Aaru

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Reed fields redirects here. For the use of reeds to filter wastewater, see Reedbed. For the film see Aaru (film)

In Egyptian mythology, the fields of Aaru (alternatives: Yaaru, Iaru, Aalu), are the heavenly underworld where Osiris ruled.

Only souls which weighed less than Ma'at (symbolically represented as a feather) were allowed to start a long and perilous journey to Aaru to exist in pleasure for all eternity.

Aaru was usually placed in the east, where the sun rises, and is described as eternal reed fields, very much like those of the earthly Nile delta: an ideal hunting and fishing ground, and hence those deceased who after judgement were allowed to reside there were often called the [eternally] living, those excluded for the weight of their sins said to suffer a second death. More precisely Aaru was envisaged as a series of islands, covered in Fields of rushes (Sekhet Aaru), Aaru being the Egyptian word for rushes. The part where Osiris himself dwelt was sometimes known as the field of offerings, Sekhet Hetepet in Egyptian.

It might be a reference to the Sumerian lowlands from where the "foreign elite" (i.e. Petrie's Dynastic race) once came which sparked the evolution of Egyptian culture.

[edit] Sources and references

Catholic Encyclopaedia

[edit] See also

Concepts of Heaven
Judeo-Christian	Kingdom of God \| Garden of Eden · Paradise \| New Jerusalem \| Pearly gates
Islamic	Jannah \| Houri \| Sidrat al-Muntaha
Mormon	Celestial Kingdom \| Spirit world
Ancient Greek	Elysium \| Empyrean \| Hesperides
Celtic	Annwn \| Tír na nÓg \| Mag Mell
Norse	Valhalla \| Asgard
Other Indo-European cultures	Paradise \| Olam Haba \| Svarga \| Aaru \| The Summerland \| Myth of Er \| Fortunate Isles
Related concepts	Nirvana \| Millennialism \| Utopianism \| Golden Age \| Arcadia