The Blessed Dead lyrics

Artist  : Nile 
Song : The Blessed Dead



 Send "The Blessed Dead" Ringtone to your Cell 

 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
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."]