Awakening Osiris: A New Translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead

by Normandi Ellis

A modern foundational text for those interested in Egyptian Spirituality

"Anyone reading this work cannot help but be moved by it. It comes as close to an appreciation of the themes of the soul's journey portrayed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead as any modern interpretation has, and with a poetry unmatched anywhere in the literature thus far". — A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian Book of the Dead is one of the oldest and greatest classics of Western spirituality. Until now, the available translations have treated these writings as historical curiosities with little relevance to our contemporary situation. This new version, made from the hieroglyphs, approaches the Book of the Dead as a profound spiritual text capable of speaking to us today.   Awakening Osiris is a beautiful and engaging rendering of the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a series of meditations that reveals the soul of Egypt like no book before.

These writings suggest that the divine realm and the human realm are not altogether separate—they remind us that the natural world, and the substance of our lives, is fashioned from the stuff of the gods. Devoted like an Egyptian scribe to the principle of "effective utterance", Normandi Ellis has produced a prose translation that reads like pure, diaphanous verse.

Genres: Egypt, Nonfiction, Mythology, Spirituality, Religion, History, Poetry

232 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

About the author

Rev. Normandi Ellis is an archpriestess of Isis through the Fellowship of Isis, is a Spiritualist minister, clairvoyant, astrologer and author of 13 books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and essay. She facilitates trips through the sites of ancient Egypt. You may contact her through her website www.normandiellis.com. Please keep checking back for further information on workshops, lectures, and publications.

Reviews

[Varian Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

*sits in stunned silence*

I have no words.

I think I'll let my favorite passage speak for itself:

"Let me stand in light, bathe in light, clothe myself in light. Let me sit in the lap of Gods and hear words of comfort....Let my spirit be stronger today than it was yesterday, my heart more peaceful, my mind more fertile, my hands more gentle. Let Gods touch my face. Let me go forth shining. Let my feet know the way. Let me walk and pass through fire...Let me pass undeterred into Heaven."

[C.H. Scarlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It's hard to explain why...maybe its the simplicity of words reflecting how beautiful life can be no matter how simple? Its seeing divinity in one's self, and then having it mirrored upon all things in one's life? Again, its hard to explain but I discovered it years ago in a Library and then had to rush out and buy my own copy, which is highlighted, quoted, and noted on almost every page.

[Steve Cran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could easily become one of my favorite books. The book is poetic and moving drawing the reader into the world of ancient Egyptian mystery. Awakening Osiris is not just another translation of the "Egyptian Book of the Dead" it goes well beyond that. New evidence has been brought to light regarding these works and this has been duly incorporated. Besides taking things beyond just another translation with new information this book is a poetic reinterpretation. Poetic reinterpretations always make the work come alive and in this books case it also awakens your own inner power. Reading this book makes me want to get the Budge edition just to compare notes. This was the first serious book on Egypt that I have ever read. It will be interesting to make comparisons. With this book I am in luck there is a solid bibliography in the back for further research.

Egyptians mythology does have parallels with the Hebrew Old Testament. Some might say that Egypt inspired the Hebrew bible as the Hebrew lived there as slaves or migrant workers at least. Judeo-Christian fanatics will see it as the other way around. There is a stress on honesty, truthfulness and a hardy work ethic. The goal of our life is to live a life that is worth living and our works are the sacrifice we offer to death and the gods. The power of speech is our power to create and from this all magic arises. Egyptian magick was called Heka. Heka was making sounds or incantations to effect reality. As the deities are made of Holy ether so are we as well. The gods live inside of us. We are god and part god.

As noted earlier this work is what I would call a poetic reinterpretation of the Book of the Dead. I did notice some similiar wording in the Egyptian prayers that was eerily similar to the wording of certain Hebrew prayers that I have read. I wonder if this is an influence that crept in because the author studied Judaism or was in it like this originally and the Hebrews copied it or maybe drank from the same source. Who knows. The word an ain soph crept in. Ain Soph is a Hebrew concept word which I doubt the Egyptians were familiar with at the time. Modernity has it's influences.

Book of the Dead is a misnomer as the original Egyptian translates to 'The Book of Coming forth by day" The book was read whole or in parts upon the death of an individual. It traces the history of Seth Murdering Osiris, Isis putting Osiris back together and mothering the child Horus. The battle between Horus and Seth is related in quite vivid detail. After that the book takes the reader on a journey through the underworld and to Osiris's eventual return. The introduction gives over some real good pertinent facts for layman, scholar and pagan alike. Enjoy.

[Damién Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to know where many books of the bible were copied from or where many practices originated for example saying "Amen"....? ......Read This Book

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit dubious about this at first, on account of the author’s New Age pagan profession. I am influenced – perhaps unfairly – by the mad aristo (and renegade Anglican priest) the 21st Baron Strathloch, who converted his castle in Ireland into a Temple of Isis (with his sister as High Priestess). I never knew either of them, but I know a number of people who did. The general consensus was that they added greatly to the gaiety of nations but were not to be taken seriously.

I have long had a more serious interest in Egyptian history and religion, however, so this book caught my eye. I am not qualified to judge the accuracy of its translation of ancient Egyptian funerary texts (I have Wallis Budge’s book on hieroglyphics but I don’t pretend to have read or understood it in any depth – I am too much of a dilettante poseur for that). This book did not start promisingly: the Introduction seemed entirely gibberish, and the chapter entitled “21 Women” I thought bafflingly incomprehensible. However, I persevered, and I am very glad I did. Gradually, like a slowly unfolding flower, the text revealed its secrets. There is much here that is intriguing, thought provoking, and beautiful. I am very glad I read it.

“All things serve a purpose, but that is no reason to glorify that which is abominable. A man must still watch where he walks and keep his sandals clean.”

“I’ve not troubled myself with the small words men say. I hear the words gods weave into silence.”

“We are gods in the body of god, truth and love our destinies. Go then and make the world something beautiful, set up a light in the darkness.”

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a lot of kids (right?!) I grew up with a crazy fascination with Egypt and it's mythology, even got to visit the place once. Grabbed a copy of this on a whim simply for personal curiosity, and it was a fun read. Poetry, stories from the very dawn of man to the very depths of the underworld, and interesting similarities between this and many other cultures that followed. One I'll probably revisit at some point, great to just pick up and put down for a while until it beckons me forth again!

[missy jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is some of the most beautiful language I've ever read. I've been reading a few pages every morning to imbue myself with joy to be alive. This morning's read:

"May I meet myself in every vegetable and rock quickened by tendrils of light. Holy and perfect is the world which lives by fire in the embrace of the carnelian heart. May I walk in the sun until eventide, forgetting the reason of hours. May I burst into light like a purple flower remembered by a lover."

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous poetic translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Normandi Ellis brings this ancient text to vivid, succulent and sensual life.

[Sarah Holz · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I come forth by day. I go out burning.”

I’ve read several translations of The Book of Coming Forth By Day, but none that so deeply capture the innate poetry of the papyri texts. Normandi Ellis abandons the strict word for word of translations past and produces an emotional, intuitive translation of breathtaking beauty to rival other religious texts like the Vedas and the Psalms. If you only read one version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, read this one.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this excellent work to be more spiritually fulfilling than The Bible. It speaks mainly in the first person, and it is pure poetry on how to live a good life. Its message is one of living life to the fullest and that every emotion we experience and every test we face is divine, cyclical, and reflects characteristics that are inherent in all living and nonliving things.

[Louise Pare-Lobinske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly lyrical and beautiful. I'm sad to finish it; I want it to go on.//Addendum as I finish my 5th read (at least): Always, always beautiful.

[Nate Marcel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Leaves of Grass was bread this would be the crust.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Beautiful, prose, and poetry

[Jakob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of nothing I return to the white sea foam. I have made an end of things. This is my last concern. I've held the striped pebble of love in my hand. I've smelled truth in the rain. Beyond lies light no darkness knows. I walk to it, through years of pain, lifetimes of suffering, despair that knew no comfort.

I've known that tempting feast of death when, while darkness filled the mind, the heart cried out. I know when the eye of truth is plucked from the head, only the blood of rage remains. I've known weakness and madness of the heart, the loneliness of travelers at night who came only near the fire to sleep. There are men grown weary and old among us, lost in their going; their heavy feet tramp the floor, passing in and out among the houses, going nowhere. I know the terrible truth of darkness, and I say, bless the darkness, for in darkness I stumbled and fell on the crystal road. After years of doubt, the dark mind turns again to light. In the black mountain of the heart, I found my way home again. I am that light in the darkness. I am a diamond, a bright secret veiled in black cloth. The light beyond heaven is the light within.

From the first cry to the last I chant the spell of living. In my belly I join the breath of life with the flame of becoming. I rise from the center of myself, fire on the wick, burning, tossing back shadows. Night drifts away like smoke. Yellow sunfish slice through the water flowing through the caverns of mountains toward the valley where fire begins. I worship at the altar of being. I offer up life in return for life, pleasure for pleasure, light for light. It is good to rest in the fire.

I remember the perfume of days, a flower unfurling slowly after a night of anguish. I remember the grapes I shared by the road with a stranger, and after the harvest, twenty black ibis pecking. I've found strength in the handle of a hoe, in the warmth of a woman's brown thigh. These simple graces are the light from which darkness flows away. I walk under a fragmented sky thinking how like a white god is the moon that sometimes walks with us, how the ashes of ancients rise again as children, how unseen music follows everywhere.

Each morning is like the first when bright gods rose and walked—a light passing between houses���into the flowering orchards. I am a feather through which light passes. Like the body of sky, I am filled with light. Like a spade that breaks the ground and prepares it, I enter the work of light. Like an old man on the last day or a child on the first, I wake from dark dreams. The mist of time disperses.

I hold in my hands the vulture and snake, the dying and the self-created. I take hold of the god within and learn the power of destiny. Beautiful are my hands and feet. Truth is in the belly. Before me lie the emerald days strung upon a gold string. Turquoise and crystal are the months. The heart and mind make peace in the body. I walk beneath a sky of lapis lazuli. How far I've traveled bruising my heels on stones, picking flowers, dreaming, telling stories. I spend my life amid the turnings of fate. At the end of day, I am a child with my basket full of fish, tired and happy on the streets, going home. I am light heading for light.

Even in the dark, a fire burns in the distance. Long years the hearth-keeper keeps his silence, lightening the dark, leading children home. There is food for the hungry, rest for the weary. Warm and light is the fire. Along the road, life's children sing. Voices join in the darkness. This is a beginning.

I have known terrors in the night, eaters of flesh, the teeth of evil. I have known anger and hatred, more terrible even by day because they were unexpected. And I learned to relax in the jaws of death, to relax my grasp on ruby life and let the world go on. I find joy in the advent of stars, in the song rising out of darkness. My heart fills with the spirit of wind, a great sail that carried the body home. I have heard the screams of my brothers lost in the darkness; they weep and cover their faces.

Lift your heads, throw down your hands and weep no more. The eye of creation looks upon you. Look back. You are crystal reflecting fire. In your own becoming there is light—enough to lead you home.

[Juniperus · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I remember the names of my ancestors. I speak the names of those I love. I speak their names and they live again. May I be so well-loved and remembered. In truth, may the gods hear my name. May I do work with my hands worth remembering.”

This translation came at the recommendation of like three different people independently, so I knew I had to read it, but I picked it up when I did to possibly find ways to cope with my grandmother’s departing. I came away with insight on self-reflection and self-improvement, and the knowing that this might be the same thing as remembering the dead. The language made it feel a little like reading the Bible (which makes sense, given the geographical proximity), but the content was the polar opposite. My grandmother was a religious woman, but what the rent-a-pastor at her funeral got wrong with his Protestant fatalism was she didn’t let it define her life. This book maybe gets a lot of the things right that the Bible gets wrong, that the way to revere the dead is not mourning but celebrating their life.

Example of this is that one of the most common words in this book is “I”. It feels a little like a narrative, fluctuating between first person and third-person about Osiris. But Ellis’ introduction clarifies that, while Osiris is the Egyptian god of the dead, an Osiris is anyone who follows in his footsteps, so anyone dead or alive. I read this to cope with death, but I learned more about myself… but isn’t that all the same thing because we all share the same fate? My favorite sections, from 40 to 51, “Becoming the […]” exemplify this perfectly. There’s a lot about taking your destiny in your own hands, creating yourself, becoming yourself: “Who you are is limited only by who you think you are.” So in many ways I think of this as the exact opposite of Christian dogma, and that these guys had a much healthier outlook on life and death than people centuries later.

I will say if you are looking for an academic text, this is not the version to read (a friend recommended R.O. Faulkner’s translation, which I have yet to check out, though I definitely will because this book was so meaningful to me). In the foreword, Ellis even admits, “I hesitate even to call this a translation. It is a meditation.” She changed a lot, obviously, but I respect her a lot more than for example Arthur Waley’s arrogant work in translation, because she not only shows a deep reverence for the culture, but also cites more rigorous translations and provides a concordance with the original papyrus to facilitate academic study.

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this over a year ago and it took me so long but I finished it. I almost cried when I reached the end. I read it too quickly and I need to go through it and parse out every bit of meaning and wisdom I can from the words.
As far as I am concerned, Normandi Ellis is a prophet. I never thought this could be so beautiful and so thought provoking and capture so beautifully and accurately the Ancient Egyptian experience of life and death. So much to learn. I need to buy a physical copy.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only came across this recently, in research for a novel I'm writing. It is, without question, one of the most extraordinary and inspiring books I have ever encountered. Although the spiritual source is (arguably) different, passages remind me of the poetry of Rumi. Reading it is in itself a spiritual experience. It also leads me to see the whole ancient Egyptian civilization - and perhaps my own book too - in a new light. Thank you, Normandi Ellis

[JNBail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book moved my spirit in the most profound was. The way they speak of themselves and their life gave me courage to accomplish some of my goals. The entire read is of positive affirmations. Egyptian mythology is one of my favorite spiritualties because it is the beginning to most religions that are relevant today.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book describes a pantheistic view of a cyclical universe. Nearly every page contains profound wisdom on how to go about your journey of becoming.

I have a keen interest in comparative mythology and this has been the most inspiring to me by far. The type of story that will influence your dreams and make you stare at the world in wonder.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This translation by Normandy Ellis of the Egyptian book of the dead offers a more personal review of the treatise And gives the reader insight into how the rights of Osiris would have been performed. I would definitely recommend this book to those who are looking for other translations of this work.

[Oak Kristopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is just beautiful. pure poetry of the spirit. so healing and deep. highly recommend - OAK oakastrologyschool.com

[Charles737 · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book for getting to the flavor of the old Egyptian way of being. 'Coming forth by the light of day.' How to get acquainted with your soul while still alive.

[Sue Dounim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I'm ever going to mark this "100% read". This is a very special book (which was given to me by a very special person, important detail for this review). I do enjoy poetry but it's not in the top 10 or even 100 categories in my library.

Over the years, I have read a lot of books about ancient Egyptian archaeology, religion, and mythology. I never miss the Nat Geo or History channel specials on the continuously amazing discoveries by archaeologists, and stories about the "classic" 18th and 19th Century archaeologists. I enjoy the scholarly works on the Book of the Dead and other ancient texts, but this book is in a class by itself. It instantly bridges the millennia and breathes life into the old texts, giving them a kind of relevance and authenticity that's hard to describe. You really feel the vitality and devotion that the originators of these chants and songs must have felt when they created them. I've gone back and compared some of the academic translations with Ms Ellis' and marvel at how skilled she is at getting to the beating heart of a text.

I live in the Southwestern US where deserts are everywhere. These poems feel to me to be soaked with brilliant sunshine, blue skies, dry winds, black nights and myriad stars.

I wish there was a hardcover collector's edition with the title stamped in gold on the cover, and gilt edges. And a peacock blue ribbon to mark your place.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially a translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Each "book of the dead" version is different since this are like the eulogy speeches at funerals, unique in each situation, but with common elements, stories and themes. Each "book of the dead" contains a number of recitations meant to be both speeches and spells. This one concentrates on the story Osiris' death and resurrection. Then it goes on to talk about how, like Osiris, we are all god-like in our spiritual oneness with everything else that exists. It uses Osiris' death and resurrection to say that this is what happens to each of us.

I personally loved this, as it speaks to me on a more personal level regarding my spiritual beliefs. It talks about the universality of life, death, and reincarnation. My review can't do it justice, but it is a great story.

Although this was written before the Bible, it is very similar in some ways if you view Osiris as Jesus-like. Toward the end of the book, there are also 10-commandment-type declarations which the dead person must recite in order to pass into the next life. "I did not boast, nor did I jeer at my neighbor when he did boast. When I had plenty I fed beggars and priests, when I had little, I fed my children first, then myself."

[Joshua Silverman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far be it for me to say, but this is the most amazing translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (Book of Going Forth by Day) that I have ever read. Ellis, though he professes his lack of academic status, is a remarkable writer. Basically what he does is he modernizes the language.

Although I love E.A. Wallis Budge, being one of the foremost Egyptologists in history, he is a strict academic with a strict translation, whereas Ellis brings the ancient text to life. Ellis takes the stilted, wooden translation of the words and gives it depth and meaning. He makes you believe you’re walking with Osiris in the Field of Flowers. He makes you believe you’re sitting with Ra as he travels over the horizon on his boat. What Ellis does, is poetry. It is art. It is the essence, most likely, of how the ancient Egyptians saw their world.

[Sue Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly beautiful!

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Egyptian Book of the Dead isn't about being, it's about becoming. And it's incredibly hard to quote. It's hard to quote because every page is pure mythic poetry.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning. The author said "I hesitate even to call this a translation. It is a meditation". And indeed it was a long and centering meditation.