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Egyptian Ritual for Dispelling Bad Dreams
The New Kingdom Dream
Book (the Chester Beatty papyrus, inscribed in the 13th c BCE) contains a
most interesting ritual for turning away the negative energy of "bad" dreams
and the psychic forces at play in them.
Part one involves cleansing the dreamer by rubbing his face
with bread soaked and infused with beer, herbs and myrrh.
Part two requires the dreamer to tell his dream to Isis, addressed as
Mother. The act of telling the dream to the Great Mother is held to disperse
its evil, In the Gardiner translation, Isis says: “Come out with what you
have seen, in order that the afflictions you saw in your dreams may vanish.”
The ritual ends with a triumphal cry from the dreamer that he has dispelled
an evil dream sent against him and is now ready to receive pleasant dreams.
“Hail to thee, good dream that is seen by night or day!”
[Source: A.H. Gardiner,
Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. Third Series. Chester Beatty
Papyrus. London: British Museum, 1935]
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