Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

80 End of Days
I did not murder.
I caused no man misery.
I did not decrease the offering of the gods.
I did not commit adultery.
I did not diminish the grain measure.
I did not diminish the land measure.
I did not deflect the index of the scales.
I did not take milk from the mouth of the child.
I did not report evil of a servant to his master.
I did not catch the fish in their pools.
I am purified four times. (Book of the Dead,
ch. 125, in Nigosian 1990, 30–31.)
After the talking was done, the heart of the
deceased was placed on a scale over against a
feather, symbolic of truth. Sometimes instead of a
feather an image of Maat, the goddess of Truth,
was used. If the heart was too heavy, the sinful
party would be considered to have failed the test.
According to some accounts, the unfortunate
person would then be eaten and destroyed by a
demon called Ammit. According to other
accounts, the person would be placed in a fiery pit,
attended by evil-minded demons who tortured
them. If, however, the heart balanced the feather,
all was well and the person, now with a new body
called the sahu, was free to enter the happy world
of the Sekhet Aaru (Field of Rushes). The hardest
part was over, but there were still some dangers or
trials to face, as the sahu was not invulnerable. The
Book of the Dead was still useful for spells to
protect one from crocodiles, suffocation, and any
number of other problems.
The location of the land of the blessed is
unclear, but it may have been conceived as up in
the sky somewhere. In any case, finally arriving at
the land of the blessed, the deceased would be
able to make use of all the items left for their use
in the crypt, such as food, beds, chairs, utensils,
etc. One could also use magical spells to turn
models of servants, or shabti, that were left in the
tomb, into living servants, and spend the rest of
eternity in comfort.
See also Satan; Temple of Set
For Further Reading:
Bierlein, J. F. Parallel Myths. New York: Ballantine,
1994.
Burns, Edward McNall. Western Civilizations. Vol. 1.
8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1973.
Eliade, Mircea. From Primitives to Zen. New York:
Harper & Row, 1967.
Lesko, Leonard H. “Egyptian Religion: An
Overview.” In Mircea Eliade, ed. The
Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan,
1989, 37–54.
Murnane, William J. “Taking It with You: The
Problem of Death and Afterlife in Ancient
Egypt.” In Hiroshi Obayashi, ed. Death and
Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992, 35–48.
Nigosian, S. A. World Faiths. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1990.
Parrinder, Geoffrey. World Religions: From Ancient
History to the Present. New York: Facts on File,
1971.
Smart, Ninian. The Religious Experience of Mankind.
3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984.
Smart, Ninian, and Richard D. Hecht, eds. Sacred
Texts of the World: A Universal Anthology. New
York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1982.
Turner, Alice K. The History of Hell. New York:
Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1993.
End of Days
End of Days is a rehash of the overused Satanwants-to-father-a-child-who-will-rule-the-earth
plot. The designated bride-to-be was chosen
twenty years ago, and raised by devil-worshipers.
The only thing that sets this 2000 film apart from
its predecessors is that the good guy who is going
to rescue Satan’s unwilling fiancée is Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and Arnold’s opponent, who is
the Devil himself, shows up on earth in the body
of an investment banker—an appropriate profession,
considering the demise of most ordinary
people’s portfolios over the past couple of years,
though it’s still hard to top Satan’s profession in
Devil’s Advocate.
Enoch
Enoch is mentioned in Genesis as the father of
Methuselah, the longest lived of the long-lived
descendants of Adam. In a pattern that was typical
of the so-called intertestamental period, several
books (none ever accepted as canonical) were
composed in the name of Enoch. These works,
especially the Book of Enoch, are extremely
important for the angel lore they contain. The