Nile The Blessed Dead Lyrics:
Looked Down Upong With Scorn We Work the Fields of
the Masters And Share Not the Bounty of the Black
Earth

Destitute Servile Cast Out Affording No Tomb We
Shall Be Buried Unprepared in the Sand

We Shall Never Be The Blessed Dead

Scorned By Asar Condemned at the Weighing of the
Heart We are Exiled from the Netherworld Serpents
fall Upon us Dragging us Away Ammitt Who Teareth
the Wicked to Pieces

Pale Shades of the UnBlessed Dead None Shall Enter
Without the Knowledge Of the Magickal Formulas
Which is Given to Few to Possess

Not for Us to Sekhet Aaru Our Souls Will be Cut to
Pieces with Sharp Knives Tortured Devoured
Consumed in Everlasting Flames

We Shall Never Be The Blessed Dead

[The phrase, "the Blessed Dead," is a reference to
those who obtain the "blessed" condition in the
afterlife: the beautified condition of eternal
lifein the presence of Osiris in the Sekbet-Aaru,
or "Field of Reeds." Those who had lived a moral
life, observed the proper burial rites and
procedures, and possessed all the correct magickal
spells to navigate the treacherous and horrific
Egyptian underworld, who could recite the 42
negative confessions, and whose hearts were found
to be pure at the "Weighing of the Heart," were
then allowed to be "Osirified" - to become a
person like as unto Osiris - and enjoy a pleasant
afterlife as ne of the blessed dead.]

[Proper burial, though, was an expensive
undertaking. It was usually afforded only by
pharaohs, priests, and the wealthy class. What of
those who could not afford the extravagant tombs,
mummification, magickal amulets, and costly
papurys texts on which were written the necessary
spells for successfully navigating the underworld?
Even linen, which was used to wrap the mummies,
was so expensive in ancient Egypt that people had
to save what little scraps of it they could for
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years to have enough to have themselves wrapped.
Also of mention would be the cost of professional
mourners, embalmers, and priests for the "Opening
of the Mouth" ceremony. This was all extremely
expensive. Even a wealthy person in ancient Egypt
would spend a lifetime saving and preparing for
his or her burial and afterlife. I suppose it is
no small coincidence that the religious priests
were directly involved in the embalming industry.]

[But what of the middle and lover classes of
people - the common working man? What then of the
slaves and servant classes? if all these costly
preparations and arcane knowledege were essential
to achieving a state of blessedness in the
afterlife, would a person of limited financial
means be condemned beforehand to burn in torment
in the afterlife, so only the wealthy became the
Blessed Dead? While most of the populate certainly
accepted this fatalistic concept - and by all that
we know of ancient Egypt, embraced life and the
hope of an eternal afterlife - most ancient
Egyptians probably were resigned to do whatever
funereal preparations were within their means It
stands to reason, however, that certainly some
small number of lower income / slave / working
class people (predestined, of course, to certain
financial / spiritual doom, as upward caste
mobility was very limited in ancient times) would
be less than inclined to accept at face value the
idea that, no matter what, by the end of their
lives they would not be able to afford to be
buried as one of the blessed dead. Would they be
resigned to their eternal fate, or live their
lives with subversive viewpoints - perhaps
rebelling against the established religious order,
or perhaps choosing to worship amongst the
pletbora of "other gods" of the Egyptian pantheon?
(Budge refers to them as, "Wretched little
gods.")]

[Certainly the existence of the ancient cult
worship of the god, Set, is not without some sort
of seditious causality. Perhaps these, then, are
the countless legions of souls damned to fiery
pits of torment in the underworld: the "Hated of
Ra" or "Enemies of Osiris." This probably would
also liken these wretched and lost souls to be
followers of Set and his Seban fiends, who were
the original enemies of Osiris and precursor role
models on which later religious based their ideas
of "Hell" and "Satan" and his "infernal legions."
I am reminded of John Milton, who, in Paradise
Lost, wrote of Lucifer, after he had been cast
down and came to realization of his unrepentant
autonomy, "It is better to rule in Hell than serve
in Heaven." And thus, that brings us full circle
to the chorus refrain of "The Blessed Dead."
complete with infernal choirs of the underworld
defiantly proclaiming, "We Shall Never Be The
Blessed Dead."]
Lyrics: The Blessed Dead, Nile [end]