Book of Coming Forth by Day
The Book of Coming Forth by Day—often called the “Book of the Dead,” though it is truly a book of life and renewal—is a compendium of sacred chapters that guide the soul to emerge into the light, to speak truth with power, and to walk among the blessed as an Akh. Written upon papyri, amulets, and tomb walls, its formulas unite name, image, and utterance, so that the deceased may pass safely through the gates of the Duat, greet the Neteru with right words, and rise with the Sun in everlasting day.
This corpus refines and extends the earlier traditions, offering hymns of praise, invocations of protection, and precise instructions for traversing the liminal landscapes of the unseen. Its chapters include declarations of innocence before the scales of Ma’at, addresses to guardians and ferrymen, transformations of form for spiritual mobility, and prayers that anchor the Ren (sacred name) within the living current of divine order. In every line, authoritative utterance, Hu, and luminous perception, Sia, conjoin to effect true passage and transfiguration.
For the seeker, the Book of Coming Forth by Day is a manual of inner alchemy as much as a guide for the posthumous journey. Read with reverence, it teaches purification of the heart, right speech, constancy of remembrance, and the sanctification of time and action. Its wisdom invites the devotee to live now as one who comes forth by day; to cultivate clarity, balance, and devotion, that the soul may move freely in harmony with Ma’at, both in this world and beyond the veil.
Explore Related Teachings
- Coffin Texts – The expanded utterances that prepared the way for later compilations.
- Book of the Two Ways – Twin pathways of passage and ascent through the sacred regions.
- The Heart and the Weighing – The judgment of truth at the scales of Ma’at.
- Anubis and the Soul – Guardian of thresholds and guide through the Duat.