Life Keep in mind that while I write this rather matter-of-factly, this is not the opinion of everyone. Life is a gift - a most beautiful gift, given to us by Netjer. We should treat it with care, but we should also use it well - life is not meant to be put on a pedistal for mere decoration. ;) In fact, we're encouraged to enjoy it fully, as long as it doesn't harm anyone (everything must adhere to ma'at) - our Nisut (AUS) even tells us off if we do Senut more than once a day, because we're not meant to spend our life before the altar, but to be out there enjoying it.^^ Someone once asked me what Netjer might think of suicide. While I cannot possibly know that, I suppose they'd be a little disappointed - it would be a life wasted, would it not? A gift thrown away. (That being said, we don't condemn those who have committed suicide, nor can I imagine Netjer does. And I'm no judge of what may warrant such a thing as ending your own life.) Death I think the Nisut (AUS) once said, that death (or rather, what comes after) is not much different from life, to us. It's merely a portal to another kind of life. We don't exactly prepare for death - apart from trying to live in harmony with ma'at, so that we may pass the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. The Weighing of the Heart is a pretty familiar event, because it's often described in textbooks, or portrayed in pictures from Ani's copy of the Book of the Dead - but for those of you who haven't read about it before, here is a very brief recap: Yinepu (Anubis) leads the deceased into the Hall of Truth. There, his or her heart is weighed by Yinepu, against the Feather of Truth (Ma'at's symbol), on a pair of scales. If the heart does not out-weigh the feather, you'll be brought before Wesir (Osiris), King of the Dead, and live happily ever after. If not, you're thrown to the dogs the nasty beast Ammit, who eats you, and you cease to exist - the ultimate punishment. Meanwhile, Djehuty (Thoth) records the results of the weighing. Unlike many other faiths, we don't generally "look forward" to death - there's nothing wrong with this life, even if it's not always uber-happy. This life is no training ground for the next. As for burial and such things, we have no preferred form of funerary proceedures - it's up to the individual. So no, you don't have to be mummified. ;) Nor do we have anything against organ donation (some may think that "not having all your parts" may present a problem in the afterlife, given the egyptian point of view). When someone within the faith dies, the community prays for 70 days (see "Mourning") before a funerary ceremony is carried out in the temple - a ceremony I actually know nothing about. After that, he or she becomes a "national" akh - part of the temple akhu. Mourning As in antiquity, we say prayers for 70 days after someone dies. Why 70 days? Well, if I recall correctly, that was the amount of time it took for a body to be mummified and properly buried in ancient times - coincidentally, it's been said that it is also the time that is roughly required to acclimate yourself to a loss within the family. The 70 days are also symbolic in another sense - it's the time that the star Sopdet (Sirius) spends without being seen, before reappearing in the sky. Stars are closely connected to ancestors within our faith, so it is thought that this is also the length of time during which the deceased is not "visable" to us, taking care of his or her own business in the next world before they install themself as an akh before us. What is the purpose of these prayers, then? For starters, they ask the gods to take personal interest in the deceased, and bring them safely to Wesir's feet. Secondly, as far as I understand, they may work as a sort of protective spell - deceased may transform into "bad" spirits if there was a lot of bad blood between them and yourself, and praying for them may be a way of making amends, and assuring their passage is safe and "good" - but that may be a highly personal interpretation of it all.