CRYPTOEGYPTOMANIA
by Iona Miller
CryptoEgyptoMania
The original tale of resurrection to eternal life comes from the primal myth of Egypt, the cult of Isis, Osiris, and Horus. Isis and Osiris are born of the primal sky goddess Nut, or Nuit. So were their twin relatives Seth and Nephthys. One night Osiris slept with Nepthys, thinking she was Isis and Anubis was born--the oldest son but by the wrong wife. Seth, her husband, therefore schemed to kill his older brother Osiris, and the entire plot of murder, dismemberment, losing, finding, and restoration begins.
The death of Osiris was symbolically associated with the annual rising and flooding of the Nile, by which the very soul of Egypt was annually fertilized. It was as though the rotting body of Osiris fertilized and revitalized the land (Isis). Redemption comes through the grace of Isis. The goddess goes in quest of her lost spouse or lover, and through loyalty and a descent into the realm of death, becomes his redeemer through the magical child Horus. Out of death comes life, and this is the prototype of the divine mother with her child conceived by God.
Almost every aspect of religious faith and practice is found in this ancient religion, mythology, magic and ritual. The dynastic framework of sacred kingship placed direct emphasis on the literal importance of the Great House--shared divine heritage, shared sacred DNA. And behind all, the aura of mysterious forgotten secrets symbolized by the UFO, representing timeless mystery.
At death, the pharaoh (god on earth) ascended into the sky to join his divine father. In this context, Osiris was identified with the constellation of the same name. We now call it Orion, the nursery of stars. Isis embodied the dog-star Sirius, whose heliacal rising denoted the annual flooding of the Nile. The sungod Re, or Horus was moved across the sky by Khephra, the sacred beetle. The deified earth is the generative male god, Geb, who lay in close embrace with Nut until separated by She, the god of the atmosphere. Selket is the goddess of magic.
The sarcophagus is a typical symbol of the second portion of the hero's journey, which begins after "crossing the threshold." Once across, the hero is swallowed by the unknown, be it a whale, a wolf, a sarcophagus, or a cave. This stage permits us to dissolve our identity in order to be rewoven into a stronger and brighter form. It is like the serpent sloughing off its old skin to form a new, fresh identity. We die to our modernity and are reborn to our eternity. It can take the form of a depression or a regression in the service of transcendence, or a strong need to get away from it all.
The death of Osiris was symbolically associated with the annual rising and flooding of the Nile, by which the very soul of Egypt was annually fertilized. It was as though the rotting body of Osiris fertilized and revitalized the land (Isis). Redemption comes through the grace of Isis. The goddess goes in quest of her lost spouse or lover, and through loyalty and a descent into the realm of death, becomes his redeemer through the magical child Horus. Out of death comes life, and this is the prototype of the divine mother with her child conceived by God.
Almost every aspect of religious faith and practice is found in this ancient religion, mythology, magic and ritual. The dynastic framework of sacred kingship placed direct emphasis on the literal importance of the Great House--shared divine heritage, shared sacred DNA. And behind all, the aura of mysterious forgotten secrets symbolized by the UFO, representing timeless mystery.
At death, the pharaoh (god on earth) ascended into the sky to join his divine father. In this context, Osiris was identified with the constellation of the same name. We now call it Orion, the nursery of stars. Isis embodied the dog-star Sirius, whose heliacal rising denoted the annual flooding of the Nile. The sungod Re, or Horus was moved across the sky by Khephra, the sacred beetle. The deified earth is the generative male god, Geb, who lay in close embrace with Nut until separated by She, the god of the atmosphere. Selket is the goddess of magic.
The sarcophagus is a typical symbol of the second portion of the hero's journey, which begins after "crossing the threshold." Once across, the hero is swallowed by the unknown, be it a whale, a wolf, a sarcophagus, or a cave. This stage permits us to dissolve our identity in order to be rewoven into a stronger and brighter form. It is like the serpent sloughing off its old skin to form a new, fresh identity. We die to our modernity and are reborn to our eternity. It can take the form of a depression or a regression in the service of transcendence, or a strong need to get away from it all.
EGYPTIAN ALCHEMY: FOUR WORLDS WITHOUT END
The Egyptian Mysteries were great public institutions supported by the state, centers of national and religious life, to which all classes flocked. One who had passed through all their degrees became a highly-cultured person with ethical and spiritual training, which included knowledge of this world, a vivid realization of the future after death, our place in the scheme of things, and therefore what was really worth doing and living for.
They were not secret societies with their affairs concealed from the ordinary public. Thousands of people entered the ordinary degrees of Isis. But the teachings and training of the higher degrees were kept from those whom they did not concern, much like college is reserved for high school graduates. The Four Worlds included the physical, astral (or emotional), causal (or mental plane), and the spiritual or archetypal world.
Everyone in Egypt knew there were Mysteries, and nearly everyone knew they largely concerned life after death and the preparation for it. But the teachings were given to initiates under binding pledges of solemn secrecy. The results of certain forms of action in the world after death were shown in elaborate detail.
The essential outline of this secret instruction in the Four Worlds was embodied in rituals of Initiation, Passing, and Raising, and have descended to us in the ceremonies of modern Freemasonry, where is is still protected by oaths of secrecy. They portrayed the higher evolution of man and his return to his divine Source, through the development of the higher part of his nature.
Face of Nuit
Face of Nuit
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Isis and her husband Osiris were twins, born of the sky goddess, Nut or Nuit. And their younger relatives were Seth and Nephthys, who were also twins born from Nut. This is one of the oldest known tales of the mother conceiving of the spirit. Nut, or Nuit, is the whole heavenly sphere. When you have the Goddess as the creator, it's her own body that is the universe. She is identical with the universe, and the underlying matrix of that universe. She is the whole sphere of the life-enclosing heavens.
She is time and space itself, and the mystery beyond her is beyond all pairs of opposites: it isn't male nor female, it neither is nor is not. But everything is within her so that the gods are her children, everything is her production. Having no beginning, she abides with immanence, from which all things are born. She is the field that produces forms. She is the Source of your own life, and the energy that animates it.
Modern cosmology reveals a virtual mystery underlying the physical nature of infinite space. The standard of the 1980s, postulating a flat universe dominated by matter, is dead. The universe is either open or filled with an energy of unknown origin. Put another way, "nothing" could not possibly be more interesting, for it is indeed the womb of creation. There is pre-existent ocean of virtual energy which continually, if briefly, bubbles over into phenomenal existence providing the matrix of embodied forms. So-called empty space is actually filled with elementary particles that pop in and out of existence too quickly to be detected directly.
Nothing is exact, not even nothingness. The aggregate energy of these virtual particles could exert a gravitational force, which either be attractive or repulsive depending on physical principles that are not yet understood. On macroscopic scales the energy could act as the cosmological constant proposed by Einstein. It bears on the age of the universe, the density of matter and the nature of cosmic structures. Total cosmic energy content determines the geometry of space-time. Nothing matters.
24 x 36, 3/99
Isis and her husband Osiris were twins, born of the sky goddess, Nut or Nuit. And their younger relatives were Seth and Nephthys, who were also twins born from Nut. This is one of the oldest known tales of the mother conceiving of the spirit. Nut, or Nuit, is the whole heavenly sphere. When you have the Goddess as the creator, it's her own body that is the universe. She is identical with the universe, and the underlying matrix of that universe. She is the whole sphere of the life-enclosing heavens.
She is time and space itself, and the mystery beyond her is beyond all pairs of opposites: it isn't male nor female, it neither is nor is not. But everything is within her so that the gods are her children, everything is her production. Having no beginning, she abides with immanence, from which all things are born. She is the field that produces forms. She is the Source of your own life, and the energy that animates it.
Modern cosmology reveals a virtual mystery underlying the physical nature of infinite space. The standard of the 1980s, postulating a flat universe dominated by matter, is dead. The universe is either open or filled with an energy of unknown origin. Put another way, "nothing" could not possibly be more interesting, for it is indeed the womb of creation. There is pre-existent ocean of virtual energy which continually, if briefly, bubbles over into phenomenal existence providing the matrix of embodied forms. So-called empty space is actually filled with elementary particles that pop in and out of existence too quickly to be detected directly.
Nothing is exact, not even nothingness. The aggregate energy of these virtual particles could exert a gravitational force, which either be attractive or repulsive depending on physical principles that are not yet understood. On macroscopic scales the energy could act as the cosmological constant proposed by Einstein. It bears on the age of the universe, the density of matter and the nature of cosmic structures. Total cosmic energy content determines the geometry of space-time. Nothing matters.
Osiris Rising
Osiris Rising
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Paracelsus recounts how powdered mummies were "resurrected" and used as medication. He defines life as follows: "Life, by Hercules, is nothing other than a certain embalmed Mumia, which preserves the mortal body from the mortal worms and from corruption by means of a mixed saline solution." There was a flourishing trade in real, pulverized Egyptian mummies, and they were so numerous they later came to be used as fertilizer and fuel for steam engines! Paracelsus attributes incorruptibility to a special virtue or agent named "balsam," a natural elixir by which the body was kept alive or, if dead, incorruptible.
They physical body was regarded as an essential constituent of human personality, and an afterlife could not be imagined as being possible without it. Therefore, they profoundly feared the decomposition of the body. They called on the gods for help: "Hail, Tait...protect the head of Teti, so that it becomes not detached. Bind together the bones of Teti, so that they do not fall apart." The Egyptians believed that the ritual re-enactment on behalf of a dead person, of the acts that were supposed once to have raised Osiris from death would ensure to the personal concerned a similar resurrection. Being practical, in the meantime, they wrapped the corpse in linen bandages to hold it together, and treated it to arrest putrefaction.
They faced up to the fact that mummification, though it preserved the body from decay, left it immobile. They made provision to restore to the body its ability to see, hear, eat and speak by a magical ceremony known as the 'Opening of the Mouth,' which was performed just before the body was lowered into the sepulchre chambber. The tool used for this process was curiously shaped like the stars in the constellation of Osiris and made of meteorite metal.
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Paracelsus recounts how powdered mummies were "resurrected" and used as medication. He defines life as follows: "Life, by Hercules, is nothing other than a certain embalmed Mumia, which preserves the mortal body from the mortal worms and from corruption by means of a mixed saline solution." There was a flourishing trade in real, pulverized Egyptian mummies, and they were so numerous they later came to be used as fertilizer and fuel for steam engines! Paracelsus attributes incorruptibility to a special virtue or agent named "balsam," a natural elixir by which the body was kept alive or, if dead, incorruptible.
They physical body was regarded as an essential constituent of human personality, and an afterlife could not be imagined as being possible without it. Therefore, they profoundly feared the decomposition of the body. They called on the gods for help: "Hail, Tait...protect the head of Teti, so that it becomes not detached. Bind together the bones of Teti, so that they do not fall apart." The Egyptians believed that the ritual re-enactment on behalf of a dead person, of the acts that were supposed once to have raised Osiris from death would ensure to the personal concerned a similar resurrection. Being practical, in the meantime, they wrapped the corpse in linen bandages to hold it together, and treated it to arrest putrefaction.
They faced up to the fact that mummification, though it preserved the body from decay, left it immobile. They made provision to restore to the body its ability to see, hear, eat and speak by a magical ceremony known as the 'Opening of the Mouth,' which was performed just before the body was lowered into the sepulchre chambber. The tool used for this process was curiously shaped like the stars in the constellation of Osiris and made of meteorite metal.
Heart of Osiris
Heart of Osiris
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Osiris was associated with the constellation Orion, as Isis was corresponded with the dog-star Sothis or Sirius, which played the important role of marking the annual life-giving flood of the Nile. He was savior, judge, and god of the underworld. Each pharaoh made a symbolic journey to the constellation of Osiris where he became a star.
In fact, one of the two so-called air passages of the Great Pyramid was aligned with the constellation in ancient times, and provided a sort of trajectory for the soul to begin its ascent. It is interesting to note that modern research with the Hubble telescope has found a stellar nursery in the heart of this constellation.
Though literature and art are replete with references to Him, there is no formal written account of beliefs about Him. Some authentic traditions are recorded in the Pyramid Texts, or Book of the Dead, where he plays a strange but vital role in the mortuary ritual. The story of his murder, finding, and restoration by Isis are included. Raised by magical chants, he embodies a primordial form of resurrection.
According to Plutarch, Osiris brought agriculture and was the king who civilized both the Egyptians and the rest of mankind. He was identified by the Greeks with their god Dionysus, god of the resurrecting vine, another vegetation deity of the dying and resurrecting type. The body of Osiris is represented in the form of a mummy, yet the face and hand protrude from the wrappings and firmly grasp the royal insignia. Osiris may rightly claim to have been worshiped longer than any other god, from approximately 2000 B.C. to the 4th Century A.D.
Association of the pharaoh with Osiris at death constitutes the prime theme of the Pyramid Texts, and is the basis of imitative magic. The dead king is ritually assimilated to Osiris. It is one of the oldest tales of death and resurrection, and formed the basis of a Mystery religion in Ptolemaic times, the cult of Isis and Osiris, which spread into the Roman Empire. Judge of the dead and redeemer, he echoes later savior gods who exercise that fateful office. Offering personal eternal life, he was a divine hero who suffered and died, rather than a transcendent deity.
24 x 36, 2/99
Osiris was associated with the constellation Orion, as Isis was corresponded with the dog-star Sothis or Sirius, which played the important role of marking the annual life-giving flood of the Nile. He was savior, judge, and god of the underworld. Each pharaoh made a symbolic journey to the constellation of Osiris where he became a star.
In fact, one of the two so-called air passages of the Great Pyramid was aligned with the constellation in ancient times, and provided a sort of trajectory for the soul to begin its ascent. It is interesting to note that modern research with the Hubble telescope has found a stellar nursery in the heart of this constellation.
Though literature and art are replete with references to Him, there is no formal written account of beliefs about Him. Some authentic traditions are recorded in the Pyramid Texts, or Book of the Dead, where he plays a strange but vital role in the mortuary ritual. The story of his murder, finding, and restoration by Isis are included. Raised by magical chants, he embodies a primordial form of resurrection.
According to Plutarch, Osiris brought agriculture and was the king who civilized both the Egyptians and the rest of mankind. He was identified by the Greeks with their god Dionysus, god of the resurrecting vine, another vegetation deity of the dying and resurrecting type. The body of Osiris is represented in the form of a mummy, yet the face and hand protrude from the wrappings and firmly grasp the royal insignia. Osiris may rightly claim to have been worshiped longer than any other god, from approximately 2000 B.C. to the 4th Century A.D.
Association of the pharaoh with Osiris at death constitutes the prime theme of the Pyramid Texts, and is the basis of imitative magic. The dead king is ritually assimilated to Osiris. It is one of the oldest tales of death and resurrection, and formed the basis of a Mystery religion in Ptolemaic times, the cult of Isis and Osiris, which spread into the Roman Empire. Judge of the dead and redeemer, he echoes later savior gods who exercise that fateful office. Offering personal eternal life, he was a divine hero who suffered and died, rather than a transcendent deity.
Isis Raising Osiris
Isis Raising Osiris
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Next to Isis are always her husband Osiris and her son Horus, and She can never be viewed individually without her family. The Isis religion contained greater and lesser Mysteries concerning the dismemberment and scattering of the body parts of Osiris, and their subsequent finding and restoration by the love and compassion of Isis. Seeking the dead Osiris is a metaphor for all of us who eternally search or are hunted through life by our destinies.
The cult of Isis became a mystery religion during the Roman Empire, and appealed to individuals by offering personal salvation, and promised regeneration after. With every new variation the sacred myth of Isis is restated, the seeking and the finding. In each procession Isis seeks the dead Osiris, and find him every time the holy water of life is drawn from the wellspring of our depths. The initiate gladly undergoes voluntary ritual death and revival. The corpse of Osiris is raised by magical chants. In addition to magical incantations, she may use her falcon wings to raise our consciousness aloft.
The Isis cult contains an entire vocabulary of religious symbolism: our lives are a pilgrimage or a sea journey, the sinful world is the sea, her religion is the ship and the haven, the arca dea. She herself is the mast and sail--the soul power which guides our tiny boats of personality to the farther shore. Her priests were fishermen who rescued the souls from the sea, the evil world, or bird-catchers who caught the souls (birds or butterflies) with their lines.
The mystics were soldiers on holy military service for Isis, or gardeners who laboriously cultivated the garden of insight. The Isis priests were the true philosophers, who attained the direct perception of God. The wheel was the symbol of Isis, the sponge indicated the purification of the mystics, and the ladder their spiritual advancement. The anchor symbolized the security of belonging, the bosom of the all-providing goddess, the amphora, the holy water, the winnow represents cleansing of the soul in initiation.
24 x 36, 4/99
Next to Isis are always her husband Osiris and her son Horus, and She can never be viewed individually without her family. The Isis religion contained greater and lesser Mysteries concerning the dismemberment and scattering of the body parts of Osiris, and their subsequent finding and restoration by the love and compassion of Isis. Seeking the dead Osiris is a metaphor for all of us who eternally search or are hunted through life by our destinies.
The cult of Isis became a mystery religion during the Roman Empire, and appealed to individuals by offering personal salvation, and promised regeneration after. With every new variation the sacred myth of Isis is restated, the seeking and the finding. In each procession Isis seeks the dead Osiris, and find him every time the holy water of life is drawn from the wellspring of our depths. The initiate gladly undergoes voluntary ritual death and revival. The corpse of Osiris is raised by magical chants. In addition to magical incantations, she may use her falcon wings to raise our consciousness aloft.
The Isis cult contains an entire vocabulary of religious symbolism: our lives are a pilgrimage or a sea journey, the sinful world is the sea, her religion is the ship and the haven, the arca dea. She herself is the mast and sail--the soul power which guides our tiny boats of personality to the farther shore. Her priests were fishermen who rescued the souls from the sea, the evil world, or bird-catchers who caught the souls (birds or butterflies) with their lines.
The mystics were soldiers on holy military service for Isis, or gardeners who laboriously cultivated the garden of insight. The Isis priests were the true philosophers, who attained the direct perception of God. The wheel was the symbol of Isis, the sponge indicated the purification of the mystics, and the ladder their spiritual advancement. The anchor symbolized the security of belonging, the bosom of the all-providing goddess, the amphora, the holy water, the winnow represents cleansing of the soul in initiation.
Stairway to Heaven
Stairway to Heaven
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No not that one! The original Egyptian version--the Pyramid. The method of man's reaching divinity was always proclaimed to be unselfishness and self-sacrifice for the sake of others, and the entire story of Osiris (and Christ) is the epitome and example of how that sacrifice may be expressed on earth in human life, as it is in the heavens.
The researchers of the initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris were still further extended to include man's true home, that higher section of the mental or heaven-world in which the ego functions in the causal body. The great ceremony of raising was explained in many layers of interpretation as the descent of the Logos into matter. His mystic death and burial, His rising again to a kingdom without end; and also as the personal descent of the soul into bodies, his resurrection from the death-in-life of the lower worlds of form, and his reincarnation upon earth once more.
This practical instruction allowed the initiate to be carried into the higher part of the mental plane, so that the fully trained initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris acquired full consciousness as an ego beyond the limitation of the one personal life which is all that most people know. The Pyramids were literally conceived of as the Stairway to Heaven, and a guide to the realization of the self.
24 x 36, 3/99
No not that one! The original Egyptian version--the Pyramid. The method of man's reaching divinity was always proclaimed to be unselfishness and self-sacrifice for the sake of others, and the entire story of Osiris (and Christ) is the epitome and example of how that sacrifice may be expressed on earth in human life, as it is in the heavens.
The researchers of the initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris were still further extended to include man's true home, that higher section of the mental or heaven-world in which the ego functions in the causal body. The great ceremony of raising was explained in many layers of interpretation as the descent of the Logos into matter. His mystic death and burial, His rising again to a kingdom without end; and also as the personal descent of the soul into bodies, his resurrection from the death-in-life of the lower worlds of form, and his reincarnation upon earth once more.
This practical instruction allowed the initiate to be carried into the higher part of the mental plane, so that the fully trained initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris acquired full consciousness as an ego beyond the limitation of the one personal life which is all that most people know. The Pyramids were literally conceived of as the Stairway to Heaven, and a guide to the realization of the self.
Serpent Flower
Serpent Flower
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In Egypt, the serpent was a symbol of wisdom, and the hooded cobra appeared on the royal crown, implying enlightenment or divine ordination. The divine nature of the pharaoh came from the sacred DNA shared among the various dynasties which came to wield power in this ancient land. The eternally spiralling helixes of DNA are the scientific equivalent of the Oroborous serpent, the snake which bites its own tail in a circular fashion. This serpent gives birth to the world egg in many cultures. When the sun god is in the underworld, he is said to be in his envelope or in his egg. The resurrection of the sun god is aided by the sacred scarab, Khepera. The scarab is a symbol of the rising sun and of the resurrection into eternal life.
In the tomb of Sethi I there is a drawing of a house with two sphinxes outside which represent the underworld, where the resurrection of the sun god takes place. Just before this resurrection, the sun god is represented as an ichthyphallic man lying on his back with an erect phallus, and around him is the snake which eats its own tail. The inscription says: "This is the corpse." In the underworld when the sun god has reached the moment when death and resurrection meet, when he is in his tomb at the depth of the underworld, he is represented as surrounded by this snake, a guardian of the underworld. When the sun reappears after its journey through the underworld, it is analogous to the rebirth of consciousness. The great secret imparted by Isis to Horus is that of sexual generation, which both Egyptians and Greeks linked to resurrection of the dead and re-creation of the world, and the sprouting of grain.
If you hope for resurrection, then the body which has disintegrated (been dismembered) must be put together again somehow--remembered. If there is a basic matter, which can be transformed into something else, then that basic matter is immortal and can never be dissolved. That is the idea of the atom. It also means the individual cannot be split or disintegrate, and is therefore immortal, and touches the eternal--cosmic matter. Sacred DNA?
24 x 36, 12/98
In Egypt, the serpent was a symbol of wisdom, and the hooded cobra appeared on the royal crown, implying enlightenment or divine ordination. The divine nature of the pharaoh came from the sacred DNA shared among the various dynasties which came to wield power in this ancient land. The eternally spiralling helixes of DNA are the scientific equivalent of the Oroborous serpent, the snake which bites its own tail in a circular fashion. This serpent gives birth to the world egg in many cultures. When the sun god is in the underworld, he is said to be in his envelope or in his egg. The resurrection of the sun god is aided by the sacred scarab, Khepera. The scarab is a symbol of the rising sun and of the resurrection into eternal life.
In the tomb of Sethi I there is a drawing of a house with two sphinxes outside which represent the underworld, where the resurrection of the sun god takes place. Just before this resurrection, the sun god is represented as an ichthyphallic man lying on his back with an erect phallus, and around him is the snake which eats its own tail. The inscription says: "This is the corpse." In the underworld when the sun god has reached the moment when death and resurrection meet, when he is in his tomb at the depth of the underworld, he is represented as surrounded by this snake, a guardian of the underworld. When the sun reappears after its journey through the underworld, it is analogous to the rebirth of consciousness. The great secret imparted by Isis to Horus is that of sexual generation, which both Egyptians and Greeks linked to resurrection of the dead and re-creation of the world, and the sprouting of grain.
If you hope for resurrection, then the body which has disintegrated (been dismembered) must be put together again somehow--remembered. If there is a basic matter, which can be transformed into something else, then that basic matter is immortal and can never be dissolved. That is the idea of the atom. It also means the individual cannot be split or disintegrate, and is therefore immortal, and touches the eternal--cosmic matter. Sacred DNA?
Four Sons of Horus
Four Sons of Horus
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The four children of Horus, or the gods of the four cardinal points, were called Mestha, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, and with them were associated the goddess Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Serqet respectively. Mestha was man-headed, and represented the south, and protected the stomach and the large intestines; Hapid was ape-headed, and the represented the north, and protected the small intestines; Tuamutef was jackel-headed, and represented the east, and protected the lungs and the heart; and Qehbsennuf was hawk headed, and represented the west, and protected the liver and the gall-bladder.
The various internal organs were removed from the body before mummification and treated, then placed in the canopic jars. Each jar was placed under the protection of one of the four children of Horus. As it was hollow, and its cover was made in the form of the head of the god who represented it, the jar beamed the abode of the god by sacred inscriptions. Therefore, the organ was placed inside the god.
The four supports of heaven also governed that quarter of the heavens which was above it. As the constant prayer of the deceased was that he should be able to go about wherever he pleased, both on earth and in heaven, it was necessary for his welfare to appease these gods and gain their protection. These deities connected with the Mysteries are depicted in the well-known judgment scene as standing on a lotus before the throne of Osiris. They are the kings of the elements: earth, air, fire, and water, and correspond with Cherubim described by Ezekiel. The beast with the face of a man stands for the physical body (earth), the ox or bull typifies the emotional or astral body (water), the lion symbolizes the mental aspect (air), and the eagle our spiritual side (fire). The Egyptian forms were a little different, but of the same essence. They are the scribes and recorders of all that is written, said, thought, and done.
Alternames for the Four Sons are Imsety (human-headed guardian of the liver); Hapy (baboon-headed guardian of the lungs; Duamutef (jackel-headed guardian of the stomach); and Qebehsenuf (falcon-headed guardian of the intestines). Curiously, sets of canopic jars are often found with either organs of lids incorrectly corresponded. The average height of these jars is around 45 - 47 centimeters.
24 x 36, 4/99
The four children of Horus, or the gods of the four cardinal points, were called Mestha, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, and with them were associated the goddess Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Serqet respectively. Mestha was man-headed, and represented the south, and protected the stomach and the large intestines; Hapid was ape-headed, and the represented the north, and protected the small intestines; Tuamutef was jackel-headed, and represented the east, and protected the lungs and the heart; and Qehbsennuf was hawk headed, and represented the west, and protected the liver and the gall-bladder.
The various internal organs were removed from the body before mummification and treated, then placed in the canopic jars. Each jar was placed under the protection of one of the four children of Horus. As it was hollow, and its cover was made in the form of the head of the god who represented it, the jar beamed the abode of the god by sacred inscriptions. Therefore, the organ was placed inside the god.
The four supports of heaven also governed that quarter of the heavens which was above it. As the constant prayer of the deceased was that he should be able to go about wherever he pleased, both on earth and in heaven, it was necessary for his welfare to appease these gods and gain their protection. These deities connected with the Mysteries are depicted in the well-known judgment scene as standing on a lotus before the throne of Osiris. They are the kings of the elements: earth, air, fire, and water, and correspond with Cherubim described by Ezekiel. The beast with the face of a man stands for the physical body (earth), the ox or bull typifies the emotional or astral body (water), the lion symbolizes the mental aspect (air), and the eagle our spiritual side (fire). The Egyptian forms were a little different, but of the same essence. They are the scribes and recorders of all that is written, said, thought, and done.
Alternames for the Four Sons are Imsety (human-headed guardian of the liver); Hapy (baboon-headed guardian of the lungs; Duamutef (jackel-headed guardian of the stomach); and Qebehsenuf (falcon-headed guardian of the intestines). Curiously, sets of canopic jars are often found with either organs of lids incorrectly corresponded. The average height of these jars is around 45 - 47 centimeters.
Pharaoh's Barque
Pharoah's Barque
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The journey of the soul through the heavens was made in a symbolic vessel so the pharaoh could "sail" the heavenly Nile, the Milky Way. Thus the stars above mirrored what the Egyptians saw below as their life-giving stream. In ancient times, the mystery of Osiris was more complete and impressive than that preserved today in the 3rd Degree rituals of modern masonry. In both, the candidate had to pass through a symbolical suffering, death, and rising which includes the experiences between death and resurrection--the realm of judgment of the heart and soul.
The Book of the Dead says, "I shall not eat of the cakes of Osiris on the eastern side of the Lake of Flowers, neither shall I have a boat wherein to go down the Nile, nor another wherein to go up, nor shall I be able to sail down the Nile with thee...may the doors of heaven be opened unto me...May the goddess Sekhet make me to rise so that I may ascend into heaven." Plutarch says that Osiris was also regarded as Nilus, the river Nile, and Isis as the land of Egypt, periodically fertilized by his overflow.
Astronomically, Osiris was the sun, Isis the moon. This is the universal story of the sun god who struggles for existence and the development of his power in the early part of the year, and at last rises in triumph to the midheaven of his glory, and bestows his life on all creatures, ripening the corn and grapes, only to yield once more to the advance of winter.
The sun as the great life in the heavens pursues this cycle of death and resurrection, and the smaller life in the seed follows a similar process--it sprouts and comes to fruit, which is garnered and sacrificed for the nourishment of many and other creatures. Life is renewed by a reserved portion of the seed. Mankind has the cycle of childhood, adulthood and old age. For us there is no escape from the sacrifice that characterizes all life, but we are reborn again and again in the cycle of reincarnations. The story of the seed is that of ordinary man, but in the story of the sun is that of the person who is becoming divine. In the Egyptian mysteries, they called him the Osirified. It is the voluntary nature of the divine sacrifice that distinguishes it from the earthly sacrifice.
24 x 36, 3/99
The journey of the soul through the heavens was made in a symbolic vessel so the pharaoh could "sail" the heavenly Nile, the Milky Way. Thus the stars above mirrored what the Egyptians saw below as their life-giving stream. In ancient times, the mystery of Osiris was more complete and impressive than that preserved today in the 3rd Degree rituals of modern masonry. In both, the candidate had to pass through a symbolical suffering, death, and rising which includes the experiences between death and resurrection--the realm of judgment of the heart and soul.
The Book of the Dead says, "I shall not eat of the cakes of Osiris on the eastern side of the Lake of Flowers, neither shall I have a boat wherein to go down the Nile, nor another wherein to go up, nor shall I be able to sail down the Nile with thee...may the doors of heaven be opened unto me...May the goddess Sekhet make me to rise so that I may ascend into heaven." Plutarch says that Osiris was also regarded as Nilus, the river Nile, and Isis as the land of Egypt, periodically fertilized by his overflow.
Astronomically, Osiris was the sun, Isis the moon. This is the universal story of the sun god who struggles for existence and the development of his power in the early part of the year, and at last rises in triumph to the midheaven of his glory, and bestows his life on all creatures, ripening the corn and grapes, only to yield once more to the advance of winter.
The sun as the great life in the heavens pursues this cycle of death and resurrection, and the smaller life in the seed follows a similar process--it sprouts and comes to fruit, which is garnered and sacrificed for the nourishment of many and other creatures. Life is renewed by a reserved portion of the seed. Mankind has the cycle of childhood, adulthood and old age. For us there is no escape from the sacrifice that characterizes all life, but we are reborn again and again in the cycle of reincarnations. The story of the seed is that of ordinary man, but in the story of the sun is that of the person who is becoming divine. In the Egyptian mysteries, they called him the Osirified. It is the voluntary nature of the divine sacrifice that distinguishes it from the earthly sacrifice.
Isis Unveiled
Isis Unveiled
24 x 36, 4/99
Isis is the Egyptian form of the primordial Great Goddess, the universal mother. Her own voices declares, "I am the veiled Isis of the shadows of the sanctuary. I am she that moveth as a shadow behind the tides of death and birth. I am she that cometh forth by night and no man seeth my face. I am older than time and forgotten of the gods. No man may look upon my face and live, for in the hour he parteth my veil, he dieth."
There are two deaths by which we die, the death of the body and the greater death of initiation. She conveys that, "He who would die to this birth, let him look upon the face of the goddess in this mystery."
"I am the star that rises from the sea, the twilight sea. I bring men dreams that rule their destiny. I bring the moon-tides to the soul of men, the tides that flow and ebb and flow again. These are my secret, and belong to me. I am the eternal Woman, I am She. The tides of all men should belong to me. Out of my hands you take your destiny, the touch of my hands bestows serenity. I hear the invoking words--hear and appear. I come unto the priest that calleth me."
Isis is compared with other goddesses such as Artemis and Persephone, and reveals herself in many forms and always reveals new aspects. But in Her totality, she remains unknowable. Her whole being is impenetrable, but behind her many faces and names there is one and the same divine Unknown.
The consecration ceremonies of the Isis Mysteries during the Ptolemaic era are described in detail in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. They include the opening of the temple, various vigils, abstention from wine, meat, and love, cleanliness, and washing rites. The statue of Isis was contemplated by novices and worthy candidates were tested at a kind of hearing. The service of the deity included secrecy. In each procession, Isis sought the dead Osiris, and found him every time the holy water was drawn. Initiation into Her mysteries was three-fold and consisted of a voluntary ritual death and revival by a journey through the elements, and probably a sacred wedding or sexual union. The initiate received a new name and the mystics then celebrated with a ritual banquet.
24 x 36, 4/99
Isis is the Egyptian form of the primordial Great Goddess, the universal mother. Her own voices declares, "I am the veiled Isis of the shadows of the sanctuary. I am she that moveth as a shadow behind the tides of death and birth. I am she that cometh forth by night and no man seeth my face. I am older than time and forgotten of the gods. No man may look upon my face and live, for in the hour he parteth my veil, he dieth."
There are two deaths by which we die, the death of the body and the greater death of initiation. She conveys that, "He who would die to this birth, let him look upon the face of the goddess in this mystery."
"I am the star that rises from the sea, the twilight sea. I bring men dreams that rule their destiny. I bring the moon-tides to the soul of men, the tides that flow and ebb and flow again. These are my secret, and belong to me. I am the eternal Woman, I am She. The tides of all men should belong to me. Out of my hands you take your destiny, the touch of my hands bestows serenity. I hear the invoking words--hear and appear. I come unto the priest that calleth me."
Isis is compared with other goddesses such as Artemis and Persephone, and reveals herself in many forms and always reveals new aspects. But in Her totality, she remains unknowable. Her whole being is impenetrable, but behind her many faces and names there is one and the same divine Unknown.
The consecration ceremonies of the Isis Mysteries during the Ptolemaic era are described in detail in The Golden Ass of Apuleius. They include the opening of the temple, various vigils, abstention from wine, meat, and love, cleanliness, and washing rites. The statue of Isis was contemplated by novices and worthy candidates were tested at a kind of hearing. The service of the deity included secrecy. In each procession, Isis sought the dead Osiris, and found him every time the holy water was drawn. Initiation into Her mysteries was three-fold and consisted of a voluntary ritual death and revival by a journey through the elements, and probably a sacred wedding or sexual union. The initiate received a new name and the mystics then celebrated with a ritual banquet.