The Book of Gates

Traditions

Egyptian religion and magic

Role in the tradition

Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.

Public attention

Landmark Wikipedia has an article about it in 26 languages.

• Budge's translation ↗ sacred-texts.com checked against the Internet Archive's copy of June 05, 2025, because the site refuses scripts · archived copy

The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. The Book of Gates is long and detailed, consisting of one hundred scenes. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world journeying with the sun god, Ra, through the underworld during the hours of the night towards his resurrection. The soul is required to pass through a series of 'gates' at each hour of the journey. Each gate is guarded by a different serpent deity that is associated with a different goddess. It is important that the deceased knows the names of each guardian. Depictions of the judgment of the dead are shown in the last three hours. The text implies that some people will pass through unharmed, but others will suffer torment in a lake of fire. At the end of Ra's journey through the underworld, he emerges anew to take his place back in the sky.

From the Wikipedia article Book of Gates, revision 1368627070, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q32137: “ancient Egyptian funerary text”.