In ancient Egypt, many people believed that your life still continued after you had passed away on Earth. The purpose of this book was to make sure the deceased would still live and exist after going through the afterlife and live in the Field of Reeds for all eternity. This is due to the Egyptians believing that the Gods guided them throughout their lives on Earth, for helping crops grow to religious ritual, so they can go through to the afterlife without any issues as the people would have followed the ways of life the Gods expected them to live. An individual's spell book can have up to 190 chapters in it that specify what the deceased had to do in order to go to the next step of the afterlife and closer to the Field of Reeds. Scholars from the 19th and 20th century have tried to number and categorize these spells as stages of the afterlife and what significance each stage presented. in 1967, scholar Paul Barguet created the following table of contents:

Chapters 1 – 16: ‘Proceeding to the burial-place’

Chapters 17-63: ‘Regeneration’

Chapters 64-129: Transfiguration – including taking various forms; and the Judgment of the Dead’

Chapters 130-162: ‘The Underworld’

Chapters 163-165: Additional formulae

These spells had a variety of uses for the variety of scenarios people would have face during the time in the underworld from fighting supernatural deities, entities and creatures to going through trials and tribulations. Some of these spells would include how to defeat the deity or passing the trial or prevent the deceased from harm during these stages. One famous piece of evidence and spell that would help the deceased during the infamous spell 125 was the scarab amulet. It was place on the heart with the spells written on it so that their heart won't show the deceased did not live a sin free life and prevent it from getting eaten by the God Ammut, who was part crocodile, lion and hippo.

Here is a summary of the infamous spell 125 that would decide if the deceased would go to the Field of Reeds or ceased to exist.

Spell 125: The deceased arrives at the Hall of Truth with the God of the Underworld, Osiris waiting for them. The jackal god Anubis guides the deceased to Osiris. Osiris asks the deceased, Anubis, Thoth and 42 judges if the deceased lived a life without sin. After this judgement, Anubis then weighs the deceased's heart against an ostrich feather. If the deceased's heart weighs lighter than the ostrich feather, this means they fulfilled living a pure life and can go into the Field of Reeds. If it weighs heavier than the ostrich feather, this means the deceased had either lied or performed sinful acts during their life that prevents them from entry into the afterlife and the god Ammut would devour the heart and erase the existence of the deceased forever.

Try these activities!