Egyptian Beliefs
The Egyptians believed that the Ba, or soul, traveled during sleep and collected the dream. They also believed that dreams were messages from the gods. They took these dreams seriously, especially the ones that came to rulers. Thutmose IV (1400B.C.) was visited by the god Hormakhu who promised him riches if he would remove the sand covering the Sphinx. Thutmose removed the sand and recorded the dream on a stone column in front of the Sphinx, which is still in existence and can be seen today.
Bes was a joyful minor god who protected the household against bad dreams and his image was carved on the headboards of beds. Serapis was the god of dreams and there were many temples dedicated to him. Professional dream interpreters lived at these temples. A “shingle,” or advertising sign, of one of these interpreters was uncovered reading: “I interpret dreams, having the gods’ mandate to do so; good luck; the interpreter present here is Cretan.” Dream incubation was widely practiced. Through ceremony, fasting, donations and prayers, a dream could be procured.
Dream omina, or “omen-texts,” were also found in Egypt. In Mesopotamia, these texts pertained to many types of divination systems, dreams being only one of these. In Egypt, the “omen texts” pertained to dreams only. The earliest collection of dream omina was created sometime between 2050-1790 B.C. known as the Chester Beatty Papyrus III, in honor of an Englishman who donated it to the British Museum. It is incomplete at both ends, meaning that it is only a part of a larger document. This text lists 143 good and 91 bad dreams, with interpretations, the Egyptian word for “good” was written in black ink and the word for “bad” was written in red. The omina, or symbols, appear at different places in the interpretations, but no pattern is evident. Perhaps the missing part of the text would explain. The portions of this text which are available list certain ways to protect oneself against the contents of a bad dream, one of these being that the dreamer must rub his face with herbs, beer and myrrh in order to avoid the negative effects of the dream. It would also remove the contagion that the dream depicts within the dreamer.
The second and only other “omen-text” found in Egypt dates back to 200 A.D., a more recent documentation of dream omina, and it is known as the Carlsburg Papyrus. There were originally 250 omina listed, but 100 are damaged and unreadable. There are also section headings. Six of these sections are legible and one of them deals with women’s dreams and issues.