TL;DR
- rḫ /reḫ/ is the core Egyptian verb “to know, to be acquainted with, to recognize”; its noun rḫ means “knower, sage.”
- Ritual texts consistently front-load the word in titles such as “Spell for knowing the Souls of Pe” or “Book of Knowing the Creations of Ra.”
- Temple archivists—scribes of the House of Life—held the title precisely because they curated this privileged rḫ-knowledge.
- Lector priests (ẖrj-ḥꜣb) were public performers of that knowledge; late Egyptian even shortens their title to mean simply “magician.”
- The feminine rekhet (“she who knows”) appears in magical papyri as a wise-woman healer, showing that rḫ underpins both official liturgy and popular magic.
1 • The Word Itself#
| Egyptian | Transliteration | Core senses | Determinatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| 𓂋𓄡 | rḫ (/reḫ/) | know, learn, recognise | roll of papyrus 📜 (“text/knowledge”) |
Grammatically it functions as a stative (“I know”), a causative (“I inform”), and spawns nouns:
- rḫ – “sage, scholar”
- rḫ-w – collective “learned ones”
- rekhet – lit. “knowing-female,” a wise-woman/witch
- Rekhy(t) 𓅛 – lapwing icon of “the people who know (the king)"—later a protective deity.
2 • Liturgical Front Matter: r n rḫ X#
From the Middle Kingdom onward, funerary and temple liturgies label whole chapters with the formula r n rḫ ⟨topic⟩ “Spell for knowing ⟨topic⟩.”
Examples:
| Corpus | Spell‑heading (transl.) | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Coffin Texts 157 | “Spell for knowing the Powers of Pe” | Equips dead with god-names of Pe |
| CT 759 | “Spell for knowing the Paths of Re” | Astral map for the soul |
| Book of the Dead 64 | “Spell for knowing the Spells for Going-Forth-by-Day in a Single Spell” (the meta-spell!) ﹣ the scribe’s own index | |
| P. Bremner–Rhind | “Book of Knowing the Creations of Ra and of Felling Apophis” | Temple rite to renew the cosmos |
Why the heading matters: in Egyptian magic one acts by naming; to know a god, gate-keeper, or secret name is to dominate it.
3 • Institutional Custodians of rḫ
3.1 Per‑Ankh (House of Life)#
Temple compounds housed a pr‑ʿnḫ that doubled as library and scriptorium. Titles like “scribe of the House of Life” or “god’s father of Ra‑Atum in the House of Life” denote literati who copied ritual papyri and medical treatises.
3.2 Lector Priests#
The ẖrj‑ḥꜣb ḥrj‑tp—chief lector—literally “carrier of the ritual book.” Public rites, private exorcisms, and royal inaugurations all demanded his authoritative recitation. Later Demotic shortens the title to ḥrj‑tp = ‘magician’, underscoring the identity between knowing texts and working power.
3.3 Wise Women (rekhet)#
Magical handbooks (e.g., P. Leiden I 348) mention a rḫ‑t who “knows the rite” for childbirth or dream‑diagnosis—an echo of rḫ applied outside temple walls.
4 • Ritual Scenarios#
- Naming the Gatekeepers – Books of Gates & Caverns require the dead to proclaim “I know your name, O Guardian!” at each portal; the verb rḫ punctuates every challenge.
- Solar Theurgies – Priests in the Bremner–Rhind cycle rehearse “knowledge of Ra’s limbs” to slay Apophis nightly.
- Medical Magic – Ebers Papyrus chapters marked “secret knowledge of the physicians” (sštꜣ n swnw rḫ) fuse empirical remedy and sacred gnosis.
5 • Theology of Knowing#
Thoth, patron of scribes, bears epithets like “Great One who knows himself” and rḫ‑ỉḫy “scholar‑magician.” In late temple hymns he is called “Heart of Re by whose knowledge the gods live.”
For Egyptians, rḫ is never passive data; it is performative power (heka) that sustains maat. Hence any rite that “works” must first be framed as rḫ.
FAQ#
Q 1. Is rḫ the same as the word for “spell” (rꜣ)? A. No. rꜣ means “utterance” (literally “mouth”) while rḫ is “knowledge.” Many headings list both: “r n rḫ X, rꜣ n Y”—“Spell for knowing X, utterance for Y.”
Q 2. Did ordinary Egyptians access rḫ-texts? A. Rarely; copying costs kept full papyri elite. But short “knowing-names” charms on amulets let non-scribes harness the same principle.
Q 3. Is the lapwing deity Rekhyt related to rḫ? A. Yes; its name puns on “those who know (the king).” Iconographically the bird kneels praising the ruler, embodying loyal knowledge.
Sources#
- Wiktionary, s.v. rḫ.
- Ancient Egyptian Magic and Witchcraft in the West, Cambridge Histories Online.
- UCL Digital Egypt. “The House of Life.”
- Wikipedia. “Lector Priest.”
- Oxford Handbook of the Egyptian Book of the Dead § BD 64.
- P. Bremner–Rhind, Book of Knowing the Creations of Ra (26,21 ff.).
- Brill, Letters to the Dead 4: Literacy in the Afterlife.
- Butler, Opening the Way of Writing: The Book of Thoth.
- EgyptToursPortal, “Magic in Ancient Egypt.”