Corvidius Wrote:
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> An observation on censing and ascending.
>
> The purpose of censing is not to create smoke per
> se, but a fragrance, and in fact the PT do talk
> about scent.

It simply doesn't matter what the purpose of censing was since they told us what happened when the incense burned;

376a. To say: The fire is laid, the fire shines;
376b. the incense is laid on the fire, the incense shines.
376c. Thy fragrance comes to N., O Incense; the fragrance of N. comes to thee, O Incense.
377a. Your fragrance comes to N., O ye gods; the fragrance of N. comes to you, O ye gods.

The fire shines because it gives off light. When they put the incense on the fire it too ignites and then shines. The incense releases its fragrance as it burns so that it goes to the dead king and then the dead king's fragrance goes up to the gods. This is really quite straight forward and requires no "interpretation". The king's body is so important that they can't risk its degradation so it is cremated and the king becomes the pyramid. The pyramid is his new body which is why they said the "dead king is the pyramid".

450a. He will rebuild N.; he will cause N. to live every day.

It is only by rebuilding the dead king that he lives every day. At night he is a star and this is why they also said "the dead king is a star".

> The fact that hot smoke from burning
> incence rises, and that the PT are describing the
> ascension of the king on this smoke, should not be
> seen as the king actually rising as this smoke,
> but instead what we are reading could, IMO, be an
> allusion to Nefertum, the god of fragrances, who
> was with Ra when he ascended on a lotus from the
> waters of Nun at his creation.

This is all interpretation and it is interpretation based on the "book of the dead".

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Man fears the pyramid, time fears man.