House of the Ba

The incense pot with flame is a hieroglyph to be read Ba. Sometimes on this square both male and female Ba figures are illustrated, each with a pot of incense and standing atop their tombs.

 

This ba or  “breath soul” is second stage of seven in Aegyptian metempsychosis. The symbol combines a human head (often of a deceased person) with the body and wings of a bird. Freedom of movement is just one property indicated by this final,  and most important, turning square.

 

 

House of Mehen

Mehen, a giant Cobra, protects Rah, the sun, in heaven and upon earth:

Now, behold, each day Ra entered at the head of his holy mariners and established himself upon the throne of the two horizons. The holy one had grown old, he dribbled at the mouth, his spittle fell upon the earth, and his slobbering dropped upon the ground. And Isis kneaded it with earth in her hand, and formed thereof a sacred serpent in the form of a spear; she set it not upright before her face, but let it lie upon the ground in the path whereby the great god went forth, according to his heart's desire, into his double kingdom.

 

House of Libation

May also have been called "House of Greeting" as there is a pun for the hieroglyphic for 'water' that flows over the mans hands, and greeting is indicated by the mans posture also.

 

The serpent Mehen, in one account of the Netjerworld, is said to have given cool waters or 'Libations' to the deceased. This place for greeting and drinking exists both in death & life.

 

 

House of Effort

Two jackals stand on the symbol for heaven that we met Square 14. The ship of sun god Re was often conceptualised as being a barge towed with ropes pulled by strange god-like beings. Jackals and cobras-with-arms are quite common. They walk along the banks of a celestial stream, as if towing a barge upriver on the Nile.

 

The Senate player's pieces are likened to seven jackals that pull the tow-ropes of the sunboat, moving inexorably down the final row to victory.

 

House of the Papyrus Thicket (or Hidden Knowledge)

Important as the final, 25th, square of Life before the final 5 steps of Senate which take place after death. This is the place of intellect and of cryptic knowledge.

 

Paper and writing were under the governance of Thoth. A priest or scribe associated with this square would know certain initiatory passwords that blocked the approach to the Hall of Two Truths or House of Three Gods, square 28. Isis hid the child Horus under shelter of papyrus swamps alongside the Nile.

 

 

The House of Beauty

We see again the symbol “beautiful” that was held by Maat on square five. The “Beautiful House” was the Aegyptian name of the place for embalming and mummification.

 

Unless pieces land on this square by exact count,  they cannot progress any further. With this square, the ‘second life’ or ‘endgame’ begins.

 

 

 

The Lake of Truth Or House of Waters.

This square represents the Nile (in later tradition also the Greek Styx) over which the deceased must be ferried to reach the necropolis, city of the dead.

 

This Abyss contains many dangers, and special knowledge assists us in Passing over the water.

 

House of the Three Gods

Also known as the Hall of Judgement or the Hall of the Double Ma’at. The numeral ‘3’ has been associated with this square since earliest times. It represents the Osirian judgement process involving Weighing of the Heart.

 

Ma’at is shown with dual (male and female) aspects of ‘truth’ and ‘justice.’ Thoth regulates the balance and also records events for posterity.  A third aspect of Truth might be represented by Thoth - contextual with time, history or eternity. The moon casts light to help us find passage through the afterlife.

 

 

House of Rah-Atum

The numeral ‘2’ has always been associated with this square. Originally distinct deities, these two were fused at an early time, and can be thought of as different forms of the same god, the sun. Atum (Tem, Toum) is the ‘aged one’, creator of all the gods, and the receding sun at the sunset. Re is the vigorous sun at its mid-day peak. '

 

All was mine, (even while) I was still alone in the Abyss. I am Rah in his dawnings. . . . I am yesterday, I know tomorrow.' What does this mean? Yesterday is Osiris, tomorrow is Rah.

 

House of Horus

The moment of the Sun's triumphant rising and rejuvenation at dawn. Horus is associated with the rising sun, as Rah-Atum represent the mid-day sun and the aging sun at sunset. This house is also known as Rah-Harakhty, "Rah-Horus-of-the-horizon". Numeral is ‘1.’

 

I shall see the gods and the Eye of Horus burning with fire before me.They shall reach out their hands to me. I shall stand up. I shall be master of him that would subject me to restraint.They shall open the holy paths to me, they shall see my form, they shall listen to my words.

Chapter of Changing into a Divine Hawk, Book of Immortality or the Coming Forth into Day.