A passport is needed to the other world if you
plan on returning unharmed in this lifetime. Fortunately, your
papers are all in order. Now, what was the question you wished to
ask the spirits on the other side? And what's in that funny
little box you are bringing along?
A combination of the "Money Mystery Papers" and the
"Magic Mummy," but with new methods of operation and
twists you never dreamed of. The papers have hieroglyphs from the
Egyptian Book of the Dead (provided with the article), and the
box contains a mummy that you have made yourself from Craft Store
oven baked clay and doll face Push Molds (following my photo
directions).
Effect: You begin with a search
for your passport… not the one issued by the state
department, the other one, the secret prayers from the lost
Egyptian Book of the Dead that provide safe passage through the
underworld for a person’s Ka, or soul. You open up the
packet of papers where you last placed the script, but it is
empty. Then you remember that you hid the script with a spell of
enchantment, so that if anyone stole the packet, they would find
nothing of value inside. You close up the packet of papers, and
tap the four corners, muttering the spell that will release the
enchantment. Opening up the papers now, you see that it now
contains the script (which can be on parchment, if you wish, but
not on real papyrus…which cracks when it is folded) plus a
couple of dollars you hid inside for a rainy day. Pocket the
dollars and open the script, displaying the lost section covered
with Egyptian hieroglyphics. “Can anyone translate
this?” you ask. “No? Well, that’s good then. That
means I don’t have to kill any of you in order to keep the
secrets of the lost Book of the Dead.”
You don’t have a mummy, but you do have an effigy which will
work just as well for the demonstration. The mummy effigy is
restless, since its Ka, or soul, has not yet passed into the
Afterlife. The proof is that the mummy refuses to return to its
sarcophagus, once it has been removed. You will just have to
continue with the ceremony so the Ka of the mummy can rest
peacefully.
The next part of the ceremony is the weighing of the heart. You
show a balance scale and also display the four canopic jars
containing the organs that belonged to the mummy. You load on one
balance pan all four canopic jars, as well as the tiny mummy.
Naturally the balance pan containing all the weight drops down as
far as it can go. At this point you introduce the “Feather
of Truth and Justice.”
“Before an Egyptian was granted a place in the Afterlife, he
or she must pass a rigorous test called the Weighing of the
Heart. This trial took place before Osiris, god of the
Underworld. During this trial the ancient Egyptian's heart was
placed on one side of a scale, with a feather, the symbol of
Truth and Justice (Maat) on the other. If the heart balanced
against the feather, the Egyptian would safely pass into the
Afterlife. If the heart was heavy with offenses, the scale would
drop and be consumed by the beast that waited next to the scales,
Ammit, the gobbler. If this were to happen, there would be no
perdition or hell, they would simply cease to exist. For ancient
Egyptians, this was the most terrifying prospect possible.”
So saying, you take a feather and wave it over and around the
scales as you begin the Egyptian prayers from the Book of the
Dead (versions in English are included with the article).
As you plead the innocence of the mummy and drop the feather on
the other balance pan, the scales begin to balance and the mummy
is declared innocent.
Now it can be returned to its tiny sarcophagus where it now
remains peacefully.
