snake Spells (Utts. 277–99 and Utts. 226–43) The Two Remaining East-Wall Utterances (Utts. 300–301) The Entrance Corridor (Utts. 313–21) 10 The Recovery of Ancient Egyptian Mysticism The Features of Ancient Egyptian Mysticism The Phenomenological Approach to Ancient Egyptian Religion Ancient Egypt and Western Esotericism Appendices 1 Summary of Utterances in the Pyramid of Unas 2 List of Utterances in the Five Double-Chamber Pyramids at Saqqara Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits Index

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