The Litany of Ra (Tarok Naipe)

The Litany of Ra is one of the most important spiritual texts of ancient Egypt. Some of Egypt's greatest pharaohs such as Thutmose III, Sety I, and Rameses II had illustrated editions of this text included in the decoration of their tombs. Budge's English version is known fairly widely, and Hornung has produced a German edition that includes transcriptions of all the texts. Douglass White presents a new translation of the Litany with its full set of illustrations [recently updated with a new revised edition 06/2010]. He has also produced a monograph as an introduction (Part I), a translation and commentary for the litany with card images based on the ancient drawings (Part II), a translation of the poetic Handbook that explains how to use the Litany (Part III), and a computer-generated hieroglyphic transcription of the entire text [Litany and Handbook](Part IV). Each portion of the text has copious notes that take the reader deep into how the material was used by the Egyptians as well as its relevance to our lives. Dr. White also finds evidence that the Litany of Ra played a role in the evolution of the Tarot (Tarok) cards.