Nile The Blessed Dead Lyrics

The Blessed Dead Lyrics

Looked Down Upong With Scorn

We Work the Fields of the Masters

And Share Not the Bounty of the Black Earth



Destitute Servile Cast Out

Affording No Tomb

We Shall Be Buried

Unprepared in the Sand



We Shall Never Be The Blessed Dead



Scorned By Asar

Condemned at the Weighing of the Heart

We are Exiled from the Netherworld

Serpents fall Upon us Dragging us Away

Ammitt Who Teareth the Wicked to Pieces



Pale Shades of the UnBlessed Dead

None Shall Enter Without the Knowledge

Of the Magickal Formulas

Which is Given to Few to Possess



Not for Us to Sekhet Aaru

Our Souls Will be Cut to Pieces with Sharp Knives

Tortured Devoured

Consumed in Everlasting Flames



We Shall Never Be The Blessed Dead



[The phrase, "the Blessed Dead," is a reference to those who obtain
the "blessed" condition in the afterlife: the beautified condition of
eternal lifein the presence of Osiris in the Sekbet-Aaru, or "Field of
Reeds." Those who had lived a moral life, observed the proper burial rites
and procedures, and possessed all the correct magickal spells to navigate the
treacherous and horrific Egyptian underworld, who could recite the 42 negative
confessions, and whose hearts were found to be pure at the "Weighing of
the Heart," were then allowed to be "Osirified" - to become a
person like as unto Osiris - and enjoy a pleasant afterlife as ne of the
blessed dead.]



[Proper burial, though, was an expensive undertaking. It was usually afforded
only by pharaohs, priests, and the wealthy class. What of those who could not
afford the extravagant tombs, mummification, magickal amulets, and costly
papurys texts on which were written the necessary spells for successfully
navigating the underworld? Even linen, which was used to wrap the mummies, was
so expensive in ancient Egypt that people had to save what little scraps of it
they could for years to have enough to have themselves wrapped. Also of mention
would be the cost of professional mourners, embalmers, and priests for the
"Opening of the Mouth" ceremony. This was all extremely expensive.
Even a wealthy person in ancient Egypt would spend a lifetime saving and
preparing for his or her burial and afterlife. I suppose it is no small
coincidence that the religious priests were directly involved in the embalming
industry.]



[But what of the middle and lover classes of people - the common working man?
What then of the slaves and servant classes? if all these costly preparations
and arcane knowledege were essential to achieving a state of blessedness in the
afterlife, would a person of limited financial means be condemned beforehand to
burn in torment in the afterlife, so only the wealthy became the Blessed Dead?
While most of the populate certainly accepted this fatalistic concept - and by
all that we know of ancient Egypt, embraced life and the hope of an eternal
afterlife - most ancient Egyptians probably were resigned to do whatever
funereal preparations were within their means It stands to reason, however,
that certainly some small number of lower income / slave / working class people
(predestined, of course, to certain financial / spiritual doom, as upward caste
mobility was very limited in ancient times) would be less than inclined to
accept at face value the idea that, no matter what, by the end of their lives
they would not be able to afford to be buried as one of the blessed dead. Would
they be resigned to their eternal fate, or live their lives with subversive
viewpoints - perhaps rebelling against the established religious order, or
perhaps choosing to worship amongst the pletbora of "other gods" of
the Egyptian pantheon? (Budge refers to them as, "Wretched little
gods.")]



[Certainly the existence of the ancient cult worship of the god, Set, is not
without some sort of seditious causality. Perhaps these, then, are the
countless legions of souls damned to fiery pits of torment in the underworld:
the "Hated of Ra" or "Enemies of Osiris." This probably
would also liken these wretched and lost souls to be followers of Set and his
Seban fiends, who were the original enemies of Osiris and precursor role models
on which later religious based their ideas of "Hell" and
"Satan" and his "infernal legions." I am reminded of John
Milton, who, in Paradise Lost, wrote of Lucifer, after he had been cast down
and came to realization of his unrepentant autonomy, "It is better to rule
in Hell than serve in Heaven." And thus, that brings us full circle to the
chorus refrain of "The Blessed Dead." complete with infernal choirs
of the underworld defiantly proclaiming, "We Shall Never Be The Blessed
Dead."]