Rȝ — the mouth

Instrument of utterance — primary organ of heka

Rȝ — the mouth. The primary instrument of heka, since heka operates through spoken (or chanted) authoritative speech. The 'Opening of the Mouth' ritual (Coffin Texts spells and Book of the Dead spell 23) is the foundational mortuary ceremony for restoring the dead's capacity to speak heka in the next world. To know the spells but lack the use of the mouth (as the unanointed dead) is to be magically powerless; the mouth is therefore both target and instrument of ritual.

Rȝ — the mouthRȝ — the mouthḎrty — the handsJb — the heart as source of intentRn — the true nameȜḫw — radiant power

Point 1 of 5 in Egyptian Heka — Words of Power

Cross-tradition overlaps

No overlapping points are registered for this point.

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Sources

Book of the Dead, spell 23 (Opening the Mouth of N) (primary_canonical)

Faulkner's Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, Spell 23, 'The spell for opening the mouth of N,' is the mortuary mouth-opening rite: it restores the deceased's mouth, speech, and capacity to receive and utter ritual words.

Ritner, Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (secondary)

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