The Duat Dreamer

Prologue : Do gods die?

Everyone has something they believe in. our belief forms the basic foundation of our life; For me, it was the gods.

Do you believe in gods? If you do then, do gods die?

When a human dies, the souls go to Duat(the afterlife). A hefty fee must be paid to enter into Duat. Anubis would weigh their fees on a scale against their heart. Those who could not afford the right fees or their payment did not tip the scale would be sent to the underworld or left to wander the earth inept of peace and, depending on their sins, their torment varies. The souls in Duat could choose either to remain in Duat as dead souls or, reincarnate as human beings.

Duat was as beautiful as every other place with structures like rivers, islands, caverns, iron walls, turquoise trees etc. It is home to both souls and gods who chose to live there. Anubis was in charge of guiding these souls to this place.

Let me tell you a little story about Anubis.

Anubis is the second son of Osiris and Isi; his brother Horus is the first. Rumour has it that he is not a legitimate child of Osiris but who knows the truth of the gods. Anubis was responsible for overseeing mummification, weighing souls, being a tour guide to the souls into the afterlife and defending against Chaos. He was his father's messenger.

In his line of work, he comes in contact with a lot of different souls. On a particular day, something happened. A soul who had gotten to purgatory (gate of the underworld) did not have the dues to crossover. Anubis found something peculiar about this precise soul and felt compelled to let her pass without paying the fees.

Something that has never been done before since the collection of taxes started.

When Osiris heard of this, he was furious. Enraged by the selfless act of his son, Osiris (the god of the dead and underworld) stripped him of his immortality and gave him the death penalty for breaking the law.

Anubis was to be killed on the third day after his judgement but, on that day, Goddess Ra (the goddess of creation) came to his rescue. She believed that it was unjust of Osiris to choose death as a punishment when Anubis had done nothing wrong. Ra revealed to them that she was the one who passed through the gates without the fees.

She felt her goddess-hood was missing death as a vital key in her role as a goddess; she sought death and, as a result, put her immortality on hold to pass through the gate. Not as a goddess but as a soul, where she would reincarnate and reemerge as the goddess she is.

Ra told him her reasons for doing what she did but Osiris would not listen; No matter how much she talked and pleaded. So, Ra decided to play rough with Osiris. She called forth a gathering of other gods to solve this problem without resulting in war.

When the other gods, Horus, Bastet, Geb, Set, Isi, Maat, Qebhet, Heka et. c. assembled to deliberate, the majority of the gods were on the side of Anubis; Thus, Osiris lost the battle. Most of the gods who supported Anubis did it because of their selfish reason and not because they thought Osiris was wrong and unfair. Nobody liked Osiris, not even his own family and, when they saw this opportunity to get rid of him, they grabbed it. Osiris could not believe the audacity of the other gods who had challenged him in his domain; He was determined even more to punish not just Anubis but everyone who went against him.

Ra was amazed at how Osiris had no empathy for anyone. Not his family, fellow gods or even the souls. He knew not what death was even as he is the god of death. The other gods knew of Osiris plans and decided to punish him instead. They exiled him from the underworld and, when he fought back against the entirety of the gods, unfortunately, they killed him; Osiris fought back but lost shamefully. Thereafter, they began to choose candidates who would be the next god of the underworld.

Anubis became the new god of the underworld instead of his brother and, Horus was okay with it. After his coronation, Anubis began to adjust the obsolete rules set by his father. He reduced the death tax and demanded that bursary be given to those who could not afford to pay their way into the afterlife. Warmth filled the purgatory and the underworld as these changes brought about peace to the dead even before they went into Duat; As for Anubis, Life and work became smoother.

Now, here's the question, how do I know all these?

The reason being I died and, my soul witnessed it all or, so I thought. It was just the weird dream I had last night after watching "Gods of Egypt" and reading about my favourite mythologies.

My name is David Adam, a devoted follower of myths. Why was this particular dream weird? It's because I thought I was there when it happened. It felt too real for it to be a dream. So true that it would make reality a lie.