List of Book of the Dead spells

The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead contained a group of magical and religious texts known as spells. The spells are meant to help the dead progress through the many challenges in the Duat, or underworld, to the afterlife. Spells to protect the dead from harm are mixed with those ensuring the different parts of their being would be preserved, along with copies of religious myths and ritual texts, for instance at a funeral. Many spells were illustrated with drawings known as vignettes, which in some manuscripts are very lavish. Only rich Egyptians owned a copy usually and it was buried with them.

Some 200 spells are known from the Book of the Dead. The combination of spells used in a particular papyrus varied, very likely depending on the texts the scribe had access to, as well as the inclinations and wealth of the owner. Some spells were developed during the 1500-year period the Book of the Dead was used, while others fell into disuse. Some of the spells derive from earlier funerary texts, for instance the Coffin Texts. From the Late Period of Ancient Egypt onward, the spells were arranged in a standard order.

Here the spells are presented according to the modern numbering system used by Egyptologists. This derives from the work of Karl Richard Lepsius, who published the first translation of a Book of the Dead papyrus, and accords with the Late Period ordering of spells.

Spell for causing a shabti to do work for a man in the realm of the dead: O shabti, allotted to me, if I be summoned or if I be detailed to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead, if indeed any obstacles are implanted for you therewith as a man at his duties, you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west; 'Here I am', you shall say.

Words spoken by Ani: 'O you Soul [ba], greatly majestic, behold, I have come that I may see you; I open the Netherworld that I may see my father Osiris and drive away darkness, for I am beloved of him. I have come that I may see my father Osiris and that I may cut out the heart of Seth who has harmed my father Osiris. I have opened up every path which is in the sky and on earth, for I am the well-beloved son of my father Osiris. I am noble, I am a spirit [akh], I am equipped; O all you gods and all you spirits [akhu], prepare a path for me.

...
Wikipedia