Of the Two Ways of Opening the Mouth (FW65, No. 9 - I.5, beginning-124)

Two Ancient Egyptian things caught my eye in the outrageous list of names (none of them official, since the document never had its own title) given to ALP's letter: 

Of the Two Ways of Opening the Mouth. This is a patchwork title referring to the ritual of Opening the Mouth as well as the Book of the Two Ways. The Opening of the Mouth was performed both on statues as well as mummies, two artificial objects created (or augmented) by human hands meant to depict the unique image of the individual (what the Egyptians called the ka), and activated as such in the ritual. The Book of Two Ways is a title given to descriptions of the underworld which was meant as an aid to navigation for the deceased. JJ would have had a general knowledge of these two things, having read Budge's publications on the Book of the Dead. As a title for the letter, I wonder what the "Wakean logic" of the "two ways of opening the mouth," the conjoining of these two discrete Egyptian things, is? The letter is meant to vindicate HCE, which matches well the purpose of the Egyptian underworld guides and rituals, which were represented in different ways in the Book of the Dead, whose overarching goal was enabling the deceased to enjoy an afterlife worshipping Osiris as well as the sun god Re, which required knowledge of how to pass through a series of hostile gates as well as portals to increasingly sacred areas (see more on this below). Is HCE's trial to be equated to the famous "weighing of the heart" in the afterlife, depicted on most Book of the Dead scrolls, where the heart of the deceased is weighted against the feather standing for truth (ma'at), in order to determine if the person is worthy of entering the ultra-pure realm of the afterlife? The alternative was the annihilation of a second death. Is HCE facing, not prison, but a dark eternity of nothingness without hope of rebirth, and will ALP's letter vindicate him before the judge of the afterlife and allow him to "go forth by day" (the original title of the Book of the Dead)?  

I also read "two ways of opening the mouth" as a precis of FW's primary mode of communication (which, put not so nicely, could be called the pun). It can also refer to duplicity, doublespeak or speaking out of both sides of one's mouth, suggesting perhaps that the accusation made against HCE (or the defence!) could be taken simultaneously to mean the opposite.  

A depiction of the Opening of the Mouth ritual performed by a priest (R) holding an adze over the deceased scribe Ani, meant to impart the living divine breath. From the Papyrus of Ani (British Museum), digitized at the Internet Archive. Warning: Budge's publications are vastly out of date, so caution should be used, and this volume should really just be consulted for its beautiful reproductions of the scroll.

 
I have not Stopped Water Where It Should Flow and I Know the Twentynine Names of Attraente. The "surface" meaning (in Wakean terms) of the first part of this title is the allusion to HCE's impropriety concerning two girls urinating in Phoenix Park. By claiming to not have "stopped water where it should flow," the letter of ALP could be a transcript intended for HCE to declaim his innocence, stating that he did nothing to interfere with the girls' micturition. This idea of a court defense transcript has interesting resonance with the deeper meaning here, which has to do with the magical use of the Book of the Dead.

Both parts of this title are derived from sayings from spell 125 of the Book of the Dead (specifically what is referred to as the "negative confession"), which provides a list of ritual utterances for the deceased to proclaim whereby they can assert their purity of heart. The underworld was considered to be a sacred realm, much like the inner sanctum of a temple, and there are parallels in Egyptian texts between the negative confession and priestly initiation rituals.

Preventing water from flowing where it should is a particular concern of a society organized around the careful management of a floodplain. For the sake of accurate assessment of tax, income, and produce, the size of the fertile stretches of fields had to be measured each year after the flood waters of the Nile receded. Impeding the outflow of water, as well as the network of irrigation, would deprive farmers of their produce, as well as the temples and the state of their income. It was important, then, for someone wishing to attain to the pure realm of the afterlife to have never engaged in such manipulation, or disruption of the natural symbiosis of human flourishing and the annual Nile flood.

The weighing of the heart scene from the Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani; see previous caption).

Knowing the "twentynine names of Attraente" refers to another side of the Book of the Dead mentioned above: the need for knowledge about the realm of the afterlife, an important part of which was a series of gates protected by demons whose names must be known (in an "open sesasme" fashion) in order to advance into the afterlife's inner sanctum. There is also mention in these texts of the names of the deities presiding over the trail where the heart is weighed. "Attraente" is Italian for "charming, attractive, enticing." This seems to replace the Egyptian title of the "Hall of Two Truths," the trial venue for the aforementioned weighing (in the Egyptian mind, two was the number of completion: there are two banks of the Nile, two parts of Egypt [Upper and Lower], etc.). While the number 42 would have been associated with this hall in the Book of the Dead, here the number 28 is the typical Wakean number for Issy's accompaniment of girls.

Who is the "I" in this title? If HCE, the title implies that ALP's letter functions like a Book of the Dead: a compilation of magical spells to be recited by the deceased or on his behalf, permeated by his "I," allowing him to attain eternal life. ALP is providing HCE with instructions how, in his own name, to declare his innocence.