Star of the Morning, Make for Me a Way: Magic and Mystery in the Egyptian Book of the Dead

For the ancient Egyptians, navigating the underworld and finding one’s way to paradise was tricky business.

Detail from the Book of the Dead Papyrus of Pasherashakhet, son of Taber. Unknown artist, ca. 375–275 B.C. Via the Getty Museum, Villa Collection.

Over the holidays, I had the chance to visit the Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades, California to see its special exhibit on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Part of the Getty Museums (which are free to the public), the Getty Villa specializes in Greek and Roman antiquities and possesses an incredibly unique layout; the museum’s design was directly modeled on the Villa Dei Papiri in Herculaneum, which was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. until the excavations of the 18th century.

Perched in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Villa’s Roman gardens and scenic overlooks are usually where you’ll find most visitors. But on that day, the busiest spot in the museum was the little room housing the relatively small exhibit on the Book of the Dead.

It didn’t matter that it wasn’t a massive collection, or that it lacked the …