Magic of Egypt: The Pharaohs Spirit

While on my trip to Egypt in 2019, I took my maglite planning to do some ghost hunting. I’d brought out the light a few times in Cairo, and at Saqqara but hadn’t gotten a hit yet. We’d just arrived in Luxor the day before and as soon as we’d arrived, I’d felt a difference. It was like the air was buzzing, full of energy. My stomach had been queasy and tight all day. We had just finished dinner and I’d gone onto the deck of the riverboat.

We were docked right in front of Karnak temple. Across the river was the Valley of the Kings. With a glass of wine, and my maglite set up, I’d settled in and invited anyone who wanted to talk to make themselves known.

For ghost hunting, I use a mini maglite that twists on and off. This is important, as a click on/off doesn’t work. I twist it so that it’s just barely turned off, but easy for a spirit to use energy to jump the circuit and turn the light on and off at will. I use yes and no questions and allow the spirit to use the light to answer — yes (light on) and no (light off). Read more on my method of ghost hunting in this post.

When the light first came on it wasn’t steady. It took a good ten minutes or so of practice and patience, and allowing the spirit to get control of the light. By the time my mom joined me, he was really starting to get into the groove of controlling the light. Once he did, he began answering questions quickly. The Q&A outlined below is the majority of the conversation that I was able to recall afterwards. There was a lot of playful banter in between, but there’s plenty here for you to get a very strong picture of just how detailed and knowledgable this wonderfully strong spirit was.

1. We’re sitting across the river from the Valkey of the Kings, do you have a tomb in the Valley of the Kings or Queens? - yes

2. Do you have a tomb in the valley of the queens? - no

3. Do you have a tomb in the Valley of the Kings? - yes

4. Are you a Pharaoh? - yes

   (we were getting excited now)

5. Did you come into power later in life? - yes

6. Have you ever spoken to anyone like us using a light? - no

7. Did you die of natural causes? - no

8. Were you murdered? - no

9. Did you die in war/a warriors death? - no

10. Did you commit suicide? - no

11. Do you know how you died? - yes

12. Has your Tomb been found? - yes

    (I pulled up the KV tomb list on Wikipedia...)

13. Are you of the line of Ramses? - no

14. Is your name merenptah? - no

15. Amenmesse? - no

16. Amenherkhepshef? - no

17. I’m probably butchering these names ... - yes!

    (we all laughed)

18. Mentuherkhepshe? - no

19. Twoseret? - no

20. Setnakte? - yes

21. Are you the first pharaoh of your line? - yes

    (This matches historian accounts)

22. Did you share or repurpose some else’s tomb? - no

    (According to Wikipedia, KV14 was actually created for another pharaoh before Setnakte was buried there)

23. Is your tomb in the far west of the main valley? - yes

    (This answer correctly corresponded to the location of Setnakte’s tomb)

24. Were you pharaoh for 3 years? - no

    (According to Wikipedia, Setnakte was only pharaoh for 3 years)

25. 5 years? - no

26. 10 - 20 years? - no

27. 20-30 years? - yes

28. 25-30 years? - no

29. 20-25 years? - yes

30. Boy, historians have a 3 year long reign wrong - yes!

31. Was your Royal consort Tiy-Merenese - yes

    (this matches Wikipedia/historians)

32. Have you visited lower Egypt? - yes

33. Did you Live in waset? - yes

    (Waset was the ancient name for Thebes/Luxor)

34. Did you visit the great pyramids of lower Egypt? - no

35. Do you know who built the pyramid - no

36. Do you know about the first time, Zep tepi? - no

37. Do you like wine - yes

    (We were enjoying a number of glasses of delicious Egyptian wine and were chattering about how good it was and how sorry he wasn’t able to share in the libations. At one point I also remarked that the boat we were on probably seemed like quite a ship, and probably he thought we were royalty for being on a boat of such grandure. He agreed with me on both points apparently because the light turned on.)

38. I bet it’s been a long time since anyone brought you offerings - yes

39. Do you live in peace? - yes

40. Did you love your consort? - yes

41. Did you have more than one queen? - yes

42. Did you have an heir? - no

43. Did you have any children? - no

    (According to Wikipedia/historians, Setnakte had two children with Tiy-Merenese)

44. Boy, historians have a lot wrong - bright yes!

By this time, Setnakte was getting tired. Answers were taking longer. I asked him if it was getting harder for him to answer and he said yes. I thanked him for sharing his story and a drink with us and told him we would try to visit his tomb tomorrow on our trip to the Valley of the Kings. The really crazy finale of the evening was when we went down into our room and got ready for bed, my mom jokingly said as she was crossing the room to bed, “Hey pharaoh, how bout you turn out the lights for us.” And would you believe it, he did!

I will never forget the night my mom and I met a pharaoh and how special it was that he chose to come and talk to us.

I hope to one day return to Luxor and talk with him again. Seknakte is not a well known or documented pharaoh, and apparently historians don’t have his story down correctly. It really reminds me of just how marvelous and precious each spirit I meet is, as they tell me of a life that has become buried in time and perhaps I am the only one to know and carry it forward.