EGYPTOLOGY

ASTRO-THEOLOGY
& Sidereal Mythology


 

 APPENDIX FIVE

Egypt

Comyns Beaumont on Egyptologists


Considerable license has been permitted to Egyptologists because they concern themselves with a form of scientific research committed to a small body of archaeologists, who seemingly agree tacitly among themselves to put forward claims of which a great many are purely hypothetical or based on false premises to an earnest student of these antiquities. The innocent Victorians swallowed with blind faith the surprising ease whereby from Champollion onward Egyptologists have professed to translate from hieroglyphics monuments and papyri with almost as much certainly as a modern linguist can translate one living tongue into another. Behind it all, lay, and still does, the object of throwing a clearer light on the accuracy of Bible history generally, and to the archaeologists for the most part to write anything which confirms Moses and Bible history generally induces pious folks to subscribe large sums for excavation purposes to those who claim to be able to reassure them from any agnostic doubts. In some cases these archaeological claims are absolutely dishonest; in others, excavators and so forth are led astray by their own enthusiasm…For these reasons any Egyptologists clam to interpret the past should be looked upon with the utmost reserve.

Religious Intolerance


There is not a single recorded case of Egyptian followers of the god Thoth sacking the temples of those who worshipped Ptah – Leonard Shlain

There were no classes or castes in Egypt - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Imperialist Suppression


In 356 C.E. Constantinus II ordered the Egyptian temples of Isis-Osiris closed and forbade the use of Egyptian hieroglyphics as a religious language. In 380 C.E. Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity to be the official Roman state religion, and all pagan cults were thereafter forbidden. These edicts were devastating to Egyptian culture and religion, both of which had been preserved over millennia through the Egyptian language and the writing systems of Egyptian priests. In 391 C.E. the Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus, summoned the monks to arms and turned them against the city of Memphis and the great shrine of Serapis, the Serapeum, the main temple of the Osirian-Isis religion. The attack was akin to ordering the destruction of the Vatican. Egyptian priests were massacred in their shrines and in the streets. The ferocity of the violence consumed priests, followers, and the Egyptian intellectual elite of Alexandria, Memphis, and other cities of Egypt who were murdered and their temples and libraries destroyed. The institutional structure of Egyptian religion, then more than four millennia old, was demolished in less than two decades - R. A. Gabriel (Jesus the Egyptian)



...The wave of religious terrorism that swept Egypt for twenty years seemed to some Egyptians to herald the end of the world. "If we are alive," one wrote, "then life itself is dead" - ibid

Old and New


The way of the Egyptian was to accept innovations and to incorporate them into his thought without discarding the old and outmoded. This means that it is impossible to find in ancient Egypt a system in our sense, orderly and consistent. Old and new lie blandly together like some surrealist picture of youth and age on a single face – (Before Philosophy)

Magic and Ritual


Pharaonic Egypt in its entirety, from beginning to end as well as it all its works, is a ritual gesture – R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (Egyptian Miracle)

The Trinity



Each neter…is a trinity, comprising a masculine and feminine aspect, and their product, such as Amon-Mut-Khonus – R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz


Age of Egypt


Today, historians ascribe the foundation of Egyptian civilization to approximately 3100 BC – Lorraine Evans

The Labyrinth


...the famous labyrinth of Egypt represented the twelve houses of the Sun, to which it was consecrated by twelve palaces, which communicated with each other, and which formed the mass of the temple of that luminary, which engenders the year and the seasons in circulating in the twelve signs of the zodiac - Dupuis (The Origin of all Religious Worship)

The Sphinx (Akar)


When amongst the Egyptians there is any King chosen out of the Military Order, he is forthwith brought to the Priests, and by them instructed in that Arcana Theology, which conceals the Mysterious Truths under obscure Fables and Allegories. Wherefore they place Sphinxes before their Temples, to signify that their Theology contained a certain Arcane and Enigmatical Wisdom in it – Plutarch (Greek Historian)


The secrets of enlightenment are to be found symbolized in the Great Sphinx at Giza, Egypt – Peter Dawkins



The date of 8700 BC for the Sphinx closely matches the time given by Plato for the establishment of Egypt by “the Goddess”. In his Timaeus, it is related that the wise Solon visited Egypt and talked with the priests, who told him, “The age of our institutions is given in our sacred records as eight thousand years....” Athens, they said, was a thousand years older than that. The date of this conversation, which is best known as being the earliest known discussion of Atlantis, was about 593 B.C., which puts the establishment of Egypt around 8600 B.C. The confirmation of this date provided by the Sphinx, which obviously celebrated the “foundation” of Egypt as it commemorated the earlier “foundation” of the Earth, erases all doubt about the truth of Plato’s account - Huffman (End of the Mysteries)

The True King David


In an Eighteenth Dynasty hymn, Tuthmosis III (c. 1490-1436 BCE) is identified as the son of God. He is "begotten by Amon-Re." In a first-person address to this famous king, the supreme god ascribes him with many of the characteristics that later appear in Psalm 2 and in the Psalter's presentation of David - Professor Thomas L. Thompson (The Messiah Myth)

Heliopolis


The oldest seat of the cult of the Sun-god was the famous city of Anu, the On of the Bible, and the Heliopolis of Greek and Latin writers - E. A. Wallis Budge

St. Michael and Anubis


Archaeological explorations have indicated him as identical with Anubis, whose effigy was lately discovered upon an Egyptian monument, with a cuirvass and holding a spear, like St. Michael and St. George. He is also represented as slaying a dragon, that has the head and tail of a serpent – Madame Blavatsky (Isis Unveiled)

Anubis


Anup was the type-figure of our inner divinity that senses the straight road through the dark night of human life, when the god is in the Goetterdaemmerung on earth - Gerald Massey

Imperishable Stars…I have found you knit together, your face is that of a jackal, your hinder-parts are the Celestial Serpent – (Egyptian Pyramid Text)

Horus the Balancer


I am the god who keepeth opposition in equipoise – (The Ritual of Ancient Egypt)

Horus and the Cross


Horus was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented like...Jesus Christ, with outstretched arms in the vault of heaven - T. W. Doane (Bible Myths and their Parellels in Other Religions)



Osiris and Horus were crucified as 'saviors' and 'redeemers;' the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Osiris forming the great mystery of the Egyptian religion. Prometheus, of Greece, was with chains nailed to the rocks of Mount Caucasus, 'with arms extended,' as a savior; and the tragedy of the crucifixion was acted in Athens 500 years before the Christian era - William W. Hardwicke (The Evolution of Man)



...in the version by Church father Hippolytus...the Aeon Horus is called by his "primary title," Stauros, meaning "cross." Hence, in ancient times - during the second century, precisely when Christianity was finding its footing - there existed in Egypt the concept of Horus as the Cross personified - D. M. Murdock (Christ in Egypt)

Anubis, Thoth, and the Cross


Anubis is also the messenger of the gods, equivalent to the Greek god Hermes or Mercury, the counterpart of Egyptian lunar god Thoth...Moreover, like Those, whose emblem is the Tau or T, Anubis is "never without a cross," specifically the life-giving ankh, one of the holiest symbols in Egyptian religion..."The cross with a handle which Tot holds in his hand was none other than the monogram of his name" - D. M. Murdock (Christ in Egypt)

Motto of the Magi


Ntef anuk anuk ntef – "He is I and I am He"

The All Seeing Eye


I am the all-seeing eye of Horus, whose appearance strikes terror - (Egyptian Text)

Serpent Wands


And it is admitted that Pharaoh had wise men, sorcerers, “magicians of Egypt,” who had rods which became serpents as types of transformation. These rods are to be seen in the hands of the wise men portrayed in the Ritual, but not for any such fool’s play as is described in the book of Exodus - Comyns Beaumont

Astrology and the Pyramid


On the Eastern or Great Pyramid, built by the ancients, the celestial spheres were inscribed, likewise the positions of the stars and their circles, together with the history and chronicles of past times, of that which is to come, and of every future event. Also one may find there the fixed stars and what comes about in their progression from one epoch to another - Masoudi (Tenth Century Arabian author and historian)
Mer
This was a common word in Egyptian meaning Pyramid.



Book of the Dead

Purportedly predates the period of King Menes, the first historical monarch. It is dated to roughly 5867 BC or 8,000 years ago.


Khonsu


...was depicted as a handsome youth, and he symbolized, in the Theban group of gods, certain specialized influences of the moon. He was the love god, the Egyptian Cupid...he was also an explorer (the root khens signifies "to traverse") and the messenger and hunter of the gods – Mackenzie (Egyptian Myth and Legend)

Osiris


The story of Osiris is nowhere found in a connected form in Egyptian literature, but everywhere, and in texts of all periods, the life, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Osiris are accepted as facts universally admitted - E. A. Wallis Budge (The Book of the Opening of the Mouth)



The Egyptians of every period in which they are known to us believed that Osiris was of divine origin, that he suffered death and mutilation at the hands of the powers of evil, that after a great struggle with these powers he rose again, that he became henceforth the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, and that because he had conquered death the righteous also might conquer death...In Osiris the Christian Egyptians found the prototype of Christ, and in the pictures and statues of Isis suckling her son Horus, they perceived the prototypes of the Virgin Mary and her child - E. A. Wallis Budge (Egyptian Religion)



It must not be forgotten that at this period the Osirian religion was extremely popular. The king and his subjects became Osiris after their death. Osiris was the Dead God and the God of the Dead. During his life on earth the sovereign had been the tangible and glorious representative of Horus, or of Ra the sun god. But after passing into the kingdom of the shadows, he assumed the form of the divine mummy, Osiris, before being born again resplendent with youth. Therefore, to represent truly the two aspects of the gods (Ra and Osiris, the living and the dead, the future and the past, the day and the night, in one word--eternity), the kings had to go through these two essential stages, youth and old age, which assured them of a long solar existence and brought them close to the brief Osirian night--death. This doctrine is inherent in the phrase from The Book of the Dead, "as to Osiris, it is yesterday; as to Ra, it is tomorrow." The sculptured faces of the sovereigns were, therefore, intentionally aged, even, as one sometimes finds them, in buildings erected during their youth. This would assure them, by "sympathetic magic", a reign that would enable them to complete the necessary full cycle of life, to assure them of the Osirian "passage" and thus affirm at one stroke their divine being and eternal life. A bas-relief in the Louvre bearing the name of Sesostris III shows two effigies of the same king, the one as a young man, the other, not retouched after the event, as a typical old man. Here again it was necessary to imagine the features of the sovereign in advance by exaggerating them; the image is more one of old age than an image of the sovereign when he was old - F. L. Kenett and Christiane Desroches Noblecour (Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom and the Amarna Period)

Osiris (and Easter)
The ceremony of Osiris was a four day event which took place on the week after the full moon, during the vernal equinox season.


Easter meaning and Easter ecstasy will forever elude us if we can not understand it as the drama, not of one man's history long passed and historically demonstrated as powerless to give us the immortality it has been presumed to promise, but of our own life history, the scenario of our transfiguration yet to come - Alvin Boyd Kuhn (Easter: Birthday of the Gods)

Osiris as Son and Husband


…as Bunsen shows, Osiris was represented in Egypt as at once the son and husband of his mother; and actually bore, as one of his titles of dignity and honour, the name "Husband of the Mother." * This still further casts light on the fact already noticed, that the Indian God Iswara is represented as a babe at the breast of his own wife Isi, or Parvati – Alexander Hislop (The Two Babylons)

The Scorpion


The scorpion was also the symbol of wisdom, for the fire which it controlled was capable of illuminating as well as consuming. Initiation into the Greater Mysteries among the pagans was said to take place only in the sign of the scorpion. In the papyrus of Ani (The Book of the Dead), the deceased likens his soul to a scorpion, saying: "I am a swallow, I am that scorpion, the daughter of Ra!" Elizabeth Goldsmith, in her treatise on Sex Symbolism, states that the scorpions were a "symbol of Selk, the Egyptian goddess of writing, and also [were] revered by the Babylonians and Assyrians as guardians of the gateway of the sun. Seven scorpions were said to have accompanied Isis when she searched for the remains of Osiris scattered by Set" (Typhon) - Manly Palmer Hall

Isis


Long before St. Paul spread the good news to the Christians, the priests and lay followers of Isis had spread their gospel to the people of the Mediterranean basin - R. A. Gabriel (Jesus the Egyptian)



Isis came to be regarded as the most powerful of all the gods. By Roman times she had become the Egyptian deity par excellence and was known across three continents, even reaching northern Britain. In fact she was at one point neck-and-neck with Jesus Christ, who only just beat her in the race to become Rome’s ‘official’ deity, and her temple at Philae in Egypt remained a bastion of the ancient religion until AD 550 - Dr. Joann Fletcher (The Search for Nefertiti)

Neith


Neith, a goddess closely associated with warfare who came to be symbolized by a shield and crossed arrows. A very androgynous figure, Neith was referred to as ‘the male who acts female, the female who acts male,’ although she also shared many of the characteristics of Egypt’s mother goddesses, being both nurturing and destructive - Dr. Joann Fletcher (The Search for Nefertiti)


Although Neith is certainly the most appealing of the great creators, ancient Egypt’s multi-faceted religion had at least three more creation myths. IN the most graphic version, the sun god Atum masturbated to produce two children, Shu and Tefnut, although in some versions he simply sneezed out his appropriately named son – ‘Shuu!’ The sun god’s two children were also perfect models for the king and queen, and Akhenaton and Nefertiti were shown as this god and goddess due in their ‘grotesque’ statues of Karnak. And, as daughter of the sun, Tefnut was often merged with Sekhmet, whose destructive powers she shared - Dr. Joann Fletcher (The Search for Nefertiti)

Female Pharaohs


Neithikret – Sixth Dynasty

Sobeknofru – Twelfth Dynasty

Hatshepsut – Eighteenth Dynasty

Nefertiti - Eighteenth Dynasty

Tawosret – Nineteenth Dynasty

Cleopatra – Ptolemaic Dynasty

Equality for Women


Surviving records also show that men and women seem to have received the same pay rations for doing the same work…Some royal women are known to have controlled the treasury as well as owning their own palaces estates and workshops, and women, as independent citizens, could own property, buy and sell it, make wills and choose which of their children would inherit from them - Dr. Joann Fletcher (The Search for Nefertiti)

The Supreme Goddess


The Egyptian name of Isis (s. t), meaning "seat" or "throne", is highly significant: she actually made the king, being both throne and mother to him, as shown in the relief depicting King Seti I sitting in the lap of Isis seated on the royal throne, and also in the reliefs portraying Horus or the pharaoh being suckled by Isis...Similar features are found in the chief mother-goddess of the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon, Sumerian Inanna, Akkadian Ishtar. Connected with the fertility of the earth, patroness of love and war, playing a role in chthonic mythology by her descent into the underworld, and enamoured of Tammuz the vegetation deity, she was invoked by her votaries as the merciful mother...Gudea and Entemena may be cited as additional examples of Mesopotamian kings who claimed to have been suckled by the mother-goddess...Thus the plea of King Gudea of Lagash to the goddess Gatumdag, "I have no mother, you are my mother; I have no father, you are my father", is an impassioned assertion of utter dependence - B. E. Colless (Divine Education)

Incest


…royal incest between full siblings really only became policy with the later Ptolemaic pharaohs, who were in fact European – Dr. Joann Fletcher (The Search for Nefertiti)

No Marriage Ceremonies Recorded


…there is no evidence for any kind of legal or religious marriage ceremony in ancient Egypt. If a couple fell in love and wanted to be together, the families would hold a big party, presents would be exchanged and the couple set up home- Dr. Joann Fletcher (The Search for Nefertiti)

Pharaoh Meretseger

Her title was “She who loves silence”

Sekh Shat
Name of the common language of Egypt.

Language of Egypt


Academic Egyptologists claim that they have deciphered and understand the ancient Egyptian language. But do they? Deciphering the ancient Egyptian language began with Champollion (ca. 1822), but practically ended then…One can easily see the struggle of academia, to understand the ancient Egyptian language, which reached a dead end, as is reflected in an apparent “deciphering” of no more than 1500 words that have contradictory and confusing meanings…Even if we accept academically deciphered ancient Egyptian terms and names, which is equivalent to about 1500 English-language words and terms, this number is less than 1% of the vocabulary listed in an average English language dictionary. With such a small fraction, the evidence is clear that their whole effort was a sham - Moustafa Gadalla (Exiled Egyptians)

The Alphabet and Language


Egyptology is just guessing in many respects, for we do not know the phonetic value of any of the vowels in these names. The vowels of each word are not given in any of the hieroglyphs; as in many ancient languages, they were simply not written down and had to be remembered, but the spoken language of the Egyptians died out about a millennium ago. In the absence of any firm data on how these names are to be pronounced and in a somewhat cavalier fashion. Egyptology simply states that where a vowel sound is unknown, and “e” should be inserted into the word. Take a look at the Egyptian names; there are an awful lot of e’s around. This convention has also hit long-established pharaonic names, so that Akhenaton has become Akhenaten in many texts…We are not entirely certain of the phonetic value of each of the consonants in these Egyptian names either. The Greeks came to Egypt in the centuries before the Christian era, when the Egyptians were still speaking their original language. Yet the Greeks sometimes tended to give very different sounds to Egyptian names. They often differ considerably from what has been teased out of the texts by modern comparisons with the Coptic language – Ralph Ellis


Egyptian is first attested in written form around 3300 BC, and survived as a spoken language until the fifteenth century – Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

Hieroglyphs


Nothing stood in the way of inventing a system of writing akin to the Babylonian, the Hindu, or the Hebrew. In the light of the refinement brought to their thinking by the ancient Egyptians, such as we see it in their works and such as it is epitomized and proved in our study of the temple of Luxor, only one conclusion can be drawn. It is of their own free will that they fostered this mode of writing, whatever its consequences - R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (Egyptian Miracle)

Egypt and Christianity


Egypt was one of the first countries in the world to become Christianized…When, on the orders of Constantine the Great, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, Alexandria was already one of the major patriarchies. With the closure of the pagan temples, the Church consolidated its power – Adrian G. Gilbert (Magi: The Search for a Secret Tradition)

Temple of Horus at Edfu
On the new temple is pictures and information about all the previous temples which occupied that spot. Many of the temples are built on sites of many previous ones. This disguises the nature of the temples that were of earlier design.

The Dynasties


Egyptologists divide the history of Egypt into thirty-one separate dynasties, grouped into three major periods when stable and unified government presided over the land. These periods are usually termed the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms – Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

Manetho’s King Lists


In this history of Egypt, Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which he divided into three parts, each containing several groups of kings which he called "dynasties," but it is not quite clear what he meant by the word "dynasty." Though his history is lost, four copies of his king-list are preserved in the works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the third century of our era, which is preserved in the "Chronicle of Eusebius," bishop of Cæsarea, born A.D. 264, and died about 340 – Brian Brown (Wisdom of the Egyptians)

Spurious King Lists


Sadly, as a historical chronology these lists are inadequate on their own as they fail to provide the length of each individual pharaoh’s reign – Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

A royal list was discovered in the temple of Karnak at the turn of the century. Now in the Louvre Museum, it included the names of those kinds who had preceded Tutmosis III around 1500 BC.

Lords of Defense


Egyptian Priests were known as “Lords of Defense” - Lana Cantrell

The Ebers Papyrus


Which is reminiscent of the word Ibaru/Hebrew – is “a compendium of prescriptions directed at the first effects of EMR and warfare at its absolute worst and is the property of someone very much in direct contact with it who had a high knowledge of the human body and its functions - Lana Cantrell (The Greatest Story Never Told)

I came forth from Heliopolis with the priests of her-aat, the Lords of Defense, the Kings of Eternity and of Protection. I came forth from Sais, with the Maternal Goddess who grant me protection. Words were given me by the Lord of the Universe wherewith to drive away the inflictions of all the gods, and deadly diseases of every sort – (The Ebers Papyrus)

Pharaoh Psammetichus I


Psammetichus I, twenty-sixth dynasty, was considered by the people as a usurper who delivered Egypt “to the dregs of the nations,” to foreigners, by facilitating their installation. In particular, he surrounded himself by Greek mercenaries and conferred upon them highest civil and military posts in the court- Cheikh Anta Diop (African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality)

Ahmose I


Sekenenra appears to have been a handsome and dashing soldier. He was tall, slim, and active, with a strong, refined face of dark Mediterranean type. Probably he was a descendant of one of the ancient families which had taken refuge in the south after the Hyksos invaders had accomplished the fall of the native monarchy. His queen, Ah-hotep, who was a hereditary princess in her own right, lived until she was a hundred years old. Her three sons reigned in succession, and continued the war against the Hyksos. The youngest of these was Ahmes I, and he was the first Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Ah-hotep must have followed his career with pride, for he drove the Asiatics across the frontier. She survived him, and then lived through the reign of Amenhotep I also, for she did not pass away until Thotmes I ruled in splendour over united Egypt, and caused its name to be dreaded in western Asia - Donald MacKenzie (Egyptian Myth and Legend,1907)

The Eighteenth Dynasty was a period when Egypt was experiencing its greatest era of prosperity. The countries success lay in the activities of its first ruler and founder, the great military leader Ahmose who, in around 1550 BC, successfully rid the land of the loathed Hyksos rulers, and united Egypt once more – Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV)


Inherited the throne on a fluke of genetic roulette. Sickly as a child and disfigured as an adult…He held court with his beautiful wife, Nefertiti. His two passions were reforming Egypt’s religion and its writing system - Leonard Shlain (The Alphabet Versus the Goddess)

Rich cultic rites and beliefs, refined over many centuries, disappeared almost overnight. Akhenaton had not invented a mythology to accompany the worship of Aton - Leonard Shlain (The Alphabet Versus the Goddess)

Nefertiti’s Bust
The famous bust of Nefertiti was discovered in Thutmose's workshop at Akhet-Aten, south of the great city of Akhenaton. The bust (above left) that we recognize today as that of Nefertiti was found 1912-1913 in grid 47 at Amarna by Professors Hermann Ranke and Ludwig Borchardt. It was out of circulation from that time till 1920, when it was found in Berlin.

Tell-el-Amarna Tablets


Although the Tell-el-Amarna tablets give much information regarding Canaan at about the period of the Exodus, they make no allusions to the Jews in Egypt or to the great catastrophe caused by the events preceding their escape - Ernest Busenbark (Symbols, Sex and the Stars)

The Twin Scepters

The Hekat (a hook, held in the left hand), and the Nekhakha (whip, flagellum, held in the right hand)…the flail was the symbol of knowledge and discrimination, similar to Thor’s Hammer, it was the remover of obstacles, the thresher, divider, discerner.

Precious Records Damaged


…one ancient text has survived: a list of some 300 kings, written on a long sheet of papyrus dating from 1200 BC. Though damaged and now incomplete, it is the finest record of the chronology of the Egyptian kings. Originally, in the possession of the King of Sardinia, it was sent to Turin in a box without any packing for protection. Consequently, it arrived at its destination broken into innumerable fragments. Called the Royal Canon or Turin after the museum in which it is housed, it not only gives the order of succession, but also provides the exact period of each reign, right down to the months and days – Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

Separatism and Incest


They were unique and it appears that during the Eighteenth Dynasty the royal family had no desire either to increase its umbers or to unite with any other families. Incestuous marriages were therefore the most suitable means of ensuring the purity of the royal line - Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

Hermes


It is highly probable that the Greek initiates gained their knowledge of the philosophic and therapeutic aspects of music from the Egyptians, who, in turn, considered Hermes the founder of the art. According to one legend, this god constructed the first lyre by stretching strings across the concavity of a turtle shell. Both Isis and Osiris were patrons of music and poetry. Plato, in describing the antiquity of these arts among the Egyptians, declared that songs and poetry had existed in Egypt for at least ten thousand years, and that these were of such an exalted and inspiring nature that only gods or godlike men could have composed them – Manly Palmer Hall

Vizier
From the Egyptian wsr, another name for Osiris, king of the underworld. This becamewasir, later the Turkish version vizier, which got picked up in the English.

The Five Names of Pharaoh
There were five names. But before the Third Century all Pharaohs were known by only one, their Horus Name, the most important one.

Isis of the Seven Veils
Was originally a reference to the weaver goddess Neith.

Amen Ra


Dating to somewhere in the prehistoric era, the cult of Ra had developed primarily at Heliopolis in the north. He was effectively the god of the king and was embraced for the most part by the Royal Family and the higher echelons of Egyptian society. Accordingly, he had no appeal to the general masses. Nevertheless, by openly uniting the two gods, the Middle Kingdom rulers hoped to spark a move towards a more personal piety. In Amun, the people of Egypt had discovered a deity that was sympathetic to all levels while the Ra element appeased the higher nobility – Lorraine Evans (Kingdom of the Ark)

Tatenen
Egyptian term for the creator God.

Serekh
The precinct or enclosure that housed the chief gods, Osiris, Isis and Nephthys. This can represent the Human Brain with its three principle centers, the Pineal, Pituitary and Hypothalamus. (Thalamus in Greek means bridal chamber)

Khen Khat
the couch upon which the dead are laid. A symbol of resurrection.

Tept
The abyss, same as Nun.

Makhu
The scales of the goddess Maat.

Makara
Name for the sign of Capricorn

The Bull
A chief symbol of the Pharaoh.

Horus Horakhti
This does not mean Horus of the two Horizons, but of the “Two Gates.”



Apta

The primordial mound. Also the equator. Considered the highest rise from the waters.



Tesherit – Place of Set. The barren desert regions.



Kamit – the fertile regions.



Uraeus


The Hebrews follow the Babylonians in confusing the Uraeus Serpent with the serpent of death - Gerald Massey (Ancient Egypt Light of the World)

Menat

An ornament sacred to Hathor, seems to be shaped to represent the male sperm. It was worn by the gods, like Khonsu (aspect of Horus).



The Sekhemti
The twin serpents of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys (Uatchet and Nekhebet).



The Uatchet


In the Book of the Coming Forth by Day, Uatchet is the destroyer of the evil forces which try to defeat the initiate. In the Osirian resurrection story she assists Isis when she is fleeing from Set - Muata Ashby (Serpent Power)

Nehebka

The serpent goddess who assisted Anubis during the reconstitution of Osiris.



Rekhit (or Rekh)

Means the sage or holy one.



Hekau

The sacred call or utterance.



Amenta
Same as Tuat, namely, the Underworld.



Geb
Father of Osiris, husband of Nut



Asten – One of the gods of the Judgment, along with Anubis, and so on.



The Letter "T"
In Egyptian the letter signified the sun.



BA Self and the Bee


Again the bee and the ba stand in a striking similitude in that both perform the function of the priest as marriage officient. As the bee, by introducing the fertilizing pollen of the male organs of the flower into the female organs and thus marries the two for the birth of seed, so the ba, by his intermediary offices in the psychic economy of human life, marries the two forces of the polarity, soul and body - Alvin Boyd Kuhn

The KA Self


“…the Egyptian speaks about his Ka very much the same way as we do about “my vitality,” “his will power” - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

The Ka, Ba and Akh


They represent different aspects of the dead, one of which, the Ka, belongs to man in this life as well as in the Hereafter - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Ka as Ruach


Now it is possible to identify the Ka with the life-spirit (which the Old Testament calls ruah or nephesh) which returns to God after death - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

…the Ka, as a vital force, supports man upon earth as well as the Beyond - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Hemsut

Rarely mentioned feminine aspect of the Ka.


The AB
This is the Conscience, the manner in which a man judges himself.

Secret Tradition


Von Mosheim says (Vol. I, 21) that the Egyptian priests had a sacred code of their own "founded on very different principles from those which characterized the popular religion, and it was studiously concealed from the curiosity of the public by wrapping it up in characters the meaning and power of which were only known to themselves.

Secrecy



The Egyptians do not reveal their Religious Mysteries promiscuously to all, nor communicate the knowledge of divine things to the Profane, but only to those who are to succeed in the kingdom, and to such of the Priests as are judged most fitly qualified for the same, upon account of their birth and Education – Clement of Alexandria (Early Christian Theologian)



Serapeum


There is something almost unnatural and something almost superhuman here. For what is seen all along the huge tunnels and corridors are dozens and dozens of enormous sunken niches, the size of large living rooms, in which were inserted massive granite sarcophagi that once contained the mummified corpses of the Apis bulls. The size and weight of these sarcophagi – some over 60 tons and cut from a single block of granite – fire the imagination for, at least, on face value, it is very difficult to see how they were brought down there in the first place let alone maneuvered into the niches – Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval (Talisman)

Division of Ten


C. Piazzi Smyth favors the Coptic meaning, "a division into ten." - Manly Palmer Hall

Red and Black Lands


Deshret - Red Crown of Lower Egypt
Hedjet - The White Crown of Upper Egypt.
Shmty – Combined Crowns
Kemet – The Black Land

House of the Serpent
The origin name of the pyramid according to the Sumerians

Eleusinian Rites


Probably the most famous of later Mysteries were the Eleusinian, whose rites were celebrated mainly in the village of Eleusis near Athens to honor Demeter. In 1374 BC, the King of Eleusis, Eumolpos, spent seven years at the Great Pyramid in Egypt completing his initiation and, after returning home, started his Mystery School patterned on Egyptian teachings. For the next twelve hundred years, his descendants, the Eumolpidae, presided over the Eleusinian Mysteries as Hierophants – Tony Bushby (The Secret in the Bible)

They were famous throughout Greece for the beauty of their philosophic concepts and their high standards of morality that they demonstrated in their daily lives –Tony Bushby (The Secret in the Bible)

The Khuti
The four children of Horus. Children of Light.

The Nile


The river Nile...was also honored as a god, or as one of the beneficent causes of Nature. It had its altars and temples at Nilopolis or at the city of the Nile. Near the cataracts, above Elephantis, there was a college of priests, appointed to its worship. The most magnificent feasts were given in its honor...All other active parts of Nature received respectful homage of the Egyptians. There was an inscription on an ancient column in honor of the immortal Gods, and the Gods which are mentioned there, are the Breath, or the Air, Heaven, Earth, the Sun and the Moon, Night and Day - Dupuis (The Origin of all Religious Worship)

The Red Sea (Reed Sea)


The translation of iam suph (Hebrew) as the "Red Sea" was a hint of ancient esotericists to that effect, as the original sea water of the biological evolution had become red. As a matter of straight fact, the translation as "Red Sea" has no other warrant, since iam suph does not translate as "Red Sea" at all, but as "Reed Sea," several later Bible translations having made the true translation back to the true one, the "Reed Sea" - Alvin Boyd Kuhn

The Egyptian Year
Egyptians divided their year into three seasons:



Akhet - The Inundation

Per - Emergence
Shemu - Growing



The Nile Complex


Behdet (Heliopolis) – Crown Chakra
Heliopolis – Brow
Memphis – Throat
Hermopolis – Heart
Abydos – Solar Plexus
Thebes – Sacral
Philae Island (Elephantine) – Root

Giza
Situated between Memphis and Heliopolis

Suspended Phase
The pyramid’s construction appears to have been suspended for some time at the half way stage, at half its height.

Psychostasia
weighing of the heart in Egyptian myth.

The Heart


We know from numerous other texts that “heart” stands for “intellect,” “mind” and even “spirit” - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Hieraconopolis
Egypt’s oldest city.

Alpha Draconis
It has been found that 3,400 years before Christ the ascending gallery was aligned with Alpha Centauri and the descending gallery one aimed at Alpha Draconis, the polar star of that time.

Isis and Typhon


The sistrum is designed to represent to us, that every thing must be kept in continual agitation, and never cease from motion; that they ought to be mused and well-shaken, whenever they begin to grow drowsy as it were, and to droop in their motion. For, say they, the sound of these sistra averts and drives away Typho; meaning hereby, that as corruption clogs and puts a stop to the regular course of nature; so generation, by the means of motion, loosens it again, and restores it to its former vigour. Now the outer surface of this instrument is of a convex figure, as within its circumference are contained those four chords or bars [only three shown], which make such a rattling when they are shaken--nor is this without its meaning; for that part of the universe which is subject to generation and corruption is contained within the sphere of the moon; and whatever motions or changes may happen therein, they are all effected by the different combinations of the four elementary bodies, fire, earth, water, and air--moreover, upon the upper part of the convex surface of the sistrum is carved the effigies of a cat with a human visage, as on the lower edge of it, under those moving chords, is engraved on the one side the face of Isis, and on the other that of Nephthys--by the faces symbolically representing generation and corruption (which, as has been already observed, is nothing but the motion and alteration of the four elements one amongst another) – Manly Palmer Hall (from From Plutarch's Isis and Osiris)

God Rested

This was Ptah, who rested after making the creation.

Ptah Lord of the risen land


…works through the other gods, who are animated, like the rest of the universe, by the mysterious life-force emanating from the Creator - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Isis and the Throne


…Isis was originally the deified throne…The throne is shown by various expressions which have become established to have been an object of veneration in Egypt in early times. We have seen that Memphis was called “The Great Throne” in the Memphite theology - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Shu and Tefnut


Thou didst spit out Shu, thou didst spew forth Tefnut - (Egyptian Creation Text)

Pharaoh's Twin Self


It seems that each Pharaoh was considered a twin: his “brother,” however, was stillborn and passed immediately into the Beyond, for it was the placenta, the afterbirth - Henri Frankfort (Kingship of the Gods)

Nun and Naunet (The Ogdoad)

Primeval matter and space. They gave rise to Kuk and Kauket, the Illimitable and the Boundless. From these came Huh and Hauhet, Darkness and Obscurity, they gave rise to Amon and Amaunet, the Hidden and Concealed ones.

Boats

These seem to represent birth. Cancer was often shown as a boat, which is seen in the constellation Argo in Cancer.



Shetaut Neter


The ancient Egyptian religion (Shetaut Neter), language and symbols provide the first “historical” record of Yoga Philosophy and Religious literature. Egyptian Yoga is what has been commonly referred to by Egyptologists as Egyptian “Religion” or “Mythology”…Yoga, in all of its forms…was practiced in Egypt earlier than anywhere else in history - Muata Ashby (Serpent Power)

Min

Also the protector and defender of Horus. He hold the penis in one hand to indicate the vital, or natural, energies and in the other he holds the flail, to represent his mastery and control over those same forces.



Kundalini Energy


Kundalini energy, known as Prana, Chi, and Ra-Sekhem, flows throughout thousands of “nadis” or energy channels. If any of the channels are blocked or over-sensitized, a disbalance can arise, causing illness in the mind and physical body. There are three most important channels through which the Serpent Power flows. In India these are known as the Sushumna, Ida, and Pingala - Muata Ashby (Serpent Power)



In ancient Egyptian mythology and yoga these two opposites are known as “Uadjit” and “Nekhebet” or Isis and Nephthys, or the “Two Ladies”…The serpents Uatchet and Nekhebet are equal to the Ida and Pingala respectively…They are both related to the left (lunar) and right (solar) nostrils…The interaction of these two forces…cause movements in the Life Force energy that is available to each living being and supports their practical existence in the physical realm - Muata Ashby (Serpent Power)

Cleansing Ritual

This is known in Sanskrit as the Bhuta Shudhi, in which the elements of the body are cleansed. The subtle body’s cleansing is called Nadi Shudhi. This process is known to take months, years, or even lifetimes.



Origins of the Church in Egypt


Frustratingly, it is impossible to be certain about the exact nature of the earliest form of Christianity in Egypt, although it is know that it arrived in Alexandria very early – probably even before its advent in Rome itself. In fact, the curious absence of references to such a major city as Alexandria in any of the New Testament books has often been remarked upon – Picknett and Prince (Masks of Christ)



The origins of the Church in Egypt are enveloped in a deep mystery. When it was that Christianity was first introduced into Egypt, and by whom, is totally unknown – Bruce Metzger (The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origins, Transmission, and Limitations)







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From
Jesus the Egyptian
by Richard A. Gabriel







In his excellent book, R. A. Gabriel shows that Christianity did not evolve from Judaism but from Osirianism. However, he fails to show that ancient Judaism was also a version of Egyptian theology and, perplexingly, does not once reference any writer (such as Gerald Massey, Sigmund Freud, John Remsberg, Conor MacDari, Reverend Robert Taylor, and Ahmed Osman) who comprehensively dealt with the "Egyptian-Christian" matter in ages past. Nevertheless, overlooking his regrettable oversight and conspicuous academic arrogance, Gabriel's Jesus the Egyptian serves as a highly readable and informative work on the true origins of the Christian religion:



Christianity is Egyptian


...Christianity derives the major premises of its theology from the Egyptian religious tradition, specifically the Osiris-Isis beliefs, that predated Christianity by several millennia. The protestations of some theologians to the contrary, Christianity did not derive from the Judaism of its day...

Awakening to the Suppressed Truth


...the soul, resurrection, judgement beyond the grave, and eternal life. Egyptian thinking on these subjects appeared to me to be theologically indistinguishable from the beliefs that formed the core of my own religious faith

Virgin Birth Duplicated


Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly -(Matthew 1:18-19)



Here we encounter elements of the Isis myth. Isis too, conceived the god Horus after her husband, Osiris, was dead leaving her open to the charge of infidelity and her son to the charge of illegitimacy. Even Joseph believed that Mary had been unfaithful, for he "planned to dismiss her quietly," that is, to divorce her, only to be talked out of it by an angel who convinced him that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit

Baptism, not Christian


Baptism is the most fundamental Christian rite insofar as one must be baptized to become a full participant in the rituals of the Christian faith...The origins of baptism are Egyptian...



...The Egyptian baptismal rite has its origins in the Heliopolitan worship of the sun early in the Pyramid Age. The Egyptians believed that each morning the sun passed the waters of the ocean before being reborn each day and emerging purified and revitalized. The ritual baptism of the pharaoh each morning symbolized this event and renewed the life and vigor of the recipient. At the start of each day pharaoh entered the temple called the House of Morning where the king prepared to make himself worthy to greet the sun god. Two priests of Toth and Horus sprinkled him with water from the Sacred Lake of the temple. This holy water was believed to possess special properties for it was believed to be the body fluid of Osiris himself...



...As if to insure that observers understood that the king was being transformed and reborn, portrayals of the pharaoh's baptism show a water jug held over his head with water pouring from it. The water is depicted not by the hieroglyph for water, but with the ankh, the hieroglyph that symbolized life...



...The Egyptian rite of baptism's emphasis upon transforming the recipient so that he is acceptable to god is almost identical in meaning to what Christians attribute to Jesus when he was baptized...Through his baptism Christ is reborn in that like the Egyptian king his divinity is reaffirmed and his powers drawn from god are confirmed once again. Neither Jesus' baptism not Egyptian baptism were about washing away sins or seeking forgiveness for them

The Eucharist


The Eucharist sacrifice is the most magic-soaked ritual in Christianity and is most likely of Egyptian origin, although elements of it can be found in other pagan rituals



Morton Smith suggests that accounts of the Eucharistic ritual found in surviving magical texts "have their closest parallels in Egyptian texts." Smith draws upon the material contained in the Demotic Magical Papyrus for examples of eucharistic rites that are similar to the text of the institution of the Christian eucharist. The Demotic Magical Papyrus was written in the third century C.E., but its content is much older.


I am he of Abydos...I am this figure of one drowned that testifieth by writing...as to which the blood of Osiris bore witness...when it was poured in this cup, this wine. Give it, blood of Osiris that he gave to his Isis to make her feel love for him...give it, the blood of (magician's name) to (recipients name) in this cup, this bowl of wine, today, to cause her to feel a love for him in her heart, the love that Isis felt for Osiris

Imperialist Suppression


In 356 C.E. Constantinus II ordered the Egyptian temples of Isis-Osiris closed and forbade the use of Egyptian hieroglyphics as a religious language. In 380 C.E. Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity to be the official Roman state religion, and all pagan cults were thereafter forbidden. These edicts were devastating to Egyptian culture and religion, both of which had been preserved over millennia through the Egyptian language and the writing systems of Egyptian priests. In 391 C.E. the Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus, summoned the monks to arms and turned them against the city of Memphis and the great shrine of Serapis, the Serapeum, the main temple of the Osirian-Isis religion. The attack was akin to ordering the destruction of the Vatican. Egyptian priests were massacred in their shrines and in the streets. The ferocity of the violence consumed priests, followers, and the Egyptian intellectual elite of Alexandria, Memphis, and other cities of Egypt who were murdered and their temples and libraries destroyed. The institutional structure of Egyptian religion, then more than four millennia old, was demolished in less than two decades



...The wave of religious terrorism that swept Egypt for twenty years seemed to some Egyptians to herald the end of the world. "If we are alive," one wrote, "then life itself is dead."

The Trinity


Among the most amazing and important events of the Ptolemaic period was the establishment of the cult of the Egyptian Osiris trinity as the official religion of a state ruled by Macedonian Greeks with the result that the cult of Isis spread throughout the Mediterranean world becoming the most popular religion of the age. The cult of Isis, Osiris, and Horus was transmitted to Rome where, by the time of Christ, it had become the most popular religious faith of Romans, especially Roman soldiers



Long before St. Paul spread the good news to the Christians, the priests and lay followers of Isis had spread their gospel to the people of the Mediterranean basin.

The Concept of Soul


Egyptian theologians appear to have been the first people to conceive of the idea of a soul as an animating principle of human material existence that was, in itself, immaterial in substance and immortal in nature so that its existence persisted beyond the death of the material body. The idea was a soul was among the earliest theological concepts invented by the Egyptians, appearing for the first time in written form during the Pyramid Age but having existed for at least a millennium before that in Egyptian religious thinking as contained in the Osiris myth

First Ethical Books and Philosophy


There are only two civilizations sufficiently old to qualify as the source of ethical thinking: Egypt and Mesopotamia. Both emerged about six thousand years ago and developed writing and man's first serious theologies at about the same time. But it was Egypt that gave the world the gift of conscience



While other cultures had their theologies, the depth, breadth, complexity, and level of abstraction of Egyptian religious thinking make it difficult to escape the impression that Egyptian theologians gave the world the first theology worthy of the name

Virtue Not Judeo-Christian
The Old and New Testaments were plagiarizations and adaptations of the following Egyptian documents on morality and right living:


The Book of Coming Into Life (or Coming Forth by Day)
The Pyramid Texts
Memphite Drama: (From the Pyramid Age, 2780 BC)
Maxims of Ptahhotep (by priest of King Isesi, Fifth Dynasty)
Instructions of Kagemni (by Vizier of Pharaoh Sneferu, 2700 BC)

Instructions of Amenemhat
Instruction of Amenemope
Maxims of Ani

Dialogue of a Misanthrope With His Own Soul
Song of the Harp-Player (2100 BC)
Admonition of Ipuwer

Reading any one of these hoary manuscripts, let alone all of them, lays to rest forever the nonsensical propagandist idea that the world only learned how to be moral and righteous after the Moses and his Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai where they received the Ten Commandments. (Here for a list of Egyptian wisdom texts predating the rise of Judaism and Christianity.)



Direct Plagiarization


Have I not written for thee thirty sayings, of counsel and knowledge! That thou mayest make known truth to him that speaketh, That thou mayest carry back words to him that sent thee - (Proverbs 22:20-21):"

Consider these thirty chapters: They delight, they instruct. Knowledge how to answer him that speaketh, And how to carry back a report to one who sent him - (Amenemope, ch30)

Incline thine ear, and hear my words, And apply thine heart to apprehend; For it is pleasant if thou keep them in thy belly, that they may be fixed like a peg upon thy lips - (Proverbs 22:17-18)

Give thine ear, and hear what I say, And apply thine heart to apprehend; It is good for thee to place them in thine heart, let them rest in the casket of thy belly; That they may act as a peg upon thy tongue - (Amenemope, ch1)

Rob not the poor, for he is poor, neither oppress the lowly in the gate - (Proverbs 22:22)

Beware of robbing the poor, and oppressing the afflicted - (Amenemope, ch2)

Man - His Own Savior


Unlike the Israelites and early Christians, the Egyptians did not believe that sin represented a transgression of divine law nor was sin a personal ritual affront to the god as the Babylonians believed. There was no expectation that the gods would punish sin on this earth. There are no instances in Egyptian theology that parallel the murderous punishments of Yahweh against the sinners among his own people...No one but the individual himself caused sin and no one but the individual was responsible for it. The idea of a sinful human nature central to Christian ethics but unconvincing to Judaism was absent from Egyptian moral thinking

Life Beyond the Grave


The Egyptians believed in a life beyond the grave from very earliest times and the doctrine of eternal existence became a leading feature of their religious life history. It was an idea that greatly affected Egyptian thinking about ethics, for if life was possible beyond the grave, then the question of who was to be saved and how became a central moral question. Breasted rightly claimed that "among no people, ancient or modern, has the idea of life beyond the grave held no prominent a place as among ancient Egyptians"

Cult of Osiris


The principles of Egyptian theology were all derived from the incorporation of the Osiris myth into the body of traditional Egyptian religious thought, a process that began even before the First Union (3200 BC).



Once the Osiris myth asserted its importance within the state solar theology, it was a matter of time before it would spread to the rest of the populace. The great attraction of the Osiris myth was its promise of life after death

Osiris and Jesus


The story of Osiris, his death, resurrection, and reward of eternal life has all the characteristics of a dynastic struggle with historical roots that was later infused with theological substance. The legend begins with a conflict between two brothers, Osiris and Set, who because they were kings or, perhaps, aspirants to the same throne, were regarded as sons of god who had taken on a human nature upon their birth, an idea that pharaohs adopted to explains their own divine origins. The divine Osiris became man and suffered a human destiny by becoming moral. He endured evil, torment, and death as the experience of his humanity, and because the only Egyptian god to suffer death and rise again from it, events that make him from all the other gods of ancient Egypt. The parallel with the Christian doctrine concerning Jesus' human nature and incarnation is obvious...

The Coptic Church


The ancient Coptic Christians, familiar with much of the evidence presented in these pages, concluded long ago that God had prepared the land of Egypt in a special way for his Christ. The Copts may be justified in their conclusion, for Egyptian religion more than Judaism seems the more appropriate well-spring of Christianity...Jesus' teachings and rituals did not represent a unique theological creed, and certainly not an historical singularity as theologians sometimes claim. Jesus' teachings and his ritual practice were indistinguishable in every important detail from those espoused and practiced by the Osiris-Isis faith that had existed for thousands of years before Jesus was born, and which was the dominant pagan cult in Palestine and throughout the Roman world at the time that Jesus lived

Conflict Between Horus and Set


Christine Hobson argues strongly for the view that the Osiris myth has historical roots. She notes that in pre-dynastic times there were few major cities along the Nile. One of these cities was Nubt (near modern Naqada), whose priesthood was dedicated to the local god Seth. Nubt was an idea marketing center standing on the banks of the Nile bank near Wadi Hammamat...The other town located south of modern Luxor was the town of Nekhen (modern El Kab). Its local god was the falcon or Horus, a fact that gave rise much later to the Greeks calling it Hieraconopolis of Falcon city. The ancient story of the battle between Horus and Seth that was folded into the Osiris myth was probably a folk memory of a war between these two cities. The victory of Horus over Seth, that is of Hieraconopolis over Nubt, gave the former authority over all of Upper Egypt as well as southward to the Nubian border

Massacre of the Innocent


When Set learns that the child he knows that Horus will someday attempt to revenge his father. Set sets out to kill Horus. Isis hid in the reeds and swamps of the Nile Delta where she nursed and raised her son





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From

Kingship and the Gods

by Henri Frankfort








Osiris

“Now if Osiris was originally a mythological figure expressing the Egyptian conception of kingship, it remains to explain in more detail…how this dead chieftain, worshipped because the community viewed its leader as an intermediary between man and nature, became a god with whom every Egyptian identified himself in death and in whom he placed reliance for his personal salvation."



“It is obvious that the king who in life had “kept the hearts alive” could lead his faithful subjects through the crisis of death into an orderly Beyond. In those days men based their own expectations for life in the Hereafter upon their former relationship with the deceased monarch. But, with the weakening of kingship, toward the end of the Old Kingdom, the reliance upon individual rulers was no longer justified. The anarchy of the First Intermediate Period, while defying understanding, destroyed Egyptian complacency.”



It has been shown that the disillusionment of this age led to searching inquiries into ultimate values and ethical standards which had up until that time been implied and taken for granted rather than proclaimed. In any case, while the individual kings lost authority so that they could not even maintain dominion over the whole of Egypt and the claim that their power extended beyond the grave seemed altogether preposterous, the traditional figure of Osiris, the dead king resurrected in the Beyond and living in the varied life that forth from the earth, was not affected by the turmoil.”



Then he goes into the more psychological reasons for the reverence toward Osiris. These reasons are identical to those that we still see experienced by those involved with the Christian ethos today.



“ Since the Egyptians could conceive order only in terms of kingship, they now saw the Hereafter under the guidance of Osiris. While the state was disintegrating and Pharaoh disqualified, the dead king, in his most general form, became king of the dead: Then comes a passage that could be comparable to any found in the Christian scriptures”



They are all thine, all those who come to thee

Great and small, they belong to thee,

They who live upon earth, they all reach thee,

Thou art their master, there is none outside thee.

(Louvre stela C 218 )



The Commoners began to assiduously revere the rites of Osiris. But we also read of the need, arising out of the disillusion and fear, to make the qualities of a god conform to fit the needs all too human. This projected anthrocentricity prefigures the modern theocracies.



“The smaller officials and the burghers, in so far as they could own tombs substantial enough to come down to us, show the new allegiance to and identification with Osiris from the Middle Kingdom onward…the identification with Osiris, which was, in fact, the central feature of the funerary cult of the Egypt after the Old Kingdom. It is a peculiar innovation, but it can well be understood. When confidence in the living ruler as a champion of his followers here and in the Hereafter was shaken, Osiris was not entirely adequate as a substitute. He was a passive figure, not an aggressive leader likely to keep back the hostile powers lurking in the Beyond. A change of attitude toward the king of the dead was therefore to be experienced.”


“Identification with Osiris led to a desire to imitate as closely as possible the means by which he had achieved the transition from life through death, unto rebirth.”

With the interest in funerary rites of the new cult of Osiris of the commoners there came the vulgarization of the once sacred rites of the Old Kingdom.



“In the Middle Kingdom we find painted within his coffin objects which he may need in the Hereafter. And a little later, and especially in the New Kingdom, this vulgarization of the royal rite goes so far that we find figures wearing the crown of Lower Egypt carried in the funerary procession of any well-to-do Theban, while the mourners, or possibly hired performers, bear titles which had been reserved for the highest officials of the state in the time of the pyramid builders.”