An Ancient Egyptian Magic Spell

If you click the button on the stela below, you will hear an offering prayer for Hatshepsut which includes her titles as a female king. The ancient Egyptians believed that anyone who heard these words spoken aloud contributed to Hatshepsut's survival in the Afterlife and earned the right to ask her to grant a favour.
 
The ancient Egyptians believed that if a dead person was given the proper funerary rites, they would continue living in the Afterlife. To survive in the Afterlife, however, a person’s life force (their ka) had to be supplied with the same sorts of provisions that people in the world of the living needed. The Egyptians regularly made offerings of food, drink, clothing, cosmetics and other consumables that their deceased relatives would need to maintain a comfortable existence in the Afterlife. The ever-practical Egyptians developed a method of equipping their dead by using a magic spell, called a voice offering, which would magically provide everything a dead person needed, simply by reciting a special formula aloud. The people making the offering were entitled to ask the dead person to help them with any problems they might have. The Egyptians believed that the spirits of the Blessed Dead could have a powerful influence in the world of the living. The offering is officially given by the king to Osiris, Lord of the Dead; Osiris then bequeaths the goods to the deceased person.

The sounds of ancient Egyptian


 

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