Let There Be Light

Ra watched the Nile River glittering orange and red as the Sun slowly left behind the World of the Living and descended into the Realm of the Dead.

He used his oar to push his barge over the precipice and then sank into the deepness of the Underworld. The Nile flowed slowly and smoothly here, its waters darker, more ancient. While in the world above the Sun followed the flow of the Nile from a distance, here they almost touched as he travelled the long path through the Gateways of Night.

The Sun here was dimmer, simmering down to faint a golden orb that pulsed with fire and heat. Here it slept, here it rested.

With Ra as its eternal guardian.

Ra stood tall, although all the Gods and Goddesses could change their shape and form. Their shadows could be large enough to devour cities, or small enough to be mistaken for mortals. He was clothed in white linen robes wearing golden jewellery on his arms, legs and neck, carved with names and protection spells. For this journey, he used his falcon head instead of his mortal face. He needed the swiftnesss of the bird and its keen vision. His eyes gleamed like black diamonds as he surveyed all around him with a predatory gaze.

Ra’s barge shone with the remnants of the Sun’s might, bathing the area around it in faint light. His barge was golden, carved with colourful hieroglyphs bestowed upon him by Nephthys for protection against the evils of Chaos. Its long, sloped ends hung with lanterns to help him through the darkness and a golden canopy stretched across to shelter him.

And so began his journey through the 12 Gates.

*****

The glittering life of the Nile and the land above faded here, the river becoming dark and marshy. Dark tendrils of weeds and things of twisted darkness brushed the underside of his barge and Ra's oar, seeming to retreat from the light of the Sun and the heat of the barge. The waters here ranged from inky black to swampy green and brown. The dregs of the world above lingered here; hopes and dreams; things that were forgotten or things that would never be.

He passed under the First Gate.

Each Gate represented each hour of darkness. They were enormous creations, carved from red sandstone and baked hard and solid from the Sun’s passing. They were so ancient that some of the red had faded away, bleached almost pure white, the black, solid lines of the hieroglyphs running through them like jagged wounds. The hieroglyphs on all the Gates said the same thing: Protection to Ra, Eye of the Sun, Nemesis of Apophis “He Who Would Devour the Sun.” May He Travel Safely Through the Gates, He Who Brings Order to Chaos.”

As he approached the Second Gate, the river narrowed and one could almost see the land on the banks. Most of the land was dark and flat, the Sun’s light casting shadows and illuminating the vast deserts of the Realm of the Dead. Here things lingered that Ra knew would follow him on and on to the Eighth Gate. At the edges of this desert too, somewhere, was the long path the newly dead took to reach the Palace of Judgement.

Ra would never know that journey.

He reached the Second Gate and travelled through easily, the water still moving slowly. His view of the desert became obscured as reeds started growing along the river banks and in the water. He was now in the Waters of Osiris. The reeds grew tall and strong, their stems ranging from golden brown to deep, emerald green. The tops of the them splayed out in plumes, soft and feathery. Some tops were round and a rich brown colour, swaying in a wind that only existed in spirit. The reeds grew taller and taller until they formed a solid wall around Ra’s path, arching over him and blocking out the blackness of the realm.

And so he passed through the Third Gate, almost imperceptible through the reeds.

The waters started moving faster now, rushing towards their next destination and Ra put down his oar for a while. He stood watching, waiting. Chaos did not usually attack him so early, but chaos was in their very creation. Against Chaos, uncertainty would destroy you.

The reeds still continued to form their tunnel, their tops reflecting the Sun’s luminance and lighting the waters up in greens and browns and golds.

After a moment, he heard the slitherings and hissings as they came from the river bank. The small silver and green serpents began swarming around his boat, nudging the sides and swirling faster and faster around until the water moved and heaved. The current of the river was now slacking, but Ra did not touch his oar.

The Fourth Gate appeared, the tunnel of reeds growing smaller and smaller as he came along. The light changed from green and gold to orange and red, the red getting stronger and brighter.

As soon as Ra’s barge crossed the Fourth Gate, the river stopped flowing. The current still moved, deep below, but above it calmed and stilled. The Nile spread out into a gigantic lake flickering with bright red flames, black oil skittering across it in patches.

He had passed the Fourth Gate and entered into the Realm of Rostau, the realm of the falcon God Sokar. As Ra himself had taken the falcon for his form, he and Sokar were close. Here he would see his allies who would join him later if needed, leaving only glimmers of their presence here to guard the Pyramid of Osiris – his tomb.

The hissing vortex of snakes shifted to under his barge and began moving it across the lake and along his path. The Sun behind the barge seemed to take in the fiery flames, turning a molten red instead of a gold. Ra rested again and watched as he passed the magnificent altar to Osiris’ murder. Size was an abstract thing in the Realm of the Dead, but if it was sat in the sands of Egypt up above, it would swallow the desert. It had gleaming white sides with golden veins running throughout it, along with a golden top. Towering pillars surrounded its base and framed the pathway that led down towards the entrance of the tomb. Upon the pedestals of these towering columns sat Nephthys and Isis.

Nephthys' Wings of Protection were spread and shimmering with blues, greens, reds and golds. She wore a red dress of overlapping design that looked like armour, better to protect others with. In one hand she held her ankh and in the other her staff which both led and blessed the dead and fought those who would disturb their journey to the afterlife.

Isis sat beside her, taller and more regal, her crowned headdress echoing that of her husband, Osiris, and dressed in the glittering golden, white and red robes of the pharaohs. She held no weapons nor symbols for she did not need them. Her power was in her quickness of mind and wit and her control of the Magics that had re-made a God and fashioned an Underworld for him.

“Greetings, Oh Great Ra,” said Isis, her voice lilting with power.

“My blessings and protections. If you need call upon us, we shall answer,” said Nephthys, bowing her head regally.

“Thank you, Great Goddesses. If I need you I shall call you when the battle of Chaos begins and I will charge you to help me defend the Sun and the Life and Light of the Nile,” Ra replied, his voice echoing across the vast lake.

The Desert of Rostau encircled the Burning Lake in all directions. It was a harsher desert than that at the first Gates, but more beautiful. Here strange spirits roamed the rolling red and orange dunes. Some would fight against Ra and some would fight for him. The old, twisted trees that littered the desert burned with the same red fire as the Sun now did, yet each yellow-brown leaf remained unlit, waving in that same wind that did not exist.

Where the lake narrowed, stood the Fifth Gate.

As he passed under it, he read the extra incantation there for what needed to await him at the Sixth Gate.

“Oh, Lord of the Dead and King of the Living, journey from your throne and give your power to the Sun so that Egypt may thrive,” his voice thundered throughout the Desert of Rostau.

A distant pulse of light on the hazy Underworld horizon answered him.

The flames licked higher now and, bound by the riverbanks, caressed the barge and Ra. Ra did not mind, for fire could not harm him. Fire was light and fire was life. It was the fire of the Sun that allowed him to fight Apophis.

If Apophis ever succeeded in devouring the Sun, of snuffing out its light, the entire cosmos would be plunged into Darkness and Chaos.

The snakes still carried his barge onwards, but the lake and the Nile were growing shallower, the current now starting to take a hold of them again.

The Sixth Gate towered before them, taller and wider than all the others. All the Gates going forward would grow in size.

At the base of the Sixth Gate, stood a figure.

He was of average height and his skin was an emerald green like that of the reeds and the snakes. He wore a fake beard and robes that glistened a pure white with a red sash across his waist like an open wound. He too wore the same crown as Isis with a red base and a white dome. Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. The Crown of the Kings.

“Hail, Osiris, Lord of the Dead,” Ra shouted as the snakes slowed the barge to stop in front of Osiris.

“Hail, Great Ra, God of the Sun. I come to renew thy Sun’s strength so we may fight Apophis and his Chaos,” he said.

His voice was soft but full of command, and his dark eyes glittered with both great wisdom and great pain.

For the first time since entering the Realm of the Dead, Ra stepped off his barge and onto the warm sands and fire. He bowed slightly. Though Ra was senior to all the Gods, for without him there would be no Order to the Chaos, Osiris was double crowned and thus held sway over all.

But still, without Ra, there would be no life at all.

Osiris bowed back and together they walked towards the Sun that pulsed faster and faster as they drew nearer.

Together they stepped into the Nile and grew taller and larger so they did not sink into the waters. They stood within touching distance of the Sun and then pressed their hands against it. Such fire and heat blasted through them that it could set the whole of Egypt alight. They pressed harder and walked through the skin of the Sun and closed their eyes as it fed on them, growing larger and brighter until it shone with a brilliant white light.

The Sun was renewed.

Osiris stepped out first, not standing quite as straight as he had before. Ra felt a great fist wrap around him of such intense heat and fury that even he almost could not bear it. But then it faded and he too stepped from the Sun. Except now, Ra glowed with that same white-hot energy that the Sun now pulsed with behind him. He strode towards his barge again, the water of the Nile hissing at his touch. The snakes too withdrew from his light and fled. He shone so brightly, as did the Sun, that the shadows forgot who they were and ceased to exist.

He left Osiris where he had seen him, his part now done. Soon, he would return to his seat of judgement.

And so, Ra passed through the Sixth Gate.

*****

Ra burned so brilliantly that while Chaos travelled beside him, it stayed far away, following him to meet their Master so they could draw strength from him.

He passed through the Seventh Gate, then the Eighth, then the Ninth. Each time he passed through a Gate, now enormous, soaring structures to allow for the humungous size the Sun had become, he spoke the words and he gathered his strength from all the Gods and Goddesses and from the Sun itself, to eventually face his foe: Apophis.

As he neared the Tenth Gate, Ra watched and listened.

“We meet again, Great Ra!” came a vast hissing, echoing voice.

“We meet again, Vile Serpent!” Ra called back.

He raised his oar, for he did not need it to push him on anymore. The Nile’s current would carry him on and through. If he fell from the barge, he would always find his way back before he passed the Twelfth Gate.

He could see a glimpse of the Tenth Gate, but it was hidden by Apophis; or his Chaos.

Apophis was not blackness but a void. All light and life was sucked into that darkness which swirled. Ra knew that as he got closer, he would hear the screams of the spirits trapped in the never-ending tumult. Apophis' minions came before him, the brilliant white light of the Sun keeping them at bay until Apophis met him in combat.

Finally Apophis fully emerged. His scales gleamed ebony and his hood, for he was a Great Serpent Cobra, was a poisonous green, his fangs dripping with the same acidic poison. His size was so vast that Ra had never seen all of him at once, for even his light could not pierce all the Darkness of Chaos that covered him.

“Fight me, Evil Serpent and be defeated! You shall not devour the Sun today. You shall not return the cosmos to Chaos and destroy all that Order has built. Not this night, nor any night!”

Ra then grew in size, towering taller even than the pyramids both above and below.

“Nephthys! Isis! Gods and Goddesses of Egypt! I call upon thee to fight Great Apophis and let me pass through the Tenth Gate and on to the World of the Living again!”

He thrust his oar into the burning Sun and it turned into a spear, flaming with white hot fire, the very fire of Creation and of Order.

All around him, the Gods and Goddesses emerged, and the swirling vortex of Apophis pulsated, more and more creatures of Chaos pouring forth.

Then the dance began, the dance that had been born into existence from the Beginning and that would wage every night until the End Times.

That would wage until one day, Ra would lose, and all would return to the blackness of Beginning.

*****

The battle as always, raged fiercely, for Ra and Apophis knew each so well now. Ra blasted him with the concentrated power of his Sunspear, and Apophis lashed at him with fang and tail. The other Gods and Goddesses fought beside him, trying to clear the way through the Tenth Gate. Swirls of it could still be seen amongst Apophis’ shadows, this Gate more chipped and worn than the others. Ra strained with the effort, muscles covered in sweat and golden ichor oozing from wounds. Acid burnt whatever it touched as it dripped from Apophis’ wounds.

Finally, finally, Apophis had had enough. With a gigantic roar of pain and endless anger, he retreated from Ra and his barge, unable to face the brightness of the Sun any longer.

“Until tomorrow night,” he hissed as he withdrew.

“Until tomorrow, foul beast,” Ra said, trying to keep his breath even.

Ra gave his thanks to the other Gods and Goddesses for their help, then let the current of the Nile carry him through the Tenth Gate, his beautiful barge slashed and broken, but the Sun still alive behind him.

*****

The last two Gates were peaceful. Here the Nile merged with the waters of the oldest of the Gods, Nun, Source of all Creation. It was from he the Sun had been formed, from he Ra himself had been born.

These waters were home.

The world ceased to have any barriers and all was just endless space on floating water. For a while, the waters glistened with a million stars, a perfect reflection of the skies above, every constellations shown lovingly wrought by Nun’s hand. Then came the waters of soft red like the desert sunlight in the afternoon; then the golden waters that rolled like the dunes above.

After he passed through the Eleventh Gate, the waters turned a clear, crystal blue, and in them Ra could watch the place where the souls who passed their Judgement rested, in peace and light. The blue softened to purple and the Field of Reeds swayed in a wind only they could feel.

Then finally, as he reached the Twelfth Gate, the waters turned black and they stopped moving, waiting for him to make the final push through the Gate.

These waters were not the black void of Apophis, but the soft, welcoming embrace of night, of a mother’s womb, of peaceful death, of the canvas from which had come the spark of life.

Home.

Sighing, Ra stepped off his barge and submerged himself in the waters, renewing himself and washing away the wounds and leaving him refreshed. He floated there for a while, waiting for night to end in the Land of the Living.

Then he peacefully boarded his barge and gently pushed onwards, the Sun finally passing through the Twelfth Gate.

In the World of the Living, the Sun broke from its nightly chains and bathed the world in the light of a new dawn.