Ascending to the Sky. Information concerning the Egyptian ideas of the hereafter comes from the texts buried with the dead and the illustrations found on tomb walls. As with so much in Egyptian religion, there was no single destination but a multiplicity of destinations, all of which an Egyptian wished to reach after death. The earliest postmortal destination was celestial, and in the Pyramid Texts it was a goal of the deceased king to ascend to the sky to live as a star among the circumpolar stars that never set. In Spells 1455 and 1456 the king states, "I am a star which illuminates the sky; I mount up to the god that I may be protected, for the sky will not be devoid of me and this earth will not be devoid of me for ever. I live beside you, you gods of the...