Mystical systems
Djed
Direct answer
Djed: The djed is an ancient Egyptian sign shaped like a pillar with four crossbars at the top. As a hieroglyph it means stability or endurance, and it came to stand for the backbone of Osiris.
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At a glance
- Also called
- backbone of osiris
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Ankh, Osiris, Eye of Horus, Isis
The djed is an ancient Egyptian sign shaped like a pillar with four crossbars at the top. As a hieroglyph it means stability or endurance, and it came to stand for the backbone of Osiris.
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What does the djed pillar mean?
The djed is a column that widens at the base and carries four flat bars near its top. In Egyptian writing it spells the idea of stability, of what lasts. It is among the oldest sacred signs of Egypt and is often shown with the ankh, life, and the was sceptre, dominion, as a set of blessings given by the gods to the king.
Djed was first connected with the gods Ptah and Sokar at Memphis, and then with Osiris, the god who died and was restored. In that setting it was called his backbone, and setting the pillar upright stood for his rising and for the firmness of the kingdom. What object it first pictured is not known: a tree trunk with lopped branches, a bundle of reeds and a sheaf of grain have all been suggested.
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What sets Djed apart
The djed is one of three signs the Egyptians habitually wrote together, each a single word: ankh for life, djed for stability, was for dominion. Of the three it is the one that became a rite. A real pillar was hauled upright at the end of the month of Khoiak, before the sowing, and the act was treated as the god standing up. Its amulets have their own rule in the funerary books, which call for gold and a place at the neck, though most surviving examples are of blue or green faience.
- Hieroglyphic meaning: stability, endurance; read djed
- Form: a pillar with a broad base and four horizontal bars near the top
- Gods: Ptah and Sokar at Memphis, later Osiris
- Ceremony: raising the djed, shown in the temple of Seti I at Abydos
- Amulet text: Book of the Dead, spell 155
- Usual companions: the ankh and the was sceptre
Often mistaken for something else: The ankh is the sign for life and is held by gods to the nose of the king; the djed is the sign for stability and is stood upright like a column.
The story behind Djed
Djed signs appear on objects of the first dynasties, around 3000 BCE, and in a frieze in the Step Pyramid complex of Djoser at Saqqara. The ceremony of raising the djed is carved in the temple of Seti I at Abydos, of the thirteenth century BCE, where the king hauls the pillar upright with ropes. Spell 155 of the Book of the Dead is spoken over a djed amulet of gold placed at the throat of the mummy.
Why Djed matters
Djed shows how one sign could carry a word, a god, a royal rite and a funeral amulet without any of them cancelling the others.
How to read Djed
Egyptologists read it as the word for stability; in burials it served as an amulet for the firmness of the spine in the next life.
Djed in practice: an example
On a painted coffin the djed is often drawn along the line of the spine, where the backbone of the dead would rest.
Where readings of Djed go wrong
Claims that it shows an electrical device have no support in the inscriptions that accompany it.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- djed pillar, djed meaning, djed symbol, backbone of osiris, egyptian djed
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does the djed pillar mean?
As a hieroglyph it means stability, endurance or permanence. In religion it stood for the backbone of Osiris, and so for his restoration after death and the lasting order of the kingdom.
What was the raising of the djed?
It was a ceremony in which the king, helped by priests, pulled a large djed pillar upright with ropes. It was performed at Memphis and at royal jubilees, and is shown in the temple of Seti I at Abydos.
Is the djed in the Dendera reliefs a lamp or insulator?
No. The captions in the Dendera crypt describe a religious scene: a snake rising from a lotus flower, supported by a djed pillar. Egyptologists find nothing in the texts about electricity.
