Anubis

Anubis (Egyptian Anpu, Inpu) is the jackal-headed god who stands at every threshold between life and death. He is the divine embalmer who prepared Osiris’s body for resurrection; the guide who leads souls through the Duat; the steady hand at the scales of judgment. No Egyptian died without invoking Anubis’s name — his titles appear in every funerary text in the corpus, from the oldest Pyramid Texts to the latest papyri.

The divine embalmer

The myth preserved in Legends of the Gods identifies Anubis as the one who, aided by Isis and Nephthys, gathered the dismembered pieces of Osiris and performed the first mummification. This act established the entire Egyptian funerary tradition: mummification was understood not as preservation of a corpse but as a ritual re-enactment of Osiris’s restoration, with the deceased playing the role of Osiris and the embalmer playing the role of Anubis. The chief embalmer at actual mummification workshops wore the jackal mask of Anubis for precisely this theological reason.

The Weighing of the Heart

Book of the Dead Chapter 125 — perhaps the most famous image in Egyptian art — shows Anubis steadying the scales in the Hall of Two Truths. He is not the judge (that role belongs to Osiris, with Thoth recording) but the measurer: his black jackal hands rest on the pillar of the balance, ensuring the scales are true. The juxtaposition of his black coloring against the golden scales encodes theological meaning: black (kem) signifies the fertile Nile silt and resurrection, not death or evil. Anubis’s black form is a symbol of regenerative power.

He Who Is on His Mountain

One of Anubis’s oldest titles is Imy-ut — “He Who Is in the Place of Embalming” — and Khenty-Amentiu — “Foremost of the Westerners.” The west was the direction of the setting sun, of death, and of the entrance to the Duat. Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life by Budge explains how Anubis’s role as guardian of the necropolis was established from the earliest dynastic period: the jackals who were observed at the edges of desert burial grounds were understood as manifestations of Anubis watching over the dead.

Anubis in practice

In Kemetic reconstructionism, Anubis is approached in contexts of death, grief, healing of grief, ancestor work, and any situation involving threshold or transition. He is not a fearsome deity but a compassionate one — the steady hand that guides, not the overwhelming force that overwhelms. The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings provides traditional formulae for addressing him when making offerings for the dead. His altar welcomes black candles, pure water, incense, and offerings of bread and beer — the same offerings given to the Akhu (blessed ancestors) in his care.