Sacred Texts: Ancient Egypt

The Book of Gates: The Book of Gates: Chapter XI. The Gate Of Ab-ta. The Ninth Division of the Tuat.

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This is a descriptive-scholarly account of the Ninth Division of the Egyptian Tuat (the underworld), drawn from ancient funerary texts — likely the Amduat — detailing the nightly journey of the sun god Ra through the hours of darkness. The text traces Ra's boat as it is towed through a gate guarded by mummified gods, a monster serpent (Ab-ta), and flanking uraei breathing fire, then proceeds through three registers of supernatural figures who perform protective magic on his behalf. Central to the Division's drama is the ritual suppression of the chaos serpent Apep: a procession of six men, four apes, and four women work "magical knots," while three spearmen restrain a prostrate figure called the Ass (Aai) on a rope that holds back both Apep and the crocodile Shesshes. The upper register presents cosmological symbolism including gods of the South and North raising their respective standards, the hybrid figure Horus-Set straddling a hawk-sphinx to represent the sun's dual sovereignty over both halves of the sky, and paired guardian serpents (Shemti, Bata) whose "odor" the condemned souls breathe. The lower register shows sixteen divine beings — souls of Ament, followers of Thoth, Horus, and Ra — towing the serpent Khepri (the dawn beetle embodied as a two-headed serpent) toward the horizon, where Ra will rise transformed. The text's distinctive character lies in its procedural, almost liturgical precision: each figure, speech, and magical act is catalogued as part of a cosmic mechanism that must function correctly for the sun to be reborn each morning.

The Book of Gates: The Book of Gates: Chapter XI. The Gate Of Ab-ta. The Ninth Division of the Tuat.

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