The Way to Seshat's Library

 The gates are unbolted to you by Seshat!

These are words of a spell In the Egyptian Coffin Texts, where Seshat, the goddess of writing and patron of scribes, is featured as a gatekeeper.

As doorkeeper she may take on the function of a judge, deciding who may pass through the door she guards. In the Book of Thoth, Seshat stands with Shai, a personification of Fate. The soul traveler is instructed to say, "May the goddess open for me the road to the House of Life."

My painting was inspired by a shamanic journey to the Library of Seshat. The door was opened, quite literally, by the dream of a friend. She reported in high excitement that she had opened a book in my study - Budge's translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead - and a doorway swung open, revealing a pathway to "a library even bigger than yours".

We journeyed together through the dream door, with the aid of shamanic drumming. I noticed, monitoring the scene from a witness perspective while at the same time fully engaged in the action, that the path we were walking was the body of an immense golden cobra.