The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

while the extremely restricted passage leading out of it southwards and coming to a dead end in the rock signifies “ annihilation ”, the second death of Rev. xx, 14.

Just as the Grand Gallery is the most prominent of the chambers of the Great Pyramid by virtue of its length and—more particularly—its imposing loftiness, so does the “ Hall of Truth in Light” figure prominently in the Ritual. It affords also the most striking example in the Great Pyramid’s construction of exhibiting features which find their counterpart and explanation most readily given in the symbolic chamber of the Ritual.

One peculiarity of its construction is the manner in which each course of the walls is offset from the one below, or overlaps, so that the topmost courses come so close together that the Gallery can be roofed in with a single row of stones like the keystone of an arch.

The roof itself is not smooth, but slopes upwards in a series of thirty-six overlappings, thus: AAAA, and this sign is the hieroglyphic symbol for the Nile, and is depicted in the vignettes of the Ritual as representing the Celestial Nile (see, for example, that to chapter lvii). In chapter xv the postulant petitions Osiris as “ Lord of the Celestial world”, the two lands which were supposed to be situated one on each bank of the celestial Nile. As he mounts, therefore, the Great Hall of Maati (Truth) to the Throne of Osiris at its summit (the Great Step), he has above him a representation of the celestial Nile. In the Judgment Scene, which forms a very important section of the Book of the Dead, we see Osiris represented in one of the vignettes thereto as seated in his shrine, or throne, which is placed on the waters of a lake, fed by the celestial Nile (compare Rev. xxii, 1: “a pure river of water of life . . . proceeding out of the throne of God”). The

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